Mage 2e game - The Golden Road
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@chibichibi said in Mage 2e game - The Golden Road:
Oh then that's easy. I'll be putting stuff down that as they figure out things they'll notice modifiers for spells cause they are in an archmage chantry. It's a bonus or a penalty here and there. It's not really house rules anymore than a tweak like when the Reach gave +1 paradox roll if you did magic near water.
Another thing you could do is have the code itself handle some of this.
For example instead of rolling for Paradox manually have a +paradox command - then you can do whatever the hell you want behind the scenes because the player doesn't need to know the ins and outs of that particular system, then, but just use a clear cut command.
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So here's more info about the game, now that it's a bit fleshed out more.
The main premise:
You're a mage (duh) that suddenly plucked out of your normal every day life and brought to one of the many chantries in the multiverse. In the first scenario, you wake up in a large garden with a castle off in the distance, that's at least 1300 meters into the sky. You find that you can't leave and are magically blocked, so the only way to go is into the castles as you see others headed in the same direction...
The catch: You come from one of three timelines by yourself or with your cabal. What you learn is that you're stuck in an archmage's chantry and if you want to eventually head back home, you've got to solve the mysteries of said chantry as it's all connected....
The timelines:
Alt Timeline #1: The Land Time Forgot
Before recorded history, the awakened wandered the lands of Pangaea serving their families. Organized under the banner of the Elemental Masteries (Fire, WInds, River, Stone, and the Cave), these shamans served their people as wise men and women, often doing what they can to serve as intermediaries between the world of the spirit and that of the flesh. They instinctively understood magic and it's place in the world, but as the Abyss started to creep in to cause the Lie, something broke.
As a result, in this time line, the gauntlet is never formed. The worlds of spirit and flesh never separated thus keeping humanity in its primitive state. Modern technology never developed, nor did the continental break up, and as the centuries would pass, other darker creatures would come and take advantage of this situation.
Being plucked from this timeline, are you wanting to keep things with the status quo or are you going to rebel and change the course of history for your people?
Alt Timeline 2: The Pyrrich Victory of the Pentacle
Truth! Supernal truth and the American way. The Pentacle had been working on finally trying to banish the Exarch's influence from the Fallen World, and all that was left to bring the truth to the masses was to get rid of the Abyss.
The greatest mages of the Pentacle fought with the help of various archmagi. They were somehow able to hold things back, and with perhaps the greatest magical working ever attempted in this reality, the Abyss, the Lie was finally sealed away.
That's when things went terribly wrong. As Above, So Below. Or is it the other way around? With the Abyss sealed, all magic was lost. The spark of wonder and enlightenment throughout humanity was extinguished leaving the world a cold place. It was only then that dark masters from yet another realm came to the fold and subjugated humanity.
As a survivor of this timeline, surely you know the folly of attempting to remove the Abyss. What's is the real connection between the Abyss and the Supernal? What is the relationship with the Truth and the Lie? With a second chance, maybe you'll find out the answers to these questions and more.
Alt Timeline 3: Saviors from the Abyss
The Exarchs won. The Seers of the Throne are in complete control with the various Exarchs and ministries controlling different aspects of society. It is perfection in their minds, and only those deemed worthy will ever awaken to sign their names on the Watchtowers to serve one of the many major and/or minor ministries.
However, the universe does not appreciate such stagnation and stasis. The control of the Exarchs is not absolute. Perhaps you're one of those that simply decided to rebel and start or join a resistance to free magic to the masses. In so doing, you also have noticed something.
There are darker awakenings. The rumored Qliphothic Watchtowers have started increasing the number of "unauthorized" awakenings. Do those mages willingly serve the Abyss or are they a means of helping the fight against the control of the Seers? Who knows? Only time will tell.
In this timeline, you can choose to be an experienced rebel or one of the newly awakened to the Qliphothic Watchtowers.
What you decide to do from here on out is up to you.
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@Derp said in Mage 2e game - The Golden Road:
@skew said in Mage 2e game - The Golden Road:
If you're at 3, and cast a level 3 spell, you get 1 free reach. That's almost always going to be used for "Instant". If you want to, say, cast it by sight, or use it on more than one person, or make it last more than 2 turns... you have to reach. Reach, reach, reach.
Which is fine, but remember what it is Reach actually stands for -- extending yourself beyond your current safe levels of practice in order to achieve a result. Most (sane) mages are not going to do that when there is a safer alternative, so Reach spells (and Paradox) tend to be the results of desperate actions.
If people are using that as everyday magic, then we should probably be having a different conversation -- namely about how Wisdom is viewed in the game and what the consequences for bucking those millenia of traditions are.
I don't entirely agree here; Reaches can and do result from desperate actions; but you also get them from having an Arcana higher than the level of spell you're casting. In that case it's not so much a 'Reach' as that you're casting something well below your skill level - like a nuclear physicist working basic arithmetic; so you can afford to do it faster/do it better.
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@Killer-Klown said in Mage 2e game - The Golden Road:
I don't entirely agree here; Reaches can and do result from desperate actions; but you also get them from having an Arcana higher than the level of spell you're casting. In that case it's not so much a 'Reach' as that you're casting something well below your skill level - like a nuclear physicist working basic arithmetic; so you can afford to do it faster/do it better.
Right, but in this case we were talking about Paradoxes that result from Reaching, which is where you push yourself beyond your safe boundaries. His point was that you have to use Reach all the time, and I was saying that it is highly unlikely that someone is going to push themselves so far beyond their safe limits (e.g. risk invoking a Paradox) unless there is a compelling reason to do so.
Reach as a result of higher arcana is still pushing the magic beyond its default setting, but you can do so more safely because you have experience, so you're still probably unlikely to be risking a Paradox unless you have a compelling reason for doing so.
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@Derp Ah, when you put it that way - yes. A paradox is still a paradox, and it's still bad juju. My line of thinking was that the baseline of what is an acceptable power level goes up as your Arcana does, because you can start to perform more powerful effects (ones that might have risked paradox if you tried something that out of the ordinary when you first learned it) without that risk.
