Monday Night Mage

Pen and Paper Role Playing Games. Discuss rules and recruit players for your games.

Monday Night Mage

Postby anstruther » 05 Mar 2014, 00:50

Hey everyone,

We recently started playing the New World of Darkness, Mage: The Awakening game on Monday nights.

Games start at 4:30 pm.

New players are welcome. No experience is necessary. Just need to be mature, creative and friendly.

Pre-made characters, dice and everything else needed to play are available. Just bring yourself.
anstruther
 
Posts: 30
Joined: 09 Oct 2013, 13:18

Campaign Summary

Postby anstruther » 05 Mar 2014, 00:51

A balanced mix of combat, investigation, moral dilemma and intrigue with role-playing and co-storytelling deeply interwoven.
________________________________________________

One day you have a normal life: friends, family, job. Then you Awaken...and everything changes.

Maybe it was a spirit journey that your friend talked you into taking as a lark, some bad mushrooms or a near death experience. Whatever the circumstances, you came back changed. You see the world for what it really is. The fabric of reality is laid out before you and by tugging on the right threads, you can change it. For the first time you can see the powers that really run the world … the problem is that now they see you too.

Set in Santa Cruz, California, 2014, a group of newly Awakened are drawn together to find answers and safety in numbers. They must find their way among powerful competing factions of Mages while confronting the myriad forces that remain hidden from most Sleepers. As they learn more about the World of Darkness and their new powers they will have to decide what their own role will be in guiding humanity’s ultimate destiny

Inspiration: 30% Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 30% Constantine, 30% The Matrix, 10% Lovecraft
Last edited by anstruther on 05 Mar 2014, 00:54, edited 1 time in total.
anstruther
 
Posts: 30
Joined: 09 Oct 2013, 13:18

Our Story So Far

Postby anstruther » 05 Mar 2014, 00:53

Sanctum - A safe-house / HQ for the Awakened (i.e. Mages)
Consilium - The reigning OG Mages that run the area
Hallow - A source of magical energy located at the group’s Sanctum.

January 27, 2014

Honda inherits a Sanctum to which new Mages are drawn and the group is formed. A Consilium Herald arrives and asks them to destroy an Abomination living at a nearby cabin. The group goes to the cabin, takes out a handful of zombies and finds an insane, deformed female creature clutching an aging corpse in bed. She is killed and the cabin is burnt to the ground.

Highlights:

-Mac makes use of the van to mow down zombies
-Lyte uses his awesome powers of persuasion (and an extremely lucky roll) to convince the Abomination to exit the cabin through Mac’s van-sized hole so she can be reunited with her dead husband on Mac’s next pass
-Through sheer luck (Quinn-made) the van emerges from its killing spree unscathed
anstruther
 
Posts: 30
Joined: 09 Oct 2013, 13:18

Our Story So Far

Postby anstruther » 05 Mar 2014, 00:56

February 24, 2014

The Consilium activates the group’s Hallow as a reward for taking care of the Abomination. They are invited to the Consilium HQ where they meet their new contact, Fritz. He asks them to investigate some recent cases of soul theft. The group’s investigation leads them to the Director, a Mage that is using reality shows to siphon viewers’ souls. They find the Director in his laboratory where he is subdued, relieved of all his soul-infused creations and released on the condition that he leave the State.

Highlights:

- Dodge is able to interrogate the soul theft victim by magically gutting the pesky life support machine that had been keeping his ghost trapped in his body. The ghost was a much better source of information than his unconscious body had been
- The Director accuses Primera (confirmed to be the leader of the Consilium) of setting him up
- Lyte watches the cursed reality show in its entirety and manages to retain his soul
- Quinn pockets key components of the soul stealing operation and commits the details of the soul harvesting apparatus to his photographic memory
anstruther
 
Posts: 30
Joined: 09 Oct 2013, 13:18

Our Story So Far

Postby anstruther » 05 Mar 2014, 01:00

March 3, 2014

The group sells the jewels and divides up the soul infused artifacts confiscated from The Director. The Consilium calls on the Cabal to investigate a supernatural killing. The group tracks the killer into the sewers where they encounter several demons that nearly kill Honda in one turn. Quinn rewinds time and they run, regrouping at the sewer entrance where the demons are picked off as they reach the surface. One of the demons is killed and transforms into a (dead) human, the other two are knocked unconscious and taken to the Consilium. There they meet Cuarta, the 4th in command among the Elders from whom they learn that someone must have developed a more reliable method of summoning demons and needs to be stopped. She suggests contacting the local Magic Shop owner who knows more about this sort of thing.

Highlights:

- The group gets nearly double the initial offer for the jewels after the jeweler’s wife lets slip in front of everyone that one of the gems is incredibly rare (lucky break courtesy of Quinn)
- Honda combines his grappling skills with Celestial Fire to cook one demon’s head. Always with food on his mind, Honda plans to perfect this combo as his ‘microwave attack’. The smell of cooked Demon brain wasn’t half bad.
- Quinn and Honda return to The Director’s lair to collect the rest of his alchemical equipment
- Quinn starts working on recreating the soul stealing apparatus while Honda starts working on a website to bring in cash
- Honda finds out that the Consilium has a death pool on the fledgling group with even odds for them all dying in 2 weeks. He places $900 on the group surviving another 17 weeks (at 10:1 odds)
- The dead person is taken back to the Sanctum (I believe I was told “put in the fridge”) until they can figure out what to do with him
- The other two demons change back into human form and are left at a bus stop. 911 is called from a nearby payphone (one of the three that still exist). One of the ex-demons had been hurt much more than the other and the next morning the group sees in the paper that the lesser harmed person had been arrested for attempted murder of the other.
anstruther
 
Posts: 30
Joined: 09 Oct 2013, 13:18

Re: Monday Night Mage

Postby SolitareLee » 09 Mar 2014, 19:24

Are you guys still looking for new members? I've wanted a chance to play a mage for forever (everyone I played with always just wanted to do Werewolves xD). I'd love to stop by tomorrow!
SolitareLee
 
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Joined: 09 Mar 2014, 19:22

Re: Monday Night Mage

Postby anstruther » 10 Mar 2014, 06:40

You bet. Come on by.
anstruther
 
Posts: 30
Joined: 09 Oct 2013, 13:18

Re: Monday Night Mage

Postby SolitareLee » 10 Mar 2014, 10:57

Great! We're making basic characters now. If you happen to see this before the game: what kind of mages do you guys already have?
SolitareLee
 
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Joined: 09 Mar 2014, 19:22

Our Story So Far

Postby anstruther » 12 Mar 2014, 21:41

March 10, 2014

The gang is joined by Medic, a striking young lady with Life powers; Dyne, an OG Mysterium Mage that has fallen on hard times; and Diego, a street gang thug who can make his tattoos and graffiti real. They meet MeiLing, the owner of the Magic Shop and learn that someone has stolen from her shop a book that describes how to bind demons to living hosts using a ritual involving living metal. The Occultist that has been making use of this lore is traced to a spot deep in the sewers. When the group arrives they find a demon emerging from a portal. The demon is dispatched and the portal is about to blink closed as Honda jumps in, followed by Diego. They find themselves in a pocket realm where the Occultist performs his rituals. Before them is a human upon whom the ritual has been completed and who is about to transform into a demon. The Occultist’s cocky attitude disappears in a heartbeat when Diego slits the throat of the soon-to-be demon. Soon the Occultist is knocked out and Diego dispatches him as well. In the back the Mages find five sedated victims, one of which bears the brand. They find the stolen book and figure out how to reverse the spell, sparing him Diego’s merciless daggers.

Highlights:

- The Occultist’s ritual requires living metal, something Quinn knows all about (7 successes). He explains that it is a semi-intelligent artifact that can change size, shape and composition at it’s owner’s bidding.
- Bad first impressions I: When Diego first comes to the Sanctum house he is greeted by Quinn holding a bloody knife he had just been using to do some investigative work on the corpse they still have in the freezer. Diego still doesn’t care for “that crazy guy”.
- Bad first impressions II: The neighbor stops by to meet the new owner of the Sanctum and drop off a care package. She meets Sylver who makes it sound like she is now living next to a halfway house for the dangerously insane. Medic is able to patch things up and convince her that it is all on the up and up.
- Dyne tries to prevent Honda and Diego from diving into the portal with Telekinesis. He is able to stop Diego but Honda’s 7 successes at resisting the Telekinesis allow him to drag Diego along with him anyway.
- When the portal opens again 5 hours later the group lays the unconscious victims out in the sewers like cord wood with a burner cell phone calling 911 left among them. Medic heals the victims enough to keep them out of the hospital.
- Honda and Diego liberate from the Occultist a variety of items including the living metal artifact and the book that had been stolen from the Magic Shop. They sell the whole load to MeiLing for 45 “tass credits.”
- At the end, Honda notices a garden gnome near the Hallow that was not there before. He and Diego determine that it is made of cursed tass and was formed by a spell cast on the Hallow. Honda and Sylver are able to dispel the spell and Diego invokes a spirit to watch the area for intruders.
anstruther
 
Posts: 30
Joined: 09 Oct 2013, 13:18

Revised Rules: Rotes

Postby anstruther » 16 Mar 2014, 19:21

Background:

The original Rote system is very vague with regard to which Attributes and Skills to use to calculate dice pool. In addition the Skills used often seemed arbitrary and counter-intuitive. Spending XP to create a rote spell can have a very variable effect, sometimes increasing the dice pool dramatically and other times reducing the dice pool. Finally, the original rote system is intimately tied to Orders which will be introduced as this campaign progresses.

These changes ensure that the dice pool always increases a reasonable amount and that this scales with the amount of XP spent. It is less arbitrary, more focused on role playing and allows for Order-free rotes.

Maximum Number of Rote Spells Known = Gnosis x 2

Dice Pool of Rote Spells = Gnosis + Arcanum + Attribute

When the player chooses a new Rote Spell, he or she chooses any of the nine attributes to add to the dice pool. The attribute is the one that the character has come to depend on when casting the spell. The attribute should be plausible for the spell being cast and should be consistent with the character as it is played. Whether or not a particular attribute can be chosen is ultimately at the discretion of the storyteller.
The dice pool for any particular casting will be based on the current, enhanced or penalized attribute value. If a player temporarily has a +3 bonus to the attribute in question, he or she gets 3 more dice than usual.

XP Cost of Acquiring new Rote Spells = (Attribute + Spell Level) x 2

Use the current, base, permanent level of dots that the character has in the chosen attribute. Effects of temporary spells, including any spells that could potentially be dispelled or that count toward the character's spell accumulation, should be disregarded. Likewise any bonuses from equipment, magic items, other players, or other effects should not be counted.
As an optional rule, the storyteller can deduct 1 XP from the cost of the Rote Spell for every 3-5 times that the character has used the spell in game play.

Notes

Rote spells must be chosen from spells that the player could cast based on his / her Arcane knowledge.

For non-ruling Arcana, the XP cost is (Attribute + Spell Level) x 3. This is because learning non-ruling Arcana as rotes eliminates the need for spending mana when cast.

New Character Creation

New characters receive 15 XP to spend on Rote spells. They player should be encouraged to buy at least one Rote. Unused XP can be saved for later. After the first chapter of play the remaining XP can be spent in any way.
anstruther
 
Posts: 30
Joined: 09 Oct 2013, 13:18

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