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Difficulties
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Paradox Points Generated
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Some circumstances push your magickal difficulty above a 9. As always, such Effects require a threshold for successes. These Effects are so demanding, or cast under such deleterious circumstances, that you need to score multiple successes at a lower difficulty to accomplish anything at all. The threshold counts against your successes. If you have a threshold of one, then you loose the first success from your roll. If the threshold cancels out ALL your successes and you have 1's left on the dice, you botch.
Maximum net modifier +3 or -3.
Minimum difficulty 3, maximum difficulty 10.
If you use both the threshold option and modifiers that take the difficulty above 10, then each additional +1 difficulty over
9 demands an extra success. A +3 modifier to difficulty 9 would require at least three successes.
Activity | Difficulty Modifier | Activity | Difficulty Modifier | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tools and Rituals | ||||
Using a personalized instrument | -1 | Using a unique instrument | -1 | |
Using a unique and specialized instrument | -2 (total) | Working with unfamiliar instruments | +2/ +1 | |
Working without usual instruments | +3 | Using instruments when you don’t need to | -1 | |
Using personal item from target (sympathetic magick) | -1 to -3 | Appropriate Resonance (personal, instrument, ritual, or Tass) | -1 | |
Opposed Resonance (personal, instrument, ritual, or Tass) | +1 | Manipulating Mythic Threads/ hypernarrative | -1 | |
Use of Focus ability ability must be same level as rote |
-1 to -3 (roll dependant) | |||
Time and Effort | ||||
Spending Quintessence -1 per point, max. | -3 | Spending extra time (per additional turn each roll; max. -3) | -1 | |
Fast-casting | +1 | Turning time backwards | +3 | |
General Circumstances | ||||
Researches lore about subject before using magick | -1 to -3 | Near a Node | -1 to -3 | |
Distant or hidden target or subject | +1 | Juggling several Effects at once (Rote Strain) | +1 per two Effects | |
Mage distracted | +1 to +3 | Mage in conflict with Avatar | +1 to +3 | |
Domino Effect | +1 per two coincidences after first; see p. 539. |
Outlandish to godlike feat | +1 to +3 |
• Botch: Character makes a critical mistake, wasting the Effect and all associated efforts. Mage gets
Paradox points based upon the Spheres and level of vulgarity involved.
• Total Failure: No successes. Effect falls short. Mage can try again at +1 difficulty, repeatedly, eventually reaching diff 9 with threshold. Choose to stop or go for EPIC botch! (M20)
• Partial Success: Player scores roughly half of the Suggested Successes, giving imperfect results.
Mage can keep going, at +1 difficulty.
• Success: Player scores at least 100% of the Suggested Successes. Effect goes as planned.
• Extraordinary Success: Player scores at least three successes above the Suggested Successes. Mage
enjoys some bonus – extra Damage or Duration, high-quality item, loyal spirit, etc. – to be decided
at Storyteller’s option based upon nature of the Effect.
Magickal Feats
Feat | Example Feats | Suggested Successes |
---|---|---|
Simple Feat | (Enhancing your perceptions, lighting a candle, changing hair color, shielding your mind) |
1 |
Standard Feat | (Healing yourself, conjuring a small fire, altering your shape, influencing someone’s mood with Mind magick) |
2 |
Difficult Feat | (Healing aggravated damage, conjuring a fireball, transforming yourself into a radically different shape, reading or affecting someone else’s mind) |
3 |
Impressive Feat | (Growing or regenerating limbs, conjuring a firestorm, transforming someone else into a different shape, controlling someone else’s mind) |
4 |
Mighty Feat | (Creating simple life-forms, blowing down walls, conjuring strange entities, commanding a mob) |
5- 10 |
Outlandish Feat | (Creating complex life-forms, blowing up buildings, summoning Otherworldly creatures, turning a mob into your personal zombie squad) |
10-20 |
Godlike Feat | (Rewriting your own Pattern permanently, incinerating cities, conjuring monstrous hordes, enslaving hundreds of people |
20 and beyond |
Feats Of Illusion
Successes | Illusion | Successes | Illusion | |
---|---|---|---|---|
One | Simple, one sensation (sight, sound, scent,etc.) | Two | Simple and moving, one sensation | |
Three | Complex and stationary, or simple and moving (two sensations) | Four | Complex and moving (several sensations) | |
Five | Complex and reflexive (multiple sensations) | Six+ | Complex and interactive (full sensations) |
- Types of Illusions
- Mental illusions = Mind 2+ (only in target’s mind; usually coincidental)
- “Physical” illusions = Forces 2+/ Prime 2+ (visible to all witnesses;
manipulate elemental forces to manifest sensory components) - Immersive illusions = Forces 4+/ Prime 4+ (“holodeck” level of apparent reality)
- Illusions don’t normally inflict damage unless “damage levels” are purchased as described below.
Illusions may indirectly lead witness into dangerous situations, as described under Environmental Hazards.
- Mind = bashing damage
- Mind 3/ Life 3 = aggravated damage
- Forces = bashing or lethal, depending upon elements involved
Default Duration is one scene. Additional levels of Duration, or “damage levels” of two levels of damage, may be
purchased for one additional success, each level, above the Base. One day + two levels of damage, for example, would
require two additional successes.
Correspondence Sphere Ranges
Range | Connection | |
---|---|---|
One | Line of sight | Body sample |
Two | Very familiar | Close possession or companion |
Three | Familiar | Possession or casual friend |
Four | Visited once | Casual acquaintance or object used once |
Five | Described location | Briefly touched or met object or person |
Six+ | Anywhere on Earth | No connection |
Successes | Range | Successes | Range | |
---|---|---|---|---|
One | Within immediate perception | Two | Very familiar place (home, Sanctum, etc.) | |
Three | Familiar/ Just saw it recently | Four | Visited briefly | |
Five | Heard or saw it described | Six+ | Teleporting totally blind |
Base Damage and Duration
Notes: Damage also reflects the number of health levels healed by the Life Sphere, or the points of
Quintessence channeled by the Prime Sphere. To preserve game balance, the Storyteller may choose to cap damage
at 20 health levels (10 successes, or nine successes for Forces Sphere attacks).
Success | Damage | Duration |
---|---|---|
One | None | One turn |
Two | Two levels | One scene |
Three | Six levels | One day |
Four | Eight levels | One story |
Five | Ten levels | Six months |
Six+ | Number of Successes x 2 | Storyteller’s option |
Optional Dividing Successes Rule
Under this optional rule, each additional success beyond the Base Successes may
be spent on one of the following bonuses:
- Targets: One additional target for each success beyond the Base.
- Damage: Two additional levels of damage for each success beyond the Base.
- Duration: Add one level of duration for each success beyond the Base.
- One success = one scene
- Two successes = one day
- Three successes = one story
- Four successes = six months
- Five successes = Storyteller’s option
- Six+ successes = permanent (at Storyteller’s option
- One success = one scene
I Disbelieve!
Only vs. mental illusions. Roll Willpower, five successes or more.
To spot flaws in “physical” illusions, roll Perception + Alertness vs difficulty described in this chart.
Believability | Difficulty |
---|---|
No fucking way! | 3 |
Hard to swallow | 4 |
Implausible | 5 |
Possible | 6 |
Probable | 7 |
Likely | 8 |
Too damned likely! | 9 |
Magickal Damage
• Bashing Damage: Mind Sphere Effects.
• Lethal Damage: Most other Sphere Effects.
• Aggravated Damage: Any Sphere when charged with Prime 2 and a point of Quintessence.
Fire or electrical Forces Effects.
Vulgar Entropy-, Life- or Prime-based Effects that directly disrupt the target’s Pattern.
Correspondence and Time inflict no damage unless they’re combined with other Spheres.
The Forces Sphere adds one automatic success to Damage.
Entropy inflicts damage only through indirect attacks until Rank 4; after that, damage is aggravated.
Gauntlet Ratings
Area | Difficulty | Successes Needed | Area | Difficulty | Successes Needed | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Node | 3 | One | Deep Wilderness | 5 | Two | |
Rural Countryside | 6 | Three | Most Urban Areas | 7 | Four | |
Downtown | 8 | Five | Technocracy Lab #2 | 9 | Five |
NOTE Subject to change based upon game setting.
Time Sphere Timelines
Timespan limits apply only to looking or reaching through time, not to the duration of a given Effect.
Successes | Effect Timespan | Successes | Effect Timespan | Successes | Effect Timespan | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
One | Within a year | Two | Five years | Three | 20 years | ||
Four | 50 years | Five | 100 years | Six | + 500 years | ||
10+ | 1000 years or more |
Paradox Backlash
Successes | Effects of Discharge |
---|---|
Storyteller rolls one die for each point of Paradox in character’s current Paradox pool, against difficulty 6. | |
Botch | All Paradox points discharge harmlessly. |
No successes | No effects, but no Paradox points discharge. |
1-5 | One point of Paradox discharged per success. Mage also suffers one die’s worth of bashing damage per success and acquires a trivial Paradox Flaw. |
6-10 | One point of Paradox discharged per success. Mage also suffers a Burn of one die of bashing damage per success or acquires a minor Paradox Flaw. |
11-15 | Usual Paradox point-discharge, as well as a Burn of lethal damage or one of the following effects: a significant Paradox Flaw, a Paradox Spirit visitation, or a mild Quiet. |
16-20 | Usual Paradox point-discharge, as well as a Burn of lethal damage and one point of permanent Paradox or two of the following effects: a severe Paradox Flaw; a Paradox Spirit visitation; a moderate Quiet; or banishment to a Paradox Realm. |
21+ | Usual Paradox discharge, plus a Burn of aggravated damage either two points of permanent Paradox, one drastic Paradox Flaw, a Paradox Spirit visitation, a severe Quiet, or banishment to a Paradox Realm. |
Levels of Quiet
Level | Paradox | Discharged Delusions or Disassociation |
---|---|---|
1 | 1-3 | Minor quirks or occasional delusions; mage begins to manifest odd behavior and minor disassociation from his baseline reality. |
2 | 4-6 | Delusions and disconnection become more severe; mage perceives things that no one else can see, starts denying the experiences of other people, and begins to behave irrationally even by Awakened standards. |
3 | 7-10 | Mage’s senses backfire, creating blindness (real or conceptual), vivid hallucinations, and erratic – perhaps dangerous – behavior. Hobgoblins might appear, manifesting the mage’s delusions in ways that other people can perceive. |
4 | 11-15 | Mage either gets trapped in a mindscape of his own design, or else behaves so irrationally that he becomes a danger to himself and everyone nearby. |
5 | 16-20 | Mage either drops into total catatonia or takes on many of the characteristics of a Marauder but without immunity to Paradox. |
6 | 21+ | Mage goes Marauder and becomes a Storyteller character. |
Types of Quiet
Level | Denial | Madness | Morbidity |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Stubbornness, minor projection | Minor hallucinations | Attraction to death and decay |
2 | Selective perceptions, hypocritical behavior | Frequent delusions, mood swings | Fixation with mortality |
3 | Irrational behavior, literal blindness to denied subjects | Wild hallucinations, sensory overload | Bloodlust and macabre behavior |
4 | Deadly fanaticism | Mindscape or constant hobgoblins | Violent sociopathy |
5 | Fanatical drone | Catatonia or dementia | Sadistic killer |
6 | Marauder | Marauder | Marauder |
Mindscape Rolls
Attempted Task | Dice Pool | |
---|---|---|
Difficulty for all is Quiet Level + 3 | ||
Meditate into mindscape | Perception + Meditation | |
Meditate into Demesne | Perception + Demesne | |
Reduce time in mindscape | Wits + Enigmas or Perception + Demesne | |
Communicate to outside | Willpower |
Quintessence Amounts in Patterns
Per body, in points, that can be extracted with Prime Sphere Effects.
Subject | Quintessence Points | Subject | Quintessence Points | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Small animal (bird, cat, fox) | 5 | Large animal (wolf, horse, human) | 10 | |
Powerful animal (tiger, elephant, whale) | 15-25 | Changeling | 20-30 | |
Mage | 10-30 (depending on Quintessence Trait) |
Spirit | Essence Trait | |
Vampire | 10+ Blood Pool Trait | Werecreature | 20+ Gnosis Trait |
Ability and Magick
Abilities Enhancing Magick
If you’re using an activity to enhance your magick', you cannot spend Willpower to get an automatic success, or use other modifiers to lower the difficulty of that activity roll. Each success on the Attribute + Ability roll reduces the difficulty on the associated Effect by -1, to a maximum reduction of -3.
Magick Enhancing Abilities
Game-wise, use the same system as you’d employ when enhancing magick with Abilities: a successful Arete roll lowers the difficulty of the Attribute + Ability roll by a factor of -1 difficulty for each success rolled with your Arete, to a maximum reduction of -3.