|
 pre:============= RAQUEL FABARA ============= * Virtue: Justice * Vice: Taking risks * Daeva -Dexterity, Manipulation -Celerity, Majesty, Vigor -Regain no WP from rest without satisfying Vice on previous night ========== ATTRIBUTES ========== MENTAL PHYSICAL SOCIAL ------ -------- ------ Intelligence: 2 Strength: 3 Presence: 3 Wits: 3 Dexterity: 3 Manipulation: 2 Resolve: 3 Stamina: 3 Composure: 3 ====== SKILLS ====== MENTAL (-3 Unskilled) PHYSICAL (-1 Unskilled) SOCIAL (-1 Unskilled) ------ -------- ------ Academics: 2 Athletics: 4 Animal Ken: 1 Computer: 0 Brawl: 3 Empathy: 1 Crafts: 3 Drive: 1 Expression: 3 Investigation: 0 Firearms: 0 Intimidation: 0 Medicine: 0 Larceny: 3 Persuasion: 2 Occult: 0 Stealth: 2 Socialize: 2 Politics: 1 Survival: 0 Streetwise: 2 Science: 1 Weaponry: 0 Subterfuge: 1 SPECIALTIES ----------- * Athletics: Urban Environments * Brawl: Unarmed Striking * Craft: Graffiti * Streetwise: Cops ========== ADVANTAGES ========== MERITS ------ 1: Contacts (Urban artists) 1: Destiny (Bane: Gotta Speed Up) 1: Direction Sense 1: Herd (College friends) 1: Language (English) 2: Danger Sense 2: Fast Reflexes 2: Fighting Style (Unarmed Striking) 3: Fleet of Foot BASE DERIVED TRAITS ------------------- * Health: 7 * Willpower: 6 * Initiative: 9 * Defense: 7 HUMANITY: 4 -------- * Intimacies: gaggle of college buddies, immediate family ========= VAMPIRISM ========= BLOOD POTENCY: 1 ----------- * 10 maximum Vitae, spend up to 1 per turn * Derive sustenance from animal, human, and vampire blood * 9 maximum dice during the day before modifiers * Celerity 3 (1V/turn for +3 initiative, +3 dice on Defense and similar rolls w/ 2 min successes, quadruple ground speed) * Vigor 2 (1V/turn for +2 Strength, triple jump distance) ============================ EXPERIENCE POINT EXPENDITURE ============================ Current XP: 0, 30 Spent 03: Science 0 -> 1 06: Socialize 2- > 3 15: Celerity 2 -> 3 03: Brawl (Unarmed Striking) 06: Fighting Style (Unarmed Striking) 0 -> 2 ============== CURRENT STATUS (Dalu/Gauru/Urshul/Urhan) ============== * Health: [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] * Destiny: 1/1 * Willpower: 6/6 * Vitae: 10/10, 1/turn * Crisis of Conscience: STATUS EFFECTS -------------- COMBAT STATISTICS ----------------- * Initiative: 8 (+3 w/ Celerity) * Brawl: 9B (10B w/ Vigor) * Fangs: 6L (8L w/ Vigor) * Defense: 6 (9 and 2 min successes w/ Celerity) RESISTANCE DICEPOOLS -------------------- * Stamina: 4 dice * Resolve: 4 dice * Composure: 4 dice OTHER DICEPOOLS --------------- * Athletics: 7 dice (8 in urban environments) * Perception: 6 Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Aug 9, 2013 |
#
?
Aug 9, 2013 02:05
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 13:20 |
|
|
Session 00: Liberty City Stories Session 01: Welcome to Miami (Bienvenido a Miami) Log: http://pastebin.com/DJzDyG4R Summary: http://pastebin.com/5PwM7krB Not sure how I'm going to do XP, but I really don't want people becoming fjord-level elders super-quick. For now, 2 XP for the first session. edit: Added a barebones summary of every character's known status after Session 1. Going to keep doing those as a much as possible, as much for my benefit as yours. Crion fucked around with this message at 10:40 on Aug 11, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 10:24
|
|
|
quote:Sheriff Fergal O'Bannon quote:Deputy Aleksy Radulov quote:Deputy Nadia d'Arnaud quote:Deputy Preston Claybourne quote:Spooker These are the current non-PC members of the court's Sheriff's Department, since a number of PCs will be interacting with them Crion fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Aug 11, 2013 |
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2013 19:30
|
|
|
Session 02: The Future Is Uncertain and the End is Always Near Log: http://pastebin.com/BEZnz3eK Notes: http://pastebin.com/6CCJgPMV 2 XP. 4 XP total.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2013 09:30
|
|
|
Session 03: The Thin White Duke Log: http://pastebin.com/PHZBUkVL Status: http://pastebin.com/JVVvLwCj New XP scheme: XP are for use on attributes, skills, mundane merits, specialties--anything not specifically native to the Vampire game line. VXP are for use on disciplines, blood potency, supernatural merits--anything vampires get to buy by dint of being vampires. The standard rate of gain will be a baseline 2XP per session with more XP and VXP awarded at my discretion. 2XP awarded, 6XP total. 1VXP awarded, 1VXP total.
|
|
#
?
Aug 25, 2013 11:32
|
|
|
Session 49 Completed - There Is Always A Greater Power 230 XP total.
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2013 06:05
|
|
|
Session 03 Vignette: Joy Log: http://pastebin.com/8DNpzhpN
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2013 23:18
|
|
|
Session 04: Love You Till Tuesday Log: http://pastebin.com/QZmFv9LQ Notes: http://pastebin.com/TcPChWGR 2 XP awarded, 8 XP total. 0 VXP awarded, 1 VXP total.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2013 11:02
|
|
|
Session 50 Completed - First Blood's Brother 230 XP total.
|
|
#
?
Sep 5, 2013 05:31
|
|
|
Session 05: Night Takes Bishop Log: http://pastebin.com/uM8vb4Uh Status: http://pastebin.com/7t0RYwRf 2 XP awarded, 10 XP total. 1 VXP awarded, 2 VXP total. No game next week, as I will be out of town. I'll be able to do vignettes to explore things/tie other things up, however. Game resumes on the 21st. I'm wondering how people are liking the game so far, specifically how I storytell it--I feel I'm dragging players to patented Crion NPC talkfests far, far too often, and it's forcing people to be less players and more readers that hit Scroll Down to continue with the story. I think it would be best, with that in mind, if for the next few sessions we disengaged from the Plot a little bit and let people sort of come to grips with being in Miami/their new covenant.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2013 10:45
|
|
|
Session 06: Blood on the Asphalt Log: http://pastebin.com/0VJhe1Jf Notes: http://pastebin.com/v9rmBgj8 XP rewards are increasing temporarily as part of my attempt to get you up to the level where I should have started you. Not permanent, may end any time. 4 XP awarded, 14 XP total 2 VXP awarded, 4 VXP total
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2013 10:59
|
|
|
Session 51 Completed - Anna's Problem 230 XP total. Session 52 Completed - An Infinite And Stupefying Form 230 XP total.
|
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2013 05:41
|
|
|
Vignette: Ashley and Joy Log: http://pastebin.com/CVvX4FJ4 2 XP rewarded, 16 XP total 1 VXP rewarded, 5 VXP total
|
|
#
?
Sep 19, 2013 07:53
|
|
|
Session 07: Night Out I'll post the log here in a bit. 5 XP awarded, 21 XP total. 1 VXP awarded, 6 VXP total.
|
|
#
?
Sep 23, 2013 01:24
|
|
|
Session 53 Completed - In Babel's Halls A Caterwaul 230 XP total. Rewards: * Brand of Helios * The Beast (Mobile Haven Size ****, Security **, Vehicle **) - Break on through to the Other Side: A werewolf within the Beast may spend 1 essence and make an extended Step Sideways roll (Intelligence+Presence+Primal Urge) with target successes equal to 5 + Gauntlet Rating. On accumulated successes, the RV pushes through the Gauntlet, ending up on the far side of it. Failure means the roll cannot be attempted again for 1 scene.
|
|
#
?
Sep 26, 2013 05:14
|
|
|
Session 08: A River In Egypt Log: http://pastebin.com/UL61ewaS Status: http://pastebin.com/j0HrYAqk 4 XP awarded, 25 XP total. 2 VXP awarded, 8 VXP total. edit: Session 07 log http://pastebin.com/JSX9NuZu Crion fucked around with this message at 10:52 on Sep 29, 2013 |
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2013 10:47
|
|
|
Session 54 Completed - Nothing Gold Can Stay 230 XP total. Rewards: * Lyle's Vial (contains the heartsblood of Lyle Davies, Gilded Master of Bloody Terror) * Lyle's Laptop (contains tests and procedures for the covenant and Chrysalis, as well as a complete 65,000 word speculative fiction novel written by Lyle, entitled Mag Itha's Sons) * $60,000 USD worth of Bitcoins * $8,500 worth of computer parts * Lots of Ordo Dracul secrets * Toys and games for children (Nick; Reuben)
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2013 06:47
|
|
|
Attorney at Funk posted:* $60,000 USD worth of Bitcoins Truly, a bounty more valuable than XP.
|
|
#
?
Oct 3, 2013 07:03
|
|
|
Session 09: Cardinal Autumn Log: http://pastebin.com/j5enTZr6 Status: http://pastebin.com/RVYxpQfe 4 XP awarded, 29 XP total. 1 VXP awarded, 9 VXP total. As a bonus, here's a list of all the important changelings that are publicly known in the Miami Freehold, and important title/biographical information about them: http://pastebin.com/X85dax4t
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2013 08:53
|
|
|
Session 55 Completed - A Pleasure To Burn 230 XP total.
|
|
#
?
Oct 10, 2013 04:22
|
|
|
Story 2 Completed - Prosperity Gospel Story rewards: * ??? Session 56 Completed - Pandora's Box Mystery 2 XP gained. 232 XP total. Part of the new XP paradigm will be giving you a little XP every session you can spend on "whatever", which will let you save up for stuff that plot rewards might not cover or smooth out plot reward purchases. The amount per session is deliberately small in order to calibrate against the big lump sum plot rewards, but this calibration will be an ongoing process, requiring feedback from my beloved pals, and also Ferrinus.
|
|
#
?
Oct 24, 2013 04:46
|
|
|
MOROS ARCANA Creation ever grows and changes, and the Moros rule what remains. To walk the Path of Doom is to see all things for the empty shells they'll leave behind. THE DEATH ARCANUM Purview: corpses, decay, ectoplasm, entropy, ghosts, shadows, souls, Twilight, the underworld Overview: Death, the subtle Arcanum of Stygia, holds dominion over irreversible transition. Death transforms totally and completely, ending the old to make room for the new. When light gutters out to leave darkness, when wood decays to leave detritus, and when breath flees the body to leave a corpse in its wake, the power of Death is at work. Death is a process that occurs in response to pre-existing states of affairs. It's not the dagger through someone's throat, but the transformation that dagger's interruption of blood flow brings about : the transmutation of vibrant life to still matter and the release of the soul from the body. In the Fallen World, Death is always at work and yet constantly stalled or perverted. Undead bodies and unquiet ghosts exist in all corners of the world, sometimes even at the behest of mortals. Death magic manipulates the capacity to die and the results of having died. Death can't actually be undone - that's the whole point - but its causes can be investigated, its byproducts controlled, and its consequences warped or suspended. Much of what's commonly understood as necromancy consists not of empowering Death but of subverting it, causing flesh to rot prematurely or to animate postmortem by interfering with the cosmic principles that separate the living from the dead. Only a living Pattern - one with a unique, continuous identity that doesn't persist through that Pattern's destruction and reassembly - is metaphysically able to die rather than simply break or unravel. Humans, animals, plants, and many supernatural creatures are receptive to the decay, preservation, or reanimation that Death can inflict directly. Shadow spirits, astral thoughtforms, and similarly ephemeral and immortal creatures aren't directly subject to Death magic, and neither are totally imperishable or inorganic substances such as metal or stone. It takes a Master of Death to slay machines, spirits, and other inert or abstract targets. Death magic also manipulates ephemeral phenomena produced by loss and endings: shadows, ghosts, ectoplasm, and the Twilight reflections of destroyed objects. By summoning and strengthening such otherworldly substances, Death spells can lend solidity and coherence even to crumbling skeletons or faint shadows. Since Death naturally frees souls from bodies, Death magic can steal, transfer, and even destroy human souls, though not even Masters can make headway against the souls of supernatural creatures. Aspects: Sensory Death magic reveals death's origins and activities. Spells can identify causes of death, affinity for death, and capacity for death. Casters can also perceive ghosts, souls, and other deathly ephemera. Covert Death magic can slow or hasten rot and infirmity or subtly alter shadows, corpses, and other deathly materials. It can enable material objects and creatures to interact with undead creatures or Twilight objects, though attempts to climb phantom buildings or wrestle with ghosts usually provoke Disbelief. Covert Death magic can also directly manipulate ghosts, ectoplasm, souls, and other deathly phenomena, as well as harvest and channel the life-force and magical power loosed when things meet their ends. Vulgar Death magic can manifest Death as a tangible force, necrotizing flesh, crumbling matter, or dissipating ephemera. It can suspend Death's effects to animate dead bodies or delay the consequences of mortal wounds. It can solidify, reshape, or destroy ghosts, lend physical substance to shadows, and translate material beings and objects into twilight ephemera. Vulgar magic is required to do direct and lasting violence to the human soul, whether to sever, destroy, reappropriate or consume it. Mechanics: Death's abstract effects are resisted by Gnosis plus Composure, while direct damage contests Gnosis plus Stamina. Ghosts oppose magical manipulation with Resistance plus Rank. The attacks of solid shadows or undead minions are contested by Defense. Death spells usually boost or hinder actions by conjuring entities or phenomena that perform those actions along with the caster or on the caster's behalf, so a single sustained Death spell can simultaneously inflict damage, blockade movement, and tear down barricades just by its physical presence. The effects of such Death spells are subject to mundane physical attack. Minions, whether created or enslaved, don't do much beyond boost, hinder, and attack while idly sustained; an instant action is required to guide zombies through complex orders, force a ghost to use its numina, or otherwise command the full-fledged instant action of another character. Ghosts and other beings so controlled usually can't do anything but struggle on their own turns. Death magic often allows for the use of damage factors which reap Mana or Willpower in proportion to lethal or aggravated damage dealt. These only function on living beings, including spirits, vampires, and other supernatural creatures with appetites and states of health. Used on animals, such magic merely eliminates the need for ceremony during the blood sacrifice all mages can perform, and cannot generate Willpower. Humans and supernatural creatures only yield Mana or Willpower when they mark lethal or aggravated wounds in health boxes containing bashing or nothing at all, and if killed by such magic yield further Mana as though ceremonially sacrificed on the spot. When rendered down, a soul yields points of Mana and Willpower equal to the Morality (or equivalent trait) its owner had at the time of separation, and also restores a lost Willpower dot. Death magic can control and transform ghosts directly. It can seize control of zombies, revenants, and other undead consisting of reanimated or puppeteered bodies. Vampires, prometheans, and other complex supernatural creatures might have deathly qualities that Death magic can analyze, but can't be controlled by Death alone. Since they can die, they can be often adversely affected in the same way that normal living creatures can.
A mage can use an instant action to force a ghost under their control to deploy one of its powers, but must pay the Willpower cost of that power themselves and completely cover the power's Essence cost through the Potency of the spell of control. All ghosts have Bans and Banes. Forcing a ghost to subject itself to its Bane is treated as a direct damage spell and requires appropriate damage factors. Ghosts can't be compelled to contravene their Bans; the best a mage can do is to ritually reconstruct a ghost into a new being with a new Ban. Twilight: Death magic can reach and control the state of Twilight occupied by the intangible remains of tangible things, whether the ghosts of people or the ghosts of buildings. Other incorporeal presences such as spirits are composed of radically different ephemera and can't normally interact with or even perceive Death's Twilight purviews. It takes both Arcana in conjunction to allow ghosts to interact with spirits or to create beings or objects tangible to both. Death magic can translate physical things into Twilight or materialize Twilight ghosts and objects, and can affect Twilight targets while the caster is corporeal or vice versa. Things rendered incorporeal aren't in Death's purview the same way that ghosts or phantom buildings are; a brick shunted into Twilight is still subject to Matter, although a mage would need to be able to perceive and interact with it before they could affect it magically. Interactions between physical and Twilight characters are always reciprocal - mages who reach magically from one state to the other become visible and tangible to the other for at least a turn, and a tool or weapon's physical or Twilight presence bleeds out to suffuse its owner when that tool is put to use. Paradox: Mild Death paradoxes can simulate or provoke ghostly activity, slow or hasten normal rot or wear, and distort local shadows. Severe paradoxes might unleash frenzied corpses, cause Twilight to bleed into the physical world, or outright slay all living beings in the vicinity. INITIATE OF DEATH (●) Initiates can mark Death's potential and passing in both senses of the word. They can perceive and communicate with ghosts and detect undead creatures. Spells of this level can provide a sensory boost on rolls to detect or track creatures touched by death or find and exploit flaws and weak points in the targets of demolition or violence. Knowing Death reveals death's causes, effects, and parameters. Organic remains can be analyzed to determine how they fell to ruin. The specific relation to death of an object or person can be scrutinized, revealing how recently a weapon was used to kill or how frequently a paramedic has saved lives. Knowing can determine whether and how something can die, drawing a mage's attention to structural weaknesses or vital organs. Knowing also analyzes necromancy and the undead, providing insights with each scrutiny success into the nature of thanatoic phenomena. Knowing can also reveal the qualities and dimensions of shadows, potentially pinpointing unseen objects by the hollows they leave in their surrounding darkness.
Apprentices can trigger and direct death's appearance, operation, and consequences. By hastening rot and decomposition, they can destroy aspects of the environment in potentially hazardous ways, but the damage of such attacks on living bystanders isn't a function of spell potency and is adjudicated by the Storyteller in the usual fashion. They can control and empower a ghost's uses of Manifestations, providing temporary Essence. Faced with an already dying subject, an Apprentice can hasten the end with direct lethal damage or delay final death despite mounting wounds. Ruling Death bids death to act with unnatural haste or direction. Dead bodies, rotting wood, and other things already decomposing can be crumbled in seconds. Dying creatures, whether suffering from age, disease, or mortal injury, can be pushed over the brink with direct lethal damage. Ghosts can be forced to use or release Manifestations, while zombies and revenants can be suppressed into temporary inactivity. The living and dead alike can be caused to exude ectoplasm tangible to both; this inflicts a bashing wound or consumes a point of the subject's Mana or Essence, as the subject prefers, but allows for interaction and artisanal collaboration. Together with Signifying, Ruling Death can force the ban or bane of a ghost into prominence; usually, it manifests symbolically in ectoplasm or the effects of the targeted ghosts' active Numina.
Disciples can twist the line between life and death, bleeding Twilight into the physical world and stirring the dead to activity. Disciple spells can deal direct bashing damage to or completely control ghosts, or boost ghosts' actions and resistances. Sacrificial Mana can be collected from dying creatures instantly. Disciples can inflict direct lethal or aggravated damage on the living, but only of a kind a target already suffers from, and such damage fades at the end of the scene if it doesn't kill the target outright. Disciples can inefficiently transfer aggravated wounds between targets, downgrading one subject's aggravated to lethal while either upgrading lethal wounds to aggravated or creating new aggravated wounds for the recipient. They can use damage factors to reap Mana or Willpower through lethal or aggravated damage, either in conjunction with a damaging spell or by using net successes to silently claim a subject's health boxes. In the latter case, power can be drawn from injury inflicted in the last turn or later in the scene as though that damage was inflicted by the claiming spell, but the triggering damage must have been dealt by the caster or the reaping's intended beneficiary, who is included as one of the spell's targets. Animate shadows can boost stealth and hinder aim or perception, and ghost or zombie servants can inflict damage, boost attacks, or hinder enemy action, potentially seizing and immobilizing targets as a severe consequence. Conjunctional use of Weaving Death allows spells to affect immaterial ghosts, Twilight matter, or other targets possessed of deathly incorporeality. Fraying Death wears at death's boundaries, weakening distinctions between the living and the dead. Physical objects and people can be made solid to ghosts and Twilight structures. In combination with Weaving, a source of sturdy Twilight matter, and enough time for preparation, seemingly impossible objects or structures can be made that rely in part on Twilight material for structural integrity. Fraying can abrade the natural rest of dead bodies, causing them to twitch or move at the caster's behest or bidding them to wholly wake into a stilted, counterfeit life. Fraying can also erode death's numinous byproducts, thinning shadows, dissipating ectoplasm, and countering or suppressing ghostly numina. Ghosts themselves can be hindered in action or dealt direct bashing damage.
Adepts can transform potential death into actual death and cause aspects of death to preempt or trail the event itself. They can inflict direct damage of any kind, whether aggravated, resistant, or both, on any living being or organic material, or destroy the Essence points of ghosts. They can temporarily heal any kind of damage, delaying it until the healing spell ceases to be sustained. By striking directly at the soul, Adepts can spontaneously destroy the Willpower points of human or posthuman targets. Through ritual, Adepts can rip the souls out of unAwakened humans, bind new or returned souls to soulless Awakened and unAwakened alike, or dissolve souls into Mana and Willpower. Adepts can make undead creatures that inflict lethal damage or carry out complex commands. Severe consequences can control targets by forcing them to materialize or dematerialize, sapping them of strength and vitality, or seizing them with solid shadow, and might cause Attributes or Merits to decay with time. Patterning Death changes if and how something is dying or relates to death. It can draw out and actualize the potential of a body to fail or a substance to decay, inflicting any kind of direct damage, Resistant or otherwise. Patterning attacks can leave subjects' Attributes wasting away. Subjects can be rendered weak or senile, hindering or disabling appropriate actuons. Dying people and collapsing objects can, in the scene they meet their end, be forced to leave ghosts behind. The nature and consistency of deathly substances can be transferred or altered, solidifying shadows in the physical world or reducing Twilight barriers to the consistency of air. Animate shadows or Twilight substances enjoy durability appropriate to their source material and strength on the same scale as that of zombified flesh or ghostly corpus. Patterning can transform ghosts directly, tying them to new anchors or melting and reforming them into creatures or objects of the caster's design. Rituals can permanently reassign a ghost's anchors, Attributes, Numina, bans, or banes, or stitch ghosts into dead bodies to create long-term revenants. As well, Patterning can reweave or counterfeit the bindings that connect mortal souls to bodies, restoring a soul to a soulless human whether or not that soul was theirs to begin with. Any stolen soul can prevent the Morality and Willpower loss associated with soul loss, but a mage whose nimbus is collapsing only stops hemorrhaging Gnosis upon assimilating an Awakened soul, and only recovers lost Gnosis with oblations if they regain their own, original soul; another's Awakened soul only arrests the decay of Gnosis, and if kept permanently requires the mage to rebuild their enlightenment anew.
Masters of Death begin to transcend Death's limits and transgress its deepest boundaries. Master Death magic can directly afflict any kind of target, causing any kind of damage (including Resistant), reaping Mana or Willpower, or destroying Mana or Willpower of the target's, in any combination. They can decay imperishable materials, immortal spirits, and even Supernal spells. Masters can create Twight reflections of subjects whether or not those subjects have died, and reanimate and puppeteer even machines or vehicles. Through ritual, they can permanently empower ghosts, adding Attributes, Numina, or Rank. They can steal or destroy even Awakened souls, though not those of other supernatural creatures. By achieving a severe consequence against the final Composure rating of a dead character, a Master can reanimate that character with their full minds and powers intact, and control them as easily as a ghost could be. Making Death brings death where it does not or can not exist. It can bring weakness and death to anything with any kind of substance, disintegrating metal or enervating spirits with equal ease. Thethe Master needs to be able to perceive what they would destroy, so sensory magic of other Arcana is necessary to rot holes through the Gauntlet, blight astral sojourners, or decay the Mana stored in another's nimbus. Since all mages can perceive magic at work, Making Death can be used to crush the life out of active spells. Ritually, it can destroy the moorings and substance of even Awakened souls or soul stones. Making can make shadows from nothing, and can pull Twilight duplicates from inert matter whether such reflections already exist, spawning fresh ghosts of people, objects, or buildings that can then be sculpted, controlled, or materialized with other Practices. Spontaneously conjured ghosts last only as long as their founding spell is contained, but Making rituals can make permanent additions to the Twilight liable to confuse or unsettle those accustomed to there being only one version of a given dead person drifting around. Making can also force existing gates to the underworld to open, or force ghosts from the underworld to manifest before the caster. This latter application requires that a piece of the summoned person's original body is at hand, and only facilitates communication, not interaction or travel.
Purview: chemical reactions, drugs, gases, liquids, machinery, poisons, solids, terrain Overview: Matter, the gross Arcanum of Stygia, holds dominion over inanimate physical substance. Matter is the raw material appropriated in the growth and creation of life and left in the wake of life's passing. Though often chemically active, matter is metaphysically inert, and symbolizes supernatural change rather than motivates it; little Fallen World magic affects Matter directly except as a byproduct or intermediate stage. Science, on the other hand, has plumbed matter's deepest mysteries, and the properties and interactions of different kinds of matter undergird much of modern civilization. Matter magic analyzes, shapes, and transmutes nonliving substance. Objects, terrain features, and the very air can be animated or transmogrified according to the caster's will. Organic and inorganic materials alike fall within Matter's purview so long as they aren't part of a living Pattern. Matter is effective on materials dusted on, attached to, stabbed through, severed from or secreted by living creatures, even if those materials are animated by alchemy, necromancy, or other magic; flakes of dead skin, prosthetic limbs, plates of food, pools of blood, and shambling zombies are all subject to the Arcanum. Otherworldly inanimate substances such as the Twilight remnants of buildings or the terrain of the spirit world can also be affected by Matter magic, so long as appropriate magic is used to enable the Matter user to interact with their target in the first place. Matter can cause objects to bend or transform under their own power. Such actions have strength proportionate to the material; animate paper can't lift a car, but another car could, and stone and metal can do serious injury to flesh. However, Matter magic animates objects by sculpting and shaping them, not pushing or accelerating them, and doesn't impart any energy that outlasts the magic at work. Objects can't be heated, cooled, electrified, or even thrown with Matter alone. A boulder swung by an an arm of stone smashes through obstacles but stops and falls from rest at the end of its arc. Matter magic can reorganize substances so that their internal energies are easier or harder to release. Catapults or firearms sculpted with magic are fully functional, petroleum burns readily despite having once been water, and conjured francium reacts explosively with moisture in the air. Matter can similarly affect living beings indirectly by producing drugs, poisons or acids. Such effects are wholly natural, and might be bypassed or disabled by other supernatural powers. Aspects: Sensory Matter spells analyze the structure and composition of the caster's surroundings, providing information normally accessible only through sensitive equipment, hours of laboratory work, or detailed chemical reference. Covert spells influence properties matter beneath the threshhold of normal human perception, such as the rates of chemical reactions or the subtleties of turning gears. Such spells can strengthen or weaken objects, direct chemical processes, or sabotage machines. Vulgar spells can reshape or animate objects, transmute one substance or object into another, or force machines chemicals into activity or quiescence despite direct and obvious pressure to the contrary. They can shift and hold substances into states never found in nature by altering their shapes, phases, and physical properties. Mechanics: The direct transfigurations caused by Matter spells are contested by Stamina + Gnosis, although it's usually only zombies, golems, and other nonliving characters who could be targeted by such magic at all. Matter spells are often resisted by physical prowess and reflexes; Defense avoids damage, Strength + Dexterity retains grip and balance, and Strength + Stamina holds ground. Many Matter spells don't directly affect rolled actions or alter game traits but do change the range of actions that characters can take, such as by raising walls or disabling vehicles. The ability of such effects to directly affect characters might call for contested rolls, but the outcomes of those rolls have no bearing on the effects themselves - a pit still opens in the floor whether or not the person it opened under was able to leap to safety. Matter spells can boost or hinder a variety of physical actions by conjuring obstacles, strengthening equipment, or animating minions. Substances created by matter are completely real and can trigger supernatural vulnerabilities or spirit bans with no extra effort on the caster's part. Spells that produce matter that's explosive, radioactive, toxic, or otherwise potent beyond its normal size and mass need area or size factors to generate indirect effects and net successes to inflict consequences on other characters; missing factors or low net successes indicate insufficient exposure, purity, or internal energy to produce the desired indirect result. Aftereffects: Almost all effects of Matter magic are lasting. Substances don't retain the impossible states of being or blatant supernatural properties that sustained spells might grant them, but do retain their forms and substances even in the aftermath of vulgar magic - lead remains gold, pumpkins remain carriages, and so on. Subtle changes to objects can linger in the usual fashion, rendering things unusually effective, precise, or resistant to wear. Matter magic makes Merits, particularly Resources, extremely easy to raise, and usually guarantees a character whatever mundane equipment they care to own. Paradox: Weak Matter paradoxes change the appearance, texture, or surface consistency of matter in the area, or cause anomalies in air flow, water currents, or dust deposition. More powerful paradoxes might lead to the appearance of sinkholes, the diffusion of airborne hallucinogens, or the threat of architectural collapse. Deadly Matter paradoxes might wrack the area with earthquakes, change the air to acid, or trigger cancer-like growth of unliving terrain that impales, crushes, or suffocates anything caught within. INITIATE OF MATTER (●) Initiates can investigate and mark the material around them. Sensory spells of this level can boost rolls to search for objects, analyze materials, or reason out chemical relationships. Knowing Matter reveals subtle properties such as composition, purity, or volatility. A mage can compare one substance to another they can detect or imagine, predicting how the two will react. Knowing can analyze distinct objects rather than general substances, determining precise size, shape, mass, and durability.
Apprentices can direct matter's activities. Spells can hinder or disable physical actions by rendering machines or equipment inoperable or inconveniently active, though effectively disarming someone requires a severe consequence against their Strength or Dexterity. Apprentices can boost attempts to sneak or smuggle by obscuring visibility or disguising objects, and can boost or obviate attempts to infiltrate or trespass by controlling or deactivating security measures. They can cause damage by unleashing or directing existing hazards, but such damage is usually independent of spell Potency. Apprentices can directly boost resistance against poisons, acids, and other hazards within Matter's purview. Ruling Matter can activate, direct, or halt chemical reactions and simple or complex machines. It can guide how acids burn, sediments deposit, or radioisotopes decay. It can activate machines; cars can start or stall, locks can open or close, and guns can fire or jam. Ruling can also direct the motion of already mobile but otherwise directionless matter, changing how gases diffuse, liquids spill, or dust settles.
Disciples can reshape matter with raw will. They can launch damaging attacks against or disable other characters by striking or imprisoning them with animate material. Disciple can also boost a variety of physical actions, commonly by enhancing worn or held equipment important to those actions. Disciples can deal direct bashing damage to nonliving beings, and can heal or transfer the wounds of such beings. Fraying Matter disorders, loosens, and weakens things, sapping durability and disrupting function. Spells make machines faulty, materials vulnerable, and reactions inefficient - guns jam, computers crash, and walls buckle. Fraying spells can hinder the physical actions of or deal direct bashing damage to zombies, golems, or other unliving constructs.
Adepts can transmute matter completely. They can launch bashing or lethal attacks with hazardous materials or deal direct damage of any kind to nonliving targets by directly deconstructing their Patterns. They can produce any kind of mundane equipment or wealth, enabling purchase of Merits. They can deal direct damage of any kind to objects or characters made of nonliving matter. Patterning Matter alters chemical properties or changes one kind of matter into another. Traits such as conductivity, malleability, and radioactivity can be adjusted or exchanged, creating hybrid materials impossible in nature. Substances can be transformed, changing lead into gold or water into glass. In combination wih Knowing and Weaving, Patterning can create complex objects; a pile of refuse could become a bomb, car, or computer, even if the caster lacks the expertise to build such objects by mundane means. As with Weaving, such transmutations don't create or destroy mass, so a cubic meter of lead yields more gold than a cubic meter of air.
Masters of Matter transcend matter's physical limitations. They can imbue fantastic properties into objects, ritually producing alchemically perfected objects or substances with lasting magical utility. Such creations can offer maximum Edges on appropriate rolls despite their apparent make or quality. Making Matter produces whatever the caster envisions without regard for available material. Complex machines can be conjured as easily as undifferentiated masses of material, limited only by area or size factors. Making spells can also add traits and properties to existing matter, even if those traits couldn't normally be physically sustained or involve arbitrary quantities; water can be rendered flammable, blades honed to the point that they cut anything, and hard drives granted limitless processing power. Making rituals can create permanently supernatural objects or materials. The results of such magic can't match the blatant absurdity of sustained vulgar spells, but can enjoy incredible efficiency or total imperishability and might have alchemical properties salient to other magic, supernal or otherwise.
Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Dec 14, 2013 |
|
#
?
Oct 30, 2013 06:41
|
|
|
Session 57 Completed - The Lion in Summer 2 XP gained. 234 XP total.
|
|
#
?
Oct 31, 2013 05:40
|
|
|
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrHgZRGLgo0 code:saffi faildotter fucked around with this message at 03:28 on Nov 1, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2013 02:49
|
|
|
So what is [Anna's problem]?
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2013 03:12
|
|
|
Nicolae Carpathia posted:So what is [Anna's problem]? They haven't found out yet. I'll let you know when they do.
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2013 03:25
|
|
|
Nicolae Carpathia posted:So what is [Anna's problem]? 
|
|
#
?
Nov 1, 2013 03:25
|
|
|
Nicolae Carpathia posted:So what is [Anna's problem]? Malkavia: Malkavia resembles synaesthesia, but affects cognition and understanding rather than sensory perception. Sufferers find themselves uncontrollably free-associating as they process their surroundings, interpreting totally prosaic events in highly metaphorical or symbolic terms. Incidental details such as the color of someone's clothes or the sounds of nearby traffic seem pregnant with hidden meaning. The effect is disorienting and overwhelming, and sufferers often struggle to stay calm or communicate with others. Sufferers who are already prone to hallucinations may find them agitated by the condition. Malkavia usually lies dormant in characters that suffer from it. It becomes active during moments of stress or revelation, such as:
Active Malkavia falls back into dormancy when its sufferer next regains a Willpower point from rest (or when they would, if their Willpower is at maximum), or when its sufferer spends a Willpower point to add dice to a roll that Malkavia inhibits and the roll succeeds. Attorney at Funk fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Nov 7, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2013 05:50
|
|
|
MALKAVIANS Dreamers, Seers, The Mad I talk to God but the sky is empty. Thesis: Vampirism is a dissolution of boundaries. The boundary between life and death, flesh and soul, human and beast - the Kindred transgress these barriers as a fact of their existence. The mind, too, crosses new boundaries: through the Disciplines, it becomes an appendage which can reach out to feel, push, and crush. Vampires exist who, through luck or trauma or some misunderstood quirk of the blood, can go even further. They can achieve a trance state that dissolves semiotic boundaries, and find prophetic insight embedded in the most incidental of patterns. Scholars of the blood call this condition Malkavia, and its sufferers Malkavians. History: Malkavia has existed for as long as vampires themselves. It's not a disease nor is it a bloodline in the truest sense. Some Malkavians have lived out their Requiems without ever meeting another sufferer. Where, then, does the name come from? In Prague at the turn of the 20th century, there was a brief but keen interest among wealthy dilettantes in the budding field of parapsychology. This interest filtered from those aristocratic circles, by way of Invictus courtiers, to the local Ordo Dracul Academy. Like many Academies around the world at the time, they dismissed the entire field as rubbish in public while they worked on it feverishly in private, eager to extract any new insights and methodologies that might aid their tireless quest to master the curse. Valentin Malkav, Scholar of the Bloody Void, took the most direct approach. Knowing the awesome psychic potential inherent to the vampiric condition, he enlisted, kidnapped, and later personally embraced over a dozen Kindred. Malkav subjected them to horrifying experiments which he termed "psychical exposure therapy", attempting to isolate the sources of psychic sensitivity and produce a repeatable process for amplifying it. He produced only traumatized victims, catatonic husks, and permanently frenzied larvae. As his methods grew more abstract, and his attempts to communicate his findings grew more impenetrable, Malkav's colleagues began to realize that his therapies had had precisely one successful subject: himself. Malkav was removed from the last symposium he attended on a stretcher with a stake through his heart. Finally, the study of Malkav's Disease could begin in earnest. The great parapsychology boom of the 1970s popularized the Prague Academy's work among Dragons privy to their clandestine publications. By then, the affliction was being called Malkavia, and it's by this name that the condition and its sufferers have begun to filter out into the collective vampire consciousness. Parent Clan: Any. A plurality of Malkavians are Mekhet; their unique psychic sensitivity and tendencies toward sensory overexposure leave them particularly vulnerable to the condition. Clan Daeva adds the fewest members to the ranks of the Dreamers; those of whom that do develop Malkavia will most often contract it via prolonged exposure to another Malkavian. Disciplines: As the parent clan, with the addition of Lucidity (see below). Malkavian Clan Weakness: Malkavians suffer from Malkavia (see above) and can never rid themselves of it permanently. Concepts: cult leader, dedicated psychonaut, insomniac, latter-day Cassandra, parapsychologist, revered oracle, unnerving vagrant --- LUCIDITY This Discipline allows a vampire to leverage and master the trance state that Malkavia brings on. Its powers can only be used by a vampire with active Malkavia. Lens ● The vampire becomes accustomed to the trance state of active Malkavia. They obtain a degree of control over its manifestation and dormancy, and can glean insights from their experiences unavailable to those in a normal frame of mind. Active Malkavia no longer hinders rolls using the character's Composure, though it still adversely affects rolls using Wits. At the end of any scene in which the character's Malkavia has become active for any reason, if they have any Willpower points remaining, their Wits + Resolve is rolled. This roll is hindered by Malkavia as normal, but if successful means the vampire can force their Malkavia back into dormancy. The vampire can consciously activate their Malkavia, reflexively and at will. Their active Malkavia sharpens their thinking, granting mundane rolls based on the character's Intelligence an Edge equal to the character's Lucidity rating. This Edge can obviate actual equipment, allowing feats of calculation or visualization that would normally require extensive computer modeling, note taking, or other external aid. As well, whenever the character achieves an exceptional success on an action using their mental Attributes while their Malkavia is active, they additionally learn the answer to a yes or no question pertaining to the subject of the action. Rolls for both mundane and supernatural actions can trigger this benefit, and the character's player asks the question after the action's other effects are resolved. Any insight or project assembled with this benefit is bizarre and unintelligible to those without Malkavia, however. Attempts to explain or decipher such results always require dice rolls which lose 10-again and subtract 1s from successes, whoever's making the effort. If a character without Malkavia is successfully made to understand, their Wits + Resolve is rolled; on a failure, they acquire dormant Malkavia. This condition vanishes as soon as a week passes without its becoming active. Prism ●● The vampire learns to parse and synthesize the symbology of active Malkavia. Through raw intuition, the vampire can infer uncannily accurate information from seemingly meaningless details, even to the extent of deducing the past and predicting the future. Prism isn't exactly divinatory - powers that block magical auguries don't contest it, although powers that obscure information or perception do. It doesn't grant literal visions of the past or future, except insofar as the vampire might be inclined to visualize what they've been able to infer. Information this power produces is accurate but constrained by the vampire's own knowledge and understanding, so in many cases strange phenomena can be functionally described but not precisely classified. Cost: None initially; 1 Willpower each use in the same scene past the first Action: Minor Dicepool: Intelligence + Investigation + Lucidity Dramatic Failure: The vampire loses a Willpower point, and their Malkavia can't become dormant until next sunset Failure: No useful information Success: For each success, the vampires is able to infer a concrete piece of information about something in their vicinity that they can perceive. The player can divide the power's successes up among different subjects or opt to devote successes to the scene in general, and can specify what kind of information they want each success to yield. Usually, pieces of information establish relations between different elements of the current scene. Possibilities include:
If the Storyteller can't confidently answer a question about the future - for instance, if information about the future is contingent on the actions of another player character - the user of this power receives a murky, cryptic impression that they can opt to hold indefinitely in their subconscious. As soon as the prophesied event occurs, the vampire can release the held impression to to become retroactively aware. This gives a player license to have their character make reasonable offscreen preparations and to show up in, avoid, or otherwise act on the predicted scene. A character can only hold onto one such intimation of the future at a time. As mentioned above, Malkavia always inhibits a character's attempts to explain what they learn through this power to others who don't have Malkavia. The user of this power can count on being able to indicate basic facts such as "he's dangerous" or "it's there", but will struggle to go into depth and risk infecting others with Malkavia should they succeed. Exceptional Success: In addition to learning five or more discrete things, the vampire intuits the broader narrative significance of the scene as a whole, especially as it pertains to them. Lantern ●●● Now aware of the psychological barriers that normally arrest higher awareness, the character can spread Malkavia deliberately. Subjects of this power experience Malkavia in a form that closely resembles the character's own, and become easier for the character to more easily communicate with, enlighten, or manipulate. To use this power, the character must either make an attempt to explain an insight they've obtained through other use of Lucidity, or use other Disciplines such as Auspex, Dominate, Majesty, or Nightmare to directly influence the subject's thoughts. The former method usually requires a few minutes and a subject willing to listen (though unaware of what might happen to them if they do), while the latter method can take effect instantly but requires that the power Lucidity is piggybacking on be used successfully. Action: Reflexive, coupled with some other appropriate instant action Cost: 1 Willpower; this cost is waived if the Discipline power used to make psychic contact already costs 1 or more Willpower Dicepool: Intelligence + Expression + Lucidity vs. Resolve + Blood Potency Dramatic Failure: The character loses another Willpower point and can't use this power again until the next night Failure: The subject feels something oppressive destabilizing in the character's words or psychic presence, but is able to resist its effects. They can't be targeted by Lantern again until next night. If they don't stop listening to a mundane explanation, they might still be made to understand a Lucidity-derived insight and so risk catching dormant Malkavia. Success: The subject develops Malkavia, or the subject's existing case of Malkavia is rendered similar to the character's. The character decides if the subject's Malkavia lies dormant or activates immediately. This Malkavia lasts until it remains dormant for a straight week, at which point it fades. For as long as the Malkavia persists, whether it's active or dormant, the character has these advantages over the subject:
Exceptional Success: As success, but the character can choose how long the inflicted case of Malkavia must lie dormant before it fades completely. It can take as little as a day or as long as a month. Each full week of dormancy counts against this total time, even if the Malkavia later reactivates. Mirror ●●●● The character can make another's Malkavia an extension of their own, ensuring that their subject interprets the world exactly as the character does. To the subject, every place, person, and action hold the same meaning and significance that they do to the character, and it becomes impossible to ignore or betray the character's perspective on the world. Mirror augments Lantern. Any time the character successfully uses Lantern on someone, they can pay one Vitae to inflict the effects of Mirror as well as those of Lantern. Action: Reflexive, as part of another action Cost: 1 Vitae in addition to the cost of Lantern Success: In addition to suffering Lantern's normal effects, the subject's outlook as filtered through Malkavia becomes a duplicate of the character's. For as long as the subject is affected by Lantern, the following effects also apply:
Cobweb ●●●●● The character begins to see Malkavia and its carriers as an emergent pattern whose fractal spread is governed by a hidden but comprehensible logic. A profound awareness of the way that the affliction operates allows the character to exert fine control over what the Malkavian trance reveals. This power doesn't rely on telepathy, but rather the butterfly effect - the character simply comports themselves in a certain way, and truths ripple out into the world to be perceived by others with Malkavia. While they're asleep, torpid, meditating, dreaming, or otherwise insensate, a character with this power can send silent messages to anyone they've ever met who also has Malkavia. Conscious subjects receive the feeling that something on the cusp of their understanding is trying to get their attention, but that they're too awake to understand. Unconscious or meditating subjects can converse wordlessly with the character as though in the same room. So long as both characters are somehow insensate, this communication transcends language and distance. The character can communicate with multiple subjects at once and allow those subjects to communicate with each other, so long as all are unconscious or otherwise insensate. If any are currently affected by the character's usage of Lantern, the character can provide guidance from afar. Characters in such a network can all use Lucidity in concert to solve intellectual problems; one roll is made, using the best Intelligence, applicable Skill, and Lucidity rating of the network, and the time required is divided by the number of participants. However, the results of such collaboration are impossible to explain to those without Malkavia except in the barest and most functional terms. Subjects of the character's Mirror power can be communicated with while awake, albeit in a limited fashion. They become fuzzily aware of what the character wants them to know and of what the character wants, but can't respond or be incorporated into a communication network unless they arrange to become insensate. While communicating though Cobweb, the character can remotely use Prism through anyone they can converse with. The power is activated as normal except it's free the first time each day it's used remotely rather than each scene and otherwise costs Willpower. Successes are applied to things in the subject's vicinity perceived through the subject's senses rather than the character's, yielding information that only the character picks up on. Since subjects are generally insensate, the character most likely learns about those they're in contact with rather than their correspondents' surroundings. Since victims of Mirror can be communicated with while they're awake, they represent particularly useful proxies for investigation. Attorney at Funk fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Nov 7, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2013 05:51
|
|
|
hell loving yes
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2013 06:09
|
|
|
Session 58 Completed - Scholars and the Void 2 XP gained. 236 XP total.
|
|
#
?
Nov 7, 2013 06:47
|
|
|
OBRIMOS ARCANA All who wield magic have power, but travelers on the Path of the Mighty wield power itself. It's not that might makes right for the Obrimos, but that the two concepts are indistinguishable. THE PRIME ARCANUM Purview: countermagic, dispellation, enchantment, hallows, mana, resonance, spells Overview: Prime, the subtle Arcanum of the Aether, holds dominion over the capacity to exist. To be real is to partake somehow of supernal truth, which means to have a Pattern spun from Mana, the raw substance of Creation. Awakened spells are fueled by Mana because they make imagination into reality, but all things are spun from Mana at the base. It's the particular arrangement and resonance of a Pattern's Mana that determines what that Pattern is and how it interacts with other Patterns. The Mana of the Fallen World is curdled into prosaic, physical Patterns only vaguely reflective of Supernal truths; the vibrant, dynamic Mana that sustains true magic is almost nonexistent. Prime magic manipulates the Mana that comprises Patterns and Awakened spells. It can enchant or destroy physical subjects, counter or manipulate supernal spells, and transfer or dissipate Mana. Prime magic can often make use of the inert Mana of the Fallen World, either by shaping it directly or by using it as raw material for other Arcana to transmute. Anything with a Pattern is subject to enchantment or obliteration by Prime; this includes objects, people, spirits, and spells, but not totally intangible relationships such as sympathetic connections or abstract concepts like ideas or organizations. Altering a Pattern's underlying reality isn't the same as altering its physical properties; without conjunctional use of other Arcana, Prime can't simulate, produce or transfigure specific forms of matter, energy, or ephemera directly. On its own, Prime produces abstract forms with volume and tangibility but no chemical, energetic, or spiritual properties and no ability to outlast the spells that conjured them. Prime constructs and materialized Mana take on a vibrant, radiant aspect that emphasizes their resonance qualities and sets them clearly apart from their material environments - they burn without heat and glow without casting illumination. Such constructs are naturally fragile, possessed of the approximate consistency of glass and able to exert no more force than they could if their creator was physically moving them. Prime can affect magic directly, but not necessarily the outcomes of magic. A subject shielded from magic by Prime can't be directly transmogrified or decayed, but is no harder to strike with lightning or imprison in stone. Protecting against the latter kind of spell requires not shielding the target but foiling the caster. Aspects: Sensory Prime magic is chiefly used to analyze magic and mages, revealing the properties of scrutinized spells and nimbuses. It can investigate the underlying realness of Patterns in general to spot illusions or magical tampering. Covert Prime spells can invisibly affect spells. They can manipulate unseen metaphysical properties such as the resonance of an area or the moorings of a soul. Covert spells can subtly weaken or reinforce a subject's realness, undermining its function in a generalized way or bolstering it against magical dissolution. Vulgar Prime spells manifest Mana as a tangible force. Physical beings or objects burn or dissolve into undifferentiated glow, Platonic solids solidify out of raw Mana, and enchantments or counterspells blaze with arcane power. Mechanics: Prime spells that manipulate the spells, Mana, or other magical properties of unwilling targets are resisted by Resolve plus Gnosis. Spells that dissolve Patterns to inflict direct damage contest Stamina plus Gnosis. Physical attacks launched by Mana constructs or materialized supernatural energies are avoided by Defense. Prime spells can boost rolls to notice or resist magic, and can boost or hinder physical actions by conjuring tools, obstacles, or servants. They can inflict direct damage of any kind on any objects or beings perceptible and tangible to the caster. The severe consequences of Prime spells can trap subjects in prisons of solidified Mana or cause them to temporarily cease to exist. Unraveling Prime attacks can be granted damage factors which reap Mana lethal or aggravated damage dealt. These only function on living beings, including spirits, vampires, and other supernatural creatures with appetites and states of health. Used on animals, such magic merely eliminates the need for ceremony during the blood sacrifice all mages can perform. Humans and supernatural creatures only yield Mana when they mark lethal or aggravated wounds in health boxes containing bashing or nothing at all, and if killed by such magic yield further Mana as though ceremonially sacrificed on the spot.
One Mana point is sufficient to produce a coherent object the size of a person or a generalized environmental effect the size of a passenger car. Spells with many area, size, or target factors often need multiple points of Mana over and above their casting costs to substantiate themselves. A mage can draw on scraps of their nimbus to fuel an effect without losing any points of Mana, but this can't produce more than a double handful of material. If a mage dismisses a Prime construct or Mana-fueled spell effect on their turn, they can reclaim any Mana that came from their personal pool and that they haven't replaced with Mana from some other source. Phenomena, substances or objects created out of Mana through Patterning vanish totally when reclaimed. Constructs drawn from Tass can be woven back into Tass with an appropriate spell.
Paradox: Prime paradoxes are the most likely to interfere actively with magic, and might recolor, counter, amplify, or redirect spells cast within their areas. The resonance of things in a Prime paradox can mutate in ways subtle or obvious, constructs of pure Mana might manifest from thin air, and Patterns might be destroyed outright as they're overloaded with Mana or deconstructed totally. INITIATE OF PRIME (●) Initiates can observe and communicate through the flows of magic itself. Sensory Prime spells can boost rolls made to notice magic or allow mages to investigate the properties of supernal phenomena. Sensory Prime spells can investigate resonance directly, allowing mages to determine a subject's first resonance quality with the speed and certainty afforded by a Knowing spell rather than at the pace of normal scrutiny. Knowing Prime reveals the properties of supernal magic, Mana, and resonance. It can determine a spell's factors, Practices, and overall effect. It can investgate a mage's nimbus, gauging strength, Mana saturation, and spell encumbrance. It can glean the resonance signature of beings, objects, places, spells, or even foreign supernatural powers, allowing mages to infer origins and relationships between subjects whose qualities clash or match.
Apprentices can activate magic and control resonance. They can trigger imbued items or artifacts, though they need Potency at least equal to the rating of a target artifact, must pay any Mana costs themselves, and must overcome the Resolve of an item's bearer who resists. They can temporarily redirect the spells of other mages. They can boost resistance against directly damaging magic and contest attempts by others to analyze resonance or magic. Rituals can add false resonance qualities to subjects or inure subjects against long-term magical degradation. Ruling Prime bids magic to act, causing artifacts to activate, conjurations to move, and nimbuses to manifest. Ruling spells can trigger the cosmetic or tangible effects of dormant or hidden spells or seize temporary control of sustained spell effects. They can exert control over the magical manifestations of Hallows and Demesnes.
Disciples can move, sculpt or erode magical energy. They can transfer or steal Mana held by mages, Tass, or other repositories of power. Absent resistance, a spell needs no factors to shift one point of Mana per Potency from its target to the mage or something in the mage's reach; target factors are required to effect transfers between multiple subjects at range. Drawing Mana from unwilling targets requires appropriate damage factors. Disciples can pull Mana potential from Hallows, producing one Mana point per point of potential harvested. They can inflict bashing damage directly or hinder physical actions, and can cause magical direct damage to contest Defense instead. Disciples can boost resistance against most forms of transformation or enchantment, suppress or reconfigure standing spells, or counter spells as they're cast. Fraying Prime weakens and disorders a subject's underlying reality. Subjects of any kind can be weakened and worn away, growing dim, pale, colorless, or translucent as they suffer bashing damage or lose strength or integrity. Mild magical interference can render resonance unintelligible, while more violent Frayings can suppress or counter supernal spells or interrupt Oblations, rituals, or other workings.
Adepts can transform and dissipate the substance of reality. They can dispel spells completely, destroy the Mana in Tass or another's Mana pool, or inflict direct damage of any kind. They can use damage factors to inflict Resistant damage, reap Mana from the wounds of sentient victims, or instantly collect Mana with a killing blow as though performing a blood sacrifice. They can change resonance qualities into others or completely steal or transform standing spells. They can render subjects down into raw Mana, freeing raw material for use with other Prime spells. A ritual Adept spell can weaken or destroy an object to release Mana that the caster or another mage can attempt to assimilate; each beneficiary can perform their daily Oblation without drawing on any Hallow. Such a ritual needs target factors to have more than one beneficiary and can't produce more total usable Mana than it has points of final Potency. The matter consumed in such a ritual is distinct from the sacrament and usually needs to be at least the size of a person, though unusually dense or metaphysically potent materials might be usable with less volume. Patterning Prime transubstantiates magical energy. It can add, remove, or reorder resonance qualities, forcing the redesign of inactive runic inscriptions or changing what magic a Hallow supports. It can transform a spell completely, giving it an entirely different effect designed by the caster. Vulgar Patterning can materialize Mana as a tangible substance, producing solid constructs under the caster's control. These are normally brittle and limited, but can be fortified with Perfecting or granted new aspects or qualities by other Arcana. In combination with the Patterning Practice of other Arcana, Patterning Prime can conjure objects or phenomena seemingly from nothing by directly transmuting raw Mana.
Masters can create, destroy, or permanently alter the substance of magic. They can rewrite resonance totally, counter spells such that they cause no paradox, and wipe entire spaces free of magic, and produce inert Mana from nothing to lend substance to other spells. Masters can ritually create or strengthen Hallows, though new Hallows appear empty of Mana potential, high Hallow ratings require commensurately rare ritual sacraments, and artificial Hallows dissipate unless supported with maintenance and geomancy, usually represented through the purchase of the Hallow Merit. With a severe consequence against Resolve, a Master can remove a subject's spellcasting ability or temporarily banish a subject from existence. Making Prime calls magical power from nothing, or adds to existing spells or resonance. It can increase spells in scope or magnitude, adding factors or enhancing Potency and Tenacity. It can render a spell impossible to counter with any Practice less than Unmaking. Making can freely produce inert Mana, fueling Prime constructs or conjunctional transmutations of arbitrary volume or complexity and granting Prime constructs the unflagging durability of soul stones. Ritual Makings can add new, permanent resonance qualities to subjects or create ley lines, Hallows, and other geomantic phenomena.
THE FORCES ARCANUM Purview: electronics, fire, heat, illumination, lightning, magnetism, motion, plasma, radiation, sound Overview: Forces, the gross Arcanum of the Aether, holds dominion over the energy of motion. Any natural or supernatural power might drive a change in state or position, but it's Forces that ultimately pushes the world out of one equilibrium state and into another. Wholly material and mechanical, forces are frequent byproducts of Fallen magic and science both. Forces magic manipulates the physical phenomena that cause things to move and the energy those phenomena impart to their subjects. It can control motion, temperature, charge, and other invisible sources of action, as well as flame, lightning, and other mundane energetic phenomena. Negative qualities like cold, darkness, and stillness are not themselves forces, but can be produced and controlled by by dissipating or displacing heat, light, or minetic energy. The effects of a Forces spell are as physical as their caster is and can't affect incorporeal beings or objects unless other magic has granted the caster an immaterial presence. Once such interaction has been established, Forces can flames in the spirit world or gravity in the astral plane just as well as it controls the energies of the material world. Forces magic below Master level is heavily dependent on the caster's physical environment, and normally works by redistributing or transmuting forces already at work in the scene. Many Forces spells have twofold effects or unavoidable byproducts; a spell might stop one object to launch another, freeze one person by using their body heat to incinerate a second, or silence a radio transmission by transmuting it into a burst of unreadable radiation. It's almost impossible for a Forces mage to be completely strapped for material, however; even absent violent weather, high-speed traffic, or powered machinery, Forces can draw on static charge, gravitational attraction, or the motion of the caster's own body. Aspects: Sensory Forces magic can measure weight, temperature, or similar qualities, reveal normally invisible forces to the caster's senses, and decipher electronic communication. Covert Forces magic can manipulate energy beyond the range of human senses, altering the flow of current or the propagation of radio signals. It can subtly alter how dorces affect the human condition by tweaking temperatures, blunting impacts, or guiding projectiles. They might draw down lightning strikes, short out fuses, make bombs go dud, or otherwise trigger already-possible events. Vulgar Forces spells blatantly reshape or transform energy, and might cause levitation, spontaneous combustion, or flash-freezing. Vulgar spells might generate invisible but unprecedented and significant phenomena, such as by flooding an area with sickening radiation or conjuring a spark of flame inside a vehicle's gas tank. Mechanics: Forces spells that can't be conventionally opposed, suh as forcible levitation or the suspension of personal friction, are resisted by Resolve plus Gnosis. Direct damage is opposed by Stamina plus Gnosis. Defense contests physical attacks, Strength plus Dexterity retains balance and grip, and Strength plus Stamina resists pushes and pulls. Forces can boost or hinder a variety of physical actions, and can hinder mental or social actions through distraction or interference. It can inflict bashing or lethal damage, either directly or as an attack; generally, heat, sonics, static charge, and other unseen effects deal bashing damage, while fire, lightning, and other obvious phenomena deal lethal. Forces magic doesn't need damage factors to take special effect on supernatural beings, so lightning heals Prometheans and fire deals aggravated damage to vampires with no additional cost. Forces spells that alter speeds or ranges usually multiply or divide such values by Potency. Forces spells need area, size, and target factors concommitant with their tangible effects on people and characters; a spell that chills one person and scorched another has two targets even though it's moving a single payload of heat, and a spell that gathers a room's static charge into a personal aura of lightning needs to reach across the room. Zero area factors worth of ambient heat, gravitational force, or other unremarkable background energy can be focused into tangible jolts or flashes but can't do more than bashing damage unless Patterned into something more dangerous. Purely sensory or communicative effects such as flashes of light or bursts of radio signal don't need area factors to work, but might need precision factors to be intelligible at great distances. Aftereffects: Forces effects are entirely natural, and things set on fire, blown apart, recharged, irradiated, or otherwise energized remain so as long as they normally would. Spells might can grant lingering properties to forces themselves, creating unusually specific weather patterns or persistent flames. Paradox: Low-key Forces paradoxes result in will-o-wisps, strange noises, or inexplicable signal broadcasts. Stronger paradoxes might alter friction, temperature, or light in subtle but tangible ways, while severe paradoxes can annul friction, warp gravity, or rain fire. INITIATE OF FORCES (●) Initiates become aware of the myriad forces coursing through the world around them. Their sensory spells can boost attempts to notice or analyze electronics, weather, or other energetic systems. Covert or vulgar spells can boost attempts to find or notice the caster. Knowing Forces analyzes the content and nature of energy. It can perfectly measure temperature, pressure, velocity, and similar qualities. It can compare multiple forces the caster can perceive or envision, predicting interactions and allowing the caster to intuit solutions to appropriate scientific questions. It can interpret the information content of radio signals, fiber-optic transmissions, and computer hard drives, allowing the caster to read or listen in on unencrypted communication or data storage.
Apprentices can control how forces look and behave. Their spells can hinder, contest or sometimes directly overrule attempts at security, investigation, communication, equipment use, or repair. They can boost stealth, hacking, misdirection, or espionage. Apprentices can attack people by triggering existing hazards, but damage so caused is based on the environment and Storyteller judgment rather than spell Potency. They can also boost resistance against most kinds of physical attack. Ruling Forces commands energetic phenomen or systems. It can direct the otherwise aimless or automatic motion of energy, imparting agency to the diffusion of heat, the spread of flame, or the flow of current. It can control the action of energy in machines, causing computers to start, explosives to fizzle, or bank machines to pay out despite the apparent inactivity of buttons, levers, or other purely material components. Ruling spells can direct existing weather patterns, releasing pent-up storms or delaying precipitation, and rituals can create lasting trends in local climates or power grids.
Disciples can bend and shape energy. They can boost a variety of physical actions and can interfere with perception, concentration, or communication. Severe consequences against Strength, Stamina or Resolve can completely disable targets. Disciples can inflict bashing or lethal damage, whether directly as an attack, but lethal damage usually requires either an existing lethal hazard or an area factor's worth of concentrated energy. They render still subjects totally imperceptible by conventionalmeans and conceal moving subjects such that any attempts to track or attack them are hindered, whether such subjects are rendered completely invisible or hidden beneath falsified sounds and images. They can redirect attacks, using the same spell to first defend against an attack and then launch an equivalent attack on their next available action. Fraying Forces diffuses and disorganizes forces, preventing them from acting coherently or effectively. It can unfocus light beams, scramble signals, and garble words to hinder investigation or communication. It can cause flames to gutter, currents to attenuate, or bullets to tumble and list.
Adepts can forge whatever forces they need from those already present. They can inflict immediate bashing or lethal by turning harmless forces into hazardous ones. They can render areas impassable and beings helpless by transmuting the forces required for normal function. Patterning Forces turns one force into another. It can exchange the effects of one pressure or influence for another, causing gravity to combust things or heat to repel them. It can transform energy, stopping a car in a literal flash by changing motion into light or spinning sound into fire to make a loudspeaker into a flamethrower. Conjunctional Patternings that transmute heat, light, or other ambient energies can ensure that Rulings and Weavings are supplied with whatever forces they need, allowing for the creation of totally unseasonal weather or the apparent conjuration of previously-absent phenomena.
Masters can create or destroy energy, bringing about phenomena of legendary or catastrophic intensity. They can produce force sufficient to propel subjects anywhere in sensory range within a turn. They can create impassable barriers, insurmountable pulls, or other completely intractable physical obstacles. They can completely immunize subjects against energetic phenomena such as fire, radiation, or kinetic force, but other characters have the chance to pierce such magic with actions enhanced by Willpower points; once an immunity has been overcome by someone, it's ineffective against that character until it's refreshed or recast. Making Forces creates energy from nothing, creating new forces or increasing existing forces in size and power. Making generates forces of arbitrary magnitude and is only limited by their area and size factors in terms of what can be launched, electrified or vaporized; spells of sufficient scope can reduce city blocks to rubble or hurl battleships hundreds of miles. It can produce sunlight, radiation, or other scientifically or metaphysically specific phenomena. It can add new properties to existing energy, creating electrified light or flames that conduct through metal. It can create and sustain forces despite the lack of logical causes, producing force fields, gravity wells, or other zones of influence.
Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Dec 10, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 12, 2013 21:27
|
|
|
Session 10 and 11: Precious Little Time Vignette: David Sun and Gord Gordon 11 XP awarded, 40 XP total. 4 VXP awarded, 13 VXP total. Log: http://pastebin.com/mCkJzXGM We'll try to be back on schedule from now on. Next session will be the coronation of the Thin White Duke; if people have things to finish up before then, we'll handle them either in vignette or early in the session.
|
|
#
?
Nov 13, 2013 07:39
|
|
|
Session 59 Completed - Circles Drawn And Broken 2 XP gained. 238 XP total.
|
|
#
?
Nov 14, 2013 06:46
|
|
|
Session 12: The Land of Do As You Please Log: http://pastebin.com/MqGv3mcA 4 XP awarded, 44 XP total. 1 VXP awarded, 14 VXP total. PC Vampires are now BP 2. PC Changelings are now Wyrd 2.
|
|
#
?
Nov 17, 2013 07:39
|
|
|
 First Light, a game of Demon: The Descent quote:Men in dark suits and dark glasses that you've seen twice before this week, standing at the entrance of your apartment building. Construction sites operating at all hours of the day, with flatbed trucks arriving empty and leaving empty. Ciphers in the clouds, with answers on the back of children's cereal boxes. Centuries-long global conspiracies to move a pile of dirt on the outskirts of town half a mile south on June 9th, 2004. Someone wrote MIDNIGHT on your bathroom mirror in blood. Politicians are born in guarded facilities, live their lives underground, and sit motionless in rooms when the cameras aren't on them. Your dead drop at the coffee shop is compromised. Don't ever visit there again. Sometimes in the city you can open a closet and go insane from what you see. You are being lied to. You are lying to everyone. In Washington, daily survival for Demons means navigating the labyrinthine web of loyalties, favors, and betrayals between the Agencies which rule the city, occasionally strike a righteous blow against the God-Machine, and routinely commit awful crimes in exchange for mortal souls and currency. Here, about half of the former angels belong to an Agency, while the other half, known colloquially as Freelancers, keep to themselves, maintain their Cover, and try to push back the inevitable rediscovery by the God-Machine. Your Descent might not incline you to join a secretive, unstable, and untrustworthy criminal corporation, or it might incline you to join it and carve your way to the top as quickly as you can manage. All of the players will have worked together on at least one task before the beginning of the first session. Whom you trust or feel comfortable with among each other is up to you. Pick one of the following, in addition to your character's general history. quote:
quote:
This will be using the current nWOD rules also used in nomadgame and miamigame, BUT, character creation will be using the GMC rules. Players cannot purchase extra dots in Primum, which will be raised at the ST's discretion. Houserules will be used frequently to address power imbalances and other weird stuff that crops up in the course of the game. Beats and anything else featured in the Demon pdf as part of the God Machine Chronicles rules, will not be used. Currently looking for 4-6 players, but might end up taking on more if there's that much interest. We'll be using the GMC social merits. Character creation is standard point-buy with an extra 15 XP to use as you please. tatankatonk fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Nov 19, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 10:26
|
|
|
 Revisions to Embeds, Exploits, and other mechanics go here
|
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 19:24
|
|
|
tentative proposed changes, will be editing this post: MERITS "Terrible Form" Merit removed EMBEDS Just Bruised: Against important or supernatural characters, each success downgrades a wound from aggravated to lethal or from lethal to ashing. Knockout Blow: This works with any attack mode that can inflict bashing damage, using the appropriate Skill for its activation roll. Against supernatural or important targets, it gives a bashing attack the 8-again rule and prevents any damage from that attack from rolling around or upgrading wounds to lethal. Instead, extra damage becomes a penalty on the target's next Stamina roll to stay standing. Merciless Killer: Merciless Gunman works with any attack mode that can inflict lethal damage, and uses the appropriate Skill for its activation roll. Against supernatural or important targets, it gives any kind of lethal attack the 8-again rule. EXPLOITS Four Minutes Ago: This doesn't undo any consequences suffered by the demon, but does make it impossible to prove they were caused by the scene the demon vanished from. Hellfire: This works on any single means of attack, not just firearms. Its activation roll uses whichever of Athletics, Brawl, Firearms, or Weaponry is most appropriate, though Athletics only charges a single projectile which loses its power once thrown. DEMONIC FORMS Starting Form: 3 modifications, 3 technologies, 1 propulsion, and 1 process Each new level of Primum: +1 form feature Maximum form features: 5 modifications, 5 technologies, 2 propulsions, 3 processes The "Inhuman Strength" etc. form features are removed, as is "Mental Resistance". Instead, entering demonic form gives a demon +2 dice on any action using a Power or Finesse Attribute, and +2 dice to resist supernatural mental or emotional influence. New or Altered Form Features:
-These are all attacks which use [Attribute] + [Skill] + [Primum] and which are considered to roll 3 minimum successes. Incendiary, Tether, and other powers/features usable as attacks: Such features use the player's choice of Strength or Dexterity unless the specific action being taken specifically demands one or the other. If they don't already have a listed third trait, they add the demon's Primum to their attack pool. Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Nov 22, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 19, 2013 21:27
|
|
|
.
illrepute fucked around with this message at 07:31 on Nov 26, 2013 |
|
#
?
Nov 20, 2013 09:13
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 13:20 |
|
|
Session 59 Completed - Lakeside View 2 XP gained. 238 XP total.
|
|
#
?
Nov 21, 2013 06:57
|
|