((Out of Character (OOC):
Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler))
Venue: Mage: The Awakening
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler))
((The following is the newly integrated experience system for our Mage Game))
Mage: The Awakening v1.9 – “Experience System”
Rules Supplement for Mage II: The Dethroned Queen
First Draft by Chronicle Storyteller Jerad Sayler on 22 Oct 2015
I. Experience Point System
a. Types of Experience and Beats
• These rules replace the World of Darkness Rulebook experience point system. They integrate with the Aspirations, Conditions, and dramatic failure systems in this book. They also shift character progression to a more mathematically linear path, removing costs that increase with higher ranks.
• Throughout the game, Aspirations, Conditions, and certain other criteria allow you to "take a Beat." A Beat, in dramatic terms, is time enough for the audience to recognize a plot point or a change for a character. For our purposes, think of it as a unit of drama and represent dramatic shifts in emotion on the part of the characters. Beats can be a turning point for a character or paradigm shifts. They also can represent the characters gaining information influences the mind of the character.
• 5 Beats of any type equals 1 Experience point of that same type.
• Three types of Beats and Experience: Regular, Arcane, and Cabal
- Regular Experience can be spent on anything
- Arcane Experience can only be spent on non-mundane purchases (ie. Gnosis, Arcana, Rotes, supernatural merits…) and represents what you have learned about magic and the cosmos
- Cabal Experience can only be spent on shared items with at least one other character or shared merits that benefit a group. This also includes increasing anything that can be taught by another player character or learned by training with a player character
b. Taking Beats
• Under these rules, players who understand the rules and work toward resolving Conditions and Aspirations will receive the most Beats and therefore Experiences. While your troupe may appreciate this reward system for learning and using the rules, some players would rather just play their characters and only glance down at the character sheet when the Storyteller asks them to roll something. Either approach is fine, but if you have a mix of the two approaches, characters can advance in a lopsided fashion.
• These points are given out in real time during scenes and play. A recap at the end of a scene or chapter is a good way to solidify any last minute awards that may have been missed. The awards go directly to the character and the player tracks them.
REASON EXPLANATION
1. COMPLETING A SCENE Automatic: Gain a Beat at the end of each scene, storyteller discretion
2. TRIUMPH Success/Resolution: Take a Beat when a character completes an aspiration (recorded or not), requires approval
3. RESOLVING CONDITIONS Take a Beat when you resolve a Condition (if it doesn’t resolve over time)
4. SELLING DRAMATIC FAILURES Take a Beat when you choose to upgrade a Failure to Dramatic Failures (max once per scene)
5. DESPAIR Take a Beat for each scene which your character suffers a Dramatic Failure (stacks with Selling Dramatic Failures but limited to one legit DF per scene)
6. PARADIGM SHIFT Take a beat when you suffer a breaking point. Take an additional Beat when you get a Dramatic Failure or Exceptional Success on a Wisdom or Integrity Check
7. SURRENDER Take a Beat when you are forced to surrender or submit to an opposing force (max once per scene)
8. CRITICALLY WOUNDED Danger: Take a Beat when your character’s rightmost health box is full from damage or when you suffer wound penalties (max once per scene)
9. EXCEPTIONAL ROLEPLAY IN A SCENE Take a Beat when the character(s) provide an excellent RP examples, displays character development, Learning Curve or realistic tactics (max once per scene)
10. SUPERLATIVE INSIGHT Take a Beat when your character displays Coolness, Innovation, Heroism, Wisdom or Brilliance, (max once per scene)
11. SELF-ACTUALIZATION Take a Beat when your character fulfills his Vice or Virtue in a way that comes at great personal or moral cost (max once per scene, ST discretion)
12. SETBACK Take a Beat when a personal Flaw or persistent Condition hinders your character’s goals/aspirations/progress. Other circumstances may apply. (max once per scene)
13. SIGNIFICANT EMOTIONAL EVENT A once a scene catch-all for things that don’t cause Integrity checks but dramatically change the way the character views the world or themselves.
c. Taking Arcane Beats
• Arcane Experiences are handled via a Group Beats mechanic: One solution is for all Beats to go into a pot (use coins or beads or spare dice to represent them). At the end of the chapter, Beats get divided evenly among the players. This way, all players are encouraged to help one another realize Aspirations, resolve Conditions and otherwise take Beats. This should help the players work as a team, even if the characters don't necessary need to.
• Arcane experience may now be spent on ANYTHING supernatural but nothing mundane. Throughout the gaming session the players keep track of all the Arcane Beats they earn for their characters. At the end of the session these are put into one big pot and divided among the characters rounding up. (So if the group got 38 Arcane Beats each player takes 6 Arcane Beats total).
• Our method: After the Arcane Beats are divided evenly among the characters the character’s original arcane beats (gathered themselves) are granted as Cabal Beats. This way the one that contributes the most is recognized but won’t completely outpace the rest mystically.
REASON EXPLANATION
1. PARADOX Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group suffers Backlash or causes a Paradox (max once per scene per character)
2. OCCULT LORE Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group learns and explains a new occult concept, Lore, Secrets or Forbidden Knowledge (usually limited to a broad topic or major insights per point) (max once per scene per character)
3. ARCANE INSPIRATION Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group learns new magical theories or new ways to use spells, Arcana or other Supernal truths within them), this includes Legacy and Order related topics (max once per scene per character)
4. CREATIVE SPELLSLINGING Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group solves an issue with improvised magic or unique Rote Spell implementations (Max once per scene per character)
5. SUPERNAL PORTENTS Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group identifies the manifestation of Supernal Truths in the Fallen World in many forms (ST discretion)
6. FORMATIVE THAUMATURGY Take an Arcane Beat when the group designs and implements an act of new Ritual Thaumaturgy or for great descriptions of spell designs and execution (max once per scene per character)
7. WISDOM SINS Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group casts a spell that forces them to make a Wisdom degeneration check.
8. CASTING OUTLIERS Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group gets an exceptional success or dramatic failure on a spell casting roll. (Max once per scene for each type per character)
9. HUBRIS & CONCEQUENCES Take an Arcane Beat when the magical actions of the group cause considerable setbacks and consequences, including harm to Sleepers or their Souls (max once per scene per character)
10. ATLANTEAN IDEALS Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group upholds or fulfills their vision of magic, the cosmos, their order, and an Awakened Society to include achieving magical-related aspirations or Cabal beliefs (max once per scene per character)
d. Taking Cabal Beats
• To prevent the lopsided growth but also to encourage each player to contribute, the characters also receive however many Arcane Beats they earned themselves (before divided) as a Cabal Experience reward. This rewards them for providing the group with its Arcane insights but forces those rewards to be spent together as a group.
• Cabal Experiences can only be spent on shared merits or when more than one member of the gaming group or Cabal deiced to dedicate their Cabal Experience towards something. It is highly encouraged to be spent on shared Merits like Sanctum traits or shared social merits but a Cabal that all trains in weaponry together could feasibly spend their Cabal experience on buying up dots in Weaponry together. Even Gnosis has been purchased with Cabal Experience before (however this requires an insane justification).
• Cabal Experience is not a shared pool. Each character contributes differently and spends their points independently but only if someone else is spending experience on the same thing or if the asset is a shared resource of some kind. Lastly, despite the name, you don’t actually have to be in a Cabal with someone to spend Cabal Experience with them. It more or less conforms to anyone in the gaming group that has characters who will work together on things.
e. Experience Expenditure Costs
Mage Experience Costs:
• Attribute: 4 XP for each dot
• Tiered Merits: 1 XP for each dot
• Static Merits: 1 XP for 1-3 dot Merits, 2 XP for 4-7 dot merits, 3XP for 8-11 and so on…
• Skill Specialty: 1 XP for each Specialty Skill
• Skill: 2 XP for each dot
• Recovering Willpower Dot: 1 XP per dot
• Ruling Arcanum: 3 XP per dot
• Common Arcanum: 4 XP per dot
• Inferior Arcanum: 5 XP per dot
• Wisdom: 2 XP for each dot
• Gnosis: 5 XP for each dot
• Rote Spells: 1 XP for 1-3 dot Merits, 2 XP for 4-7 dot merits, 3XP for 8-11 and so on…
• Grimoire Transcription: 1 XP for each inscription
• Creating a Custom Rote: 1 Willpower dot or 1 XP
• Learning signature spells
f. Spirit/Familiar Experience Expenditure Costs
Spirit XP Costs
Attributes: 3 per dot
Influences: 4 per dot
Numina: 1-3 per dot depending on resonance and strength
Rules Supplement for Mage II: The Dethroned Queen
First Draft by Chronicle Storyteller Jerad Sayler on 22 Oct 2015
I. Experience Point System
a. Types of Experience and Beats
• These rules replace the World of Darkness Rulebook experience point system. They integrate with the Aspirations, Conditions, and dramatic failure systems in this book. They also shift character progression to a more mathematically linear path, removing costs that increase with higher ranks.
• Throughout the game, Aspirations, Conditions, and certain other criteria allow you to "take a Beat." A Beat, in dramatic terms, is time enough for the audience to recognize a plot point or a change for a character. For our purposes, think of it as a unit of drama and represent dramatic shifts in emotion on the part of the characters. Beats can be a turning point for a character or paradigm shifts. They also can represent the characters gaining information influences the mind of the character.
• 5 Beats of any type equals 1 Experience point of that same type.
• Three types of Beats and Experience: Regular, Arcane, and Cabal
- Regular Experience can be spent on anything
- Arcane Experience can only be spent on non-mundane purchases (ie. Gnosis, Arcana, Rotes, supernatural merits…) and represents what you have learned about magic and the cosmos
- Cabal Experience can only be spent on shared items with at least one other character or shared merits that benefit a group. This also includes increasing anything that can be taught by another player character or learned by training with a player character
b. Taking Beats
• Under these rules, players who understand the rules and work toward resolving Conditions and Aspirations will receive the most Beats and therefore Experiences. While your troupe may appreciate this reward system for learning and using the rules, some players would rather just play their characters and only glance down at the character sheet when the Storyteller asks them to roll something. Either approach is fine, but if you have a mix of the two approaches, characters can advance in a lopsided fashion.
• These points are given out in real time during scenes and play. A recap at the end of a scene or chapter is a good way to solidify any last minute awards that may have been missed. The awards go directly to the character and the player tracks them.
REASON EXPLANATION
1. COMPLETING A SCENE Automatic: Gain a Beat at the end of each scene, storyteller discretion
2. TRIUMPH Success/Resolution: Take a Beat when a character completes an aspiration (recorded or not), requires approval
3. RESOLVING CONDITIONS Take a Beat when you resolve a Condition (if it doesn’t resolve over time)
4. SELLING DRAMATIC FAILURES Take a Beat when you choose to upgrade a Failure to Dramatic Failures (max once per scene)
5. DESPAIR Take a Beat for each scene which your character suffers a Dramatic Failure (stacks with Selling Dramatic Failures but limited to one legit DF per scene)
6. PARADIGM SHIFT Take a beat when you suffer a breaking point. Take an additional Beat when you get a Dramatic Failure or Exceptional Success on a Wisdom or Integrity Check
7. SURRENDER Take a Beat when you are forced to surrender or submit to an opposing force (max once per scene)
8. CRITICALLY WOUNDED Danger: Take a Beat when your character’s rightmost health box is full from damage or when you suffer wound penalties (max once per scene)
9. EXCEPTIONAL ROLEPLAY IN A SCENE Take a Beat when the character(s) provide an excellent RP examples, displays character development, Learning Curve or realistic tactics (max once per scene)
10. SUPERLATIVE INSIGHT Take a Beat when your character displays Coolness, Innovation, Heroism, Wisdom or Brilliance, (max once per scene)
11. SELF-ACTUALIZATION Take a Beat when your character fulfills his Vice or Virtue in a way that comes at great personal or moral cost (max once per scene, ST discretion)
12. SETBACK Take a Beat when a personal Flaw or persistent Condition hinders your character’s goals/aspirations/progress. Other circumstances may apply. (max once per scene)
13. SIGNIFICANT EMOTIONAL EVENT A once a scene catch-all for things that don’t cause Integrity checks but dramatically change the way the character views the world or themselves.
c. Taking Arcane Beats
• Arcane Experiences are handled via a Group Beats mechanic: One solution is for all Beats to go into a pot (use coins or beads or spare dice to represent them). At the end of the chapter, Beats get divided evenly among the players. This way, all players are encouraged to help one another realize Aspirations, resolve Conditions and otherwise take Beats. This should help the players work as a team, even if the characters don't necessary need to.
• Arcane experience may now be spent on ANYTHING supernatural but nothing mundane. Throughout the gaming session the players keep track of all the Arcane Beats they earn for their characters. At the end of the session these are put into one big pot and divided among the characters rounding up. (So if the group got 38 Arcane Beats each player takes 6 Arcane Beats total).
• Our method: After the Arcane Beats are divided evenly among the characters the character’s original arcane beats (gathered themselves) are granted as Cabal Beats. This way the one that contributes the most is recognized but won’t completely outpace the rest mystically.
REASON EXPLANATION
1. PARADOX Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group suffers Backlash or causes a Paradox (max once per scene per character)
2. OCCULT LORE Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group learns and explains a new occult concept, Lore, Secrets or Forbidden Knowledge (usually limited to a broad topic or major insights per point) (max once per scene per character)
3. ARCANE INSPIRATION Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group learns new magical theories or new ways to use spells, Arcana or other Supernal truths within them), this includes Legacy and Order related topics (max once per scene per character)
4. CREATIVE SPELLSLINGING Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group solves an issue with improvised magic or unique Rote Spell implementations (Max once per scene per character)
5. SUPERNAL PORTENTS Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group identifies the manifestation of Supernal Truths in the Fallen World in many forms (ST discretion)
6. FORMATIVE THAUMATURGY Take an Arcane Beat when the group designs and implements an act of new Ritual Thaumaturgy or for great descriptions of spell designs and execution (max once per scene per character)
7. WISDOM SINS Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group casts a spell that forces them to make a Wisdom degeneration check.
8. CASTING OUTLIERS Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group gets an exceptional success or dramatic failure on a spell casting roll. (Max once per scene for each type per character)
9. HUBRIS & CONCEQUENCES Take an Arcane Beat when the magical actions of the group cause considerable setbacks and consequences, including harm to Sleepers or their Souls (max once per scene per character)
10. ATLANTEAN IDEALS Take an Arcane Beat when a member of the group upholds or fulfills their vision of magic, the cosmos, their order, and an Awakened Society to include achieving magical-related aspirations or Cabal beliefs (max once per scene per character)
d. Taking Cabal Beats
• To prevent the lopsided growth but also to encourage each player to contribute, the characters also receive however many Arcane Beats they earned themselves (before divided) as a Cabal Experience reward. This rewards them for providing the group with its Arcane insights but forces those rewards to be spent together as a group.
• Cabal Experiences can only be spent on shared merits or when more than one member of the gaming group or Cabal deiced to dedicate their Cabal Experience towards something. It is highly encouraged to be spent on shared Merits like Sanctum traits or shared social merits but a Cabal that all trains in weaponry together could feasibly spend their Cabal experience on buying up dots in Weaponry together. Even Gnosis has been purchased with Cabal Experience before (however this requires an insane justification).
• Cabal Experience is not a shared pool. Each character contributes differently and spends their points independently but only if someone else is spending experience on the same thing or if the asset is a shared resource of some kind. Lastly, despite the name, you don’t actually have to be in a Cabal with someone to spend Cabal Experience with them. It more or less conforms to anyone in the gaming group that has characters who will work together on things.
e. Experience Expenditure Costs
Mage Experience Costs:
• Attribute: 4 XP for each dot
• Tiered Merits: 1 XP for each dot
• Static Merits: 1 XP for 1-3 dot Merits, 2 XP for 4-7 dot merits, 3XP for 8-11 and so on…
• Skill Specialty: 1 XP for each Specialty Skill
• Skill: 2 XP for each dot
• Recovering Willpower Dot: 1 XP per dot
• Ruling Arcanum: 3 XP per dot
• Common Arcanum: 4 XP per dot
• Inferior Arcanum: 5 XP per dot
• Wisdom: 2 XP for each dot
• Gnosis: 5 XP for each dot
• Rote Spells: 1 XP for 1-3 dot Merits, 2 XP for 4-7 dot merits, 3XP for 8-11 and so on…
• Grimoire Transcription: 1 XP for each inscription
• Creating a Custom Rote: 1 Willpower dot or 1 XP
• Learning signature spells
f. Spirit/Familiar Experience Expenditure Costs
Spirit XP Costs
Attributes: 3 per dot
Influences: 4 per dot
Numina: 1-3 per dot depending on resonance and strength
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