Mage House Rules

  • Please review How Magick Works for a primer on our view of Focus, Paradigm, Practices, and Instruments.
  • Please review the page on Ritual Magic. For the purposes of the Mage sphere, “ritual magic” is meant to encompass the specific game-mechanic-based category of “Great Work” (p. 542 of the 20th Anniversary Edition Core Rulebook, i.e., effects requiring more than 10 successes); this type of casting is likely to be restricted in some way under the final house rules, and should in general be avoided until we’ve figured out how, exactly. This does not apply to the use of rituals and rites as a Practice! That’s an entirely IC construct. A Hermetic Mage may spend many hours in their study preparing all but the very last few words of a spell to be cast, and a Dreamspeaker may spend just as much time summoning and bargaining with spirits in order to be ready to invoke effects on a moment’s notice at some later date.
  • Please review the page on Extended and Permanent Effects.

Character Creation

  • Maximum starting Arete is 3.
  • Mage characters begin with 5 dots in Backgrounds, rather than 7 as stated in the core book.

Resonance and Synergy

We are not currently using any game mechanics for Resonance and Synergy; the possibilities are still under review. The most likely outcome is that we will use the rules from Book of Secrets, but for the moment, Resonance and Synergy are strictly for flavor purposes. If and when we change this, characters will be able to set or reset their Resonance and Synergy dots to suit the character.

Do

We do not currently use the “Special Do Techniques” listed on pp. 427-430 of the Mage Core Rulebook. Our feeling is that these are really magickal effects, and should be handled as such, rather than inherent benefits for a specific Tradition. We don’t give Sons of Ether free effect slots for buying Hypertech, either!

Characters with Do still enjoy the reduction in difficulty for basic combat maneuvers (but not for Martial Arts maneuvers), and the ability to do lethal damage with unarmed strikes or parry/block lethal damage when unarmed.

Since we have significantly reduced the number of Martial Arts maneuvers available, Do provides one such maneuver for free per dot of Do, rather than two as in the core book.

Familiars

  • As a template that would normally have 11/7/4 Ability dots, Familiars instead have 15/11/5 to compensate for the greater than standard number of Abilities here.
  • Familiars may have Abilities specific to the Mage sphere (Awareness, Cosmology, Esoterica, etc.)
  • Familiars may have some Merits and Flaws that are not used for PCs, up to the usual limit of 7 points of Flaws. At some future point we will have a list of what qualifies, but in the meantime the general rule is that things that impose drawbacks without being play-crippling will probably be fine; things that don’t seem to offer any quantifiable drawback (especially those that only reflect the relationship between character and familiar) are unlikely to be approved.
  • Familiars may purchase Charms. In general, spirit Familiars will be permitted more leeway in the number and type of Charms they can have than fully-embodied Familiars. This is not a hard and fast rule, just a guideline.
  • Familars that have both a Special Advantage and a Charm with a similar effect will generally not be permitted; you can’t have the Armor Advantage and the Armor Charm. Where there’s a choice, embodied Familiars should favor Advantages, while spirit Familiars should favor Charms.
  • For purposes of Charms, a Familiar’s Gnosis and Rage are treated as equal to half their Willpower (round up).
  • The following Charms are suitable for purchase and use by Familiars: Airt Sense, Appear, Brand, Cling, Digital Disruption, Dream Journey, Ease Pain, Element Sense, Healing, Illuminate, Inhabit, Meld, Mind Speech, Peek, Spirit Static, Terror, Waves, Create Water, Blinding Fog, Jack In.
  • The following Charms are suitable for purchase and use with slight modifications:
    • Armor: remember that Gnosis is treated as half of Willpower.
    • Break Reality: this affects exclusively Umbral objects.
    • Call For Aid: this requires ST decision-making on what shows up and how you can negotiate with them.
    • Cleanse the Blight: exact effects are ST judgment.
    • Control Electrical Systems: the Essence cost applies per turn of control.
    • Create Fire: this Charm creates the environmental effect of things being on fire; it is not useful for directly damaging opponents or their possessions (so you can’t set their clothes on fire, either). People who are set aflame by contact with the fires set by this Charm are treated as if they had been set aflame normally.
    • Flee: extra Willpower may only be used to flee; if you’re taking combat actions other than “run away” or “dodge while running away”, it is not useful.
    • Materialize: use of this Charm costs Essence equal to half of the local Gauntlet, rounded down, and permits the user to remain materialized for the duration of the scene. If they choose to end this Charm prematurely, they must pay the Essence cost again in order to materialize a second time.
    • Shapeshift: each purchase of this Charm permits you to select one specific alternate form; this form may not be changed after purchase.
    • Soul Reading: this Charm allows the user to read the target’s passions and temperament, as stated, but does not reveal if they a supernatural creature, or which type they are if so.
    • Swift Flight: you may only take movement actions when using this Charm. Attacks (including attempts to charge into someone/something) immediately end the Charm’s effects before the attack is resolved.
  • Charms not listed here are not currently in use. Some of them may be added in the future — we are still considering Re-form, Short Out, Solidify Reality, Disorient, and Plant Command. Others are unlikely to be used for PC Familiars in the foreseeable future.

Quintessence & Tass

Followed strictly in an always-on online setting, the tabletop rules for Mage permit — encourage, really — characters to stockpile large quantities of Tass (and, if they have the proper spheres, Quintessence) for future use. We don’t think this is really the intent of the rules; rather, it’s an artifact of their use in a setting where characters may not have to deal with significant challenges on a regular basis, and are likely to know in advance of major upcoming events. And, to be quite candid, we think there are better uses of both player and staff time than submitting +requests to increment someone’s Tass stockpile on a weekly basis. Therefore, we have adopted the following rule:

  • Characters begin play with an amount of Quintessence equal to their Avatar rating.
  • Characters with the Node Background regain Quintessence according to that Background’s guidelines. Characters with a Familiar are expected to subtract the Familiar’s upkeep from the resulting number. Characters without Node generally do not regain Quintessence unless transferred to them by another character (or unless directed by staff).
  • A character may have up to 5 + the higher of their Prime or Avatar ratings in Quintessence and/or Tass. Both Quintessence and Tass count against this same limit; it does not apply to both separately.
  • Characters with Prime may have the full amount stored in their personal Pattern, if they wish; characters without Prime are limited to their Avatar rating.
  • Characters who have either Node or Prime 3 may have some or all of this amount stored as Tass; characters without either are restricted to having it stored in their personal Pattern.
  • It is assumed that additional Quintessence (or Tass) beyond this limit is being used in the character’s offscreen life, whether burned up in research or spellcasting, traded for information or mentorship, etc., etc.

Spheres

Prime

  • A character with Prime may spend a number of Quintessence in one turn equal to the higher of their Prime or Avatar ratings without needing to cast a Prime 3 effect. A Prime 3 effect is still required (c.f. How Do You Do That?, p.43) for spending more than 5 Quintessence per turn.
  • The “Heart’s Blood” section of the “Harvesting Quintessence Through Sacrifice” optional rule (c.f. How Do You Do That?, p.50) is in use. Bear in mind that, per the rule as written, this is only useful for the task at hand, and cannot be used to stockpile Quintessence for later use. The other sections of this optional rule (“Burnt Offerings”, “Bond of Blood”, “Lambs to the Slaughter” and “Disintegration/Purifying Flames”) are not currently in use.

Time

  • It is very likely that Time 4 will be toned down in some significant way. Conditional-trigger spells are problematic for large lightly-ST’d games for reasons similar to why Ritual Magic is. We’re not likely to spend too much time on this until someone is much closer to achieving Time 4, but please be aware of it.
  • Time 5 is not likely to ever be permitted in-game. Time travel can be great fun in tabletop, but it raises far too many headaches in a game like this one.