[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.

[Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition] 16-Step Character Creation

 Out of Character (OOC):

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

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Public Service Announcement: The following rules supersede all current character creation guidelines.  In the near future, Hannah and I will be working to convert all existing characters to the new rule-sets with your assistance and input.   There will be a certain amount of grandfathering for older characters but we will do our best to try to limit changes that warp the character outside of their core concept.  We will also try to make this as painless as possible.  For now just know that Characters participating in current Stories will keep using the character sheets and mechanics they have now until we set a hard implementation date and everything is ready.  Be not afraid!  - Jerad

My comments to the MtA 2e are in blue and provide some guidelines on how we will implement and treat the conversion or re-creation of played Characters.  Effective implementation dates to be determined.

Step 1: Character Concept, Aspirations, Virtue & Vice

If the character sheet is the map to your character, character concept is the legend. Character concept is a couple of words that describe your character in a dramatic, literary sense. Is your character a Puckish Rogue? Is she an Itinerant Researcher? Is she a Celebrant Technoshaman?  As you’ve read, perhaps the Path, Order, or other setting snippets sparked a basic character idea. That idea is a concept.

Next, you’ll need three Aspirations. Aspirations are your goals for your character. Note that they may not be goals your character personally holds, but they’re goals you have for your

character. 

For example, you might want to see your character lose a friend in the scope of the story. No reasonable person would want to lose a friend, but it’s a valid Aspiration because it’s something you want to see happen in your character’s story. When choosing Aspirations, look to two short-term Aspirations, and one long-term Aspiration. Short-term in this case means something that could happen to your character in a single game session, and long-term Aspirations are things that take a greater, extended effort to accomplish. 

Phrase Aspirations in a few words, but no more than a sentence. Keep them on the general and vague side, since more specificity means they’re less likely to be fulfilled. As a Storyteller, you should write down all these Aspirations. Aspirations are a way for players to tell you the kinds of things they want to see happen in your game. Be sure to engage these Aspirations, and give players plenty of chances to bring them into play.

As a task for the Storytellers, we need to consolidate all active character Aspirations and Obsessions into a single collaborative document that we and the players have open during gameplay.  That way we can update them, fulfill them, and remember what they are.  This is a big aspect of character progression and earning Arcane Beats.  I think we will use an Excel document in the main IC Docs folder to handle this.  Players will need to refer to it rather than their character sheets proper.  We will also want to track what Aspirations a character has resolved for long-term story planning, perhaps copying them into a second tab.

Errata: Obsessions are like long-term Aspirations: you earn Arcane Beats for making progress toward them, not just fully resolving them.

Errata: Mages do, indeed, have a Virtue and a Vice. This should have been pointed out in character creation.

Step 2: Select Attributes (5/4/3 Attribute Points)

Every Chronicles of Darkness character possesses nine basic Attributes. These Attributes cover a character’s inherent capabilities. They come in three categories, Mental, Social, and Physical. Each category possesses three Attributes. At this stage in character creation, each Attribute receives one free dot (as noted on the character sheet). Then, prioritize categories. Choose which grouping is most important to your character, then second most important, and last. The top category receives five

dots to distribute, the second receives four, and the last receives three. You may divide these however you see fit, but no Attribute can go above five dots in total.

No changes here, other than the emphasis that when we moved to Chronicles of Darkness rules we gained the ability to use regular and singular starting points to raise Attributes to 5.

Step 3: Select Skills (11/7/4 Skill Points) 

Next, select Skills. There are 24 Skills, divided into Mental, Physical, and Social categories just like Attributes. Unlike Attributes, Skills receive no free dots. Prioritize categories the same way you did with Attributes, dividing eleven among the top category, seven to the secondary, and four to the final category. 

Step 4: Determine Skill Specialties (3 Spec Skills)

Now that you have Skills for your character, you get to refine  three of them with Specialties. Specialties are single word or short-phrase descriptors that help to narrow down your character’s

particular area of expertise. For example, your character might have Occult (Witchcraft), Occult (Herbalism), or Occult (Ghosts). Choose three Specialties. 

When choosing Skill Specialties, you can look at them in three major ways:

1.  You can supplement inferior Skills that you still want your character to use. For example, your character might only have a single dot of Investigation, but if you take the Specialty “Crime Scenes,” your character becomes much more effective in that specific field. 

2. You can maximize efficiency with a mastered Skill. For example, if you took four dots of Firearms, selecting a “Rifles” Specialty makes your character remarkable with a rifle, and beyond other characters with just four dots. 

3. Lastly, you can use Specialties to give your character a little personal flare and flavor. For example, your character might have a Crafts Specialty in “Model Kits.” This might not benefit your character directly in the game, but it says something about your character and her priorities.

As before, in our Chronicle we allow up to three Spec Skills to stack without too much fuss, offer up to a +3 to a roll.  That should be considered the maximum spec skill bonus for all intents and purposes.  Usually this needs to make this particular roll to have stacking skills based on rare items and situations employed. or specialty skills that start general and get more and more specific.  For example: a person may suck at normal Weaponry (1), but with swords (Swords) that he's practiced with all his life, and his particular weapon (Father's Katana) of which he knows the exact feel, weight and balance, and against a lone duelist (Duels) he is formidable (effectively Weaponry 4 in that situation).  From now on I think we should only allow two spec skills that revolve around equipment to stack instead of all three.  It's a little too much of a bonus to offer the same character anytime he uses his Weaponry (Blades) (Katana) (Father's Katana) all together.

Step 5: Choose Path (Mage Template)

Choose your character’s Path: Acanthus, Mastigos, Moros, 

Obrimos, or Thyrsus. Note your character’s two Ruling and 

one Inferior Arcanum from this choice.   For reference, they are:

1. Acanthus: Ruling Arcana of Time and Fate, Inferior Arcanum of Forces (considering Matter)

2. Mastigos: Ruling Arcana of Space and Mind, Inferior Arcanum of Matter Fate in Beta test

3. Moros: Ruling Arcana of Matter and Death, Inferior Arcanum of Spirit 

4. Obrimos: Ruling Arcana of Forces and Prime, Inferior Arcanum of Death (considering Mind)

5. Thyrsus: Ruling Arcana of Life and Spirit, Inferior Arcanum of Mind (comsidering Death)

Step 6: Choose Order & 3 Rote Skills (Mage Template)

Choose your character’s Order. Most characters will be in a Pentacle Order, but your Storyteller might allow Nameless or Seer of the Throne characters.  Order membership grants the following starting advantages:

1. Three Rote Skills, they are based off the following list:

Rote Skills of the Diamond Orders:

Adamantine Arrow - Athletics, Intimidation, Medicine

Guardians of the Veil - Investigation, Stealth, Subterfuge

Mysterium - Investigation, Occult, Survival

Silver Ladder - Expression, Persuasion, Subterfuge

Rote Skills of the Council of Free Assemblies:

Free Council - Crafts, Persuasion, Science

Rote Skills of the Seers of the Throne:

Seers of the Throne (no Ministry) -  Investigation, Occult, Persuasion,

Hegemony - Politics, Persuasion, Empathy

Panopticon - Investigation, Stealth, Subterfuge

Paternoster - Academics, Occult, Expression

Praetorian - Athletics, Larceny, Intimidation

Nameless/Banisher - Use Rote Specialty Merit

Apostate - whatever Rote Skills from their rejected Order or use the Rote Specialty Merit

In a Nameless Order - Use Mystery Cult Initiation Merit to develop Rote Skills

A Note on Nameless: Some mages are Nameless; lacking membership in an Order, or having membership in a minor Order-like organization (a Nameless Order) that lacks the global scope and symbolic heft of a true Order. Nameless characters do not receive the benefits of Order membership (including Rote Skills), although larger Nameless Orders grant some of the same training; to represent these in the game, use the Mystery Cult Initiation Merit. If that Merit is used to build a Nameless Order, it may grant a set of three Rote specialties as its third-dot benefit.

2. A free dot in the Order Status Merit (1 dot)

3. A free a dot of Occult (1 dot)

4. The High Speech Merit (1 dot)

Sorry folks, we are getting rid of the Combat Casting Merit and ALL-OUT-CAST maneuver for now, really this extra effort is already captured in the use of Willpower Points to boost casting.  Since we gave it to everyone for free no experience will be refunded for losing it.

Step 7: Design Nimbus (Mage Template)

Describe your character’s Nimbus. Use the descriptions of your character’s Path to help flavor it. Remember that a Nimbus is subtle for characters with a starting level of Gnosis.

A Shadow Name, symbol, theme, or personal magical style can all help craft a nimbus.  There is some great fluff in both corebooks as well as the now outdated Tome of the Watchtowers chalk full of Nimbus ideas.  Later, as a mage tends their Gnosis, joins a Legacy, or suffers acts of Hubris their Nimbus will reflect that.  It is the emanations of the Awakened Soul after all.

Step 8: Design a Dedicated Magical Tool (Mage Template)

 Determine your character’s Dedicated Magical Tool. Her Path and Order determine possible magical tools.

A starting character gets their first Dedicated Magic Tool aka a Focus for their magic for free.  Others take effort to make and maintain.  Again, the corebooks, Tome of the Watchtowers and Tome of the Mysteries have great sections on ideas for what your tools might be.  I still allow applicable "fluff" from the MtA 1e books when they make sense.  Later tools can be tuned to a specific Arcana.  What tools do for a mage when casting magic will be captured in a later blog.

Step 9: Choose Starting Arcana (6 dots) (Mage Template)

 Next, determine your character’s starting Arcana. Your character starts with six total dots in Arcana. She may only have one Arcanum at three dots at this time. Three to five of her starting dots must be

in her Ruling Arcana, and both Ruling Arcana must have at least one dot. None of her starting dots can go to her Inferior Arcana. 

The possible combinations are as follows:

Specialist: 3, 2, 1 or 3, 1, 1, 1

Balanced: 2, 2, 2 or 2, 2, 1, 1

Generalist: 2, 1, 1, 1, 1

Step 10: Choose Rote Spells (Pick 3) (Mage Template)

Your character starts play with six dots’ worth of rotes. Next you pick three Rote Spells for your character.  You can only have rotes which are equal to or lower level than her starting Arcana. If a rote requires multiple Arcana, count only the highest used for this purpose.

Errata: Instead of being dot-rated as they were in first edition in character creation, given that their Experiences cost after charging is flat, we have changed "six dots of rotes" in character creation to "three rotes".  Since we already converted the active PCs I don't have any intention of converting the current characters, just new ones.

Step 11: Determine Starting Gnosis & Mana (Mage Template)

By default, your character starts with a single dot of Gnosis. For five of her starting Merit dots, your character can start with  Gnosis 2. For all ten of her starting Merit dots, she may start with Gnosis 3. 

I believe we were still going with 10 Merit points (up from 7) and 3 or 6 points could be traded for higher starting Gnosis.  That ends with this implementation.  Based on this Gnosis, your new character will enter play with full mana.  We will look at the new Gnosis table soon.

Step 12: Design Starting Obsessions (1-2) (Mage Template)

Obsessions are like long-term Aspirations, but grant Arcane Beats and Mana when you resolve them. Characters with Gnosis 1 and 2 may have one Obsession. Those with Gnosis 3 may have two.

Again, when we look at the Gnosis table and talk about Character Advancement Obsessions will make more sense.  They should be treated as long-term magical or Mystery-focused Aspirations that a character can earn Arcane Beats and Mana while making progress towards. 

Step 13: Choose Praxes (1-3) (Mage Template)

Your character has one Praxis per dot of Gnosis. Look to the Arcana descriptions again and choose spells to be your initial Praxes. Unlike Rotes, Praxes are not graded by dots; a spell of any rating is a single Praxis.

Think of Praxis Spells as "signature spells" for your character.  You use them so much and so well that they have become a part of your very identity.  They are more personal than Rotes but don't create channels in the soul as deep as Legacy Attainments.  Their effects and benefits will be covered later.  I am not opposed to altering listed spells slightly to design unique Praxes so long as they aren't manipulations of Reach or Spell Factors.  I'd be looking for changing what a spell does fundamentally, just ever so slightly.  When a Praxis is selected in this process and in the future it must be from Arcana capabilities they currently have when Gnosis increases.

Step 14: Choose Resistance Attribute (Mage Template)

The Awakening is tough on the mind, body, and soul. Every Awakened character begins play with one additional dot of Composure, Resolve, or Stamina, which may not raise the Attribute chosen above five dots. Add this to your character sheet at this time.

This is done as a finishing touch to a new character before play.  As opposed to increasing Composure or Resolve based on a Path now you can choose how you are hardened by your Awakening.  For conversion we will probably give the player the option to pick what point they want to move.

Step 15: Select Starting Merits (10 Points)

Every character begins play with ten Merit dots, unless some of those points were spent on Gnosis (see above). You may choose any combination of Merits from the Awakened list starting on p. 99 of the new Corebook. or the general list starting on p. 104. Your character must meet all given prerequisites to purchase a Merit. These Merits may affect other traits on the character sheet; be aware of these when calculating Advantages in the next step.

As usual, we use a much larger list of Merits.  If there is a newer version of the Merit that one gets used instead.  I recommend focusing on the 2e Canon Merits first before looking at the Merit doc.

Step 16: Finishing Touches (Advantages)

All characters have certain derived traits, which depend on their Attributes, Skills, and Merits. Determine the following Advantages and note them on your character sheet. We include basic calculations here. If a Merit modifies your character’s Advantages, it’ll be noted in the specific Merit.

• Size: Characters start at Size 5.

• Health: Characters start with Size + Stamina in Health boxes.

• Speed: 5 + Strength + Dexterity

• Willpower: Resolve + Composure

• Wisdom: 7 (I may still allow a couple points of Wisdom to be sold for their Experience point value)

• Initiative: Dexterity + Composure

• Defense: (Lower of Wits or Dexterity) + Athletics

Okay folks, there it is, just skimming the surface.  What do you think?