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Magick System
Misc Gaming Mechanics Index | Comparisons and Conversions Index

Casting magical Effects
Every magical effect must affect reality in some way. The principal thing to remember when crafting a magical effect is to first of all work the magical effect into your paradigm and magical style. If you cannot do this, then your mage should not believe it possible, and thus the effect cannot be cast. Secondly, if the effect is successfully cast, determine what the target or anyone witnessing the magical effect would see or experience as a result of the magical effect? This second part must also take into account the paradigm and magical style of mage. A Son of Ether casting a Mind effect would look drastically different than, say, a Verbena casting the same effect. When this is done, when you have determined all aspects of the magical effect, only then should you move on to the testing. This is truly the deciding factor as to whether your mage game is going to be a live-action mage game or a paper-rock-scissors festival.

Non-resisted Effects
A non-resisted effect is a magical effect that does not directly affect another player. To cast one, the mage must risk an appropriate trait (mental, physical, or social) and win an Arete challenge vs. the Sphere Level of the effect. If the mage wins, the magical effect is successfully cast with an effect rating equal to the mage's Arete, and may have any or all of the parameters as determined by the tables below. In the case of a tie, and the sphere rating of the effect is the same as the mage's Arete, then keep testing until there is a winner. The mage may spend a willpower to temporarily increase his Arete total by one for the magical effect, but this must be declared before the magical effect is tested. The difficulty of the magical effect may be influenced by +/- one with the magical effect influences listed below the tables, to a maximum or +/- two. If the mage fails the magical effect test, but is eligible to over-bid the magical effect test, an appropriate Ability may be spent to re-test the effect. If the mage succeeds the effect is successfully cast at an effect rating equal to the mage's Arete. If the mage fails the second test, it is considered botched, and the mage accumulates Paradox as per the Paradox table below.

Resisted Effects
A resisted effect is a magical effect that directly effects another player, who can try to resist the effects of the magical effect. The mage chooses whatever trait category would be the most appropriate to resist the magical effect test (IE physical for direct damage, mental for mind control), and must defeat the target of the effect in an Arete vs whatever trait category was deemed most appropriate challenge, where the mage has four times their Arete in the case of a tie. Again, the mage may spend a willpower point to temporarily increase their Arete total for the magical effect, which must be declared before any testing is done. Each positive/negative magical effect influence influences the opponent's total in the case of a tie by two, to a maximum of +/- 4. Success has the magical effect casted at an effect rating equal to the mage's Arete rating, and the target may be effected with any or all of the parameters specified in the tables below. If the mage fails the magical effect, they may spend an Ability to re-test as described in the non-resisted Effects section above.

Magical Effect Power Levels
Effect Rating Maximum Duration Max Area Effect
(#people/area/volume/mass (weight)		 Max Damage or Healing
1 1 round 1 person/1 ft rad/1 cu ft/1 lb 0
2 1 hour 1 per/5 ft rad/5 cu ft/5 lbs 1
3 1 day 1 per/20 ft rad/10 cu ft/50 lbs 1
4 1 week 2 per/300 ft rad/50 cu ft/1000 lbs 2
5 1 month 3 per/500 ft rad/300 cu ft/2000 lbs 4
6 1 year 4 per/1000 ft rad/500 cu ft/5000 lbs 6
7 Permanent 5 per/5000 ft rad/1000 cu ft/10000 lbs 8
8 Permanent 6 per/10000 ft rad/5000 cu ft/50000 lbs 10
9 Permanent 7 per/50000 ft rad/10000 cu ft/100000 lbs 12
10 Whatever you damn well want 20

Notes
  • When determining how much of a particular pattern is created for the Spheres of Life or Matter, use the weight rating of the area of effect by default.

  • Certain Pattern magicks are considered permanent regardless of the effect rating. These are called Immediate effects. They encompass all pattern effects that do not go against the static nature of the material being changed, so healing a person is considered immediate, or changing lead to gold is considered immediate, but changing the boiling point of lead to room temperature is not, as the resulting pattern conflicts with the static nature of the material (lead's natural boiling point is not room temperature, whereas the transmutation of lead to gold has the material actually being gold now.)

  • Damaging forces effects inflict one more level of damage, and damaging mind effects do one less level of damage as listed.

  • Vulgar life attacks, vulgar prime attacks, direct and vulgar entropy attacks on a living body, spirit magick that summons spirits to attack living beings, and natural weaponry of supernatural creatures cause aggravated wounds - all else causes normal. (Unless the effect was cast in a way that exploits a natural weakness of a creature)

  • The difference in area of effect when it comes to number of people affected and volume of the effect. When a mage elects to have a damaging effect affect more than one person, they either do an equal amount of damage to the number of people denoted by the #people column, OR divides the damage up between multiple people in the same cubic foot/square foot/etc of the effect's radius.

  • In the case of Mind effects that alter a target's actions, the duration of the magical effect is decreased by an effective rating of one if it goes against the better judgment of the target, but is increased by a rating of one if it goes along with the target's better judgment. As well, if the target is aware that they are being manipulated magically, they may elect to resist the effect by either beating the mage in a Willpower vs Arete challenge (no traits need to be bid), or spending a willpower to ignore the effect.

    • Correspondence Effect Table
    Effect Rating Range / Connection
    1 Line of Site
    Blood Relation
    Body Sample
    2 Very Familiar (home/office)
    Best Friend
    Prized Possession
    3 Familiar (local mall)
    Co-Worker
    Possession
    4 Visited Once
    Acquaintance
    Anything Used Once
    5 Saw or Heard of It
    Stranger
    Item Touched Casually
    6 Anywhere on Earth
    No Connection

    Gauntlet Penetration Table
    Effect Rating Gauntlet Rating Penetrated
    1 2-4 (Node / Cairn)
    2 5 (Deep Wilderness)
    3 6 (Rural Countryside)
    4 7 (Most Urban Areas)
    5 8 (Downtown)
    6 9 (Technocracy Lab)
    10 Paradox Gauntlet

    Time Effect Table
    Effect Rating Effect Timespan
    1 Within a Year
    2 Five Years
    3 Twenty Years
    4 Fifty Years
    5 100 Years
    6 500 Years
    7 700 Years
    8 800 Years
    9 900 Years
    10 1000+ Years

    Positive and Negative Influences on Magical Effects

    Positive Influences

  • Researching Lore on subject before using magick (using Occult Library)

  • Has item resonating with target's essence (sympathetic magick)

  • Spending two points of quintessence

  • Using tass with an appropriate resonance

  • Extra time spent on magick (10 seconds = -1, 10 minutes = -2)

  • In a node

  • Uses a unique focus

  • Uses a focus without needing it

  • Using a rote designed by your paradigm

    • Negative Influences

  • Using Tass with opposed resonance

  • Fast-Casting (responding to a challenge with a magical effect)

  • Every two magical effects "running' simultaneously

  • Distant or hidden subject (IE Obfuscate/Arcane)

  • Mage distracted (IE In a mass melee/on fire/etc)

  • In conflict with Avatar (I'll let you know)

  • Domino Effect (Casting more than one coincidental effect within 5 minutes of another)

  • Extending Perceptions (Lets someone else share a magical effect's perceptions. Automatically makes effect vulgar. Each extra person counts as a separate negative influence)

  • Using a rote designed by a conflicting paradigm

  • Bringing possessions with you when Piercing the Gauntlet

    • Acting in Concert

    Multiple mages may combine their powers to cast one big magical effect. There are three different 'levels' of acting in concert, each having a different set of requirements.

  • A Concert of Peers - Each participant must have the equivalent sphere ratings necessary to cast the magical effect, and must be of the same paradigm. A ritual must be performed, lasting a span of time equal to 10 minutes per extra person in the concert. If this is the case, then each mage makes separate magical effect tests (and separate paradox results), and each effect result is totaled to generate the result of the acting in concert.

  • A Concert of Lackeys - Only one mage has sufficient sphere ratings to cast a magical effect, but has a number of lesser-powerful mages who still have some rating in all of the necessary spheres or all mages have the same rating in all of the required spheres, but are of a differing paradigm. In this case, the ritual is still necessary (extra 10 minutes per lackey), and each lackey in the concert who successfully casts the magical effect adds one rating to the leader's effect result rating.

  • A Sleeper's Concert - If the mage has a number of Un-awakened acolytes assisting the concert, the mage may increase his resulting effect result rating by one for every 5 acolytes in the concert. The 10 minutes/ acolyte rule still holds. The acolytes do not count as sleeper witnesses for this effect, however. If the number of paradox generated by the effect is greater than the total number of acolytes in the concert, they will all suffer some sort of mystical or psychic trauma as determined by the storyteller.

    • Unfortunately, if any mage botches the effect, the entire effect is botched, and all the paradox gained in the effect by any mage who botched the effect is totaled, with EACH member of the concert receives the paradox total. A mage may spend a willpower trait to avoid taking paradox.
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