[Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition] Sleepers

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

Sleepers: Quiescence & Dissonance

"Flesh is a trap... that's what he used to say... flesh is a trap, and magic sets us free."

- Lord of Illusions (1995)

My comments are in yellow and are regarding my reviews of the system and my own personal and Storyteller's perspective recommendations for use in our Chronicle. 

Sources: The following text, as written in grey, is straight out of the advanced "beta" version of Mage: The Awakening 2nd edition.  Additional materials edited from Original Posting in 2015 by Dave Brookshaw of Onyx Path Publishing as part of Mage 2nd Ed Open Development.

The Lie means it’s rotten to be Awakened. It means it’s rotten to be Asleep. It means that it’s rotten in those cases when the Awakened accidentally, or purposefully, bother those who Sleep but cannot wake.

Curse of Quiescence
The Supernal makes up parts of the Fallen World, and those parts show up as messages and symbols direct from the source. But those messages come through the Abyss and are tainted by it. Sleepers, us — most of us anyway, every Joe, Joji, and Amina on the planet — see these warped messages instead of the Truth.

A Sleeper’s soul is given a choice, therefore, between a Truth that cannot be understood and a terrible, impossible alternative as offered by the Abyss. Her choice is a non-choice, and so she Sleeps. That non-choice is the Curse.

Obvious magic
(Previously known as Vulgar or Improbable)
The Curse strikes a Sleeper when she sees obvious magic, either during the spell’s casting or encountering its effects later. So what’s obvious? "The spell must be clearly, openly supernatural in effect, and the Sleeper must be both conscious and cognizant of the magic’s impossibility." Spells that are not obvious at the moment they are cast escape the Paradox die bonus, but may be subject to Dissonance if they are obvious when a Sleeper later encounters them.


The Curse Hurts
There’s no right answer for the Sleeper when she is confronted with Supernal forces. Any time she is faced with this painful non-choice, as her mind and soul wrestle with conflicting and impossible messages, it hurts her deep inside. Some part of her breaks under the strain of wrestling with the impossible, and recovery from that may be an uphill struggle or frankly, never happen. Sleepers witnessing an obvious manifestation of the Supernal or Abyssal always experience a breaking point against Integrity.

Before Curse, Comes Hubris
It is possible, depending on whom you ask, that the existence of the Curse is itself caused by hubris, a conscious and targeted desire to keep the masses ignorant. To believe the Diamond stories of the Exarchs entering the Supernal and closing the way behind them is to believe that the Curse comes from arrogance and pride itself. So it’s no wonder that any time a mage afflicts the Curse’s painful manifestation on a Sleeper, it violates his Wisdom as well as the Sleeper’s Integrity. Causing a Sleeper to risk losing Integrity because of your magic is an Act of Hubris for Enlightened and Understanding Wisdom characters.

The Curse Feeds Paradox
Exposing a Sleeper to the Supernal means she must give thought to the twisted symbols from the Abyss, even if the symbol is pure and perfect (and therefore risks little or no Paradox on its own). By her inability to separate what the Supernal says from the alternate Lie the Abyss suggests, she brings a part of the Abyss with her, corrupting what the Awakened hope to do. Any Sleeper witnesses to an obvious spell increase Paradox risk by a die. This may cause a spell that would otherwise not risk Paradox to do so.


Social Creatures
Human beings are social by nature, and we function best in groups. In the Fallen World, humanity shares the suffering of the Lie, and though Sleepers do not realize it and cannot discuss it, they share the burden soul to soul, and in the collective unconscious. This is how the Abyss is as strong as it is. Human interconnectedness powers, strengthens, and complicates the Lie. Without the ability to spread the burden around, though, the Lie would likely crush humanity one individual at a time.

Multiple Sleeper witnesses to obvious spells apply a dice trick to the Paradox roll rather than adding cumulative dice. A handful of people makes it 9-Again, urban foot traffic 8-Again, and a crowd gives it the rote action quality.

Dissonance Made Manifest
When a Sleeper struggles with the non-choice she’s been given by reality, it creates internal conflict, and that cycles back into the system. This conflict, this discord between what can and can’t be real, degrades not just her own soul and mind, but also symbols of the Supernal when she is exposed to them. The Awakened call it Dissonance, and it is the brutal aftereffect of the Curse on the magics they attempt to create. Dissonance does not only affect the spells of mages, but any exposure to the Supernal. Worse, it makes Abyssal entities stronger.

At the end of a scene in which a Sleeper witnesses obvious Supernal magic, roll her Integrity as a dice pool, Withstood by the spell’s dots, the Rank of a Supernal entity, or a number set by the Storyteller for other magical phenomena. Dissonance against Demesnes is Withstood by the number of soul stones creating the Demesne. Multiple Sleepers do not roll more than once, but apply a dice trick to the roll in the same way as Paradox rolls.

Dissonance Roll Results:
Dramatic Failure: The phenomenon is unaffected, and Sleeper suffers (an additional) breaking point against Integrity.

Failure: The phenomenon is unaffected.

Success: If the roll achieves successes beyond the phenomenon’s Withstand rating:
• Spells: Each success reduces one spell factor by a level, primary factor last, to a minimum of the lowest level of each factor table. If all factors have been reduced to minimum, any further success destroys the spell.
• Supernal Entities: The entity suffers lethal damage equal to successes.
• Demesnes: The Demesne is suppressed, ceasing to function until no Sleepers have been present for the roll’s successes in weeks.

Exceptional Success: As above, and also;
• Spells: One Reach effect incorporated into the spell is removed.
• Supernal Entities: The damage inflicted is aggravated.
• Demesnes: The Demesne is permanently destroyed. This does not affect the soul stones, which can be used to build a new Demesne.

Legacy Attainments and Emanation Realms are immune to Dissonance. Treat Abyssal beings as Supernal for the dice roll, but they do not Withstand successes and Dissonance heals the roll’s successes in Corpus as well as giving the Abyssal entity successes in points of Essence.


Integrity & Breaking Points
Instead of Wisdom, Sleepers, Sleepwalkers, and Proximi use an Advantage called Integrity which represents the health of their souls and senses of self. Instead of Acts of Hubris, Sleepers risk breaking points when they suffer psychological stress. Witnessing magic is always a breaking point, as is killing another human being; but the Storyteller and players should work together to define a few situations that would constitute a breaking point for each character.

Roll: Characters using Integrity roll Resolve + Composure when they reach a breaking point, with modifiers for high or low Integrity (8–10 gives +2 dice, 7–6 is +1, 3–2 is –1 and 1 is –2) or situational modifiers decided by the Storyteller.

Success/Failure: Whether the character succeeds or fails, reaching a breaking point applies a Condition such as Guilty, Shaken, or Spooked. Failing the roll means the character loses a dot of Integrity.

Dramatic Failure: grants a Beat and changes the Condition to a worse one like Broken, Fugue, or Madness.

Exceptional Success: escapes a negative Condition; the character regains a point of Willpower and takes a Beat instead. Characters at Integrity 1 continue to suffer breaking points but cannot go to Integrity 0. Integrity may be raised after a protracted period of rest (and, potentially, counseling) for 3 Experiences per dot.

Letting Go
Simply put, a Sleeper cannot remember witnessing the Supernal and Abyssal after the fact. If there is grace written into the Curse of Quiescence, it’s here. The mercy of forgetting is bittersweet. It means that the Sleeper protects the Lie and even feeds into it, preventing her own ability to Awaken. The alternative is too awful, though. If she could remember the event, she would be confronted with her conflict and suffer it all over again. This would mean each time she thought about the day, the people, the time, those symbols too painful to understand would cause her to break all over again. Forgetting entirely, or more commonly, self-editing the memories to remove Supernal and Abyssal influence, saves the Sleeper a quick trip to total mental collapse. Those mages who work closely with Sleepers sometimes argue that this forgetting is not a part of the Curse, but the resilient human mind finding a way to survive it.

In the scene directly following exposure to the Supernal or Abyssal, a Sleeper forgets what she saw, or else changes how she remembers it toward the mundane. Any serious attempt to prod at those false memories, bring them into question, or correct them with magic triggers a breaking point as if she were witnessing the traumatic event again for the first time, followed by the memory being removed again.

It is as harrowing in memory is it is in reality; the conflict brought on by the Curse is that powerful. Quiescence, like Dissonance, is not limited to the spells of mages; Sleepers’ memories are also clouded by the interior of ruins of the Time Before, the presence of the Mad, Emanation Realms, and sighting Supernal

Sleeper Merits
The following Merits are meant to facilitate play for Sleeper characters in a Mage game. While many of these Merits might seem designed to pit character against character, recall that mages tend to be a clever bunch. And while a Sleeper who makes Paradox around her worse could be a problem for the Awakened characters, it could be a worse problem for their enemies, if the Sleeper were utilized in the right ways. When using these Merits, always lean toward out of character agreement and cooperation for better stories.

The following merits are approved for immediate play:

Merit: Actively Oblivious (••)
Prerequisites: Integrity, Sleeper Only
You’ve lived a hard life, and long ago learned that sometimes the only way to survive realities that are just too hard to face is to not notice them in the first place. That’s why you can smile while you patch up the hole in the kitchen wall and describe your dad as “strict” rather than abusive. Little do you know, this ability of yours allows you to ignore the greater magical truths of the world as well as the domestic ones.

Effect: By spending a Willpower point during an incident that might cause you to suffer a breaking point, you can actively ignore the event and not have to make the roll. This requires concentration.  This active oblivious state also protects you from “seeing” events that relate to the Supernal. As a result, should you be successfully and actively oblivious, you do not count as a witness to Supernal magics and cannot be a part of a Paradox risk. (Though you do create Dissonance and suffer Quiescence as this cannot be kept up indefinitely.)

Drawback: Whenever you successfully ignore a potential breaking point, you suffer the Strained Condition.


Merit: Communal Sleeper (•)
Prerequisites: Integrity, Sleeper Only, Empathy ••+
You are many. When surrounded by people just like you, you have a presence of personality and self that radiates beyond just yourself and those with whom you share time. You’re a sort of crowd yourself, so long as there’s anyone there to see you be boisterous and approachable.

Effect: When the character is leading, guiding, or otherwise protecting at least one other Sleeper, the dice trick applied to the Paradox dice pool is one step worse (so two or three Sleepers including the character use 8-Again, and light foot traffic uses the rote action quality).


Merit: Detail Oriented (••)
Prerequisites: Integrity, Sleeper Only
A Detail Oriented character can pick up clues and details often missed by those characters who think big or are otherwise caught up in the Supernal.

Effect: Any time an Awakened or Sleepwalker character misses an Investigation- or Perception-based roll, if you attempt it, you get an exceptional success on three successes rather than five.


Merit: Liar (•)
Prerequisites: Integrity, Sleeper Only
Unfortunately, your very being strengthens the Lie. Your soul has been twisted by the Abyss and your presence warps the Supernal.

Effect: A character with this Merit increases Paradox risk around her by two dice instead of one, and adds two dice to Dissonance rolls.

Drawback: The character has the Open Condition against Abyssal entities, and suffers a -1 penalty on breaking point rolls caused by the Abyss.


Merit: Strained (••)
Prerequisite: Integrity 5 or lower, Sleeper Only
You’ve managed to shrug off the mind-bending Truth of the world many times, and for now, you’re holding it together. But you’ve weakened, and may be finding it harder to push things off.

Effect: When faced with an Integrity breaking point based on Supernal or Abyssal effects, you can instead take the Strained Condition.

[Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition] Creative Thaumaturgy

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

Cast a Deadly Spell: Creative Thaumaturgy

My comments are in yellow and are regarding my reviews of the system and my own personal and Storyteller's perspective recommendations for use in our Chronicle. 

Sources: The following text, as written in grey, is straight out of the advanced "beta" version of Mage: The Awakening 2nd edition.  Additional materials edited from Original Posting on April 29^th 2015 by Dave Brookshaw of Onyx Path Publishing as part of Mage 2nd Ed Open Development.

Additional explanation is in this font, when it helps drive the concepts home.

Mage is different to all the other Chronicles 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.

The Wise aren’t limited to the example spells described with the ten Arcana. Within the bounds of their power, mages can conjure nearly any effect they can imagine. The following provides step by step guidelines for creating your own spells.

Step One: Declare Intent
First and foremost, decide exactly what you’re trying to accomplish with your spell. Don’t focus on how the magic will do what you want for now, just focus on what you want it to do. 

I call it "effects-based spell design."

  

Step Two: Determine Arcanum and Practice
Using the descriptions of the ten Arcana beginning and the descriptions of the thirteen Practices, determine which Arcanum and which Practice the spell falls under. Depending on the intent of the spell, this might be obvious, or there might be several ways you could go about accomplishing your intent. Don’t worry about whether the effect seems “too powerful” for its dot level or “unbalanced” compared to a similar effect under a different Arcanum; part of the fun of playing Mage is coming up with clever, unexpectedly-useful applications of magic.

With regards to balance, Practice and Arcana first.  If a spell requires seems too powerful there is always Reach to be applied to extend its narrative or mechanical effects.

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.

 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,

  

Step Three: Determine Effect 
& 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.

Don’t think of the spell examples or practices 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 (covered in a previous blog), not a single spell.

All Mana costs are cumulative. A mage attempting a feat that requires Mana above her Gnosis-derived spending limit may take as many turns as needed before the action to spend the required Mana. If she is interrupted or changes her mind part-way through, Mana spent is still lost.

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.

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.



Errata: We have changed the creative thaumaturgy rules to reflect direct attacks not always being Fraying or Unraveling and Healing not always being Perfecting and Patterning.

 Damage

A spell can deal damage directly, as in the case of a thunderbolt or an enervating touch, or indirectly, as in the case of rotting out a support beam to drop a house on someone.

• Boosting means of direct damage can be a matter of practice of Ruling (••) to affect a sort of "unshielding" effect, an inversion of the protection offered by mage armors.  Making sure an item is more breakable, making sure bullets fly faster, cuts more deadly, matter more explosive.  All arcana can do something to add damage dealt by weapons or fists can all be accomplished with the practice of Ruling.

• Direct damage spells are usually either Fraying (•••) or Unraveling (••••), and inflict damage equal to their Potency factor.

• Fraying spells inflict bashing damage, while Unraveling spells inflict lethal damage.

• An Unraveling spell may be upgraded to aggravated damage for the cost of a point of Mana and one Reach.

Spells that deal damage indirectly aren’t subject to these limits: A spell that causes a roaring bonfire to spread and consume the victim inflicts the standard damage for exposure to fire.

Healing
Much like damage in reverse, instant-healing spells are usually Perfecting (•••) or Patterning (••••) spells. A Ruling (••) spell can boost a subject’s natural healing time.

• A Ruling spell can halve the subject’s normal recovery time for its Duration, or quarter it with a Reach.

• Perfecting spells heal bashing damage or repair inanimate objects.

• Patterning spells heal lethal damage. If an inanimate object is completely destroyed rather than merely broken, it may require a Patterning spell to fix.

• A Patterning healing spell can repair aggravated damage instead of lethal at the cost of one point of Mana and a Reach.

Mana Costs
While this section discusses a variety of effects that require Mana costs, here’s a convenient, collected reminder of all spellcasting effects that cost Mana:

• Each improvised spell (not Praxes or Rotes) outside Ruling Arcana costs a point of Mana.

• Many Attainments require Mana or are more efficient with its use.

• Spells that directly call upon the perfection of the Supernal Realms require a point of Mana.
This includes the following effects:

1. Indefinite Duration
2. Inflicting aggravated damage
3. Healing aggravated damage
4. Granting the Rote Action Quality
5. Granting automatic success or failure
6. Boosting Traits beyond the subject’s maximum rating or altering that rating

All Mana costs are cumulative. A mage attempting a feat that requires Mana above her Gnosis-derived spending limit may take as many turns as needed before the action to spend the required
Mana. If she is interrupted or changes her mind part-way through, Mana spent is still lost.

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 Soulless Condition and its sequels or Manifestation Conditions, generally require a Weaving (•••) spell.

• Creating a Persistent Condition is almost always a Patterning (••••) or Unraveling (••••) effect.

• Spells most often inflict Conditions that harm, hinder, or inconvenience characters. Spells can mimic the effects of a helpful Condition, but using magic to gain a benefit and a Beat is double-dipping. Beneficial Conditions created by magic don’t grant Beats unless they’re the result of an

exceptional success.

• 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.

Bonuses/Penalties

Spells that grant bonus dots to traits can belong to nearly any Practice, depending on what the Trait represents. Obvious examples include Perfecting for directly increasing the Attributes and Skills of a target, but a Ruling spell to make a corpse rise up and serve you can be modeled as a spell that grants you Retainer dots.

• Increasing a Skill or Merit is typically a Ruling (••) spell. Attributes can be increased by a Perfecting (•••) spell.

• Spells that grant or increase equipment bonuses count as Trait bonuses. This also applies to spells that simply increase a dice pool.

• A spell can grant a total number of Trait dots equal to its Potency. Advantages, such as Gnosis or a vampire’s Blood Potency, cannot be granted by spells, nor can supernatural abilities like Arcana or Disciplines.

• Any spell that increases a Trait beyond the target’s natural maximum costs a point of Mana. Remember that high-Gnosis mages and other supernatural creatures may have Trait maximums higher than 5. The “Trait maximum” for an equipment bonus is always +5.

• Trait dots granted by magic last only as long as the spell’s Duration, and are not subject to the Sanctity of Merits rule.

Dice Effects

• A Ruling (••) spell can grant the 9-Again rule to a dice pool of relevant actions, or 8-Again with one Reach.

• A Perfecting (•••) spell can grant the rote action quality at the cost of one point of Mana.

• The spell affects one roll per point of Potency. If the spell’s Duration expires before the Potency is used up, any excess Potency is lost.

Protection

Most commonly with the Practice of Shielding (••), a spell may grant protection from forces under the Arcanum’s purview. These spells usually provide blanket immunity to natural or mundane phenomena, while protecting against a number of supernatural attacks equal to the spell’s Potency. Such attacks must win a Clash of Wills to affect the target.

Hiding

Veiling (••) spells render the target undetectable to certain phenomena or types of beings. This stealth is fully effective against ordinary senses, and provokes a Clash of Wills against mystical detection attempts.

Narrative Effects

This is a catch-all category for spell effects that influence the fiction of the game but don’t interact directly with the mechanics. Things like walking through walls, shaping clay into a statue, or transmuting one substance into another fall under this category.

• Most narrative effects will care less for Potency than for Scale, Range, and other spell factors. However, if the effect could have varying degrees of success (consider trying to calm a hurricane: There’s a whole range of possibilities between “nothing happens” and “a dead calm”), the Storyteller should establish Potency requirements. The guidelines for determining the number of successes required on an extended action provide a good rule of thumb.

• Making a spell Lasting always costs +2 Reach, but you should think carefully before allowing it — only spells without any way to revert them should have the option.

And 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 resolve the Condition.

Step Four: Determine Withstand Trait

Spells that directly target a subject’s body, mind, or soul are usually Withstood by one of the subject’s Resistance Attributes. Spells that cross the Gauntlet are Withstood by the local Gauntlet Strength. Other spells might be Withstood by more esoteric values.

Look at the intended subject of your spell. Is it something that could “fight back” against the magic, or is there something that seems like it would require the mage to put more effort than usual into the spell? If so, that’s the value that Withstands it. Living (or undead) subjects usually Withstand spells with Stamina (for physical transformations or afflictions), Resolve (for attempted mind control or other mental effects), or Composure (for emotional manipulation or effects that target sanity, perception, or the soul).

Ephemeral entities Withstand spells with their Rank. Supernatural beings like mages, vampires, or demons do not add their Supernatural Tolerance trait to Withstand a spell. Spells are only resisted or contested if some supernatural power would interfere with the mage’s ability to form an Imago,

such as Countermagic. Spells that inflict direct damage with the Practices of Fraying and Unraveling are never Withstood; the subject’s Stamina is already factored in by virtue of the subject’s Health.

“I Turn Him Into a Frog!”

You may have noticed with this system that it’s much easier for a mage to incapacitate an enemy

by, say, putting him to sleep or charming him into ignoring the caster than by fighting him. That’s intentional — but what about when it comes to directly killing someone with magic? Surely a Master of Death can snuff out a life with a glance, and if an Adept of Life can’t turn someone into a

frog, what good is she?

• Patterning (••••) spells can transform a living target into something harmless (or even inanimate), but such magic is never Lasting. It can be pushed up to Indefinite Duration, but there’s always a chance the spell can be broken.
• Certain Unmaking (•••••) spells can slay a target with a single casting, or neutralize them permanently, but even then, the spell is always Withstood by the target’s relevant Resistance Attribute.

 Step Five: Primary Factor

Determine which Factor is the Primary Factor. This is either Potency or Duration, with the rule of thumb of “whichever Factor you immediately think of when you think of a more powerful version of the spell.” 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 Six: Cast the Spell

At this point you’re done creating your new spell; refer to the spellcasting rules to cast it!

[Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition] Spell Considerations & Magical Practices

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

 Spellcasting Considerations

& The 13 Supernal Practices

My comments are in yellow and are regarding my reviews of the system and my own personal and Storyteller's perspective recommendations for use in our Chronicle. 

Sources: The following text, as written in grey, is straight out of the advanced "beta" version of Mage: The Awakening 2nd edition.  

Additional explanation is in this font, when it helps drive the concepts home.

General Spellcasting Considerations:

Down and Dirty Spellcasting

Sometimes characters desire to cast spells or create effects that should be easy and require little risk or effort from the mage. Often these spells are effects that the mage creates on a regular basis, and the risk of failure is small and has little to no impact on the drama of the story. Determining spell factor penalties and Yantra bonuses for these kinds of spells is cumbersome. In these cases, just have players roll Gnosis + Arcanum. Success on the roll equals a successful casting. If the player wanted to affect multiple subjects, or create a large effect with the spellcasting, then the number of success may determine the number of subjects or the size of an area affected by the spell effect.

For example, if a mage wanted to revive all the dead roses in a garden, she could roll Gnosis + Life and each success would equal a 5 meter radius of revived roses.

Clash of Wills

Sometimes, two supernatural powers clearly oppose one another. If the normal systems for the powers fail to resolve this, such as when a mage attempts to observe an effect with his Mage Sight that another has placed under a protective veil, there is a Clash of Wills.  In the case of spellcasting and counterspells each mage rolls off using a pool of Gnosis + Arcanum. Other supernatural beings have Clash of Wills dice pools specified in their own rules. Ties reroll until one player has accrued more success than all others. The effect invoked by that player’s character wins out and resolves as usual, while all others fail. Victory of one power in a clash does not mean the immediate cancellation

of the others, save in cases where only one power can possibly endure. If the winning spell in a Clash between two spells runs out of Duration before the other does, the losing spell will take effect when the winner is removed.

Mages may spend Willpower to bolster the contested roll, and are always aware when their spells are clashing. Spells with Advanced Durations and Potency are more enduring in a Clash. Day-long spells add +1 die to the Clash roll, weeklong spells add +2, month-long +3, and year-long and indefinite  effects add +4. Advanced Potency adds +1 die.

Dispellation

Sometimes mages encounter spell effects that remain in the world long after the caster is gone and wish to remove them with their own magic. Dispellation is itself a spell, with the target spell as its subject. 

Countermagic

Mages may wish to prevent spellcasting when they witness it,  instead of waiting to dispel the effect later.  See the Attainment for details on its use.

Casting During Combat

A mage casting a spell at standard range must successfully touch her subject. See “Touching an Opponent” rules. Mages taking multiple turns to cast a spell (usually because they are utilizing Yantras or spending more Mana than their Gnosis allows) still apply Defense against attacks but may not make combat actions unless another rule such as the Adamant Hand Merit allows it.

Casting During a Grapple

Mages can cast spells in a single turn without making any outward sign. A mage in a grapple (whether he initiated it or not) can cast a spell whether he wins the grapple check for the turn or not, but suffers a –3 penalty to the spellcasting roll if he lost. Mages in a grapple cannot employ any Yantras involving movement, but if the grapple was initiated part-way through casting a spell, any Yantras the caster has already spent turns incorporating into the spell have their full effect. 

Spell Stacking

When multiple spells affect the same aspect of a character the effects of the spells do not stack, and instead the spell with the highest Potency takes effect. For example, a character benefiting from a spell that grants her +1 Strength casts a spell that grants her +3 Strength. The original spell with +1 Strength is suppressed for the Duration of the new spell. Both spell’s durations continue to lapse, though only the highest Potency spell is active.

Spell Control (Determined by Gnosis)

Once a spell is cast, the mage can do very little to alter it. She cannot increase the spell factors short of canceling the spell and recasting it, though she can restrict its effects by reducing factors such as Potency, Duration, or Scale. As an instant action, the mage can reduce the factors of one of her spells in any way she chooses, but although she can reduce the number of subjects if the spell used that form of Scale, all spell factors must still apply equally to all subjects – she can’t weaken a spell for a specific individual without further magic. A mage may cancel any of her active spells as a reflexive action.

Also remember that Sleepwalkers have the unique ability to hold spells for you!

Limits to Spell Control - A mage can have as many active spells as she has dots in Gnosis. Each additional spell requires a Reach, plus another Reach per spell already over the limit. 

Partial Relinquishment (Willpower Point)- A mage may relinquish a spell, removing it from the spells counting against her Gnosis without canceling it. The player can spend a Willpower point to leave the spell as though cast by another mage. Without maintenance from the caster, the spell may go awry if left for very long periods. At the beginning of every chapter, the Storyteller rolls one die for every Reach the spell used above the caster’s free Reach, or a chance die if it was within her limits. A dramatic failure means the spell skips the roll for the next chapter; success grants the Storyteller a Reach as though the spell had gained a Paradox; and an exceptional success ends the spell, canceling its remaining Duration.

Stable Relinquishment (Willpower Dot) - Instead of risking the spell going wrong, the player may spend a Willpower dot to relinquish the spell safely. In this case, the spell continues until its Duration runs down or it is dispelled. Most mages only relinquish indefinite spells, as relinquishing safely is extremely taxing. Relinquishing unsafely is illegal in many Consilia, or at least seen as grossly negligent. When a mage dies, all of her spells are immediately relinquished as though the player spent a Willpower point.

The Prices of Power and alternate methods of releasing a spell still work as written in the Tome of the Mysteries sourcebook provided the mages meet the prerequisites.  They act as spells temporarily cast upon the original spell in order to tie it off.  Once the spell is relinquished the spell used to perform this alternate means of release expires.

Combined Spells

The Arcanum descriptions explain discrete spells and their effects. Sometimes, a mage wants more than one of these spell effects to take place in a single casting. The result is called a combined spell. The main advantage of a combined spell is that it counts as a single spell toward the total spells a mage can have active, and all its effects activate simultaneously. Mages can combine a number of spells determined by Gnosis (two at Gnosis 3, three at Gnosis 6, and four at Gnosis 9) together

into a single casting. Rotes cannot be combined, but Praxes can if the caster has all of the spells being combined as Praxes

To cast a combined spell, the mage’s base dice pool is her Gnosis + lowest Arcanum of the spells cast; this pool suffers a –2 penalty for each additional spell over the first. Combined Spell's dice pool rolls with lowest Arcanum dots -2 (for each additional effect), Reach based on the highest Arcanum.

For example, a mage with Gnosis 4 would cast a combined Mind 3, Forces 4 spell at Gnosis 4 + Mind 3 – 2.

Errata: You get one set of free Reach determined as normal. If you spend Reach to alter a spell factor, it gets altered for all the spells within the combined spell, but additional Reach effects in a spell's listing must be bought separately. Spell stacking applies if the constituent spells affect the same thing, which even affects instantaneous results like damage - you can't combine two attack spells to do two sets of damage, but you can combine two attack spells to do one set of damage and spend reach on two different secondary effects those attack spells might have.
Spell modifications such as Yantras and spell factors affect the entire spellcasting pool and spell effects. Multiple spell effects must use the same scale unless the mage uses a Reach to separate the effects. Roll results are the same as single-cast spells.

There is no longer a system for Conjunctive Arcana.  As long as you are using your understanding in one Arcana (almost always a minimum of 2 dots) to weave a spell to accomplish a single effect this is simply a spell of the primary Arcanum simply written to accept slightly different inputs and outputs.

Game Hack: However!  When it comes to conjuctive Spellcasting, after an additional Arcana is incorporated, each additional Arcana that is added requires the willworker to choose the cost of adding in more spell complexity from the following list:
- A point of Mana
- An additional Reach
- The spell takes a -2 spell factor penalty.
The caster is free to mix and match.  For example, when Jack Bismuth creates a Ban that incorporates all 10 Arcana he must pay the costs above for the additional 8 Arcana that are built into the spell Conjuctively.  This should not be confused with with Combined spellcasting as there is only one spell effect in a Conjuctive spell, its just designed to affect phenomena outside of its purview.

Teamwork

Mages may work together towards a common goal for spellcasting. This is handled like any other action where characters combine their efforts. The mages involved in the spellcasting must all have at least one dot in the Arcanum required to cast the spell, while the leader must have the required Arcanum rating to cast it himself. If the leader knows the spell as a Praxis or Rote, the spell gains the benefits of those methods. Any secondary caster who meets the Arcanum requirements rolls her own casting and adds her successes as bonus dice to the leader. If a secondary caster does not meet the Arcanum requirements, she rolls Gnosis (no Arcanum) with a –3 penalty, and provides any successes as bonus dice to the leader. Each participant must roll for Paradox separately; if any one of the casters releases a Paradox instead of containing it, it affects the entire spell. Mages without the Arcanum used at all, Sleepwalkers, and Proximi may also assist in the casting, but do not roll. Instead, the casters may use their participation in the ritual as an environment Yantra.

The Thirteen
 Magical Practices

Mages divide the art of magic into thirteen Practices of increasing complexity. Demonstrating their expertise with these methodologies is how mages claim rank and privilege: A Thyrsus who has demonstrated the ability to cast Spirit Unmaking spells has earned the right to call herself a Master, for example. When they require further gradation, mages specify the number of Arcana they have achieved their highest rank in: if the same Thyrsus also successfully casts a Life Making spell she may call herself a second-degree Master.

One Dot: Initiate O

1. Practice of Knowing - Gain knowledge and understanding of phenomena.

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.

2. Practice of Compelling - Elementary manipulation of phenomena, enough to activate and/or impart direction.

Compelling spells nudge a preferred but possible outcome into reality. 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.

3. Practice of Unveiling - Gain sensory perception of phenomena

Unveiling spells expose hidden things to the mage’s 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).

   Two Dots: Apprentice OO

     4. Practice of Ruling - Exert elementary command and control over phenomena

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 target’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.

5. Practice of Veiling - Conceal, camouflage or hide phenomena from scrutiny

Veiling spells are twofold: Firstly, they can conceal things under the Arcanum’s purview from detection: A target can be made to lose all sense of time (Time), a fire’s heat and light can be hidden from view (Forces), or a building made all but impossible to notice (Matter). Secondly, they can conceal a target 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.

6. Practice of Shielding - Protect a target against attacks by providing defenses and armors

      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.

   Three Dots: Disciple OOO

     7. Practice of Weaving -  Alter the capabilities or functions of phenomena

     Weaving spells can alter nearly any property of a target 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), and so on.

     8. Practice of Fraying - Injure or weaken a target

      
      Fraying spells degrade things, weakening them and enhancing their flaws. Fraying spells can weaken targets 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 targets using the energies of the Arcanum: inflicting damage via the chill of the grave (Death), psychic overload (Mind), or a blast of electricity (Forces). Damage inflicted by a direct-attack Fraying spell is always bashing.

9. Practice of Perfecting - Fortify, bolster or improve phenomena

      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).

   Four Dots: Adept OOOO

      10. Practice of Patterning - Transform phenomena into a related phenomena or shapes, or replace capabilities or functions with different ones.

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 target) into an animal (Life), or she can teleport by “rewriting” her own location (Space). A spell that transforms the target 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 the destination Arcanum.

11. Practice of Unraveling - Seriously mutilate or weaken a target

      Unraveling 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), or 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 Unraveling attack is lethal, but can be upgraded to aggravated by spending a point of Mana and one Reach.

   Five Dots: Master OOOOO

     12. Practice of Making - Create Phenomena from nothing

      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).

13. Practice of Unmaking - Destroy or annihilate a target  

      Unmaking spells annihilate subjects under the Arcanum’s purview entirely. Life can be snuffed like a candle (Life), two locations can be forced into each other by destroying the 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 target altogether.

   There is more than one way to skin a cat...

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 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.

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