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this post is still in progress! Hello, there! This is the thread about "Manhattan's Angel", my game of Mage: the Awakening. It's run in IRC; #PC-OOC is its out-of-character channel and #PerfectCircle is where the game takes place. Regrettably, both of these are hosted on irc.sorcery.net. THE PLAYERS The game is set in Manhattan and revolves around the mages of what's known as the Ad Hoc Cabal, broadly agreed upon to be saviors of the city. The Ad Hoc Cabal, first assembled to retrieve the archmage Enoch from his hermitage in Smokey Mountains National Park, spans every Supernal Realm and most of the Orders. Of the Golden Key: * Matthew "Adramel" Robinson of the Free Council * Francis "Thor" Taylor of the Adamantine Arrow Of the Iron Gauntlet: * Michael "Arrian" Everard of the Mysterium * Franklin "Matryoshka" Watts of the Adamantine Arrow Of the Lead Coin: * Thomas "Tombheart" Hartigan * Gerald "Paracelsus" Wibert of the Mysterium Of the Moonsilver Thorn: * Sylvie "Crimson" Dubois of the Silver Ladder Of the Stone Book: * Adam "Socharis" Jones of the Free Council The Ad Hoc Cabal is a powerful force in the city; all of its members are believed to be Adepts, and rumors circulate that some are even Masters of one or more Arcana, despite their relative youth. Who knows what secrets they may have acquired in their brief guardianship of an Imperial Magus, after all, or their direct confrontation of not only Abyssal but (it's said) Supernal entities? In fact, the Ad Hoc Cabal's got 170 experience, 36 experience spendable on Merits only, 2 experience spendable on Consilium Status only, and 84 arcane experience. This means its members have Gnosis 4: * They can build a pool of 13 points of Mana, and spend 4 points per turn. * Their Arcana can have maximum ratings of 5, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, though their two Ruling Arcana must be among their three strongest. * They can combine up to two spells within one casting, using the lower of the two spells' dicepools, applying an additional -2 penalty, and dividing successes up between each spell. * They can make one spellcasting roll per hour when casting a ritual. * Finally, they roll 4 base dice of paradox when casting vulgar magic. The Ad Hoc Cabal is based in a small underground complex nestled among the docks on Manhattan's west side. Only three of its members actually live there, but all are free to use it as a place to meet or take shelter. Its actual specs are a bit confused, but I'm pretty sure that given the fact that Branigan is dead, it has something like Sanctum 3, Size 2, Security 1, Hallow 3, and sports a Space-based Ban that blocks scrying. It might contain libraries and laboratories owned by its tenants? The Ad Hoc Cabal has had a few adventures, and currently has a number of questions to answer, leads to follow, or problems to resolve: * Dawn Sky's First Bird Rising, the extremely responsible apprentice of Thor, has lost her powers. The Gentry have somehow ripped her connection to the Aether out of her soul and stolen away with it to Faerie; it's up to Thor to get it back. * The late Gabriel Norsworth's body was colonized by an abyssal entity because he'd lost his soul. How'd it happen? * Tensions are rising between the city's mages and vampires thanks to the murder of one of the latter by one of the former. * Ratlike creatures with some connection to the Nefandus responsible for the Emerson Tower explosion are, presumably, still at large. * The Shadow of Manhattan remains heavily irradiated in places. The poisoning is most concentrated around the spirit reflection of the Tower itself. * The precise identity and motivations of the Emerson Scelestus remain unknown, and his principal servant, though now destroyed, had somehow lodged itself in a grimoire owned by the Arrow. * A powerful demon granted a Thearch named Castian incredible magical power, but in so doing incentivized Castian to abandon those that rely on him and murder his competitors. * Two Seers of the Throne from Smokey Mountains are currently captives of the Pentacle. What do they know, and what's to be done with them? * Members of the Cabal have acquired a number of strange artifacts or companions, what's the deal there? * The Emerson blast and its aftermath has resulted in several Awakenings, and it's important that the newly Wise are inducted smoothly into the Pentacle. * Falafel guy seeks humanity * Who or what is Meraxes? * The former site of Manhattan's Consilium has been put under maximum lockdown. Just what are they keeping in there, how did it get there at all, what does it want, and why did the fae assault it? THE CITY Manhattan's Pentacle organizes itself into a traditional Consilium. One Hierarch presides over the Wise, advised by four Councilors - together, these mages represent each of the Watchtowers. The aims of Manhattan's Consilium are to defend the mages that comprise it from threats internal, external, and existential. It acts to minimize the hold of the Seers of the Throne on New York City, to resolve disputes between individuals, cabals, and Orders as equitably and peacably as possible, and above all to prevent the secrets of supernal magic from falling into Sleeper hands and so being tarnished. Monthly Consilium used to be held in a skyscraper in the business district whose most opulent floors were on permanent reserve by the Ladder, but that building is rapidly being converted into a sort of monastery now. Debate is still ongoing among those who care over where Consilium should be relocated to; for now, the location is fluid, changing month to month. The Orders of the city are largely decentralized, spread through disconnected pockets of real estate that resonate with a particular conspiracy's purpose. Their members communicate through circumspect means, since phones are so easy to compromise - precisely which letters of a neon sign are dead or flickering might speak volumes to a mage in the know, while another checks a drop box every Tuesday and a third pays special heed to how the graffiti in a certain alleyway changes day by day. Mages sufficiently trusted by an Order are given numbers to phones as secure as their users can make them, while mages sufficiently trusted by the uppermost members of an Order are given allowance to use sympathetic magic to communicate directly. The Adamantine Arrow exists to guard the Wise and the city against attack and disaster. If a threat to Consilium can be defeated in anything resembling the conventional sense, the Arrow will defeat it - they are the first line of defense, and risk their lives so that mages less suited to martial conflict don't have to. The Arrow has influence in the city's police force, but thrives in almost any mortal organization devoted to self-perfection; martial arts dojos, health clubs, and sports complexes are all potential gathering places. Its libraries of martial spells and collections of magically-enhanced armaments are of course second to none and its members receive heavy combat training almost without exception, but the Arrow possess several other advantages that often go overlooked: it boasts expert healers and controls several medical facilities, its mages are adept in fighting as cohesive units as well as individuals, and its internal communications lack most of the obfuscation and delay that the other Orders use to maintain secrecy. This sort of organization means that the Arrow is highly dependent on the other Orders to accomplish objectives that lie outside its skillset and easier to infiltrate or spy on than it otherwise might be, but it's a small price to pay to be able to marshal and deploy military force nigh-instantaneously. Arrow members are not discouraged from the use of their time and powers to protect and better the lives of the Sleepers around them, but if a choice must be made, official doctrine always values Awakened souls over Sleeping ones. The Arrow holds no leadership positions in Consilium, but its most powerful public figure is probably the Acanthus Aaron. Though said to be a peerless warrior, Aaron mostly serves his Order as a strategist and coordinator, using Arcadia's power to ensure that his soldiers are always in the right place at the right time. The Free Council has no formal specialty within Manhattan's Pentacle, but in practice serves as the Consilium's strongest link to the city itself. Of the Orders, the Council is the most heavily integrated in the machinery of the city itself; the other Orders might use various social strata as cover and recruiting grounds, but Councilors take active interest in the lives of Sleepers and so are often the first to encounter ground-level threats and opportunities that may eventually interest the entire Pentacle. Though ostensibly integrated into Consilium, Manhattan's libertines are self-reliant, and in some ways the Free Council is a sort of Consilium in miniature; there are libertine diplomats, libertine warriors, libertine researchers. The Council's spell libraries are not as comprehensive as the Mysterium's, but they are much more accessible to its members, to the point that the average Councilor is often very well equipped with rotes and magical equipment compared to a member of a Diamond order. The libertines' expertise in the integration of modern-day technology with Awakened magic is unmatched in Manhattan, and this may be why so many of them are seen to communicate through electronic means that most Orders deem too easily intercepted. On the other hand, the libertines might just be unusually reckless. Manhattan's Free Council often has trouble working proactively on a large scale; though the Order has a great deal of camaraderie and will unite against threats with admirable zeal, its lack of formal hierarchy and the easy access of its members to its entire rote library means that unlike, for instance, mystagogues, a libertine is unlikely to be spurred into action by promise of access to previously-withheld resources or the threat of official censure. The Consilium's Mastigos councilor is a libertine named Glyph, a Mind specialist and known member of the Cryptologos legacy. Rumored to work as a college professor, Glyph is an avid student of language and communication who styles herself to be more of a facilitator than a leader; when directives and movements are properly understood, they won't raise objections. The Guardians of the Veil exist to do what must be done. Their mission in Manhattan is, of course, the ostensible mission of every Order - to advance and defend the force of magic. Of all the Orders, though, the Eye of the Dragon is the most keenly aware that the greatest danger facing magic is mages, and so it falls to the Guardians to protect the Pentacle from the Pentacle. The Guardians serve Manhattan's Wise as both a spy network and a police force, identifying both internal and external threats to Consilium and then acting to remove them. The Guardians are unquestioned masters of misdirection, disguise, and infiltration, and it's whispered that they have agents everywhere, even within the other Pentacle Orders. Certainly, their ability to predict the movements of Consilium's enemies often seems beyond even the capacity of powerful Arcadian magic alone to yield. As well, the Guardians are second to none when it comes to the sabotage and neutralization of enemy willworkers. Though the typical Arrow is likely a more formidable warrior than the typical Guardian, that Guardian is most likely to have bent his training towards the defeat of mages in specific rather than supernatural threats in general, and so it's Guardians as well as Arrows that Consilium is likely to send when the city's stability is threatened by a wielder of supernal magic. Or, of course, the Guardians might send themselves. Though the Order is to some extent at Consilium's beck and call, it is widely understood that the Guardians of the Veil periodically take it upon themselves to carry out missions that Consilium at large is never informed of. Many of the city's Wise are uneasy with this practice, but it is supposedly supported by Atlantean tradition and has never been formally challenged. If the Guardians are heavily lacking in any one area it is in camaraderie with the other Orders; while the Guardians are technically empowered to demand certain concessions from the rest of the Pentacle in the course of carrying out their duties, general mistrust and resentment often insure that this is the only means available to the Guardians to obtain outside help. The impenetrability of the Guardians' internal communications makes them extremely difficult to spy on, but also renders the Order slow to mobilize, and the Guardian practice of destroying rather than archiving dangerous magic means that while they are safe from disastrous backfires or security breaches they are also sometimes bereft of useful knowledge that a less vigilant Order might benefit from. Silence, a master of Prime, is the one Guardian that serves Consilium as the Obrimos councilor to the Hierarch. A forbidding old woman that dresses chiefly in white, Silence (predictably) says little and often seems to serve as more of a threat than a leadership figure, an everpresent reminder that the Guardians of the Veil are watching and will have Consilium's full support should they choose to strike. It's grumbled that the Mysterium acts as though it were point of the whole business of having a Consilium in the first place. They're the treasure that the Arrow and Veil work to protect, the power that the Ladder decides how to leverage, and the level of excellence the Free Council will never ascend to. And the mystagogues have considerable ability to back up this sort of thinking - unparalleled libraries of rotes and mystic lore, stores of magical curios and bound creatures, and the membership of some of the most powerful mages in the city. The Mysterium's magic is strong wherever knowledge is collected and stored, so the Order's facilities are hidden away in nooks and crannies within New York's libraries, archives, and book shops. When mystagogues refer to "The Athanaeum," they refer to the complex of hidden basements, backrooms, and alcoves that collectively comprise the Order's headquarters and resources; if there is actually a proper Athenaeum somewhere, no one outside the Order's leadership has been told. The downside to the notoriety of the Mysterium among the other Orders is that the city's Awakened often see access to the Mysterium's resources as a right rather than a privilege; so much of Consilium's joint efforts amount to little more than an entry in a mystagogue's ledger that it'd be somewhat unfair if mages outside the Order couldn't somehow benefit. It's probably not a coincidence that the decentralized nature of the Mysterium's resources prevents most of the Awakened from gaining more than superficial access to the vaults and libraries. The Mysterium can't really afford not to share, though; rich as it is in occult paraphernalia, it's rarely in position to really bring all of its resources to bear. Mystagogues are specialists and loners by nature whose skill sets generally run towards research and investigation, and without the support of the other Orders most would be able to do little more than hold on desperately to the lore they've already acquired. When the Order enjoys the support of the rest of the Pentacle, though, when its adepts and masters are free to gather and marshal the Order's resources without interruption or retribution, the Mysterium's ability to work magic qua magic is unmatched. Let Guardians see to matters of internal security and Thearchs to administrative oversight - it's the Mysterium that's most able to grapple with the supernatural head-on. Probably the best-known mystagogue is Gabriel, a small, wizened man who serves the Consilium as its Moros Councilor. A master of Death and Space, Gabriel is said to keep constant watch over his Order's scattered resources (and much of the rest of the city) through networks of ghostly informants and spies. The Silver Ladder is the chief administrator of the city Consilium and the oil between the gears of Awakened society in Manhattan. They are negotiators, couriers, and viziers, always in contact with the other Orders of the city and a number of its other supernatural elements. All the Orders have their own internal communication systems, of course, but it's the Ladder that has invested the most time in establishing an inter-Order network and so the Ladder that most members of other Orders go through when they need to talk to someone they don't take orders from, work alongside, or give orders to. Ladder go-betweens are constantly at work tending to Consilium, ensuring it isn't torn apart from within by conflict among the Wise, destroyed from without by Seers or other supernatural creatures, or undermined by waning relations with the city's mortal power structure. The Ladder's influence over the loci of the forces that control New York on a macro level - zoning committees, legislative offices, corporate boardrooms - is unmatched among the city's Orders, or at least the city's Pentacle. The Silver Ladder's rote libraries tend towards spells of manipulation or command, but the Ladder's strong links to other Orders and emphasis to its members on the importance of being exemplary means that individual Thearchs might display a wide variety of skills or powers. The Ladder's chief weakness is probably its lack of power to enforce edicts on its own terms. Powerful as its members are, they are generally fewer in number than those of the other Orders (the Ladder, like the Guardians, freely gives foundling mages to other Orders it deems would best suit them - very few of the Awakened ae actually deemed fit to join) and strongly reliant on networks of allies or influence that they've built over long careers; the Ladder's greatest power is its ability to call upon and coordinate the efforts of the rest of the Pentacle. Without the backing and good faith of its fellow conspiracies, the Ladder's just a few mages that know some people. The most visible member of the Ladder is Cyrus, Hierarch of the city and Acanthus master of Time. It's very rare that he's seen to actually do anything but preside over Consilium and deliberate on agendas with the other Councilors. Most theorize that he serves the city chiefly as a prophet and long-term strategist, and that his usual lack of proactivity is the result of him having forseen and dealt with potential threats long ahead of time. House rules: WISDOM 5 -- physically injuring someone, petty theft, emotionally damaging someone 4 -- brutalizing someone, beating someone to a half-dead pulp, stealing something very important to someone, accidentally killing someone through neglect 3 -- killing someone without premeditation, "rough" torture, destroying everything someone owns 2 -- murder, horrific torture 1 -- truly heinous crime You start with 4. When you commit a sin at or below your rating, you can choose to degenerate (becoming more callous and sociopathic) or deal with it (roll dice equal to the sin's rating, acquire a derangement on a failure). The derangement generally lasts until circumstances (forgiveness, therapy, whatever) allow you to get rid of it. When you fulfill your Virtue, instead of maxing out your WP you gain WP equal to Wisdom, which can take you over your maximum rating. When paradoxes have the potential to work against you, you roll your Wisdom rating to see if their results are benign or destructive. SPELLCASTING, Ver 1.1 Pay attention here, I rework a lot of the pools. Any Spell: Gnosis + Arcana -Vulgar? +2 dice -Rote? Add Skill rating to dicepool, +1 if it's an Order specialty -High Speech? Lose your Defense and action for a turn while chanting loudly for +2 dice. -Sleeper Witnesses? Subtract 2 dice. Most spells can't augment the dicepools of other spells. Fate spells can't give you 8 or 9-again bonuses to your dicepools, Mind-based increases to Skill ratings don't boost rote dicepools, and so on. Casting a spell is a transcendent act, and objects or rituals that can empower it are rare and highly sought after. Casting pools can be decreased by wound penalties or other miscellaneous impediments that can both be caused and alleviated through magic. Vulgar Spells Cost 1 mana. This is over and above any other costs listed, so the Vulgar spell "Honing the Form" would indeed cost 2 mana to cast in this game. Mages can turn Covert spells Vulgar. For 1 extra mana, any Covert spell can be cast as a Vulgar spell, enjoying a greater dicepool at the cost of being obvious and generating paradox. Rote Specialties: I gave each order an extra one! Adamantine Arrow: Athletics, Crafts, Intimidation, Medicine Free Council: Academics, Crafts, Persuasion, Science Guardians of the Veil: Investigation, Larceny, Stealth, Subterfuge Mysterium: Academics, Investigation, Occult, Survival Silver Ladder: Expression, Persuasion, Politics, Subterfuge Rote Skills: I'm flexible to a point about substituting the skills various rotes use. A rote's skill is determined by spell effect, so Subterfuge rotes hide things, Larceny rotes steal things, Athletics rotes throw things, and so forth. Some skills are a bit more esoteric - Intimidation rotes tend to project harmful energy, for instance, while Occult rotes tend to be able to alter supernatural properties of objects in addition to imprecisely controlling natural forces. If there's a rote you have your eye on that you think should use a different skill, tell me and I'll consider it. You may, for instance, substitute Academics for Occult in just about any Prime or Time spell if it suits you. Healing Can Be Vulgar Healing bashing damage is Covert, healing Lethal and Aggravated damage is Vulgar. Each level of aggravated damage healed past the first adds 1 mana to a healing spell's cost. Mage Armor: A mage armor spell works to render its wearer either Elusive or Fortified. Elusive mage armor makes you harder to hit - it subtracts its rating from any dicepools which involve landing some sort of blow, including attempts to establish grapples, land darts or thrown nets, or otherwise make contact. It doesn't reduce crushing damage inflicted within a grapple or damage from the environment. Fortifying mage armor makes you tougher; it doesn't reduce the dicepools of attempts to touch, grapple, or otherwise contact you, but does subtract from the dicepools of any attempts to damage you and does reduce damage from the environment. Elusive Armors: Fate, Mind, Space, Time Fortified Armors: Death, Forces, Life, Matter, Spirit If you spend one mana to cast Mage Armor as a vulgar spell, it not only increases its casting pool by two dice, but becomes both Elusive and Fortified as the power comprising it reaches blatantly out into the world to defend you at all costs. Stat Boosts: Spells exist that can increase the Attribute, Skill, and Equipment Bonus ratings of targets. In general, assume they work as follows: Covert, 1 Mana: The spell can increase the stat in question to its normal maximum (generally 5) with a Prolonged duration. Vulgar, 1 Mana: The spell can increase the stat in question to its normal maximum +1 with a Prolonged duration, or its normal maximum + your Arcanum Rating with a transitory duration. Acceleration: The Time 3 Spell 'Acceleration' doesn't subtract your Time rating from all incoming attacks in the turns in which it's active. Instead, it allows you to apply your Defense normally against attacks that normally ignore it, and use your Defense against attacks on which it's normally applicable without your Defense dropping for the rest of the round. LEGACIES Joining a Legacy: Find a teacher (or some other source of knowledge) and pay one willpower dot (repurchaseable) to set your soul on the path. Benefit: May use Legacy Oblations once per day to gain mana without requiring any outside source Acquiring Attainments: At Gnosis 3, 5, and 7, pay 10xp to buy that level's Attainment. Benefit: The Attainments! PARADOX: Paradox is a bit more prevalent, but much less hindering. It never directly damages you or causes your spell to fail, but it does cause your spell to have unintended side effects, highlights you as its caster, and sometimes causes collateral damage. Base Pool: Gnosis Rating +1 per two Vulgar spells already cast in scene by any mage +2 if any Sleepers bear witness to the magic +1 per roll made in a ritual casting -1 for casting a rote -2 for using a dedicated tool -4 for using a dedicated laboratory -2 per extra point of mana spent -1 per two points of mana spent in ritual Roll Results: Dramatic Failure: Spell does not count against tally of vulgar spells already used within scene, Nimbus doesn't manifest unless you want it to. Failure: Nimbus visible to other magi, vulgar spells in scene total incremented normally. 1 Success - Tell: Nimbus visible to all, effect is obviously magical to onlookers. All vulgar spells have some sort of detectable effect, but a Tell marks the difference between something looking strange and something looking magical. If a mage casts a spell to light something on fire, a 0-success paradox roll will mean that the object just ignites spontaneously - any characters watching won't be able to tell how or why. A 1-success paradox roll might mean that swirling rules illuminate both the mage and the burning object, clearly implicating him - Sleepers might not remember the magic, but they'll remember that somehow the mage was responsible for the fire. 2 Successes - Branding: Lingering effect reminiscent of spell remains on both mage and target of spell, i.e. sparks play over hands of mage who threw a lightning bolt for a scene and he gives people minor static shocks for the rest of the day. Strong effect lasts duration of pell, weaker effect lingers for like a day afterwards. Brandings often have minor mechanical effects, possibly giving the mage penalties to stealth or social rolls. 3 Successes - Anomaly: Random magical effects distort world around mage in a manner reminiscent of the spell cast. Anomalies always have tangible effects in the world, though whether those are just strange or actively inimical depends on a Wisdom roll. 4 Successes - Maelstrom: Like an Anomaly but much, much worse. Maelstroms often involve an almost total localized breakdown in normal physical laws and are never pleasant to experience, though whether they're incredibly inconvenient or downright lethal depends on the creator's Wisdom. 5 Successes - Manifestation: An Abyssal monster breaks through into reality. Sometimes these creatures manifest and attack outright - sometimes they lie in wait, or sometimes they just slink away to complete some agenda of their own. Wisdom cannot mitigate a manifestation - if you were really wise you wouldn't have caused one. All effects from 1-4 are cumulative (so if you roll 3 successes you produce a Tell, Branding, and Anomaly). A Manifestation replaces all other paradox effects. When an Anomaly or Maelstrom occurs, a Wisdom roll generally determines whether a paradox is merely bizarre or actually dangerous. The strength and size of a Paradox is proportional to the combined Arcana ratings of every mage that contributed. Sleeper apprehension can tangle and disrupt standing spells - every turn in which a vulgar spell is subject to Sleeper scrutiny, roll three dice per Sleeper. Each success adds to a Disruption total which is compared to the Potency of the spell. For each Disruption success that that exceeds Potency, the spell produces paradox effects one step up the table (Tell->Branding->Anomaly). Each success past the Anomaly stage reduces the spell's Potency by 1, as its power escapes the pattern its caster's will forced it into and runs wild. Once its Potency hits 0, it's dispelled. Each scene that a spell goes unwitnessed by Sleepers, it loses one Disruption point, but lost points of Potency never return. MISCELLANEOUS RULES Armor: Armor ratings don't stack; a character applies his best applicable rating in any instance. If two or more sources of armor are tied for best, use their best armor rating +1 (so a mage with 5-dot Forces armor and an enhanced 5/5 flak jacket would enjoy Armor 6 against a gunshot, but Armor 5 against a lightning bolt). Grappling: Readying any weapon in a grapple (including natural weapons such as claws or fangs) requires an action. Some natural weapons can be turned. Either party in a grapple can attempt to use a readied weapon (including "readied" bare fists or feet) to attack any target in reach, but they subtract the Strength of their grappling opponent from their attack pools. Oblations, Implement Dedication, Nimbus Uncloaking, and Other Miscellaneous Rolls: By default, mages do a ton of poo poo that comes to a Composure + Gnosis roll. Mastigos and Obrimos make Resolve + Gnosis rolls to do this instead - each of the five Paths is defined to an extent by the Resistance attribute they add to, see. Rote Actions: When you perform a roll action, you reroll every failed die as part of a separate dicepool. You can then choose to use either your original or secondary roll's success total to resolve whatever you're trying to do. Rotes: Rotes can often be "upgraded" to higher level rotes in cases when one spell is effectively a stronger version of another; check with me! Spell Tolerance: A mage's Spell Tolerance is equal to the higher of his Gnosis or unmodified Stamina. Spirits: A spirit does not have a Defense trait per se; it's considered to possess a Fortified armor rating equal to its Power and an Elusive armor rating equal to its Finesse. CHARACTER CREATION To try and avoid the problems caused by a system where traits all cost the same in chargen but are priced according to rating in play, I just use the experience system from ground zero. Attorney at Funk posted:ferrinus here's a compilation of your spell rewrites for if/when you ever update your op code:Use Academics for general scholarship - maths, logic, literature, history. The only thing you can actually do with it is research quickly, however. Politics covers history, knowledge of local law, and the ability to analyze formal social power structures and manipulate them. Use Persuasion to construct sound arguments and clever retorts. It doesn't make people like you, but it makes people think you're reasonable and correct. Use Socialize to make people like you and generally have a good time. Socialize, rather than Persuasion, is rolled to seduce people (if it becomes important for some reason). Creation: You're not distributing dots, you're spending experience points. Attributes: Start at 1, spend 70 for primary, 55xp for secondary, 45xp tertiary. Then you have 25 xp to spread out among all categories however you want. Whichever Resistance Trait your Path grants a bonus to must be 2 or higher. 2: 10 xp total 3: 25 xp total 4: 45 xp total 5: 70 xp total Play: 5 x New Rating Skills: 78 primary, 48 secondary, 30 tertiary. Start at 0. Choose three Specialties. 1: 03 xp total 2: 09 xp total 3: 18 xp total 4: 30 xp total 5: 45 xp total Play: 3 x New Rating Merits: 32 xp. No fighting styles or other merits that grant multiple attacks, no trading merit dots for Gnosis. You shouldn't start with more than Order Status 1 unless very unusual circumstances are in play. 1: 02 xp total 2: 06 xp total 3: 12 xp total 4: 20 xp total 5: 30 xp total Play: 2 x New Rating Arcana: Start at 0, spend 72 xp. You must have at least one dot in each of your Ruling Arcana, and you must have ratings in at least three Arcana. Also, your two Ruling Arcana must be among your three highest Arcana, period. Ruling/Common/Inferior 1: 06/07/08 xp total 2: 18/21/24 xp total 3: 36/42/48 xp total 4: 60/70/80 xp total 5: 90/105/120 xp total Play: 6/7/8 x New Rating Rotes: Start with 6 dots of Rotes taught to you by your Order. Rotes cost 2 experience per dot in play. They aren't bought like other traits - if you want a four dot rote, you just spend 8 experience on it, rather than 2 followed by 4 followed by 6 followed by 8. EXPERIENCE The Gentleman's Agreement: No one spends any normal experience on Gnosis. Gnosis will only increase as Arcane Experience is accumulated. Everyone's on even footing! Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Jun 21, 2013 |
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Oct 27, 2008 19:15
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Zarick posted:what uhhhh i already did??  next time read the thread maybe?!??!!! 
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Oct 27, 2008 19:23
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Here are some spells from the GBAS, reprinted. I'll post more in this thread as I create or rework them. Death Arcanum Updates! The necromancer you guys fought was using streamlined versions of extant Death spells. I am going to post them here, since it's only fair that you guys can use 'em too. Expect other such posts about other Arcana in the future! Death's Grasp (Death ***) The caster lashes out with raw stygian power, sapping a target's vitality or even outright rotting its flesh. Practice: Fraying Action: Instant and Resisted; subtract target's Stamina Duration: Lasting Aspect: Vulgar Cost: None Rote Skill: Intimidation Each success rolled deals a level of bashing damage to the target. At Death 4, this spell can inflict lethal damage, and at Death 5 it can inflict aggravated damage provided an extra point of Mana is spent. Targets struck for bashing damage merely appear to grow suddenly pale and fatigued. When lethal damage is inflicted, victims visibly wither and rot, and aggravated damage causes flesh to rapidly blacken and necrotize. This spell is much more deadly when channeled through direct physical contact. The caster must first grapple his target - if the target has not escaped by the mage's next turn, the mage can cast this spell at no penalty. (At least a few seconds' firm contact is required; a light touch is not enough. A mage may grab his target using Dexterity + Brawl instead of Strength + Brawl, but if so his target does not suffer the mage's Strength as a penalty for performing Overpower manuevers within the grapple.) In addition to the spell's normal effects, the target's physical attributes are also damaged. For each success, the target loses one point of his highest physical attribute (in order of Strength, Dexterity, Stamina in the case of ties.) This effect is cumulative and cannot be dispelled; it's not a magically imposed enervation, but actual damage inflicted on the victim's vitality. Lost points of attributes return in reverse order at a rate of one point per round at Death 3, one point per fifteen minutes at Death 4, and one point per two days at Death 5. They can also be healed as though they were separate points of damage of the same kind the spell inflicted normally. This spell has no effect on the undead or on inert matter. Quicken Corpse (Death ***) This spell animates one or more bodies to serve as unfailing, devoted slaves. These creatures have minimal intelligence - enough to understand spoken commands and process basic visual cues, but not enough to perform any sort of abstract reasoning. Metaphysically speaking, however, they are mindless beings - their volition and direction comes from a combination of their master's soul and the actualized will of death itself, so typical forms of mind control are ineffective against them. Practice: Weaving Action: Instant Duration: Prolonged Aspect: Vulgar Cost: None Rote Skill: Persuasion Only one success is is needed to animate a corpse - increased amounts of successes create more robust zombies. This spell may be cast on already-animate corpses: if your successes exceed the potency of the spell animating those zombies, you gain control of them and their traits are overwritten, as though you had animated them from scratch. Zombies are statted out as ghosts. They have a Power rating equal to the caster's Death dots, a Finesse and Initiative rating equal to the caster's Gnosis, Defense 1, and a Resistance and Health rating equal to the spell's Potency (Potency cannot contribute more points of Health than the caster's Death rating, however). Their Size is equal to that of the corpse used, but it does not actually affect their health rating; that is based solely on the integrity of the magic holding the creatures together. A zombie attacks by rolling Power + Finesse and inflicts bashing damage by default. Zombies can use weapons, but clumsily - they roll Power alone, plus the weapon's damage rating, but minus one further die. Zombies cannot attempt any mental or social tasks; if a question exists as to whether a zombie is "smart" enough to react to some borderline situation in an appropriate fashion, the caster's Death rating can be rolled to adjudicate it. If the caster specifies some way that a zombie may be destroyed instantly, the zombie's health rating increases to Spell Potency + Caster's Gnosis. This method should not be any more difficult than dealing a level of lethal damage at some penalty - examples include damaging the brain, using fire, or carving a symbol into the chest or forehead. Death-based resonance analysis or even Occult rolls with an appropriate specialty might be enough to tell what a given zombie's weakness is, judging from its appearance and movements. Zombies suffer no wound penalties. They take only bashing damage from firearms attacks, and are not incapacitated when their health track is filled with bashing. As animate corpses, zombies are immune to many attacks that might harm or even kill a human - slitting a zombie's throat inflicts no damage, for instance. A zombie is destroyed when its health track is filled with lethal or aggravated damage. Zombies do not last forever - unless preserved with other magic, they suffer one point of lethal damage every day from rot. Zarick posted:i can't read that tiny poo poo gently caress you!!! Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Dec 15, 2011 |
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Oct 27, 2008 20:01
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Danhenge posted:man if our gnosis is our base paradox we are gonna star throwing manifestations left and right!! i'm fairly happy with the rate that paradoxes accrue right now remember that last adventure you guys had from a +2 to a +4 ad hoc bonus to all paradox purely due to abyssal influence i might rejigger the modifiers a bit if i find it happening toooo much, though
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Oct 27, 2008 21:02
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i encourage you guys to find pictures, flesh out backstories, define your friends and family,narrate short stretches of downtime and otherwise volunteer character detail incidentally! it helps the other players remember who you are more strongly (as something more than "forces guy" or "life guy" i mean) and of course gives me material to spin plots off of
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Oct 28, 2008 01:00
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That guy's awesome! His name is weird to me, though, because I've always considered "Matryoshka" to be a feminine designator? Danhenge posted:Under Ferrinus' houserules you don't get your Mastigos resolve bonus I think This is correct. That bonus 25 xp I give you on attributes is the Mastigos resolve bonus. Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 04:19 on Oct 31, 2008 |
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Oct 31, 2008 04:16
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Nicolae Carpathia posted:It is, and he knows it. The way I look at it: Well I'm Russian and while I am not exactly immersed in the culture I can tell you that just because A) I know what it refers to and B) the way the name ends with a vowel makes it sound like a girl's name to me. Representing a politician on a matryoshka is one thing, but that doesn't mean you would call the politician himself a matryoshka any more than you'd call him a barbie. quote:aw gently caress's sake owned you fuckin bitch
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Oct 31, 2008 04:36
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Nicolae Carpathia posted:Still not sure what to do with those leftover 2 points, since I've used 14 out of 15 xp on rotes. (You're a cruel man, Ferrinus, for making the upper limit an odd number even though all rotes cost even numbers of xp.) Fine it's fourteen.  Bad news, folks - there's a very good chance we won't be able to play this weekend, since I have a ton of stuff to finish and probably won't even be home Sunday through Monday. But I'll see what I can do!
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Nov 1, 2008 01:14
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Players!!! I'd like to run tonight (November 1st). You guys should accrete in the IRC channel!
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Nov 2, 2008 01:16
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For last night's debriefing, you get get 2 xp! No arcane xp, sadly. Current Total Normal Experience: 39 Current Total Arcane Experience: 20 (Gnosis 2)
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Nov 2, 2008 18:32
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Bonus! Notpaul's dude had a weird dream sequence that everyone cashes in on! +2 Arcane XP, for a total of 22.
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Nov 5, 2008 08:48
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Nicolae Carpathia posted:Wait, did I miss a game? It was a solo game, Notpaul kept bothering me to adjudicate the use of one of his lame powers so I turned it into a short game session. I am willing to do this for any player given time!
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Nov 5, 2008 17:48
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Danhenge posted:Ferrinus I want to approach Debord about a "Command Spirit" rote what do I do Normally you'd have to do something for this, but that's exactly the sort of thing he'd be expected to teach you. (Also, I rolled your Mentor rating as a dicepool and you got a success.) Feel free to buy it! Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Nov 8, 2008 |
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Nov 8, 2008 05:38
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Nicolae Carpathia posted:Based on the level of skills our characters have, what would be a reasonable assumption for the length of time they've been mages? Could be less than a year, could be a few years. None of your characters are really experienced dudes. You came in late (and thus already with 16 Axp and Gnosis 2), though, so it'd be reasonable for your dude to have a little more sorcery under his belt already.
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Nov 8, 2008 05:48
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Nicolae Carpathia posted:Well, he is 46, so I'm guessing he's older than the other characters. Does three years or so sound about right? I'm trying to flesh him out a little more, to get a better feel for the character. I'm not entirely happy with how I played him last time. Awakening doesn't come at a set age. There are old spry bearded wizards that everyone takes to be enlightened masters except they're novices who Awakened like 2 years ago when they were only 63. So how old you are doesn't control how long you've been wizarding, don't worry about that.
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Nov 8, 2008 06:37
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Story Update The irradiated mages, and those working with them, spend the day or two following their awakening researching the former mystagogue known as Enoch. Well, really they spend it both reading and listening to the compiled results of other researchers who've been working feverishly since the explosion. Enoch's history is mined out of a number of journals (none of them his own; he was a private man), timelines, and spoken testimonies from ghosts: Enoch awakened as a young man (early twenties, could have even been late teens) a little before 1940. At the time, he was believed to be in school, though which university and which subject he was studying has been long forgotten. He was certainly a scholarly man, though, and fell quickly in with the Mysterium. The journals and interdepartmental memos discussing Enoch's (he was then known as Orion; in fact, he's gone through several Shadow names) progress through the Order make mention of his unusually rapid progress at understanding the Mysteries and his fervent dedication to the Mysterium's mission of recovering and preserving knowledge. If any regret is voiced by Enoch's tutors and directors of old, it's that he seems to have precious little time to carry out Order business, being instead occupied by the affairs of his normal life. Then came the War. In 1948, the Seers of the Throne made a dedicated bid for control of New York City. Pylons seemed to spring up everywhere, either entering from afar simultaneously as the culmination of some decades-long strategy or revealing themselves as having been operating in secret all along. Members of every Order turned out to be double agents, and immediately began using what they'd learned of their Pentacle enemies to strike at them through their mortal lives. A shadow war was carried out within Manhattan's web of sympathetic connections, Astral dreamscape, and spirit world, and when it spilled over into the physical world results were catastrophic. Every Order had to fight, and so the mysterium's rising star was forced to become a battlemage. Enoch long resisted, apparently attempting to play down his connection to his Order and retain whatever life he lived outside of magic's halls, but as the Seer presence grew more blatant and more immediately dangerous he saw he had no choice. A prodigy at both his Path's ruling spheres, Enoch rapidly became a holy terror to the Seers, either shattering or ignoring their magics while lashing out with furious tempests of ice, thunder, or flame. Thanks in great part to the decisive work of the Mysterium's rising star, the shadow war ended in only two years. At its end, great parts of the Order's magical infrastructure was in ruins and many Pentacle mages were dead, so it was up to the survivors to dig in and rebuild. It's believed that either sometime during the war or because of the necessity of its aftermath, Enoch "quit" his mortal life to act as a mage full time. The man spent several decades as a Mysterium administrator, and was for a while the de facto leader of the local order. For a time, it was believed he would soon replace the Hierarch. But as Enoch's personal power continued to grow, he seemed to show less and less interest in the city's political and administrative affairs, and tended more and more to sequester himself in solitude, doing whatever mystagogue Hierophants do in their free time. Sometime in the 1990s, people noticed he was no longer attending Consilium or leaving his chambers to instruct apprentices at all, and a short while after that it was determined he'd left the city, or at least abandoned the Pentacle society within it. Knowledge of Enoch's magical style is likewise garnered from studied journals and communications, but also by studying his own notes. Enoch is an Obrimos par excellence - the fluidity and confidence with which he manipulates the raw stuff of magic and the universal forces it drives are almost legendary among the mages who knew him. It's also believed that he studied Matter, Space, and Spirit to a high degree, and most assume he at least has working knowledge of all of the other Arcana. Having been in the Mysterium his entire magical life (even leading it a while), he's surely a walking library of rotes. Enoch did not, by anyone's accounts, ascribe any sort of religious meaning to his magic. Instead, he specialized Sleeper occultism, rifling through everything from Daoist alchemy to Egyptian sorcery in search of higher truth. He didn't seem to have much truck with science, except as something it was useful to have some knowledge of that it best be defied. The group is given access to several magical treatises Enoch has contributed to or written wholesale, and even a few of his grimoires. Enoch is a direct, clear, and unapologetic writer; his voice echoes that of William Strunk, down to passages instructing the reader to omit needless runes. The group gets the chance to rifle through a number of books containing Forces and Prime rotes in their information gathering session, but doesn't get to hold onto them for long. Any player can choose to learn up to three dots of Forces/Prime rotes chosen from any listed in the corebook, though this will mean they spent less time actually brushing up on information. (-1 die per dot purchased to rolls made to remember this stuff later.) You also see a number of very grandiose spells that Enoch devised and are simply too complex for you to have time to learn; these include spells to blast everything in an area to bits or freeze single targets solid, as well as blasts that can damage a spell's integrity. I'll write them up later. Enoch's personality and character is reflected on by a number of mystagogues: Debord, spirit world explorer. : "Brilliant man, brilliant man, but so drat ruthless. Theurgist though he was, he was right on my heels where Spirit was concerned...but he had no love for his work. To him, the Shadow was just another room to enter, and its spirits either annoying pests to ward away or henchmen to enslave. I tell you, he didn't make ongoing diplomacy with the city's spirit courts very easy, and I'm not sure he cared, either." Felix, demonologist: "I hadn't been operating long when he left the city, but he did find time to give me a few lessons. Very interesting approach to correspondence magic, very - forthright? I wish he'd stayed with us longer - there must have been so much he'd learned and simply wasn't bothering to fill us in on!" Gabriel, ghost-binder and Moros Councilor to the Hierarch: "Enoch was a very professional man. In a way it's my fault he left us. You could tell, just looking in his eyes, that somehow the Order'd lost its sparkle, lost its draw. He was always old and cranky, sure, but I think at least part of him enjoyed the administration, enjoyed the teaching and research - but once he was done, he was done. The only thing that kept Enoch around as long as he was is, he's a very thorough man - doesn't like to leave things undone or done badly. Once he'd convinced himself that I was up to the job of watching the Athenaeum and herding the neokori, though, he up and left. I never dreamed of sending my servants after him to find out why." Something of a surprise to everyone, the local Arrow put their heads together and sent out for the oldest mage who'd known Enoch they knew. It just so happens that the elderly woman who calls herself Three Circles is a Vidantus: An Arrow who's forsaken the Order by becoming a pacifist. The Vidanti are forbidden from preaching pacifism to other Arrows or from joining other Orders, but their wisdom is still drawn on from time to time - and as Three Circles actually fought in the shadow war, she saw Enoch operate first hand: "An angry, angry man, blazing with power and just looking for targets to vent it at. I'm not sure what got him involved in the fighting, but it must have been a grave thing the Seers took from him, because it very often seemed that he did not care whether he lived or died. ...Mystagogues should not war, I think. They don't know how to fight. Maybe I should say - they don't know how to think about fighting. Their spells are mighty, yes, but their spells are too often all they have. I knew how to strike to merely wound or incapacitate, and had been trained for it, but all Enoch could do in the heat of the moment was respond with maximum force. What could have gone through his mind, looking at the charred bones his spells left behind? What about the second time? The twentieth? I only hope he's recovered in the past years." Matryoshka's search of police records reveals someone that could have been Enoch: Apparently, in 1953 a number of New Yorkers were taken into custody on suspected arson and general property damage: the power grid of an apartment building fluctuated wildly and shorted out shortly before the entire place burst into flames. The injured but living bodies of a number of people were recovered from the ruins - one of them was a brown-haired man in his early twenties who refused to give his name or indeed do much beyond sitting in the police car and then jail cell in sullen silence. He either broke out or was broken out the same night by unknown means, before he could even be fingerprinted. The owner of the police car that took him in found its engine fused into slag. What You Have To Go On Enoch's hidden Sanctum on the edge of a Manhattan dock has still yet to be fully explored, and its mysterious resident "Alice" fully questioned. Enoch earned the enmities of at least a few of New York's older spirits in his time - they may be able to tell you more about him, if only in hopes you'll destroy him. Hopefully we'll play this coming Sunday or Monday! Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 23:43 on Jul 29, 2009 |
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Nov 8, 2008 08:34
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Spells! Flash Freeze (Forces ****) The caster rapidly eliminates the heat in an object, person, or area. Living targets slow and take damage, while objects frost over and become brittle. Practice: Fraying Action: Instant and Resisted; subtract target's Stamina or Durability Duration: Lasting Aspect: Vulgar Cost: None Rote Skill: Occult or Science Each success deals one level of bashing damage to a living target. Every success after the first two also damages the target's Strength and Dexterity. Each trait's attribute damage heals simultaneously at a rate of one point per turn, and my also be healed as though it were bashing damage. With Forces 5, the damage is lethal (and ice usually forms visibly on the target's skin if there is any moisture in the air), and each damaged trait heals at a rate of one point per fifteen minutes, and may be magically healed as though lethal damage. Attribute damage is cumulative but may not bring a target below 1 in each trait. Objects targeted by this spell lose one point of Durability per success, and then take one point of damage per remaining success once Durability has been depleted to zero. An object's Durability may return as it thaws or may never return, depending on the object. Lethal damage caused to objects by this spell is usually irreparable by normal means, as chunks of the target literally break off and shatter. Terrain affected by applications of this spell with Area factors probably ices over: those who wish to move through at more than half their Speed must roll Dexterity + Athletics with the spell Potency as a penalty, falling prone on failure. Rend Dweomer (Prime ****) A properly-executed dispellation wipes the world clean of an unwanted spell, but actually accumulating enough power to match the Potency of a long-standing enchantment can be very difficult. This is a quick-and-dirty workaround - the caster lashes out with destructive prime energy at a spell he can perceive, literally damaging its basic structure for a time. Practice: Unraveling Action: Instant and Resisted; subtract caster's Gnosis Duration: Transitory Aspect: Covert Cost: 1 Mana Rote Skill: Occult Each success subtracts one point from a targeted spell's Potency. The spell continues to function at reduced Potency until Rend Dweomer's duration fades, at which point it "heals" one point of Potency per turn. With Prime 5, Rend Dweomer's duration increases to Prolonged, and spell Potency "heals" at one point per fifteen minutes. The damage this spell inflicts is not cumulative, and even a spell brought to Potency 0 is not actually dispelled - it merely hangs in space as undirected fragments of magic which will eventually weave themselves back together. Even if a spell is brought to Potency 0, it is still considered to be functioning for the purpose of tracking its duration. Guide Strike (Space ***) A reversed version of the common "Untouchable" spell, Guide Strike subtly bends the weft of space around a target to ensure that an attack aimed at the target hits home. Gunshots slip past cover, punches are a bit too fast to dodge, and swords find the chinks in armor unfailingly. Practice: Ruling Action: Instant and Resisted; subtract target's Resolve Duration: Lasting Aspect: Covert Cost: None Rote Skill: Investigation This spell is cost concurrently with a single physical attack (melee or ranged, but not magical in nature) aimed at its target. The caster must delay his initiative to cast it simultaneously with the attack he wants to empower, but may also choose to abort his coming action to cast this spell before his turn comes, in the same way he can abort his action to Dodge. Each success rolled reduces any dice penalty for the attack in question to damage the target by one, whether from Defense, Armor, Concealment, or environmental factors. Any successes left over after penalties are cancelled are added directly to the successes of the attack roll, even if the roll itself failed (but not dramatically failed), causing the attack to land unfailingly. Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 09:37 on Nov 8, 2008 |
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Nov 8, 2008 09:01
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Nicolae Carpathia posted:What happened during the first run in at Enoch's Sanctum, incidentally? Can I assume that the other guys filled in Matryoshka about what happened, during the course of researching more about Enoch? I should probably publicize this, so here's the official answer: Enoch's Sanctum Synopsis It was discovered that Enoch retained a private sanctum in the city, and the PCs were sent to take a look. The sanctum was on Manhattan's west edge, beneath a dock - a Prime phantasm of a solid brick wall sealed off a tunnel leading into a small complex that was guarded by strange humanoid monsters sculpted partly of flesh and partly of solid blue light. It turned out that these were Prime constructs conjured by a Seer of the Throne theurgist who had invaded and attempted to overtake the sanctum - he used Enoch's old facilities to create the warriors and then conjured and enslaved ghosts to "pilot" them. Exploring the complex (which was mostly exteremely spartan and bare) the group came upon one room that was lavishly decorated. It was furnished with a bed and sofa, it had bookshelves, a television set, and even a working computer. It also had a resident: "Alice", a young woman who the group found crouched on the bed in fear as a number of the Seer's conjured monsters used their claws to scratch away a magic circle that, apparently, was keeping Alice alive. The group drove the creatures away and repaired and refueled the circle for her, but before they could ask her much they were forced to confront the Seer himself. A pitched battle took the group outside the sanctum and onto the docks, where the weakened Seer was suddenly abducted by the spirit the Emerson Tower scelestus had been using to collect sacrifices. The group found that the Sanctum's entrance had been resealed after their exit, and did not have the strength to attempt re-entry, so they just reported back to base. Later, they watched that Seer's throat slit just before an angel (or "angel") materialized and blasted everything to bits. quote:(Also, since I don't have Prime or Forces, this is a moot question, but if I had taken some of Enoch's rotes, would my Eidetic Memory merit have kept me from the die-roll penalties on remembering our research?) No, because the problem is that you'd literally have been studying rotes rather than listening or reading information. On the other hand, your Eidetic Memory would mean that you wouldn't have to roll at all in instances that the rest of the group would have to.
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Nov 9, 2008 00:26
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Nicolae Carpathia posted:Cool, thanks! Sometimes I have so many questions Every question you ask in this thread makes happyelf that much angrier that none of his players apparently bother to discuss the game, so by all means.
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Nov 9, 2008 00:31
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Dammit Who? posted:Do we need to run a short one-person adventure or something if I want to increase my Space arcanum to 4? Surely you don't have the XP yet... At any rate, probably. I'll tell you straight, raising Arcana (esp. past Disciple level) usually takes significant periods of meditation or study and isn't something you can realistically do in the current time frame, i.e. you have to get moving right now because we can only hold the radiation in for so long etc. etc. Once you guys are in a situation where you have some actual downtime, we'll figure it out. Nicolae Carpathia posted:What happened to Alice? She's still in there as far as anyone knows. You still have no idea what her deal is, although she spoke as though she knew the sanctum's original owner.
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Nov 9, 2008 05:21
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Attn mages! I'd like to play tonight! You guys should start accruing in #PC-OOC if you're available. I'd like to start sometime after 8:30 or 9:00 est.
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Nov 10, 2008 01:44
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Incidentally. The following mages were, if I recall correctly, at Ground Zero: Adramel, Arrian, Dasein, Tombheart(  ).They've been cured of radiation poisoning best they can - but they can still feel a slow burn deep in their flesh and bone marrow, and every time they exert their will they can feel the magic crackle and blaze painfully. Even the most basic Mage Sight spell stings to invoke, and when significant amounts of magic are used the pain becomes searing. * Every point of mana spent to cast a spell for any reason adds 1 die to that spell's dicepool. This includes the mana paid to cast a Vulgar spell, mana paid as part of a spell's inherent cost, or even points spent freely by the player for nothing more than a dice bonus. * Every point of mana spent to cast a spell inflicts 1 die of Resistant bashing damage to the caster. Resistant damage cannot be healed by magic. Adramel finds the effect feeding off of his connection to the Aether uncontrollably: He gains 3 dice per mana point, but takes 2 dice of resistant damage. Solomon still feels the occasional twinge but seems otherwise fine.
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Nov 10, 2008 02:36
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Finished exploring Enoch's sanctum! (Almost) +2 XP! 41 XP total. +1 Arcane XP thanks to Arrian's clever deductions about Alice! 23 Arcane XP total. Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Nov 12, 2008 |
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Nov 10, 2008 07:21
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Danhenge posted:what the heck Everyone, meet Jesu Kuristu. He's like super cool.
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Nov 11, 2008 09:07
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If he gets one it should just be a giant  imo.Anyway, folks, I wanna run some mage today (Tuesday Nov. 11). Perhaps around seven or eightish? But there is a complication: AIM is not working for me for some bizarre reason. So start accreting in the channel if you want to contact me!
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Nov 12, 2008 00:40
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Danhenge posted:also please include time zones, you're talk EST right? Yes, EST, the only real time zone. I can chill out and wait till nine or ten or whatever! But if any people are available they should feel free to materialize.
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Nov 12, 2008 01:17
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Danhenge posted:I would not advise this, tonight can't really be a late night for me! Well we're playing now without you anyway bitch. Debord is there~
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Nov 12, 2008 04:03
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oh ho ho ho ho
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Nov 12, 2008 05:35
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+3 experience for Troutville's Stump! 44 XP total. +1 arcane experience for discovering an interesting way to create indefinite spells semicheaply. 24 AXP total. Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Nov 12, 2008 |
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Nov 12, 2008 07:07
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Telekinetic Strike (Forces ***) The staple offensive spell of the Forces arcanum, this technique allows the caster to batter a target with pure kinetic energy. As the mage's mastery increases, he can finely sculpt the attack so as to rend or even disintegrate his target. This spell generally manifests as a whipcrack of force that lashes from the caster to the target, but advanced users can cause their victims to simply be crushed where they stand. Practice: Fraying Action: Instant and Aimed Duration: Lasting Aspect: Vulgar Cost: None Rote Skill: Athletics Each success inflicts one level of bashing damage on a target. A mage with Forces 4 can choose to deal lethal damage, and a mage with Forces 5 can spend an extra point of mana to deal aggravated damage. When this spell deals aggravated damage, it manifests both visibly and audibly as a shrieking, air-rending visual distortion, and so can be resisted by Defense. A mage with Forces 4 can choose to cast Telekinetic Strike as a directly-targeted spell rather than an aimed spell. His dicepool is reduced by the victim's Stamina but otherwise ignores factors such as armor, concealment, or prone-ness. A direct Telekinetic Strike inflicts bashing damage; with Forces 5, it can inflict lethal damage. In all cases, the target must roll Strength + Athletics, with a dice penalty equal to the damage dealt by the spell - if he fails, he is thrown a number of yards equal to the damage dealt (away from the caster for an aimed spell, or in any direction the caster chooses for a targeted spell) and falls prone. Telekinesis (Forces ***) The mage can exert force at a distance, moving things with thought alone. Practice: Weaving Action: Instant Duration: Concentration Aspect: Vulgar Cost: None Rote Skill: Athletics or Larceny The caster remotely seizes and manipulates an inanimate object, as long as the minimum Strength required to lift that object does not exceed this spell's Potency. The mage can will the object to take further actions in successive turns as part of concentrating to maintain the spell. While the spell remains in effect, the caster can also move the object nonviolently through the air at a speed of Gnosis + Forces + 5 in addition to taking his own movement in a turn. Dice actions taken by the object are resolved using the caster's Forces rating as an attribute and the caster's own skills, so the caster rolls Forces + Larceny + Equipment Bonus to remotely pick a lock or Forces + Weaponry + Damage Bonus to slash someone with a floating sword. The caster must release the spell's hold on an item to throw it beyond the range it could normally be moved in a turn, but adds Gnosis to the dicepool to do so and ignores any penalty for improvised weapons by expending all of the spell's latent energy at once. By adding target factors to this spell, a caster can take hold of and manipulate multiple objects at once so long as the spell's Potency rating is sufficient to shift their combined weight. The mage can still perform only one instant action per turn of concentration, so one object might act while the others hang in place or all objects might act together to achieve some singular task, adjudicated with a single dicepool. Rolls to affect multiple targets with levitated objects suffer a dice penalty equal to the number of targets. An Adept of Forces can cast this spell with a Prolonged duration. The caster must still concentrate to make objects perform instant actions, but can otherwise count on them to remain afloat or move through the air for as long as the spell lasts. Alternately, an Adept of Forces can add one mana to this spell's cost to double its Potency for the purposes of how much mass it can lift. Objects lifted by this means are too heavy to be manipulated normally: they can only hang in the air, float at a Speed equal to the caster's Gnosis, or float slightly faster at a speed equal to the caster's Gnosis + Forces if concentration is devoted to moving them. A Master of Forces can access both these options simultaneously. Telekinetic Grapple (Forces *****) The caster seizes a living (or at least animate) creature with unseen force, holding it helplessly aloft or hurling it through the air. Practice: Weaving Action: Instant and Contested; target rolls Resolve + Gnosis Duration: Concentration Aspect: Vulgar Cost: None Rote Skill: Athletics, Brawl or Larceny The caster telekinetically grapples a creature within range. If the spell's Potency is at least as high as the theoretical Strength rating that would be required to lift the creature off the ground, the creature can be moved through the air at a speed of the caster's Gnosis + Forces + 5 minus the creature's own Resolve as part of the caster's own movement on a turn. Otherwise, the creature is merely seized where it stands, unable to move freely as though grappled normally. The target remains otherwise free to act, although any physical actions it takes have their dicepools reduced by the caster's Forces rating just as they would be by the Strength of a grappling opponent. (At the storyteller's discretion, other actions might be penalized as well; it can be difficult to concentrate when upside down.) The caster can perform overpowering manuevers against the target on subsequent turns while concentrating to maintain the spell, using the same dicepool used to cast the spell minus the higher of the target's Strength or Resolve. The target might be slowly crushed or smashed into obstacles to inflict damage (adding the obstacles' Durability to the dicepool and potentially inflicting lethal damage in the latter case), forced to drop its weapons or turn them on itself (requiring separate actions to first turn and then attack with turned weapons), or Immobilized completely. Multiple targets grappled by adding Target or Area factors to this spell can all be subject to the same overpowering manuever simultaneously at a penalty of one die per target. Victims of this spell cannot escape by normal means but can attempt to will themselves free. A grappled creature can roll its Resolve + Gnosis once per round as an extended action, escaping the spell once its total successes exceed the caster's. A mage that already knows the Telekinesis rote can pay 2 experience points to upgrade it to a rote for this spell. Henceforth, this rote's dicepool can be used to cast either spell. Heavy Telekinesis (Forces *****) Exerting a prodigious amount of power, the caster can move staggering amounts of mass with a silent act of will. Practice: Making Action: Instant Duration: Transitory Aspect: Vulgar Cost: 2 Mana Rote Skill: Athletics, Brawl or Larceny This functions as the normal Telekinesis spell, except that the spell Potency is added to the caster's Gnosis and then doubled to determine how much material can be lifted at once, the caster can target the spell using advanced area factors by default, and the caster cannot perform dice actions or freely move levitated objects. The caster can move the spell's target up to Gnosis + Forces + 5 yards on the turn of the spell's casting, and must concentrate to continue the movement over subsequent rounds; otherwise, affected objects hang in place. A mage who knows the Telekinesis or Telekinetic Grapple rotes can upgrade them to this rote by paying the difference in experience points. Henceforth, this rote's dicepool can be used to cast it or either of those two spells. Telekinetic Trance (Forces *****) The mage's psychokinetic powers become effortless and innate. Suddenly, everything is in reach and everything subject to the caster's force of will. Practice: Making Action: Instant Duration: Prolonged Aspect: Vulgar Cost: 2 Mana Rote Skill: Athletics or Larceny The caster gains intrinsic telekinetic powers. While this spell is in effect, the mage may use the Telekinesis, Telekinetic Grapple, and Heavy Telekinesis spells as though they were Legacy attainments rather than spells; they do not cost an extra point of mana, cause paradox, gain bonuses from vulgarity or penalties from Sleeper witnesses, or function when used sympathetically or ritualistically. They are not subject to counterspelling or dispellation - the Telekinetic Trance itself must be countered or dispelled to deprive the caster of these powers. The base mana cost, actions and dicepools the caster uses to effect telekinesis do not change. Sleeper disbelief does erode the Potency of the Telekinetic Trance spell itself whenever the spell's effects are witnessed. Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 20:28 on Jan 20, 2011 |
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Nov 13, 2008 02:40
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quote:As the borrowed SUV rumbles down the road, Solomon finds himself sitting in the back with nothing much to do. Wind whips past through the open windows, something unidentifiable plays on the radio, and the entire affair's actually pretty restful, in a way. +1 Arcane XP for a bizarre dream Notpaul had (again)! 25 AXP total. Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 07:26 on Nov 13, 2008 |
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Nov 13, 2008 06:24
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Nicolae Carpathia posted:is this in the sense of "don't worry nicolae everyone will get a chance to be awesome too!" or "you have no idea of the terrible depths of my power!"? this is notpaul, what do you think quote:edit: I didn't mean this as a complaint or griping about how things are going, this game is a lot of fun, I am just concerned I am not pulling my weight or doing much to stand out as useful! dude you pretty much specialize in the game's strongest arcanum, don't worry about it incidentally, here's notpaul's player character, along with his Sleepwalker Retainer 
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Nov 14, 2008 01:07
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+2 XP for reaching Smoky Mountains and beginning your trek to Enoch! +1 Arcane XP for encountering a greater demon! +1 Arcane XP for learning something about the mechanics of demonic pacts! 46 XP, 27 Arcane XP total. Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 07:44 on Nov 20, 2008 |
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Nov 20, 2008 07:21
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God willing, we're playing today (11/20) as well as yesterday! Probably at the same time, around like 9ish.
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Nov 20, 2008 17:49
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+2 XP for making some progress. +1 AXP for witnessing a staggering display of Forces magic. +1 AXP for peaceful contact with a spirit in the wild. 48 XP, 29 AXP Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 08:49 on Nov 21, 2008 |
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Nov 21, 2008 08:34
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Nicolae Carpathia posted:so what did i miss? The party crossed path with a cabal of three mages who said they were in Smoky Mountains to investigate the strange weather phenomena. You warned them that Enoch was the probable cause and they said they'd be careful not to engage before giving you a chance to speak with him if they found him first. Afterwards, the party noticed a huge Fate spell hanging over part of the park, and as they watch the spell reacted somehow to something in the distance and this reaction was followed by a tremendous flash of lightning and thunder. Afterwards there was a freak hailstorm. The party made good time hiking, though near the end of their path into the ley line network they happened upon a wind spirit fleeing from several water spirits trying to eat it. They saved the wind spirit, which seems to have been a one-time servant of Enoch's that's now trying to reunite with him. It mentioned that Enoch was somehow incapacitated or in danger. E: We may also play today! Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Nov 21, 2008 |
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Nov 21, 2008 18:42
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Nicolae Carpathia posted:That sounds pretty awesome! Do we know anything about the Fate spell at all? It's really big and also involves some Time and Prime, judging from Adramel's estimation. ... +1 XP for making some progress. +1 AXP for learning a little about ley lines! 49 XP, 30 AXP Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 05:04 on Nov 22, 2008 |
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Nov 21, 2008 20:39
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Thanks for the summary Nicolae! Also I want to register my appreciation of Tombheart's () kicking up conversation in the camp while half the party went off doing recon, that sort of thing really adds to the game.Nicolae Carpathia posted:<Ferrinus> this weekend: enoch. i swear it. 
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Nov 23, 2008 00:45
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You young whippersnappers get 4xp for finally meeting me, and 2 arcane xp for seeing my cool rear end sanctum and learning of the Auctoritas! 53 XP, 32 AXP ________/
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Nov 23, 2008 08:55
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This spell is subject to revision! Time Stop (Time *****) At the pinnacle of Time mastery, a mage can place himself outside the time stream, acting normally while the rest of the world stands frozen around him. Practice: Making Action: Instant Duration: Special Aspect: Vulgar Cost: 1 Mana Rote Skill: Academics, Occult, or Science For each success rolled on the spell, the mage may take one turn's worth of action while the rest of the world is frozen. Since no time is passing for anything but the mage and his possessions, it is impossible for the mage to affect the rest of the world - walls are impassable barriers, pools of water are solid floors, and people are invincible statues. A mage could exert infinite force against a closed door and find it unopenable, empty an entire magazine of bullets into a frozen person and watch them bounce off and fall to the ground. By default, the mage and everything he wears or carries can move outside time, and a field of time around the mage extends far enough outward that gases (such as the air around the caster) yield to his movement. By expending a point of mana, the mage can cause one unattended inanimate object he touches up to Size 5 (or his Gnosis rating, whichever is higher) to enter his personal field of time for as long as it remains on his person. In this way, a mage could pick a letter up off a desk, open a closed door, or push his way through a cloud of confetti. Just as the spell treats the mage and his immediate possessions as a single object to unfreeze, though, the spell treats people and their immediate clothing and possessions as single objects, so a mage could not steal the gun out of a frozen police officer's holster without unfreezing the entire officer. The mage can cast spells while time is stopped, but they have no more effect on the frozen world than anything else the mage does. A mind control spell, even one with an extended duration, finds no purchase on a person's mind, because no time exists in which it could; it slides off and fizzles away as though it found no target. The mage can affect himself, objects he carries, and object's he's spent mana on to include in his personal time field normally, however, so he could use the time to heal himself, fly into the air, or transform his coat into a flak jacket as easily as he normally could. By adding target factors to the spell, the caster can take other characters with him as he stops time. Just as with objects, a mage must make contact with a person and spend one mana to unfreeze that person for as long as contact is maintained. The spell's final Target factor determines its maximum capacity, so to speak - with one extra target factor the Time Stop could unfreeze two people at a time, so the mage could unfreeze one ally, allow him to move elsewhere, then release him to unfreeze a second ally. Ferrinus fucked around with this message at 01:20 on Dec 28, 2008 |
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Nov 25, 2008 00:52
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