((Out of Character (OOC):
Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler))
THE CREATIVE ARTS: How To cast spells
Borrowed & Edited from Original Posting on
April 29th 2015 by Dave Brookshaw of Onyx Path
Mage is different to all the other World of Darkness games in
how it treats the characters’ powers. A Mage character sheet doesn’t list
individual powers like Werewolf Gifts or Demon Exploits.
Its powers aren’t progressive lists like Vampire Disciplines that
are purchased in series. The Arcana lists many example spells, but they
are examples. The game’s big draw, like its predecessors’ in Mage: The Ascension and Mage: The Awakening 1st Edition,
is the ability to come up with thousands of spells and place them within the
framework provided by the mechanics.
Mage
breaks spells down into a five-step process, which assumes the spell is using
the full rules rather than Down and Dirty magic, which only uses steps
one and two:
STEP
ONE: DECLARE INTENT
This can
be the hardest part of the process, especially for a player. It comes with
practice, and in taking the example spells as a starting point rather than an
exhaustive list – think of something similar to an existing spell but not quite
covered? That can be your basis. A minority of players all but abandon the
described spells and think only in terms of the Practices. Most players will be
somewhere in-between once they get the hang of it.
STEP
TWO: DETERMINE ARCANUM AND PRACTICE
The ten
Arcana list various phenomena as being under their purviews, but like the
spells those aren’t strictly speaking exhaustive. If you can think of something
we haven’t, put it into one of them. Second edition clarifies a few things in
terms of the Arcana’s dividing lines – Death is very clearly the “magic that
affects the Soul” Arcanum now, rather than sharing it with spirit, Prime is
“truths” not “illusions”, as purely sensory illusions are Forces now.
Before each Arcanum goes into the example spells, they also give any special
notes and advice on how their purviews work; I have personally noted (often
firsthand) a great number of players and storytellers not “getting” how time –
the dimension, not the Arcanum – works in Awakening and struggling with
improvised spells. That was because principles like “the past is fixed unless
altered by magic, the future is constantly changing according to probability
(which is itself a function of Fate)” and “if you kill your grandfather you
don’t blink out of existence, but everyone will forget who you were” were built
into 1st ed’s spells but left to inference. Second edition flat-out tells you
about it, and about how Fate interacts with destiny, and how magical sympathy
and contagion work with Space.
Here is
the quick and dirty list of Arcana matches with Purview (this is just off the
top of my head):
1. Prime – Supernal Phenomena,
supernal spells & magic, Illusions expressed through “Truths,” magical
constructs, Mana, Tass, dispellation, phantasms, leylines, divine energies
2. Forces – electromagnetic spectrum,
heat, cold, kinetics, gravity, pressure, electricity, fire, radiation, weather,
sound, light, magnetism, observable energy
3. Time – Temporal Sympathy, time
distortion, witnessing past/future events, divination, time dilation, timing, duration
of spells, all time stuff
4. Fate – Chance, luck, destiny,
happenstance, probability, prediction, targeting, cause and effect, intuition, curses
5. Mind – consciousness,
intelligence, telepathy, neurons, Astral travel, memory, mentalism, hypnotism, mental
control, inner demons,
6. Space – Distance, Spatial
Sympathy, Contagion, Area of Effect, Teleportation, Portals, far seeing,
location, spatial manipulation, perception
7. Life – All living things and
their processes, instinct, regeneration, biological control, evolution,
8. Spirit – Gauntlet, Shadow,
spirits, ephemera, numina,
9. Death – Souls, ghosts, ectoplasm,
undead, darkness, entropy, mortality,
10. Matter – materials, molecular
structures, chemistry, supernal materials,
The
Practices are the skeleton behind the Arcana system – thirteen categories for
spells (with a few more as the secret business of Archmasters) that every spell
falls into. One of the happy results of the new edition’s Reach system for
Paradox is that we have none of the warping of Practices relative to their
dot-ratings first edition had, and we’ve extended that by removing the
“offsets” some Arcana had for different types of subject: Every single Fraying
spell is three dots, and Life no longer requires higher dots to cast on animals
than plants. Game balance (such as it is) is administered through Reach,
instead – if you can imagine two versions of the same spell in the same
Practice, and one is obviously more powerful than the other, our advice is to
make the more powerful one a Reach effect on the less powerful one. Because the
Practices are now hard-locked to their dot ratings, they’re much improved as
the means for a Storyteller to figure out what dot-rating a spell needs to be.
Initiate (•)
·
Compelling spells
nudge something into doing something it could have done naturally. A coin toss
can be made to come up tails (Fate), a bored worker can be made to take that
coffee break now (Mind), or a spirit can be forced to avoid its bane (Spirit).
Making the coin hover and spin in midair, making the worker walk into her
boss’s office and quit, or making the spirit ignore its favorite prey are
beyond the bounds of a Compelling spell.
·
Knowing spells deliver
knowledge about something directly to the mage (or to another target). A mage
can divine the cause of a corpse’s death (Death), sense whether someone has a
powerful destiny (Fate), or unerringly know which way is north (Space.) 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.
·
Unveiling spells expose
hidden things to the mage’s senses, or expand the confines of those senses. She
might gain the ability to hear radio waves (Forces), peer across the Gauntlet
or perceive things in Twilight (Spirit), or see the flow of Mana across the
landscape (Prime).
Apprentice (••)
·
Ruling spells grant fuller
control over phenomena than a mere Compelling spell. Water can be made to flow
uphill or into unnatural shapes (Matter), animals (or even human beings) can be
commanded (Life or Mind), or time can be momentarily made to accelerate or slow
down (Time). A Ruling spell can’t fundamentally alter its subject’s abilities:
Water can be directed, but not turned solid or gaseous. Time can be altered,
but not overwritten. An animal can be commanded, but not made stronger or
fiercer.
·
Shielding spells, sometimes
called Warding spells, offer protection against phenomena under the Arcanum’s
purview. A Shielding spell might protect against a ghost’s Numina (Death), make
the mage immune to fire (Forces) or disease (Life), or allow her to survive in
a caustic atmosphere (Matter). 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: A
subject can be made to lose all sense of time (Time), a fire’s heat and light
can be hidden from view (Forces), or making a building all but impossible to
notice (Matter). Secondly, they can conceal a subject from concrete
phenomena under the Arcanum’s purview: a mage can render herself invisible to
ghosts (Death) or ward a powerful Locus from detection by spirits (Spirit) or
walk unnoticed through a crowd (Life or Mind) or past a camera (Forces). Short
of archmastery, it’s impossible to Veil something against an abstract concept
or force: a mage can’t Veil herself against death or hide from time, for
example.
Disciple (•••)
·
Fraying spells degrade
things, weakening them and enhancing their flaws. Fraying spells can weaken
subjects under the Arcanum’s purview: damping a fire (Forces), sapping Strength
(Life), or eroding the barrier between worlds (Death, Spirit, or others,
depending on the worlds in question). They can also directly attack subjects
using the energies of the Arcanum: inflicting damage via the chill of the grave
(Death), or psychic overload (Mind). 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. A Perfecting spell might repair
damage to an object or a person (Matter or Life), allow a machine to function
perfectly, with no wear and tear (Matter), or make a modest destiny into an
earth-shaking one (Fate).
·
Weaving spells can alter
nearly any property of a subject without transforming it into something
completely different. Solid steel can be transmuted to liquid (Matter), a sword
can be enchanted to damage beings in Twilight (Death or Spirit), or a few seconds
of time can be rewritten (Time). A spell that grants the target the properties
of something that falls within the Purview of another Arcanum, like giving
someone diamond-hard skin (Life and Matter), requires a mage to know the
Practice of Weaving for both Arcana.
Adept (••••)
·
Patterning spells allow a mage
to completely transform a target into something else that falls under the
Arcanum’s purview. A memory can be replaced wholesale (Mind), the mage can turn
herself (or a subject) into an animal (Life), or she can teleport by
“rewriting” her own location (Space). A spell that transforms the subject into
something that falls within the Purview of another Arcanum, like transforming
into a living pillar of fire (Life and Forces), 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. A raging storm
might become a calm summer’s day (Forces), solid iron reduced to dust (Matter),
even spells can be torn asunder (Prime). Mages can hurl fire (Forces) at their
enemies, or cause aneurysms and heart attacks with a glance (Mind or Life)
Damage inflicted by a direct Unravelling attacks is lethal, but can be upgraded
to aggravated by spending a point of Mana and one Reach.
Master (•••••)
·
Making spells allow for
the creation of whole new phenomena ex nihilo. The mage can conjure
gamma rays (Forces), birth new spirits (Spirit), or create a doorway to the
Underworld (Death). Time can be dilated by creating more seconds, hours, or
even days (Time).
·
Unmaking spells annihilate
subjects under the Arcanum’s purview entirely. Life can be snuffed life a
candle (Life), two locations can be forced into each other by destroying the
distance between them (Space), even Hallows and Verges can be wiped from the
earth (Prime). Unmaking spells are beyond inflicting direct damage with
attacks; a successful Unmaking destroys the subject altogether.
Astute players will likely figure out a multitude of ways to
accomplish similar effects with different Arcana, sometimes at different dot
levels. This is okay. Just because a Fate ••• spell can do a
thing doesn’t mean a Forces • spell that does a similar thing is “broken” or
should be disallowed.
Take
for example influencing the outcome of a coin toss. A simple Compelling spell
of Fate can easily tip the odds toward either heads or tails, but it’s
theoretically possible to use a Forces Fraying spell to alter the kinetic
energy imparted to the coin, causing it to spin slower, or use a Matter Weaving
spell to change the coin’s center of mass. Both are perhaps more complicated
than the Fate approach, but they’re valid within the purview of their
respective Arcana. Similarly, a Mind Weaving spell could force a target to feel
love, while a Life Ruling spell could cause the target’s brain to release
dopamine and other hormones that create a similar effect.
STEP
THREE: DETERMINE EFFECT AND COST
The
effects of a spell can be incredibly broad, and it’s impossible to categorize
every conceivable thing a mage might want to do with a spell, but this section
will highlight some of the more common effects, how to adjudicate them, and
what they should cost. We go through Damage, Healing, Conditions and Tilts,
Bonuses and Penalties, Dice Effects, Protection, Hiding, and Narrative Effects.
Don’t think of this section as a “menu;” any individual spell
should have a single, clear effect. If you start designing a spell that deals
damage and grants bonus dice and imposes a
Condition, you’re probably creating a combined spell, not a single
spell.
Here’s
an example:
Conditions
& Tilts
As pre-packaged blocks of rules already designed to fit into a
lot of different systems, Conditions are an excellent source of inspiration for
long-lasting spells.
Because the effects of Conditions and Tilts are so broad, it’s
difficult to assign hard-and-fast rules for Practices that inflict them. Use
the Practice descriptions and the following list as a guideline:
·
Compelling (•) spells can’t create Conditions
out of whole cloth, but can intensify phenomena that already exist to inflict
Conditions. A Compelling spell can make someone who’s already nervous Spooked,
for example, but can’t make someone who’s uninterested in the mage romantically
Swooning.
·
Ruling (••) spells can create most
non-Persistent, mundane Conditions. Supernatural Conditions, such as the soul
loss Conditions or Manifestation Conditions, generally require a Weaving (•••)
spell.
·
Creating a Persistent Condition is almost
always a Patterning (••••) or Unraveling (••••) effect.
·
Spells inflict Conditions that harm, hinder,
or inconvenience characters. Wholly beneficial Conditions, like Informed or
Steadfast, should be saved for the benefits of rolling an exceptional success
on the spellcasting roll. Spells can mimic the effects of a helpful Condition,
but using magic to gain a benefit and a Beat is double-dipping.
·
Tilts are usually created by applying a Reach
to an attack spell, but if you want to create one on its own, it’s usually a
Fraying (•••) or Patterning (•••) spell.
Conditions created with magic only last as long as the Duration
factor of the spell. If the target resolves the Condition before the Duration
expires, the spell ends early and the target gains a Beat as normal. (It’s the
Storyteller’s call whether the Beat is normal or Arcane.) If the Duration runs
out, the Condition goes away, but that doesn’t count as resolving the
Condition.
Removing a condition with magic is always at least a Ruling (••)
spell, but otherwise follows the same guidelines as creating one.
The
Beat Goes On…
At this point, you may be wondering what’s stopping you from
loading up on Condition-causing spells in a relatively safe environment,
resolving them all, and earning Beats by the bucketload? The honest answer is
“nothing, mages do it all the time.” Mastigos force their apprentices to face
terrifying fears in order to better themselves. Thyrsus challenge their own
bodies with horrible diseases. The only limits are the rule that a character
may only earn one Beat per scene from resolving Conditions, and the limits of
her own Wisdom. Remember, though, that letting a Condition-causing spell’s
Duration expire doesn’t count as resolving the Condition.
Costs
When
designing thecorebook’s spells, we had lists of what would definitely require
Reach, Mana, or both – and we give both lists here. They’re less important in
Creative Thaumaturgy terms than in actual spellcasting – most Reach is spent to
manipulate spell factors, and most Mana is spent on Attainments or to mitigate
Paradox – but when some spell effects do require one or the other, we tell you.
STEP
FOUR: DECIDE PRIMARY FACTOR
Determine
which Factor is the Primary Factor – the one that starts at the mage’s
Arcana dots in levels before penalties, while all the others begin at the first
level. This is almost always Potency, or Duration, but the rule of thumb is
“whichever Factor you immediately think of when you think of a more powerful
version of the spell.” The Primary Factor can be changed during spellcasting
with a Reach. The Primary Factor of a given spell effect is always the same;
you can’t make a creative thaumaturgy spell that’s identical to another spell
except with a different Primary Factor.
STEP
FIVE: CAST THE SPELL
And
then cast away!
When
designing new spells, it’s important to remember how the spellcasting system
works – never assume what the spell will be cast on, for example, because
that’s a function of the Spell Factors. First edition had lots of spells that
required touch range, or needed extra dots to cast on someone else, or
stipulated that they were always Aimed; second edition does none of that, as
those things are all handled by the business of your spell and Paradox dice
pools.
How do
the spell factors work? That’s a subject for another blog.
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