[Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition] The Experience System

 Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Character Advancement: The Experience System

My comments to the MtA 2e are in orange and provide some guidelines on how we will implement and treat the conversion or re-creation of played Characters in our current Mage chronicle (Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen).  Effective implementation dates to be determined.  The following supersedes all previous rules regarding the Experience System.

Characters in Mage: The Awakening advance through a system of “Experiences.” Experiences are spent to increase and buy new character traits. Experiences are earned by accruing “Beats,” which are small elements of drama in the plot. These Beats come through fulfilling Aspirations, through good and bad things happening to characters, and resolving minor plot hurdles called Conditions.

Beats

Beats are measures of drama in the Storytelling system. Five Beats become one Experience, one significant moment able to advance your character. You receive Beats for multiple things in the course of the story. Aspirations and Conditions are the most common ways to achieve Beats, but numerous others exist.

 Since our current Chronicle (The Dethroned Queen) only runs sessions once a month (outside of downtime and Play-by-Post activity), we had changed the Beat rules so that Four Beats equals an Experience.  Until implementation of this system we will stick with that for now and I will look at either ditching this Hax in favor of the system as written.  To be determined...

Earning Regular Beats:

• Aspiration: Any time you resolve or make significant headway toward an Aspiration, take a Beat.

• Chapter: At the end of every chapter (game session), take a Beat.

• Resolution: Any time you resolve a Condition, take a Beat.

• Dramatic Failure: When you fail a roll, you can opt to make it a dramatic failure and take a Beat.

• Drama: Any major dramatic event the Storyteller deems appropriate can award a Beat. I would recommend the end of every story scene so long as significant progress is made towards the story.

You can only receive one Beat from a given category in a given scene. If you resolve three Conditions in a scene, for example, you only receive one Beat. However, if the moment is particularly dramatic, or you’ve made significant sacrifice to trigger multiple Beats, the Storyteller can rule that multiple Beats are acquired.

You all will notice that this list is a lot shorter than our old Beat System for M2:TDQ.  But all our old reward reasons are there, just abstracted into the above.  This list should serve to give STs more examples of what could qualify for a Beat during play.

• Surrender: This is actually the resolution of a Beaten Down condition, so it falls under Aspiration.

• Paradigm Shift: You get these Beats when you suffer a Wisdom degeneration check.  So that's covered under Arcane Beats.

• Critically Wounded: We could award these under the status of a Resolution (when they heal back up) or Drama.

• Exceptional Roleplay: I will totally still reward for this, most of the time its a subtype of Drama since combat or other things don't tend to happen in scenes with heavy roleplay.  If they do, we can do multiple or stick with the 1 per category limit.

• Superlative Insight: This is also considered Drama or Resolution.

• Self-Actualization: Fulfilling virtue or vice has its own rewards (Willpower Points), otherwise this would fit under Resolution or Drama.  Character Growth of any kind happens through all the categories.

• Set-Back: Being hindered by Flaws (which are just persistent conditions), falls under Resolution if the condition is designed to render Beats as such.

• Significant Emotional Event: You guessed it, this catch-all goes under the Drama catch-all.

Aspirations

Designing Aspirations

When making your character, you choose three Aspirations. These are goals you wish to tackle in your character’s story. Primarily, they exist as a way to measure and express advancement. Any time you fulfill an Aspiration, you take a Beat. Any time you make major headway into or change the direction of a long-term Aspiration, you take a Beat. For this reason, Aspirations should stay general and  somewhat vague whenever possible. The more specific they are, the less likely you are to actually fulfill them. As a Storyteller, when it comes to the question of whether or not a player fulfilled an Aspiration, always lean towards allowing it.

Changing Aspirations

When an Aspiration is fulfilled, after the scene you can swap it out for another one. Usually in resolving an Aspiration, another one becomes a clear choice. However, the new Aspiration doesn’t have to be related to the old one. It can just be a different goal or direction for your character, to keep things dynamic and progressing. Also, between game sessions, you can change out Aspirations, even if they haven’t been fulfilled. Sometimes, an Aspiration reveals itself as unlikely to resolve, or just impractical to pursue. This happens. Feel free to change it out for something that makes more sense in the context of the story. 

Aspiration Mechanics

Aspirations also have some other game effects. For example,they can influence Social maneuvering actions in 2nd Edition Corebooks.

Conditions

Conditions are minor dramatic effects that occur in the scope of gameplay and the story. They influence the rules in various ways, often adding or removing dice from a pool. Every Condition has a Resolution term. When that thing occurs in the game (often at your choice as a player), the Condition goes away, and you take a Beat. Some Conditions are Persistent, which is to say that they last longer than normal Conditions, and offer multiple Beats. These Conditions have a “Beat” entry in their descriptions. When that thing happens, no more than once per scene, take a Beat. Any time a scene calls for a Condition, the Storyteller can impose one. As well, any time a character achieves exceptional success or dramatic failure on an action, a Condition will occur. Exceptional success gives a positive Condition of the player’s choosing, and dramatic failure will give a negative Condition of the Storyteller’s choosing. You can find a list of example Conditions in the back of all the new 2nd Ed Corebooks.

Five Beats = One Experience

Whenever you accrue five Beats, those Beats vanish, and you take an Experience. An Experience is a sign of meaningful progress in your character’s story, and her personal voyage through the plot. You can expend Experiences at any time to increase your character traits. A single dot of a trait may cost one or more Experiences, depending on what it is. Look to the chart at the bottom of this blog.

We are currently using the 4 Beats = 1 Experience in our game to advance growth a little bit faster and make up for the fact we only play a live session perhaps once per month.

 Arcane Beats

Magic comes from experiencing and understanding the universe around you. Mages specifically gain a different type of Beat called “Arcane Beats,” which become Arcane Experiences, alongside regular Beats. Arcane Experiences help a mage achieve magical advancement. Like with normal Beats, a few major criteria allow you to gain them. And like normal Beats, a given category can only net a single Beat per scene.

Earning Arcane Beats:

• Obsession - Any time you fulfill or make major headway into an Obsession, take an Arcane Beat.

• Arcane Resolution - Any time you resolve a Condition resulting from spellcasting, Paradox, or a magical effect, take an Arcane Beat instead of a normal one. Letting a spell causing a Condition expire does not count as resolving it.

• Stumbled - When failing a spellcasting roll, you may make it a dramatic failure and take an Arcane Beat.

• Wisdom - When your character risks an Act of Hubris against Wisdom, take an Arcane Beat.

• Legacy - When your character spends a scene being tutored in a Legacy by a mentor or tutoring her own students, take an Arcane Beat.

• Lore - When your character has a meaningful and new encounter with the supernatural, at Storyteller discretion, you may take an Arcane Beat.

Again, we are consolidating the categories but nothing of value is really lost:

• Paradox - This falls under Arcane Resolution, you no longer gain beats for causing Paradox or suffering Backlash, but you do for resolving Paradox Conditions.

• Occult Lore - Learning and explaining Mysteries generally should fall under Obsession or Lore, depending on if this is a new concept or something being studied as part of a Mystery.

• Arcane Inspiration - learning new magical theories and concepts should also fall under Obsession or Lore.

• Creative Spellslinging - Doing well at thaumaturgy, use of Yantras or other bonuses to casting are their own reward, can always fall under Obsession if it makes sense in the Mystery or area of study.

• Supernal Portents - finding hidden Supernal Truths happens all the time for mages, this is really only applicable to Obsession.

• Formative Thaumaturgy - Really the same thing as Creative Spellslinging.  The results are their own reward, otherwise it could fall under Obsession.

• Casting Outliers - Exceptional Successes and Dramatic Failures generate Conditions, which generate Beats.  So this category doesn't really apply but these events could result in Arcane Resolution.

• Hubris & Consequences - Really only applies if it falls under Wisdom or Arcane Resolution.

• Atlantean Ideals - Again, only in the sense of Obsessions or Lore.

Group Arcane Beats - as we have done in the past, MtA:TDQ will pool all the Arcane Beats among the players in a session and be divided evenly among them at the end of the session.

Obsessions

Obsessions are just like long-term Aspirations, except they relate specifically to a mage’s compulsion to explore the mystical in her life.  They could be goals to learn or research specific things. They could be player goals for the character to encounter certain strangeness in the world. They could be goals to use magic in new or extreme ways.  

Every Awakened character receives one or more Obsessions. This depends on your character’s Gnosis dots. A character with one or two Gnosis dots has only one Obsession. A character with three, four, or five dots of Gnosis has two Obsessions. A character with six, seven, or eight dots of Gnosis has three Obsessions. And a character with nine or ten Gnosis has four Obsessions.

In addition to the Arcane Beat from resolution, resolving an Obsession also gives the character a point of Mana.  Additionally, Obsessions apply any time an Aspiration could apply. For example, they influence Social maneuvering actions. Any time a character uses Focused Mage Sight Scrutiny and an Obsession applies, the Obsession adds a die to the attempt.

Spending Arcane Experiences

Five Arcane Beats become an Arcane Experience, in the  same way five Beats become an Experience. However, Arcane Experiences differ from normal Experiences in that they can only purchase magical traits. In this context, this means Gnosis, Arcana, Praxes, and Legacy Attainments. The costs are the same. Also, note that Gnosis and Arcana can be purchased with mundane Experiences and any combination of mundane and Arcane Experiences.

Frankly, I'm still inclined to allow Arcane Experiences to be spent on supernatural merits that make sense so we will stick with that one change.

Legacy Attainments have a prerequisite level of Gnosis. A mage who invents her own Attainments rather than learning from a tutor may only spend Arcane Experiences to buy them.

The Limits of Arcana

Each Path provides two Ruling Arcana, one Inferior Arcanum, and seven Common Arcana. The difference determines the cost of buying dots in the Arcanum, and at what point a character requires a teacher:

Arcanum    Maximum Untrained

Ruling        5 dots

Common   4 dots

Inferior      2 dots

Characters can buy up to the above limits for four Experiences per dot, which can be regular or Arcane Experiences. Exceeding the limit increases the cost to five Experiences, requires a teacher who already knows the dot-level sought, and can only be bought with regular Experiences.

The Beat Economy

Particularly in a long-running game, Beat acquisition is a core part of the Storytelling system, and the Storyteller should always be mindful that it exists, and what rate it happens at. On average, most characters should receive somewhere between about three to eight Beats per game session. If they’re not, consider why that is. Are you not applying or enforcing Conditions? Are your players not rolling enough to fail sometimes? Are you not engaging their Aspirations or Obsessions? These are all things to keep in mind. If you’re playing loose with the rules, you may not see as many Beats. In that case, don’t hesitate to hand them out any time something cool happens. If two characters butt heads and it becomes a really tense, driving scene, go ahead and award both players with a Beat. If one character has an emotional breakdown thanks to the strangeness around him, give a Beat.  

Well, looks like we were handing out way too many beats.  The changes to the Arcana/Gnosis costs are now gone, the limits on Mastery are now lifted, and no one will be getting that extra automatic Arcane and regular Experience at the end of play.  I still plan on handing out extra beats during game, most Table-Tops are expected to run twice monthly and we only play once monthly, a little extra wouldn't be remiss.

Tokens (Cool Points are back people!)

If you’re only playing a single-session game, Beats aren’t nearly as useful as in an extended game.  If you are giving out too many Beats but want to continue to reward players, then consider this. 

Any time the player would get a Beat, instead give them a token. This token can be cashed in to replenish a Willpower point, to offer 8-Again on a single roll, or to add a single success in a Contested action.

Another great use for Tokens is to control the amount of Beats characters are earning. Without a shared pot (like we use for Arcane Beats) its easy for some characters to outpace others.  I try to keep things around 1 beat per scene so long as significant things are happening.  For another option, consider all the times you laugh or think something is awesome but it doesn't strictly qualify as a beat gaining criteria like the above.  Well, you could give them a Token instead!

Group Beats (Optional)

If the players and Storyteller wish, players can “pool” Beats and thus divide Experiences accordingly. This means everyone advances at the same rate, but also means that everyone’s advancement is tied to everyone’s engagement with the game systems. This can be both a boon and detriment to a shy or non-confrontational player; it can offer an incentive for being involved without the pressure to perform for advancement, but it can also incentivize not being involved, since his character will continue to advance without engagement. Weigh the options, and make the best collective decision for your troupe of players.

Again, we are going to go with individual regular Beats and the Group Beats method for our Arcane Beats.

Cabal Beats - you will note this new system has nothing about Cabal Beats.  Once implemented we will be converting Cabal Beats into regular beats and distributed to the characters.  This system doesn't have Cabal Beats.

Storyteller Beats - If the players still think the ST did a really good job with something ran during a session they can elect to grant the ST a Beat to be granted to one of their active characters in the Chronicle.

Experience Costs:

Trait                               Experiences per Dot

Attribute                         4 Experiences 

Skill                                2 Experiences

Specialty Skill               1 Experience

Merit                               1 Experiences (we will continue to use 2 dots per 1 XP for static merits)

Supernatural Merit        1 any combination of regular or Arcane Experiences for Style/Tiered Merits and 1 Experience per 2 dots for static merits

Arcanum to Limit          4 any combination of Arcane or regular Experiences

Arcanum above Limit   5 regular Experience only & with a teacher

Gnosis                           5 any combination of Arcane or regular Experiences

Rote                               1 Arcane or regular Experience

Praxis                            1 Arcane Experience (only) 

Wisdom                         2 Arcane Experience (only)

Willpower                      1 Experience (recovery of lost dots only)

Legacy Attainments     1 (tutored) any combination of Arcane or regular Experiences

Legacy Attainments     1 (no tutor)  Arcane Experience (only)

Grimorie Inscription     These are treated as Merits now, see Merit costs to use.  Creating just takes the spell, the owner pays the experience for it.

Create Custom Rote    Requires Mastery, 1 Arcane Experience and 1 Willpower point as a flat cost

Dedicated Tool              Mages can only have one, if lost or destroyed they can dedicate a replacement over the course of a month at no additional cost.

Spirit Familiar Experience Costs (These remain the same)

Attributes: 3 per dot

Influences: 4 per dot

Numina: 1-3 per dot depending on resonance and strength

Pretty drastic huh?  Thoughts?  I'm not sure I like or agree with the Arcana costs, but I'm willing to give it another try.