366
edits
Changes
no edit summary
An illustrated PDF of this system is at:<br>
[[Alternate Mage: The Ascension PDF]]
To just see the alternate magic system read:<br>
[[Alternate Sphere Magic]]
A character sheet for this system is at:<br>
[https://www.v5homebrew.com/mw/images/2/23/Alternate-character-sheet.pdf Alternate Character Sheet]
This page is mirrored at:<br>
https://github.com/alt-magick/Mage-The-Ascension
Buy the physical book at Amazon:<br>
https://www.amazon.com/Mage-Ascension-Alternate-Corey-White/dp/B0DPVFZN3C
<br>
===Mage: The Ascension===<br> Mage: The Ascension is a roleplaying game set in the World of Darkness, a dark, gothic-punk alternative version of our own reality. In this setting, magic is real but hidden from most people's perception. The game revolves around mages - individuals who can reshape reality through the power of will, belief, and understanding. The Technocracy stands as a powerful organization seeking to control reality through science, technology, and rational thought. They view magic as a dangerous threat to human progress and work systematically to suppress and eliminate supernatural elements. The central conflict in Mage: The Ascension is the struggle over the nature of reality itself. Mages fundamentally believe that reality is malleable and can be shaped by human will and belief. Roleplaying happens inside of scenes. In fact, the entire game exists in scenes. The beauty of roleplaying a scene lies in its uncertainty. Neither the players, or the Storyteller know exactly how the scene will unfold. A scene is a temporary collaborative reality. A shared imaginative space where individual creativity merges into a collective experience. Like most roleplaying role playing games played around a table, This game uses we use dice to determine the
whims of chance. Anytime a character performs
an action under adverse conditions or when the
outcome is unclear, his player rolls dice to
see whether the task succeeds or fails.
You just need two six sided dice to play. I
dice. I did a little math and it just made
since.
For a success in this game, rolling a 7 or 11
with two 6 sided dice has the odds of 2/9
which is 0.2222.
A typical success in Mage is made by rolling a 8, 9,
or 10 on one 10 sided die, which has the odds
of 3/10 which is 0.3.
So, with a few other modifications the game
mechanics are basically the same. <br><br>Traits * Attributes and Skills<br>
Characters possess a variety of traits,
Attribute of ●●● (3 dots) and a Firearms
Skill of ●● (2 dots).
Whenever your character performs an action that
Skill. When your character shoots a gun, you add
his Dexterity to his Firearms for a total number
of dice rolls. <br><br> * Modifiers <br>
Various conditions and circumstances can
target is hard to hit with a gun, represented
by range penalties.
For example, when shooting a target 30 yards
away with his Glock 17 pistol, your character
suffers a -2 penalty.
The Storyteller determines whether or not any
circumstance imposes dice-roll modifiers and
how great those modifiers are. <br><br> * Dice Rolls <br>
So, we can say that that the number of times
you get to roll the dice is determined like
so: Attribute + Skill + modifiers (if any) In
general, bonuses are always added before
penalties are applied. <br><br> * Rolling the Dice <br>
Now that you know what to roll, lets see how
die rolls you have the better your characters
chances of success, and the greater your odds
of gaining multiple successes. <br><br> * Snake Eyes <br>
If one of your rolls turn up snake eyes, it
cancels out one success. If you roll snake eyes,
and none of you other rolls succeed it is a
botch. <br><br> * Second Tries <br>
When a roll fails, you can try again with a +1
difficulty modifier. <br><br> * Fighting<br> Combat Fighting is a series of die rolls, until
someone surrenders or is rendered unable to
fight. The rolls determines determine whether or not your
character hits and how much damage he inflicts
on his target. The number of dice rolls is
(depending on the type of damage done).
There are two types of damage: bashing
(caused by blunt weapons such as fists or
bullets; these wounds heal slowly). There are
a number of complications involved in combat,
such as a targets Defense Rolls. (, which are subtracted from any attack successs successes targeted against him), Roll to hit and apply successes as damage minus any successful defense rolls. Example Lets see how it looks in action. Your character tries to shoot at a thug who just killed his friend. Your characters Dexterity is 3, his <br><br>Firearms 2, and hes using a Glock 9mm pistol. You therefore get to roll the dice five times. The thug is about 30 yards away which is a -1 * Actionspenalty. So, you are reduced to 4 dice rolls. But <br>thats not all. Its raining cats and dogs. The Storyteller decides that theres an additional -1 penalty for poor visibility. That leaves you just 3 dice rolls. If a roll yields a 7 or 11 that is one success. If the thug is hit. He suffers 1 points of lethal damage to his Health for every success. Lets say you make 2 successs. It hurts, but it might not be enough to stop him. and he staggers away. Your character needs to decide whether to give chase and close the distance, or try to fire again.
The number of times you roll for an action is
made up of an attribute added to an abillityability.
Each of these are given a rating from 1 to five:
1) Poor
2) Average
3) Good
4) Exceptional
5) World Class
The number of successes you have is also
given a rating from one to five:
1) Marginal 2) Moderate 3) Good 4) Excellent 5) Phenomenal <br><br> === Traits ===<br>
The attributes your character has are listed
* Physical: <br><br> ** Strength - Physical Power ** Dexterity - Athleticism ** Stamina - Toughness
* Social:<br><br> ** Charisma - Charm ** Manipulation - Persuasion ** Appearance - Attractiveness
* Mental: <br><br> ** Perception - Insight To Surroundings ** Intelligence - Pure IQ ** Wits - Intuition & Instincts
* Talents: <br><br> ** Alertness - Attention to Your Surroundings ** Athletics - A Talent With Sports ** Awareness - You Can Sense The Presence of Magic ** Brawl - Skill With Unarmed Combat ** Dodge - Avoiding Physical Danger ** Expression - The Art of Communication ** Intimidation - Flexing Your Muscles ** Leadership - You Are Respected ** Streetwise - Youre a Part Of The Underworld ** Subterfuge - You Can Hide Your Motives
* Skills: <br><br> ** Crafts - Working With Your Hands ** Drive - Handling The Road ** Etiquette - Managing Social Situations ** Firearms - Firing Guns ** Meditation - Regenerates Magic ** Melee - Hand To Hand Weapons ** Performance - Specialized as music etc. ** Stealth - Hiding From Sight ** Survival - Living In Difficult Environments ** Technology - Repairing And Working With Machines
* Knowledges: <br><br> ** Academics - Higher Education In A Field ** Computer - From Typing To Hacking ** Cosmology - Knowledge Of The Spirit World ** Enigmas - Solving Puzzles Or Riddles ** Investigation - Forensics Detective Work ** Law - Professional Practice In Law ** Linguistics - Specializing In Other Languages ** Medicine - First Aid, & Surgery Etc. ** Occult - Knowledge Of Magic Practices ** Science - Engineering, Chemistry, & Physics
* Avatar - Your ability to store quintessence
* Arete - Your mastery of magick
* Willpower - Can be used to force success
* Quintessence - The raw power of magic
* Paradox - The backlash from magic into insanity
* Health - The amount of damage you can take
<br><br>
Now that you know the basics of the Storytelling
System, you can proceed to create your own
will be when accomplishing tasks with it.
Here is a quick overview of how to begin the
character creation process:
*The 3 categories of attributes are divided into 3 levels of points: 7/5/3 . (But they all start at 1)
*The 3 categories of abilities are also divided into 3 levels of points: 13/9/5
*You get 7 points to go into Backgrounds.
*You also get 6 dots that can go into your Mage's magical knowledge called Spheres. The catch is that none of them can be higher than your level of Arete.
*Arete starts at 1 and can’t begin higher than 3.
*Willpower starts at 5 and can’t begin higher than 7.
You also get 15 Freebie Points:
*To increase an Attribute requires 5 freebie points.
*To increase an Ability requires 2 freebie points.
*To increase a Background requires 1 freebie point.
*To increase Willpower requires 1 freebie point.
*To increase Arete requires 4 freebie points.
*To increase a Sphere requires 7 freebie points.
Prioritize the categories with 3 levels of points.
* Select Attributes (7/5/3)
Physical: Strength, Dexterity, Stamina
Social: Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance
Mental: Perception, Intelligence, Wits
* Select Abilities (13/9/5)
Talents: Alertness, Athletics, Awareness,Brawl, Dodge, Expression, Intimidation ,
Leadership, Streetwise, Subterfuge
Skills: Crafts, Drive, Etiquette, Firearms , Meditation, Melee, Performance, Stealth ,
Survival, Technology
Medicine, Occult, Science
* Backgrounds(7):
Allies - Friends who help you Arcane - You are unnoticed as a Mage
Avatar - The Strength of the soul
Contacts - Information sources
Destiny - A greater purpose
Dream - Visions from the unknown
Influence - Pull over the mortal world
Library - Access to metaphysical knowledge
Node - A place of magical power
Resources - Extra Money Wonder - A Magical talisman or device<br><br>
We will now go over the combat system. It is
very simple.
Combat is broken down into three steps,
Initiative, Attack, and Resolution.
* Stage one - Initiative
During initiative, both players roll
Dexterity + Wits. Whoever has more successes
gets to go first.
Each player declares either to attack or
defend.
It is also possible to ambush someone with:
Dexterity + Stealth vs Perception + Alertness
* Stage two - Attack
The attacker rolls one of these:
Unarmed Combat: Strength + Brawl
Armed Combat: Strength + Weaponry
Firearms: Dexterity + Firearms
Throwing Objects: Dexterity + Athletics
Then the defender either takes the hit,
or if they chose to defend they roll:
Block: Dexterity + Brawl Dodge: Dexterity + Dodge
The successes of the attack roll minus the
defense roll equals damage, which is either
Bashing or Lethal.
If a weapon is being used the storyteller can
increase the modifier for an attack by up to +34.
Some guns allow you to shoot multiple times in
a turn.
* Stage three - Resolution
Roll as many times as your Stamina points to
eliminate a point of bashing damage for each
success.
If the fighting continues you roll again for
initiative.
Keep track of the damage to your health with
this chart:
* Health <br>1) # Bruised -0 # Hurt -1 # Injured -2) Hurt # Wounded -3 # Mauled -4 # Crippled -1 5 # Unconscious
Each point of damage is marked with a / for
Finally, your character needs to learn magic! <br><br>Overview === Magic ===<br>
There are 12 Spheres in this system that are
advanced magic.
The Twelve Spheres in alphabetical order are:
Control, Destruction, Feeling, Influence,
Penetration, Production, Revelation, Restoration,
Vanishing
These are the degrees of power for the Spheres:
* Awareness
Allows the Mage to sense things with their magic.
The Mage can effect things they’re personally
connected to.
The Mage can work magic as long as it doesn’t
defy physics.
The Mage can manipulate and bend the laws of
physics.
The Mage can now create impossible miracles. <br><br> === Mechanics ===<br> * Casting Magic
* Avatar
A Mage’s Avatar is the maximum Quintessence they can store.
* Quintessence
Quintessence is the power source for Magic. Spending Quintessence points adds a bonus to your Arete roll for a spell. Meditation is required to regain Quintessence. The maximum Quintessence a Mage can store is their Avatar score. Quintessence can also be stored in things that are carried by a Mage.
Willpower can ignore penalties from fear & damageresist mind magic
Willpower can be regained after role playfight Quiet
Willpower can ignore penalties from fear & damage
* Difficulty
If you have time to do a ritual, Intelligence + Occult can be rolled. Successes are added to your Arete roll up to a +3. If there isn't time for a full ritual, magical tools can add a +1 bonus.
* Feeling<br><br>** Power: Empathy / Telepathy** Knowledge: Association - Recognizing the interconnectedness of all things.** Description: The Power of Feeling enables one toempathize and understand others deeply, perceivingtheir thoughts and emotions without the need forwords. It stems from the profound insight intoAssociation, the intrinsic link that binds all livingbeings together.<br>
* Influence<br><br>
** Power: Charisma / Hypnotism
** Knowledge: Possession - Will shaping the realm of the mind.
** Description: The Power of Influence grants a wizard the power to captivate others. Known as Possession, it allows one to enchant and charm, eliciting positive perceptions or even gaining control over anothers thoughts and actions. The essence of this mastery lies in the understanding that ones will can wield dominion over the minds of others.
<br>
* Penetration<br><br>** Power: Escape / Intangibility** Knowledge: Synchronicity Spiritualism - Uniting Perceiving the threads world as a realm ofspirit.existence** Description: The Power of Penetration delves into the realm of Spiritualism.It unveils the truth that the world is fundamentally composed of spirit, allowing a wizard to transcend physical boundaries and become intangible. Chains and locks lose their hold, dissolving effortlessly under the wizards touch.<br>
# Sense illness
# Relieve Pain
# Protection from Disease
# Heal Sickness / Damage
# Resurrection
* Vanishing<br><br>** Power: Charisma Stealth / HypnotismInvisibility** Knowledge: Misdirection - Manipulating attention and perception.** Description: The Power of Vanishing encompasses the art of Misdirection. It allows a wizard to control focus and attention, rendering themselves unseen and secrets concealed. Meticulous study and practice grant the ability to achieve complete invisibility as the wizard manipulates perception and directs attention elsewhere.<br>
* Revelation<br><br>** Power: Visions / Rapture** Knowledge: Above as Below - The symbiotic connection between gods, angels, and humanity.** Description: The Power of Penetration delves intoRevelation unveils profound visions and grants enlightenment to the realm of Spiritualismpractitioner. It unveils is rooted in the truth thatunderstanding of the world is fundamentally composed of spiritsymbiotic connection between gods, angels, and humanity. By tapping into this power,allowing a wizard gains access to transcend physical boundariescelestial knowledge, perceiving the intricate tapestry that binds all realms and become intangibleentities together. Chains and locks lose theirhold, dissolving effortlessly under the wizardstouch.<br>
If a Mage has a Paradox level of 1-3, the Quiet
happens in one of three ways:
Complete Madness, Obsession, or Violence
* Feeling:<br><br>
** Empathy / Telepathy
** (Virgo / Hermit) + (Mercury / Magician)
* Traditions
<br>
There are 12 types of Mages representing different world views. You can pick whichever one you feel resonates with your character:
<br>
* Order of Hermes
Ceremonial Magicians
* Marauders
Permanently Insane
All characters need to have a concept which
here are some example concepts that you might
like to use:
* Criminal * Drifter * Entertainer
There are two more important categories at the
world. Below you can pick one of these for each:
* Architect - Purpose / Obsession You desire to leave a mark on the world.
* Autocrat - Leadership / Dictatorship You want control.
* Bon Vivant - Love of Life / Hedonism You want controlto live Life.
* Caregiver - Compassion / Smothering You want powerlook out for others.
* Child - Innocence / Immaturity You look out for othersnever grew up.
* Conformist - Cooperation / Low-Self Esteem You have are a calling follower.
* Conniver - Clever / Envy You never grew up. are a manipulator
* Deviant - Shatter Boundaries / Perversion You are a followeran outcast.
* Director - Organization / Lack of Tolerance You are a manipulator want things under control.
* Fanatic - Dedication / Stubbornness You find the faults in otherslive for a cause.
* Gallant - Artistry / Flamboyance You are an outcastwant to be the center of attention.
* Judge - Justice / Lack of Vision You want things under controlto resolve problems.
* Loner - Self-Reliance / Lack of Empathy You want to be the center of attentionwork best by yourself.
* Martyr - Sacrifice / Self-Deprecation You want devote yourself to resolve problemshelping others.
* Masochist - Devotion / Self-Destructiveness You work best by yourselfwant to suffer.
* Monster - Mirror of Villainy / Depravity You devote yourself to helping othersare an evil person.
* Pedagogue - Knowledge / Logorrhea You want to sufferare a teacher.
* Penitent - Responsibility / Contrition You are an evil personconsumed with guilt.
* Perfectionist - Exactitude / Incompleteness You are a teacherneed to be the best.
* Rebel - Individuality / Lack of Direction You are consumed with guiltlike to break the rules.
* Rogue - Valor / Selfishness You need to be the bestlook out for yourself.
* Survivor - Perseverance / Lack of Trust You like to break the ruleskeep going no matter what.
* Thrill-Seeker - Daring / Recklessness You look out for yourselflive on the edge.
* Traditionalist - Consistency / Complacency You keep going no matter whatsupport the status quo.
* Visionary - Imagination / Pride You support want to remake the status quofuture. Trickster - Empathy / Hypocrisy <br><br>
Your character's Avatar Essence is also on the
mage has at their core. There are four essences
you can pick from:
* Dynamic - Change
* Pattern - Improvement
* Primordial - Stability
* Questing - Purpose <br><br> * Resonance<br>
All Mages also have a Resonance. As a Mage
trait, and add dots as you continue working
magic.
There are three types of Resonance:
Dynamic, Entropic, and Static
* Dynamic represents change. * Entropic represents destruction. * And Static represents protection. <br><br> * Purpose<br>
In these alternate rules we also have another
dots anyway you like into these 3 categories:
* Self, Others, and World. Representing your primary motivation.
Representing your primary motivation.
<br><br>
* Foci
<br>
Mages tend to have certain tools for using magic.
When a Mage has access to these tools, The difficulty for casting they receive a +1 bonus to their magic is reducedroll. You can
pick at least one at the start of the game. Here
is a list of suggestions for you to choose from:
Art
Astrology
Blood
Bones
Cauldrons / Chalices Candles Chanting
Circles
Ordeals
Poetry
Pure Water
Wands
Weapons <br><br>
=== Examples ===
<br>
Also, here are some examples of how to attempt
other actions using the abilities and attributes
already mentioned:
Climbing - Dexterity + Athletics
Tracking - Perception + Survival
<br><br>
===Credits===
<br>
[[User:Street|Street]]
<br><br>
__NOTOC__
__NOEDITSECTION__
[[Category:Splats]][[Category:Rules]]