MAGE: THE ADAPTATION

by Daniel Scribner dscribner@gmail.com This document lays out one way in which the new World of Darkness rules (written for Mage: the Awakening) can be used to play a campaign set in the old World of Darkness (i.e. Mage: the Ascension). Why not simply use the Awakening rules as-is? The greatest strength of the White Wolf system is the way in which the mechanics reflect the setting. It is not a universal or generic game. As such, I thought it best to make some alterations to the new rules set, to better support the flavor of the original setting. I do a good deal beyond simply changing the Paths and Orders to Traditions, and perhaps renaming a couple of things. At the same time, Ive adopted certain elements from the new rules that were never in the original game, because I think they enhance it. First and foremost, it is important to note that this document is not objective. It reflects how I would like the game of Mage to play. It should be fairly plain that I prefer the Ascension setting, or else I wouldnt have wasted several perfectly good evenings of boozing to write this. I also have particular ideas about what that setting was about, what its themes were, what its characters were like. This is not to say your idea of the game, either Ascension or Awakening, is wrong. It is simply not mine. If you like the ideas in this document, enjoy. If not, go write your own. Feel free to borrow or adapt further, so long as credit is given where credit is due. Speaking of which, I used the following sources: Mage the Awakening. Kraig Blackwelder, Bill Bridges, Brian Campbell, et al. White Wolf Publishing, 2005. nd Mage the Ascension, 2 Ed. Phil Brucato, Stewart Wieck, et al. White Wolf Publishing, 1995. Mage the Ascension, Revised. Rachel Barth, Dierd'ei Brooks, John Chambers, et al. White Wolf Publishing, 2000. The Book of Madness. Sam Inabinet, Kathleen Ryan, Steve Brown, et al. White Wolf Publishing, 1994. Secondly, this is a work in progress. As stated above, feel free to borrow, adapt, change, etc. Give credit, and for chrissake, let me know. Maybe youve thought of something Id like to incorporate myself. This document will continue to be play-tested, and updated as certain rules fail to meet expectations. If youre in my game, that means that some things will have to be adjudicated on the fly, and well do our best to tweak the mechanics later. Is it contradictory to say that I dont like the restricted paradigm of the Awakenings setting, but like some of the more rigid structure of the mechanics? Yes, and youre welcome to suck it if you like the flavor. Atlantis is stupid, but Mage the Ascension was a damned hard game to play. For every successful campaign, I had two unsuccessful ones, and Im a pretty good Storyteller. But patches on a frail mechanic, such as those in the myriad supplements, revisions and errata, arent going to stick. You have to start with a fresh machine. My point is clear, then. I am an ornery bastard and wish to play the game I wish to play, and you are going to read about it, because my prose style is lively and flowing with plucky wit. So what, you ask, is my Mage game? Onwards, the few proud gamers we.

THEME

Mage has, at its core, two primary themes: belief and choice. On a macroscopic scale, the entire game world is determined by belief. What you see when you step out your door, by default, is the consensus of your neighbors, your countrymen, your fellows in

humanity. Unfortunately, when decisions are left to democracies of majority, you wind up with the lowest common denominator, that dull vanilla which everyone can agree upon. Its not very good, but at least no one is offended. But you, as a Mage, have a choice. You can accept the majority rule, or you can reach for what you believe could be. Because of that power to create change, a Mages life is a delicate construct of choices and the consequences they bring. The average man on the street is so consumed by status quo, he is unable to recognize those moments of decision that allow him to control his environment. He couldnt even turn off the television tonight, for a change, and go teach little Jimmie the value of compassion, because then hell miss the latest episode of Who Wants to be a Drone and have nothing to say around the water cooler tomorrow, so hell miss that big promotion because hes not social enough and little Jimmie will have to take massive loans to get through college, which will beat him down into the same muddy hole of fiduciary servitude where Daddy spent the last twenty years. Turning off that TV isnt an option. Mages dont even hear the TV anymore. They have the power to shape their world just by willing it. That kind of power means choices to be made. Do you walk away from the status quo, even if it means you may die sobbing in an alley while a Technocrats .44 slug burrows into your heart? You can have any life you desire, but do you steal it or earn it? Do you destroy the oppressor, even though it cost the lives of some of those very Sleepers youre trying to liberate? So, if every theme is defined by a conflict, we get: the beliefs of the many vs. the belief of the one, and the filter that determines the outcome is choice.

SETTING

Magic is change. Nothing more, nothing less. When the Aztec warriors ate their fallen enemy and gained their power, thats change. When Galileo showed us the Earth revolved around the sun, thats magic. When a novel brings awareness to the plight of Darfur refugees and aid pours in from around the world, thats change. And when you go to a romantic movie and, swept up in the emotion of the moment, your date kisses you, thats most definitely magic. Hell, even your toaster making that unappetizing brick of iced glutin into a waffle is a kind of magic. Were just accustomed to calling it something else, because it fits with the rules of reality as we understand them. Reality is what you make of it. More accurately, it is the closest thing to what you and the other 6 billion people on the planet can basically agree upon without the sidewalk turning into yellow custard and flinging itself into the eye of a fifty-story Jerry Lewis. That consensus is made up of lots and lots of predictable patterns, made up of the basic stuff of the cosmos. But you, as a Mage, are Awakened to the truth that those patterns, while predictable, are not immutable. You can move the patterns, change them, and if it comes right down to it, you can break them. All it takes is for your will to be stronger than the will of those other 6 billion people. Of course, youre not alone. There are other mages out there, and they all have their own ideas about how reality ought to work. And for fucks sake, theyre organized. Theyve formed groups that work together to bring about the paradigm they believe in. Youd better pick a program and get with it, or else theyre going to grind you to dust. Because maybe you hadnt heard, but theres a war going on, for the hearts and minds and most importantly, beliefs of all the people. Whoever wins that, they can rule unhindered, because theyve convinced the masses that reality plays by their rules. And therefore, it does. Rumor has it, what we see and know today as modern reality is actually the paradigm of one such group, or at least close enough that it has nearly shut out all the others. Theyve nearly won the war already, and you just started fighting. This group believes in

security, in stability, in everyone having the same amount of control over their lives (i.e. magic) as everyone else. They bring magic to the masses and the masses call it technology. Unfortunately, this Technocracy, to achieve their dreams, has sacrificed independence and creativity. If youve read Harrison Bergeron, equality doesnt mean equal freedom for all, it means no freedom for anyone. Now, I expect that anyone reading this document has already played Mage the Ascension, or at least knows something about it. Im not as eloquent as the writers of that game, at least not insofar as I have the time and financial security necessary to be that eloquent. Its 11pm and I have work tomorrow. This is just a rough summation in case I give this to a bunch of my own players who dont have any experience. So if you want more, go read the books (See WARNING TO MY PLAYERS below).

ON PREVIOUS EDITIONS

Personally, I liked the original conceit of Ascension. Secret cabals of mages, both mystic and modern, acting from the shadows to exert subtle control over society in a world much like our own. The second edition further honed the political play in the War of Ascension, but also pushed the arms race so far that it became hard to believe it didnt TM spill into the Sleepers world. And every week was the latest Metaplot Crisis! with cross-over kung-fu grip! The Ascension War was such a broken story element, the Revised edition thought it necessary to just end the damned thing and force the Traditions into the role of shattered ex-Confederates instead of vibrant French Resistance. But Revised did return Mage to its roots, and introduce a street-level element that I thought essential from the very first edition: Mage is not about Horizon Realm firefights, but about reviving that spark of imagination in the common man, even if its just your neighbor with the yappy dog. I propose a middle ground. The War of Ascension bubbles away as ever it did, though it does not rage. Doissetep and the Ivory Tower are out there, somewhere, waving their witchy fingers and pulling the gossamer threads of their machinations. But the mages on the ground, both Tradition and Technocrat, are worried about their town, their block, their doorstep. If they can navigate the ever-shifting politics and paradigms of their factions and make the world just a little more like they see it, without eating a bullet from the other side or getting eaten by Paradox, thats a good day.

WARNING TO MY PLAYERS

While I rely heavily on the original books, as you may have guessed, I take what I like and synthesize it with my own ideas. If youre reading this because youre in one of my games (or considering it), feel free to read whatever supplements you like. They can give you all kinds of ideas, a better feel for some pretty esoteric and/or exotic concepts. However, do not expect that I will use a particular mechanic or setting element, or that something in my game will be the same as in the books. I will do whatever I think will make for the best story for the most players. Besides, I am not a Mage omnibus. If that means garlic kills vampires and MiB are not all hive-minded drones, well dont bitch to me about page XX in supplement YY. I probably havent even read it. If you want to know something about the world, take the appropriate knowledge and say Hey, what does my character know about such and such? Mystery and superstition are important elements of a Mage game. If you run around treating everything like a set of statistics with a cookie-cutter quote to explain its paradigm (I hate those quotes), youre missing half the fun. If theres something you especially like from a book and want incorporated, let me know. I am all for player input in a chronicle. Hell, in my best chronicles, I sat back and let the players do all the work. The proper time for such conversations is sooner than later. During character creation if possible. It is not in the middle of a session, just after your character has been torn to shreds while you whine that you thought Forces 2 would let you reverse the momentum on a hail of bullets. It is not at the end of a session while

you rail against the latest Sabbat incursion because any Prince worth his salt ought to know about every single vampire passing into Manhattan (these are both real examples). To reiterate: A BOOK IS NOT LAW JUST BECAUSE IT SAYS WHITE WOLF.

CHARACTER CREATION

Every White Wolf book introduces you to the rules through character creation. This seems pretty reasonable to me. Reasonable should be translated as What Im used to. But first, a conversion lexicon: Path -> Essence Order -> Tradition Wisdom -> Harmony Hubris -> Discord Gnosis -> Avatar Arcana -> Sphere Fate + Death -> Entropy (except some of Death is really Spirit) Mana -> Quintessence Hallow -> Node Tools -> Foci Artifact -> Talisman Paradox -> Still a bitch (Anomalies, Branding, Bedlam, Manifestations and Havoc are more exacting terms for Paradox backlashes: realms, flaws, quiets, spirits and random gitchiness) Steps One to Four: Create a character using the new World of Darkness core rules. These dont require much in the way of alteration. Step Five: Apply the Mage template. This is where things get hinkier. There are no Watchtowers, thank the Umbrood. So you dont choose a path. However, it did seem like a good idea to make a characters magical essence mechanically important. In Ascension, this means the avatars Essence. So you choose from one of the following: Primordial, Dynamic, Pattern, Questing (See Avatar for more complete descriptions). Your Essence defines the nature of your Avatar, which determines your Favored Spheres, your Resonance affinity (more on that previously underdeveloped concept later), and favored Resistance stat. You can achieve up to five ranks in your favored spheres without outside instruction, but to reach beyond third rank in a non-favored sphere, you must be taught by someone with at least the rank you wish to achieve in that sphere. You begin with one point in the matching resonance category, and you select an appropriate emotional focus. In the case of Questing, you can select from any of the three. You also get a bonus dot in your favored Resistance stat (except Questing). Essence Dynamic Pattern Primordial Questing Favored Spheres Forces, Life Matter, Space Prime, Entropy Time, Mind, Spirit Resonance Dynamic Static Entropic Any/None Resistance Composure Resolve Stamina None

 The orders are replaced by the Traditions. Each Tradition is associated with one sphere. You get one additional Favored Sphere from your Tradition, and three Rote specialty skills. When using a rote that involves one of these skills, you get an additional die to the casting pool. Tradition Askashic Brotherhood Celestial Chorus Cult of Ecstasy Dreamspeakers Euthanatos Order of Hermes Sons of Ether Verbena Virtual Adepts Hollow Ones Orphans Sphere Mind Prime Time Spirit Entropy Forces Matter Life Space None* None* Skills Occult, Athletics, Brawl Academics, Expression, Persuasion Empathy, Expression, Streetwise Occult, Survival, Animal Ken Stealth, Weaponry, Medicine Academics, Occult, Politics Academics, Crafts, Science Medicine, Occult, Survival Computers, Science, Investigation Occult, Socialize, Subterfuge Any two

* Hollow Ones and orphans are special cases, as they dont belong to any of the formal Traditions. Neither have a Favored Sphere, however, they can achieve up to 4 ranks in any sphere without outside instruction (see below). On choosing spheres: As with Mage the Awakenings Arcana, you have five dots to spend on Spheres. Then add one dot in your Traditions favored Sphere. Hollow Ones and orphans can place the bonus dot in any sphere. No Sphere can start at higher than your Avatar. Select an appropriate focus for each of your Spheres (suggestions are made both for Traditions and Spheres, under Foci). Avatar is a good nomenclatural adjustment for Gnosis. It refers not so much to the strength of a Mages Avatar, but the extent to which it has Awakened to the truth of dynamic reality. Mechanically, though, it operates much the same as Gnosis, with the exception that no sphere can be higher than your Avatar score, and your Avatar score cannot be higher than your Willpower. Forget about that complicated spehere advancement chart. Step Six: There is no High Speech in Ascension, so you dont get a bonus merit. Otherwise, use whats in the new World of Darkness core and Mage the Awakening. Occultation should be applied to all mundane attempts to perceive, investigate or remember the Mage, in addition to magical forms of detection (to better match the description of Arcane in oMage). As soul stones are not a regular aspect of Ascension, remove the Thrall merit. Feel free to adopt and adapt other merits, such as from the Book of Shadows, that are not covered in nWoD. Step Seven:

 Willpower is a key element to magic. Dont leave home without it. I like the idea of maintaining the morality scale for Mages. It will interact mechanically with Paradox (particularly Quiet), and further represents the choices mages have to make. Harmony is a more accurate name, to borrow from In Nomine, as it reflects how in or out of sync a mages personal paradigm is with the rest of reality, whether or not he is maintaining an equilibrium. Too far out, and it becomes difficult to interact with reality. The man at the counter asks you if you want fries with that, and you cant help wondering what the bear wants with your tie. Communication breaks down rather rapidly after that. I propose maintaining the basic humanity scale as well, as is done in Awakenings, not because of any objective moral code, but because the acts in question (from selfish thoughts down to mass murder) are anathema and thus contradictory to social consensus. The farther you sink into depravity, the harder it becomes to relate and empathize with people, and thus with reality itself. Virtues and Vices are a nice variation on the old Nature/Demeanor mechanic. Theyre more directly involved in the actions your character takes. Nature was good for encouraging people to play in character, but if you think of Vice as the side of someone we see most often, and Virtue the true strength we rarely see, its basically the same. If you dont like the Catholic overtones though (Seven Deadly Sins vs. the [somewhat modified] Seven Virtues), I recommend taking the old Natures from Ascension and working out a positive and negative behavior for each (ex. Architect gets one Willpower when he is rigid, and all of it when he creates some lasting positive order; Bon Vivant gets one Willpower when he irresponsibly lives in the moment, and all of it when he brings joy back to people who had lost it, etc.) It was an important element of Ascension that a mage collects minor inconsistencies and contradictions (i.e. paradox points) until he becomes, if not careful, a living paradox, and reality has no choice but to fix the problem. While Awakenings certainly makes Paradox more manageable for the storyteller, you lose a lot of the unpredictability. More on the compromise below, but for now, suffice to say we are reinstating the 20-square wheel. You record quintessence clockwise, and paradox counter-clockwise. If they meet, paradox trumps and wipes out quintessence. Then again, if youve managed to collect that much paradox, you have bigger problems.

AVATAR

Your avatar is the pure stuff of the cosmos, the power rippling through your little knot in the great pattern. Everyone has one, though for most it is infinitesimal. Celestial Choristers speak of the Pure Ones, the original energy beings who formed the cosmos out of themselves, and believe that avatars are shards of those entities. The rare individual has an avatar strong enough to awaken, granting the individual untold power to reshape the patterns around him. Most often, Avatars only show themselves through soft, barely-noticed whispers and flashes. A mage's Avatar might sound like a reasonable voice in the back of her head, or come across as a sudden urge to do something. Rarely, strong Avatars will actually manifest, creating a material form and then dealing with the mage directly. Avatars typically have one of four basic characteristic Essences: Dynamic: The Dynamic Essence pushes a mage in new directions constantly, unable to settle and simply interested in the raw creation of new ideas, experiences and horizons. Though powerfully unpredictable and often moving "outside the box", the Dynamic Essence also finds it difficult to focus on a single task or goal. Pattern: The Pattern essence cements magic into reality, gives shape to the poorly executed and repairs the flawed. Instead of seeking new and dynamic

means of change, Pattern Essences stabilize existing elements or methodically build on solid foundations. Primordial: All things came from a great morass of unformed creation at the birth of the universe, be it the emptiness before a divinely inspired genesis or swirling chaos before a big bang. The universe will return to such a state ultimately. Primordial Essences reflect the raw elements of such creation and destruction. Such mages are driven by deep and overwhelming emotional urges or needs, but they also seem to experience the heights of grand passion more powerfully than anyone else. Questing: The Questing Essence seeks knowledge and new frontiers with purpose and with a final goal in mind. Mages with this drive find themselves consumed by the need for a journey, the need to be in motion with a goal to achieve. These Essences seek a union of the other elements, and they strive to find a wholesome balance by treading the roads that lead between other Essences' paths. Avatars most often appear in Seekings. Seekings are journeys of personal exploration that mages follow in their own minds, in order to further awaken their avatars (i.e. raise their Avatar score) and tap into their potential. They can be harrowing, sometimes even lethal ordeals. Avatar is the power stat of Mage. It determines a million and one things: max rank in a stat (without suffering pattern bleed), max quint storage, max quint per turn you can spend, how long each extended casting roll takes, your base paradox backlash pool, the number of spells you can combine in a single casting, and so on. Use the following charts to track this: Max Quint/ Max Quint Per Turn 5/1 6/2 7/3 8/4 10/5 15/6 20/7 30/8 40/9 50/10 Time per roll (extended casting) 3 hours 3 hours 1 hour 1 hour 30 minutes 30 minutes 10 minutes 10 minutes 1 minute 1 minute

Avatar

Attribute/ Skill Max

Paradox Dice Pool

Max Combined Spells

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5 5 5 5 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 6

1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4

In addition, your Avatar rating has the following effects:

 A mage can maintain up to Avatar + 3 magical effects simultaneously. Avatar is typically added to contested rolls to resist magical effects (but not subtracted in the case of passive resistance). Your pattern can only tolerate a number of magical effects upon it equal to Avatar + Stamina. Effects in excess of your Spell Tolerance cause pattern bleed (see pattern bleed under "Paradox").

WILLPOWER

Willpower behaves as per the new World of Darkness rules. It can be used to gain +3 to one action roll, or +2 to a resistance roll (including magical effects). In addition: A point of willpower can be spent to stave off the effects of a paradox effect until the end of a scene. Doing so means that all paradox accrued during the scene, after the willpower is spent, goes off together in one large backlash. If the mage spends a willpower point and makes a successful Resolve + Composure roll, he can banish goblins and any hallucinations created by Quiet for one scene. If the willpower roll fails, the point is still spent but the Quiet remains. You cannot raise your Avatar higher than your permanent willpower. If for some reason your willpower drops below your Avatar, then you treat your avatar as equal to your willpower until you raise it back up. You can spend a point of willpower to cast a spell without a required focus (see "Foci"), though at a -3 penalty. You can spend a willpower point to continue an extended casting despite a botch, though at a -1 penalty to all subsequent rolls. If you botch a second time, you be boned. It costs one permanent willpower point to relinquish a permanent spell (i.e. it no longer counts against the number of spells you can support simultaneously). This is frequently done in the creation of talismans. Many mages have discovered ways to avoid this sacrifice (spending tons of quintessence is rather popular).

QUINTESSENCE

A mage can only channel so much quintessence in a single round, up to his avatar rating. Quintessence must be spent for any of the following: Sympathetic Casting: A point of quintessence is required to affect patterns beyond sensory range (per Sympathetic casting rules). Aggravated Damage: Magical damage directly affects a targets pattern, permanently damaging it and thus making it much more difficult to heal. Such power must be fueled by a point of Quintessence. Power: Certain effects that significantly alter the patterns of the cosmos, create something from nothing, or are permanent require Quintessence to fuel the magic. To some extent, this is done for game balance. Powers that would upset the system if cast repeatedly in a scene frequently have a mana cost. Countermagic: It costs one point of quintessence to unweave an incoming or preexisting effect. Activation: Some talismans require quintessence to activate them, or to recharge them after a certain number of uses. Similarly, certain magical creatures and spirits must feed on quintessence to survive in consensual reality. If a spell requires a point of mana to cast (power), and you only have an Avatar of 2, you could not cast it both sympathetically and for aggravated damage, because you can only spend two quintessence a round. In addition, quintessence can be spent for any of the following benefits. Paradox Mitigation: Each point of Quintessence spent reduces accumulated paradox by one. Backlash cannot be mitigated with quintessence. Certain Prime effects also use quintessence to combat Paradox.

 Pattern Restoration: Mages can spend three points of quintessence to heal one point of lethal or bashing damage. Advanced Factors: For spells that have a variable area of effect or duration, quintessence can be used to extend their reach beyond what the mage is normally capable of performing. While this does not grant bonuses, it can significantly reduce penalties or increase factors exponentially. The use of advanced factors also require that the mage have one rank higher than is normally necessary to cast a spell (see the Casting section). If you haven't yet used all your quint for the round and you want even more power, you can spend quintessence for bonus dice to casting, one die per point. If the resonance is appropriate to the effect being used, it increases the power even further (see Resonance). There are numerous ways in which mages gain and store quintessence: A mage stores quintessence in his own pattern, up to an amount determined by his avatar rating. This personal store can be recharged by meditating at a node (see Awakenings, oblation), or drawn from a node using Prime 1 (faster than meditating). Mages can scour their own pattern (the opposite of pattern restoration), or commit blood sacrifices, as described in Awakenings. Quintessence can be stored and carried in physical form, called Tass, and in digestible form can replenish the mages personal store. Mages with Prime 5 can pull Quintessence right out of the air, though this is a vulgar effect. Mages with Prime 2 can use Tass, in addition to their personal stores (unless the Tass is edible, in which case anyone can use it). Prime 3 is required to create Tass, unless it is found occurring naturally at a Node.

HARMONY

Everytime you change your personal reality, it sets you apart from the world the Sleepers have created for themselves. And whenever you use magic, the magic changes you. As mages slip farther away from the consensus around them, they lose equilibrium. This is not a measure of right and wrong, but one of correspondence. It becomes impossible to interact with the mundane world when you are so steeped in fantasy. Because reality is generated by the beliefs of people, interference with people creates a direct discord with reality. Use the following hierarchy of sins for determining what constitutes an act of Discord. Harmony Acts of Discord Performing mundane acts with magic (boiling tea with Forces when youre next to a stove) Using magic for petty self-improvement (cheating at a casino with Entropy) Temporarily altering another sentient (giving someone a cold, changing someones mind) Using magic to alter another sentients beliefs (make someone lose humanity, forcibly binding someone to a task or place) Acts of Depravity (social discord) Selfish thoughts Minor selfish act (withholding charity) Injury to another (intentional or not) Roll

10

5 dice

5 dice

4 dice

Petty theft (shoplifting)

4 die

Using magic to harm another sentient (non-aggravated Life damage, laying a curse) Permanently altering another sentients pattern (turning a man into a pig) Causing permanent damage to another sentients pattern (draining Avatar, causing direct Entropy damage) Killing another sentient with magic Preventing an avatar from awakening Destroying an avatar

Grand theft (burglary) Intentional mass property damage (arson) Impassioned crime (manslaughter) Planned crime (murder) Callous/Casual crime (serial murder) Heinous crime (mass murder)

3 dice

3 dice

3 dice

3 2 1

2 dice 2 dice 2 dice

In addition, your Harmony score plays a part in the severity and duration of Paradox effects and Quiet. In some cases, a mage may roll his Harmony pool to mitigate the effects of paradox. A mage that goes a week without incurring any paradox bleeds off a number of paradox points equal to successes rolled on his Harmony pool (rightmost column above). Harmony also affects his ability to interact with the mundane world. Mages with a 9 or 10 Harmony get a bonus die on social and perception rolls involving the mundane world, while mages with lower than 5 Harmony lose a die. Mages with only 1 or 2 Harmony lose two dice. Alternate Rules: Rather than having certain actions risk degeneration and derangement, when a mage attempts to commit an action that violates his level of Harmony, he must make a flinch roll using the dice pool in the right column, plus or minus any dice the Storyteller deems appropriate. Success means he may take the action as normal, while failure means that the character flinches. He cannot bring himself to do something so heinous, and he loses his action. In cases of extreme determination, the character may choose to automatically lose a dot of Harmony in order to automatically succeed in the flinch rule. In circumstances where an action leads unexpectedly to a result that would violate the mage's level of Harmony, roll for degeneration as per Awakening rules.

MAGIC

Creating magical effects follows the basic rules of Mage: the Awakening, but with several significant differences. Since magical effects can get really complicated, I'm going to lay it out fresh, including all available permutations, rather than try to parse out what I've changed from Awakenings and what I haven't. "Improvised casting (or fast-casting, as it was called in Ascension) becomes a far more important tool in the mages arsenal, and rotes less so. Improvised casting no longer costs a point of quintessence unless the effect is particularly powerful (see Quintessence, above). The dice pool for this is your Avatar + Sphere ranks. Finally, Paradox is an ever-present threat (see Paradox, below). All magic using more than the first rank of a sphere carries the possibility of dramatic failure: if you should roll a 1 and no successes, then youve botched it and incur Paradox. We'll be following the Mage 2nd ed. sphere rankings. When possible, I will use the various rotes and spells in Awakenings to determine the mechanics of effects, but the rank they are given in Awakenings will shuffle in our game to match Ascension's ranks.

ROTES

Rotes are not nearly so powerful or prevalent in Ascension as they are in Awakening. Hell, the whole game is based on being creative and improvising. Rotes are like throwing physics textbooks when you could be lobbing Molotov cocktails. You still use Avatar + Sphere, but you add one appropriate skill (or attribute). Common skills involved are Academics, Medicine, Occult, Investigation (for sensory magic), Athletics, social skills for Mind rotes. The technomancers rely heavily on Science, Craft and Computers, while naturalistic mages use Survival and Animal Ken to work with the flora and fauna.Also, they get a slight bonus in mitigating Paradox. Basically put, rotes are boring, limited but safer than improvised magic. You get six points worth of rotes at the beginning of the game. Any effect, really, could be a rote, so long as some ritual, routine or formula accompanies it. It represents an effect that your mage has learned and practiced until it is memorized. Feel free to sift through the sample rotes in Mage: the Ascension books, or even Mage: the Awakening. Keep in mind that the rote should reflect your characters paradigm, and may well use whatever foci the mage is comfortable with. However, this should not be treated as a limitation. Nearly any effect can be achieved with any style of ritual.

INSTANT vs. EXTENDED CASTING

You can cast magic either as a single, normal action (taking about six seconds), or as an extended ritual (not to be confused with a rote, though rotes can be cast as extended rituals). Extended casting works just like any extended action, where you can roll as many times as you have dice in your pool. Each roll represents an amount of time determined by your Avatar (see Avatar). Instant casting has the benefit of a variable primary factor (see factors, below), while all factors are set at the beginning of an extended casting, and cannot be altered once the casting begins (unless the caster spends a willpower point, in which case he can choose to lower the factors/required successes before completion, or keep the spell going for more successes even after the required number are reached). Also, extended castings depend more heavily on foci and ritual activity. Some physical thing (called a "sacrament") must be expended in the ritual (not necessarily a focus), or else all rolls suffer -1 die. You can't cast direct attack spells at a living target with an extended casting. Living patterns are in a natural state of constant change and cannot be targeted over an extended period of time. (That's the metaphysical explanation. To be frank, it's really an issue of game balance. It'd be too easy, otherwise, to crank up a 40 success Rip the Man Body rote).

FOCI

Every young mage needs a focus for their will. It's something for them to believe in when the idea that just willing a change in reality is just a bit too ludicrous to believe in.

Some would call that a crutch, or training wheels. But everyone needs them to start, and they shape the style of a mage's magic long after the tools are no longer necessary. Whenever you learn a new sphere (including at character creation), select a focus. It should be a physical object or activity of some kind. You must use this focus when creating a magical effect with that sphere. You can use the same focus for more than one sphere, though this bears some drawbacks (if you are without a focus, then that's more spheres you cannot access). Most mage's foci are influenced by their Tradition, but regardless, there should be some thematic consistency to their various tools. If you find yourself without a focus, you can try to improvise out of whatever comes to hand. This imposes a -1 or more dice penalty to the magical roll. If you are completely without any foci and there's nothing to improvise with, you can still cast by digging deep down and spending a willpower point. This will still impose a -3 penalty to your roll. Some mages use more rarefied tools, which increases their power (though at the risk of making it harder to replace). A devoted focus that must be prepared in some ritual way prior to use grants a +1 bonus to casting. It's easier to believe that you can banish demons with specially blessed holy water from the Vatican than with any old bottle of Evian. A few mages actually have a unique focus, a one of a kind object of personal significance. Your grandmother's ring, a legendary sword, or your prototype HyperKinetoDynaGizmo Plus with red chromium detailing would all suffice. These grant a +2 bonus to casting, but if they are ever irreplacably lost, you must relearn the sphere with a new focus (at half xp cost). As your experience and enlightenment increases, you surpass the need for foci. Starting at a Avatar 4, you select one sphere for which you don't need to use a focus (you discard two at ranks 9 and 10 each, so that by Avatar 10 you need no foci). Casting with a focus you don't need to use grants you a +1 bonus die (regardless of the kind of focus), kind of like an old security blanket. Technomancers (Technocrats, Sons of Ether, Virtual Adepts, and the occasional other mage) have a much easier time of things in the modern paradigm, and thanks in part to the foci they use, their magic is much more easily accepted as coincidental. The drawback is that technomancers tend to be much more dependent on their toys. They cannot spend a point of willpower to cast magic without foci, and they surpass foci at a later point (though once they break their need for gizmos, they progress very rapidly). At each rank of Avatar starting at 6, technomancers discard two foci.

FACTORS

Every effect has a number of factors: potency, number of targets or area of effect and duration. These factors determine the base penalties to your magic die roll (for instant casting) or the number of successes required for the spell to succeed (for extended casting). With instant casting, all but one factor is set in advance, determining the penalty to the roll. The primary factor (usually potency) is variable depending on the number of successes you roll. With extended castings, all factors are set in advance, and the spell goes off as soon as all required successes are rolled, or if not enough are rolled by the end of the extended casting, then the spell fails entirely. Potency How strong the spell is, basically. For incremental effect spells, this determines the amount of damage inflicted or healed, how many actions are blessed, etc. It also determines how hard the spell is to resist in contested rolls, or how hard they are to counter or dispel with prime magic. Spells that are largely an "on or off" effect that are not resisted (ex. using forces to flick a switch) require only one potency to be successful. Number of Targets Fairly self-explanatory, generally refers to human or human-sized targets. If you are enchanting rats, for instance, each success would probably increase the number of rats by some larger factor than one-to-one. Area of Effect Used instead of number of targets when the effects are not targeting discrete objects or creatures. In some cases, spells that would normally target a number of people can be

converted to an area of effect spell (i.e. put everyone in the room to sleep instead of put eight people to sleep), though the Storyteller may treat this as an application of advanced factors (see Advanced Factors) Duration Most spells have one of four duration categories: instant/lasting (the spell's effects occur in a moment and then are finished, and whatever natural results follow last without the need of magic to support them. Most attack and healing spells count as such), concentration (the spell lasts for as long as the mage concentrates on it), transitory (duration is measured in turns), prolonged (duration is measured in scenes, hours, days, months, etc). With advanced prolonged duration, spells can be made permanent. However, they will count against the maximum number of spells a mage can maintain until he relinquishes (with a point of willpower, copious amounts of quintessence, etc).

ADVANCED FACTORS

If you expend a point of quintessence, and have one rank higher than is normally necessary to cast a magical effect, you can employ advanced factors for either area of effect or duration (or both, for two points of quintessence). Space 3 or Time 3 allows a mage to do so without needing to have one rank higher than normal in the primary sphere. These advanced factors increase power exponentially, so it can allow the mage to either significantly reduce his penalties, or to reach a scope otherwise outside his capability. Generally, only spells that are normally of prolonged duration can be bumped to advanced duration, but at the Storyteller's whim, a spell of transitory could be bumped to prolonged, or concentration to transitory. In some cases, sphere ranks define the scope of your power (ex. the difference between Forces 2 and Forces 4, Controlling minor vs. major foces). Using advanced factors will not allow you to get around this. This is just one of those places where the transition from Ascension to Awakenings gets a little clunky.

RANGE

Most spells are cast at sensory range. If you can see it, you can affect it. You can also target things you can perceive otherwise, though there may be penalties (see nWoD core book on targeting things by sound, smell, etc). A few spells require you to touch the target (though most of these allow you to cast at sensory range if you have a higher rank than is necessary to cast the spell normally). This is largely for game balance. Some spells are cast as aimed spells, usually when something concrete is launched at the target (see Aimed Spells). Otherwise, to affect something you cannot perceive requires sympathetic magic (see Sympathetic Magic).

SYMPATHETIC MAGIC

If you want to affect something you cannot immediately perceive with your own physical senses requires the application of a Space 2 effect, and costs a point of quintessence. If you are directly affecting a distant pattern, then you also need one rank higher than normal to cast the spell. Penalties are applied dependent on how familiar you are with the target (it is a penalty to the dice pool regardless of whether casting instantly or extended). Targets with the Occultation or Fame merits apply these as further penalties against the casting dice pool. Targets that perceive the sympathetic connection may cast back through it even if they don't have Space 2. While sympathetic casting is not always vulgar, it is much more likely to generate a paradox. Casting forwards or backwards in time works the same way, except it requires Time 2, instead of Space. To cast over the gauntlet requires Spirit, and the penalties are dependent on the localized strength of the Gauntlet.

COMBINED CASTING

Normally, you can only cast one effect at a time. You are also limited in the number of ongoing effects you can sustain at once, and how many effects your pattern can withstand before suffering pattern bleed. What counts as one "effect" is a bit hard to

define precisely, but typically should amount to achieving one goal, making one significant change in reality (even if that should have numerous results), or causing one game mechanic effect (particularly in combat). However, at more advanced Avatar ranks, you can combine effects (see Avatar) into a single casting. There are a lot of benefits to this, but it's exceedingly difficult. You must have one higher rank than normal in the primary sphere for each effect, and it imposes a -2 penalty/spell beyond the first to the total dice pool. You only roll one dice pool (the lower of the two), affected by penalties for all the spells, and divide successes amongst the castings as you wish. Also, there must be at least some logical reason for two effects to go together. You could not simultaneously turn into fire and make a car turn into a Beatles song. You could, however, simultaneously grow a thick scaly hide and regrow a limb like an alligator (armor + regeneration spells).

GROUP CASTING

Big groups of black-robed women chanting in a circle is a time-honored magical tradition. This is for good reason. The more mages you have that believe in something, the more powerful the effect becomes. Also, chanting black-robed women are hot. At least one mage, the leader, must be fully capable of casting the effect by themselves. Each mage with at least 1 rank in all the spheres used in the effect contribute one bonus die to the leader's casting pool. Those participants besides the leader who are fully capable of casting the effect do not add one to the leader's pool, but rather roll their own dice pool and add their successes to the total. However, if any one participant botches, it ruins the whole effect (and dont't ask me about the paradox). In addition, there must be some previously agreed upon ritual that all participating mages understand and can work with their paradigm (does not need to be a rote). So instant group castings are not possible, only extended. This is not to say that a technomancer cannot perform a group casting with a Wiccan, but they must have figured out some way to share paradigm elements for the purposes of this ritual (spread blood on the keyboard, perhaps). Sleepers who believe in the paradigm of the ritual can also contribute power if they participate. This is why so many mages form cults. Arguably, the Technocracy has made one big science cult of the masses. However, I'm not going to get into how to adjudicate that here.

COUNTERMAGIC

As the equivalent of a dodge action (i.e. you can either spend your action if you haven't gone yet, or spend your next turn's action if you have), you can try to counter magic as another mage is casting. Countermagic costs a point of quintessence, as you reinforce your version of reality with a little juice. This requires at least one dot in one of the spheres being used in the attack, or at least two ranks in Prime. The mage rolls Avatar + Sphere. Each success on a countermagic roll reduces the incoming effects potency by one die. You can also undo preexisting, ongoing effects in the same fashion. Should the countering mage roll more successes than the spell's potency, and he has at least Prime 2, he can reflect the spell back on the attacker, with each success above the attacker's roll adding to the potency. Some effects grant natural magic immunity. This simply penalizes the dice pool of any caster targeting the protected target, and costs no quintessence outside of whatever cost there was in casting the initial effect.

MAGIC IN COMBAT

Magic is hard to adjudicate in the best of circumstances. In combat, where there's a lot more mechanics flying around than normal, and rulings can have especially serious (read: organ rearranging) implications for characters, it's good to have some ground rules. These are suggestions, really, and as much for game balance and speed of play as anything else.

Actions One of the most popular uses of magic is to grant yourself multiple actions. oWoD gave most supersplats a way to get multiple attacks in combat, and while things got pretty silly at the extreme end of combat monkey character builds, at least every had an equal opportunity to go that route. nWoD has made it very clear that multiple attacks quickly unbalance things, and should be considered the holy grail of super powers. Personally, I lean towards nWoD on this one. Getting multiple actions, particularly multiple attacks, requires very high magics and comes with some drawbacks. Under no circumstances, no matter how much you beg, no matter how much you plead, will you ever get more than one magical casting in a round. And if you cast, that's pretty much all you can do besides run around in circles a little bit. Aimed Spells Some spells launch a physical, concrete effect at a target, rather than affecting the target's pattern directly. Forces attacks are the most common. The dice pool of the caster starts off the same, but penalties are determined in the same way you would a ranged attack (i.e. distance to target, cover, armor and perhaps defense would grant penalties, but not a resistance or power stat). Range increments are equal to your Avatar x 10 yards. Failed aimed spells still go off but strike some logical nearby piece of scenery (a parked car, a wall, a mailbox, a Sleeper). In fact, StoryTellers are encouraged, if an aimed spell misses, to have the caster roll the dice that were subtracted for defense, armor and cover and include that in the potency when considering the collateral damage of the spell. Resistance Spells are resisted either actively (contested roll of power stat + resistance stat, spend a willpower for +3) or passively (subtract resistance stat from caster's dice pool, spend a willpower for -2 more dice). The rule of thumb is that if the effect is graduated (like an attack spell, where each point in potency is a point of damage done), the resistance is passive. If the effect only needs one potency to have effect, i.e. it is either "on" or "off," such as mind control, then it is contested. In rare instances where a graduated spell has especially severe effects with even a few successes, then it might be treated as contested. Damage While most spheres can be used to hurt people in some fashion, some are better at it than others. The most common attack spheres are Life, Mind, Forces and Entropy. Life 3 does lethal damage, while Forces does lethal or bashing damage depending on the source (you generally need to include Prime to create an energy attack out of nothing), starting at 2. Mind always does bashing damage, and Entropy causes no damage to living targets until rank 4, but that is lethal. If an attack does lethal damage, you can spend a point of quintessence to make it aggravated. Aggravated damage is always vulgar. Forces magic does extra damage if the damage is determined by the potency of the spell, in the same way that firearms do in the variant firearms rules we're using. The bonus damage to a successful attack is equal to the caster's rank in Forces. Causing or healing aggravated damage is always vulgar, and costs a point of quintessence, but requires nothing further than you would normally need to cast the spell. Touch Range As mentioned under extended casting, living patterns (particular human ones), are complex, ever-shifting targets, and therefore pretty hard to pin down. Some of the more debilitating offensive magics used against them often have to be performed by touch, so that the casting mage can "get a grip" on the pattern, as it were. To do this, you must first succeed in grappling a target, and then on the next round you can cast the spell. Generally, if you have one rank higher than is normally necessary to cast a touch range spell, you can cast it at sensory range (or sympathetic, if you also have Space 2). The spells that lower attributes are the most common touch range attack spells. Also as mentioned under extended casting, all this is actually for game balance reasons. Duration Spells that normally have a duration of minutes, a scene or hours normally may see their

duration reduced dramatically in the volatile combat environment. Similarly, some spells last longer on Sleepers than they do on other Awakened mages. Again, this is purely a balance thing, to keep whoever wins initiative from steam-rolling everyone else. Also, spells that last as long as a mage concentrates may require composure rolls to maintin them in the midst of combat. That's just common sense. Armor Pretty much every sphere gives you some form of protection at rank 2. Most of them grant armor. Depending on the effect, this armor may stack with mundane armor. It will not ever stack with other magical armor (i.e. a forcefield on top of scaly hide will use the higher of the two armor ratings, not both). You can choose to either protect yourself from physical attacks or fortify your pattern against certain magics with a single effect, not both. You can cast a life spell to make yourself healthier (i.e. resist offensive Life magics) or make your skin tougher (i.e. grant yourself armor). Doing both requires either two spells or a combined effect. Forces armor may grant you both armor and some protection from a particular energy (including Forces magic using that energy), depending on what form your armor takes. Of course, turning yourself into living fire is only one effect that grants a host of benefits, but that's much more advanced. Buffs and de-buffs A guideline to most spells that increase or reduce stats is that they apply to only one stat at a time, and cannot raise or lower it more dots than your rank in the sphere. If you have a higher rank in the sphere than is necessary to cast the spell, you can affect more than one appropriate stat in one casting, and no single stat can be raised or lowered more than your rank in the sphere. You cannot stack effects on a single stat, i.e. you cannot lower a person's Intelligence by 3 dots, then by another 2 dots for a total of -5. The more powerful of the two castings would be used. Generally, whatever rank you would use to buff yourself, you need one rank higher to buff or debuff others. Dice pool enhancers This is just a house-rule: Effects that increase a dice pool by some means other than improving your stats (i.e. give you bonuses to a die roll, or make it 9-again or 8-again or rote), cannot be applied to magic. Magic is an effort of will, so luck is not a factor. The only ways to improve your odds on a magic roll are with willpower or quintessence.

RESONANCE

As stated above, change is reciprocal. Resonance was an oft discussed theme in Ascension, but a largely ignored mechanic. I think its a critical idea, and one of the greatest failings of Mage was its inability to implement the concept. The Verbena spoke of the Rule of Three in magic: Everything a man has wrought returns upon him threefold. This extends beyond the notion of Paradox as the conscience of consensual reality. In real life, violence begets violence, joy begets joy, and so forth. Intense acts are invested with emotion, and the emotion lingers in the form of Resonance. That Resonance colors the people, places and things that have it. You hold the door for somebody, and they may pick up enough of that charitable resonance to hold the door for somebody else. How many times has someone said that a church resonates with peace, such that all who enter feel suddenly calmer, or at least they know to keep their voices down. This applies especially to the dynamic forces of magic. When you take two tuning forks and strike one, the vibrations it emits will set off the other one as well. Two frequencies of the same wavelength will boost each others amplitudes, while opposing wavelengths will cancel each other out. So do resonances in magic feed off each other. A mage casting a calming effect in the aforementioned church finds the power of his magic boosted. He would find it harder than usual, though, to try evoke some kind of chaotic change. Resonance is divided into three broad categories: Static, Dynamic, Entropic. They represent the three phases of the cosmos, and correspond with the Essences (Pattern, Dynamic and Primordial, respectively with Questing as a kind of middle-ground). While any given location, item or creature could have a resonance, all magical patterns have a

resonance: nodes, tass, talismans, spirits, even mages. Quintessence will have the same resonance as the node it came from, unless it is stored in the mage's own avatar (limited by his Avatar rating), in which case it takes on his resonance. Tass takes on resonance appropriate to it's form, and quintessence taken from a source other than a node will take on resonance appropriate either to the source, or the method in which it was taken. Resonance is rated like any other trait, but instead of a specialty, it is colored by a particular emotion. Below is a chart of the emotional foci and which of the three categories of resonance it falls under, as well as the common oppositions. The italicized descriptors at the top of each column are too general to be taken as resonance traits, but are good cues for determining the category other traits might fall into. This chart should be pretty comprehensive, but hardly exhaustive: Entropic Creation/Destruction Growth/Decay Joy/Grief Pride/Ego/Shame Love/Desire/Hate Dynamic Chaos Anger/Passion/Insanity Fear/Doubt Curiosity/Discontent Freedom/Independence Static Order Calm/Restraint Courage/Certainty Boredom/Safety Oppression/Obligation

The Entropic column may seem to cover two poles, but when you consider the cosmos as a cycle, existence and absence are inseparable. Primordial resonance (and essences) represents fundamental, uncomplex forces. It is possible to associate Jhor with the most negative of the Primordial traits, as all things must at least briefly touch death to cycle around again to birth. However, for my purposes Jhor serves a more specific metaphysical role (see below). Resonance and Magic The higher a trait rating, the more prevalent a resonance trait becomes in a mages magic. The effects of a mage with the fear resonance will manifest with frightening visual imagery, or may make anyone nearby feel ill at ease. This is more of a flavor than a mechanical ruling, but at the Storytellers option, he could roll the resonance trait on vulgar magical effects. The number of successes indicates the intensity of the resonances manifestation, which projects that emotion onto everyone around the effect. Those present who have a particular desire to resist must contest that roll with Composure + Avatar + Opposing Resonance trait (if any) - Matching Resonance trait (if any). More significantly, resonance will amplify corresponding magical effects, and muffle discordant effects. Whenever a mage works his will in such a fashion as to reflect a the resonance of the environment, the target or any quintessence spent in the casting (if a caster is pulling from his own Avatar's quintessence store, he uses his own strongest resonance trait), 9s become exploding as well as 0s. In especially synchronous cases, the Storyteller may opt to give you 8-again. However, if there is a resonance at work that directly opposes the emotional intent of the effect, then you lose the 10-again rule on your roll as the magic is dampened. In extreme cases, the Storyteller may decide that any 1s rolled negate successes. Not only does this reduce the likelihood of success, but it can dramatically increase the likelihood of incurring paradox. If there is both a complementary and an opposing resonance type at work, compare the strength of each and apply whichever has more dots (ex. A mage with a Pattern resonance trait uses his own quintessence to fortify the physical structure of his armor in a carnival funhouse with Dynamic resonance). Other Effects of Resonance

 At very high ratings (4 or 5) the trait will manifest in everything the mage does and even his very appearance. A mage riddled with grief resonance will spread that sadness in everyone he crosses. Such mages subtract one die from social rolls (even an overwhelming resonance of love is going to put off most people), unless the emotion in question would actually benefit the mages goal, in which case a die is added (a resonance of fear will help in intimidation). It is also possible that the targets circumstances or nature would not be much affected by the resonance, in which case no dice are added or subtracted, but this should be a fairly significant variation from the norm (an undertaker is less likely to notice a mages Jhor taint). Most tass (physical quintessence) will carry one point of the same resonance as the node or mage that created it, and can thus aid or hinder castings. If a talismans resonance matches that of the wielder, then apply 9-again to activation rolls. Remove 10-again if their resonances contradict. When a mage attempts to draw quintessence from a node with a matching resonance to his own highest trait, he gains 9-again to the roll. Contradictory resonances remove 10-again. Once the mage has incorporated the quintessence into his own pattern, it simply takes on the mages own resonance. However, at more powerful nodes there is the possibility that the mage will acquire some of the node's resonance (see gaining/losing Resonance below). A Mage must maintain balance in all things, both with himself and the outside world. If the Mages dominant resonance trait (i.e. the one with the highest rank) is of a category other than his Avatars Essence, the Mage is in discord with his own avatar. Until this situation is rectified, the mage will not bleed off paradox naturally, no matter how mundane a life he is leading. Furthermore, every month spent in this fashion risks degeneration. Roll your current Harmony rank. If no successes are rolled, you lose a point of Harmony. The Storyteller may opt to have you roll again if you fail, to see if you enter Quiet. The form a mage's Quiets take is heavily influenced by his resonance. Dynamic mages become confused and may suffer hallucinations, while Pattern mages enter a kind of clarity that can lead to fixations and in the worst cases, they become programmed drones. Primordial mages become simplistic and unpredictably emotional. Jhor Jhor is a special kind of resonance generated by the Shadow Umbra realms of death. While the other three resonances interact normally, Jhor will cancel out all other resonances. Jhor is considered oppositional to all magics that do not directly relate to death. Jhor tainted Quiets can be especially dangerous, as the mage becomes obsessed with death, and even his body begins to assume the pallor of a corpse. The mage in Jhor Quiet is likely to pursue further Jhor-tainted study and behavior, which will accrue more Jhor and make it increasingly difficult to ever escape Quiet. The mage eventually degenerates into nothing but a magical killer. It is a common misconception that Jhor is related to Entropy magic, and this myth is in large part to blame for the Euthanatos's poor reputation. Anyone using magic to kill, to commune with the dead or cross into their lands comes into contact with Jhor. If anything, the Euthanatos are especially vigilant of its members who frequently deal in death. Gaining/Losing Resonance Typically, simply using magic that reflects a particular resonance (ex. Causing a circuit breaker failure with forces would be considered Entropic [decay], or possibly Dynamic [chaos]) does not imbue any lasting resonance to the caster, target or environment. Typically, resonance is only accrued from a great change in the mage's life, such as a Seeking or Quiet. However, when a mage makes an especially large change to his environment, in moments of great crisis or emotion, the emotional investment could

generate resonance at the Storytellers discretion. Vulgar magic is far more likely to do so, as is magic fueled by quintessence. The storyteller can also rule that resonances can be acquired if a mage spends a great deal of time in an area with a particular resonance, or even a moderate amount of time if the resonance is especially powerful (four or higher). Powerful talismans may also have this effect, if the mage either relies on it a great deal or the item has a powerful resonance. Powerful nodes more routinely pass on resonance. Whenever a mage absorbs quintessence from a node with a resonance trait of four or higher, he gains a point of the appropriate resonance unless he resists successfully. Resonance can be artificially created through the extended use of Mind magic (influencing a targets attitude significantly for prolonged periods) or a vulgar Prime effect. A mage can do the same for himself, but it requires intense, time-consuming meditation, in similar fashion to a Seeking. A resonance change can be resisted with Resolve + Avatar + Opposing Resonance trait (if any) Corresponding Resonance traits (if any). You must roll as many or more successes as the strength of the external resonance trait. If the roll fails, or the mage chooses not to resist, he gains one point of the appropriate resonance, or loses one dot from an oppositional trait. Talismans are nearly immune to all resonance changes, as they are static objects. They will continue to resonate with the method of their creation and the nature of their purpose unless subjected to powerful Prime rituals, or directly used in a spectacular fashion truly anathema to their current resonance.

DOMINO EFFECT

While Sleepers are willing to believe one unlikely but not impossible coincidence, further amazing occurrences are likely to strain their verisimilitude. For every two spectacular coincidental effects (pipes bursting for no reason, lightning striking a person, all the streetlights turning green at once) that have already occurred in the scene, subtract one die from similarly "improbable" effects. The domino effect has a particularly volatile relationship with applications of Entropy magic to twist probability and fate. Any exceptional success that is a result of generic Entropy effects (such as granting bonus dice or 9-again to a roll) counts as one such improbable effect.

PARADOX

This is the big bad Momma of the Mage: the Ascension. It was the biggest source of tension and frustration with players; it was so hard to adjudicate. The writers refused to give out many hard and fast rules, because it was meant to be unpredictable. Awakenings codified it, but it took a lot of the teeth out as well. Ive attempted to marry the best of both systems, but the style leans heavily to Ascension. Gaining Paradox Points A mage gains Paradox points in the following instances: Botching a coincidental effect: 1 point Successfully casting a vulgar effect: 1 point Successfully casting a vulgar effect in front of Sleepers: 1 point/highest rank used Botching a vulgar effect: 1 point/highest rank used Botching a vulgar effect in front of Sleepers: 2 points/highest rank used Note: For the purposes of magic, we're using oWoD botch rules, not nWoD. If you roll any ones and no successes on any magic roll (not just chance dice), then you botch.

These points are recorded on the wheel on your character sheet, counterclockwise. Should you gain so many paradox that they overlap with your quintessence, the quintessence is negated and replaced with paradox. At the point when a mage first gains the paradox points, he may choose to spend quintessence to mitigate it, on a one-forone basis. Also, mages bleed off paradox after a week spent without incurring anymore paradox. Roll your Harmony pool (generally half your Harmony score), and erase a point of Paradox for each success. Familiars may also clean a mages pattern of paradox. Backlash Whenever a mage botches a vulgar effect (or pulls off a spectacularly vulgar effect in front of witnesses, or at the ST's whim), and after adding the newly garnered paradox points, roll a number of dice equal to his base paradox dice pool (see Avatar) + his paradox points + any of the following modifiers: +1 per each backlash check after the first made for any caster during the scene. This bonus is cumulative. -1 if the mage is casting a rote. +2 if there are any Sleeper witnesses (the Storyteller may add more if there are large number of Sleepers) Each success adds to the severity of the backlash and burns off a point of the mages paradox. Paradox backlashes cannot be avoided. At best, a mage may spend a point of willpower to forestall this and all subsequent backlashes until the end of the scene. This is extremely risky, however, because this will burn all the accumulated paradox in one massive effect. While the backlash will likely be large enough to affect everyone on the scene, it will focus on the mage so arrogant as to defy it. Alternatively, a mage can try to contain the paradox within himself, to keep more erratic results in check. If a mage decides to absorb the paradox backlash, he takes one point of resistant bashing damage per success on the backlash roll. Unfortunately, the mage doesn't know in advance how bad it is going to be, so this is a very risky proposition, and it has killed more than one mage. While a Storyteller can rely on dice to determine when there is a backlash, it is ultimately at his or her discretion. Ignore the dice if its just a bad time for a backlash, or delay it to later in the scene, or even to another scene. Or, if it seems like an especially good time, invoke a paradox backlash and simply roll the targets paradox points as the pool to determine the strength of the effect. Paradox Effect Durations Most paradox effects last longer the lower a mage's Harmony. The chart below shows the interval durations of different kinds of paradox effects. At the end of each interval, roll your Harmony pool. If you succeed, the effect ends. If you fail, you may roll again at the end of the next interval. If you botch, you must wait two intervals to roll again. These durations do not apply to paradox Havoc, which lasts only as long as the effects normal duration, paradox spirit manifestations (the spirit will stay as long as it can or wills), or paradox realms (which generally have their own requirements for escape). Minor flaws may also have much shorter duration intervals (turns or minutes). Wisdom Duration 10 One scene 9 One scene 8 One scene 7 One scene 6 Two scenes 5 One day 4 Two days 3 One week

2 1

Two weeks One month

Paradox Flaws In addition to any other effects, most releases of Paradox energy give the mage a temporary flaw of some sort (including when the mage absorbs the backlash as physical damage). They are proportionate to the intensity of the Paradox backlash, and related to the initial magic that caused the backlash (they are also influenced by a mage's magical style and resonance). Minor flaws may only have duration intervals of a turn or a minute, while severe enough backlashes will cause prolonged flaws with duration intervals dependent on the mage's Harmony. Backlash Flaw Successes 1 Trivial Flaws: A trivial Paradox Flaw could be barely noticeable or slightly inconvenient. It probably lasts only a short time. The mage's watch might start running backward at high speed for a few turns, or his hair could stand on end for a minute. Mystical mages get struck with echoes from legend: Flowers might wilt or a swarm of insects could briefly gather near the mage. 2-4 Minor Flaws: A minor flaw is inconvenient and troublesome, and it may stick around for a while, but it's not likely to be dangerous. These Flaws might include such things as the mage's feet sticking to the ground for a few turns, an article of clothing falling to ash or an uncontrollable sneezing attack. Such Effects typically grant a one die penalty to certain actions that might be hindered, and they could be noticeably odd to others. 5-7 Moderate Flaws: A "moderate" Flaw is a relative term, since these Flaws do hamper the mage significantly, tend to last for a prolonged duration and can be dangerous. Moderate Flaws might include such problems as suddenly exuding waves of heat or cold, suffering from strange shifts to the senses, acquiring a temporary derangement, or losing the ability to speak coherently. These Effects usually cause the mage to suffer 1 to 3 die penalties on a variety of tasks. A trivial Flaw might sh ow up as a permanent problem, rendering the mage's eyes a new color, for instance. 8-9 Severe Flaws: Severe Paradox Flaws should give even the most rash mages pause. The mage could discover that his facial features have vanished (yet left him his senses), or perhaps all cloth items that come within five feet of him start writhing uncontrollably. These Flaws can be somewhat harmful, even to others, and they're definitely strange, noticeable and problematic. Such Flaws usually cause the mage to suffer a 2 or 3 die penalties on all actions, or 3 to 5 die penalties on a more limited range of tasks. A minor Flaw might sh ow up as a permanent problem. 10+ Drastic Flaws: The nastiest forms of backfires cause major changes, injuries and even permanent problems. The mage might have his skin suddenly turn to wood and start sprouting, he could find everyone over the age of 40 irresistibly attracted to him or he could accidentally and uncontrollably fire off magical attacks at his friends and allies. A moderate Flaw might sh ow up as a permanent problem, rendering wiping away a memory, removing an Ability or Attribute point or causing similar mayhem. If out of control, these Flaws can wreak havoc on the mage and on the people around him. Some things may become downright impossible for the mage to accomplish, depending on the nature of the Flaw. Havoc Paradox may take control of successfully cast effects, or even fuel a botched spell with unpredictable results. The target is selected randomly (or at ST's whim) from amongst all suitable targets in the area. The mage then rolls his harmony score (not pool). If he fails, the spell not only affects a random target, but the effect is inverted or warped in some fashion. If he succeeds, then the spell affects a random target but occurs as

normal. If he rolls an exceptional success, then he retains control of a spell. If havoc is occuring to a botched spell, the successes on the backlash roll count towards the spell's potency, area of effect, etc. However, since the spell is being generated by paradox, the mage has no chance to control it. Manifestation Paradox spirits are particularly viscious spirits formed not of essence, but of paradox energy. They are unaffected by most normal Spirit magics unless Prime is also invoked. Paradox spirits don't always appear in physical form, but follow the mage around in the Umbra, harassing him through the Gauntlet. The more paradox energy expended in the backlash, the higher the spirit rank. Backlash Spirit Successes Rank 1 1 2-4 2 5-7 3 8-9 4 10+ 5 Anomalies Paradox backlashes of five or more points may not affect the mage directly, but cause mayhem in the entire area. Lights may flicker and die, cars won't start, the temperature drops to dangerously cold levels. An anomaly may even alter the rules of magic, making certain spheres harder to use or making all magic more erratic. In the worst cases, paradox energy accumulates in a storm that lashes the area with raw force, destroying everything that does not flee or take shelter. Paradox Realms and Quiet Mages accruing ten or more successes on a backlash are in danger of simply being shunted from reality, either mentally or physically. Quiet is a particular form of mage derangement which is metaphysical in nature, not psychological. A mage's Quiet is heavily influenced by his Essence and Resonance. Paradox is not the only way to enter Quiet, but it's one of the more reliable ones (mages may also enter Quiet when they lose Harmony, rather than gain a derangement, when their Resonances are unbalanced for too long, or after extreme traumas). The mage's perceptions no longer entirely jibe with reality, and in some cases, his hallucinations may take on physical form (hobgoblins). Paradox may lock away offending mages in a specially created umbral realm, imposing a quarantine to protect reality from further violations. For mages who aren't fortunate enough to have friends who will seek them out in these Realms, the spirits will usually release the victim after a few days or months, depending on the severity of Paradox that he has called down. They have been known to keep people longer, however. Reality doesn't always allow parole or time off for good behavior. Paradox Realms tailored to mages tend to feature the Spheres that the mage invoked, and often trap and confuse the mage in a tiny Realm that's dominated by a few such features. A Realm might have a fatal environment, but more often, it just seems to behave like a puzzle to trap the mage. Many realms seem to be trying to teach the mage a lesson, so that he will be wiser in future applications of his will.