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DrPraetor
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Post by DrPraetor » Sun Jun 12, 2011 8:55 am

Other Misc Stuff

- If you were trained in the Technocratic Union, take a free +1 to a corresponding resource and +2 to two academic backgrounds (probably raising them above 4!) in which you were trained. This is a mini-splat, I guess.
  - Directorate of Industry, Engineering and Process Optimization (IEPO): Physics, Engineering, Chemistry, Mathematics, Architecture, Computer Science. +1 Destiny.
  - Directorate of Military Operations: DMil: Military Theory, Military Etiquette, Law, Logistics, Political Science, History, Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Navigation. +1 Assets.
  - Directorate of Agriculture and Environment: DA&E: Biology, Botany, Chemistry, Ecology, Geology, Meteorology, Medicine, Genetics, Paleontology. +1 Science.
  - Directorate of Communication, Media and Public Relations: CM&P: Sociology, Psychology, Political Science, Computer Science, Media Relations, Communications, Public Relations. +1 Contacts.
  - Directorate of Applied Social and Economic Sciences: DASE: Sociology, Psychology, Economics, History, Political Science. +1 Finance.
- If you were trained outside the Technocracy, you are an Independent Scholar. You can take +2 to any two backgrounds, but if you don't have an academic background of some kind of at least 5, the Technocracy will not respect you. Also, you get +1 Secrets, to reflect spiritual lucre that you built up during your period outside of Technocracy supervision.

Origins

- The Redeemed
  - Free advantage - Extremely Competitive or Calm Heart. Growing up surrounded by spirits is not easy. Children who can't either take it with dignity, or give it as good as they get, don't survive. If the character wasn't even born human, she needed the absolutely insane drive (or ice-cold nerves) to wander into Reality and start pretending to be Human.
  - Free Powers - Suppress Scrying and Shield Thoughts. Human children growing up in the spirit world learn to hide from their playmates/protectors, or they don't survive adolescence; spirits don't manage to get to Reality, pass off as human, and join the Technocratic Union if their compatriots are forewarned of their betrayal and/or can find them and kill them.
  - Spirit Form. The Redeemed may even be a bit too comfortable in spirit form, and need only accumulate 2 hits plus Gauntlet to revert to their Spirit Aspect.
  - Suggested disadvantages - Blatantly Magical is highly appropriate for any character who wasn't even born human, as are Distinctive Appearance, Feared by Children, Offensive to Animals and Eerie Presence. Allergy and Deadly Allergy are common mystical failings, often these will be to symbolic substances. Anachronism and Naive are fitting, but the character may also be obsessed with modern fashions, foods and ideas that they missed out on growing up to the point that they are a bit of a Flake. General neurosis associated with their frightening childhood could easily explain Compulsive Behavior, Delusional, Prideful or Temperamental. The redeemed has changed sides at least once in her life, so Disloyal could make a lot of sense as well.
- The Risen
  - Free advantage - Attractive. If you're going to grow bodies in a vat, you might as well clone good-looking people.
  - Free Powers - Shield Body and Dimensional Anchor. The clonal body has been carefully engineered to be free of defects, so coincidental heart attacks are less likely, and it's otherwise very difficult to impair the function of such a body using magic. The process of imprinting an entity from Otherwhere in a clonal body suppresses magical space manipulation of all kinds.
  - Spirit Form. The Risen have a very difficult time adopting their Spirit Form while in Reality, since it's been jammed into a whole second body that is not designed to accommodate the change. The Risen must accumulate 5 hits plus Gauntlet to adopt Spirit Form while in Reality.
  - Suggested Disadvantages - Clones are creepy, so Eerie Presence and Feared by Children make sense. The Technocratic Union may have treated the Risen to some serious brainwashing, so Aimless, Delusional or Compulsive Behavior would make sense.
- The Gifted
  - Free advantage - Innocence. The Gifted has been blessed by the Cosmos and this rubs off on people on a subconscious level.
  - Free Powers - Denounce and Disenchant. The Gifted are born into Reality and have intrinsic precedence over any other Spirit who may trespass here.
  - Spirit Form. The Gifted have a relatively easy time adopting their Spirit Form while in Reality; they were born to their Spirit Nature but weren't born-a-spirit. The Gifted must accumulate 3 hits plus Gauntlet to adopt Spirit Form while in Reality.
  - Suggested Disadvantages - The Gifted are blessed and not cursed, but as a consequence of their immense natural gifts, Prideful, Flake and Minor all make significant sense with this Origin.
- The Initiated
  - Free advantage - Loyalty. The Initiated are carefully screened to ensure that only those with a deeply ingrained, fundamental sense of loyalty are even offered the procedure.
  - Free Powers - Suppress Cognizance and Finesse the Ban. The Initiated are carefully not to regard their powers as any kind of "Magic", which has the very helpful side-effect that the anti-"Magic" countermeasures of reality deviants are less helpful.
  - Spirit Form. The Initiated have a moderately difficult time adopting their Spirit Form while in Reality; they weren't born to their Spirit Nature, but it wasn't forceably inflicted on them either. The Gifted must accumulate 4 hits plus Gauntlet to adopt Spirit Form while in Reality.
  - Suggested Disadvantages - The Initiated are generally chosen to be prime specimens of physical, mental and social health. They are workaholics, so Doomed Romance is one of the few disadvantages that make sense, also Spiritual Disrepect as an (intentional?) side effect of the method of their creation. In spite of all preparation, the process of Initiation drives some people nuts, so Compulsive Behavior or Delusional are also possible.
- The Illuminated
  - Free advantage - Experimenter. The Illuminated has managed to conquer a literal inner demon, and doesn't fear the figurative sort.
  - Free Powers - Demon Slayer and Unshackle Mind. The Illuminated chews bubble gum and kicks demonic ass; due to recent supply shortages, bubble gum stores have been exhausted.
  - Spirit Form. The Illuminated hate their spirit form and if played in character probably shouldn't even attempt to adopt it. And trying is probably pointless, as The Illuminated must accumulate 6 hits plus Gauntlet to adopt Spirit Form while in Reality.
  - Suggested Disadvantages - The Illuminated tend to be regular people, but are NOT likely to be a Flake, Disloyal, or have any other character weakness which the possessing entity would presumably have exploited to dominate them entirely. Psychic residue associated with the defeated tenant can give The Illuminated a powerfully Contagious Mood. Also, The Illuminated offer suffer from the Delusion that they are not spirits and do not have a spirit form at all.

Last edited by DrPraetor on Sun Jun 12, 2011 3:04 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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DrPraetor
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Post by DrPraetor » Tue Jun 14, 2011 4:44 pm

Mandates, Sustained Effects, and Spirit Types
Each wizard/spirit (including the player characters) can maintain a number of points-worth of magical effects with a total rating equal to her:
Edge + Auspice + Mandate Scores
If you exceed this limit, your edge is reduced by 1 point for each point in excess. For the effects of having negative edge, see the section on reality violations; having a reduced edge is generally a much-worse penalty than any permanent effect is worth, and having a negative edge is highly disadvantageous.
Points from Mandate Scores can only be used to maintain magical effects associated with that Mandate, and you cannot have a magical effect with a score greater than your rating in the corresponding mandate. Thus, someone with no Mandates cannot maintain any magical effects at all, and are thus incapable of Magic.
Some magical effects require points from multiple mandates. For example - form of Lava is Earth **, Fire *. This magical effect counts 3 towards your magical effect limit, and also
When a magical effect is over-ruled, you generally get the points back, and you can reinvest them in other permanent effects, but not immediately. Likewise,
I'm going to write up actual rules (inspired by the spell design system in Ars Magica) by which levels can be assigned for magical effects. This is not expected to be well-balanced; in a sense, this is okay, because magical effects are to some extent intrinsically balanced because the players aren't supposed to have them at all. On the other hand, it'd be nice to have the rules and settings be suitable for playing the other team, which people will inevitably want to do, so they'll be as well balanced as I can make them.
Here are some magical effects, and their ratings:
I am a servant of the secret fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn! Go back to the shadow! You shall not pass! - Gandalf the Gray, from the Fellowship of the Ring
[*] Toss Blasts of Magical Fire Around (Fire 1). Blasts of Magical Fire are a damage = Auspice + Fire weapon, which deals fire damage, use Intuition + Destroy to hit things. A technomancer-allowed surrogate would be a ray gun or something, would inflict Auspice + Gadgets damage, and would use Agility + Combat to hit, because it's real weapon. In either case, Blasts of Magical Fire (or ray gun beams) are each unique, and get a favored target which they destroy, as hinted in the quote. Against the favored target, Edge and Soak bonuses from magic do not count. Blasts of Magical Fire are, obviously, overt.
[*] Big Blasts of Magical Fire (Fire 2) explode when they hit and cost a power point to toss (ref: explosion rules.) Use Intuition + Destroy, or Sabotage + Agility for plasma grenades or whatever.
[*] Be Immune to Edged Weapons All the Time (Earth 2). This gives you a +6 soak bonus against melee weapons provided they are also edged. This is covert, except if you really need it, in which case it is overt. Dermal Sheathing (Cyberware 1) is similar but provides actual armor in the form of B 3/M 1/H 1, rather than a soak bonus.
I'm going to need to expand this a lot, of course, but feedback on the basic structure is appreciated.
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DrPraetor
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Post by DrPraetor » Fri Jun 17, 2011 2:42 pm

This needs a lot of fleshing out. Comments and suggestions welcome.
Common Positions on Philosophical Questions as Reduced to Practice
The player characters, of course, may think whatever they want. However, they may often wish to secure the assistance of other initiated individuals (and spirits) via one form or another of Rhetoric, in which the true nature of reality may be frankly discussed.
Normal Humans are seldom particularly resistant to Magic, so it will often be easier to just brainwash them, and in any case don't know the true nature of Reality. I'm going to assume that the MC and players in your game are themselves Normal Humans and are already familiar with the range of opinion regarding such topics (which may become important within the narrative) as politics, entertainment, professional sports, sexual morality, and the nature of the human condition. If you or any of your players are unfamiliar with Normal Humans, I direct you to the definitive English-language reference on their norms and behavior, Chris Rock. Note that some Normal Humans have limited awareness of the true nature of Reality, especially those with one or another Auspice.
However, because the Otherworld and the system of magic it permits are purely fictitious, familiarity with the ideas that people hold on this topic cannot be assumed, and must be specifically stated in order for the MC and player characters to effectively occupy the same game world. The primary purpose of this section is to provide an aid to MCs in populating the world with supporting characters having their own opinions, and an aid to the players in integrating their characters into the shared fictional world. The Initiated, as well as those Spirits with sufficient intelligence to hold opinions on these topics, may hold any of the opinions below, may have sympathy for one or more of these systems of thought, and may be hypocritical or inconsistent in their thinking on this topic, just as Normal Humans can be. Again, player characters may believe whatever their players wish, but some players may find it notionally satisfying to portray a character who strongly advocates for one of the positions described below.
The Range of Opinions Broadly Accepted within the Technocratic Union
Materialist: Principled and Stubborn
Confucius and you are neither of you dreams, and I am not a secret Elf soul full of Unicorn turds, myself.
This is the position that Reality is actually, independently real and that the phenomena associated with Otherwhere are a dangerous aberration which can-and-should be eliminated entirely; there is no such thing as the Mandate of Heaven, and the Technocracy does not use Magic, because Magic does not exist.
This is the majority opinion among the un-initiated members of the Technocratic Union, who form the bulk of the membership and who, by sheer numbers, hold a plurality of positions of authority with the Union. It is also the position taken by a relatively vocal extremist fringe among the Initiated membership of the Technocractic Union. Generally, this is the politically correct position which career-minded types will espouse.
Pragmatic: Conservative and Engaged
I’ll put the braziers out. You get the… leprechaun into the paddy wagon before someone sees him.
This is the position that there is sufficient reason to believe that the Mandate of Heaven is real, and that risking the loss of the Mandate is unacceptable. That is, if there is even a sizeable risk that their enemies could seize the Mandate and melt the world into a giant lava lamp, it is incumbent to stop them, since even any risk of their success in this is too high a risk. The Pragmatist disagrees with the Materialist on such questions as distribution of resources, but unlike the Radical or the Cynic, supports the current structure of the world and acts to defend the hegemony of the Technocratic Union wholeheartedly.
Radical: Loyal and Reformist
To say of what is, that it is, or of what is not, that it is not, is true. – Aristotle
The Radical is a loyal member of the Technocratic Union who believes that the Mandate of Heaven is real, and that Normal Humans should be educated as best as possible with all of the relevant facts. The belief among many Radicals is that Normal Humans will desire to see normal, scientifically explicable reality maintained, given the obvious benefits. Radicals support science, but acknowledge the existence and relevance of Otherworld Phenomena. Pragmatists view this position as dangerously naïve, Materialists think it is pseudo-scientific bollocks. A Radical is different from a Revolutionary because they are pro-Technocracy as a political position, and because they are opposed to actually changing the laws of science. There is a bit of a gray area between those two positions. Because of their similarity to the Revolutionary stance, Radicals are often accused of being traitors, so many Radicals pretend to be Pragmatists, while others adhere very stringently to such things as scientific nomenclature (avoiding saying “Magic”, for example), and are otherwise very careful about maintaining the appearance of loyalty in spite of their heterodox views.
Positions Unacceptable to the Technocratic Union
Cynical: Informed and Disappointed
The dog food bag says IMPROVED FLAVOR! My dog eats flies and licks his own asshole. Flavor is not a big priority for him, and he can't read the bag.
This is a position, secretly held by many within the Technocratic Union, that the Mandate of Heaven probably does control the nature of Reality, but that the Technocracy is doing a lousy job of running the world and that defending the Mandate is probably a waste of energy. Such Cynicism may be a front, or it may be a temporary position, or people may fall in and out of such a Cynical stance depending on their own recent experiences with the world. However, unlike Radicals or Revolutioanaries, the Cynic does not see any alternative which is better than the current state of affairs, so the Cynic has considerable overlap with the Pragmatist. There are also many Cynics outside of the Technocratic Union but they tend not to be much of a threat, because although they despise the Technocracy they do not have their own alternative reality to prefer.
Egoist: Might Makes Right
Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. – George Orwell, 1984
This is the philosophical position first, that Magic is entirely real, and second, that those who can wield Magic should dominate others. Under that umbrella, there are Ayn Rand and Anton LaVey style individualists, and also “idealistic” or “positivist” types who advocate some kind of fascism.
Revolutionary: Magic is a Call to Improve the World
A better world is possible. – Motto of the World Social Forum
Gnostic: The Tao that is Written is not the True Tao
Abandon the search for God and the creation and other matters of a similar sort. Look for him by taking yourself as the starting point. Learn who it is within you who makes everything his own and says, "My God, my mind, my thought, my soul, my body." Learn the sources of sorrow:, joy, love, hate. Learn how it happens that one watches without willing, rests without willing, becomes angry without willing, loves without willing. If you carefully investigate these matters you will find him in yourself. – Hipolytus
Gnostics differ from Revolutionaries in that they do not think that Reality is real, or especially important. The Mandate of Heaven exists, and governs the structure of Reality, but Reality is a shackle for the spirit. Possibly, Otherwhere is the true reality, or possibly it is another (deeper, or shallower, or whatever) layer of the false Reality which must be Transcended.
The So-called traditions
The Ash Walkers
Auspice: Ambition
Philosophy: Egoist
Magical Style: Mixed
Wants to use magic, in secret, to get themselves rich.
The Black Hand
Auspice: Conviction
Philosophy: Cynical
Magical Style: Mixed
Seemingly, wants to kill people with stabbing. Broader agenda, if any, is not known.
The Church of Set
Auspice: Ambition
Philosophy: Egoist
Magical Style: Hermetic
Wants to use magic, in secret, to shed ethical taboos and achieve their full potential. Also has a lot of snake motifs everywhere, fond of ritual sorcery.
The Chain of Coronis
Auspice: Conviction
Philosophy: Revolutionary
Magical Style: Shamanic
Deep Ecology types, want to revert human society to a pre-technological period. Also, want to turn into bears and stuff through the power of Mother Gaea. Deep Ecologists who want to build wind farms and things are generally members of the Technocracy, but the Chain of Coronis, in spite of their anti-technology stance, actually has good relations with those members of the Technocracy with whom they have some common interests.
The Order Daziban
Auspice: Ambition
Philosophy: Revolutionary
Magical Style: Hermetic
Wants to overthrow reality so that Hermetic Magic determines how things work – with alchemical influences and stuff. Contrast with the Church of Set, which just wants to use magic themselves and preferably in secret.
The False Face
Auspice: Conviction or Skepticism
Philosophy: Cynical, Radical or Revolutionary
Magical Style: Shamanic or Parascientific
These are Native American and African mages that the Stellar Oracles wiped out, except in other places where they partially absorbed the membership. The survivors are partially integrated into the Technocratic Union, and because of past “excesses” the Technocratic Union tolerates more from this group than from other adversaries.
The Hashshashin
Auspice: Absurdism
Philosophy: Gnostic
Magical Style: Hermetic
???
The Hollow Ones
Auspice: Absurdism
Philosophy: Egoism
Magical Style: Parascientific
The Hollow Ones are rather like the The Ash Walkers, except that they use reality-warping pseudo-science and are an evil megacorporation. The Hollow Ones spend a lot of time trying to infiltrate the Technocracy.
Laughter Factory
Auspice: Absurdism
Philosophy: Revolutionary
Magical Style: Parascientific
The Laughter Factory wants to modify reality so that the stuff that happens in virtual reality is real. This is a revolutionary change from their previous agenda of making literal dreams real, and everyone agrees it is more fun and more workable.
Rolnicy
Auspice: Ambition or Skepticism
Philosophy: Revolutionary or Radical
Magical Style: Parascientific
Rolnicy are rebels within the Technocracy who do not think that science is advancing nearly fast enough. Also, biological uplift is awesome, and we should be doing that. Rolnicy is a more conventional, mundane threat than many adversaries because they are perfectly happy to take over the Technocracy with violence if they can manage that.
Stellar Oracles
Auspice: Conviction
Philosophy: Revolutionary
Magical Style: Hermetic
The Stellar Oracles were a continent-spanning organization which contained most of the Mages from England to Japan prior to the rise of the Technocracy. The Stellar Oracles are pro-religion, but as a tool of social engineering; they trace their origins to a fusion of the ideas of Zoro Aster and Confucius. They shed most of their science-savvy membership when the Technocracy formed, and the remaining Stellar Oracles practice religion-themed ritual magic.
The Storm Lords
Auspice: Ambition
Philosophy: Revolutionary or Radical
Magical Style: Parascientific
The Storm Lords want to revolutionize science so that it includes magic.
The Ulmians
Auspice: Ambition
Philosophy: Egoist
Magical Style: Hermetic
Secretive, crime-ridden, practices necromancy. What’s not to like?
The White Lotus
Auspice: Conviction
Philosophy: Gnostic
Magical Style: Hermetic
The Wreckers
Auspice: Absurdism
Philosophy: Gnostic
Magical Style: Mixed
The Marduk Society
Auspice: Ambition
Philosophy: Gnostic and Revolutionary
Magical Style: Parascientific
The King with Three Shadows
Auspice: Conviction
Philosophy: Cynical
Magical Style: Hermetic
The Shattered Empire
Auspice: Conviction
Philosophy: Revolutionary
Magical Style: Lovecraftian
Chaosium rules are made of unicorn pubic hair and cancer. --AncientH
When you talk, all I can hear is "DunningKruger" over and over again like you were a god damn Pokemon. --Username17
Fuck off with the pony murder shit. --Grek
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DrPraetor
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Post by DrPraetor » Sun Jun 19, 2011 3:56 pm

This is probably going to lie fallow for a month.
Spell Magnitudes

Spell Level | Primary Mag. | Secondary Max Mag. | Total Mag. of Secondary |
0 | 0.25 | 0 | 0
1 | 1 | 0.25 | 0.5
2 | 2 | 1 | 1.25
3 | 3 | 2 | 3
4 | 4 | 3 | 5
5 | 5 | 4 | 7

Thus, a Fireball (a level 2 spell) can include a Bolt of Fire (a level 1 spell effect) which hits whoever is standing at the center of effect, and can also set fires (a level 0.25 spell effect).
A spell which gives someone wicked magical cat claws (a level 1 spell), could also give them improved balance (a level 0.25 spell) as well as superior hearing (also a level 0.25 spell,) with cosmetic physical side effects (a tail, ears) to match.
General Properties
Range: Spells are assumed to have a range of Short, unless otherwise noted. Each range increment is worth 0.5 levels, unless the MC judges range to be irrelevant. Spells which reach across the world, or strike targets based on ritual links, must generally be rituals, unless they just gather information. A spell which depends on a ritual link, but strikes the target anywhere (or finds the target anywhere) is +2 levels; a spell with a ritual link but which cannot reach beyond the same city (about 60km) is +1 level.
Area of Effect: Spells are assumed to have a single target, unless otherwise noted. Giving a spell an area of effect, up to many meters across (e.g. like a Grenade) is +1 effect level. Every order of magnitude is +1 effect level, so a spell that affected an entire stadium of people (60m splash radius, half a football field per damage increment) would be +2 effect levels, a spell that affected an entire neighborhood (600m splash radius, seven short city blocks per damage increment) would be +3 effect levels, and a spell that took out whole cities (6km splash radius) would be +4 effect levels.
Duration: For some spells, duration is irrelevant. Other spells are assumed to last a Scene, unless otherwise noted. A spell that lasts longer than a Scene (up to and including a spell which is Permanent) is generally +1 level.
A spell which can only be used once before the ritual is repeated (including any requisite spiritual bargaining) is -1 level. This includes those rituals which take effect on the spot. A "Use Once"/”Permanent” spell is generally trivially superior to a “Use at Will”/”Scene” spell, if the spell effects the caster. For the spells below, the headers are of the form: Level #:Range/AOE/Duration Spell Title
If the Range is given in the style of a weapon, i.e. with a second parenthetical range, this means that a to-hit roll is required (the dice pool will be given in the text), even if the same range is given twice. The AOE will either be a fixed area, in which case anyone within that radius of the center of effect is targeted equally, or it will be followed by the word “Splash”, in which case the intensity of the effect (typically damage, but can be something else) drops by 1 level for each splash-radius-distance from the center (this will be explained in the spell text if the spell does not do damage.) Some spells may have an exotic area (“onlookers” or “road”) which will be explained in the text; generally any exotic area is the same base spell level as a 6m splash.
General Rules for spells corresponding to each magical skill:
Create: Makes things, by bringing spirits into Reality and having them adopt some form; this form can be abstract, so this can also be used to control things in a course way. The general template is: Magnitude +1Short/Single/Scene Summong Spell, to summon a spirit of a given Magnitude. Spirits of most mandates do not have the ability to show up in Reality in a permanent self-sustaining form; that is, most Fire spirits can be a gout of fire, but not a man made of fire who walks around. Note that you can have a spirit of a given Magnitude as a permanent helper for a spell slot of Magnitude, so your allies will be more powerful if they are permanent.
For transitory phenomena, the magnitude equivalence of various things is of course described in the corresponding Mandate. Technically, every physical effect of a spell is, itself, a realized spirit, but then, so is every other phenomenon.
Destroy: Hampers spirits, or forces them out of Reality. This will have the general effect of damaging things in the physical world. In general, a magnitude 1 effect is roughly as destructive as a firearm, and a magnitude 2 effect is roughly as destructive as a grenade. Yes, that is a lot of destruction.
Some destructive effects (for example, the ever popular Fireball) are actually done with Create, since they Create something which itself destructive.
Control: Forces spirits to do your bidding. In general, forcing a spirit to follow its own inclinations is Magnitude 1, and the Magnitude rises as the action taken by the spirit becomes more drastically opposed to its nature, and the spirit becomes more powerful. Thus, it is easier to fling around a car (which is inclined to movement, even if it is not inclined to flight) than an equally-heavy bedframe (which has a nature of being stationary.)
Moving around in space, or otherwise changing their relationship to other things, is always control, as is any change a thing makes that is intrinsic to its nature. So, for example, Control can be used to make flowers bloom (since flowers bloom naturally), or to make wounds heal. All physical objects naturally exist somewhere and have some natural capacity to have momentum, so moving things around is Control. Iron Bars do not naturally turn into swords – that would require Transform.
Sense: Gathers information from the spirit world. Sense is also used to communicate with and awaken the dormant spirits in the world around you. Information accessible to your own senses, but at increased remove (either in time or space) is generally magnitude 1, as is information in your immediate environment that requires a specialized sense, or uncovers something that has been deliberately hidden from normal senses. Combining the two (specialized senses, into the next building), or greatly increasing the distance, or having passive senses which automatically trigger when something important happens, will increase the Magnitude.
Transform: Alters the obligations and nature of a spirit, which will have some concomitant effect on the associated thing. This can do pretty much anything, and the transformations are often permanent. However, Transform spells have a high Magnitude and tend to be obviously unnatural.
--- Mandate Specialties and Spontaneous Magic ---
Mandate Specialties work quite a bit differently from skill specialties.
In general, within your specialty, you can make up any spell you want, on the spot, and just cast it. The effective magnitude of such spontaneous spells is increased by 1. You have 2 points of spell magnitude “free” to do this with, which refreshes every scene; if you want a spell higher than magnitude 1 (remember, +1 for being spontaneous), you need either extra free space (which also refreshes every scene), or your effective edge attribute will be reduced by the excess for the Scene in which the spell(s) are used. You still can’t cast any single spell with a Magnitude greater than your rating in the corresponding Mandate (and again remember, the Magnitude of the spell is effectively +1).
Example: Vince has an Edge of 2, a Mandate of Beasts of 3, and a Specialty of Wolves, because he is a werewolf. He doesn’t know any spells, but this means that in any given scene, he can make-up-and-cast 7 magnitudes of spells related to Wolves, with each spell having a maximum magnitude of 3. However, each spell cast in this way counts as being 1 magnitude higher than what is described below.
The most common specialties are: A particular emotion (possibly even the Guiding Passion of the character), a particular “kind” of animal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_kinds, this is likely to give biologists fits), or a particular material, such as Metal, Stone, etc.
--- Mystic Mandates ---
Mandate of Beasts
Incidental Benefits: Add your Mandate Rating to all Animal Ken checks.
Create Beasts: Spirits of this Mandate are naturally able to enter the material world in Animal form, so this is mostly used to conjure animals. Spirits of this Mandate may also possess normal humans, giving them a beastial aspect, although the Initiated are immune to further posession.
Level 0.25:Adjacent/Single/Scene Rat in my Pocket: This spell summons a minor (magnitude 0) spirit in the form of a Rat or similar pocket-sized animal. This spell is covert if onlookers can’t see the rat appear out of nowhere. The spirit isn’t smart enough to do anything useful or follow instructions. Success is ordinarily automatic but Create + Willpower may be rolled to overcome counter-magic.
Level 1:Short/Single/Scene Instakitty: This spell summons a minor (magnitude 0.25) spirit, and entices it into Reality in the form of a Cat or similar physical harmless, but reasonably mobile, animal. The spirit is about as smart as a six-year-old child and can be given useful tasks, which it may actually accomplish; the spirit is friendly, but Animal Ken + Charisma rolls may be required to get it to follow instructions. Given a suitable hiding place from which the Cat may appear, this is covert. Success is ordinarily automatic but Create + Willpower may be rolled to overcome counter-magic.
Level 2:Short/Single/Scene Roar!: This spell summons a magnitude 1 spirit and entices it into Reality in the form of a Lion, Bear, unusually large Wolf etc.. The spirit is smart enough to adopt sophisticated tactics if need be; it is friendly and will follow commands, but a Tactics + Charisma roll may be required to convince the spirit of the wisdom and necessity of anything risky. This spell is never covert on casting, but unless there is something overtly magical about the summoned animal, it can be covert for the duration. The area of this spell cannot be increased to a “Splash”; a variant where one animal appears per hit on the Create + Willpower roll would be +0.5 level.
Level 3:Range/AOE/Duration Spell Title
Level 4:Range/AOE/Duration Spell Title
Destroy Beasts
Level 1:Short/6m Splash/Instant Wolfsbane Inflicts Auspice+Beasts damage, as a grenade with a 6m splash radius, but only to Wolves (so -1 magnitude). This will include any spirit with the Wolf specialty of their mandate, even if they are in human form or otherwise not visibly a wolf. Pointing at animals and making them die is overt.
Chaosium rules are made of unicorn pubic hair and cancer. --AncientH
When you talk, all I can hear is "DunningKruger" over and over again like you were a god damn Pokemon. --Username17
Fuck off with the pony murder shit. --Grek
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Judging__Eagle
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Post by Judging__Eagle » Mon Jun 20, 2011 6:00 am

I think the main ideological divide over whether PCs are one species, or more than one species would be better explained by looking at a really good example of what a "reality" and a "magical fantasy land" cross-over game setting could look like.
Specifically, the way that the land of "Toon" and "Reality" cross in the film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".
Spirits, Toons, are always the same sort of thing; and remain the same thing even when they travel to other realms.
Most of human mythology sort of clings to this idea; while said spirits may shapeshift into a human, or cuddly tea-pot fox, the basic fact remains that they have some bizarre otherwordly appearance to them.
Maybe they're like the sprites in Gunnerkrieg Court who died and earned human bodies (who look human, but definitely uniquely unhuman).
On the same page is the fact that people really, truly want to tell "exploration" stories when there is "an other world" involved. Having someone instantly get the same Flying Pixie Dust power as the rest of the Lost Boys as soon as one enters Nevernever Land is.... highly disappointing and makes "getting Spirit powers" a pile less interesting.
Having Humans and Spirits able to "grant" each other powers native to their own realm; and after enough such "grants" a creature can "pass" as something from one side or the other is probably much more reasonable. Some players do want to be human/sidhe warriors that strive for co-operation between both sides of the veil; others want to be elves riding their unicorns polymorphed into racing motorcycles (a spirit granted mundane appearance, or some such thing, for their supernatural powers); while others want to be humans granted fairy powers by beneficent spirits (a human granted supernatural powers; while still remaining human).
Right now, the premise seems that the PCs are only allowed to play Spirit-Human hybrids who already have the ability to go to both sides of the veil.
That's interesting; however it automatically discards several ancient human storytelling traditions involving how humans and well "other" humans interacted historically* and mythically.
Human stories involving the spirit world aren't about humans who turn into fairies when they visit the Fairie Queen's palace. They're about humans and fairies that meet and do stuff, then get trapped, or cursed or w/e, and the status quo is now irrevocably changed.
*:
Remember, as once was pointed out in Dead Man's Hand; all stories that include Humans and Non-Human, but very similar looking to human, species is supremely racist and offensive to the actual humans who are now portrayed as Elves or Gnomes or Hobgoblins; unless no one is a human.
This is because all such stories of "sort of human" species were told by humans, who had killed those other "sort of human, but not really" creatures; and wanted to hide the fact that they had committed genocide to their children and grandchildren.
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DrPraetor
  Duke
  Posts: 1289
  Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 3:17 pm

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Post by DrPraetor » Mon Jun 20, 2011 7:19 am

There are a lot of interesting questions in what I've posted above - how the magic design system should work (mainly for your adversaries), how the technocracy-type coincidental magic-which-pretends-to-be-science should work. This is the main point of the entire game, which was primarily inspired by the cool short stories that came with all the oWoD Technocracy books, and which really highlighted how oWoD Mage was an unworkable piece of shit because Technomancers are cool and you couldn't really play them in any remotely sensible way. But no, people want to argue with me about the basic premise instead.
I am *not* particularly interested in cluttering up the game with more than one sort of magic-wielding thing. So I'm sticking to one type, with a few relatively-minor variations (spirits born as people, spirits who can more-or-less pass as people, spirits who can't pass as people which makes them unplayable). I view this as a clearly superior choice, even though it means that people can't play the Uplifted Dogs from Rifts, or the Space Marines from WH40K, or Vampires! People love to play Vampires. Someone should write a game where you can play vampires.
For a few of the specific questions which are relevant:

> Judging__Eagle wrote: Most of human mythology sort of clings to this idea; while said spirits may shapeshift into a human, or cuddly tea-pot fox, the basic fact remains that they have some bizarre otherwordly appearance to them.

In A Dream of Red Mansions, the characters (who are all various sorts of spirits) have to become human in order to enter the material world at all. In the novel, they reincarnate as humans - but in the source folklore, similar beings sometimes just show up as humans.
Furthermore, the Greeks didn't really make a strong distinction between the various Witches and Wizards, and the various minor spooks and deities. Was the witch Circe human? Clearly Greek mythology has lots of spirits/godlings who can't pass as human. I don't think people will play those, but they exist within the setting. Humans who can't pass for whatever-Circe-is don't have magic powers, but hey, you could play those also. I don't think many people will want to do so. The Van or Alfar, in fact, were definitely Spirits/Godlings but in actual Norse myth they just looked like people. Hell, the Lord of the Five Rings roleplaying game works the same way - when spirits come into the mortal world they get trapped in human form. Mermaids do this constantly! Hey, read the damn wikipedia article on elves:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfar#Old_Norse
I regard the "spirits and wizards are essentially the same thing" conceit as a massively beneficial simplification, and quite consistent with a great deal of the source material. Obviously not all of it. If you want to crowd your world with other stuff, you can play Grek's game.

> On the same page is the fact that people really, truly want to tell "exploration" stories when there is "an other world" involved. Having someone instantly get the same Flying Pixie Dust power as the rest of the Lost Boys as soon as one enters Nevernever Land is.... highly disappointing and makes "getting Spirit powers" a pile less interesting.

This mechanic is borrowed from After Sundown, in which you get a long menu of basic powers immediately after you are transformed. I don't view this as making an Origin Story impossible to play, just because you get the same basic powers as the people who've been vampires forever. For that matter, this game lets you play a character who becomes a winged angel in Otherwhere but has never been there, so it can be a complete surprise from a roleplaying standpoint.
I should say also, within the setting, the children from Peter Pan are Normal Humans. They get an edge stat, but they don't get any powers when they go to Neverland. The player characters are wizards, and they do.

> Right now, the premise seems that the PCs are only allowed to play Spirit-Human hybrids who already have the ability to go to both sides of the veil.
> That's interesting; however it automatically discards...

Look, I completely disregard all criticism that this game doesn't let you play Normal Humans. I'm sure you've met a number of Normal Humans - NONE OF THEM HAVE MAGIC POWERS.
This is not, mythologically speaking, unusual either. Now, apparently a lot of people balk at the notion that, in this setting, Normal Humans do not get magic, since that basically means you can't play one. You could make a perfectly passable game in which the characters are a third sort of thing, who are like humans but get the Occult Sciences and probably the Gadgets and Cyberware that I have partially written up. I think that needlessly clutters the setting, also I don't think a mixed party of those guys and spirits/van/wizards works very well, so I'm not writing a game that has that.
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