Mage: The Ascension (Alternate Rules)

To just see the alternate magic system read:
Alternate Sphere Magic

A character sheet for this system is at:
Alternate Character Sheet
Mage: The Ascension
Like most roleplaying games played around a
table, This game uses 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
have changed this from the original game,
Mage: The Ascension from rolling a ten sided
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 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.

Traits

Characters possess a variety of traits,
describing their innate capabilities, trained
skills, and even how many wounds they can suffer
before dying. Two types of trait are especially
important: Attributes and Skills. Each of these
traits is rated in dots (●), ranging from 1 to
5, much like the five-star system many critics
use to rate movies. For example, a character
might have a Dexterity Attribute of ●●●
(3 dots) and a Firearms Skill of ●● (2 dots).

Whenever your character performs an action that
calls for dice rolls, you most often add the most
appropriate Attribute to the most appropriate
Skill. When your character shoots a gun, you add
his Dexterity to his Firearms for a total number
of dice rolls.

Modifiers

Various conditions and circumstances can greatly
improve or hinder your characters tasks,
represented by bonuses and/or penalties to your
dice rolls. On one hand, quality tools might give
him a bonus to repair a car. On the other hand, a
thunderstorm might cause hazardous driving
conditions, levying a penalty on any driving
rolls, and a distant 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.

Dice Rolls

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.

Rolling the Dice

Now that you know what to roll, lets see how
to read the results. Each roll uses two dice,
and a result of 7, or 11 is considered a
success. You might have more than one of
these, in which case you have multiple
successes. The dice don't just tell you whether
your character succeeds or fails it shows you how
well he does. If none of your die rolls succeed,
your roll fails. Obviously, the more die rolls
you have the better your characters chances of
success, and the greater your odds of gaining
multiple successes.

Snake Eyes

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.

Second Tries

When a roll fails, you can try again with a +1
difficulty modifier.

Combat Fighting is a series of die rolls, until
someone surrenders or is rendered unable to
fight. The rolls determines whether or not your
character hits and how much damage he inflicts
on his target. The number of dice rolls is
determined as above, but a knife is more deadly
than a fist, and a gun is more deadly than all.
Each success gained on your attack roll
represents a point of damage inflicted against
the targets Health trait. If the target has no
more Health left, he is unconscious or dead
(depending on the type of damage done).

There are two types of damage: bashing
(caused by blunt weapons such as fists or
clubs; these wounds heal quickly), lethal
(caused by sharp weapons such as knives and
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 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
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
penalty. So, you are reduced to 4 dice rolls. But
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 abillity.
Each of these are given a rating from 1 to five:

1) Poor

2) Average

3) Good

4) Exceptional

5) World Class

That dice pool is then subtracted by a difficulty
level from 0 to 6.

0) Easy

1) Routine

2) Moderate

3) Difficult

4) Challenging

5) Hard

6) Exceptional

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

The attributes your character has are listed
here, they are divided into 3 categories:


Physical:

Strength - Physical Power
Dexterity - Athleticism
Stamina - Toughness

Social:

Charisma - Charm
Manipulation - Persuasion
Appearance - Attractiveness

Mental:

Perception - Insight To Surroundings
Intelligence - Pure IQ
Wits - Intuition & Instincts

Abilities are also divided into 3 categories:

Talents:

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:

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:

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

There are also some other very important traits:

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

Getting Started

Now that you know the basics of the Storytelling
System, you can proceed to create your own
characters. You’ll be able to judge what sort of
traits you’ll need based on their titles (they’re
mostly self-explanatory), and know that the more
dots you have in a trait the better your character
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

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

Knowledges: Academics, Computer, Cosmology
Enigmas, Investigation, Law, Linguistics
Medicine, Occult, Science

Additionally, characters also have a number
of advantages called Backgrounds.

Backgrounds:

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

We will now go over the combat system. It is
very simple.

Combat is broken down into three steps,
Initiative, Attack, and Resolution.

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

Parry: Dexterity + Melee

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 +3.
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

1) Bruised -0
2) Hurt -1
3) Injured -2
4) Wounded -3
5) Mauled -4
6) Crippled -5
7) Unconscious

Each point of damage is marked with a / for
bashing damage and an X for lethal damage.
If you acquire 7 bashing damage you are
unconscious, further bashing damage can become
lethal damage. Either way, you apply a penalty
to everything you roll as the damage goes up.
If you acquire more than 7 in lethal damage,
you can die.

Finally, your character needs to learn magic!

Overview

There are 12 Spheres in this system that are
divided into coincidental & vulgar magic. The
first three levels of each sphere are limited
to coincidental effects, and the highest levels
of the sphere are divided into two levels of more
advanced magic.

The Twelve Spheres in alphabetical order are:

Control, Destruction, Feeling, Influence,
Penetration, Production, Revelation, Restoration,
Transformation, Travel, Understanding, and
Vanishing

These are the degrees of power for the Spheres:

1) Awareness

2) Sympathetic

3) Coincidental

4) Manipulative

5) Miraculous

1) Awareness

Allows the Mage to sense things with their magic.

2) Sympathetic

The Mage can effect things they’re personally
connected to.

3) Coincidental

The Mage can work magic as long as it doesn’t
defy physics.

4) Manipulative

The Mage can manipulate and bend the laws of
physics.

5) Miraculous

The Mage can now create impossible miracles.

Mechanics

Casting Magic

Arete is added to the Sphere you are using to
get the number of dice to roll when casting a
spell. No Sphere can be higher than your level
of Arete. You can also only spend up to your
level of Arete in quintessence on a single spell.
A mage can optionally roll fewer dice to avoid a
potential botch.

Avatar

A Mage’s Avatar is the maximum Quintessence they
can store.

Occult

This system of magic can connect to occult
themes, for interesting role playing.

There are 12 Spheres in this system. Each
Sphere connects to one of the 12 signs of
the Zodiac. And each Zodiac sign connects to
one of 10 planets in Astrology. The 10 planets
and 12 signs connect with the 22 Major Arcana of
the Tarot.

Control:

Energy / Telekinesis

(Aries/Emperor) + (Mars/Tower)

Transformation:

Developing / Shapeshifting

(Taurus/Hierophant) + (Venus/Empress)

Understanding:

Wisdom / ESP

(Libra/Justice) + (Venus/Empress)

Revelation:

Visions / Rapture

(Pisces/High Priestess) + (Neptune/Hanged Man)

Feeling:

Empathy / Telepathy

(Virgo/Hermit) + (Mercury/Magician)

Influence:

Charisma / Hypnotism

(Leo/Strength) + (Sun/Sun)

Penetration:

Escape / Intangibility

(Gemini/Lovers) + (Mercury/Magician)

Travel:

Direction / Teleportation

(Sagittarius/Temperance) + (Jupiter/Wheel of Fortune)

Production:

Attraction / Creation

(Capricorn/Devil) + (Saturn/World)

Restoration:

Renewal / Healing

(Aquarius/Star) + (Uranus/Fool)

Vanishing:

Stealth / Invisibility

(Cancer/Chariot) + (Moon/Moon)

Destruction:

Curses / Annihilation

(Scorpio/Death) + (Pluto/Judgement)

Finishing Touches

Here are some finishing touches to add to your
character sheet.

Traditions

There are 9 Traditions representing the different
kinds of Mages and their world views. You can
pick whichever one you feel resonates with your
character:

Akashic Brotherhood - Buddhist Warriors
Celestial Chorus - Gnostic Priests
Cult of Ecstasy - Hippies and New Agers
Dreamspeakers - Shamans
Euthanatos - Terrorists and Activists
Order of Hermes - Ceremonial Magicians
Sons of Ether - Rebel Scientists
Verbena - Wiccans
Virtual Adepts - Reality Hackers
Hollow Ones - Goths

If you have your own Coven you can also list
it as your Cabal.

All characters need to have a concept which
can be anything you want to make up. However
here are some example concepts that you might
like to use:

Criminal
Drifter
Entertainer
Intellectual
Investigator
Kid
Night-lifer
Outsider
Politician
Professional
Reporter
Socialite
Soldier
Worker

There are two more important categories at the
top of the character sheet, called Nature &
Demeanor. Nature is your inner character. and
Demeanor is what you project into the outside
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 to live Life.

Bravo - Strength / Anger
You want power.

Caregiver - Compassion / Smothering
You look out for others.

Celebrant - Passion / Intemperance
You have a calling

Child - Innocence / Immaturity
You never grew up.

Competitor - Striving / Competitiveness
Life is a challenge to be won.

Conformist - Cooperation / Low-Self Esteem
You are a follower.

Conniver - Clever / Envy
You are a manipulator

Curmudgeon - Critical Eye / Lack of Imagination
You find the faults in others.

Deviant - Shatter Boundaries / Perversion
You are an outcast.

Director - Organization / Lack of Tolerance
You want things under control.

Fanatic - Dedication / Stubbornness
You live for a cause.

Gallant - Artistry / Flamboyance
You want to be the center of attention.

Judge - Justice / Lack of Vision
You want to resolve problems.

Loner - Self-Reliance / Lack of Empathy
You work best by yourself.

Martyr - Sacrifice / Self-Deprecation
You devote yourself to helping others.

Masochist - Devotion / Self-Destructiveness
You want to suffer.

Monster - Mirror of Villainy / Depravity
You are an evil person.

Pedagogue - Knowledge / Logorrhea
You are a teacher.

Penitent - Responsibility / Contrition
You are consumed with guilt.

Perfectionist - Exactitude / Incompleteness
You need to be the best.

Rebel - Individuality / Lack of Direction
You like to break the rules.

Rogue - Valor / Selfishness
You look out for yourself.

Survivor - Perseverance / Lack of Trust
You keep going no matter what.

Thrill-Seeker - Daring / Recklessness
You live on the edge.

Traditionalist - Consistency / Complacency
You support the status quo.

Trickster - Empathy / Hypocrisy
Your life is a comedy.

Visionary - Imagination / Pride
You want to remake the future.

Your character's Avatar Essence is also on the
character sheet. An Avatar represents a Mage's
soul, and the essence represents the drive a mage
has at their core. There are four essences you
can pick from:

Dynamic - Change
Pattern - Improvement
Primordial - Stability
Questing - Purpose

All Mages also have a Resonance. As a Mage uses
magic their Resonance changes. Other Awakened can
read a Mage's Resonance as well. You start with
one dot in one Resonance 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.

In these alternate rules we also have another trait
called Purpose. You can fill in the dots anyway you
like into these 3 categories:

Self, Others, and World.

Representing your primary motivation.

Mages tend to have certain tools for using magic.
When a Mage has access to these tools, The
difficulty for casting magic is reduced. You can
pick at least one at the start of the game. Here
is a list of suggestions for you to choose from:

Art
Blood
Books
Bones
Cauldrons / Chalices
Circles
Computers
Crystals
Dancing
Devices
Martial Arts
Drugs
Elements
Feathers
Fire
Formulas
Herbs
Holy Symbols
Incense
Language
Music
Internet
Ordeals
Pure Water
Purification
Ritual Sacrifice
Runes
Science
Sex
Songs
Tarot Cards
Ouija boards
Tattoos
Piercings
Toys
Wands
Weapons

Also, here are some examples of how to attempt
other actions using the abilities and attributes
already mentioned:

Climbing - Dexterity + Athletics

Driving - Dexterity + Drive

Encumbrance - Strength

Intrusion - Dexterity or Intelligence + Technology

Jumping - Strength or Strength + Athletics

Lifting / Breaking - Strength or Willpower

Pursuit - Dexterity + Athletics / Drive

Shadowing - Dexterity + Stealth

Sleight of Hand - Dexterity + Stealth

Sneaking - Dexterity + Stealth

Stealing - Dexterity + Stealth, Perception + Streetwise

Swimming - Stamina + Athletics

Throwing - Dexterity + Athletics

Fast Talk - Manipulation + Subterfuge

Fitting In - Charisma + Expression

Impersonation - Charisma + Expression or Manipulation + Subterfuge

Interrogation - Manipulation + Intimidation or Charisma + Intimidation

Oration - Charisma + Leadership

Performance - Charisma + Performance

Academic Knowledge - Intelligence + Academics

Building Devices - Intelligence + Technology

Cryptography - Intelligence + Linguistics or Intelligence + Computer

Detecting The Supernatural - Perception + Awareness

Foraging - Intelligence + Survival

Fortune Telling - Perception + Awareness

Hacking - Intelligence / Wits + Computer

Inventing - Intelligence + Science

Investigation - Perception + Investigation

Meditation - Stamina / Intelligence + Meditation

Repair - Dexterity + Technology

Research - Intelligence + Investigation / Computer

Surveillance - Perception + Alertness, Dexterity + Stealth

Tracking - Perception + Survival