Daniel Stevenson

Just clarifying Richard's answer. The only situations where we thought channeling could be "resisted" would be (a) breaking a shield, which only applies to channeling characters anyway, (b) breaking out of Air bonds, which is basically impossible, or (c) breaking free of Compulsion, which has more to do with force of personality than channeling ability (Morgase breaking free of Rahvin in The Fires of Heaven.)

Largely thanks to Joerg's criticism, we have made some major revisions. POW now functions as a sort of "magical encumbrance" along the lines of free INT rather than as a stock of points. A character who can channel can hold a point total of weaves not exceeding their POW. Exceeding this limit or channeling for extended periods of time requires a CON roll, beginning at CON x 5 and reducing in multiplicity every time you are forced to make it. Failing this roll means you must let go of the Source and are too tired to channel or to do much of anything; fumbling means rolling on a “channeling fumble table” and can result in unconsciousness, HP loss, explosions, being severed, or other consequences. Results are modified by how much/how long you were overchanneling. Another constraint is your “multichanneling score.” Although a character can channel points up to their POW, the number of ways they can divide the flows is limited (see Elayne’s first encounter with a Sea Folk Windfinder channeling in The Shadow Rising.) This limit is initially based on INT—1 for 12 and below, 2 for 13-16, 3 for 17 and above—but can be trained up over time. Angreal and sa’angreal increase channeling capacity, basically serving as extra POW (a static number.) Linking does the same, but we still need to work out a curve for it. Wells give points, rather like magic points, that can be “used up,” each point supplying one POW for one melee round. For easier bookkeeping, weaves (Joerg, see Chapter 10 in Crossroads of Twilight, p. 316 in the paperback) are grouped into Talents (we were probably just going to steal the d20 ones.) Along with tying off a weave and unraveling one, these make up the skills in a Channeling skill category, with INT and POW both being major modifiers. We got our information about the d20 game from a 5e conversion PDF we found in this Reddit post.

The really aren't any uses that I can think of. People with no ability to channel don't just acquire it—even those who can learn to channel have to have some strength in the Power to start. The only way I can see a non-channeler resisting the Power to any effect is resisting Compulsion, and that has to do with willpower, not with strength in the Power (e.g. Morgase escaping Rahvin.) And from what I remember, the Horn of Valerie has nothing to do with the Power at all.

I had one additional question. Strength in the One Power is (obviously) derived from POW. However, since strength in the Power is quite independent of other characteristics (except rate of aging,) POW is useless to non-channelers. Would it be best to give POW to everyone and let its score determine if characters can channel, or simply to not give POW to non-channelers at all?

Hi. I'm the brother—I remembered I had a BRP Central account after he mentioned he posted this. I'll answer your questions in order. As for era, I was thinking of roughly the time period of the books, from the Aiel War until a little before Tarmon Gai'don. I figured that that would allow potential players to have all of the world background they need in the series itself. I suppose you could play at any time during the Third Age, though. If those guidelines need to be adjusted, I'll get to it—I'm currently on book nine, reading the series for the first time. As for male and female channelers, the will be marked differences, yes. Weaves will be slightly different (such as men being able to do more with less effort of women being able to link.) There will also be a Sanity stat, primarily for men who can channel, with different features of madness appearing as SAN drops. Thanks for mentioning the Seanchan—I'd forgotten all about them! I suppose that they would just have a different set of Talents to draw on, like how Aes Sedai or Wise Ones or Asha'man would have different Talents. These could probably apply to sul'dam controlling damane or to escaped damane.