[Mage: The Awakening v1.9] A Few Adjustements

(Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen

Venue: Mage: The Awakening

Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler))

After our first game of playtesting the Mage v1.9 system I put together we needed to make a few adjustments and rules clarifications:

a.       Storyteller Beats

·         The Storytellers work hard on plots, NPCs and stories.  During play if at least one person nominates the one or more STs and it is seconded by another player the ST will take a Beat to use on one of their characters.  Common nominations grant beats when STs run a really good combat, have great RP with their NPCs, and kudos for designing well expected rules and scenes.

Fighting Style Merit Guidance:

Notice: One of the great things about Fighting Style Merits are the synergies that can be reached by the combination of various techniques and abilities.  How these work are ultimately up to Storyteller discretion but once a precedence is set on how a particular fighting style works it can only be overruled with consensus among the Storytellers.  Use this guidance to help in that determination:

1.       Is the ability passive?  Generally passive senses or proficiencies are considered “on” as long as the character is conscious and not hindered in some way.  They usually grant thing like ignoring certain penalties and gain static bonuses for doing certain actions or circumstances.  Certain stances can be assumed to be active while the character attacks.

2.       Is the ability active? Usually these abilities are actual attacks in which the character has to do something special, a full-on maneuver in order to get the benefit.  Usually you can only do one of these per turn as part of an Instant action.  Rare circumstances in which a passive stance requires a sacrifice of a benefit (like defense) and the active maneuver does not take that sacrifice, then the abilities can be allowed to stack effects in tandem.

3.       Most importantly: Is what is being done physically possible?  Outside of transhuman abilities and the laws of physical fighting styles are largely mundane actions not fueled directly by supernatural powers.  A fighter cannot hit every single honey bee attacking him in a single action despite an ability description that allows for anyone standing adjacent to be hit.  It is just not physically possible without supernatural enhancements.