Mage House Rules

This serves as a compiled list of active rules for Mage the Awakening, and Mage players venturing into other threads. These rules are a product of conversations between the STs and moderators, and a consideration of player suggestions.

These rules are a work in progress as we continually try to ensure that the game is fun for everyone, and play between different Splats is facilitated.

• The general rules of Edge of Darkness supersede Mage-specific rules.
• Before submitting a character is it is suggested to at least look over the Character Creation discussion on the forum.

Character Creation

• See Character Creation for Mage

Posting and Inactivity

Scenes

Each Mage Character may be in five (5) concurrent Scenes.

• This total includes, Plots, Socials, Consilium, Path, and Order meetings.
• This does not include Comms or Shards
• Only one (1) Shard Scene is allowed at a time.
• Councilors, Provosts, Sentinels, Heralds are allowed an additional one (1) Scenes to fulfill their responsibilities
• Tracker and Power Icons are used to monitor Scenes.

Inactivity

If a character goes 30 days without a post on the character or without a public post living room post indicating a delay in posting time, the character will be marked Inactive.

• Inactive characters may be reactivated if their players wrote them out of the threads they were in by themselves.
• If a character was dropped, it wholly up to the HST whether they can be re-activated.

Signature / Minisheets

Tracker and Power Icons will handle the bulk of your scene monitoring; however, players should include the following information in either his/her Signature Line or Mini Character Sheet:

• Any active Supernatural effects (Imbued Items, Spells, etc) which are not shown on Tracker.
• When in combat, please include Defense, Armor, and Speed
• Please review this thread for details on recording spells

Magical Tools

Each Character may have only one.

Mage Armor and Mage Sight

It's left open to the player whether they want to use the first or second edition version of those spells. If not specified, first edition is assumed. Armor and Sight are listed in the Mage group.

Nimbus

• A Nimbus may not meta-pose feeling in other characters.
• Nimbus effect radius as a function of Gnosis. So a G1 Mage had a Nimbus radius of 1 meter, whereas a G3 Mage had a radius of 3 meters. Any 'flare' was discernible regardless of Gnosis, but the actual effect was only felt in the radius.

Resonance

The appearance of Resonance has been house-ruled and defined, and should be read here.

Scrutiny

A character may scrutinize a target a number of Successive Attempts equal to his/her Gnosis per scene.

• Example: A Gnosis 1 character may throw their Scrutiny pool/e-action once per target per scene.
• Example: A Gnosis 3 character may throw their Scrutiny pool/e-action three times per target per scene.

Wisdom

• Please see Wisdom for details on how Wisdom is affected on EoD
• Meditating does not give +1 to degeneration rolls.

Expendables

Mana

Mana expenditures are recorded with Power Icons. Average Mana Pool

• Base Mana = The Character's Wisdom score
• Add Mana per dot of Private Hallow the Character has Access To
  • Add 3 per if only 1 or 2 people draw from the Hallow
  • Add 2 per if 3 or 4 people draw from the Hallow
  • Add 1 per if 5 or 6 people draw from the Hallow
• Scouring for Mana is extremely painful and in Combat and Social Scenes will lead to a -1 penalty to their next action. If Scourging occurs again in the same scene, this penalty increases by 1, each time.

Willpower

Per WoD core, Willpower refreshes once a Story ends; otherwise, it's through four means:

• fulfilling your Virtue
• fulfilling your Vice
• small 'triumphs'
• a night of rest

Otherwise, how Willpower is tracked between scenes has been house-ruled: Each Character starts with half their pool (rounded down, minimum 1), per scene, with no more tracking between Scenes or recovery per new Scene.

This should emphasize Willpower as a finite resource a bit more and be less of a headache to track.

Resistance

• All effects (Spells, Merits, etc) can be Resisted. If no Resistance is given, we'll craft an appropriate one.
• Supernatural Tolerance (Blood Potency, Gnosis, Wyrd) is always added to Resistance.

Alchemy

Alchemy via Matter has been extensively House Ruled. Refer to the Alchemy article.

Skills

• Skill improvement is limited to one dot per month.
• Skill improvement is capped at a value equal to Resolve + 2. This represents that the top tier of self improvement in a Skill will require higher-than average ability to focus one's Resolve.

If your Resolve is ●, a Skill cannot be improved beyond ●●●

If your Resolve is ●●, a Skill cannot be improved beyond ●●●●

A high Resolve rating (●●●, ●●●●, ●●●●●) will obviate the Mentor requirement for improving Skills.

• The following Skills have been House Ruled in some fashion:

Occult Skill

Merits

The following Mage specific Merits have been House Ruled in some fashion:

• Artifact, Dead Zone Merit, Extemporaneous Affinity, Guardian Retainer, Hallow, High Speech, Imbued Item Merit, Library, Sanctum, Sanctum Materials, Sleepwalker Retainer, Workshop

The following Mage specific Merits have been Banned:

• Additional Familiars, Alchemical Lab, Ancient Echoes, Ancient Lands Awakening, Blood of the Oath of Ruin, Body-Ravaging Magic, Cartomancer, Dream, Familiar, Feral Mien, Friend of Beasts, Goetic Familiar, Graduate of Otranto, Identity Anchor, Image of Perfection, Long Shifting, Lu, Luxury, Mana Self-Sacrifice, Manifestation Machine, Master Exorcist, Myrmidon Oath-Tongue, Nimbus Sense, Otherworldly Eyes, Otherworldly Lore, Potent Familiar, Predators Innocence, Sleepwalker Retainer, Spirit Status, Summoners Soul, Summoning Circle, Supernal Companion, Supernal Resistance, Void Scourged, Retainer

For a full listing of House-Ruled Merits, see Merits. Mage is currently not using any Familiar or Retainer Merits.

Legacies

There are House Rules governing Legacies:

• See Legacy

The Legacy system has been completely reworked and House Ruled with the following changes. 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

The following Legacies have been House Ruled in some fashion:

• Eyes of Ain Soph, Perfected Adept, Pure Sovereigns, Reality Makers, Uncrowned Kings

The following Legacies have been Banned:

• Austere, Bokor, Carnival Melancholy, Celestial Masters, Cult of the Doomsday Clock, Devourers of the Flesh, Echo Walkers, Fangs of Mara, Scelesti, Secret Order of the Gate, Timori, Tremere Lich, True Soul, Unforgotten Scions

Cross-Venue

The majority of Cross-venue on EoD holds to a No Reveal rule, which means that the characters cannot inform characters from other Splats or Supernatural Groups that they are Supernatural in one form or another. Currently, crossover is held primarily in City Shards. However, there will be an increase of inter-venue communication and interaction that will take place in the Main Forum (Through the Veils) and the Social Subforum (Awakening).

City Shards

A mage will not have access to the City Shards aspect of the site until they have met with either an Order head, the Hierarch, or have found a recognized Cabal. Generally this means that you have to set up a scene with one of the above, and must be recognized as a member of the Awakened community or Consilium (Consilium Status 1) in Sacramento before you can play in the no reveal cross-venue area.

XP and Equipment

• If you start a scene and it is not already on your character sheet, you do not have it in that scene.
• Equipment buys can be done like XP buys, on your character sheet thread.
  • If it is not on your character sheet do not assume you have it.
  • Weapons and Vehicles especially
• Retroactive buying will not be allowed, as we want to enhance the "be prepared" model instead of the "buy yourself out of trouble" model

Combat

• Talking should be restricted to 1-3 syllables; any more (up to seven) will constitute an Action.

Spells and Spellcasting

Spell Aspect

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.

• ● Spells: Covert
• ●● Spells: Covert
• ●●● Spells: Vulgar -1 Paradox die
• ●●●● Spells: Vulgar
• ●●●●● Spells: Vulgar +1 Paradox die

Ritual Casting

• Extended casting dice roll limit is equal to a character's Gnosis.
• Relinquishing a spell can only be done by paying the Willpower dot. Alternate methods/spells from Tome of the Mysteries are not allowed.

Rotes

• Rote dice pools are determined by a character's natural stats. Attributes or Skills altered by magic may not increase spell dice pools.
• Rote Factor Bonuses (Tome of the Mysteries) don't exist.
• Rotes can be learned by anyone, regardless of Order membership/Rote origin.

Mind

• Mind spells which affect (boost) Physical traits (Attributes, Skills) are duplicated/changed/converted to Life spells. Life will be the go-to Arcana for the Physical category of traits.
• Mind spells which affect Social (boost) traits (Attributes, Skills) are duplicated/changed/converted to Spirit spells. Spirit will be the go-to Arcana for the Social category of traits.
• These include, but are not limited to: Augment the Mind, Augment Other Minds, Supreme Augmentation, Gain Skill, Skill Mastery, Willful Process, and Triumphant Will.

House Ruled Spells

The following Spells have been House Ruled in some fashion:

• Abyssal Perception, Accelerate Healing, Acidic Spatter, Activate Spirit, Aim for the Dead, Alchemy, Alter Integrity, Alternate Scenario, Animate Objects, Apportation, Augment Other Minds, Augment the Mind, Bag of Winds, Bestow Skill, Body Control, Body Mastery, Book of Metal, Call Shadow Person, Channel Paradox, Climbing the Tree, Coaxing the Spirit, Control Base Life, Control Ghost, Control Waking, Corpse Flesh, Cowing the Spirit, Deathless Oath, Deathlike Journey, Decay, Dessicate, Destroy Bindings, Destroy Object, Directed Havoc, Disinhibiting Sympathy, Disrupt Concentration, Dream Bridge, Eagle-Eye View, Entropic Guard, Ephemeral Shield, Eternal Object, Eye for Destruction, Eyes of the Building, False Speech, Fiery Servant, Find the Cornerstone, Fireproofing, Firestarter, Floating Step, Follow Through, Forge Doom, Forge Godsend, Fortunes Protection, Gain Skill, Ghostly Archive, Goetic Doppelganger, Goetic Manifestation, Grant Familiar, Grant Lifespan, Healing Heart, Heroic Effort, Hone the Pack Spirit, Induce Sleep, Inescapable Question, Invisible Fire, Kinesthesia, Kinetic Ripple, Know the Truth, Living Land, Living Library, Manufacture Drop, Manufacture Medication, Manufacture Oil or Jelly, Manufacture Powder, Manufacture Salve, Mask of Normality, Metal Dead, Misperception, Nullify Combustion, Optimize Kinetic Attack, Organic Resilience, Perfect Moment, Petrifaction, Phantom Thoughts, Phased Strike, Portal, Precognitive Ordeal, Preserve Astral Object, Preserve Astral Space, Primal Transfer, Puissant Skill, Read Spirit, Scribe Final Name, Sense Strength and Weakness, Severed Sense, Shadow-Forged, Sin Eating, Skill Mastery, Skilled Triumph, Sorcerers Retribution, Spell Cloaks … further results

Banned Spells

The following Spells have been Banned:

• Activate Police Band, Control Waking, Cutting Scream, Defer Conscience, Diplomats Protection, Directed Havoc, Dislodge the Soul, Fates Justice, Fortunes Fool, Hallow Victory, Induce Sleep, Instill Malediction, Instill Mortality, Interpose, Love Spell, Moment of Doubt, Pain Harvest, Past Life Regression, Payment in Power, Physical Reconfiguration, Reinforce the Lie, Sacrifice Fortune, Spare Sleepers, Suppress Wisdom, Temporal Lifeline, Time Limit, Transfer Will, Undying Zeal, Vital Balance, Weaponize Object