Chapter Nine: Dramatic Systems 495 wreak havoc on electrical energies, causing most sorts of non-magickal equipment to short out, burn out, or even explode. For two Essence, the spirit can disrupt fragile electrical systems (radios, computers, lights, etc.) With five Essence, it can fry any small electrical system that’s not designed or protected with hypertech. And with 10 Essence, it can disrupt (and probably destroy) electronic gear that is protected with hypertech, or else cause widespread damage in massive electrical systems, like city power grids. • Terror: Through awesome majesty or horrific appearance, the spirit invokes a primal, screaming fear. Mortals and other spirit beings confronted with this entity and its Charm must make Willpower rolls, difficulty 7, or else tremble with soul-deep terror. (If the roll fails, the character is at minus three dice to all dice pools if she tries to act; she succumbs to headlong flight if she can manage to run or fly away from the spirit.) A botch on the Willpower roll reduces the target to weeping, fetal panic. The charm costs three Essence to activate. By spending 10 Essence instead, the entity can raise that Willpower roll’s difficulty to 9, force everything that fails that roll to collapse in fear, and subtract three dice from even the targets who do make the roll. For even nastier effects of this Charm on unfortunate characters, see Things Man Was Not Meant to Know under Part III: Health and Injury. • Track: For five Essence, the entity can track a certain being, without error, throughout the Otherworlds. Certain beings might not be willing or able to enter certain Realms (say, a demon faced with a heaven), but beyond that, the target of this Charm shines like a beacon to the pursuing spirit. • Umbral Storm: Summoning an Otherworldly storm (often like a hurricane, but possibly much weirder than that…), the spirit invokes high winds (40 mph) and driving rains. This being the Umbra, those rains might be blood, frogs, Skittles, or some other cascading material. For five Essence, the storm covers roughly a mile in diameter; for every two additional Essence points spent, that spirit can increase the winds by 10 mph or the storm’s size by 10%. A favored trick for elementals and storm spirits, this Umbral tempest lasts until it blows over naturally. • Umbraquake: This shattering Charm shakes the local Umbrascape with such force that everyone standing within its range (roughly a half mile) suffers half the spirit’s Rage in bashing damage each turn, either from the shaking ground or from collapsing structures, falling trees, and other debris. Each turn’s worth of quake costs five Essence. A flying character is, of course, immune to the damage, though perhaps not from the sound- and shockwave of the quake. • Updraft: A potent gust of wind lifts human-sized creatures into the air. The Storyteller rolls the spirit’s Willpower against difficulty 6; for each success, the spirit can lift one creature of roughly 300 pounds or less. Costs no Essence. • Waves: This elemental spirit Charm creates strong currents on or under the surface of bodies of water. Churning waters to froth, the spirit can swamp boats, drown swimmers, and send waves crashing against shores or vessels. Such applications cost five Essence to affect a 50 foot radius, and the effects last roughly five minutes for each five Essence spent. Roleplaying and Storytelling Spirit Entities From a game systems standpoint, a spirit is simply a character – a bundle of Traits and motivations that deals with your heroes just as any other character would. And yet, on a dramatic level, a spirit is something more than that. Every spirit ought to carry a sense of strangeness when it appears. Winds blow, shadows curl, flames flicker, and noises go silent. The mere presence of a spirit prickles the senses too: hairs rise up on the back of your arms, chills clutch the base of your spine, sights and sounds appear to deepen or fade in the presence of a spirit. A collection of Traits can’t get such things across… but the Storyteller and the players can. Atmospheric Powers To emphasize the uncanny nature of spirit entities, the Storyteller may give such characters a variety of minor powers that function as story elements: the ability to chill a room with a glance, cry a river of blood, summon every bird or cat within the area, and so on. Flies might sing and trees might speak when a powerful spirit comes near. From a gaming standpoint, these atmospheric powers should simply happen, without rolls or Essence-point expenditures. To be fair, such powers should not be overt attacks or defenses – merely quirks of narration that show that your heroes are dealing with something Other, and thus worthy of respect. Mages – even reckless ones – don’t take spirits lightly. When a spirit character appears, the other characters ought to show it some respect. This doesn’t mean cowering in the spirit’s presence, although certain godlings should certainly earn that kind of reaction. It does mean, though, that the characters will take that spirit seriously… and, by extension, the players should as well. Mocking Thor to his face isn’t just a great way to get a lightning-bolt colonoscopy – it’s also a great way to wreck the mood in what should be a potent moment of your chronicle. With just a bit of imagination, creativity, and respect, the presence of an Umbrood entity can mark a powerful moment in your Mage chronicle. The Inhuman Entities entry in Chapter Seven (p. 356) features suggestions about the motivations and roleplaying involved in an Umbrood character. So if you’re a Storyteller, invest your spirit with weird quirks of atmosphere and behavior; if you’re a player, go along with that as well, bringing your own imagination to the game when describing the reactions of your character in the presence of the Sacred Other – a being who could be your ally, enemy, or god.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 497 You have escaped the cage. Your wings are open. Now fly. — Jeddaludin Rumi Six of Pentacles Associations: Exchange of energies; expression and expanse; practicality; reciprocation; vanity; self-centeredness; a tendency to go to extremes… I call it The Look. One long Look in a person’s eyes, and I can tell you more or less what he’s thinking. Read whether or not he’s feeding me a line. Maybe even rattle him enough to get him to scurry off and go bother someone else. Or I can seduce him. Dangle him by a little strand of Will, like a spider over the candle-flame I’ve lit just to see him squirm. I can make him believe in me, fear me, trust and even worship me. If I really want to get vicious, I could even kill him with a long and nasty glare. That’s no easy trick. I’ve been studying The Look for years. Reading dusty old books, practicing new variations, honing my Will until I can reach into a person’s soul just by looking at his eyes. Everything from modern psychology to Left-Hand Tantra to medieval French Black Magic has gone into The Look. When I use it, I breathe softly and focus everything I have through an invisible tunnel of concentrated Will. The Look rides up from the base of my spine, gathering energy as it hits each chakra and draws solidity from the way I stand and shift my body weight. I feel it vibrate in my bones, especially when I’m about to do something seriously dramatic with The Look. This isn’t just focus, although that’s involved in The Look, of course. It’s something I could not explain unless you had the kind of background I have, with the ability to know that there’s more going in inside our skins than simple science would have you believe. Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick VI
498 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition To Be Clear About All This... This Book of Magick is pretty huge. Thankfully, it’s not essential to read and master this entire chapter before you play Mage. Folks who simply want to sling spells around can stick to Casting Magick, the Charts, The Spheres, and Focus and the Arts. Everything beyond those sections details the various elements of Mage magick, its rules, and the results it can have within your game. Although a Storyteller should have a working familiarity with these rules, the players don’t need to know it all. Also, please remember The Golden Rule from Chapter Eight. These systems are guidelines. Alter them if you see fit, and remember that there’s usually more than one way to cast a spell. Disambiguation Just to keep things clear… • The word you can apply to both the player and the character. • The word mage hereby applies to all characters who employ Sphere-based magick, regardless of their practices or affiliation. • The word magick hereby applies to making things happen by using the Spheres. Certain characters don’t consider what they’re doing to be magick, but for clarity’s sake we’ll use that word throughout this chapter. Helpful Terms (Capitalization as presented below.) • Arete: The Trait rolled to cast an Effect. Enlightenment is the same Trait by a different name. • Sphere: One of the nine Traits that define what a mage can do with magick. • Magick: Freeform reality alteration; done with Spheres and Arete. • Effect: Game term for the effect you have on reality when you use magick to make things happen. • working: Another name for an Effect; also, spell. • rote: A pre-prepared Effect; called an Adjustment or Procedure by the Technocracy. • focus: Game term that summarizes the belief, practice, and tools that a Mage character uses in order to craft Effects. • Paradox: The reality backlash associated with Sphere-based magick. • Pattern: A material substance, filled with Quintessence energy. • Pattern Arts: The Spheres of Forces, Life, and Matter, which can create, adjust, and alter physical Patterns. Spirit is an “unofficial” Pattern Art which does not deal in physical materials or elements. • Quintessence: The energy that creates and fuels all things. • conjunctional Effect: An Effect that uses two or more Spheres, combining their powers in order to do something that neither Sphere can accomplish on its own. • coincidental magick: An Effect that an average person would consider possible within the prevailing beliefs. Examples: Using a GPS to find something, making a lucky guess about something you shouldn’t be able to know, employing karate to bust a hole in a wall, etc. • vulgar magick: An Effect that the average person would consider impossible by the prevailing beliefs. Examples: Turning into a housecat, stepping out of thin air, snapping your fingers to make someone’s bones snap too, etc. The Look, more than anything else, is POWER. I’ve worked hard for that power. But if you’re nice, I can share it with you. What’s my price? Funny you should ask… An Extension of the Self Magick is an extension of the mage. Various mystics and authorities can argue about that point until the sun goes cold, but in Mage: The Ascension, the magick your character does is an extension of the person your character is. The ultimate irony of the Ascension War is that everyone’s basically doing the same thing, yet they’re killing one another over their impression of how and why they do it. In game terms, all mages use the same rules. The characters don’t see it that way, but the players recognize that fact. Mage’s magick system allows both the player and the character to invent spells to suit the occasion. Although pre-
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 499 prepared spells – often called rotes – certainly exist, the basis for the following rules is simple: create the spell you need from the things your character would do. This chapter, then, explains how and why those rule systems work. Four Questions at the Core Despite a bewildering array of terms and circumstances, you can boil the essence of Mage magick down to four simple questions: What do I WANT to do, and HOW will I do it? Can I use what I KNOW to get what I WANT? Did I succeed or not? And… What happens either way? Everything else in this chapter helps provide you with the answers. Cutting to the Chase Mage’s freeform magick system can seem confusing both in and out of game. As a result, this chapter will be as straightforward as possible. The metaphysical blahblahblah can be found in Chapters One and Two. Like the previous two chapters, this Book of Magick deals with rules systems and their practical applications in your game. Let the characters argue about the poetry while the players have a blast. On that note, the following systems have been left as generic as possible. A Hermetic, a Progenitor, a Batini, and an orphan all use the same rules, and this text favors those rules, not the methods that different mages employ. (For details about those methods, see the section regarding Focus and the Arts.) For easy reference, we’ve divided up this chapter according to certain topics: • Part I:Casting Magick (pp. 500-510)covers the rolls you make and the Traits you employ when your character casts magickal Effects. This section also features Magickal Reference Charts (pp. 502-510), which lay out the material for quick and easy reference. • Part II: The Spheres (pp. 511-528) summarizes what each Rank of a Sphere can do. • Part III: Casting Magick, Step by Step (pp. 528-547) details each element involved in the casting of magick. You won’t need to deal with each element every time you cast a spell. When you need them, however, you can find them here. • Part IV: The Paradox Effect (pp. 547-553) shows how things can go wrong for your mage, extending into the related section dealing with… • Part V: Quiet (pp. 554-561), which deals with the insidious effects of metaphysical insanity. • Part VI: Examples in Play (pp. 561-565) provides a host of examples of the preceding rules in action.
500 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition • Part VII: Focus and the Arts (pp. 565-600) offers an array of options for your character’s personal approach to magick. • Part VIII: Adjustments, Procedures, and Rotes (pp. 601-611) presents a handful of sample spells. • Part IX:Reality Zones(pp. 611-617) explore the cultural and geographical flexibility of coincidence and vulgarity. For the sake of clarity and easy access, certain important rules and charts have been repeated throughout this chapter. That way, you don’t need to dig through the entire chapter to find that one reference you need in the middle of your game. Part I: Casting Magick The key to Mage’s magick system is this: every mage does as he or she Wills. Although World of Darkness mages do use spells, tools, Procedures, rotes, and rituals, the things they do with those instruments change reality in accordance with the individual mage’s desires. That’s why we put that contentious (some say pretentious) “k” at the end of the word: because each mage changes the world in his or her own way, and that’s a bit more significant than simple “magic.” From a gaming standpoint, Mage’s magick system is freeform, based upon what your character knows, needs, and believes about herself. The Spheres provide a blueprint, and focus provides the toolkit, but each character – and each player – is ultimately an architect, building things to suit individual desires and abilities. That’s true even for the simplest Rank 1 perception Effects. You could have three Virtual Adepts using the same Effect in three different ways: one might activate a scanning app on his cell phone; the second could close her eyes, do some threepart yoga breathing, and extend her senses outward; and the third takes a few hits off a joint, open his eyes and sees deeper than the usual levels of human perception. In game terms, all three mages belong to the same group and yet perform the same Effect in their own way – the rules are the same but the roleplaying is unique. The ways in which you make your character’s magick happen depend on the way you want to play that character and the ways in which you see that person meeting their immediate needs. Here’s How You Do It Okay, so how, in game terms, do I cast a spell? • Step One – Effect: Based on your character’s abilities and needs, decide what you want to do and how you want to do it. This is called the Effect: the thing you want to accomplish with your magick. • Step Two – Ability: Based on your mage’s focus and Spheres, figure out if you can create the Effect you want to create… and if so, how your character will make it happen in story terms. • Step Three – Roll: Roll one die for every dot in your Arete Trait. The difficulty depends upon the Effect you’re trying to use; whether it’s vulgar or coincidental; and whether or not someone’s watching you. If you’re trying to hit a target with an attack (sword, gun, fireball, etc.), then roll the appropriate attack roll. For details, see Combat in Chapter Nine, pp. 409-457. • Step Four – Results: The number of successes that you roll determines whether or not you succeed. If you fall short of your goal, you may roll again on subsequent turns in order to get more successes. (See Rituals, Rolls, and Extended Successes, pp. 538-542.) If you fail, the Effect fizzles out. And if you botch, bad things happen. Those are the basics. Part III: Casting Magick, Step by Step follows this process through each stage, and the rest of this chapter explains the details. Consequences and Paradox Even if you succeed, you might still get Paradox: the consequence that comes about when you impose your view of reality upon the reality that already exists. Although mages dispute what Paradox means and why it works the way it works (see Chapters One and Two for details), in game terms, Paradox is simple: it’s what happens when you push reality too far. We’ll go into the various effects of Paradox later in this chapter. For right now, just remember that every time you use magick to rearrange reality, you risk having reality rearrange your character’s face. That’s the cost of magick in the World of Darkness. Your mage has incredible potential, but he must be cautious about what he does with it. In Mage, Paradox can strike when your character does something flashy, big, and sudden. Essentially, he pushes too hard against established reality, so reality pushes back. For that reason, you can get Paradox even when your Arete roll succeeds. And so, when you decide upon an Effect in Step One, remember the potential for Paradox. Be subtle and clever when you can… and when you have to go for the big, flashy Effect, accept the fact that you’ll be paying for it later. The following charts and tables show you what you need to know when you’re using magick in your game. For explanations of the various elements of magick and their associated rules, see the sections following these charts.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 501 Casting Magickal Effects All elements described below are detailed between pp. 528-547. Step One – Effect: What Do You Want to Do, and How? • What Effect are you trying to accomplish? • Which Spheres are you using? Step Two – Ability: Can You Do It? • How does your character focus belief and practice into making it happen? • Which tools and/ or rituals are you using? • How long does it take? • Is what you’re doing vulgar or coincidental? • Are any allies assisting you? • Do you have any mundane skills that might help? Step Three – Roll: Are You Successful? • Roll your Arete/ Enlightenment versus appropriate difficulty (minimum difficulty is 3): Coincidental: Difficulty = highest Sphere + 3 Vulgar Without Witnesses: Difficulty = highest Sphere + 4 Vulgar With Witnesses: Difficulty = highest Sphere + 5 • Add or subtract modifiers (maximum +3/ -3). • If you need to hit your target, roll appropriate combat Traits. • Spend Quintessence and/ or Willpower (if desired). • Check the number of your successes. • Do you need to roll more successes? • Repeat for extended rituals/ rolls. Step Four – Results: What Happens? • What sorts of results did your magick have? (Damage, Duration, apparent effects, etc.) • Did someone dodge, soak, resist, or use countermagick against your Effect? If so, remove the successes they rolled from your own successes. • Did you succeed? If so, determine its results. (Take Paradox if required.) • Did you fail? If so, Effect fizzles. (Take Paradox.) • Did you botch? If so, take Paradox as below: Coincidental Botch: Gain one point of Paradox per dot in the highest Sphere used. Vulgar Without Witnesses Botch: Gain one point of Paradox + one point per dot in the highest Sphere. Vulgar With Witnesses Botch: Gain two points of Paradox + two points per dot in the highest Sphere. (Paradox has different rules in Mage Revised; see the Paradox Points Generated chart.) • Did you get more than five points of Paradox? If so, Storyteller may roll for backlash.
502 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Magickal Reference Charts Base Casting Roll Effect is… Difficulty Coincidental Highest Sphere + 3 Vulgar Without Witnesses Highest Sphere + 4 Vulgar With Witnesses Highest Sphere + 5 Magickal Feats Base Successes Feat Suggested Successes Simple Feat One (Enhancing your perceptions, lighting a candle, changing hair color, shielding your mind) Standard Feat Two (Healing yourself, conjuring a small fire, altering your shape, influencing someone’s mood with Mind magick) Difficult Feat Three (Healing aggravated damage, conjuring a fireball, transforming yourself into a radically different shape, reading or affecting someone else’s mind) Impressive Feat Four (Growing or regenerating limbs, conjuring a firestorm, transforming someone else into a different shape, controlling someone else’s mind) Mighty Feat Five to Ten (Creating simple life-forms, blowing down walls, conjuring strange entities, commanding a mob) Outlandish Feat 10-20 (Creating complex life-forms, blowing up buildings, summoning Otherworldly creatures, turning a mob into your personal zombie squad) Godlike Feat 20 and beyond (Rewriting your own Pattern permanently, incinerating cities, conjuring monstrous hordes, enslaving hundreds of people) Notes Personal Effects typically require only one success. Effects that affect someone or something else require at least two successes. World-altering Effects tend to require at least five successes and go upward from there. Damage or Duration for these feats (not both at once) are based upon the number of successes rolled, as per the Base Damage or Duration chart. If you chose Damage, then Duration is instant. If you choose Duration, then Damage is zero. Additional Damage, Targets, or Duration may be purchased under the Optional Dividing Successes Rule, below. If you wish to add to the Effect’s Damage, Targets, or Duration before you make the roll, figure out how many additional successes you would need, declare them to the Storyteller, and then roll the total amount (that is, the Base + additional successes). Paradox Points Generated On a Success Coincidental None Vulgar One point On a Botch Coincidental One per dot in highest Sphere Vulgar Without Witnesses One + one per dot in highest Sphere Vulgar With Witnesses Two + two per dot in highest Sphere For optional Reckoning metaplot rules, see p. 550.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 503 Magickal Difficulty Modifiers Activity Difficulty Modifier Tools and Rituals Using a personalized instrument -1 Using a unique instrument -1 Using a unique and specialized instrument -2 (total) Working with unfamiliar instruments +2/ +1 Working without usual instruments +3 Using instruments when you don’t need to -1 Using personal item from target (sympathetic magick) -1 to -3 Appropriate Resonance (personal, instrument, ritual, or Tass) -1 Opposed Resonance (personal, instrument, ritual, or Tass) +1 Manipulating Mythic Threads/ hypernarrative -1 Time and Effort Spending Quintessence -1 per point, max. -3 Spending extra time (per additional turn each roll; max. -3) -1 Fast-casting +1 Turning time backwards +3 General Circumstances Researches lore about subject before using magick -1 to -3 Near a Node -1 to -3 Distant or hidden target or subject +1 Juggling several Effects at once +1 per two Effects Mage distracted +1 to +3 Mage in conflict with Avatar +1 to +3 Domino Effect +1 per two coincidences after first; see p. 539. Outlandish to godlike feat +1 to +3 Notes Maximum net modifier +3 or -3. Minimum difficulty 3, maximum difficulty 10. If you employ the Thresholds option, max difficulty is 9; in the latter case, extra modifiers add to threshold, requiring one additional success per +1 difficulty modifier. Modifiers that would take the difficulty above 10 add additional successes at a one-to-one ratio; a +3 modifier to difficulty 10, for example, would demand at least three successes. If you use both the threshold option and modifiers that take the difficulty above 10, then each additional +1 difficulty over 9 demands an extra success. A +3 modifier to difficulty 9 would require at least three successes. Degrees of Success • Botch: Character makes a critical mistake, wasting the Effect and all associated efforts. Mage gets Paradox points based upon the Spheres and level of vulgarity involved. • Total Failure: No successes. Effect falls short. Mage can try again at +1 difficulty. • Partial Success: Player scores roughly half of the Suggested Successes, giving imperfect results. Mage can keep going, at +1 difficulty. • Success: Player scores at least 100% of the Suggested Successes. Effect goes as planned. • Extraordinary Success: Player scores at least three successes above the Suggested Successes. Mage enjoys some bonus – extra Damage or Duration, high-quality item, loyal spirit, etc. – to be decided at Storyteller’s option based upon nature of the Effect.
504 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Base Damage or Duration Successes Damage Duration One None One turn Two Two levels One scene Three Six levels One day Four Eight levels One story Five Ten levels Six months Six+ Number of Successes x 2 Storyteller’s option Notes Damage also reflects the number of health levels healed by the Life Sphere, or the points of Quintessence channeled by the Prime Sphere. To preserve game balance, the Storyteller may choose to cap damage at 20 health levels (10 successes, or nine successes for Forces Sphere attacks). Magickal Damage • Bashing Damage: Mind Sphere Effects. • Lethal Damage: Most other Sphere Effects. • Aggravated Damage: Any Sphere when charged with Prime 2 and a point of Quintessence. Fire or electrical Forces Effects. Vulgar Entropy-, Life- or Prime-based Effects that directly disrupt the target’s Pattern. Correspondence and Time inflict no damage unless they’re combined with other Spheres. The Forces Sphere adds one automatic success to Damage. Entropy inflicts damage only through indirect attacks until Rank 4; after that, damage is aggravated. Teleportation Locations Successes Range One Within immediate perception Two Very familiar place (home, Sanctum, etc.) Three Familiar/ Just saw it recently Four Visited briefly Five Heard or saw it described Six+ Teleporting totally blind Correspondence Sphere Ranges Successes Range Connection One Line of sight Body sample Two Very familiar Close possession or companion Three Familiar Possession or casual friend Four Visited once Casual acquaintance or object used once Five Described location Briefly touched or met object or person Six+ Anywhere on Earth No connection Optional Dividing Successes Rule Under this optional rule, each additional success beyond the Base Successes may be spent on one of the following bonuses: Targets: One additional target for each success beyond the Base. Damage: Two additional levels of damage for each success beyond the Base. Duration: Add one level of duration for each success beyond the Base. One success = one scene Two successes = one day Three successes = one story Four successes = six months Five successes = Storyteller’s option Six+ successes = permanent (at Storyteller’s option) “I Disbelieve!” Only vs. mental illusions. Roll Willpower, five successes or more. Believability Difficulty No fucking way! 3 Hard to swallow 4 Implausible 5 Possible 6 Probable 7 Likely 8 Too damned likely! 9 To spot flaws in “physical” illusions, roll Perception + Alertness as described above.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 505 Feats of Illusion Successes Illusion One Simple, one sensation (sight, sound, scent, etc.) Two Simple and moving, one sensation Three Complex and stationary, or simple and moving (two sensations) Four Complex and moving (several sensations) Five Complex and reflexive (multiple sensations) Six+ Complex and interactive (full sensations) Notes Types of Illusions • Mental illusions = Mind 2+ (only in target’s mind; usually coincidental) • “Physical” illusions = Forces 2+/ Prime 2+ (visible to all witnesses; manipulate elemental forces to manifest sensory components) • Immersive illusions = Forces 4+/ Prime 4+ (“holodeck” level of apparent reality) Damage & Duration Illusions don’t normally inflict damage unless “damage levels” are purchased as described below. Illusions may indirectly lead witness into dangerous situations, as described under Environmental Hazards. • Mind = bashing damage • Mind 3/ Life 3 = aggravated damage • Forces = bashing or lethal, depending upon elements involved Default Duration is one scene. Additional levels of Duration, or “damage levels” of two levels of damage, may be purchased for one additional success, each level, above the Base. One day + two levels of damage, for example, would require two additional successes. Gauntlet Ratings Area Difficulty #1 Successes Needed Node 3 One Deep Wilderness 5 Two Rural Countryside 6 Three Most Urban Areas 7 Four Downtown 8 Five Technocracy Lab #2 9 Five Notes An area’s Gauntlet Difficulty may vary with time and circumstances; a dark alley on Halloween night might have a Gauntlet of 6, whereas a rigidly cultivated garden at noon could have a Gauntlet of 8. #1 = If using the Technocratic victory metaplot, add +1 to the Gauntlet Rating when in industrial-culture zones, whether or not the Avatar Storm is still in force. #2 = Treat as a Node when using Dimensional Science. Time Sphere Timelines Successes Effect Timespan One Within a year Two Five years Three 20 years Four 50 years Five 100 years Six + 500 years 10+ 1000 years or more Notes Timespan limits apply only to looking or reaching through time, not to the duration of a given Effect. Feats of Time Magick Successes Feat Three Step out of time/ minor aging (Difficult feat) Four Take one other character out of time/ noticeable aging (Impressive feat) Five Take several characters, or a roughly 10’ x 10’ area, out of time/ severe aging (Mighty feat) Eight Take larger area (25’ x 25’) out of time/ age to decrepitude (Mighty feat) 10-20 Take an even larger area out of time/ age to brink of destruction (Outlandish feat) 20+ Freeze or isolate very large and dynamic area or event/ age out of existence (Godlike feat) Notes Feats that rewind time add +3 to the difficulty. Feats that affect time beyond personal perceptions (viewing through time, for instance) are almost always vulgar magick.
506 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Paradox Backlash Roll Storyteller rolls one die for each point of Paradox in character’s current Paradox pool, against difficulty 6. Successes Effects of Discharge Botch All Paradox points discharge harmlessly. No successes No effects, but no Paradox points discharge. 1-5 One point of Paradox discharged per success. Mage also suffers one die’s worth of bashing damage per success and acquires a trivial Paradox Flaw. 6-10 One point of Paradox discharged per success. Mage also suffers a Burn of one die of bashing damage per success or acquires a minor Paradox Flaw. 11-15 Usual Paradox point-discharge, as well as a Burn of lethal damage or one of the following effects: a significant Paradox Flaw, a Paradox Spirit visitation, or a mild Quiet. 16-20 Usual Paradox point-discharge, as well as a Burn of lethal damage and one point of permanent Paradox or two of the following effects: a severe Paradox Flaw; a Paradox Spirit visitation; a moderate Quiet; or banishment to a Paradox Realm. 21+ Usual Paradox discharge, plus a Burn of aggravated damage either two points of permanent Paradox, one drastic Paradox Flaw, a Paradox Spirit visitation, a severe Quiet, or banishment to a Paradox Realm. Levels of Quiet Level Paradox Discharged Delusions or Disassociation 1 1-3 Minor quirks or occasional delusions; mage begins to manifest odd behavior and minor disassociation from his baseline reality. 2 4-6 Delusions and disconnection become more severe; mage perceives things that no one else can see, starts denying the experiences of other people, and begins to behave irrationally even by Awakened standards. 3 7-10 Mage’s senses backfire, creating blindness (real or conceptual), vivid hallucinations, and erratic – perhaps dangerous – behavior. Hobgoblins might appear, manifesting the mage’s delusions in ways that other people can perceive. 4 11-15 Mage either gets trapped in a mindscape of his own design, or else behaves so irrationally that he becomes a danger to himself and everyone nearby. 5 16-20 Mage either drops into total catatonia or takes on many of the characteristics of a Marauder but without immunity to Paradox. 6 21+ Mage goes Marauder and becomes a Storyteller character. Types of Quiet Level Denial Madness Morbidity 1 Stubbornness, minor projection Minor hallucinations Attraction to death and decay 2 Selective perceptions, hypocritical behavior Frequent delusions, mood swings Fixation with mortality 3 Irrational behavior, literal blindness to denied subjects Wild hallucinations, sensory overload Bloodlust and macabre behavior 4 Deadly fanaticism Mindscape or constant hobgoblins Violent sociopathy 5 Fanatical drone Catatonia or dementia Sadistic killer 6 Marauder Marauder Marauder
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 507 Mindscape Rolls Difficulty for all is Quiet Level + 3 Attempted Task Dice Pool Meditate into mindscape Perception + Meditation Meditate into Demesne Perception + Demesne Reduce time in mindscape Wits + Enigmas or Perception + Demesne Communicate to outside Willpower Aura Colors and Textures Emotional State Color Bitterness Brown Calm, Devotion Blue Change, Transformation Violet Compassion, Affection Pink Empathy, Sensitivity Green Enthusiastic, Idealistic Yellow Fear Orange Fury Dark Red Pain, Hatred Black Passion, Anger Red Sadness Silver Uncertainty, Depression Gray Condition Texture Arousal Bright Corruption Pulsating Dementia, Quiet Flickering Excitement Crackling Faerie Rainbow highlights Marauder Hypnotic, swirling Fanatical Intense colors Ghost Weak, faded Magic/ Mage Sparkling Nephandus Wouldn’t you like to know? Sickness, Dying Fading Spirituality, Awareness Gold Truth, Purity, Faith White Vampire Pale Werecreature Bright, vibrant Quintessence Amounts Per body, in points, that can be extracted with Prime Sphere Effects. Subject Quintessence Points Small animal (bird, cat, fox) 5 Large animal (wolf, horse, human) 10 Powerful animal (tiger, elephant, whale) 15-25 Changeling 20-30 Mage 10-30 (depending on Quintessence Trait) Spirit Essence Trait Vampire 10+ Blood Pool Trait Werecreature 20+ Gnosis Trait
508 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Common Magickal Effects Notes Entries reflect whichever Spheres apply to the feat in question. Transforming an object into air or fire would be Forces 3/ Matter 2, whereas liquefying it would simply be Matter 2. Many Sphere listings feature two Sphere levels. The first lets a mage work on herself, and the second (in parentheses) allows her to work on others. Changing your own shape, for example, requires Life 4, but changing someone else’s shape demands (Life 5). Other workings begin small but then escalate their effects with higher Sphere levels; these workings have been marked with a “+.” Entries with [brackets] have several possibilities, which depend upon the Sphere used in the Effect. For example, [appropriate elemental Sphere] could mean Forces, Life, or Matter, depending upon the element the mage is working with. Given the flexibility of the Spheres, there may be several options when performing a particular feat. The methods listed below are simply the easiest ways to cast a spell, not necessarily the only ways to do it. Common alternatives for the same task are separated by semi-colons. Body Magick Adapt to Environment Life 2 (3) Animate Corpse or Parts Life 2/ Prime 2 Animate Bones & Remains Matter 2/ Prime 2 Cause/ Cure Disease Life 2 (3) Cosmetic Alteration Life 2 (3) Create Body Life 2 (simple) or 5 (complex)/ Prime 2 Duplicate Body Life 5/ Prime 2 Grow New Limbs or Other Features Life 3 (4) Heal/ Harm Living Being Life 2 (3) Heal/ Harm Fae Life 3/ Mind 3 Heal/ Harm Vampire Life 3/ Matter 2 Heal/ Harm Werecreature Life 3/ Spirit 2 Increase Physique/ Traits Life 3 (4) Increase/ Reduce Speed Time 3 Revive Recently Dead Life 4/ Spirit 4/ Prime 3 Rot Body Entropy 4; or Life 4 Shapeshift Life 4 (5) Sleep Spell Mind 2 (suggest sleep); or Mind 4, Life 3, or both (compel instant slumber) Soak Aggravated Damage Life 3 Transform a Body into an Element Life 3+/ [appropriate elemental Sphere] 3+ (Life 4+/ 3+[appropriate Sphere]) Crafting Wonders Device Prime 4 + [Spheres in Wonder’s Effects] Fetish Spirit 4 (to bind unwilling spirit); or Prime 4 (willing spirit) Periapt/ Matrix Matter 5 (inanimate); or Life 5 (living) + Prime 3 Talisman Prime 4 + [Spheres in Wonder’s Effects] Trinket Prime 2 (to consecrate), or [Spheres used to craft Trinket’s special properties] For details, see Appendix II, (pp. 651-653). Illusions (see Feats of Illusion chart) Mental Illusions Mind 2+ Mental Illusions That Inflict Damage Mind 3+; or Mind 3+/ Life 3+ “Physical” Illusions Forces 2+/ Prime 2+ Immersive Illusions Forces 4+/ Mind 4/ Prime 4+ Fate & Fortune Alter Probability Entropy 2+ Bless/ Curse Entropy 3/ Life 3; or Prime 5 Cause Decay Entropy 3+ Spot Weakness Entropy 1 Spirit Powers Awaken Object’s Spirit Spirit 3 Bless/ Curse Entropy 3+; or Prime 5 Command Spirit Mind 4/ Spirit 4 Conjure Spirit Spirit 3 Create Fetish see Crafting Wonders Drain Spirit’s Essence Prime 4/ Spirit 4 Harm Ghost Entropy 3/ Prime 2; or Spirit 3 Harm Spirit Spirit 3 (acts like Life 3) Open/ Close Gateway Spirit 4 See Spirits Spirit 1 Speak to Spirits Spirit 2 Step Sideways Spirit 3 Touch Spirit Spirit 2
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 509 Objects & Elements Call Storm Forces 4+/ Prime 2 Conjure Element Forces 3/ Prime 2 (fire, wind); or Matter 3/Prime 2 (earth, metal, water); or Life 3/ Prime 2 (living wood) Conjure New Object Matter 3+/ Prime 2 Conjure Physical Illusion Forces 2+/ Prime 2 Direct Existing Elements Forces 2+ Disintegrate an Object Entropy 3/ Time 3; or Matter 3 Enchant Object/ Organism see Crafting Wonders Invisibility/ Silence Field Forces 2 Invisibility on Living Being Forces 2/ Life 2 Consecrate/ Harden/ Perfect an Object Matter 3+; or Prime 2 Levitation/ Flying Forces 2+; or Correspondence 3/ Life 2; or Matter 2 Object Inflicts/ Resists Agg. Damage Prime 2 Speed/ Slow Velocity Forces 2+ Transform Objects Matter 2+/ [appropriate Sphere] 2 Transform Forces Forces 3+/ [appropriate Sphere] 2 Perception & Psychic Powers Astral Projection Mind 4+ Astral Body of Light Mind 4+/ Spirit 3/ Prime 2 Clairvoyance Correspondence 2; or Mind 3/ Correspondence 2 Conceal/ Alter Aura Mind 1 or Prime 2 Conceal Avatar Spirit 2/ Mind 1 Conceal Thoughts Mind 1 Conjure Mental Illusions Mind 2+ Enter a Dream Mind 3 Influence Mood Mind 2 Influence Subconscious Mind 3+ Mind Control Mind 4 Prophecy/ Hindsight Mind 2/ Time 2; or Time 2 Psychic Pain Blast Mind 3; or Mind 3/ Life 3 for agg. Damage Scramble Thoughts Mind 3 See Auras Mind 1; or Spirit 1 See Avatar Mind 3/ Prime 2/ Spirit 1 See Through Another’s Eyes Mind 3 See Through Mental Illusions Mind 4 Sense Energies [appropriate Sphere] 1 Share Perceptions Mind 2/ [appropriate Sphere] 1 Shield Mind Mind 1 (2) Telepathy Mind 3 Telekinesis Forces 2+ Translate Languages Mind 3; Mind 3/ Forces 2 to translate language so that other people can understand it too Time & Distance Affect Distant Object/ Being Correspondence 2+ Aging/ Reversing Age* Time 3+/Life 4 (living being) or Matter 2 (object) Conjure Earthly Being Correspondence 4/ Life 2 Create Multiple Images Correspondence 3; or Forces 2+/ Prime 2 Create Multiple Objects Correspondence 5/ Matter 3/ Prime 2 Open Gateway Between Locations Correspondence 4 Rewind Time Time 3* Set Time Trigger Time 4 Speed/ Slow Time Time 3 Teleport Correspondence 3 (4) Time Travel* Time 5 Ward/ Ban Correspondence 2+/ Prime 2+/ [appropriate Sphere] 2+ * Turning back time adds +3 difficulty and is always vulgar.
510 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Quintessence Energy Absorb Quintessence Prime 3 Channel Quintessence Prime 3 Create New Node Prime 5 Create Quintessence Weapon Prime 3* Destroy by Draining Quintessence Prime 4 (object) or Prime 5 (creature) Drain Node Prime 4 Drain Quintessence Prime 3 Employ Periapt Prime 2, or Correspondence 2/ Prime 2 (Avatar rating to use reflexively) Enchant Weapon/ Armor Prime 2 Energize Periapt Prime 3 Fuel New Pattern Prime 2/ appropriate Sphere Nullify Paradox Prime 5 Refine Tass Prime 4 Share/ Exchange Quintessence Prime 3 Tap Wellspring Prime 4 Weave simple Body of Light Prime 2 (body only – no astral travel) See also Crafting Wonders and Quintessence Amounts chart. * Costs one Quintessence per health level inflicted.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 511 Part II: The Spheres To make a terrible pun of it, Mage’s Spheres reflect a well-rounded knowledge of nine different yet interrelated elements of reality. In story terms, these nine constructs represent a sort of “unifiedfield theory” of Earthly metaphysics. In game terms, they measure what your characters do and cannot do, based upon their understanding of theoretical knowledge and practical results. Each Sphere features five different levels of progress and result. That progression is represented by the number of dots in your Sphere Trait. As detailed in Chapter Two, within the sidebar Levels of Sphere Progress and Expertise (see p. 68), each successive level allows your mage to understand a bit more about the principles of that Sphere. As a result, he can do more things with it, adding a new level of abilities onto the previous levels of accomplishment: • Rank 1: Perception – the ability to perceive and observe the forces in question. With such basic (yet useful) understanding, a character can sense things that few mortals ever recognize. •• Rank 2:Manipulation – the ability to do small things with those forces. At this point, the mage begins to exert minor control over the phenomena she sees, and may use it to work small changes upon herself. ••• Rank 3: Control – the ability to alter reality in noticeable ways, though these are usually restricted to the mage’s self. In most cases, the Sphere begins inflicting damage at this level, and allows the character to work small alterations on other characters. •••• Rank 4: Command – the ability to perform major acts of alteration through the principles of that Sphere. Generally, this level allows the mage to make significant changes to the Patterns of other characters. ••••• Rank 5: Mastery – the ability to command vast forces in connection with that element of reality. By now, the mage knows almost everything there is to know about the principles of that Sphere and can perform godlike deeds with them. (Higher degrees of Sphere mastery might exist, but those are rare and optional so we’re not exploring them in this book.) The metaphysical principles behind those Spheres can be found in Chapter Two, under A Brief Overview of the Spheres and Their Properties, (pp. 67-71). Here, we’ll deal strictly with the levels of progress and the things you can do with each level of expertise. For easy in-game reference, each Sphere has been given an entry that details the expanding powers of that Sphere. To find out what you can do with those Spheres, especially when you combine them, see the Common Magickal Effects chart in the previous section. The Pattern Spheres Many entries refer to “the Pattern Spheres” – that is, Spheres that govern physical elements and materials. When a mage creates a physical force, object, or body from “nothing,” that spell combines a Pattern Sphere with the raw creative energy of the Prime Sphere. The Pattern Sphere crafts the form, and the Prime Sphere supplies the energy that makes that form “real.” As noted elsewhere, those physical Pattern Spheres are Forces (for energies), Life (organic bodies), and Matter (inorganic materials). Spirit is sort of an honorary Pattern Sphere that deals only with the metaphysical essence called ephemera. And so, when your mage conjures fire (Forces), butterflies (Life), stones (Matter), or ephemeral weaponry (Spirit), you combine the appropriate Sphere with the Prime Sphere in order to bring such things into existence. For details, see the entries for each Sphere in question. Conjunctional (Combined) Sphere-Effects As mentioned earlier, Mage’s various Effects come from Spheres; some employ a single Sphere, and others use a combination of Spheres. Sometimes referred to as conjunctional Effects, these combinations expand the potential of a single Sphere into Effects that no single Sphere could accomplish on its own. As an example, let’s say that Malcolm wants to influence someone’s mood. Mind 2 alone will do that. If he wants to alter a person’s body chemistry in order to induce euphoria, however, he’d need to use Life 3/ Mind 2… and if he wanted to set things up so that the body chemistry changed several hours from now, he’d need to add Time 4 to that Effect. Again, the Common Magickal Effects chart shows you how different Spheres and their Effects can be combined to create even greater or more expansive Effects. Locking an Effect Normally, a lasting magickal Effect remains in the location where it was originally cast. The mage has essentially transformed that localized reality to suit his desires. Certain Effects, of course, travel because of the nature of the things they do; rumors circulate, winds and fires move, a shape-shifted character can run around, a gate leads to some other location, and so forth. If, however, you want to cast a lingering, mobile Effect that has been integrated into a specific Pattern and which involves a Sphere that is not normally related to that sort of Pattern, then the Effect must be “locked” into the target’s Pattern by a Sphere that does apply to that Pattern.
512 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition What does that mean? It’s very simple: if you want to alter someone’s mind, use the Mind Sphere; if you want to alter her physical body, use the Life Sphere. But if you want to use magick to build inorganic material into her body’s Pattern, then you must use both Life and Matter; if you want to make her Pattern invisible by warping light around her body, then you must lock the Effect by using both Life and Forces. Locking the Effect combines the necessary Spheres so that the magick is essentially integrated into a Pattern. And as noted earlier, the Patten Spheres are Forces, Life, and Matter. Spirit is sort of an honorary Pattern Sphere because although it deals in non-physical elements, those elements have their own kind of Pattern when they become ephemera. (See Chapter Nine, p. 475.) Unless the subject of a locked Effect has been turned into a Wonder (see Crafting Wonders, pp. 652-653, and the rules given in Appendix II), that Effect still expires when the Duration runs out. The lock in itself does not make an Effect permanent. Sphere Specialties Each of the following entries also features a selection of specialties. You can choose a Sphere specialty when your mage accumulates four dots in that Sphere. As with the specialties granted to Attributes and Abilities, a Sphere specialty allows you to count each 10 you roll as two successes, not just one. (For details, see Chapter Six, p. 274.) At four dots, a player gets to choose one specialty, based upon the things the mage does most often with the Sphere in question. At the Storyteller’s discretion, additional specialties can be purchased for four experience points each, assuming that the character has spent time and effort training herself in that specialty. You can’t suddenly specialize in Shapeshifting, after all, if your character hasn’t spent lots of time learning how to change her shape. Spheres By Rote Longtime Mage fans know that the previous Sphere entries ran on for four to six pages per Sphere, covering 36 pages or more. During games, those long entries could get very hard to follow, and they featured an array of Effects that were essentially one-Sphere rotes. Those Effects, in turn, proved difficult to track down, especially in the heat of a game. And so, in the interest of clarity, we’re sticking to basic functionality in this 20th Anniversary Edition. A full presentation of the Spheres and their Effects and permutations would be far larger than any other chapter in this book. Most folks won’t need such an extensive catalog of spells, especially given this book’s Common Magickal Effects chart. For a detailed breakdown of the many potential applications of the Spheres see the Mage 20th Anniversary Edition sourcebook How Do You DO That? A Practical Guide to Sphere Magick, which presents a comprehensive look at the Spheres and their associated Effects, rotes, Procedures, and so forth. A small selection of rotes and Effects can be found in this chapter, in Section VIII: Adjustments, Procedures, and Rotes, (pp. 601-611). For more about the use of Spheres and the way in which they fit into the step-by-step process of casting magick, see Spheres: The Foundation of Each Effect, (pp. 528-529). Optional Rule: Technocratic Alternative Spheres Three optional Spheres at the end of this section reflect the Technocratic refinements of three of the nine mystic Spheres, as presented in the Revised Convention Books for the New World Order (the Data Sphere, an analog of Correspondence), the Syndicate (Primal Utility, the hypereconomic applications of Prime), and the Void Engineers (Dimensional Science, the scientific perspective on Spirit). For the most part, these optional Spheres may be purchased ONLY by Technocratic operatives, as these disciplines reflect the training, research, and conditioning of the Technocratic Union. The exception, Data, is based on innovations by the Virtual Adepts and has since been adopted by technomancers from all over the spectrum. In most respects, a Technocratic Sphere functions like a mystic one. These three variants, however, have a few noticeable bonuses and limitations, which get covered in the individual entries. A character cannot possess both a Technocratic Sphere and the corresponding mystic Sphere. Doing so would essentially reflect a divided perspective on Reality – believing two related yet opposed beliefs about the same thing. That said, a character may transition from one to the other if the story supports that transition. In such cases, the character temporarily loses a dot in that Sphere until she has a chance to add one point of Arete, essentially experiencing a revelation that allows her to adapt her old expertise to her new understanding. At that point, the Sphere returns to its previous rating. The player does not have to spend extra experience points to return that Sphere to its old level, although raising it, of course, costs the usual amount of experience points. The other Spheres – Entropy, Forces, Life, Matter, Mind, and Time – follow the same rules, regardless of a mage’s affiliation. A NWO Black Suit would refer to his approach to the Mind Sphere as Psychodynamics, but Psychodynamics still functions, in system terms, the same way that the Mind Sphere does. Correspondence Connections and Dimensions Specialties: Conjuration, Scrying, Gates, Warding, Teleportation By manipulating the ties between places, objects, and people, the Correspondence Sphere allows a mage to sidestep distances, sense things that would normally be out of range, pull objects out of thin air, levitate or fly, or connect an Effect to some other place or character. Some mages proclaim this Sphere
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 513 is proof that distance is an illusion, whereas others view it as the Art of pulling strings between different places and people. Because this Sphere deals with space and relationships, its Effects use a special Correspondence Sphere Ranges chart, found on (p. 504). Most Effects require touch or close contact, but Correspondence lets the mage reach across distances and affect hidden or faraway targets. When adding Correspondence to an Effect, use that Correspondence Sphere Ranges chart to find the connection and then exploit it. Tenuous connections require several successes, but spanning close connections is easy for a mage who understands this Art. On its own, Correspondence allows the mage to reach across distances, even to places she cannot see or touch. At Rank 2 or higher, she can grasp items and work with them from a distance. To manipulate other objects or beings in ways other than physical contact, however, that mage must combine Correspondence with another Sphere – typically a Pattern Sphere (Forces, Life, or Matter). When combining Correspondence with other Spheres, however, the Effect is limited – in game terms – to the mage’s Rank in the Correspondence Sphere, not to the Rank of the other Spheres involved. A mage, for instance, who has only Correspondence 2 tries to use a Forces 3/ Correspondence 2/ Prime 2 Effect to try to start fires at a distance… except that she is limited to Forces 2, a Rank that’s too low to conjure fire. In order to boost that effect, she’d need to raise her Correspondence to at least 3. Despite its ability to warp space and distance, Correspondence deals only with whole Patterns, unless a target has been altered by another Pattern Sphere; Correspondence alone, for example, cannot teleport someone’s head off – the mage would need to use Life magick to separate the head from its body. A gun, on the other hand, could be snatched away by Correspondence alone. Mages who specialize in Correspondence tend to have a faraway look. To them, the separations of space and form are meaningless illusions that disappear when you understand how the universe truly fits together. For an optional Technocratic approach to Correspondence, see Data, (pp. 524-525). • Immediate Spatial Perceptions/ Landscape of the Mind Basic spatial understanding allows a mage to sense things in her immediate vicinity even if she can’t perceive them with her normal senses. Using that perception, she can estimate the distances between objects; intuitively find a direction (North, South, East, West); notice hidden objects or characters; and spot spatial instabilities – warps, anomalies, wormholes, etc. – especially the ones caused by other Correspondence Effects. •• Sense, Touch, Thicken & Reach Through Space/ Correspondence Sensing That mage can now extend her senses across intervening space, sensing things in other locations. Such extensions, however, leave minor ripples in space… the kind noticed by Rank 1 Correspondence. Fortunately, she can also thicken space to cover her tracks; each success used in doing so deducts one success from the roll of a character who’s trying to spy on her or notice her sensory Effects. By adding Life or Matter to Rank 2 Correspondence, the mage can grasp small items or organisms (housecat-sized or smaller) and then pull them through tiny holes in space. This lets her snatch business cards, guns, rabbits, and such from another location, apparently pulling them out of nowhere. ••• Pierce Space/ Open or Close Gates/ Co-locality Perceptions Now the mage can tear holes in space, large enough for her to step through. These minor gates are small and temporary, but they allow that character to step from one place to another, so long as she’s alone and lightly encumbered. (Teleporting large items, or while carrying heavy loads, demands Correspondence 4.) Scoping out the new location is a good idea, of course. A close, familiar destination requires fewer successes than a distant, unfamiliar one. Using the Co-locality Perceptions Effect, the mage can also perceive several places at once. Those locations all appear as ghosts overlapping each other, as if they’d been layered on top of the closest location. Also, by combining Correspondence 3 with Forces, Life, or Matter, the mage can move things around from a distance, levitating, manipulating or teleporting them without physical contact. •••• Rend Space/ Ward/ Co-locate Self Creating larger holes in space, the mage can now open permanent gates between locations (10 or more successes); isolate forces, spaces, objects, or people into their own tiny realms (by combining Correspondence 4 with Forces, Life, Mind, or Matter); and ward certain locations against specific Patterns (again, combining Forces, Life, Mind, or Matter with Correspondence) or Resonance energies (combining this Sphere with Prime 4). This warding effect can impede or even block the forbidden elements from crossing into, or out of, the protected space. (For extensive details about wards, see the sourcebook How Do You DO That?) Using the Co-location Effect, that mage can also appear in several different places at once. To function, however, she must add Mind 1 to that Effect. Each self mirrors the original’s actions unless she also adds Life 2 to that Effect, granting independence to every self. ••••• Spatial Mutation / Co-Location Distance and dimensions become child’s play to a mage at this Rank. She can distort space; alter sizes and stretch or compress objects (Matter), bodies (Life), or forces (Forces); connect different Patterns to one another across intervening space; or even superimpose places or objects on top of one another (extremely vulgar). Combining this Rank with Life 3, the mage may also expand her senses to perceive many different places at once.
514 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Entropy Chance and Mortality Specialties: Fate, Fortune, Decay, Order, Chaos, Necromancy Everything is mortal. Objects, people, even concepts decay over time. When you truly understand that principle – and more, when you can influence it yourself – such knowledge brings with it a sense of liberation… a bit of sadness, of course, but also the comfort of letting go. Controlling the energies of probability and decay, an Entropy-schooled mage can manipulate random factors, observe and influence flaws within a system, tap into the energies of the Low Umbra, induce or remove corruption, and otherwise exert his Will through the inexorable process of mortality. This is no easy discipline. The Entropic mage assumes some of the Resonance of decay within his own Pattern, and bears the weight of mortality within his mind and soul. Still, the powers of this Sphere – though less obviously destructive than those of other Arts – give that mage subtle but pervasive control over Creation as a whole. Unlike most other Spheres, Entropy spells don’t inflict damage until Rank 4; after that, such damage is aggravated, as it breaks down the very Patterns of existence. Up until that point, Entropy helps a mage exploit or defer the effects of decay and probability… a gift that helps him use an opponent’s surroundings against her even when he doesn’t attack directly. For obvious reasons, Entropy-schooled mages tend to be fatalistic, disassociated, or uncannily cheerful. To them, the saying “all things must pass” is no simple sentiment but an intrinsic fact of life. • Sense Flaws, Fate & Fortune/ Ring of Truth Basic Entropic understanding allows a mage to see the currents of probability, spot flaws in Patterns, and note the subtle yet telling details in a person’s speech and behavior that suggest whether or not she’s telling what she believes to be the truth. Although he cannot yet control such phenomena, the mage can predict dice throws, card draws, and other apparently random events; spot weak spots in objects, people, or arguments; and use those imperfect yet profound insights to his advantage. •• Control Probability Now the mage can control the factors he could only sense before. Pulling the strings of apparently random events,
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 515 he can influence activities and results – directing the fall of dice or cards, repeatedly hitting weak spots, and directing people and things toward a conclusion of his choice. Of course, it’s easier to control small events (the winner of a horse race) than large ones (causing a six-car pileup). In game terms, large alterations demand more successes than small ones do. ••• Affect Predictable Patterns Things eventually break down. At this Rank, the mage can control the speed at which material objects fail or decay. That’s easier to do with complex machines (cars, computers) than it is with simple ones (walls, stones) – after all, more things can go wrong with complicated things. At this Rank, the mage can also start controlling the fate and fortune of objects and people, giving them good or bad luck by controlling the probability of events around them. Again, large feats demand more successes than smaller ones. •••• Affect Living Things At this Rank, the mage assumes the awesome power of blessing, cursing, and conferring outright health or decay. By influencing the flow of entropy within a living body, that mage can grant outstanding vitality to, or inflict sudden disease upon, his subject. Such influence, as noted above, inflicts or heals aggravated damage and may grant long-term luck or misfortune. (Storyteller’s option as to how this manifests.) ••••• Affect Thought/ Shape Memes/ Binding Oath The most esoteric applications of Entropy allow the mage to alter ideas, strengthening or breaking down concepts. Although he does not affect the actual workings of consciousness, he can cause synapses to misfire (thus confusing perceptions and mental processing, inflicting penalties on an enemy’s dice rolls), bind someone to an oath, or degrade the patterns of thought. By doing so, that Entropic Master can craft, perpetrate, reinforce, and undermine arguments, beliefs, and even memories. To do such things, the Master merely speaks to, or glances at, the subject of his attention. Chaos Masters can scramble someone’s perceptions with a few weird utterances, and Masters of Order can present arguments with apparently perfect logic. By offering compelling statements, the Master can create or destroy memes (see p. 594), thus influencing whole patterns of belief. An oath, meanwhile, ties the subject’s fate to her loyalty; if she breaks the oath, then her luck goes really, really bad. In game terms, such feats demand a certain number of successes. Inspiring a whim requires only one or two successes, sparking a fancy takes three, setting or undermining a conviction takes four or five successes, and setting up obsessions demands five successes or more. Such activities are usually coincidental and are typically rolled against a difficulty of the subject’s Willpower, with a minimum difficulty of 4. Forces Raising Storms Specialties: Alchemy, Motion, Elements (any or all), Technology, Physics, Weather, Weaponry Although modern physics disputes the old lines between matter and energy, the venerable study of Forces transcends human politics. This Sphere commands the energies of Creation, and its specialists are among the most powerful mages alive. On a metaphysical level, the Forces Sphere commands energetic Patterns: fire, air, momentum, gravity, radiation, light, sound, and radio waves… the kinetic elements that shape and channel Earthly forces. Quintessence flows within such Patterns, so a mage can conjure new forces simply by adding some Quintessence to “empty space.” Different practices view such powers differently. Are they elemental spirits? Gods? Particles? Waves? Every Master has his or her own pet theory. In practical terms, however, this Sphere controls the Patterns of such forces – directing, transmuting, enhancing, or banishing their effects upon this world. In game terms, Forces-based attacks inflict an additional success of damage. The nature of that damage depends upon the energies in question – see the Magickal Damage or Duration chart. Simple manifestations and manipulations are limited to the lower Sphere Ranks, whereas large-scale Effects demand higher levels of expertise. Most large Effects also demand plenty of successes and can become Paradox magnets for careless mages. Masters of Forces tend to carry a palpable aura of energetic command, with a Resonance that often alters their environments in uncanny, elemental ways. • Perceive Forces Unlocking basic perceptions of the elements, a Forcessavvy mage can sense the flow of forces in her environment. She can boost her perceptions into the infrared or ultraviolet spectrums, notice electrons, see in the dark, view X-rays, discern the flow of sound or radio waves, spot kinetic energies, and hear frequencies beyond the normal human range. •• Manipulate Forces/ Elemental Touch Although she cannot conjure energies just yet, the mage may now alter the flow of existing forces. Sound can be muted or amplified; shadows can be gathered, shaped, or dispelled. The mage can warp light to make things invisible, change their colors by altering the spectrum of localized light, or render them silent by bending sound waves in their vicinity. With a wave of her hand, she can disrupt electrical currents; flare flames; or direct the course of winds, momentum, or gravity. Combining this Rank with other Spheres, that mage could also make an object (Matter) or organism (Life) attract or repel forces. Thus, she could weave minor protection spells or force-fields… or, conversely, turn that target into a magnet (perhaps literally) for the forces in question.
516 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Despite its powers, this Rank is limited in scale. Assume that the mage can command energies around a single humansized character or within a small area (20’ or less). To affect a larger area, you need a higher Rank in Forces. ••• Transmute Minor Forces/ Telekinetics/ The Dragon’s Touch Now the mage can alter and invoke the energies she could only touch before. By adding Prime 2, she may conjure winds, fire, electricity, gravitational wells, and so forth. Combining this Rank with Life or Matter, she can transform people into electricity (Life 5/ Forces 3); change water into air (Forces 3/ Matter 3), or attach elemental force to material forms – making them fly, pinning them to the ground, and having other, similar effects (generally with Life or Matter 3). And by adding an ephemeral Sphere to this Rank, she might erode or enhance energies (Entropy 3); manifest thoughts into energies (Mind 3); transmute spirit-stuff into physical energies (Spirit 3); or set triggers for energy fluctuations at some later interval (Time 4). At this Rank, the scale of effect grows larger, now encompassing several dozen yards or a handful of characters. •••• Control Major Forces/ Gift of Zeus/ Weather-Witching Larger Effects become possible. Our mage may now use the lower-Rank Effects over larger areas – a mile or more – to change weather patterns; conjure darkness; drop or raise temperatures; protect locations… or destroy them; and otherwise employ the previous levels on a much greater scale. For obvious reasons, such Effects tend to be vulgar and demand many successes to achieve. ••••• Transmute Major Forces/ Conjuring Infernos With godlike power, a Forces Master works her Will upon vast areas. She can conjure tornados on a clear day, calm tides, and ignite the very air into a firestorm. Such mages earn the title “Nuke,” though few of them survive long enough to enjoy it. It’s easier to invoke such forces under the right conditions, of course – a cold snap comes more easily in winter than in summer – and such radical alterations have repercussions that often outlast the original Effect. In game terms, massive Forces spells should disrupt the weather and leave massive Resonance echoes behind. Life The Living Form Specialties: Transformation, Shapeshifting, Healing, Improvement, Creation, Cloning, Evolution, Injury Life grows, transforming over time until some final incident renders it into inert matter. Mages who specialize in Life, therefore, master the complex principles of organic transformation. Beginning with the simplest Patterns, he evolves his understanding toward godlike ends. A true Master, therefore, may end life, but he may also create it from pure energy (that is, from Quintessence) or turn it, literally, to dust. Whereas other Spheres grapple with abstract theories, Life focuses on literally bone-deep facts. As a Life mage knows, however, those facts remain susceptible to change. In conjunction with other Pattern Spheres (Forces, Matter), lifeforms can be changed into elements, turned to stone or metal, or else created from such substances. Even without additional Spheres, however, Life allows a mage to transmute those lifeforms in startling, even apparently impossible ways. As a whole, this Sphere embraces everything that has living cells within itself, even if that object is technically dead. As a general rule, assume that anything that’s still alive enough to transplant, preserve, or cultivate is governed by Life Arts. If it’s inert enough to be irrevocably dead, then it’s governed by Matter. Thus, preserved blood and organs, still-living plants, live-culture cheese, and so forth contain Life, but corpses, cotton fibers, withered organs, or cut wood become Matter. When used to inflict or repair damage, Life deals out aggravated damage because it works directly upon the Patterns of living things. As a result, an organism that has been radically altered by Life magick (given new limbs or other characteristics that are not part of the creature’s original Pattern) suffers Pattern bleeding: an inexorable Quintessence leak that inflicts one level of lethal damage per day. Unless the caster uses Prime magick to refill that Pattern with fresh energy, or alters that Pattern permanently, the damage continues until the subject dies. Given their ability to heal illness, age, and harm, Life-skilled mages enjoy great health and vibrant beauty. Truly accomplished ones understand the mutable potential of organic existence and work to correct – or exploit – its ever-changing states. • Sense Life Basic Life knowledge allows a person to read the presence and health of nearby life-forms. With such knowledge, the mage can discern a living being’s age, sex, and overall health. By combining those perceptions with other Spheres, he can also sense distant organisms (Correspondence 2), guess their potential for sickness or misfortune (Entropy 1), perceive them through past or future states (Time 2), or read the streams of Quintessence that bind them to the universe (Prime 1). •• Alter Simple Life-Forms/ Heal Self Simple organisms – viruses, mollusks, insects, plants, etc. – become clay in the mage’s hands. He learns to adjust their Patterns (giving a crab wings, for example), and heal or kill them. Although he can’t yet transmute them into other states of being, he can cause flowers to bloom or wither, help trees bear fruit, and so on. Focusing on his own Pattern, he can also heal himself or perform small alterations (hair color, skin tone, height, weight, and so on) to his basic form. ••• Transform Simple Life-Forms/ Alter Self/ Heal Others Advanced understanding allows the mage to radically alter simple organisms (turning a tree inside-out); transform
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 517 one into another (changing fruit into insects); or – with Prime 2 – conjure them from raw energy. Working with his own Pattern, that mage can work substantial alterations on himself, growing gills, claws, armor and so forth. He remains essentially human, but begins to master the definition of “human.” Meanwhile, he also gains the ability to heal damage to other complex organisms, put them to sleep, or inflict harm upon their living Pattern forms. •••• Alter Complex Life-Forms/ Transform Self At this Rank, the mage may enact radical changes on any complex organism – people, dogs, horses, and so forth. He can uplift other species with new limbs, opposable thumbs, increased brain capacity, etc., so long as he doesn’t change their intrinsic nature. Working with his own Pattern, that mage can transform himself into other life-forms of similar size and mass; he could become a Great Dane, for example, but not a hummingbird. Special abilities of that form (flight, water breathing, and the like) do not carry over, however, unless he builds them into that new form with additional Life Effects, and the new body might require an adjustment period before the mind and reflexes reflect the new form. ••••• Transform & Create Complex Life-Forms/ Perfect Metamorphosis Now the Master of Life may adopt any form he wishes to achieve and may transform other complex organisms the same way. His expertise allows him to make permanent changes to life-Patterns, create complex life-forms from energy (with Prime 2), give them consciousness (with Mind 5), transmute them into other elements (Forces or Matter 3) or raw energy (Prime 5), radically age or de-age them (Entropy 4 or Time 3), or instill them with spirits (Spirit 3 or 5). Without such measures, however, his creations remain mindless, soulless sacks of life – alive, but nothing more. Matter Shaping the Materials Specialties: Transmutation, Shaping, Conjuration, Refinement, Complex Patterns To a mystic, nothing is truly inert. Still, the Sphere of Matter deals with substances that possess no active agency of their own – materials, not life-forms or energies. The third aspect of the Pattern Trinity, Matter works best when combined with other Spheres. Prime and Matter create solid forms from energy; Correspondence and Matter connect objects across space; Entropy erodes or reinforces Matter; Forces transmutes inert elements into active ones. Life plus Matter bridges the gap between living and dead materials – an essential combination when dealing with vampires – and Spirit plus Matter renders ephemera into matter or matter into ephemera. Time alters the temporal state of Matter, and high-Rank Mind Effects (Rank 5) imbue inanimate materials with consciousness. Although Forces, Prime, and Spirit reflect primal energies and Life addresses organic animation, Matter represents the base of the physical world.
518 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Matter-wise mages tend to share a literally hands-on approach to their Art. Solid workers of their practice, they favor practical results with even the most theoretical applications. Sometimes regarded as dull and simple by more esoteric peers, these artisans merge quality and integrity with surprising levels of ingenuity. • Matter Perceptions A Primary understanding of Matter allows the initiate to perceive the intrinsic properties of base materials – their underlying structure, innate properties, and integral stability or lack thereof. With that knowledge, she can view the material composition of an object, note its less-obvious structures, find its hidden layers or – when combining this perception with Entropy – spot its weak points. Combined with Life, this Sphere detects implants, enhancements, and other integrations of living tissue and inert materials. •• Basic Transmutation With advanced knowledge, the mage can transmute one substance into another, so long as she doesn’t alter its essential shape, temperature, or basic state (gas, liquid, solid). Depending upon that mage’s practice, she might reshape lead into gold through alchemy, wood into stone through a hyperpetrification process, or water into wine (and, with Life 3, wine into blood) through a sacred miracle. Rare and/ or complex materials are more difficult to fabricate than simple ones; it’s easier to turn stone into iron, for example, than into gold. To reflect that challenge, such refinement requires a greater number of successes than a transmutation into a common material. (On a related note, the mage cannot yet fabricate radioactive materials. Such elements merge their essence into the Sphere of Forces, and thus demand a greater level of expertise.) When combined with other Spheres, this basic level of understanding allows a mage to conjure base materials from energy or dissolve them into Quintessence (Prime 2), transmute matter into living tissue (Life 4 or higher), move an object through space (Correspondence 2 or higher) or time (Time 3 or higher), change ephemera into matter and matter into ephemera, or awaken the slumbering spirit within material objects (Spirit 3 or higher). In all cases, Matter 2 allows the mage to work with simple, homogenous, non-living substances. Complex mixtures of various elements usually require Rank 3 or higher, although simple combinations (like those found in bread, milk, paper, or gunpowder) are possible if the player rolls plenty of successes. ••• Alter Form At this Rank, the mage can alter the shape of materials in whatever ways she desires, and she can temporarily transform their essential state into a different one – steel, for example, into fog or water into glass. (Permanent changes require Matter 5.) That crafter may change an item’s density, fuse broken pieces together, or rip solid ones apart.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 519 By mixing Matter 3 with other Spheres, the mage can join inert matter with living tissue, disintegrate it into dust, shift objects with the power of thought, or otherwise perform amazing transformations upon apparently solid materials. •••• Complex Transmutation Complex and radical transformations now become possible, especially with the addition of other Spheres. Pumpkins can be changed into carriages (Life 2), people into thrones (Life 5), cars into robots (combinations of Forces and Prime), or thin air into banquets, so long as the mage doesn’t mind racking up a little (or a lot…) of Paradox. Different principles can be combined in complicated ways, creating cybernetic machines or electrified gold. Complicated devices (guns, cars, computers) may be conjured out of empty space if the mage understands the principles behind such things (in game terms, possesses the proper Abilities). As usual, though, complicated creations demand extended rituals and many successes. ••••• Alter Properties With Mastery, the crafter can create substances that transcend the limitations of scientific possibility, conjure materials unknown to Earthly reality, or share the deadly legacies of radioactive matter. Such Masters can shape armor out of air (with Prime 2), turn vampires into lawn furniture (Life 5), or melt steel with a thought (Mind 3). Again, such deeds remain incredibly vulgar, but they recall the godlike feats of legendry. Mind Art of Consciousness Specialties: Communication, Illusion, Emotion, Social Programming, Self-Empowerment, Astral Travel, Mind-Shielding, Psychodynamics, Psychic Combat Human beings perceive reality through complex interplays of consciousness. The Mind-mage, therefore, alters the realities of his fellow beings. Skillfully applied, such Arts can make a sane man mad, soothe demented minds, or even shuck the boundaries of flesh. Though limited in its physical capacities (Mind Sphere attacks inflict bashing damage unless otherwise noted), Mind is the ultimate coincidental Art. Its Effects remain essentially invisible unless they’re combined with other Spheres. And although Mind Adepts can leave their physical bodies behind, such abilities remain unseen by mortal eyes. In many cases, offensive Mind effects – that is, ones that read or influence another character’s mental state – base their difficulties on the target’s Willpower Trait rather than against the usual coincidental/ vulgar spectrum. (If the target’s Willpower is less than 4, the base difficulty is 4.) Drastic acts of mind control (suicide, for instance) go against the Willpower +3, as do Mind-based attacks against Night-Folk and other mages. An unwilling character can also try to oppose such Effects with a resisted Willpower roll, using her successes like a mental dodge maneuver. And so, though weak-willed people may be influenced easily, determined folks can shrug aside the influence of all but the most dedicated Will-workers. (For details, see Resisting Psychic Assaults, pp. 544-545.) For attacks against multiple targets, the difficulty for a Mind-based Effect depends upon the usual coincidental, vulgar, or vulgar with witnesses situations. Such Mind-based Effects are generally coincidental, although especially flamboyant feats might be vulgar instead. Literally “thought-full,” Mind-savvy mages possess mental clarity and unnerving perceptiveness. Some appear to drift in a sea of distractions, but the majority of them view the world with laser-focus intensity that penetrates illusions to reach their deeper truth. • Sense Thoughts & Emotions/ Mind Shield/ Empower Self With basic mental magick, the mage learns to sense the emotions and surface impulses of other people. Although he cannot read specific thoughts, he’s able to perceive psychic impressions about a person or (with Matter 1) a place or object. Through this perception, he can guess at the nature of weak Resonance signatures and read the stronger ones outright. Even without Resonance, that mage can scan auras, note mood shifts, discern truth from lies, or grasp someone’s overall state of mind by way of a successful Arete roll. Meanwhile, the mage also learns to shield his own mind from the thoughts and emotions of other people, constructing mental barriers around his aura, emotions, and consciousness. Each success on a coincidental Arete roll removes one success from any other character’s attempt to read those psychic elements. On a related note, he also learns how to multitask and absorb data with startling acuity. Each success he rolls allows him to either consider an additional subject or speed the processing time that a normal person might require. For a scene or two, he can even raise one of his Mental Traits by one dot per success, thanks to a Mind Empowerment Effect that concentrates his mental faculties. •• Read Surface Thoughts/ Empathic Bond/ Create Impressions/ Mental Impulse Now the mage begins to skim the contents of unshielded minds, discern emotional states, read memories that have been left behind on objects or places, and project single words or emotional impulses to other people. The simpler the emotional content, the easier it is to send or read; a flash of rage, for instance, is easy to project or receive, but the complex stew of reflective melancholy presents a challenge to inexperienced Mind-mages. (Game-wise, such complex feats demand more successes than a simple feat does.) ••• Mental Link/ Project Illusions/ Dreamwalk/ Psychic Blast With increasing skill, the mage learns to link minds, forge telepathic communications, read or influence another
520 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition person’s thoughts, craft mental illusions, enter someone’s dreams and explore dream Realms, and blast psychic assaults into an unwilling rival’s consciousness. At this stage, Mind attacks can inflict painful – though rarely fatal – damage. Combined with Correspondence, Forces, Matter, or Life, he is able to employ telekinesis, pyrokinetics, and psychophysical assault, influencing objects, elements, or people with the power of his mind. Unlike most other Effects, this sort of thing is not coincidental, although such talents do have a place within popular culture. •••• Control Conscious Mind/ Alter Consciousness/ Astral Projection The fearsome power of Black Suits and psychic assailants allows the mage to command another person’s actions as well as her thoughts, alter her perceptions or mental state, and project his own mind from his physical form. At this Rank, a mage can change someone’s memories, drive her crazy (or sane), overlay her aura with a desired impression, and set up posthypnotic suggestions and commands. (See Social Conditioning and Reprogramming, pp. 605-607.) And by using internal rather than external powers, he can also project his astral form, as detailed in Chapter Nine, pp. 476-478. ••••• Control Subconscious/ Forge Psyche/ Untether Consciousness A true Mind Master commands not only his own conscious but other minds as well. He may alter someone’s mind forever, raising (or lowering) her Traits, rewriting her personality, changing her Nature Trait, or (with Life 4) switching her mind into another body. He can do the same things to his own mind as well, and he can untether that mind to explore the deeper reaches of astral space for hours or even days at a time. His greatest power, though, is the ability to fabricate entire consciousnesses, creating minds where no mind had been before. Prime Essence of all Things Specialties: Resonance, Artifice, Perceptions, Channeling, Creation, Destruction By studying the raw energy of Creation, a student of the Prime Sphere learns to understand, manipulate, and absorb the Fifth Essence within all things. Also known as Odyllic Force, Primal Energy, and Quintessence, this baseline energy fuels the Patterns of other forms – Forces, Life, Matter – and flows through the sublime essence of Spirit. A Prime-skilled mage, therefore, can create and destroy things at their essential level, power items of enchanted or Enlightened creation, and sustain her own life essence through her understanding of Primal Force. Ripe with such energies, a Prime Sphere specialist pulsates with Primal Force. Unless she’s working to suppress it (or has wiped her aura clean with high-Rank magicks), her Resonance bears strong signatures from her deeds. (See Resonance and Synergy, (pp. 560-561). For better and worse, such a person embodies the primal Otherness that most mages possess – the sense of being something more than most people ever dream of being. For an optional Technocratic approach to Prime, see Primal Utility, (pp. 526-527). • Etheric Senses/ Consecration/ Infuse Personal Quintessence A beginning study of Prime allows the mage to perceive and channel Quintessence from Nodes, Tass, Wonders, and magickal Effects. She may spot energetic ebbs and flows, can sense and at least try to read Resonance and Synergy signatures, and could also absorb Quintessence into her personal Pattern. Mages without at least one dot in Prime cannot absorb Quintessence beyond their Avatar Background rating. A Prime-skilled mage, however, may do so. When infusing her Quintessence into an object, that mage may also consecrate the object with her personal energy. When she shapeshifts, steps sideways, or otherwise alters her Pattern’s metaphysical nature, that consecrated object will then change with her. In the process, it also picks up her personal Resonance… which, because it both identifies her and becomes essentially connected to her, is not always a good thing. •• Fuel Pattern/ Construct Patterns/ Enchant Patterns/ Body of Light Attaining a degree of control over Prime energies, the mage may divert Quintessence into new or existing forms. Combined with other Spheres, this allows that mage to create new Forces, Life, or Matter Patterns (conjuring them from thin air), and to infuse existing items with Primal Force to strengthen them or enhance their protective or destructive power. Weapons or attacks infused with Quintessence through Prime 2 Effects may hurt spirits or inflict aggravated damage, and substances infused the same way may protect against such harm. (See Chapter Nine’s Combat section for details.) On a related note, she may also – with Life 2 for simple organisms, or Life 3 for complex ones – consecrate a living thing at this Rank, as if that life-form were an object described above. Through similar applications of energy, the mage can also conjure a simple Body of Light: an idealized self projected from ephemeral energy. Although this Body of Light has no substance or special properties (unlike the astral form described in Chapter Nine, p. 477), it presents a glowing holograph of the mage herself. ••• Channel Quintessence/ Enchant Life/ Energy Weapon/ Craft Periapts & Temporary Wonders By tapping into the flow of Quintessence around her, the Prime-skilled mage can draw both free and raw Quintessence from Nodes, Junctures (special times), and Tass (solidified Quintessence)… and she may also channel that energy into new and existing Patterns as well. With such powers, she could (with Life 3) enchant a living thing so that it could inflict or endure aggravated damage; inflict aggravated damage by shaking up
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 521 that organism’s life force; pull small amounts of life force from a living sacrifice or (with Matter 2) from inert objects; instill Quintessence into a vessel called a Periapt; or – with other Spheres – craft temporary Talismans or Devices by infusing them with Primal Force. (Permanent enchantments require Prime 4 – see Crafting Wonders on p. 508, and Quintessence Amounts on p. 507.) In desperate circumstances, a Prime-schooled mage can also create temporary weapons out of pure concentrated energy – blasts of Quintessence or swords of light. Such weapons inflict aggravated damage (as per the Base Damage or Durationchart) and cost one point of Quintessence per use… or, for weapons that last for a length of time, one point per turn. When the mage runs of out Quintessence, the weapon disappears. Unless channeled through energy-guns or conjured as miracles among the faithful, such attacks are inevitably vulgar. •••• Expel or Infuse Energy/ Tap Wellspring/ Craft Tass & Permanent Wonders The terrible power of draining Quintessence from objects or forces (though not yet from living things) can disintegrate those targets, consume them in Primal flames, or decay them almost instantly. Reversing that flow, the mage can craft objects that cannot be broken, or bond organic and inorganic materials together to create cybernetic implants, nanotech, and other Wonders. At this stage, she is able to enchant items permanently and draw Quintessence from the energetic Wellsprings of exciting events. By infusing her personal Quintessence into a Periapt, the mage might use Matter 4 to craft a Soulgem: a portable vessel that’s filled with her own Resonance and energy. ••••• Infuse or Withdraw Life Force/ Create Node & Soulflower/ Nullify Paradox A Prime Master can draw Quintessence from anywhere, at any time, and channel it into other vessels as well. A dark, vulgar aspect of that power allows her to obliterate a living being by consuming all of his life force, whereas the reverse of that power infuses him with life force so strong that he’s essentially blessed. Combining that ability with Life 5, she may turn complex organisms into Soulflowers: living Periapts who become walking batteries of boosted Quintessence. Such Mastery also allows the mage to create Nodes in significant places, and to nullify Paradox as described under Nullifying Paradox, p. 549. Spirit Art of the Otherworlds Specialties: Umbral Travel, Spirit Dealings, Gauntlet Manipulation, Primal Spirits, Tech Spirits, Celestials, Infernals, Possession Reaching into the essence beyond Earthly life and matter, the Spirit mage explores the Otherworlds and deals with creatures beyond mortal understanding. One of the most primal forms of the mystic Arts, Spirit Sphere magick traffics in the hidden side of the natural realm. As a result, its Effects typically use the Gauntlet Ratings chart to determine the difficulty of their associated rolls. Often affiliated with the shaman, Spirit magick is more eclectic than it often appears. A mage who specializes in this Sphere could be a primal devotee, a sophisticated theologian, a medicine-worker deeply versed in cultural traditions, an eclectic metaphysician, a modern Pagan, or anyone else who comprehends the rich world beyond material physics. Almost inevitably, he’ll look deeper than most modern people do, grasping for the spiritual forces behind apparently mundane events. For an optional Technocratic approach to Spirit, see Dimensional Science, pp. 525-526. • Spirit Sight/ Spirit Sense To most of humanity, the spirit world remains invisible. Not to a mage who knows the Spirit Sphere. Although he’ll be most attuned to spirits with Resonance similar to his own, that mage can read the local Gauntlet’s thickness, discern auras, sense spirits of all types, peek into the Penumbra through the Vidare (see Chapters Three and Four), and determine whether or not a material object has a spiritual component (as mystic Fetishes do). Combined with other Spheres, that mage can spot forces, places, or items with unusual ties to the spirit world, such as Awakened objects, elemental spirits, possessed organisms, Shallowings, Nodes, and so forth. •• Touch Spirit/ Manipulate Gauntlet Perception moves to contact. The Spirit-savvy mage can now reach through the Gauntlet for a turn or two; call across the Gauntlet; speak to spirit entities, or touch them for a brief moment; and thin or thicken the local Gauntlet. In the latter case, each success lowers or raises the Gauntlet rating by +1 for each success rolled. (Four successes would raise or lower it by four levels, for example.) That said, a human mage cannot lower the Gauntlet to less than 4 within the mortal world. By adding other Spheres, that mage could project thoughts across the barrier (Mind 4 or 5); stir up elemental disturbances within the Otherworlds (Forces 2 or higher); imbue material objects with ephemeral power (Matter 2); drain Essence from a spirit (Prime 3); or help other living creatures sense or contact the spirit realms (Life 2). ••• Pierce Gauntlet/ Step Sideways/ Rouse & Lull Spirit Now the mage can cross over, transmuting his living tissue to ephemera. He may carry a few material possessions, although transmuting them as well raises both the difficulty of the roll and the number of successes required for the trip. (Normal clothing and items raise both factors by +1; bulky clothing and items raise them by +2.) That traveler must step sideways on his own; bringing large items or other people across demands a higher Spirit Rank. Meanwhile, a combined
522 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Spirit 3/ Mind 2 Effect allows the mage to read Resonance, Synergy, and other spiritual energies (Essence, a spirit’s place within a hierarchy, etc.). At this Rank, a mortal mage can also harm an Umbral entity as if he was using Life 3 against that entity. While Spirit 2 allows the mage to touch that entity, Spirit 3 lets him actually damage its ephemeral Pattern’s integrity the way that Life 3 damages a physical creature’s form. By combining this Rank with Matter 3 and Prime 2, the mage can also create short-lived objects from ephemera; such creations must be constructed as if they were material things, and they fade away at the end of the Effect’s duration. Finally, this Rank helps the mage rouse the slumbering spirits within objects or places, or else put active spirits to sleep. (See Awakening Substances in Chapter Nine, p. 443). •••• Rend Gauntlet/ Seal Breach/ Bind Spirit As the mage approaches Mastery, he can tear Gateways in the Gauntlet, allowing groups or large objects to pass through… or close such breaches, too. Both applications, of course, are deeply vulgar. At this Rank, the mage may also compel spirits to appear, bind them into Fetish objects, or tie them to certain spots or prisons. For obvious reasons, such bondage is risky, especially if the spirit is powerful. A brave or foolish Spirit mage can even turn himself into a temporary Fetish, channeling a spirit entity into his mortal body; in such cases, he loses his ability to use true magick, but he may employ the capabilities of the spirit inside him. On the flipside, he can also exorcise a spirit that has possessed a mortal host. In all cases, the mage enters a series of resisted rolls against the spirit, pitting his Willpower against that spirit’s own. ••••• Forge Ephemera/ Gilgul/ Break the Dreamshell The Spirit Master is now able to command ephemera itself, creating, challenging, and destroying spirit matter as he Wills. With such power, he may craft Realms, imbue or drain a spirit of Essence, instill a soul within an empty shell of Life or Matter, and bestow the awful sentence of Gilgul – the destruction of a mage’s Avatar. Such powers are always vulgar and feature devastating consequences even when the mage succeeds. This power also allows the mage to break the Dreamshell and venture beyond the Horizons, wandering into the Deepest of Umbrae. Such tasks demand at least 10 successes, but a courageous Master can travel as far as his soul wants to go. Time Tricking the Flow Specialties: Perceptions, Prophecy, Triggers, Time Travel, Temporal Control The esoteric Arts of Time demand a flexible mindset. Possibly the most confounding Sphere, Time involves dizzying temporal metaphysics that defy the most apparently determined aspect of reality: time itself. And yet, initiates of this Sphere understand that time is fluid… difficult to manipulate, but not as rigid as it might appear. In conjunction with other Spheres, Time allows a mage to set triggers on other Effects, stretch out their duration, see into other times and places, or otherwise warp the threads of time. When employing the Time Sphere to look or reach through time, a player checks the Time Sphere Timelines chart; when prolonging an Effect, she could either spend successes on increased Duration (see the Optional Dividing Successes Rule chart), or else add Entropy 3 in order to hold the Effect until a certain circumstance occurs. It’s been said that time travel is impossible; however, that’s not entirely true… it’s just extremely difficult. Effects that involve going backwards in time add +3 to their difficulty, are always vulgar, and stack the effects of Paradox. A character who rewinds time by turns adds one layer of Paradox per turn; going back three turns, for instance, incurs three times the usual Paradox – three points for each point that might otherwise be earned by an Effect at that Rank. And a mage who travels backward according to the Time Sphere Timelines chart gets two layers of Paradox for each interval on that chart; going back 50 years (or four intervals), for example, nets eight times the usual amount of Paradox – eight points for each point normally earned. No wonder people who go back in time rarely return to speak of it! As one might expect, a mage who manipulates the Time Sphere tends to appear distant from the moment at hand. Although she might have excellent timing, her sense of the importance of past/ present/ future events seems to be a bit more… fluid than usual for a person living by the clock in today’s world. • Time Sense Temporal understanding begins with the mage’s own perceptions of time. At this stage, she develops a precise internal clock and can spot the temporal ripples left behind by (or, in many cases, developing ahead of) Time Effects. Other phenomena, too, leave disturbances in the time-stream, and the mage can notice them as well. Combined with additional Spheres, this Rank allows the mage to detect the influence of the Time Sphere on other spells or Patterns too. •• Past & Future Sight Thicken the Walls of Time Now the mage can look forward or backward through time. Although those impressions are fleeting, hazy, not entirely accurate, and bound by the limitations of that time and place (that is, what a bystander in that specific time and location could sense under the circumstances), they allow the Time-seer to catch glimpses of the past or future. By itself, this Effect allows the mage to see in her present location only. By combining Past/ Future Sight with other Spheres, however, she could read the probable past or future impressions of objects or places (Matter), living things (Life), and alternate locations (Correspondence). Entropy 2 even
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 523 allows her to glimpse multiple futures and pick out the one most likely to occur. Reversing her powers of perception, that same mage can thicken the walls of time, which makes other Time Effects more difficult. Each success she rolls deducts one success from the attempts of other Time-savvy characters. ••• Time Contraction or Dilation/ “Bullet Time”/ Rewind Time Speeding or slowing her relationship with time, the mage can now gain multiple actions, slow other characters or phenomena, or rewind small snatches of time. In game terms, every two successes allow the character to take one additional action that does not involve casting magick (only one Arete roll may be made per turn); or else slow another character, object, or even herself down by one increment per success. (Four successes, for example, would slow a person down to a quarter of his normal speed.) By rewinding time, the mage can also move her immdiate surroundings back one turn for every two successes – an Effect that pulls her out of the normal flow of time and allows her to retcon an action or two. (See above.) Combining this Rank with other Spheres, the mage can affect other Patterns (Forces, Life, or Matter 2), cast Effects across distance and time (Correspondence 3), move back in time while recalling events from the future she just left (Life 3/ Mind 1), or even invoke multiple probabilities (Entropy 3). Again, such attempts are Paradox magnets with awful longterm consequences. •••• Time Determinism/ Trigger Effect/ Time Bubble/ Anchor Point Now the mage learns to withdraw herself from the normal flow of time, hold Effects until they get triggered by events, or – by adding in Correspondence, Forces, Life, Matter, and/ or Spirit – capture other beings or phenomena in bubbles of time. Thus, a mighty (vulgar) Time/ Forces/ Entropy Effect could capture a tornado and shunt it off into no-time space until some trigger sets it free. At this level of expertise, the mage can also set a temporal anchor point for herself for when she dares to travel through time at Rank 5. ••••• Temporal Travel/ Time Immunity The “Dr. Who Effect” allows the mage to exist outside of time; immunize people, places or things from time’s passage; or travel forward or backward through time. Such godlike feats… feats that often cause a mage to become forever lost to history… are often best left to the Storyteller’s discretion. Even for Masters, Time travel is a mysterious and maddeningly imprecise art. For extensive details about such things, see the sourcebook How Do You DO That?
524 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Data (Correspondence) Accessing Reality Metacode Specialties: Co-location, Encryption, Fabrication, Firewalling, Surveillance/ Sousveillance Data is reality. Anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves. Although this reality extends only about as far as electronic data or media, that reach is damned near worldwide these days. And through that connection, Data Sphere specialists can find, contact, and reach out to anyone on the grid. All it takes is time and a little bit of information, plus the knowledge and the Will to work it properly. A Technocratic refinement of the Correspondence Sphere, Data remains the province of the Virtual Adepts, the New World Order, and the various allies they choose to share it with. Like all Spheres, its properties are meta-physical, extending beyond the realms of conventional reality. Although the Data specialist is, theoretically, just using the tools at his disposal, the greater reaches of this Sphere extend beyond the bounds of what should be possible, according to the Masses. It’s not “magick,” of course – stop thinking such unmutual thoughts! It does, however, pull the strands of Information-Age technology in some pretty impressive ways. In most regards, Data functions like Correspondence with regards to the powers at its disposal. The primary differences come through the elements of connection (see the chart below) and the methods of its employment. To use Data-based Effects, the technomancer must collate data about the person or location he’s trying to reach, and then have gear in place that can reach the subject of his attention. The more expertise that specialist brings to bear on the situation (that is, the more dots he has in this Sphere), the easier it is for him to establish a connection with minimal amounts of data. For this Sphere’s associated paradigm, see Everything is Data, (p. 570). Because Data depends upon technological methods of information and connection, a target who’s not on the grid cannot be affected by this Sphere. Given the current (and growing) extent of information technology, however, the Data can reach most people within the industrialized world… especially if they participate in social media, modern banking, or government processes. A Data specialist knows his way around the technology of our age. Though he might not be the humorless grunt so often associated with number-crunching disciplines, he’s certainly got intense focus, an eye for detail, and a ruthless capacity for exploiting the bounds and bindings of information technologies. • On the Ones and Zeros Through a haze of code, the Data initiate begins to see the interconnectedness of all things. Bringing that esoteric level of comprehension to the world beyond his keyboard, the specialist can determine the exact distance between points or the connections between visible objects. His understanding allows him to work on base-level projects without instruments, thanks to a growing familiarity with relationship information. •• The Reach and the View With a few quick calculations, the specialist can assess theoretical and practical space – assessments that allow him to perceive what’s happening elsewhere. Expanding the metaphysical elements of this discipline, this understanding allows the agent to see and touch places in other areas of the world, so long as he has instruments that allow him access to distant locations. Combining Data with other Spheres, the specialist can extend the practical range of Technocratic Effects. Matter allows him to modify Union tech from a distance; Mind lets him communicate with agents or targets worldwide; Forces lets him attack distant targets; and Entropy allows him to predict and alter probability patterns and spot flaws in objects that he can perceive. As with regular Correspondence, the operator’s Data Rank must be equal to, or higher than, the highest Rank in a connected Effect. ••• Quantum Teleportation/ Firewalling/ Surveillance Hub Advanced Data transfer techniques allow the specialist to more or less sidestep conventional physics of spatial dimensions. In practical terms, this allows him to download himself into quantum teleportation mode; erect firewalls of particle physics that effectively ward objects, places, or people; and divide his perceptions across a multilocational surveillance hub. Combined with other Spheres, this expertise helps the agent move things, forces, and living beings through intervening space. Data Connections Data Mastery Successes Time Per Roll Operator/ Subject Connection One dot 8 Four hours Subject’s presence or body sample; source code; government ID database information Two dots 6 Two hours A treasured possession or intimate companion; sample code; personal email or social media account Three dots 4 One hour Casual possession or associate; legacy code; Internet sock puppet; throwaway email or media account Four dots 3 One minute Acquaintance of or item from subject; derivative code; IP address Five dots 2 One minute Operator briefly touched or met subject; code from same language; rerouted IP string
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 525 Again, however, these Procedures demand the appropriate gear on either side of the Effect. Such violations of conventional physics demand the proper technology. •••• Between Space/ Dimensional Cohabitation/ Multilocation Access With such technology in place, the expert specialist can open quantum gateways between locations, create pocket dimensions between conventional space-time continuums, and disperse holographic manifestations of himself into several concurrent locations. With the appropriate Life, Mind, and Primal Force Procedures, those manifestations can even become as solid as the agent himself and perform different tasks in the finest Agent Smith tradition. ••••• Redistribute Physical Properties Fold Space/ Hyperdispersed Perceptions Data Mastery merges conventional physics with sophisticated hypermath. The few specialists at this level can stack physical locations into the same space, alter the spatial dimensions and properties of a target, or disperse their perceptions into so many concurrent locations that a specialist may truthfully be said to have eyes and ears everywhere. Dimensional Science (Spirit) Parsing Alternate Reality Spectrums Specialties: Subdimensions, Anthropic Principle Applications, EDE Relations, Mapping, Applied Theory, Dimensional Anomaly Based upon the Tychoidian cosmology theories of the Void Engineers (see Chapter Four, pp. 93-94), Dimensional Science posits an Anthropic Principle Field in which the conscious human mind exerts a degree of control over its metaphysical reality space. Because of that Principle, lesser subdimensions have collected outside of Earthly space, losers in some contest of metaphysical Darwinism. The entities native to those subdimensions – extradimensional entities, or EDEs – strive to pass the Earthly barriers and infect the human world. And that’s where Dimensional Science comes in, a method of asserting the Enlightened elements of the Anthropic Principle and keeping those EDEs out of human space. In game terms, Dimensional Science is largely the same as the Spirit Sphere. Like other Technocratic Spheres of Influence, however, its Effects are bound to technological gear and viewed through a lens of science, not mysticism. Although Void Engineers still apply the term Umbrae to these subdimensions (considering them mathematical shadows of the human Consensus), the Dimensional Specialist’s approach lacks animistic reverence, even though it features scientific awe. Unlike Data, Dimensional Science remains largely exclusive to a single Convention: the Void Engineers. In many regards, it’s a well-kept secret, propagated only through intense training at VE facilities. The Dimensional Specialist, then, is a man or woman of intense focus within a multilevel framework of thinking and perception. By outside standards, she appears paranoid… but of course, if you knew the things she knows about the pervasive nature of subdimensions and EDEs, you’d be paranoid too… • EDE Scan/ Evaluate Gauntlet/ Map Dimensional Region Through applied principles and technologies, the specialist learns to perceive EDE presence and potential incursions, evaluate the characteristics of alternate dimensions and thickness of the barrier that keeps them outside the Consensus, and perceive the essential terrain in the pocket dimensions on the other side of that Gauntlet. •• Dimensional Vibration/ Modify Dimensional Gauntlet/ Transdimensional Field At this level of expertise, the specialist can use radiation pulses, hypermath, and samples of transdimensional matter to grant access to those alternate dimensions. With the correct instruments, that specialist can send out artificial ripples into nearby subdimensions in order to attract EDEs and leave signals for other Dimensional Specialists. Thanks to the hypermathematical models and recordings involved in Dimensional Science, a specialist can also manipulate the Gauntlet, raising or lowering it, even as low as 0 – a feat mystic mages cannot duplicate. The Gauntlet 0 Effect lasts for only one scene, but it counters the punishment of the Dimensional Anomaly (that is, the Avatar Storm) if that phenomenon is still in play. However, the specialist herself still suffers feedback damage as she works the Effect. (In game terms, she takes the usual Avatar Storm damage, though she prevents other characters from taking it during that scene.) On a related note, the specialist learns to also surround herself (or, with the appropriate Spheres, other people or objects) with a transdimensional field; this, in turn, allows her to interact with subdimensions on a limited level (brief touch) without suffering harm from the Dimensional Anomaly. ••• Dimensional Shift/ Manipulate Paraphysical Phenomena/ Phase Disruption Field Increased understanding allows the specialist to step sideways into alternate dimensions, manipulate the paraphysical matter (that is, ephemera) of those dimensions, and – with the correct weaponry – send out destructive phase disruption fields of vibrations that disorient, injure, or disintegrate EDEs. (In short, her attacks can harm spirit entities.) Thanks to the Stun/ Kill/ Disintegrate settings on those weapons, she can choose whether to inflict bashing, lethal, or aggravated damage on Umbral targets… and although EDE’s experience all forms of damage the same way, dimension-hopping humans and Deviant werebeasts do not.
526 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition •••• Alter Dimensional Topography/ Dimensional Gateway/ Stabilize Dimensional Field Increased understanding and appropriate technologies help the specialist make lasting changes to alternate dimensions. Reworking the paraphysical constraints of a given space, she may craft pocket domains and dimensional walls in order to block or catch EDEs. A skilled specialist can do this even from the Earthly side of the Gauntlet, thus avoiding the effects of the Dimensional Anomaly. Using similar techniques, the specialist can also carve out rapid-transit paths; in game terms, this Effect cuts down the specialist’s travel time within the Otherworlds by (normal travel time divided by successes +1). The specialist can also open large gateways into the subdimensions, although the people passing through those gates suffer the effects of the Anomaly unless the Gauntlet has already been lowered to 0 by a Dimension Science 2 Procedure. Channeling Primal Energy (Quintessence) through appropriate technology, the specialist can also strengthen the Enlightened Anthropic Principle enough to prevent Void Adaptation (that is, disconnection and disembodiment; see Disembodiment in Chapter Four, pp. 88-89; and Disconnection and Disembodiment in Chapter Nine, p. 483.) Each point of Quintessence allows one character to resist Void Adaptation for one week. ••••• Anthropic Field/ Breach Spatial Horizon/ Cosmogenesis Utilizing the ultimate applications of Anthropic Principle Fields, the specialist can generate her own Anthropic Field (with the right instruments, of course) that allows her to venture beyond both Horizons and venture into the Deep Universe. By crafting a reality bubble around herself, that specialist can keep other Earthly beings alive with her as well (two passengers per additional success beyond the second) and can engineer and pilot vehicles for Deep Universe travel. For design and construction systems, see Inventing, Modifying, and Improving Technology in Chapter Nine, (pp. 463-464). Employing the arcane technologies of Cosmogenesis, that Master Specialist may also engineer and create Horizon Constructs and custom-designed and constructed EDE organisms. She must employ Primal Utility energies as well (often including Life and Matter if the EDE construct is to survive outside the subdimensions… that is, if it’s going to be more than simple ephemera), but these cosmic computations allow Void Engineers to harness powers not unlike those of legendary gods. Primal Utility (Prime) Investing Essential Energies Specialties: Assessment, Investment, Wellsprings, Personal Value, Primal Ventures, Generating Energetic Capital To the Enlightened Hypereconomist, Prime is not some ephemeral energy bubbling up from the cracks of the world. Instead, it’s an energy field generated by Homo economicus: the ambitiously conscious human being who acts to further his or her self-interest. Related to the VE theory of Enlightened Anthropic Principle Fields (although they don’t know it by that name), the Syndicate’s hypereconomic theories see Quintessence energy rising from human interest and activity. People literally invest themselves in such ventures, and although they might not see the energy they create through such transactions, they can feel it… hence the sensations involved in feeling valued or worthless. Whereas other Technocratic Conventions stick close to the “essential energies” model of Prime, the Syndicate’s Primal Utility specialists understand the Sphere differently. In game terms, the applications are more or less the same. For a Syndicate character, however, Prime flows through investing and withdrawing energetic currency through Ventures (valuegenerating Nodes – see the chart below) that manipulate the metaphysical economies of human value. By accessing what they call “creation’s credit rating,” the hypereconomist controls that currency, investing it where it does the most good… for him. Perhaps the greatest edge granted to those who understand Primal Utility comes from the aforementioned Ventures. By investing in a Venture, the hypereconomist can draw Primal Energy (Quintessence) from a mundane business. In game terms, that business becomes a Node; if the character has a lasting personal connection with that Venture, then he’s got access to that Node as well. Only a character with at least one dot in Primal Utility can access the Quintessence from that Venture; another mage might sense the energies but remain unable to access their power. Prime-savvy hypereconomists always watch for invisible bottom lines. Attuned to the effects of Market Correction (Paradox) and the perpetual exchange of energies conducted through human intercourse (sexual and otherwise), he can spot value – or the lack of it – in the least obvious situations, and he knows how to get the most for his investments in whatever form they might manifest. • Assess Primal Utility/ Deposit Primal Utility/ Exploit Primal Venture Assessment analysis gives the hypereconomist a view of Prime flows, Resonance signatures, and applied metaphysical processes (that is, magick) in his vicinity. As with all other Technocratic Sphere Effects, this demands the correct instruments and training, although certain practices and instruments (especially dominion and hypereconomics) simply give the specialist a hunch about the energies in play. Some specialists see colorful flows of energy but dismiss such visions as simply mental constructs for an otherwise invisible process. As with Prime 1, the hypereconomist can also invest such energies and can utilize the Prime Force generated by Ventures as well as other, more mystical sources of Quintessence.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 527 •• Create Gadgets/ Perfect Material Exploitation/ Primal Innovation Through sophisticated uses of instruments and principles, the hypereconomist can modify existing materials with an energized-value buzz; he can even create something from nothing, thanks to the principle of increased worth. In game terms, this allows him to use the normal Prime 2 Effects, although the character still needs to have some technological source to facilitate his conjurations. ••• Create Stable Extraordinary Devices/ Living-Asset Exploitation/ Use Currency & Primal Storage Utilizing energetic manifestations called Currency (in mystic terms, Tass), plus efficient managerial skills (see the Management and Human Resources sidebar, p. 595), the specialist can employ a team to create permanent Devices with his Currency, restore his personal stock (Pattern) with Currency, and drain or refill Devices and storage batteries called Matrices (that is, Periapts) with his available Currency. •••• Create Tass/ Exploit Opportunity/ Liquidate Assets Skillful use of hypereconomics now allows the specialist to create Currency from free-flowing energy. Typically, this Tass involves precious materials, paper money, credit cards, or other items of value (paintings, stock certificates, bearer bonds, drugs, etc.). Unlike mystic mages (or other Technocrats), however, he can use only the energy generated by Primal Utility activities… and not, for example, charge up his Platinum card at the nearest Node. By exploiting the Primal Opportunities called “wellsprings” in superstitionist jargon, that hypereconomist can also draw energy out of an exciting event rather than a consistent source. On the flipside, he can also destroy material objects while divesting them of their value (Quintessence). Although the specialist cannot access this energy, he can keep other people from utilizing those resources. (“I’d sooner burn this warehouse down than let you have it…”) ••••• Create Living Assets/ Generate Primal Conflux & Ventures/ Liquidate Living Assets/ Market Compensation Like Mastery of the mystic Prime, Mastery of this Rank allows the specialist to create permanent Devices, open new Confluxes (Nodes) and Ventures, liquidate living things (typically through vulgar applications of disintegration technology – although he could simply shoot someone and then burn the body), and negate the effects of Market Correction (Paradox) as if he were a Master of Prime Arts… though, of course, he has more technological finesse. Optional Rule: Wild Talent Uncontrolled Paranormal Power A sudden burst of uncontrolled (and uncontrollable) magick, the wild talent phenomenon manifests through intense stress, pain, trauma, or brand-new Enlightenment. Essentially, the Avatar screams out an incredible blast of power – one far beyond the reach of the average mage. The person at the center of that power has no real control over what happens or how it occurs; the talent simply appears, changes that person’s world, and then fades. Unlike the previous entries, wild talent is not a Sphere. Rather, it’s a plot device that represents uncontrolled (and uncontrollable) currents of Awakened energy. The mage in question has awareness without understanding, and the results can be as devastating as they are spectacular. Primal Ventures Venture Scale Equivalent Node Rating Required Connection* Successful local business/ small factory/ large farm/ street gang • Visit facilities, befriend gang, make purchase, or invest • Resources City-wide marketplace/ city mob/ medium-sized factory/ agribusiness facility/ common resource-extraction company (coal, iron, oil, etc.) •• Entry-level position, gang affiliation, establish contract, become stockholder, or invest •• Resources Regional market leader/ organized crime council/ rare resource extraction (gold, silver, diamonds, etc.) ••• Lower management, made man, consultant, invest ••• Resources National market leader/ major crime syndicate/ ultra-rare resources extraction (iridium, tanzanite, etc.) •••• Middle management, senior consultant, mob enforcer or senior brother, invest •••• Resources International leader or crime cartel ••••• Executive, board member, or mob kingpin, invest ••••• Resources * Each dot in Primal Utility reduces the specialist’s required connection by one step for each dot over the first. A specialist with three dots, for instance, could simply visit (one dot’s worth of connection) a large factory (a three-dot Venture) in order to draw upon its energy.
528 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition Rules-wise, wild talent allows a character to use powers far beyond her usual ability. For a scene or two, she commands an Arete dice pool that’s one, two, or perhaps three dice higher than usual; employs Spheres she might not understand; and may access Sphere Ranks 3, 4, or even 5 if the Storyteller so desires. That’s the catch: the Storyteller, not the player, decides what happens, how it happens, and how long it happens for. The player can state what she’d like to have happen, but the final decisions come from the Storyteller. Marauder Wild Talent For the most part, wild talent occurs once or twice in a mage’s life – often at the moment of Awakening, sometimes at the point of death. It’s always a dramatic event, linked to some great moment of crisis. Certain Marauders, however, manifest their magicks through a constant state of wild talent, unleashing powerful spells whose results they cannot control. Such characters rarely have more than a point or two of Arete (they are Awakened, after all) but possess Avatars of 4 or 5. Essentially, the Avatar Background functions as their wild talent Arete, adding the Avatar rating to the character’s normal Arete. This way, the Marauder has access to incredible powers, controlled and managed by the Avatar. Given the capricious nature of Avatars, however, those powers cannot be counted upon; the wild talent Arete comes and goes, according to the Storyteller’s whims and the dictates of the chronicle. Again, such powers remain extremely unpredictable. Given the potential for abuse, however, we strongly suggest limiting this option to non-player Marauders – mysterious characters, run by the Storyteller, who show up, do something impressive, and then disappear. The Death-Strike As an additional option, a dying mage MIGHT be allowed a death-strike: a final act of magick that channels his remaining life force into an attack or defense more powerful than anything he could normally attempt. For this final strike, the player could get one or two additional dice for his Arete roll and employ an Effect that’s one or two Ranks higher than his usual rating in the Spheres. After that point, however, he dies. Despite its name, a death-strike doesn’t have to be an attack – it could be an act of self-sacrifice to defend another party, open a gate, summon a powerful entity, or perform some other heroic feat. The death of Porthos Fitz-Empress, who contained the implosion of Doissetep, provides a legendary example of the death-strike in action. It’s also worth noting that the bad guys can do such things too… which is something to consider if the heroes fight an enemy to the point of his demise. Part III: Casting Magick, Step By Step Okay, so what do all those charts mean? Here, step by step, are the elements of spellcasting and the details about what’s involved in each element. Step One: Effect Before you check Traits and roll dice, ask yourself: What do I want to do, and how do I plan to accomplish it? The answers for those questions come into play during Step One. The Effect of What You’re Doing As mentioned earlier, every magickal act is referred to, in game terms, as an Effect. Generally, Effects get described in terms of the Spheres you use to perform that Effect. Looking for flaws with Entropy? That’s an Entropy 1 Effect. Changing your hair from brown to blue? That’s a Life 2 Effect if you’re using Spheres instead of hair dye. Firing a hypertech pulse-cannon? That’s an Effect using Forces 3 (to create the destructive element) + Prime 2 (to provide the energy that creates that element). Whatever a mage does with Arete and the Spheres has an effect upon the local reality. And so, when you’re figuring out what you want to do, you’re deciding upon the Effect you wish to create. For easy reference, see the collection of Common Magickal Effects presented on (pp. 508-510). These aren’t necessarily the only ways of performing a given feat (although many of them are), but they show you how to get a lot of things done. Game Terms vs. Character Terms As a roleplaying note, please remember that characters NEVER call what they’re doing “Effects.” A witch will cast a spell, a Black Suit will activate a Procedure, a scientist will pull a lever or punch a command into her keyboard, but you won’t hear any of them proclaiming “LO, I EMPLOY MY ARETE TO CAST A FORCES 3 EFFECT ON YOU!” That’s game talk, not character talk. Spheres: The Foundation of Each Effect Practically speaking, a Sphere determines what your character can do. In a broader sense, the Spheres reflect your character’s knowledge about the metaphysical forces he employs. When you’re determining what you can do and how you can do it, the Spheres provide the foundation of your abilities. To command fire, for example, you need to have the Forces Sphere. The various Spheres and their capabilities can be found in the previous section. How Many Effects Can I Use at Once? A mage can cast only one Effect per turn, even if she’s using Time 3 magick to speed up her activities. She may, however, keep any number of Effects running at a time, although it becomes more and more difficult for her to do so. Game-wise, you add +1 to your difficulty for every two Effects you have running at one time – that is, +1 difficulty for
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 529 two Effects, +2 for four Effects, +3 for six Effects, and so on. And by “running,” we mean an Effect that demands ongoing concentration - a summoning, a force field, weather control, and so on. As an overall note, an Effect that has a Time-based trigger, one which has been locked into another Pattern, or one that has been cast but whose duration has not yet expired, does not count toward that total. If Lee Ann enchants a guy, and if – thanks to the number of successes rolled – that enchantment lasts for a week after they part company, then Lee Ann does not have to concentrate on the Effect in order to keep it going. If she wishes to extend the Effect beyond its original duration, however, then it counts against the number of Effects that character can employ at the same time. Instant Effects and Rituals Many Effects take place instantly; if you throw a lightning bolt, for example, that Effect is over once the bolt hits its target. Rituals, on the other hand, demand intense concentration. No more than two Effects can be used at once during the casting of a ritual – see the Rituals entry under Step Three, (pp. 538-542). Rotes, Procedures, and Other Prepared Effects Mages like to be prepared. Thus, although freeform realitycrafting is any mage’s prerogative, many characters employ previously prepared Effects – rotes, spells, Procedures, Adjustments, and so forth – as part of their mystic or technological bag of tricks. For simplicity’s sake, we’ll just call such Effects “rotes” for now. Certainly, no good Technocrat would be Deviant enough to use words like “spell” or “magick” to refer to what he does, but the various terms all mean the same thing as far as game systems are concerned. Knowing and Learning Rotes Rules-wise, a rote is simply an Effect that your character has used before or learned from someone else. Some groups teach rotes as part of basic training, whereas others pass them along to their close friends, apprentices, and so on. Beyond the story-based opportunities to learn such tricks, there’s nothing special about a rote. You do not need to spend points to learn one, nor are you limited to a certain number of rotes. If your group wants to reflect the process of learning rotes from some other character or source, simply roll your character’s Intelligence + either Esoterica (for mystic techniques) or Science (for technomagickal rotes), with a difficulty based upon the highest Sphere in that rote + 5. Learning a Rank 1 rote would be difficulty 6, and a Rank 5 rote would be difficulty 10. If you want to have characters discover rotes through research or mystic/ technological tomes, use a Perception + Research roll with the same difficulties given above. This way, a hidden library or forbidden codex can present new and interesting opportunities for a sharp-witted character. Naturally, the mage must share a focus with the rote in question before he can use it to his benefit. A Man in Black isn’t going to get far with a voodoo curse unless he adjusts his thinking to accommodate such Deviant ideas! A character who wants to adopt a rote from a different practice or paradigm would be casting that Effect at +2 difficulty, as if he were working with unfamiliar tools… which is, of course, exactly what he’s doing. For a small assortment of rotes, see Part VIII: Adjustments, Procedures, and Rotes, near the end of this chapter. Step Two: Ability Once you’ve gone through Step One, you know what your mage is planning to do and what he’ll use in order to get the job done. The first question in Step Two is simple: Can he do it, given the things he knows and the things he employs? To get your answer, check your character’s focus and its associated Traits to see whether or not he has what it takes to accomplish what you’ve set out to do. The question of Spheres is easy enough; if you’ve got the appropriate Rank in the appropriate Spheres, then in game terms, yes – your character can do it. Focus: How Your Character Does It The second part is a bit trickier: Does your mage BELIEVE that he can do such things? Sure, maybe you’ve got Forces 3 and Prime 2 on your character sheet. A Black Suit can’t just snap her fingers and make fireballs appear, however. Such feats don’t fit her focus – they violate her beliefs. She can’t conjure fire using someone else’s focus, either; if you gave her a rune-carved staff, she’d try to hit someone with it, not summon a firestorm. That sort of nonsense is Reality Deviance, and so – Spheres be damned – the Black Suit could no more conjure fire with a staff than she could fart unicorns and shoot them into space. So that’s where roleplaying comes in. Belief, Practice, and Tools In Mage’s previous iterations, “focus” referred to the tools that a mage used to cast her Effects. Now, however, we’ve expanded that term to encompass the beliefs (or paradigm) that a mage accepts as the source of her power; the practice she uses in order to direct her beliefs toward intentions; and the tools that she uses in the course of that practice. Previous chapters have shown how those three factors depend upon the background of each individual mage. The Focus and the Arts section later in this chapter explores the many different options your character could use. For right now, simply remember this: when you cast an Effect, your character’s FOCUS determines what she does. And that focus depends upon the character herself. As detailed in Chapters One, Two, and Six, mages focus their Effects through a combination of paradigm, practice, and tools. Step Two involves thinking from your mage’s perspective – ignoring the dots on your character sheet in favor of whether or not your character would believe in what you have in mind. If the answer is No, as with the Black Suit mentioned above, then think of another way to make things happen. Okay, the rune-carved staff won’t work… but a lighter and some hairspray would! In the story, the agent rushes to the bathroom cabinet, grabs the Aqua Net, pulls a lighter out of her pocket, and there you go. Now your Black Suit can conjure a fireball with
530 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition a Forces 3/ Prime 2 Effect, using the lighter and the spray can as a focus instrument. Using Tools If You Don’t Need Them Even if they’ve realized that they don’t need rituals and tools, many mages prefer to use them anyway. As far as the character’s concerned, he’s simply using a familiar method in order to direct his intentions – it’s a comfortable habit, but not a requirement. In game terms, the character may have transcended the need for a given instrument, but he still uses it anyway to get a slight edge. That edge comes through as a -1 reduction on the Arete roll difficulty, which for easy reference can be found on the Magickal Difficulty Modifiers chart. For more details about focus, practices, and tools, see Part VII: Focus and the Arts. Rituals as a Focus Fairly often, a mage’s focus demands a ritual before the intentions become an Effect. In story terms, that character programs the virus, tosses the bones, performs the dance, endures the ordeal, or does whatever else his beliefs and practice say he has to do in order to cast his magick. Game-wise, a ritual is simply the use of a focus as part of an extended action that gathers a necessary number of successes. For details, see the section about Rituals, Rolls, and Extended Successes, under Step Three. Roleplaying the magick puts some limitations on your character’s capabilities, requires you to think about your mage’s beliefs, and demands some imagination on your part. Really, though, isn’t imagination what Storytelling games are all about? By thinking through your mage’s perspective, you add a bit of real-life magic to the fictional magick within the game. Coincidental Magick vs. Vulgar Magick Speaking of imagination and magick… As Chapter Two points out, the easiest way to perform magick is to make it seem like part of the natural landscape. In the old days, this meant fitting your spells and practices into the local belief system. These days, that’s still true… but technology, not magic, is the lay of that land. And so, mages (and Mage players) favor coincidental magick over more obvious, vulgar applications of the Arts. An important element of Steps Two and Three involves the question Is what you’re doing coincidental or vulgar? In Step Two, the question helps you decide what to do; in Step Three, the answer determines the difficulty of your casting roll and the results of that roll in the rest of the story. Story-wise, the coincidental spell or ritual fits into the spectrum of what people believe is possible, whereas the vulgar spell or ritual shoves apparently impossible things into the faces of Reality and the Masses. The coincidental Effect appears to be something that’s more or less ordinary, but the vulgar Effect essentially drops “ordinary” off the nearest building. Calling your mom on a cell phone is coincidental; waving your hands in the air, chanting the names of seven devils, and then having Mom’s face appear in the air in front of you so you can talk to her is vulgar. Game-wise, you’ve got three compelling reasons to make your Effects coincidental as often as possible: • First off, it’s easier to cast a coincidental Effect than it is to cast a vulgar one – the difficulty is less, and so are the risks. Because the difficulty’s lower, you’re more likely to succeed… and to score more successes, too. • Secondly, vulgar magick inflicts Paradox points upon your character even if she succeeds… and heaps even more of them upon her if she fails. • Thirdly, various characters and agencies have a vested interest in stopping people who use vulgar magick; by using it, your mage risks attracting their attention… which, in both game and story terms, is not a healthy thing to do. And yet, there are times when vulgar magick is the only option. There’s no coincidental way to step sideways or download yourself into the Digital Web. A sudden bolt of fire from Heaven might be the one thing standing between a Pulling on Mythic Threads Strands of legendry and lore, the Mythic Threads (see Chapter Two, p. 61) tie into the Collective Unconscious and reinforce the iconic power of certain mystic and technological symbols. Especially in the current era, symbolic figures like witches, wizards, cops, and superheroes exert a literally fantastic pull on the Consensus. Although folks like to claim that “magic is dead,” the Masses have not yet received that particular memo. In game terms, a mage of any faction can manipulate Mythic Threads in order to reduce the difficulty of an Effect by -1. Essentially, he employs potent symbology as part of his focus, drawing on the power of iconic figures and ideas. Black robes or leather, religious symbols, arcane glyphs and designs, elemental phenomena (fire, thunder, fog, etc.) – used cleverly, such trappings invoke the suspension of disbelief and prime the Masses to accept things that, under other circumstances, they might consider irrational. Ideally, such tactics could even make certain Effects coincidental that would be considered vulgar otherwise. For more details about using Mythic Threads, see the Magickal Difficulty Modifiers chart and the sidebar Optional Rule: Significant Instruments, (p. 588).
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 531 vampire and a child, so if bringing that fire down violates the laws of reality, then that’s what you’ve gotta do. Mages, by their nature, are people who dare the impossible. And so – in both game and story terms – vulgar magick remains an essential part of every mage’s life. The trick, then, involves fitting your Effects, your focus, and your needs in with the boundaries of coincidence and vulgarity, making judgment calls between what you do, how you do it, and what happens as a result. And that takes imagination, cunning, and nerve. Witnesses Because many mystic practices simply can’t be passed off as coincidence, a mage has to be clever about what he does, how he does it, and who’s watching when he does it. Even technomancers must remain careful about that sort of thing – animating dead bodies with a Vita Ray still counts as impossible so far as most people are concerned. A witness, in game terms, is someone who’s physically present when the magick occurs. Cameras, video feeds, YouTube, and so forth do not count as witnesses, although a mage still faces certain problems if she winds up getting posted on the Internet performing obvious magick. Despite common preconceptions, a Sleeper can be rattled by acts of Enlightened Science as well as by magick, especially if that person has accepted the idea that sentient robots and functional jetpacks are beyond the reach of current technology. Technocrats can and do suffer from the Paradox Effect. Although the Masses certainly seem more willing to accept the possibilities of hypertech, real science is defined not by flash but by limitations. As a result, a lot of the choices involved in magick depend upon having a clear space to work in – casting Effects in safe space rather than out among the Masses, clearing the area of potential witnesses, working in secrecy whenever possible, that sort of thing. There are practical reasons, after all, for secret laboratories, hidden cottages, forbidden temples, and Black Suits radiating their Nothing to see here – move along auras. Such measures give mages room to move, far from the eyes of a Sleeper witness. The Sleeper Witness, the Consensus, and Paradox What’s a Sleeper witness? As explained below, a Sleeper witness is someone whose beliefs conform to the local ideas about what is and is not possible. Such people are not Awakened in the sense that mages are, and although they might enjoy movies about vampires or books about wizards, such things are not part of their everyday reality. Sure, a person might accept the idea of supernatural forces or paranormal abilities in an abstract sort of way. He might pray to the ghost of a Jewish carpenter who’s supposed to descend in glory from the sky and raise the dead for eternal judgment in Heaven or Hell. If, however, that person sees a real manifestation of ACTUAL magick – say, his neighbor flying through the air on a broom – then his view of reality is in for a rude kick in the pants. And so, by extension, is the neighbor on her broom. As previous chapters have explained, “just plain folks” set the momentum of reality as a whole. These people are the Consensus. The fact that reality is a lot weirder than they realize is an abstract idea for them… one they don’t really want to think about. When a mage forces the Masses to confront that truth, that mage is overriding their Consensus with her own. And that’s risky. Practically speaking, such override attempts are more difficult to accomplish than apparent coincidences are, and the price of failure is Paradox. From both a story and a game perspective, then, you’ll probably want your character to avoid Sleeper witnesses as often as possible, surround herself with sympathetic allies, and keep her Arts and workings on the down-low. Ideally, you’ll be performing Effects in solitude, Chantries, Sanctums, Nodes, and other relatively safe spaces. In both life and fiction, of course, safety is an illusion. Desperate circumstances often call for desperate measures, and even the most circumspect mage can find herself reaching for vulgar magick in the middle of a crowd. That’s just the way things go down in the World of Darkness. If you avoid doing flashy stuff around witnesses, however, then you’ll have more leeway to employ desperate measures and pull out the big guns when you need them. Drawing the Line As a general rule, assume the following line between coincidental and vulgar magick: • If the average person walking down the street could see what your mage is doing and think, “Oh, yeah – human beings can TOTALLY do that,” then it’s a coincidence. • If the average person walking down the street could see what your mage is doing and think, “Holy crap – human beings can’t do THAT!” then it’s vulgar. There’s plenty of gray area on either side of that line, of course… a lot of which depends upon that whole “average person” thing. But as a quick-n-dirty rule, assume that your mage should be subtle whenever possible, and be ready to take the consequences when she decides not to be. Do the Night-Folk Count as Witnesses? To be clear: a Sleeper witness is someone whose life does not include intimate experience with an active supernatural world. The Night-Folk and their various allies and enemies – ghouls, kinfolk, kinain, cultists, Infernalists, mummies, hunters, etc. – DO NOT COUNT as Sleeper witnesses. Period. (We emphasize this answer because it’s a topic of constant debate.) Acolytes and extraordinary citizens are slightly more complicated: • A Technocratic extraordinary citizen does not count as a Sleeper witness with regards to technomagickal procedures but does count as one with regards to mystic magick. That’s because such people have been Socially Conditioned to accept hypertech as normal and desirable and to reject mystic Arts as unnatural Reality Deviance.
532 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition • A mystic acolyte or cultist does not count as a Sleeper witness at all. Such people accept faith and magick as part of their worldview, and yet – with very few exceptions – have also been raised in a technological environment, with popular media and everyday gadgets that employ advanced (and sometime absurdly exaggerated) scientific principles. • As a possible exception to that rule, people who’ve been born and raised in one of the very few human communities that have totally escaped the influence of modern technology would probably count as Sleeper witnesses with regards to technomagick. No, the Amish don’t count; they know that modern tech exists but choose to reject it within their society. However, people raised deep in the Amazon interior or who’ve lived their whole lives in secluded Horizon Realms might qualify if they’ve had little or no contact with machine-using people. On the flipside, though, people who’d had a little bit of experience with machines might be even more willing to accept the possibilities of hypertech, as they haven’t had much experience or schooling to contradict the more ridiculous applications of technomagick. In such cases, it’s the Storyteller’s call, based upon the people and situations involved. Cultural Perspectives and Reality Zones One man’s superstition is another man’s everyday life. And so, in certain cultural traditions, activities and practices that may seem impossible on Main Street, USA are perfectly acceptable. This isn’t just true only of those developing nations that supposedly have flexible ideas about scientific reality. Plenty of urban enclaves, rural communities, and specialized cultural gatherings (churches, festivals, conventions, etc.) throughout the industrialized world are dominated by Sleepers whose impressions of reality include certain mystic practices, weird technology, and potent martial arts. For information about the wiggle room afforded by certain cultural perspectives, see Part IX: Reality Zones, at the end of this chapter. Allies, Assistants, and Cults Especially where magick is concerned, there’s safety in numbers. And so, many mages nurture allies, assistants, and cults – people who, in both story and game terms, make it easier to successfully perform magick. • Allies are associated mages and Night-Folk – members of your Tradition or Convention, collaborators from a different allied faction (the Council, Technocracy, Disparates, etc.), powerful Sleepers (cops, scientists, politicians, etc.), or various non-mages (hedge wizards, vampires, werewolves, and so forth) who share a common cause with you. These allies watch your back, guard your front, and sometimes aid your magickal efforts if and when they can. • Assistants are trained Sleepers who can handle mundane tasks, possibly holding down the fort with various selfpowered Wonders. In Technocracy-speak, these are the extraordinary citizens; for the Council, they’re acolytes. Regardless of the terminology, these folks provide backup, research, security, companionship, and occasional help with Effects whose practices they understand. Rules-wise, these folks can provide a sympathetic crowd for your magickal Effects… which, in turn, makes those Effects easier to cast, provides extra successes for your roll, and can even make certain vulgar Effects coincidental. • Cults are folks devoted to your cause. Like allies and associates, they take care of business and offer help with magickal workings. Cultists, however, are dedicated specifically to your faction, belief, or Path. Maybe they view you as a prophet or healer, follow the same god(s), or serve the faction to which you both belong. Like assistants, these cultists (who may also be devotees of technology) benefit your Effects in both story and game terms. Unlike more casual associates, however, these characters believe deeply in what you’re doing and can provide bonuses to your dice pool when you cast an Effect. See the Cult Background, detailed in Chapter Six, for more information. Magick’s often easier with a little help from your friends. When several characters collaborate on a single Effect, they can act in concert to provide more successes and a lowered difficulty. For details, see the Acting in Concert section near the end of Step Three, (pp. 542-543). Mundane Skills and Magickal Effects Because magick is an extension of the mage, a magickal practice often influences – and also depends upon – that mage’s mundane skills. A hacker studies computer technology, politics, and various social and governmental institutions. A shaman learns to live off the land, read people and animals, and absorb the culture of his people. A music-focused Ecstatic understands musical theory and instruments, whereas a hypertech inventor perfects scientific theories and hands-on mechanical skill. Such characters typically have at least one dot in the Ability Traits that suit their practices and vocations. In story terms, these abilities define your character’s interests and capabilities; in game terms, they help him use a focus with greater results. If the magickal focus depends upon using a given Ability Trait – like channeling magickal Effects through songs, for example – then the Storyteller may insist that the Trait has to be at least equal to the highest Sphere Rank that gets focused through that Ability, as described in Chapter Six under Minimum Abilities, (p.276). As shown in Chapter Nine’s Magick and Violence section, your character’s Abilities can lower the difficulty of a magickcasting roll, and his magick can lower the difficulty of his Ability rolls. Most tools and rituals depend upon the successful use of an Ability too – after all, you can’t blast an enemy with your force cannon if you don’t know how to shoot that force cannon, or can’t hit your target with a shot!
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 533 Naturally, you need to have a suitable Ability on your character sheet in order to use it. Later in this chapter, the Practices section of Focus and the Arts provides lists of the Abilities associated with certain mystic and technological practices. Assuming that you do have the Ability in question, you can employ it in one of two ways: Abilities Enhancing Magick When a character uses an appropriate Ability just before working a magickal Effect – and, in game terms, takes at least a turn or two to do so – make a roll to reflect your success with that activity. The difficulty for that roll depends upon the circumstances for the feat in question; for details, see pp. 403-405. If you’re using an activity to enhance your magick, you cannot spend Willpower to get an automatic success, or use other modifiers to lower the difficulty of that activity roll. In Jinx’s case, the Tarot reading’s difficulty is 5, period. Each success on the Attribute + Ability roll reduces the difficulty on the associated Effect by -1, to a maximum reduction of -3. If Jinx gets two successes, then her casting roll’s difficulty drops by -2. Magick Enhancing Abilities The right spell or Procedure can make certain mundane tasks easier, too. A little Mind-magick push, for example, can beef up a facedown or debate. In this case, you cast the magick just before the task and either keep it running throughout the task (see below), or else get the ball rolling with magick and then follow through with straight-up skill. Game-wise, use the same system as you’d employ when enhancing magick with Abilities: a successful Arete roll lowers the difficulty of the Attribute + Ability roll by a factor of -1 difficulty for each success rolled with your Arete, to a maximum reduction of -3. In this case, however, you could lower the difficulty of that Arete roll. Let’s say that Jinx spends a point of Quintessence to lower her difficulty from 5 to 4. If she’s using the magick to Axis of Coincidence Various examples of coincidence throughout Mage’s history have muddied the waters considerably. Correspondence magick, for example, does not summon taxi cabs, nor do whiskey flasks materialize in a person’s pocket without a Matter 2/ Prime 2 Effect and several successes rolled to create one from thin air (or a similar, Correspondence-based Effect to move the flask from its location to the pocket). The gray areas between coincidental and vulgar magick might be Mage’s most controversial element; with absolutely zero help from Mage 1st Edition, arguments about vampiric soap bubbles and taxis from nowhere have surrounded the game for over 20 years. And though no sidebar can conclusively end all arguments, we can present a few guidelines here. As a general rule, please assume that if a Hypothetical Average Bystander (HAB) saw you doing something and that something looked possible under his or her worldview, then your Effect is coincidental. Yes, you could pull a gun or business card from your pocket and have it appear to be coincidence even if there hadn’t been one there beforehand. (This, of course, assumes that no one has gone through your pockets or otherwise proved them to be empty. If you’ve just taken your pants out of the laundry, you can’t pull a gun from the front pocket. Also, that gun would still have to be small enough to fit in a pants pocket in the first place; yanking a Desert Eagle from a pair of Daisy Dukes is not gonna fly.) Any conjured object, however, has to either come from somewhere via a Correspondence/ Matter Effect or else be created from Matter and Prime Effects… and such acts are often more difficult than carrying that object in the first place – see the Chapter Nine section regarding The Technological World and the creation or invention of sophisticated working objects. On a related note, conjured objects do need to come from somewhere – not-so-random chance will not simply place them in your pocket at the proper time. As an overall guideline, Mage 20 assumes a Process-Based Determinism (PBD), which means that the process you follow determines the results you get. Returning to the summoned taxi example, a mage would have to: • Employ the Spheres necessary to grab an existing taxi (maybe Correspondence 3 to find a taxi, Mind 2 to nudge the driver in your direction, and Entropy 2 to tilt the odds of finding a taxi in your favor); • Employ the Spheres necessary to create a taxi and driver from thin air (Matter 4 to conjure the complicated mix of materials; Forces 3 to propel them using internal combustion and electrical currents and to conjure them from nothing; Life 5/ Mind 5 to create a capable driver; Prime 2 to fuel the entire mess; several dots in various Crafts and Science with specialties in Biology and Human Anatomy; and a metric shit-ton of successes scored on an incredibly vulgar Effect); or… • Employ Entropy 2 to tilt the odds in your favor; score a LOT of successes unless you’re in a busy urban area; and expect to be waiting a while before getting whatever happens to arrive. Merely tossing out a Correspondence 3 teleportation Effect and then hailing a taxi as the coincidence that happens to manifest in time to transport you to your destination will not do the job. (Yes, we know that Mage 1st Edition used some really wild examples as coincidences. Mage 1st’s magick rules are broken. Please ignore them. Thanks.)
534 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition HAB/ HOO/ HYP and RBD/PBD A popular analogy on the Mage forums involves the double axis of HAB/ HOO/ HYP on one spectrum, and RBD/ PBD on the other. HAB and PBD just got covered above. HOO stands for Hypothetical Omniscient Observer (translation: Reality is the ultimate judge of coincidence, can see in your pockets, and has eyes everywhere); RBD means Result-Based Determinism (result is the only thing that matters, not how you got that result); and HYP translates to Harass Yonder Passerby (which is a joke). Under HOO, nothing a mage can do counts as a coincidence, because Reality is a godlike observer who judges your activities. And under RBD, you can conjure a taxi from nowhere with a Correspondence spell because the only thing that matters is getting from Point A to Point B. (Mages tend to HYP as a matter of course. Yes, mages can be real dicks.) Ultimately, you – the players and the Storytellers of individual Mage chronicles – provide the final decisions about whether coincidence follows a HAB or HOO model, and whether Effects get decided by RBD or PBD. As far as Mage 20’s default position goes, however, our rules favor a HAB/ PBD approach: the Hypothetical Average Bystander decides whether or not something is possible (and she cannot see what you’ve got in your pocketses), and the results of your Effects depend upon the process you use to make them manifest. Hopefully, this helps settle a few long-running arguments… around your gaming table, if not on the Internet. (As any Virtual Adept can tell you, nothing truly settles arguments on the Internet.) Successes and Consequences Another source of endless arguments around Mage’s magick has already been addressed above: theoretically, anything is possible if you’ve got the Spheres, Arete, and imagination to pull it off. What, then, stops mages from conjuring wealth and turning vampires into lawn chairs or soap bubbles? Successes and consequences. Yes, a wizard with the Spheres and Abilities listed above could theoretically conjure a taxi and its driver from thin air. That is possible. Now, just make a few Crafts rolls (lots of successes – you’re building a car); some Science rolls (likewise – you’re creating a functional, humanoid life-form, plus a working internal-combustion engine). If all that goes well, then roll 20 or 30 successes on a vulgar Effect (base difficulty 9 if you’re in the middle of nowhere, otherwise 10, with a reduction no lower than difficulty 6 if every single factor goes in your favor). Don’t botch, incidentally – the potential Paradox backlash could blow you to atoms. Not that simple, is it? The same rule runs true on smaller, less obvious complexities… conjuring money, for example. Modern currency is incredibly sophisticated, filled with tiny cues, subtle colors, complex designs, electronic strips, holographic marks, and so forth. You want to make a wad of twenties from thin air? How many successes, exactly, do you think it’ll take to craft even one passable duplicate of a $20.00 bill? Does your mage have several dots in Crafts and a specialty in Counterfeiting? And if so, which currency has he memorized down to the smallest details? Will that money feel right, or will it have a telltale slick, rough, or otherwise unusual texture that would tip off a cashier? Even if you can fool a cashier with that fake cash, do you think a human being’s memory can fool a teller machine’s cash scanner? Not bloody likely. After all, the Technocracy and other non-mage agencies have worked hard to protect their institutions from influxes of fake cash. Things that sound easy in theory are damned difficult in practice… and thus, they demand phenomenal numbers of successes, often at epic difficulty ratings. That Which You Do, Returns to You… On a related note, magick does not happen in a vacuum. Changing one thing dramatically has dramatic effects on other things around it. If you conjure a localized thunderstorm, you also affect the weather patterns on a grand scale. Turn Count Dracula into kitchenware, and his minions will have your ass… and so will he, once that spell wears off. Yes, a Hollower can drain a local bank machine; you think the Syndicate won’t notice that, though, even if she has an Arcane of 5 with which to blur the camera on that ATM? Think some street kid can get away with passing off $100 bills at every store counter? Not in this social climate, she can’t! Dramatic activities have dramatic blowback, and magick does not shield mages from such consequences. As anyone who studies metaphysics can tell you, it’s often quite the opposite. The obvious (and sometimes not so obvious) effects of Paradox reflect the echoes of a mage’s actions. Large, flashy workings get mages slammed to the mat, and smaller ones generate uncanny Resonance or accumulate tiny increments of Paradox until the player abruptly realizes that she’s got eight or 10 Paradox points on her sheet. Hypothetical Average Bystanders might be fooled, but Reality will have its due one way or another. Even when cast in low-Paradox environments (Sanctums, Chantries, the Otherworlds), large spells remain challenging. Rolling 20 successes is still difficult, risky, and time-consuming when the difficulty of that roll is 6 instead of 9, and Paradox can still smack you if you screw up in outer space. Beyond Paradox, of course, other consequences still exist, and there’s still that matter of scoring enough successes to pull off an Effect to begin with. A Storyteller is not only allowed but also advised to use successes and consequences as limiters on abusive levels of magick. The Magickal Feats chart provides guidelines for drastic acts of reality hacking, so if someone’s trying to whip up a basement nuke or turn his co-workers into hordes of screaming minions, the Storyteller has the option of making such feats so difficult and risky that our budding Voldemort is better off trying a more subtle approach to life. Sure, there are times when flashy magick is totally appropriate – the game is called Mage, after all. By bearing in mind the successes and consequences involved, however, you can keep things from getting out of hand.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 535 assist an activity – perhaps employing Entropy 2 to draw the Strength card from her Tarot deck – then her Arete roll is 4 even though the Perception + Enigmas difficulty is still 5. Each success, of course, reduces that difficulty, though. Jinx scores three successes, and her Tarot-reading difficulty drops to 2. The Dramatic Feats section near the beginning of Chapter Nine offers a wide range of potentially helpful activities, and the Focus and the Arts section in this chapter shows how certain feats can provide focus or assistance for a magickal Effect. As mentioned above, certain skills and feats may be required for certain workings; if you want to soup up your car with Forces and Matter, for instance, then you’ll have to know how to work on a car. Step Three: Roll As we’ve already seen, you cast an Effect by rolling your Arete rating. At that point, however, various other circumstances determine what your difficulty is and how well you succeed. Regardless of speed or circumstances, you can make only one Arete roll per turn. The Difficulty To reiterate what we’ve mentioned above, the difficulty of your casting roll depends first upon whether or not your mage is using coincidental magick or vulgar magick, and second whether or not someone’s around to notice it when she does. • Coincidental magick’s difficulty equals the highest Sphere in that Effect + 3. If you use Forces 2 to make a breeze blow in your direction at just the right time, then the roll’s difficulty is 5. (2 + 3 = 5) • Vulgar magick WITHOUT Sleeper witnesses bases its difficulty on the highest Sphere + 4. If you used Forces 2 to make a candle flame fly across the room and into your hand while you were alone, then the difficulty for that feat would be 6. (2 + 4 = 6) • Vulgar magick WITH Sleeper witnesses has a difficulty of the highest Sphere + 5. If you pulled that same flyingflame stunt in front of an unAwakened neighbor, your difficulty would be 7. (2 + 5 = 7) Minimum Difficulty The various modifiers described below can raise or lower the difficulty up to three factors in either direction. No magickcasting roll, however, can go below a difficulty of 3 if the caster’s working somewhere on Earth. Reality has a limited amount of flexibility, and although lower difficulties might be possible in the Otherworlds (Storyteller’s discretion), your Arete roll’s difficulty will never drop below 3, regardless of the modifiers involved. Magickal Attack Rolls Under many circumstances, you simply roll your character’s Arete, plus or minus modifiers, to see whether an Effect goes off. If you succeed, then the Effect succeeds as well. In certain circumstances, though, you need to hit a target who doesn’t want to be hit. Perhaps you’re firing an energy gun, swinging an enchanted sword, or flinging the archetypal fireball at your intended target of misfortune. In such situations, you also need to roll an attack to hit that person. The Effect might succeed, but its impact may go elsewhere. Such circumstances apply to targeted Effects – ones in which you might miss that target or ones that the target of the Effect can dodge. Chapter Nine covers such situations, and their appropriate rolls, in the Magick and Violence section (pp. 413-416) and on the Order of Battle chart, featured on (p. 445). Fast-Casting and Working Without Tools A desperate or reckless mage might try fast-casting her Effect – that is, making stuff up and firing it off without preparation or practice. On a related note, she might also try working without her usual instruments, trusting sheer force of Will to carry her through. In both cases, the player suffers a penalty to her Arete roll when casting that Effect – a +1 increase to her difficulty when fast-casting and a +3 increase to her difficulty when working without her usual tools. Again, both modifications can be found on the Magickal Difficulty Modifiers chart, and both Appropriate and Opposed Resonance Two of the modifiers presented on the Magickal Difficulty Modifiers chart feature the idea of appropriate and opposed Resonance. Essentially, this means working with things whose energy fits (or do not fit) the spell and subject. As an example, imagine a spell that’s intended to comfort a frightened child: using a well-loved teddy bear, a soft security blanket, or a lullaby from the mage’s happy childhood would provide appropriate Resonance for the spell in question. Meanwhile, using a blood-stained blanket from an urban war zone, a lullaby sung by an abusive parent, or the teddy bear clutched in the mage’s hands back during the awful days of Daddy’s drinking binges would provide opposed Resonance. Now, some of those items might still be appropriate under certain situations. If that teddy bear was the mage’s only comfort during those days, and if the child he’s trying to comfort is struggling with family abuse, the old stuffed animal might still provide an appropriate focus for that spell. And so, the difference between appropriate and opposed has more to do with the story elements than with an arbitrary list of items that are good or bad for particular sorts of workings. For more details about the effects of Resonance, see Resonance and Synergy, (pp. 560-561).
536 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition affect any mage who has not raised her Arete high enough to work without a focus, as described in the entry Arete, Focus, and Instruments, Chapter Six, (p. 329). Modifiers As the last few chapters have shown, various modifiers reflect circumstances that make a task more or less difficult. On the Magickal Difficulty Modifiers chart on (p. 503), you’ll find a collection of modifiers that reflect Tools and Rituals, matters of Time and Effort, and a host of General Circumstances that can help or hinder a mage’s work. Modifier Limits As that chart points out, no collection of modifiers can raise a difficulty by more than +3, lower that difficulty by more than -3, or bring the difficulty of a magickal Effect below 3 if that Effect gets cast on Earth. The Thresholds Option If your group employs the thresholds option described in Chapter Eight (p. 387), then you’ll be setting your maximum difficulties at 9 instead of 10. In such cases, then, a modifier that would push the difficulty to 10 or beyond that point will instead present a threshold of successes. Each +1 to the difficulty equals one additional success that you need to roll in order to clear that threshold. Let’s say that your modifiers add +3 to your difficulty and that those additions take the difficulty to 11. Because 11 is two more than 9, you get a threshold of two. To beat that threshold, you need to roll at least three successes at difficulty 9 – the first one to reach the difficulty, the next two to beat that threshold. This option works best when you’ve got an incredibly challenging task and the time and space to work on it properly. For quick-result spells, threshold successes can be unnecessarily complex. Use the option only when you need to do so. Difficulties Above 10 Even if your group chooses not to employ thresholds, you’ll still add extra successes when a modifier pushes the difficulty above 10. Each +1 modifier adds another success that you need to roll before you succeed. If, for instance, Lee Ann tries to use Time 5 to travel back in time in front of witnesses, that would add a +3 modifier to that difficulty 10 Effect. In game terms, that would demand a minimum of three extra successes at difficulty 10, over and above the other successes necessary to accomplish that feat. The mathematical absurdities involved in that roll show why mages so rarely attempt such feats… and why they even more rarely succeed when they do. Using Willpower Will drives magick. When you throw a point of Willpower behind a spell, your character gets one automatic success on the Effect in question.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 537 As detailed in the Chapter Six entry Willpower, spending this Trait involves points of temporary Willpower, not permanent Willpower. Essentially, you’re pushing the limits of reality by investing part of your character’s determination to succeed. In order to do so, however, you have to declare the Willpower expenditure before you roll your Arete. Once you’ve made that roll, you cannot add more successes to it by spending Willpower to make things happen. A mage may spend only one Willpower point per turn when casting an Effect. Using Quintessence As the essential energy of Creation, Quintessence fuels magickal Effects. A mage can spend one point of her personal Quintessence per turn for each dot in her Avatar background Trait. As the Magickal Difficulty Modifiers chart shows, you can spend points of Quintessence to reduce the difficulty of your character’s magickal Effects. Adjusting Arete Roll Difficulties As usual, the final difficulty of a single Arete roll can be reduced by a maximum of -3 (or three points of Quintessence). That said, you could spend additional points in order to balance out other modifiers; if, for example, you had a +2 addition to your difficulty and an Avatar Background of 5, you could spend up to five points of Quintessence in order to drop that difficulty by -3, canceling out the +2 and reducing the difficulty by -3 as well. Other Uses for Quintessence in Magick Quintessence has other potential uses as well: • Reinforcing the Pattern of an object so that it resists or inflicts aggravated damage. • Fueling new Patterns so that Life, Forces, and Matter can be created from scratch. • Facilitating the many uses of the Prime Sphere. In certain cases – such as adding the ability to inflict aggravated damage to something that doesn’t normally do that – you must spend a point or more of Quintessence in order to complete that Effect. In all cases that don’t involve Prime 3 or higher, however, you can spend only one point of Quintessence for each dot in your Avatar. Beyond that, a mage must rely upon Prime Sphere Effects. Successes Brief, simple spells are easy to cast; larger, more complicated magicks take time and effort. As the Magickal Feats chart shows, it’s easier to cast a simple Effect on yourself than it is to rock someone else’s world with powerful magicks. Base Successes For a simple guideline, assume that you’ll need a certain number of successes before your Effect manifests: • Personal Effects that make minor changes in your character’s own reality require only one success. These include sensory-perception enhancements, divinations, self-healing, temporary Trait boosts, minor cosmetic changes (hair color, skin color, height, etc.) and the like. Extreme or long-lasting alterations – radical shape changes, multiple selves, transformations into elemental forces, and so forth – require three successes or more. • Effects that change reality for another person or object require at least two successes. For this reason, a single success inflicts no damage upon an opponent – damage begins at two successes. An unwilling target can also try to resist or dodge an attack, as detailed under the Dodging and Resistance entry below. In order to get around that resistance, you might need to roll additional successes; the more successes you roll, the more damage you inflict. (See Damage and Duration, also below.) • Effects that significantly change your surroundings, even if that’s only on a local level, require at least five successes. Large-scale alterations can demand 10, 20, even 30 successes, whereas small and subtle ones are much easier to achieve. Magickal Feats Especially ambitious or complicated Effects take longer to cast and demand more effort in the process. For such workings, consult the Magickal Feats chart and find the number of successes you’ll probably need in order to achieve the desired Effect. To gather those successes, an extended roll – in story terms, a ritual – could be essential. The Rituals, Rolls, and Extended Successes entry, below, describes the process of rolling large numbers of successes and the various complications and consequences that can result when you try to bend reality on an epic scale. Degrees of Success Most Effects are fairly straightforward. Conjuring fire, changing your shape, downloading your consciousness into the Digital Web… such things either happen or they don’t. The Base Damage or Duration chart presents the basic amounts of damage that a given spell inflicts, or the length of time that a given Effect lasts, based upon the roll of your dice. Other Effects, however, might succeed only partially or succeed beyond your expectations. In such cases, use the Degrees of Success chart to find out how well your mage managed the Effect in question. If she fell short of her goal or had to stop in the middle of a ritual (see below), then she could either accept an imperfect spell or try to pick things up again later. If she succeeded beyond her expectations, the Storyteller owes her a bonus of some kind, based upon the attempted Effect and the circumstances surrounding the caster, spell, and subject of the Effect. Picking Up Where You Left Off After casting an imperfect Effect or falling short of her initial plans, a mage can pick up where she left off by making another roll at +1 to the original difficulty. In story terms, she grits her teeth, regroups, and gives it the old (wizard) college try once again.
538 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition For situations in which you try again due to a failed roll – or try again and fail the roll – check out the Failed Rolls entry below. In other cases, an extended roll might be in order… and for those situations, again see the Rituals, Rolls, and Extended Successes entry below. Rituals, Rolls, and Extended Successes By definition, ritual refers to a practiced sequence of events with a desired end. Glaring at a person and making her burst into flames is not a ritual, but shaking a burnt bone in Optional Rules The following optional rules offer complex possibilities for your chronicle. Use them or avoid them as your group sees fit. Dividing Successes As per Mage Revised, the Storyteller may decide to let a player divide up her successes between Targets, Damage, and Duration. At the price of some extra complication, this option allows you to customize certain elements of your magickal Effects. For each success above the Base Successes, the player could place one success into one of the following categories: • Targets: Assuming that a basic Effect reaches one subject, this option allows you to affect one additional subject for each success you put into Targets. If you wanted to affect three people, for example, you’d put two successes into Targets. This option doesn’t apply to area-effect workings like explosions, songs, or TV broadcasts; such things affect large numbers of people and objects by default. For single-person Effects, however – stepping sideways, healing spells, and so on – the Target option lets you help or hinder several characters at once. • Damage: Normally, your Effects inflict damage based upon the numbers of successes you roll, as described under Damage and Duration in Step Four and the Base Damage or Duration chart. If you choose to divide up your successes, however, then you have no “default” damage – every level of damage must be “purchased” with successes. Each success you put into Damage allows you to inflict two health levels of damage on your subject. Depending upon the Sphere you’re using, that damage might be bashing, lethal or aggravated – see the Magickal Damage chart for details. • Duration: Like Damage, Duration is usually based upon your roll. If you choose to divide up your successes, though, your Effect takes place immediately, and doesn’t last beyond the next turn. To add Duration to your Effect, you can throw additional successes into this category. Each success used this way adds one level to the Effect’s Duration; see the Optional Dividing Success Rule chart to find the available levels (p. 504). Alternately, you could decide to spend several successes on a single level of Duration – say, spending three successes to create an Effect that takes place once per scene for the next three consecutive scenes. This choice comes in handy for one of this option’s nastier applications… Time-Release Damage Normally, damage is instantaneous. By adding Duration to Damage, however, you can cast time-release Effects – poison, curses, pain spells and so on – whose harm continues over consecutive intervals. Each interval costs a certain number of successes: • Each Scene interval = one success • Each day interval = two successes • Each story interval = three successes • Each six-month interval = four successes Time-release spells can be dispelled with appropriate Countermagick. See the entry of that name, (pp. 545-546), for details. Dividing Successes in Advance If the mage wants to spread things around before she casts an Effect, the player must add up the successes needed and then use that as her Base Successes. If, for example, you wanted to hit three Targets for six health levels of Damage, then you’d need to add five successes (one for each additional Target beyond the first, plus one for every two health levels of Damage) to your Base of two successes – giving you a total of seven successes you need to roll in order to get the Effect you want. For a quick-reference overview of this option, again see the Optional Dividing Success Rule chart.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 539 Automatic Successes Skillful mages can do simple things with little effort. To reflect that ease, the Storyteller might let a character perform simple spells without having the player roll for that Effect. Like the automatic success rule described in Chapter Eight, this option requires a dice pool that’s at least equal to the task at hand. In this case, that means an Arete Trait of the appropriate Sphere +3. So long as the trick in question doesn’t stir up a fuss or make some huge difference in the course of the story, the mage can pull off small coincidences – enhancing her senses, changing her eye color, pulling a business card out of her pocket, etc. – without rolling for success. Obviously, if the trick does involve some complex or vital activity – creating a gun out of thin air, just happening to find a Big Mac in the middle of the desert, and so forth – then the player should have to roll for the Effect as usual. This option reflects simple, practiced tricks, not life-changing alterations of reality. For obvious reasons, this option should not be used with vulgar magick, only for coincidental Effects. That said, it’s worth noting that Sanctums, Chantries, Realms, and the Otherworlds often accept certain magickal practices as coincidental. On his home turf, then, an accomplished mage might be able to do things that would normally be considered vulgar magick – like igniting a roomful of candles with a wave of his hand, stirring a pot without touching the spoon, or getting a book to float off the shelf and onto the table – without rolling for the Effect. Such tricks are colorful reflections of a wizard’s power and could be considered part of the landscape in a personal Sanctum, home Chantry, or dedicated Horizon Realm where the mage in question has keyed the local reality to conform to his Arts. (For details, see the section about The Otherworlds in Chapter Nine, as well as the Backgrounds Chantry and Sanctum, both in Chapter Six.) For equally obvious reasons, this option should not apply to combat-based rolls. The Domino Effect After a certain point, the idea of coincidence wears thin. If mages are throwing around unlikely events in quick succession, then this optional rule might come into play. For every two wild coincidences within a single scene, the Storyteller may add +1 to the difficulty of subsequent coincidences. This penalty adds up, too: +2 difficulty after five coincidences, +3 after seven, and so on. To be fair, however, the penalty should come in only when those coincidences affect the scene in noticeable ways: exploding gas mains, unlikely ricochets, unexpected appearances of the police… that sort of thing. Personal Effects that no one knows about except the mage who cast them (sensory enhancements, minor Trait boosts, etc.) should remain immune to this domino effect. Optional Rules (Continued) her direction while tossing a handful of ashes and invoking Chango would be a ritual. Essentially, a ritual allows you to roll until you get the number of successes your mage’s Effect requires. In game terms, a ritual might involve extended rolls, several turns, and a series of actions, possibly with several different tools involved. No Hermetic wizard, for example, would dare summon an angel without the proper sigils, purifications, invocations, and ceremonial instruments. Some rituals involve brief activity, and others can take hours or even days. The optional Rite, Ceremony, and Great Work rule (see below) reflects the different time periods a ritual might require, as well as the rolls and successes involved in such rituals. What Does a Ritual Look Like? For game purposes, a ritual involves any kind of extended process that requires several rolls, has a focus, and produces a magickal Effect. Despite the word’s religious connotations, that ritual doesn’t have to be mystical; a LAN party, a musical concert, an extended programming session, the loving care devoted to restoring an old car or inventing a new gadget… for our purposes here, they’re all rituals. The ritual in question can be solitary (like a series of katas, a deep meditation, the R&D process for a glorious machine) or communal (a play, a rave, the ignition of a gigantic statue in the middle of a desert). The focus element, however, is essential. A ritual involves intention (the goal of that rite), practice (the activity that fulfills that goal), and the appropriate instruments (the tools – from wrenches or computers to elaborate masquerades or intricate designs – used to turn that intention into a reality) for the practice in question. Coincidental and Vulgar Rituals Are rituals coincidental? They can be, especially when the shape and Effects involved with the ritual dovetail with the beliefs of a given culture or subculture… and most especially when people from that culture form a congregation for the ritual itself. Essentially, those people – even when they’re Sleepers – add their faith to the ritual’s power, making it coincidental except in the most obviously vulgar kind of applications. Getting a Catholic congregation to accept a small miracle during High Mass is coincidental; ripping open the Gauntlet and letting a demon horde pour through it, on the other hand, is vulgar even if you do it in the middle of an Electric Hellfire Club reunion.
540 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition In many cases, the dividing line between a coincidental rite and a vulgar one depends upon the dressing involved in that particular ritual. A tech-based ritual – a demo, an experiment, a rock concert, a launch party for some new software – tends to be coincidental unless it folds, spindles, and mutilates the laws of physics… and occasionally even then. (What was the Space Race of the 1960s if not a series of Technocratic rituals bents on transforming human beliefs about possibility?) Mystic rituals are trickier, balancing the abstract concepts of the faithful with the experiences of a Sleeper’s daily reality. (“Sure, I believe in angels… but did you SEE that fucking thing?”) Even then, however, a rite can push the edges of what people accept as possible. You might not be able to conjure a raging hellbeast without risking heavy Paradox, but if you can make it seem like cool theatrics, then you might just get away with passing it off as special effects during an especially wild Black Metal show. (Once it starts eating the audience, however, you have a problem…) It’s worth noting that rituals cast by a mage within her dedicated Sanctum are almost always coincidental, so long as they follow the set of reality inside that space. A Nordic Verbena could call up some powerful Effects using ser i shamanic rites; if she brings in a computer, though, such heresy probably won’t go down well with the Old Gods watching over her ritual grove. Base Difficulty As usual, a ritual’s base difficulty depends upon the highest Sphere involved in the Effect, plus the modifiers for coincidental or vulgar magick. Other modifiers – for tools, Quintessence, allies, and so forth – will probably reduce that difficulty. The ritual’s base, however, is that difficulty before any modifiers have been applied… and when you’re figuring out the difficulties for Stamina rolls and mundane activities (see below), that base is the difficulty that you’ll use. Maximum Rolls Rituals take a lot of energy. Mentally and physically, keeping the kind of attention and intention a ritual needs is pretty draining. Even with a group of faithful allies working together – and lowering the difficulty of the rolls involved – the mage in charge of the ritual will wear out sometime. As a result, the maximum number of rolls you can make during your ritual is equal to your permanent Willpower Trait plus your Arete. An houngan with a Willpower of 7 and an Arete of 4 could make 11 rolls (7 Willpower + 4 Arete = 11) in the course of his ritual to court Shango’s blessing before he has given that rite everything he has to give. Note that the number of rolls is independent of the number of hours your mage spends performing the ritual. See Rituals and Stamina, below, for more about how long your mage can keep this ritual stuff up. Simultaneous Effects During Rituals As noted under the heading Instant Effects and Rituals, (p. 529), a ritual demands intense concentration. With the exception of Rank 1 sensory Effects, or perhaps a Mind or Entropy Effect that sways an audience or tilts odds in your favor, a mage cannot use more than two Effects at once while he’s casting a ritual. If a mage does choose to juggle two different Effects during a ritual, then that second Effect adds +1 to the ritual’s difficulty. Please note that this applies only to different Effects (like a Mind spell cast to influence a congregation during a larger ceremony), not to different Spheres being used within the SAME Effect. Failed Rolls Aside from the potential benefits of coincidence (shown above), a ritual’s primary purpose in game terms involves the ability to use extended rolls to create bigger Effects. On the good side, an extended roll can help you assemble a large number of successes; on the not-so-good side, it also gives you plenty of opportunities to fail or botch a roll. Each new roll presents a risk of failure and potential catastrophe. If you fail a roll – that is, you get no successes that turn – then you may still continue rolling in subsequent turns. Each failed roll, however, adds +1 to the difficulty of those subsequent rolls. Fail one roll, it’s +1; fail two rolls, and it’s +2… and so it goes until you either complete the Effect, fail completely, or botch a roll. If the difficulty reaches 9 and you fail another roll and acquire a new penalty, then the new penalties become thresholds: a +1 difficulty adds one more success to the total you need, a +2 difficulty adds two more successes, and so on. By that point, your mage is risking disaster, and it’s probably best to stop the process and regroup than it is to press forward – see Rituals and Paradox, below. Botched Rolls If you roll a botch during a ritual, you may spend one turn, a temporary Willpower point, and one previously rolled success in order to keep the whole thing from blowing up in your face. At this point, your mage is holding the ritual together through sheer determination. You can either stop there or else keep going with a +1 increase to your difficulty. A second botch, however, spells immediate disaster… again, see Rituals and Paradox. Interference If an outside party disrupts a ritual – say, by attacking the rite or distracting the caster – then the mage in charge of that ritual must make a Willpower roll, difficulty 8, or else botch the entire deal. If she successfully keeps things together, the ritual proceeds as if there had been a botch rolled; a second turn of interference brings the hammer down and the ritual to a crashing halt. Rituals and Paradox Magickal rituals stir up a lot of reality. And so, every roll after the first one adds one point of Paradox to the caster’s total. If the ritual concludes successfully, then those extra points of Paradox go away. If the caster botches the ritual, however, then the Paradox backlash adds those additional points of Paradox onto the Paradox that the mage would suffer to begin with.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 541 Let’s say you made three rolls as part of your ritual; those three rolls add two points to your Paradox pool – one for each roll after the first. If the Effect succeeds, then those two points disappear. If you botch a roll during the casting of that Effect, however, those two points get counted toward the Paradox backlash. (For details, see Part IV: The Paradox Effect.) Paradox point accumulation does not reset after a botch; once you botch and take those two points, you can continue at +1 difficulty (see above), but you would take three Paradox points in the next turn, then four after that, and so on. Rituals and Stamina Extended rites are exhausting. As a general rule, assume that a character may work for one hour without penalty for each dot in his Stamina Trait. After that, you’ll need to make a Stamina roll for each subsequent hour… and the difficulty for that roll is the base difficulty of the ritual itself. A successful roll allows the mage to go on for another hour; the second roll suffers a +1 penalty to its difficulty; the third suffers a +2 penalty, and so on. A failed roll means that exhaustion has set in. At that point, you can either call off the ritual or spend a point of Willpower to keep going. If you keep going, the next Stamina roll suffers a +3 penalty as above… after all, your mage is seriously running out of steam! A botched Stamina roll counts as Interference, above. In story terms, the mage starts fumbling around in a daze and must struggle to keep the rite from ending in catastrophe. For obvious reasons, then, long rituals can be extremely dangerous affairs. Rituals and Mundane Abilities By their nature, rituals tend to employ mundane Abilities – Art, Computer, Esoterica, Technology, and so forth. In story terms, the activity provides the focus for that ritual; and in game terms, the Attribute + Ability roll lowers the difficulty of the rite. As described above, under Mundane Skills and Magickal Effects, each success with a mundane activity roll reduces the Arete roll difficulty by -1, to a maximum reduction of -3. The difficulty for that roll is the base difficulty for the ritual itself. For more details, see that Mundane Skills and Magickal Effects entry; for potential ritual activities and tools, see Focus and the Arts, later in this chapter. Optional Rule: Rite, Ceremony, and Great Work As an optional rule, you could break rituals down into three categories, each one reflecting a certain investment of time and effort: • A brief rite (one to five successes) reflects a short observance: a song, a quick prayer, activating a mechanical sequence, sticking pins in a doll, that sort of thing. Game-wise, this involves one or two rolls and five minutes or less of story time. Magick-wise, the rite conjures a simple Effect through either a focus or sheer force of Will, depending on the mage’s abilities. More involved Effects require…
542 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition • A ceremony (five to 10 successes), which commits time and effort to the casting of an Effect. A mass, a concert, a session in the workshop, a trance, a series of katas, an evening of debauchery – such things count as ceremonies. The ceremony doesn’t have to be a social event but can involve solitary practice as well as a communal gathering. In game terms, each Arete roll performed within a ceremony reflects an hour or so in story time and may run for up to five hours, after which it becomes… • A Great Work (10 successes or more) – a serious devotion to the Effect at hand. High Ritual invocations often involve Great Works, as do mechanical inventions, major spiritual observances, alchemical research, festivals, and other forms of hard time in the lab, workshop, dojo, or temple. Game-wise, each Great Work roll reflects five hours of commitment to the task, which can run as long as it needs to before the mage either reaches his goal, fails horribly, or hits the end of his endurance, as shown under Rituals and Stamina and Maximum Rolls. A major investment of time, materials, effort, and skill, a Great Work is the sort of thing mages do when they’re trying to move the world. Taking Breaks During a Great Work Great Works aren’t usually one-sitting projects. A mage could spend days, weeks, or longer dedicating himself to a Great Work. In game terms, you may consider the option of stopping for a break during a Great Work, hanging the process by spending a Willpower point and then resuming the effort after a short interval. To pick up where you left off, make a Wits + Esoterica roll (or Wits + Technology for acts of enlightened hypertech). That roll’s difficulty begins at the ritual’s base difficulty (no modifiers allowed), and then goes up by +1 for each break taken after the first one. So long as the work area remains undisturbed, and no more than 48 hours pass between sessions with the Great Work, the mage may continue to extend the process. One failed roll, however, ruins the process and forces the mage to begin again… which explains why so many Great Works take a long time to perform. Acting in Concert So you’ve got some helpers while you’re casting that ritual. What does that mean in game terms? As we saw above, a sympathetic crowd can make a ritual feel coincidental, and assistants can lower the difficulty for a magickal Effect. Allied mages can also help out by acting in concert with the caster, and a Cult (as in the Background Trait of that name) adds to the caster’s dice pool. In short, then, a group ritual can be incredibly beneficial, provided that you’re willing to deal with the increased risks and potential complications of getting a bunch of people to cooperate on an important project. Common Ground When several characters collaborate within a single ritual, they must all share a certain amount of common ground: • Each mage involved must have at least one dot in each of the Spheres involved in the ritual’s Effect. You can’t help someone summon a cyclone, after all, if you don’t understand elemental Forces. • All participants must remain in contact with one another for the duration of the ritual, able to communicate freely through whatever means work best for them: telepathy, speech, Instant Messaging, texting, etc. • Those participants need to work out a shared approach to the ritual; after all, an Etherite in a shamanic rite will probably do more harm than good. That said, mages from distinct yet allied groups – differing Traditions or Technocratic Conventions – can certainly collaborate if they approach one another’s practices with respect and attention. Story-wise, those collaborators need to hash out some common cues and protocols… which, in game terms, will probably involve a few social feat rolls before all is said and done. Once they’ve established a common base to work from, the allies can focus their intentions through a shared ritual. The Collaborators Coordinating a large ritual may demand several hours of prep time. Once everything has been established, though, the casting group can work together in one of two ways: • Equal Collaborators – that is, mages who are more or less on the same level as the primary caster – can roll their Arete and then add their successes toward the success of the ritual as a whole. The Effect’s normal difficulty and modifiers apply equally to all such collaborators. • Enlightened assistants – that is, mages with less knowledge and experience than the primary caster – add one automatic success to the Effect, up to a maximum of five successes, total. These successes, however, DO NOT APPLY to cancel out a botch. If the caster botches the roll, then those assistants’ successes disappear. The additional successes count only to enhance a successful Effect. Only one option may be used at a time – not both. UnAwakened Assistants Acolytes, cultists, citizens, and so forth can add certain benefits to the ritual as well: • The Cult Background adds one die to the caster’s dice pool, up to a maximum of five dice. And yes, those extra dice may also help to botch a casting roll – cults can screw things up as well as help things along. • If you’ve got over 100 people involved, certain vulgar Effects (summonings, gateways, raisings of the dead, and so forth) may be considered coincidental if there are no other witnesses around to contradict that impression. A solitary rite on the Moors is far more effective in that regard than a concert in a nightclub downtown.
Chapter Ten: The Book of Magick 543 Downsides and Risks It’s not all roses, of course. The downsides of collaboration include the difficulty of wrangling several people toward a common goal (especially if they don’t share a common belief system); coordinating logistics for large gatherings (which usually requires time, work, space, and often money); and the potential to screw up on a grand scale. Grand, as in if one caster botches a casting roll (see below), every participant suffers the Paradox, either by adding the Paradox points to their individual pools or by enduring a large-scale blast that affects everyone – Awakened and otherwise – who happens to be near Ground Zero at the time. Despite the risks and costs, collaboration provides a sense of security and fellowship. Solitary rites do have their own kind of significance, but we humans tend to be sociable by nature, and our group rituals – magickal and otherwise – transform the potential of one into the power of many. Step Four: Results The dice have been cast. What happens now? In Step Four, we cover the effects of your mage’s spell. Game-wise, those effects are based on the number of successes you roll. The more successes you get, the more potent your reality-bending Effect will be. Range As mentioned under the Divided Successes option (see the Optional Rules sidebar), a typical Effect affects one target within the caster’s clear sensory range. If you choose not to use that option, simply assume that you can affect one target per success if the spell you cast is capable of affecting several targets at once… a sleep spell, for instance, rather than a healing spell. Specifically targeted spells (mind control, curses, transformations, etc.) reach only one target at a time. Area-effect workings –explosions, broadcasts, storms, and so on – reach everyone within the area of that feat. A target on the fringes of the mage’s sensory range (under cover, far away, obscured by fog or forest) increases the difficulty of the caster’s Arete roll by +1. A mage with Correspondence 3 or better can expand her sensory range rather dramatically, as shown on the Correspondence Ranges chart. That mage’s familiarity with expanded perceptions allows her to ignore that penalty; all other mages, however, must take it into account. If your target is out of sight, behind barriers, or otherwise beyond the normal reach of your senses, then you must use the Correspondence Sphere in order to reach him. A song might affect someone who can’t see the singer, for example, but it won’t reach someone who cannot hear it unless the singing mage adds a Correspondence Effect to connect the song to its intended target. (For details, see the entry right below this one.) Damage and Duration Unless you’re using the Divided Successes option, an Effect that inflicts damage follows the Damage or Duration chart. Healing spells work the same way, repairing lost health levels at the same rate that an attack spell takes health levels away. Like damage, an Effect’s duration is based upon the successes you roll; the better you roll, the longer your spell lasts. This applies, of course, to spells that could potentially last a while – charms, enhanced perceptions, shape-changing, and so forth. Damage-based attacks tend to be immediate, whereas attacks that change the target without causing health level injuries follow the Duration part of the Damage or Duration chart. As mentioned on that chart, you can either inflict immediate damage (in which case Duration is one turn) or else cast a spell that lasts awhile (in which case Damage is zero). The only way to inflict damage over a period of time involves the Divided Successes option. Spheres and Damage As noted on the Magickal Damage chart: • Correspondence does not inflict damage at all unless it’s coupled with another Sphere (like using Life 3/ Correspondence 3 to teleport a person into several different destinations at once) or used to drop a target into an unfortunate location (like an active volcano). Such attacks tend to be extremely vulgar and usually cause aggravated damage. • Entropy Sphere attacks cannot inflict direct damage at all until Rank 4, after which point they inflict aggravated damage by disintegrating the target’s Pattern. (Entropybased indirect attacks, like falling walls or speeding cars, inflict damage as Environmental Hazards; see that section in Chapter Nine for details.) • Forces Sphere attacks inflict one extra success of damage. That damage is often lethal, although wind-based attacks inflict bashing damage, and fire or electricity-based attacks inflict aggravated damage. • Vulgar Life-based attacks inflict aggravated damage; coincidental ones inflict lethal damage. • Mind-based attacks inflict bashing damage, unless the caster adds Prime 2 and a point of Quintessence to make an attack aggravated. • Vulgar Prime attacks inflict aggravated damage. Prime 2, plus a point of Quintessence, allows the caster to make any Sphere’s damage aggravated, and Prime 3 lets him attack with a weapon or blast composed of pure Quintessence energy. • Matter and Spirit inflict lethal damage unless they’re augmented with Prime 2 and Quintessence. • Time does not inflict damage unless it’s combined with Matter (to age objects) or Life (to age living things). In such cases, it inflicts damage through enhanced decrepitude.
544 Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition • If several different Spheres have been combined into an Effect, then the damage is based on the most destructive Sphere involved. A Life/ Time Effect, for example, would deal out aggravated damage. You cannot stack damage by combining Spheres – only the most devastating Sphere counts. Dodging and Resistance Generally, a successful Arete roll equals a successful attack. Immediate effect, however, isn’t always the case: Dodging a Physical Attack Any physical attack (fireball, mystic blade, plasma bolt, etc.) directed at an essentially solid target (car, person, spirit, etc.) can be dodged if that target is capable of dodging the attack in question. As detailed under Chapter Nine’s Combat section, a Dexterity + Athletics (or Acrobatics) roll, difficulty 6, subtracts successes from an incoming attack. If the attacker still has more successes than the target, remaining successes determine how much damage is done… and if the attacker winds up with only one success left over, then there’s no damage at all. Really obvious attacks – lightning bolts, clouds of deadly gas, and so forth – are easy to see coming. Invisible ones – flesh-eating spirits, silent curses, Entropic ripples that collapse a bridge, that sort of thing – may be detected with a successful Perception + Awareness roll, difficulty 8. Resisting Psychic Assaults Mind-control spells, mental commands, Social Conditioning, and so forth can be resisted by an unwilling target if she’s aware that she’s under attack. In such cases, a Willpower roll, difficulty 6, acts as the dodge for that assault, subtracting successes from the aggressor’s roll. If the character isn’t aware of that attack, however, she suffers the full Effect… which is the primary reason that Mind-savvy mages prefer to be subtle (“You have beautiful eyes…”) rather than overt (“You are in my power…”). Sphere-Specific Effects Certain Spheres have specialized elements and results. Those results apply whenever these Spheres get used in an Effect. A witch skilled in Correspondence and Time, for instance, can use the Correspondence Ranges chart to look at a faraway place and the Time Sphere Timelines chart to look back at that area’s past. If you’re not using those Spheres, then just stick to the usual rules. Correspondence Ranges Correspondence Effects, as noted in the text, reach beyond usual spatial boundaries. Like Damage and Duration, that Range depends upon the number of successes you roll. To find out just how far such Effects can reach, check the Correspondence Ranges chart. If the caster has a certain connection to the subject of his spell or has been using an object, place, or person that’s related to the subject, it’s easier to use Correspondence magick as a bridge between the caster and the subject. The closer your connection, the fewer successes you need in order to reach out and affect your target. As noted on the Correspondence Sphere entry, an Effect that combines Correspondence with another Sphere is limited to the dots you have in the Correspondence Sphere. You cannot, for example, use Forces 5/ Correspondence 2/ Prime 2 to blow up the moon; in order to attack such a remote target with such a potent assault, you would need Correspondence 5 and a lot of successes. (Just for the record, that’s a seriously vulgar Effect, too.) Spirit Magick and the Gauntlet Because Spirit-based Effects often have to cross the Gauntlet, the difficulty for such Effects depends upon what you’re trying to do: • Spirit Effects cast against someone on the same side of the Gauntlet have a difficulty based on the highest Sphere + the usual coincidental, vulgar, or vulgar with witnesses modifiers. • To cast Spirit Effects across the Gauntlet, check the Gauntlet Ratings chart to find the difficulty of your spell. • If the Avatar Storm is still raging, then a mage reaching across the Gauntlet with anything more than his perceptions or an astral form might wind up taking damage. See the Otherworlds section of Chapter Nine for details. Time Sphere Reach With the Time Sphere, a mage can reach across spans of time. In this case, use the Time Sphere Timelines chart. As usual, the number of successes determines how effective the spell will be. Important note: That chart shows the span of time your mage can look into the future or past, NOT the length of time that a Time-based spell endures. Despite common misconception, a spell’s Duration – even the Duration of a Time-based Effect – is based upon the Damage and Duration rules, not upon the Time Sphere Timelines chart. Certain vulgar Time Effects can also speed or slow the passage of time, even possibly rewind events or age targets out of existence. For such situations, use the Feats of Time Magick chart, right below the Time Sphere Timelines one.