Mage Live Action Rules
by Gil Richard (g_richa@husky1.stmarys.ca)
Modified for Brevard Beastiary
By Daniel B Utecht.Character Development
6.1 New Traits - XP costs
- Mental/Physical/Social trait/New Ability - 1 xp
- Willpower - 2 xp
- Arete Traits - 4*current rating, plus an Arete Seeking
- New Sphere Level - Apprentice and Initiate - 4 xp/1 Day
- Disciple and Adept - 7xp/1 Week
- Master - 10xp/1 Month
Lower the xp cost for a mage's sphere specialty by 1.
Note that Hollow Ones and Orphans do not receive the xp bonus for sphere specialty.6.2 Foci for newly acquired Spheres
Any new sphere achieved by a Mage has a foci which is required by the mage to cast magical effects for that sphere. Even if the mage has enough Arete traits to ignore that foci, they are still forced to use that foci for the first 2 weeks of that new knowledge. After those 2 weeks pass, they may choose to ignore the foci. When casting a magical effect, act out how your foci is being used to create the magical effect. This has potential to add a lot of good cheese to the game, with Sons of Ether wearing funny goggles, dancing Euthanatos, chanting Order of Hermes mages. Ham it up.6.3 Studying/Teaching
Study points can no longer be gained (although you can use any study points you have accumulated during the game). If you wish to study a tome or get another mage (with the desired knowledge) to assist your learning a new sphere level:
- The time required to learn the new sphere is increased by 1 week.
- This week must be spent with a daily 4 hours of solid reading/ teaching. If you are going to use your character during this timespan, you must study/teach for at least 1/2 hour of game play.
- You may cram, which lowers the time to learn to 3 game days, but you cannot bring your character in during that time.
-If this cycle is disturbed, the mage must immediate win a simple test or have to start over again from the beginning. A research trait may be expended to re-test a failed test in the case of studying a tome, or the teacher of the mage may expend an instruction trait to allow the mage to re-test.
- At the end of this timespan, the mage gets a number of complex tests equal to the rating of the tome they are studying, OR the teachers' rating in the topic sphere. Each success lowers the XP cost of the learning process by 1 to a minimum of 1.
Appendix
Appendix A: Mage-specific Merits and Flaws
- Avatar (1 or 2 pt merit)
This merit gives the mage a more potent avatar, allowing them to work more powerful effects through channelling more quintessence into an effect, assuming the mage has the quintessence. Every point of this merit increases a mage's avatar rating by 2, to a maximum of 5.- Node (1-5 pt merit)
The mage starts the game in possession of a node whose rating is equal to the number of points spent in the merit. For a full description and discussion on nodes and what they do, see Mage:The Ascension. The conversion to LARP in terms of tass output is exactly the same.- magical Library (1-5 pt merit)
The mage starts with a body of information containing both occult and magical information. The mage may use this library to both research information and assist them in learning spheres. See the Assisted Learning section for more information on how to use this merit.- Talisman (variable pt merit)
The mage starts the game with a Talisman. Talisman creation must be done with a Storyteller at the time of character creation. First of all, the player must create a background for the talisman. Why it was made, who made it, when it was made, etc. After that, they must decide what effects the talisman is to have. It costs two traits per initial Mastery level. This gives the talisman the base number of Arete traits necessary for that level of Mastery (IE Apprentice:1 /Initiate:2 /Disciple:3 /Adept:4 /Master:5). Any additional Arete traits may be purchased with an additional merit.
With that decided, a talisman cannot have more effects than it's Arete, and the talisman must have a sufficient Arete to cast the effects placed within it.
Only Awakened beings can use most talismans (normally only mages can operate talismans, but the storyteller may make exceptions at their discretion.) When a talisman's power is being used, a minimum of one point of it's internal Quintessence is spent, and it gets a magical effect test.
Paradox created by the talisman is passed on to the user.- Arcane (1-5 pt merit)
This merit makes it very difficult to track down a mage. Paper trails seem to disappear, no one remembers the mage passing, records of passing are destroyed in freak meteor showers, etc.. All tests involving tracking the mage down have their difficulties increased by 3. As well, the mage has a tendency to be ignored when not bringing attention to themselves. This power is analogous to the Werewolf gift 'Blur of the Milky Eye', and interested players should look the power up in Werewolf: The Apocalypse. For the purposes of seeing through the Arcane of a mage, the mage is considered to have twice their Arcane rating in traits.- Permanent Paradox flaw (2-6 pt flaw)
The mage starts the game with a permanent paradox flaw. This is assumed to have been accrued before the game started. The level of the paradox flaw determines the trait level of the flaw. See the section on Paradox for a description of Paradox, or look in Mage: The Ascension.- Sanctum/magical Lab (1-5 pt merit)
The mage starts the game with a magical laboratory. This laboratory is paradigm-specific, so a Verbena could not do research in a Son of Ether's lab, etc. As well, the lab's paradigm is tailored to the mage's paradigm at it's creation. In game terms, a one or two rating sanctum has all sphere effects of the mage's sphere specialty tailored to the mage's paradigm be considered coincidental. A rating three or four has all the effects of the mage's sphere specialty tailored to the mage's paradigm be considered static, and all the rest of the spheres being cast in the mage's paradigm be considered coincidental. Lastly, a rating five sanctum has all the magical effects of the mage's paradigm be considered static.Appendix B
New Influence - Computer
The Computer Influence allows access to and control over the non-magical aspects of all global telecommunications, focussing mainly on the users and running of it.Computer Influence Trait Requirement Example Influence 1 Contact anyone with Computer influence Find out major trends in telecommunications/net.culture 2 Find contraband information (anarchy files, etc) Get pirate data Modify individual telephone services (register a residential phone as a pay phones, cut off services, etc..) 3 Arrange for fake phone calls/faxes/email/etc Arrange for small-scale lags and crashes Modify telephone services in a regional area (register all residential phones as pay phones, cut off all services, etc..) 4 Bring down local network access Disable city-wide telephone services 5 Affect nation-wide telecommunication access (Major TELCOS/net providers/satellite communications)
Well, that's it for my mage rules. If you like them, that's cool - please mail me and tell me why; I need the ego stroke. If you hate them, that's cool; please mail me and tell me why. Maybe we can fix them so you can gain instant fame and glory. (or not ;>).
Gil Richard (g_richa@husky1.stmarys.ca)This page will be modified as I see fit and time permits. Good job, Gil.
Daniel B Utecht