Rules & Systems

[Trogdor]

Okay, I have some questions about healing to make sure I understand things properly.

Healing the old man would be vulgar without witnesses, which has a difficulty of highest Sphere +4. Healing another person is LIfe 3, so the difficulty would be 7. I think I have that right.

Now I come to the part I'm not so sure about - how difficult it is, i.e., how many successes I need. I'm guessing a Mortal Wound is Aggravated Damage, meaning I need three successes to make it work. Is that right?

So, if I understand things correctly, If Jon wants to successfully heal the old man, he rolls three dice, all of which must come up 7 or better. Is that right? (That's about a 6.4% chance of success, FWIW.)

For this slim chance, he's guaranteed a point of Paradox, and if he botches, it's four points of Paradox.

What's more, given that the target number is a 7, the chance of botching is increased. If he rolls a "1" on any of the three dice and neither of the other two dice is 7 or better, then he botches and gets the increased Paradox.

Also, as an aside, is it ever possible to have healing magic be coincidental? I realize here when he's in a pool of blood that's not gonna happen. But, for example, let's say the other guy has a broken collarbone. Could Jon partly heal the collarbone while treating it mundanely and then explain that, "it turns out it wasn't a break in the collarbone, but just a hairline fracture. Not nearly as dangerous, and if you keep it wrapped up it'll heal in a few weeks. Yes, I'm sure it did feel like it broke. Shock can do some funny things to you." I'm just wondering if there's any way to heal someone without getting paradox.

[ManWithDoor]

@Trogdor - Excellent questions! Thanks for bringing them up.

Healing: Vulgar w/o Witnesses is +4, so Healing someone else would be TN 7. However, this was not Aggravated Damage, just killing levels of Lethal Damage (done by a bladed weapon).

Paradox: Yup! Sometimes Paradox is unavoidable, if you're determined to use a spell. You don't have to try to heal him. Your choice. Just have to live with the Consequences.

Difficulty: You may want to try to do something no one in the Party has called for yet. Use Willpower or Quintessence to enhance your Roll. Not doing that is like ignoring Void Points in L5R, or Fate Points in Warhammer. For a reminder:
- Willpower gives you 1 automatic Success. If you roll badly you could still fail the roll (lots of 1's), but it also means you literally cannot Botch. You're a Will-Worker. You force it to work.
- Mana lowers the TN by 1 (for each point you spend). This is limited by your Avatar rating, and/or how much Quintessence you actually have left. You basically Super-Charge the spell, giving it a higher chance of working.

Coincidental?: Yes! For more questionable wounds, the "I'm a Doctor, it's not as bad as you thought it was" mantra will work wonders. "It's just a flesh wound", "walk it off", etc. I'll do my best to make it clear when you call for a Heal whether it absolutely will be Vulgar. Usually you can get away with Coincidental, especially if it's in the moment. The person is having a heart attack? You start CPR, you can heal as Coincidental. The person has Stage IV liver cancer and you walk up and slap the cancer out? Vulgar as hell.

[ManWithDoor]

Clarification on Difficulties:

I generally find that it's really hard to accomplish anything impressive in Mage on the fly. Now, that does make sense in that a Prepared Wizard is the most dangerous kind of Wizard, but can make combat or really any spontaneous magic rather lackluster. So here's where I'm doing a bit of House-Ruling (or at least clarification) on Difficulties.

1st: The "Fast-Casting" penalty doesn't really make sense. According to the Rules, if you're trying to do something quickly, it's Fast-Casting, and has +1 TN. But that's all I really see on the subject. No real definition. Since basically everything in combat would thus be Fast-Casting (unless I'm misreading the Rules), it makes action in combat even harder. So I'm basically suspending it. If you're in an unencumbered atmosphere and are casually throwing around magic without being in a rush, I'll likely give you a lower TN since you have the time to think through your spell.

2nd: Foci Use. Always necessary in some fashion. Penalties are there for unfamiliar tools (or massive penalties for no tool use). As you rise in Arete you can effectively overcome your need for them (I'm supposed to start allowing you to phase out at certain Arete rating), but for this Chapter just stick with the Base rules as we all get to know the system. Foci are simply required, and don't give you any bonuses. Another way we could look at it is that Fast-Casting cancels Foci Use (-1 and +1 equal 0).

3rd: UNIQUE Foci Use. Here's the fun one. If you want, you can have a Unique Foci for a Sphere if you want it. This will always give you a -1 on your TN for any spell in that Sphere you Cast. The only problem is that you have to use that Foci to cast spells involving that Sphere. Nothing else can substitute it. If you lose that Foci, you are completely unable to use that Sphere, and either need to find/recreate that Foci, or re-learn that Sphere (with some prorating).

I'm open to further discussion in the other OOC forums (and then I'll edit this one if the Ruling changes). But in general for combat, just use the base Highest Sphere +X (vulgar/witnesses modifier) to determine the TN, and your always use a Foci.

If you have a Unique Foci, let me know so I can definitely never ever use it as a Plot Hook in the future. Definitely wouldn't do that. Power never has a Cost. *cough*

[ManWithDoor]

Magical Protection! (brought to you by @Trogdor and his excellent questions!)

M20 seems to be a lot more slapdash versus nWOD Mage on how to apply Defensive Magic. Some add Soak, some increase the difficulty to hit you, and the Sphere Rating needed varies wildly from 1-3 depending on the Sphere you're talking about. I'm hoping for this Chronicle to standardize it so we're all working from the same playbook.

The Rulings are absolutely up for debate. As with the previous one, debate happens in the standard OOC, and I'll edit the Rules & Systems post with our agreed-upon decision, to keep this a clean forum.


Rating Requirements: I'm standardizing that you need 2 in a Sphere to add Protection to yourself, and 3 to protect another person(s). I think that's generally fair, as 1 is meant to just give you perceptive abilities, while 2 starts you being able to significantly manipulate the Sphere.

Protection Option 1 (Easiest): All Magical Protection is Soak.
- Whether you use Correspondence to dodge, Life to toughen yourself up, or Matter to make your clothing bullet-proof, everything is Soak.
- Sphere 2 protection applies to Bashing/Lethal. Sphere 3 also allows you to start soaking Agg.
- This stacks with your normal Stamina. So for Bashing, your dice pool for Soaking is Stamina + Magic. For things that you normally can't soak (Lethal/Agg), your dice pool is just your Magic protection. (Combat will always be dangerous in WOD)
- Protection/Duration have separate Success pools. If you get 1 Success, you get +1 Soak for 1 Round. You can add +1 Soak / Success, and/or see the appropriate Table for Duration /Success.
- Mind still only applied to Mental attacks. Spirit only applies to Spirit attacks. Prime can only block Magical (and some other Supernatural Powers) attacks.

Protection Option 2 (More Complicated, Possibly Unbalanced): Magic Protection Varies
- Magical Protection either provides additional Soak, or changes the TN to hit you (which is vastly more powerful, in my opinion).
- Debate is Open, but by-and-large the more ephemeral Spheres would change the TN, while the more mundane Spheres would add Soak.
- Correspondence, Entropy, Time - add +1 TN to hit you per Success.
- Forces, Life, Matter - add +1 Soak per Success.
- Mind/Prime/Spirit still only affect their specific domains. Soak only.


Thoughts?

[ManWithDoor]

Buffing/Debuffing Stats: (another @Trogdor production!)

Life and Mind are your tickets to supercharged or sluggish Stats!
- Life can upgrade/degrade any Physical Attribute (Strength/Dexterity/Stamina)
- Mind can upgrade/degrade any Mental Attribute (Perception/Intelligence/Wits)
- Social Attributes are generally ignored from what I see in the Text. I'm open to opinions on the matter, on whether or not they can even be manipulated, and what Spheres that would involve. Appearance under Life and Charisma/Manipulation under Mind make sense, but also aren't as purely in those wheelhouses as the others.

Successes spent on Improvement versus Duration stand as always. You get 2 Successes? You can have a +2 Stamina for 1 Round, or +1 Stamina for One Scene (using the Duration Table).

You can also use this Ability to Debuff an Enemy! I will likely give them some sort of Resistance roll (I'll look around the Book to see if there are any suggestions there, if someone ever decides to try it).

Also keep in mind that if you raise an Attribute above 5, and then use it to that potential, you're swiftly moving into Vulgar territory. Adrenaline can do some amazing things, but nobody will buy that adrenaline is allowing you to juggle refrigerators!

[Trogdor]

I'm trying to see if I understand Focuses/Instruments properly. As I understand it, you need instruments to cast a spell until your Arete rises high enough to do away with them. But as a default, your instruments don't give you any bonuses.

Standard Instruments

Despite the march of science, certain symbols have become so deeply ingrained in the Consensus that they could be called standard instruments. Such tools provide the default focus for mystic or hypertech training and practices. The Common Practices listed in the group entries in Chapter Five represent the practices and instruments that members of those groups employ. The various factions and mentors teach their students with such tools, and most mages use them for a lifetime.

In game terms, a standard tool offers no bonus or penalty. You might incur a penalty if you work without one, or receive a bonus if you use one in an especially significant manner (see p. 588). For the most part, though, these instruments simply provide the appropriate toolkit for a mage’s practice.

(Emphasis added.)

So, Jon using a mantra or a laying of hands, or a meditation, or a yoga move would all be just what's required to get a spell cast. No bonuses; no penalties.

Not using instruments/focuses causes a significant penalty.

Working Without Focus

Because mages are vessels of Will, they can sometimes will things to happen without using tools or a practice. Working through determination alone, a mage can surpass her focus and conjure Effects without channeling belief through practice or tools.

Working this way doesn’t happen without cost. Gamewise, the player spends one Willpower point and suffers a +3 difficulty to his roll. Essentially, that mage throws every ounce of self-conviction he has into the spell, using Will alone to focus his intents.

Because of their reliance upon scientific methods and tools, technomancers cannot perform this trick at all unless and until they completely transcend the need for instruments. A Virtual Adept might believe he’s got the will to hack Reality without gear, but until he accepts that concept as an integral part of his reality, he just can’t manage it. (See Focus, Belief, and the One-Inch Punch in the sidebar nearby.)

In all cases, the modifier for using an instrument cannot bring the total difficulty above +3 or below -3. Reality has a certain degree of flexibility, yes, but it cannot be stretched too far.

So it's hard (+3 difficulty and costs a Willpower), but you can just cast off-the-cuff without any instruments.

Of course, you could use someone else's instruments, though that's tough too. For example, what if, for some odd reason, Jon decided to try and cast a healing spell using Pixel's uber tech instead of his own bodywork?

Working With Unfamiliar Instruments

Every so often, a mage finds herself working outside the paradigm. Maybe she’s learning a new practice or adding new tools to the practice she already employs – working with joss sticks and hell-money, for example, if her shamanic Path began in Kenya or Arizona. She might be using someone else’s laboratory or workshop, adopting desperate measures (like grabbing a Black Suit’s weapon during a firefight), or using instruments and rituals that she hasn’t had time to familiarize herself with just yet. (“The drums don’t really speak to me until we’ve spent some quality time getting attuned to each other’s vibrations.”) In such situations, your mage is working with an unfamiliar instrument or practice… which is often better than using nothing at all, but it’s not as effective as your established bag of tricks.

In game terms, this unfamiliarity manifests as an increase to your difficulty until you’ve had some time to adjust to the instruments or rituals in question. At the earlier stages, a totally unfamiliar instrument (like a jetpack ganked from some crazy Etherite) or ritual (like joining a Lakota fancy-dance when you normally focus through the Five Rhythms movement practice) adds +2 to your difficulty. Later, when you’ve had some experience with the tools or practice in question (you’ve spent some time on the gun range with that blaster pistol or learned how to call the corners in your new Wiccan community) but have not yet fully adopted that practice, the modifier drops to +1. Both modifiers appear on the Magickal Difficulty Modifiers chart.

(Emphasis added.)

So, Jon could use Pixel's tech, but the difficulty of the spell would go up +2 (eventually +1 if he got more used to it).

Of course, we can grow beyond tools as well. According to the rules, we can discard one of our seven tools for each point of Arete past Arete 2. So for all of us now, we should have discarded one tool (I assume they mean instrument), being at 3 Arete.

Growing Beyond the Tools
When it comes to moving beyond the tools of a given practice, mystic mages have a major advantage over tech-based ones. Despite the occasionally cumbersome nature of cauldrons and rites, a mystic worldview is generally more flexible than a scientific one. The mystic may eventually recognize that magick flows from his Will and a connection to the universe at large; a scientist, however – even a crazy one – still remains convinced that her tools and theories provide the bridge between Will and Effect. (See the sidebar SCIENCE!!! in Chapter Six, p. 290.) Overcoming that conviction is sometimes possible, but it’s difficult to do.

In game terms, a mystic character can begin discarding the instruments of her practice when she reaches Arete 3. From that point onward, she may discard one instrument per point of Arete beyond the third – two at Arete 4, three at Arete 5, and so forth. By Arete 9, she can use tools but no longer needs to do so – see Arete, Focus, and Instruments in Chapter Six, (p. 329).

(Emphasis added.)

I'm still not entirely sure how this falls out in practice. What if a mage has multiple instruments she could use for a spell? If one of those is a discarded instrument, can she cast without instruments, even though there are non-discarded instruments that exist?

For example, let's say that Jon wants to use Mind 3 to put a goon to sleep. He has a few options for how to do that. Looking at his seven instruments, he could use Eye Contact to make a connection with his target; he could use an Alchemical Powder to send the man off to slumber-land; he could Meditate to gain the mental focus he needed; or he could use a Magical Incantation, just to name a few. What if he had decided that at Arete 3 he discarded Magical Incantations as an instrument? Can he cast the spell with no instrument, basically saying that he "would have used" Magical Incantations, but doesn't have to anymore? Isn't that kind of broad, since potentially Magical Incantations could cover a large number of his spells?

[Note: I don't intend to try and do away with instruments. I really just want to understand what it means to "discard" one.]

Then there are Personalized Instruments. The rules note:

Personalized Instruments

Certain mages employ personalized or unique tools – a lucky baseball, rowan wand, hand-built guitar, and so forth. Such personalized instruments resonate with the mage who employs them. There is, perhaps, a touch of Resonance between such symbols and an individual character. In game terms, a personal tool reflects that character’s connection to a Sphere – a bridge between artist and Art.

For your character’s affinity Sphere (as described in Chapter Six), choose one personal focus that fits his practice and that Sphere. A Progenitor Genegineer might connect to Life through a mutagenic cocktail of chemicals, whereas a Bata’a houngan unites himself with that same Sphere through a gift of whiskey, three cigars, and a virgin rooster for Baron Samedi. The personal tool represents your mage’s original training and connection with the Sphere in question. In return for sticking close to your roots, you can reduce by -1 the difficulty of a roll that employs that Sphere. After all, that instrument is significant to your mage, so he employs it as if it were a significant tool.

(Emphasis added.)

So far, so good. Basic instruments don't give any bonus, but a Personalized Instrument can reduce the difficulty of only your affinity Sphere by -1.

Then there are Unique Instruments. The rules note:

Unique Instruments

In the place closest to a mage’s heart, you might find a unique instrument. This tool really is one of a kind, and if the mage loses it, he also loses a vital connection to his Arts. Unlike other kinds of tools, a unique instrument must be something your mage can lose: a fiddle crafted by your dead grandfather, a locket with your mentor’s last portrait, a shirt given to you by a now-lost lover, and so forth.

Game-wise, a unique instrument reduces the difficulty of your Arete roll by -1 when you work with a particular Sphere. That Sphere is tied to the instrument in question; if your magick fiddle, for instance, is attuned to the Time Sphere, then only Effects that use the Time Sphere will benefit from that bonus.

If that tool is both personal and unique (or significant and unique), then it reduces the difficulty by -2. Only your mage can use that instrument in such a way. That fiddle might sound great, but it truly sings in your mage’s hands alone.

If your character loses that unique instrument or finds herself working without it, then she’s essentially Working Without Focus, as described on (pp. 566-567). If it gets destroyed, then the bonus is gone for good. From that point onward, she’s working without focus until she can transcend the need for at least one tool by raising her Arete by one more dot.

So, let's look at Jon as an example of Personalized and Unique instruments. He has a number of instruments that he can use: Bodywork or Invocations for some of his Life magics, Meditation or Eye Contact for some of his Mind magics, etc. All these allow him to cast the magics. Without them, he'd be at a significant penalty; with them, he can cast per the normal rules.

But he also has his dragon ring with the sapphire eyes. This is his Personal instrument for Life. As I understand things, when he uses the dragon ring as an instrument to cast a Life spell, the difficulty of that Life spell is reduced by 1. (I'm not sure why he'd cast a Life spell using any other instrument.)

But the dragon ring isn't a Unique instrument. If it were, it would reduce the difficulty of any Life spell by 2, but would be absolutely required for Life spells.

As I understand it, if Jon loses his dragon ring (a Personal, non-Unique instrument), then he simply loses the -1 difficulty he got from the ring, but could use other instruments as he desired to cast Life spells. Presumably, he could even replace the ring, given time. (I'm guessing it has to be specially made, and then blessed, meditated on, or something to make it his new Personal instrument, a process taking some time.) If , however, the ring could be lost and not replaced, then I'd be far better off picking something like a spoken mantra as a Personal instrument, since that could never be lost.

Okay, so that's a lot to take in. But do I understand instruments properly?

[ManWithDoor]

Foci! (trying to edit down Trogdor's very in-depth Post above)

Often I want to scream at the Mage core book because of what I either feel is poor copy-editing, or limited play-testing, or perhaps different people writing different sections and they didn't then standardize the sections. Does that count as copy-editing? *inarticulate swearing* So I'm going to House Rule this section as well into something far more manageable.

Foci (Instruments, Music, Mantra, etc.): Needed to Cast magic. Your favored tools are determined by your Tradition and personal practices. Go wild. As long as it fits within your Paradigm. They do not give any bonuses, they are simply a requirement.
- Using a Non-Standard Foci: TN +1 or +2 depending on how different it is from your Practice. An Akashic using Hyper-Tech for Mind effects? That's a +2. A Hermetic of an eastern bent using Trogdor's dragon ring for Life? That'd just be a +1.
- Using NO Foci: TN +3 and a Willpower Point. For a moment you force Reality to obey you.

Personalized Foci: Don't exist. I find this section badly thought out. I'd make every one of my Foci a Personalized one. Incense as a Foci? I'll make it my personalized scent that I make at home. Singing? The song I invented. I'll make a half-dozen off the top of my head, and have a -1 on all Rolls. Silly.

Unique Foci: Absolutely! And I don't even demand it's your Primary Sphere. Whatever Sphere you want to tie it to for that -1, you can do that. But it's the only Foci you can use with that Sphere, and you're screwed if something happens to it.


Transcending Foci: For every Arete over 2, you start overcoming the need for Foci, and can start casting without them. I'm also going to make it much simpler. Choose a Sphere. You now don't need to use Foci for that Sphere at all, and if you keep using Foci, the TN is -1. You've specialized so much in that Sphere that Casting is becoming second nature.
- Ignore this Rule for the current Prologue Chapter. I'm just trying to keep things Super Simple for the first time most of you are trying out this System. After the Prologue, I'll be giving out EXP and allowing you to choose the Sphere you want to specialize in. Maybe some other goodies, but we'll get to that later.

[Trogdor]

Foci! (trying to edit down Trogdor's very in-depth Post above)

Thanks for the insightful reply.

Often I want to scream at the Mage core book because of what I either feel is poor copy-editing, or limited play-testing, or perhaps different people writing different sections and they didn't then standardize the sections. Does that count as copy-editing? *inarticulate swearing* So I'm going to House Rule this section as well into something far more manageable.

My wife has worked as a copy editor and with copy editors in the past. Copy editors query inconsistencies they observe. So it's hard to tell whether the issues with the M20 book are because they didn't adequately copy edit it or if the authors ignored the copy editor's queries. (More likely the former, since copy editing costs money and it's easy to skimp on that.)

Personalized Foci: Don't exist. I find this section badly thought out. I'd make every one of my Foci a Personalized one. Incense as a Foci? I'll make it my personalized scent that I make at home. Singing? The song I invented. I'll make a half-dozen off the top of my head, and have a -1 on all Rolls. Silly.

FWIW, that's not how I read the Personalized Focus rules. As I understand them, you can have ONE Personalized Focus that MUST be in your affinity Sphere. So no making half-a dozen Personalized focuses; and no having every focus be a personalized focus. Just pick one that qualifies for your affinity Sphere, and that's it. Basically, it seems to be a way to say that you get a -1 difficulty with your affinity Sphere.

But if you want to get rid of that rule, that's fine. Just so long as we have a clear rule. As you say, some of the ways M20 is written is more than confusing.

Transcending Foci: For every Arete over 2, you start overcoming the need for Foci, and can start casting without them. I'm also going to make it much simpler. Choose a Sphere. You now don't need to use Foci for that Sphere at all, and if you keep using Foci, the TN is -1. You've specialized so much in that Sphere that Casting is becoming second nature.

That's a nice clean rule to follow. Thanks for the clarification.