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Working Magick |
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Misc Gaming Mechanics Index | |
Declaration |
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| Magick is, of course, central to the game. Your method of deciding what magick to use, and how, is an aspect of your character. As examples, here are three common approaches to using magick under the Mage system. You can use any of these, or anything else that makes sense to you. The main thing is to find a way to think about magick that suggests options to you and allows you to figure out how to do whatever you want to get done. | |
Full Formal Workings |
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This is a style recommended to people new to the system. The key concept is to independently state the various aspects of the casting. It formalizes key aspects of the magick, which allows people to separately identify what their character can do, and how he can hide what he’s doing, which usually makes it easier for players to think of effects to accomplish their goals.
The caster performs the following steps, in order: 1. Decide what your objective is. Example: a bad man is pointing a gun at me. I want to make sure that he can’t shoot me. Thus, I decide to make all of the bullets disappear. 2. Based on your Paradigm and Spheres, decide how your character will work the magick. Examples: I’m going to sing a hymn to request aid from gremlins, who will instantly destroy all of the bullets (Matter 1 to sense and Entropy 3 to destroy). I’m going to weave a pattern of Air and Water, which will erode the Earth strands of the bullets and replace them with Air, transforming the lead into oxygen (Matter 3). 3. If you think that you can do this as a coincidental effect, describe the coincidence that happens. This is completely independent of the actual magick – it is how you intend the real world to perceive that which actually happens. In order for it to be a coincidence, it must fit the current dominant reality (often modern standard physics, but could be different if you’re in a different area). Examples: In a bad part of N Portland, the dominant view is sleeper physics. Thus, the coincidence is that the bad man simply forgot to load his gun before coming out tonight. If we’re invading a Technocracy lab and the bad man is a MIB (who never forgets things), the dominant reality allows high tech. Thus, the coincidence is that I had a bunch of nano-disassemblers in my pocket, which I released & commanded to destroy the bullets. 4. Storyteller decides whether the effect is Coincidental or Vulgar, and whether there are any witnesses (a witness is defined as someone with a dominant paradigm that would not allow either the coincidence or direct magical effect stated). 5. Resolve according to the usual rules (see below). As players get more experienced, the above set of declarations can become less formal. In particular, players will tend to blur steps 2 and 3 after a while, or start describing most of their magick in cantrip mode, with only serious workings (and combat) resolved using the full declaration format. | |
Rotes |
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This technique is often used by people who either came from a traditional RPG background where mages cast specific spells, or who have played a lot with rules lawyers. It is also appropriate to certain character paradigms, and may be used for purely role-playing reasons.
Outside of game, the player thinks about his Spheres and Paradigm, and brainstorms effects that he could do with them. This is often done in response to something that recently happened in game (such as after the character gets shot). The player then writes down a full, detailed explanation of appropriate effects. Each includes the spheres necessary to do the effect, any system necessary for resolving the effect (such as damage caused, or how the opponent resists being mind controlled), and a bunch of “common coincidences” that can be used to disguise use of the effect. This description is a Rote, and serves as a spell that the character can then cast in game at any appropriate time. Because the Rotes are generated outside of the game, they are usually reviewed by the Storyteller outside of game as well. Not only does this make the game play faster, but it also may end up getting better effects than spontaneously generated ideas: the player has more time to think about what he wants to do and come up with clever ways to get it done. In game, the player simply states that the character is using the Rote “Bullets to Air”, with coincidence “he forgot to load”. The storyteller quickly identifies what type of effect it is, and the player rolls. The spheres required, and thus the difficulty of the effect, are all pre-determined, speeding play. | |
Cantrips |
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This is one of the most open of all types of spell casting, and is really only appropriate for small effects, or moderate effects that don’t happen during plot times. Basically, the player simply includes the effect as part of a continuous description of his actions. It may not even be clear that magick is necessarily involved, and the storyteller may or may not call for a roll to even occur.
Examples: “As I step into the crime scene, I look around. Just by chance, a reflection catches my eye, looking over, I see the clue that the assailant failed to clean up.” The PC uses Control Randomness (Entropy 2) to get lucky and spot something. The storyteller may request that he make the roll, may allow an automatic success, or may allow the player to choose which to take. In any case, he takes up the tale from there and describes what the character saw. “Now we all know who the bad guy is, and we know where he’s going to be next. But we have to get across town in a hurry if we’re going to stop him. We run down to the Max, and get to the station just as a train arrives.” The character used Time 3 to speed up the flow of time around the party just enough to arrive just as a train did. The storyteller likely just gives him an automatic success: it was a good idea for removing a few minutes from their travel time. | |
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