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  1. #1
    Mage ST's Avatar




    Mage: The Awakening
    • Plot scenes and open socials.
    • If your scene isn't a Glimpse or in a Sanctum it goes here.

    Consilium
    • Consilium gatherings (formal or informal).
    • Meetings of Consilium officials, Path meetings, and Order meetings.

    Awakening
    • Glimpses and exclusive socials/private meetings. These typically require a Sanctum or Site.
    • These should not be in public places!

    The Heralds
    • Used to tally status.
    • Where to make in character announcements for the other mages.
    • Announcements for Order/Path meets, etc.
    Mage Social Group
    • Used for Mage discussions, including Order and Rules OOC chatter.
    • Join and Subscribe/Watch/Follow.

    XP Reports


    SubmissionStatus
    • Like Glimpses, it's not mandatory, but it does affect your evaluation.
    Deadline
    • It's the last day of the month, midnight. Few exceptions. You have a week to get them done, which is pleeeeeenty of time
    After You Submit
    • XPRs will be graded and the results pushed out to your character sheets' XP Log.
    • If you're new, you'll find a post in your character sheet thread that shows the XP Log, and it will be there.
    Longevity XP
    • Every calendar quarter, active toons receive a Longevity award. If you were active from Jan 1 to the end of March, you'll be getting a 5XP bonus. This is to encourage active, sustained characters.
    • If you qualify for Longevity, we'll factor it in. If you think it should be there and it isn't, feel free to ask me about it, but be prepared to possibly​ be told you just weren't active enough to qualify
    What's the usual amount of XP given per month?
    • Since the awards are 0-10, the average is 5.
    What is the XP award based on? Number of posts? Length of posts?
    • Activity
    • Engagement with others/the venue
    • RP Quality
    Consilium Status


    Praiseworthy Deeds
    •••••Significantly expanding the region’s overall power, resources or reputation in a significant way; assuming a position of leadership in the city; achieving a rank of fifth-degree master
    ••••Expanding the region’s overall power, resources or reputation in a minor way; removing a significant obstacle or threat to local mages; achieving a rank of fourth-degree master
    •••Devising and implementing plans that further the goals of the Consilium; carrying out specific plans beyond the norm on behalf of the Consilium; achieving a rank of third-degree master; consistently winning Duels Arcane
    ••Actively promoting loyalty to the Consilium; obeying the edicts of all Consilium officers; being recognized as the sole leader of a member cabal; being recognized as a member of a legacy; achieving a rank of second-degree master
    Defending the region against outside threats; regularly attending local mage social functions (without being disruptive); achieving a rank of first-degree master

    Sins
    •••••Speaking ill of the Consilium or its leadership in public; becoming known as a thrall to another mage
    ••••Failing to attend regular gatherings of the local mages; flagrantly ignoring a trivial favor; actively disrupting a gathering of the local mages; suffering a minor or mild reprimand by the Ruling Council; being defeated in a Duel Arcane
    •••Hindering a local industry or resource; killing a local mortal in a suspicious manner without good cause; flagrantly ignoring a minor favor; suffering a major reprimand; Consilium officers exchanging Consilium Status awards with one another more than once every six chapters; threatening the law of secrecy
    ••Accidental public violations of the Lex Magica; flagrantly ignoring a major favor; deliberate private violations of the Lex Magica; suffering a severe reprimand; murdering prominent local mortals without dire need; actively disobeying Consilium officers
    Deliberate public violations of the Lex Magica; being incarcerated, scourged or banished; failing to uphold the results of a Duel Arcane; flagrantly ignoring a life favor; wanton slaying of mortals or destruction of property;betraying resident mages to outsiders (Seers of the Throne, the Mad, rival Consilii in a time of war, etc.)

    Order Status


    Praiseworthy Deeds
    •••••Acting to position the order into power in the Consilium; personally helping a Sleeper to Awaken and join the order; single-handedly accomplishing a major goal for the order
    ••••Defining a specific goal for the order and organizing members to achieve that goal; assuming a position of recognized leadership within the order or Consilium
    •••Designing plans or removing obstacles to advance the goals of the order; acting above and beyond the call of duty to serve the order
    ••Recognizing respected members of the order and obeying their edicts; promoting loyalty among fellow members of the order
    Regularly attending and participating in order caucuses

    Sins
    •••••Deliberately disrespecting, lying to or giving bad information to a member of the order of equal or higher standing
    ••••Unintentionally working against the goals of the order
    •••Intentionally working against the goals of the order; unintentionally stealing from, betraying or otherwise directly harming a member of the order; unintentionally betraying an order secret
    ••Deliberately stealing from or directly harming a member of the order; unintentionally destroying a member of the order
    Deliberately betraying or destroying a member of the order; deliberately betraying an order secret
    This is a generic account for moderating the Mage game/forums. It cannot receive messages and inquiries should be posted on your character sheet or messaged to the specific Mage ST(s).

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  3. #2
    West's Avatar

    Magical Chinchilla
    Star Scenes

    The rules below have ended play-test and are now official.


    Spell Aspect & Paradox
    For long time chatters, this should come as no surprise. The entire RAW system of Covert/Vulgar is being tossed.
    Spell Aspect (whether a Spell is Covert or Vulgar) will now be solely determined by it's Proficiency level (dot rating). The actual effect of the spell is completely irrelevant -- it's going to be how much and how hard you push against the Lie that gives the Abyss a chance to seep through.
    ● and ●● Spells: Covert
    ●●● Spells: Vulgar -1 Paradox die
    ●●●● Spells: Vulgar
    ●●●●● Spells: Vulgar +1 Paradox die

    This goes for all Arcana. It's going to remove the arbitrary imbalance created by the devs and level the playing field. There will be no more Arcana favored or punished by the number of Covert/Vulgar Spells, and every Disciple level effect and above will have potential consequences. I fully understand and embrace that we might see more Paradox, and that this makes Rotes inherently more valuable (-1 dox dice).
    • All Sympathetic Spells (including Temporal Sympathy) remain auto-Vulgar
    • Spells which have +1 Proficiency for changes such as Advanced Spell Factors or Combined Casting will be considered the base Spell for Paradox.


    Paradox Accumulation (Multiple Vulgars in the Same Scene)

    Rather than +1 for each additional, it will be +1 for every two additional -- basically halving the accumulation rate.


    Rituals (Extended Castings) of a Month or Longer
    II want to play-test how rituals are handled. Currently, they're recorded on the character sheet and need to be re-rolled and re-recorded as they expire. That's kind of a pain in the ass. f you choose you can opt in to an 'average success' equation where the pool doesn't need to be rolled and renewed periodically. You just count up your pool, divide by 3, and allocate Successes. This average formula will self renew each month.
    • Month will be the minimum Duration allowed for the average success and renewal method to ensure appropriate penalties on dice pools.
    • Record you pool, the successes, and the effects on your sheet and we'll call it persistent/auto-renewed.
    • Only Rituals using the 'Average Successes will auto-renew. No rolling for max suxx and calling that result the one that renews
    Last edited by West; Feb 22nd, 2017 at 12:50 PM.
    Don't hate the player, hate the game.
    The Zeroth Law & the Burden of InteractionThe Devil is in the DotsGreat ExpectationsPlaying MagePlayer Run Plots
    If you have a question about your character, please post it on your character sheet

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  5. #3
    West's Avatar

    Magical Chinchilla
    Star Scenes

    The rules below have ended play-test and are now official.


    Resonance
    For the purposes of our game, we're going to adopt the visual style of the Doctor Strange movie. Spell Resonance will no longer be aura-like; that is, a glow surrounding it's target. Instead, resonance is a sigil/glyph formed during casting which will hover over/near it's target.

    The creation of the glyph begins with the center, which is the Mage's Identity. The Imago is then formed around it, and Spell Factors form an outer band. The entire construct flickers and spins, which is why Scrutiny is necessary.

    These are a visual representation of a spell being cast (during which it can be CounterSpelled), and an Active Spell:


    The resonance glyph of a Spell will also reveal whether it is a Rote (left) or Improvised (right):



    Resonance
    Scrutiny is the act of studying and examining a glyph to 'decode' it. Because Vulgar spells are always evident as such, they will be colored by the Primary Arcana used to cast them. Covert spell glyphs are always golden. An Arcana color guide has been added to the right sidebar with Mana Calculations for a quick reference.

    The breakdown of how Scrutiny options correlate to glyphs are as follows:

    Don't hate the player, hate the game.
    The Zeroth Law & the Burden of InteractionThe Devil is in the DotsGreat ExpectationsPlaying MagePlayer Run Plots
    If you have a question about your character, please post it on your character sheet

  6. #4
    West's Avatar

    Magical Chinchilla
    Star Scenes

    Got another significant change to make.

    Rotes
    Going forward, Rotes will not be restricted to any particular Order. If an Order is listed, they might be best know for it, or credited with codifying it, but the Order will no longer be a restriction to learning it.
    • All Rotes are now available to anyone, regardless of Order.
    • Mentors and teachers/etc are no longer needed.
    • Grimoire of Grimoire Rotes will remain restricted if noted as only being available with possession of said Grimoire.

    TL;DR - spend XP, get (almost) any Rote.

    The main reason for this is that Rote availability has always been presented as a currency or enticement. Over the years, this just hasn't held up in actual play. We've seen it once or twice, but more often than not the restriction of Rotes has had undue influence on Order selection.

    It's a currency that doesn't work, and has adverse effects on game-play.

    Also, with the changes to Paradox, Rotes' Paradox mitigation is more of a factor than a pure-RAW game, so this change will dovetail nicely with that.

    Lastly. If anyone wants to re-do their character generation Rotes selection based on this new 'open' change, you have two weeks to do so. Just make a note/post on your character sheet.
    Don't hate the player, hate the game.
    The Zeroth Law & the Burden of InteractionThe Devil is in the DotsGreat ExpectationsPlaying MagePlayer Run Plots
    If you have a question about your character, please post it on your character sheet

  7. #5
    Cayce's Avatar


    Venue Policy


    XP Spend Requests

    Hey all!

    When you're making your XP Spend Requestions, please limit them to ONE request per month. So, for instance, instead of asking to buy:

    #Attribute: Stamina 3 = -15 on the 7th, and #Merit: Fast Reflexes 1 = -2 on the 11th, please instead group them all into ONE spend request for that month. For example:


    #Attribute: Stamina 3 = -15
    #Merit: Fast Reflexes 1 = -2
    #Skill: Computers 1 = -3


    In other words, yes, you can buy multiple things in the same spend request.

    If there's 10 players in a venue, that's 10 requests a month already. Splitting up your requests across the month multiplies that and increases ST overhead. Furthermore, if you want help tracking all of your spend requests, we have a helpful notepad which can be found beneath your account name in the control bar (between Account and Notifications).

    Thanks!

    Note: Remember, you can only increase merits, skills, arcana, etc by ONE DOT per month. So you can't buy Allies 5 in one month. It would take 5 months.

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  9. #6
    Cayce's Avatar


    Temporal Sympathy

    Hey everyone!

    We will be using 2e rules for Temporal Sympathy!

    Temporal Sympathy.jpg

  10. #7
    Yumyumcrow's Avatar
    Campanella
    Campanella

    Campanella
    Ingrid

    Legacies

    I have been thinking about this on and off for the past year; and I've decided to reinstate this House Ruled version of Legacies for the Mage Venue. This house ruled version was put in place a few years back and lapsed around the time I took over. So I am bringing it back; it will make the life of the ST easier going forward when I (or anyone else) has to dig through piles of material and vet everything.

    You can find a copy of the House Rule in the wiki under Talk:Legacy. I have copied and pasted it here for ease of use.

    Legacy
    The Legacy system has been completely reworked and House Ruled with the following changes.
    [edit]Attainments

    Attainments as written are no more. Gone. They will be replaced by a 'global' Attainment system, and the prerequisites dropped except for Gnosis.

    1st Attainment
    The Mage gains +1 Spell Tolerance and +1 Active Spells. These spells must be from Ruling Arcana. As the Mage's Soul is refined, so too is it's capacity.

    2nd Attainment
    The Mage gains +1 to all Ruling spell dice pools (Improvised or Rote). The soul has been tempered, now it is forged into a more effective weapon against the Lie.

    3rd Attainment
    To Be Announced

    Additional Ruling

    There is no more 'extra' Ruling Arcana. Gone. Legacy 'Ruling' Arcana are banished to simple fluff/suggestions of useful shit.

    Drawback

    Refinement comes with a price. Much like a Vampire's Bloodline weakness, Legacies will come with a drawback. Whatever a Mage's Inferior Arcana, the matching Arcana by Path will also become Inferior, giving the Mage two Inferior Arcana. A slight adjustment has been made to account for the Moros overlap and Acanthus exclusions.

    Acanthus: Forces and Prime
    Mastigos: Matter and Time
    Moros: Spirit and Life
    Obrimos: Death and Fate
    Thyrsus: Mind and Space


    I understand this may muck around with certain character builds and concepts. I'll be happy to refund XP.

    At the time of writing I think Woland and Typhuzuzu13 will be the most affected.

    Thank you for your attention.

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  12. #8
    Yumyumcrow's Avatar
    Campanella
    Campanella

    Campanella
    Ingrid

    Also - can people start noting down the spells they cast and their Active Spells in their posts.

    Keeping track of spells / contagion is always tough and I know it is bothersome.

    It would help me (and anyone else) properly vet the scenes and the spells.

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  14. #9
    West's Avatar

    Magical Chinchilla
    Star Scenes

    There's a lot of threads going in the wrong forums and being mislabeled.

    So let's review what the guidelines are. Again, plainly accessible info that character approval specified should be read before entering play.

    If it's not a glimpse or private, it goes in the main forum.

    'Private' does not mean you would like it to be between you and selected people. The words are specifically private location. If you do not have control over access to the location, it's not private.
    -
    The common areas of the Circle are not private
    - Denny's is not private
    - The middle of a public park is not private

    What is private?
    - Where your character lives (which should be a Sanctum)
    - A Site
    - A Sanctum
    - Your Order's designated area in the Circle, assuming all parties belong to said Order

    If you want privacy, it has to be bought. Paid for in Merits (Sanctum, Site) or paid for in personal safety/security (inviting them into your non-Sanctum home).

    Why?
    - Because other people paid for theirs
    - Because unless it is a private location, it's not safe. Plot can crash in. Seers or Banishers could attack. Hunters can eavesdrop.
    - Anyone can join and you can't keep them out.

    ...and please stop using the 'private' label/prefix unless it's private.
    Don't hate the player, hate the game.
    The Zeroth Law & the Burden of InteractionThe Devil is in the DotsGreat ExpectationsPlaying MagePlayer Run Plots
    If you have a question about your character, please post it on your character sheet

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  16. #10
    West's Avatar

    Magical Chinchilla
    Star Scenes

    Well the ST asked nicely but some people are still ignoring this -- or just don't read this OOC forum at all. Either way, this is notice: if there's no spellcasting (like a social with conversation only), fine; otherwise, if you cast a spell or use a spell effect (like Scrutiny) and continue to ignore this, the post(s) will be deleted.

    To clarify: this is not the signature line. This is every post, like this thread.
    Don't hate the player, hate the game.
    The Zeroth Law & the Burden of InteractionThe Devil is in the DotsGreat ExpectationsPlaying MagePlayer Run Plots
    If you have a question about your character, please post it on your character sheet

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