Subject: Re: How to start a Mage story... From: [email protected] Date: 1998/06/23 Message-ID: <[email protected]> Newsgroups: alt.games.whitewolf.mage [More Headers] [Subscribe to alt.games.whitewolf.mage] In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Chris Holtz) wrote: > > I'm quite new to Mage. I'm re-reading the purple bible and > actually have a chance of gathering a few people to > begin a story. > And now... the question: Aside from the obvious, are there > any issues I should watch out for as a ST of Mage? Actually, > any advice to a new Mage ST would be of great benefit. Obvious? What're those? Seriously... The biggest thing you'll notices right off is the sensory abilities. Every sphere you take gives you some pretty amazing perceptual abilities. One character with Corr 2/Time 2 can solve the most puzzling locked-room mysteries with a single die roll. Don't have your stories hinge on locked-room mysteries. Instead, use the character's prodigious detection abilities to draw them into your plots! When a character has a number of spheres and a good Per+ Awareness be sure to describe things to him that he'd notice - when you describe a new character say what her aura looks like, when you describe an unusual object talk about the composition of it's 'matter pattern' - if you can manage to, keep these descriptions paradigm-specific. That way, you'll help your players get into the mood and into their characters. Mages are very versatile. Almost anything can be done if the mage has just the right combination of spheres. This is not a a problem with the game, it's a feature. Really. If your players are creative, they'll rarely be at a loss for something to do. That's great, because it keeps the players from getting frustrated, but it can play merry hell with your scenario. (Heck, players in any game will think of things to play heck with your scenario, in Mage it's just a bit easier for them...) So, don't count on a scenario going just the way you want. Come up with an idea of what's going on, and let the players find their own way to a resolution. It's surprisingly easy to draw them in, just use the advice above... they can't help but noticing a bit of what's going on, and that'll peak their curiosity. On the other side of the coin, when a player comes up with an unanticipated effect that would just work too well, don't be afraid to have an NPC be ready for it... You didn't see it coming, but the fact is that your PCs are starting mages, and no effect they can come up with is going to be totally new (a unique spin certainly...), so an experienced opponent is likely to be ready for it. Have your NPC mages make liberal use of wards to keep their sancta and so forth free from unwanted spys and attacks. Control Randomness: A lot of players seem to think that this lets them do anything. It doesn't. Entropy 2 lets you determine to a fair degree of certainty, the result of a random event. However, it does not bring these events into being, nor does impart knowledge onto the character that he didn't have before. So, you can't use control randomness to drop a safe on your opponents head unless there is already a safe up there, and there's some chance of it falling. Likewise, you can't 'randomly dial a number' and call the person who attacked your chantry last night. The event has to be random, it has to happen on its own, and you have to know the result you're going for. Keep a tight lid on this one. Create/Transform Matter: The second most misapplied ability is Matter 2. With matter 2 you can create and transform simple/unified patterns. Things to remember: don't let your players convince you that nitroglycerin, cyanide, nitric acid, sodium, strontium 90, or C4 are the province of Matter 2. Insist on Matter 4 for any substance that has a more complex technological or biochemical function that water. Remember that you can't use matter to create a substance inside someone's body - you'll need conjunctional Life 3 for that (and, at that point, you can already damage them anyway) no fair transforming the O2 in your NPCs bloodstream to carbon monoxide, no turning the stomach contents of someone you don't like into sodium, etc... even then, it's just going to do the regular damage on the chart - don't let a player try to convince you that such and such a compound he just created is sooo toxic there's no way anyone could survive or whatever (well you only got three successes so I guess you just didn't make that much, he takes 6 HL...). Call Spirit: The number 3 most misapplied sphere level has got to be Spirit 2 (Maybe it even ties with entropy). Basically, the overly enthusiastic player decides that he can summon a "spirit of _blank_" to solve whatever _blank_ problem he has at the moment. Though, if you look at Werewolf & Axis Mundi, it's true that there are spirits for virtually any occasion, there are limits to what you can accomplish by summoning. 1) You have to know who to call. Some Spirit Lore usually helps out here. If you don't think the Dreamspeaker should even suspect the existence of a 'Spirit of Germainium Circuitry' don't let him call it. 2) Would you ask a total stranger to help you kill someone? Unless the character is in truly desperate straights, he should only call on spirits he has a personal, positive relationship with. And, the player should realize that these are the characters buddies, possibly his superiors in the scheme of things, not cannon fodder. 3) Nothing's free. Though there are some very minor spirits that can simply be coerced, most require some sort of bargain. It can be on the basis of friendship, chiminage (exchange of favours) or (most simply) an offering of quintessence. 4) Sprits have free will, the most incredibly minor gafflings can be used with little regard to that, as they are easily influenced - but you also can't get them to do much. Useful spirits will have their own agenda. A pattern spider the VA is friendly with would be perfectly willing to guard his system, help him with a programming task, or search for information on the Web - it would be less likely to crash a rivals system (how disorderly!) or journey into a Wyld region in the Umbra. Extended & Cooperative effects: One of your players might realize that there's nothing stopping him from building up dozens of successes on some semi-permenant effect he wants going. Likewise, a group of mages (like a squad of MiBs) can get some hefty successes by working together. Though it's fine to reward foresight and teamwork, the system isn't really up to handling such things well. As long as nobody does it, you're OK... Once they start, you can either have the opposition start pulling similar things... success accumulation arms race. Or, you can put a lid on it somehow. I have my own system that I use: http://www.goecities.com/Area51/1317/ams.html or, you can use something simple, like limiting successes to Arete, or Willpower, or somesuch. Wow, that was a lot more than I expected to write. Hope I didn't belabor any obvious points. --- | Blake 1001, Virtual Adept, Disciple ---|-. http://www.geocities.com/Area51/1317/ '-|--- |
================================================================= " 900: PRINT "This Digital Web Sector interfaces with Consensual Reality thru GeoCities." 901: PRINT "Move one step closer to Virtual Ascension by getting your own Free Home Page ." 990: PRINT "All writing in this site (excepting Trademarks of White Wolf Game Studios) is Copyrighted, 94, 97 by Tony Vargas" 999: END OF FILE