((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))
“Give me lever and a firm place to stand and I will move the whole world….”- Archimedes
V.
Creative Thaumaturgy
• Changing Primary Spell Factors – Can be
done so long as the caster has one dot higher in the applicable Arcanum.
• Default Damage & Potency – If a
spell succeeds (with one success) it automatically applies a spell Potency of
the mage’s Arcana dots. Each additional
success adds to this. This also applies
to damage. If the primary spell factor
is not Potency consult the Storyteller to see if the automatic successes rule
applies.
a. The Thirteen Practices:
Initiate (•)
· Compelling spells nudge something into
doing something it could have done naturally.
· Knowing spells deliver
knowledge about something directly to the mage (or to another target). This knowledge
is a direct awareness of Supernal truth; the mage doesn’t have to interpret
evidence based on her senses or try to divine the truth out of cryptic riddles. Most Active Mage Sights are made up of these.
· Unveiling spells expose hidden
things to the mage’s senses, or expand the confines of those senses. The core
Mage Sights are of this Practice but other spells exist too.
Apprentice (••)
· Ruling spells grant fuller
control over phenomena than a mere Compelling spell. A Ruling spell can’t
fundamentally alter its subject’s abilities.
· Shielding spells, sometimes
called Warding spells, offer protection against phenomena under the Arcanum’s
purview. Mages protect themselves from general harm through the power of their
Arcana with the Mage Armor Attainment rather than Shielding spells.
· Veiling spells are twofold:
Firstly, they can conceal things under the Arcanum’s purview from detection and
secondly, they can conceal a subject from concrete phenomena
under the Arcanum’s purview. Short of archmastery, it’s impossible to Veil
something against an abstract concept or force.
Disciple (•••)
· Fraying spells degrade things,
weakening them and enhancing their flaws. Fraying spells can weaken subjects
under the Arcanum’s purview. They can also directly attack subjects using the
energies of the Arcanum. Damage inflicted by a direct-attack Fraying spell is
always bashing.
· Perfecting spells are the opposite of
Fraying spells in many ways: they bolster, strengthen, and improve rather than
weakening and eroding.
· Weaving spells can alter
nearly any property of a subject without transforming it into something
completely different. A spell that grants the target the properties of
something that falls within the Purview of another Arcanum.
Adept (••••)
· Patterning spells allow a mage to
completely transform a target into something else that falls under the
Arcanum’s purview. A spell that transforms the subject into something that
falls within the Purview of another Arcanum requires a mage to know the
Practice of Patterning for both Arcana.
· Unravelling spells can
significantly impair or damage phenomena under the Arcanum’s purview, or
directly inflict severe damage using the forces of an Arcanum. Damage inflicted
by a direct Unravelling attacks is lethal and at mastery can do Aggravated
Damage by expending a Mana.
Master (•••••)
· Making spells allow for the
creation of whole new phenomena ex nihilo.
· Unmaking spells annihilate
subjects under the Arcanum’s purview entirely. Unmaking spells are beyond
inflicting direct damage with attacks; a successful Unmaking destroys the
subject altogether.
b. Spell Categories:
• An Improvised
Spell is just that – something you’ve used your knowledge of the Arcana to
come up with. Improvised Spells roll
your Gnosis +
Arcana to cast. Most creative
Thaumaturgy are improvised because the spells need to be customized or have
very specific effects that must be designed on the spot. Improvised spells do not cost experience. Improvised spells allow you to tweak the
effects of a spell or change its primary attribute.
• A Praxis is
a spell you’ve become especially practiced at, iconic for your character. You
get one with every dot of Gnosis, and can buy more with Arcane Experiences (2
XP for each). When a mage uses one of her praxes, all Magical Tools (NOT all
Yantras – tools are a subset, as you’ll see) count as being Dedicated, which
greatly reduces but never quite eliminates Paradox Risk. For now we will roll Attribute + Skill + Arcana.
• A Rote is an
imago designed by a Master and either cast by following the instructions in a
Grimoire or learned with Experiences by less-developed mages. Rote Spells are
performed by rolling Gnosis + Skill + Arcana and
cannot be altered beyond its designed effects.
You can tweak the default spell factors but not what the spell does. Rotes using a mage’s Rote Skill gain +1 to
the roll, reduce the spell cost by 1 Mana and reduce any Paradox pool by -1. Rotes are learned from codified order
secrets, passed down from master to apprentice, or from Grimoires (spellbooks).
Rotes can be performed with special
factors as if they were +1 higher in the applicable Arcana. Rote spells cost
1+XP to learn and the cost varies as the effective level of the spell
increases. Rotes are much harder to Scrutinize for Personal Resonance (requires
5 successes where improvised casting requires 1 success to gain insight)
• Grimories - If
you are reading a Rote out of a Grimorie you gain a +1 to perform an Extended
cast you gain the Rote Quality. If you
already have the Rote Quality you can gain other dice tricks like 9s again or 8s again. If you also know
the Rote the mage gets a +2 to spellcasting.
Putting spells into a Grimorie cost 1XP each regardless of the level of
the spell.
• An Attainment
is a spell-like ability born out of a mage changing their own soul and joining
a Legacy. Attainments cannot be
dispelled in the conventional sense as they spell-life effects that perfectly
pattern with the fallen world and are not actually spells at all. Attainments are never risk Paradox. Attainments
Roll Attributes + Skills + Arcana
or use more obscure rules. Attainments
are free if the mage meets their requirements set down for their Legacy. If they are founding their own Legacy they
pay 1XP to create a new Attainment.
c. Using Yantras, Instruments
and Chains:
• Mages can cast spells while blindfolded and naked,
without moving a muscle, but that makes for dull play, so in Mage 2 you’re
rewarded for describing how your mage casts her spells. Rewarded with dice.
• Focuses - Mages use items, places, events, and actions with
Supernal weight to help focus their mind on the spell they’re casting. The Diamond Orders call these correspondences
Yantras, while the Free Council
calls the Instruments. Seers of the
Throne refer to them as Chains.
• So What are
Yantras? Magic
is the act of transforming will to power. A mage needs no more than that — just
the ability to think clearly enough to form an imago is enough to work magic.
But mages are also humans, and humans find the focus necessary to form and
maintain all but the simplest imago at the drop of a hat is elusive at best.
Instead, mages do what all humans do: they use semiotic shortcuts. Just as a
first-grader may learn “Roy G. Biv” as a mnemonic for the colors of the
rainbow, so a mage uses symbolic times, places, words, items, and movements as
a key to forming an imago. The Diamond call these keys “Yantras,” after the
Sanskrit word for a mystical design or apparatus. The Free Council prefer the
more prosaic “Instruments,” focusing on their grounding in humanity’s acts of
creation, while the Seers know them as “Chains,” mystic signatures burned into
the Fallen World by the hands of the Exarchs. Sleepwalkers and Sleepers alike
often mistake the medium for the message, believing that the Yantras associated
with a given working are in and of themselves sources of power. This belief —
that anyone can work Supernal magic with the right combination of items,
motions, and words — is sadly mistaken. To a mage, they are aids to
concentration and keys that unlock parts of an imago held in memories.
• They are Semiotics- Each
Yantra has a meaning above and beyond the Yantra itself — to the mage who
wields it, a crystal rod is a tool of clarity and a means of action at a
distance, of touching beyond one’s grasp. To some mages, it is a symbol of male
sexuality. Others see it as a means of channeling power and removing illusions.
Still others see it as a tool of command. All of these things are true — this
crystal wand is a reflection of the Crystal Wand that casts a shadow on the
wall of Plato’s cave. In order to use a Yantra, a willworker has to recognize a
specific symbolism in the tool. That reflection then factors into her arcane
understanding, enabling her to use that symbol as the foundation for an imago.
Rather than drawing a picture of what she wants freehand, she instead has a stock
image she can trace or use as inspiration. The more Yantras she uses — whether
different interpretations of the same tool or different tools altogether — the
more basis she has for her imago, making it easier to form. Naturally, using
Yantras in this way has its limits — if the mage can’t fit any of the symbols
associated with the Yantra into her working, she can’t use it to bolster her
magic. A Guardian might set up a Chamber of Veils that she uses to hide truths
and reveal secrets, but unless she can connect her Supernal understanding of
the Chamber of Veils to a place of healing, it won’t help her when a cabal-mate
stumbles through her door holding his intestines in place.
• Unlocking the Imago - When a mage uses
a Yantra in the working of a spell, she adds bonus dice to her spellcasting
dice pool. The number of dice varies by the Yantra that she uses. These bonus
dice can help eliminate penalties to her spellcasting pool, or provide bonuses.
A mage can only get so much help from Yantras — after offsetting any penalties,
the maximum bonus from all her Yantras
combined cannot exceed 5 dice but additional bonuses can be allocated for Spell
Factors instead. A mage may want to use as many Yantras as possible in her
spellcasting, especially for powerful acts of magic. She can however only
access so many pieces of Supernal knowledge at once. To reflect this, the
number of Yantras she can apply to a given spellcasting pool is limited by her
Gnosis. If she uses one ritual item in many ways, each individual use counts as
one Yantra for this limit.
Gnosis Yantras
1 or 2 2
3 or 4 3
5 or 6 4
7 or 8 5
9 or 10 6+
• Using Yantras - It takes time to draw upon the
Supernal sympathy of objects and actions. A mage can draw upon one Yantra as a reflexive action when casting a spell;
each further Yantra (After the first)
extends the casting time by a turn.
Someone who wants to interrupt an involved casting thus has plentiful opportunities
to snatch away mystic items, block out the light of the full moon, or just
shoot the mage in the head.
No comments:
Post a Comment