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

Systems

• Magical Tools: Each Character may have only One
• Gain Skill type spells must first reduce the Untrained Penalty to zero before adding 'dots'. If you want to boost a Mental Skill which you have no Skill in, it will require four successes (-3 penalty) to gain a single 'dot'.
• Scouring for Mana is extremely painful; repeated attempts in close succession may lead to a Derangement.
• Meditating does not give +1 to degeneration rolls.

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

Renewed: March 2014

• Please see Wisdom for details on how Wisdom is affected on EoD

Mana

Revised June 2014

• Base Mana = The Character's Wisdom score
• Add 1 Mana if the Character is maintaining a Dedication
• 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
• Add 1 Mana if an Supernal Glimpse was written in the past month.

Once a player has written six Supernal Glimpses, they’re done. They will always enter a scene with +1 mana above their base.

• Subtract:
  • -1 for no monthly Supernal Glimpse written
  • -1 for no Hallow or Legacy

Ritual Casting

Renewed March 2014

• Extended casting dice roll limit is equal to a character's Gnosis.
• Relinquishing a spell can only be done by paying the Willpower dot.
  • No alternate methods/spells from TotM are allowed.

Rotes

Renewed March 2014

• 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 (TotM) don't exist.

Order Rotes

Rotes from Order splatbooks are only purchasable if you are a member of that order, only limited to your Status + 2 in Arcanum Dots, without a scene or glimpse needed. All a member has to do is request it like normal.

Universal Rotes

Rotes from the corebook and non-order approved splatbooks are available universally and at any time. No Further Mechanics required

Learning In Character

Magi who hold that rote may teach that rote to anyone they wish, however as a point of fluff, keep in mind that specific rote murdras are considered Order Secrets anchored in Order Philosophies.

Being taught by a Player-Character that holds that Rote waives any further mechanics.

By NPC

Should a Mage wish to learn a rote they do not have access to and not have a Player Character to Teach them, may attempt to find a teacher and reverse engineer the rote themselves. To find a teacher willing, one may roll an extended: Intelligence + Investigation, with a Target Number of 3 + Highest Dot Rating. Goodwill may be added to the roll.

Each roll represents three days worth of asking about and favor bargaining. This shouldn't take more than a month.

On Success, the Mage may begin to engineer that rote towards their own Order's Philosophies and Mudras. Once a month, the Mage may roll an extended Intelligence + Occult with a target number of twice the dot rating of the Rote. For example, a Rote with Mind 3 and Life 2, means that the one learning the rote must gain six successes. The Mage must have place the XP in escrow before they begin this extended roll.

Special Note: Learning a Rote in this Way will indebt your character to that Order. A favor that will be logged with the Heralds. Renaging on this favor when it is called, may result in an immediate Goodwill vote.

By Grimoire

Grimoires not created by Player Characters are only available through Storyteller Plots and Approved PRPs.
Acquiring a Grimoire waves any need to find an NPC teacher or debt to that Order.

Learning through a Grimoire, like learning through a teacher, requires an extended Intelligence + Occult roll with a Target Number of Twice the dot Rating of the Rote, one roll per month. This represents self-study. Experience Points must be able to pay for it before you begin rolling.

Repurchasing a Grimoire your character created is at half-cost and only requires an extended Intelligence + Occult Roll with a TN of the highest dot rating.

Willpower

Renewed March 2014
Per WoD core, WP refreshes once a Story ends; otherwise, it's through four means:

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

Willpower pools will not refresh every Scene. They will be a constant, and must be tracked in your signature lines. For every New Scene a character enters (which is not linked to another same-day Scene) the character adds 1 WP to their total. This is to simulate the night of rest.

Otherwise, it can only be regained through Virtue/Vice & possible triumphant acts.

If WillPower expenditures are not noted in a visible medium (Signature or Sidebar) they will be considered to not have been spent.

Scene-hopping to abuse the system will be Not Good™.

Rituals (Wards, Bans, Prepared Spells, etc) which are cast with a Duration less than a month will need to be re-cast and noted out of character, with this taken into account.

Alchemy

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

Skills

The following Skills have been House Ruled in some fashion:

Merits

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

• Artifact, Dead Zone Merit, Guardian Retainer, Hallow, High Speech, Imbued Item Merit, Library, MAC, Meditative Mind, Mentor, Retainer, Sleepwalker Retainer, Status, Workshop

The following Mage specific Merits have been Banned:

• No Banisher or Seer Merits
• No Merits from Tome of the Watchtowers except Daimon

For a full listing of House-Ruled Merits, see Merits.

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

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

Legacies

• Revised June 2014

General Rules

• Legacies may be acquired at Character Generation or earned during play.
• Legacies purchased at Character Generation requires all pre-requisites to be met and 8xp for the First Attainment.
• Legacies can be acquired during play by purchasing each attainment for 8xp.
• Legacies that make an Arcanum Ruling which Overlaps with their existing Ruling Arcanum, gain a cost break. This Arcanum becomes x5 per level after they attain their first Attainment. (Ex. Mastigos Clavicularius gain Mind as a Ruling. After this, Mind becomes even easier to attain at N*5.)
• Custom Legacies are allowed for those who reach Gnosis 4, submit a Legacy with a full Praxis and are vetted for balance by the Mage Team.
• Custom Second and Third Attainments are allowed following the same vetting process.
• However, Mages may not travel into other, closely aligned Legacies. See: Clavicularius <-> Bene Ashmedai
• Willpower must be spent in the learning of the Attainment.
• No Left Handed Legacies are Allowed and are part of the Banned List. Legacies considered Left Handed by the Consilium and aren't part of the banned list, may be taken but the Player Character will know the inherent danger of being caught.
• Keepers of the Covenant, Pure Sovereigns, and Reality Makers are pending further review.

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, crossvenue 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

Posting and 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 an ST has to remove your character from the threads then you will not get the character back.