I run with a similar idea myself; by integrating themselves within the Technocratic system, the Traditions have themselves made themselves indestructible against the Technocracy,, for example chances one of the local Veberna in the area is a park ranger who by working on that grassroots level of protecting the forests and lakes promotes their paradigm s well. The Technocracy can't just shoot them all now since they are doing a lot of the things Technocrats would do anyways; but there are never enough mages to cover everything yourself.
Mage the Ascension Discussion, Homebrew, Worldbuilding, and Game finding.
- Thread starter TheLastOne
- Start date
- Location
- America
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Continuity
Continuity is an alternate sphere for time. It's origins are as confounding as it's purview. Some say it was invented by Seers of Chronos who walked along the possible worlds. Some say it originated from the Celestial Masters and their vision into alternate possibilities. Yet a third view suggests it comes not from wise sages, but from the boisterous stories of many a drinking hall. Continuity governs the world of possibilities.
Some think of the sphere as a fun sphere of outlandish stories and murky memories (often brought on by grand parties and various substances consumed). Others see the sphere as a sinister sphere of gaslighting and 'alternative facts'. The sphere finds use in the Cult of Ecstasy members of various types, Sons of Ether adventurers, Syndicate media control, and Void Engineers chrononauts. (Continuity is like Data in that you can play in it and the normal version of the sphere before you reach the third dot)
• Time sense
The first level of Continuity is like that of normal time. It allows one a keen sense of the passing of time and an ability to sense distortions caused when things don't add up. This perception of changes is known among traditionalists as the 'Bernstein bear affect' or the 'Mandela effect'. Technocratic 'apologists' often simply wave their hands and blame a fallible human memory on any discrepancies.
•• Time Sight, Time Wards
The second level of Continuity begins to diverge from normal time. Users of Continuity can not only see into the future and past of their own time, but into the future and past of another timeline (though Continuity 3 is required to scan through and compare several timelines at once).
This level of Continuity can also ward against intrusions from other timelines, not simply the sight and tampering of our own. This protection from tampering is often used by technocratic 'academics' and 'historians' to lock in the technocratic version and prevent the traditions from having their way.
••• Cross Stream Stride, Exchange Continuity, Filter All-time
The third level of Continuity takes a radically divergent turn from it's equivalent in Time. Continuity cannot speed up, slow down or play back periods of time. Continuity can instead allow travel of an individual to alternate timelines1 (though a tunnel to allow others requires Continuity 4). (The inter-timeline travel works the same as the Eons of Ether Quantum Temporal Travel rote [Sons of Ether Traditionbook 2003 P.63] Continuity 3 allows for the correspondence 3, entropy 4, time 4 version. Continuity 4 allows for the correspondence 4, entropy 4, time 5 version). Travel to other timelines have been known to lead mages into a Quiet when the paradox backlash hits, making the mage unable to discern which timeline they were 'supposed to be from'.
Continuity can mimic the Time 2/Entropy 2 Forecasting2 effect (Syndicate Revised Conventionbook P.74).
Continuity can also allow you to alter your personal timeline. You can replace one dot in an ability with a dot in another skill for every success {ie. A Cult of Ecstasy member needs to fight a member of the NWO, but they lack a combat ability. They roll arete for a Continuity 3 effect. They roll 3 successes. They spend 1 success on duration and use the other 2 to transfer 2 dots from Perform (Dance) to Martial Arts (Capoeira) as they question what it really was they took for an elective back in college. Was it dance or dance-fighting? They were in a haze of drugs and alcohol back then and don't really remember the details. Maybe those footsteps they learned weren't dance but the footwork of capoeira.} The mage may also turn a non-magic background into another at the same rate (in a manner similar to Demon the Descent's Exploit allies into gold [Demon the Descent P.159]). At continuity 3 the mage can only perform this effect on themselves. (Continuity 4 allows for this effect on others). You maintain a point of paradox for every dot transferred in this manner for as long as the effect remains.
•••• Multiple Choice Past, Tunnel/Bubble of Time
The mage can now create a tunnel through time to travel to alternate pasts and bring others with them. The mage also can create a small bubble of an alternate timeline in a manner similar to using correspondence to create a bubble of space. Some mages are rumored to have used this level to pull alternate versions of themselves into their own timeline.
The mage's ability to meld timelines also improves as the mage can now maintain two alternative pasts at once. The mage can now get an extra dot in an attribute or non-magical background without sacrificing another attribute or background. This ability is still at 1 dot per success, but the hanging paradox is now two dots of paradox per one dot of ability or background. The extra paradox comes from the universe's dissonance at maintaining two alternate contradictory pasts. (The mage can only perform this effect on himself at this level). At this level the mage may also preform the Exchange Continuity effect on another person.
••••• Time Travel, Co-Locate Continuity
At this level the mage can finally travel to the past, as with normal time 5. The mage can now stack alternate timelines upon their timeline. This can allow for a Multiple Choice Past effect on others. Masters of Continuity have been known to blend our timeline with features from others, though they tend to make subtle changes to avoid massive paradox backlash.
Mages who use the Continuity sphere have occasionally referred to an organization called the 'Continuum'. Many assume this group is a future form of the Chrononauts, though some suggest it is an independent group of time travelers. This 'Continuum' is known to come after mages who abuse Continuity and rumors state that their preferred method of fighting is to create contradictions in the opponent's personal timeline.
footnotes:
[1]
Sons of Ether Traditionbook 2003 P.63 said:
[2]
Syndicate Revised Conventionbook P.74 said:
Notes:
I tried to make the sphere like a mix of Correspondence and Time, with a couple unique effects thrown in. I tried to base effects off of effects that already existed in some form or another. Exchange Continuity and Multiple Choice Past are loosely balanced off of Life 3 enhancements to attributes. Changing other people's timelines is roughly similar in sphere level to similar manipulations of the opponent's memory with Mind 4 and 5. You have no idea how much I wanted to make this sphere full of jokes and memes similar to Metagaming. Cameras don't count for the purposes of paradox. Only people and their beliefs affect reality. Users of Continuity should be worried about people's memory causing paradox, not cameras. Anything that makes people's memory of a time fuzzier also make that time period easier to influence. If your Cult of Ecstasy member has a big party with all of the drugs and all of the alcohol then the events of that party are easier to manipulate.
Edit: It should be noted that the more powerful effects of the sphere are balanced by it's inability to use the time dilation and short range time travel effects of Time 3 and inability to pause time locally at Time 4.
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- Location
- Spain
Sure.
The only true past is what people think the past is- rewriting history actually rewrites history, because that is how consensual reality works. And sure, sometimes you can find rare artifacts than don't fit the official version of history (because no rewrite is perfect) but, like atlantis ruins in Awakening, those are the remains of civilizations that never existed.
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The weird thing is the books talk about the past as more or less objective thing just plus or minus some fantastical elements here and there.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
That's probably because they suck.
I thought the socecers crusade was one of the more well recieved books?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Well, they kinda suck at conveying the themes they wanted to convey, rather? Like, you can't go, "Reality is consensual, history is a lie" and then write a book that portrays the past as basically exactly the same as you'd think but with a few magical things thrown in.
Like, the Middle Ages in the world before the Technocracy should basically not resemble the actual (real-life) middle ages at all.
It should be a bunch of propaganda that the Technocracy post-dated so that everyone's talking about the Dung Ages and isn't it better now. That doesn't mean it can't suck, but it shouldn't suck in the exact same ways that actual history did.
It should be gonzo as fuck. Or it should be Awakening, which because it doesn't have Consensual Reality, can more easily do the "Historical Fiction" sort of thing.
I argee but because thats where sits uneasy with urban fantasy thing mage also has a theme which shares the inertia things at least surface level should look like real life. Like its kind of ridlouses that a the order of hermes is supposed the most powerful of the traditions in the same world where there are millions of christans and muslims for the choir to draw from.Well, they kinda suck at conveying the themes they wanted to convey, rather? Like, you can't go, "Reality is consensual, history is a lie" and then write a book that portrays the past as basically exactly the same as you'd think but with a few magical things thrown in.
Like, the Middle Ages in the world before the Technocracy should basically not resemble the actual (real-life) middle ages at all.
It should be a bunch of propaganda that the Technocracy post-dated so that everyone's talking about the Dung Ages and isn't it better now. That doesn't mean it can't suck, but it shouldn't suck in the exact same ways that actual history did.
It should be gonzo as fuck. Or it should be Awakening, which because it doesn't have Consensual Reality, can more easily do the "Historical Fiction" sort of thing.
- Location
- Spain
The past doesn't matter for this, though. It's not like normal people can travel there.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Um, you should do that in the other thread, this is for Ascension.
Ah, oops.
Forgot that this wasn't for Mage in general.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
I'm considering doing a xianxia quest, and am debating between doing it with MtAsc or Exalted.
Which would you people prefer?
Which would you people prefer?
MJ12 Homebrew: Enhancement Rewrite II
Building onto this, here's a full-cyborg body set. Full body cyborgs obviously require the Full Cyborg flaw. Full cyborgs are typically built with the character's own Appearance rating and replace the character's original physical attributes. Improving a full cyborg's physical attributes or Appearance requires a refit of the body, which requires Matter 4. Such refits are generally available to Iterators as a matter of course. Transhumanist VAs and non-ItX cyborgs will have to hunt down someone with a compatible paradigm and Matter 4 and get them to help. Obviously there are other full cyborg chassis but given that doing so is pretty expensive, the vast majority will be either the 'basic, good enough' Hanael or the 'ludicrously good and costed around there' Abdiel. And honestly, given that the Abdiel costs a net 17 background dots, most high-end cyborgs will be too expensive for reasonable chargen expenditures.
(The flipside is that these are costed with the expectation that if you're taking a full cyborg chassis, you will take Physical tertiary and spend your attribute dots on Mental/Social. If you are not, you can probably discount them somewhat when someone purchases one with XP).
For PQ readers, Elsa and Jaron are both using modified Abdiels. Clarent and Kessler are both using bespoke, much more expensive ItX superweapons. Prior to his uploading, Kessler was merely using Heavy Exomuscle + a lot of other mods. Dr. Grey was using a bespoke Etherite design as well with an atomic reactor for a heart.
Hanael Full Cyborg Civilian Conversion (24 * 0.75 = 18 pts)
The Hanael is largely designed as a long-lived, physically adept alternative to a normal human body. It uses a titanium endoskeleton, combined with soft artificial muscle and self-healing biopolymer skin. The biomimetic design means that even after taking significant damage, they can still pass for human, rather unlike most combat cyborg chassis. Used by respected Iterators as a method of achieving biological immortality, the Hanael is fairly bare-bones, providing the user physical capability equivalent to the high ends of baseline human capability, with superior durability, self-maintenance, and limited-self-repair. Although a Hanael is not designed as a frontline combatant, it is resistant to knives and small-caliber firearms, and physically quite capable in its own right. Paradox flaws from this long-lived existence generally manifest as mental issues ("cyberpsychosis") which can be mitigated by routine psychosurgery and mental rebuilds, combined with physical alterations to the body to ensure said psychosurgery takes (i.e. they disguise you as someone else, often a relative). Because full cyborg conversions are extremely rare-non-Autochthonian Iterators have not had access to them until the 20th century-there is no indication if this will be effective over centuries rather than decades. Generally, Hanael bodies are rarely subject to inherent malfunction risk-their design might have been bleeding edge when first introduced, but now their kinks have been worked out and they are relatively low-maintenance (trans: people think cyborgs are more coincidental now). Hanael chassis are typically seen as rewards for high-performing Iterators, who 'deserve' a gift of immortality and physical perfection.
-Health Track: -0 x 3/-1 x 3/-2 x 3/-5/Incapacitated x 3 (3 pts)
-Physical Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4 (treating as ~12 pts)
-Soak lethal/agg damage w/ Stamina
-Unliving: Immune to poisons and diseases. Integrated oxygen supply and recycler allows for up to (Stamina) hours of operation without oxygen.
-1 Armor (1 pt)
-Acute Senses: Sight, Hearing (2 pts)
-Integral Cyberbrain ADEI (6 pts)
-+2 Permanent Paradox due to inhuman features (unliving, biologically immortal) (0 pts)
Abdiel Full Cyborg Combat Conversion (44 * 0.75 = 33 pts)
The Abdiel, on the other hand, is the most typical Iteration X combat chassis, providing the basis for a lot of variants, including HITMarks. The Abdiel is actually a predecessor of the Hanael, and saw service earlier, as the Hanael is only 'worth it' in recent times where the Paradox load for a full cyborg is tolerable. An Abdiel is mildly superhuman, more heavily armored, and uses foamed-Primium bone structure for countermagic. It also comes with reflex augmentation as standard. Abdiels are a routine, if not common, sight in the Shock Corps, and Virtual Adept cyberpunks have acquired a couple-and occasionally build their own.
-Health Track: -0 x 5/-1 x 3/-2 x 3/-5/Incapacitated x 3 (5 pts)
-Physical Attributes: Strength 6, Dexterity 6, Stamina 6 (~18 pts)
-Soak lethal/agg damage w/Stamina
-Unliving: Immune to poisons and diseases. Integrated oxygen supply and recycler allows for up to (Stamina) hours of operation without oxygen.
-3 Armor (3 pts)
-3 Countermagic (6 pts)
-Forces 1 Night + IR Vision, Life 1 Heartbeat Sensor (2 pts)
-Acute Senses (Sight, Hearing) (2 pts)
-Integral Cyberbrain ADEI (6 pts)
-Integral Reflex Augmentation (-1 Multiple Action penalty) (2 pts)
-+3 Permanent Paradox due to inhuman features (unliving, immortal, inhumanly durable)
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- Location
- Cyberpunk capital of the world
That does make one wonder how would the traditions approach the whole 'enhancement/augmentation/body replacement' thing.
Granted, 'Better Body/Exoswole' equivalents should be bog standard for Super Kung Fu Monks/Fate Hitmen/Zoinked out Druggies, but a set of things that let you straight up replace physical stats seem awfully powerful.
Granted, 'Better Body/Exoswole' equivalents should be bog standard for Super Kung Fu Monks/Fate Hitmen/Zoinked out Druggies, but a set of things that let you straight up replace physical stats seem awfully powerful.
Jemnite
CVN-69 Fella
- Location
- 清源书院
wow this looks like something that we might want to have threadmarked
The cost break on full conversions for physical attributes is only really efficient around very high, Paradoxical levels for anyone who plans on being a fite wizard, because you're going to expect to put XP into physical attributes anyhow. If you assume you're going to get ~3 in all physicals (which is very low for a fite-wizard and actually fairly cheap XP-wise), you need to be at 7+ to get a cheaper variant of the attribute. Which is a pretty expensive set of kit. Not that it doesn't exist, but it's hardly something you'll get off the shelf. Yes, full conversions/total synthetics are cheaper once you get to the ludicrously exalted heights of "can tear a Crinos-form werewolf's arms off." This works really well in the ItX paradigm because ItX likes machines (and likes machines).
As to the Traditions? A lot of them don't rely on permanent enhancements, but there's a lot of reasonably cost-effective ways to swole up. This is viable for the Traditions because it's much cheaper and the Traditions, as the underdog freedom fighters (nobody is sure if they're fighting for freedom or fighting freedom), tend to have the initiative.
But there's a lot of ways to become superhuman. One of my homebrew things in the oWoD megathread before MtAsc got split off is a sweet leather jacket that lets you do the Dominions-style jaguar warrior thing (after you die, you get an instant full heal and become a ridiculously swole werebeast). But you have Verbena stealing the power of werecritters in various ways, you have the ability to merge yourself with war-spirits and gain their attributes and charms and ridiculous health levels, you have all sorts of weird and fun potions and whatnot. The Traditions however tend to use cheaper, more temporary sources of power (or Investments) because they're less heavy on Quintessence use.
The Technocracy, which has more control of Nodes and Wellsprings, and has shifted the landscape to create more Technocracy-friendly tass, relies more heavily on Devices/Talismans for augmentation because it means fewer obligations to non-Technocratic sources. (obv there is Friend Computer as an exception).
It's not like there aren't similar things in mythology and fantasy.
Was that investment homebrew in the WOD thread?
So you got rid of that rule of Mages being cut off from their magic if they get possessed by a spirit?
So you got rid of that rule of Mages being cut off from their magic if they get possessed by a spirit?
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Pretty sure it wasn't so much that the mages got cut off from their magic, but that the spirit, which was in control from a possession, couldn't use sphere magic (because it wasn't a mage).
Here, you'd be using Spirit 4 to initiate the possession, and you'd either be doing it with a spirit that you've already made a deal with and is willing to let you stay in the driver's seat for the most part, or is subjugated and thus must follow your lead (i.e. you're basically a daemonhost). Obviously both of them have their own, pretty significant side effects, one of which is that a free spirit with a deal can still try to take over in some situations (mostly when it's scared for its own well-being) and requires you to befriend a spirit, while if you're using a bound, subjugated spirit, woe to you if it ever gets freed.
This is why the Technocracy thinks paying a giant pile of quintessence is worth it to not deal with the hassle of moody spirits disabling your supersoldiers. I mean, gaining superpowers via having a demon attach itself to your soul sounds really cheap and easy but the demon starts insisting that you feed it babies to keep your powers and now what?
(This is why Infernalists suck. They are pathetic.)
- Pronouns
- They/Them
- Location
- Cyberpunk capital of the world
Wait, so something like the Hanael or Abdiel equivalents for an SoE would be less cost-effective than buying physical stats up with XP and making up the rest with temporary superpills or whatever?
Pretty much, yes. The point of going full cyborg or getting a full body myomer implant is that you're always 'on.' It doesn't matter what situation you're in, you're always going to be very hard to kill by bullets or fireballs and always have countermagic.
Temporary physical boosts are generally going to be pretty cheap. If you don't mind doing it via actual spell ritual, rather than fixed Talisman/Device, you can take two weeks or so to prepare, and go in loaded with 20-30 successes worth of combat enhancing magic. The exojock or cyborg can obviously also augment themselves, but the difference between a posthuman murder machine loaded with 30 successes of combat enhancers and a human combatant with said 30 successes is not as high as you'd think.
- Location
- Cyberpunk capital of the world
I suppose that works, but i assume one would still like an 'always on' or at least 'fightyness on demand' option for when you're cornered in a dark alley with a killer robot asking your name.
So that would be where a fixed Talisman/Device of an inhaler of UltraBuffPsychoOutJetRocketMentats would come in handy. Or would that just be a delayed Time Sphere effect?
WoD magic is hard...
What the heck can 30 successes of fite magic do anyway?
We had this system question come up a few times in my games since we had a few characters that were shaman types. It wasn't that we were stricklers for cannon (we used a hybrid of 2E, Revised, NWoD, and even Exalted), but just what exactly it could accomplish.
No arguement here.
I don't get it?You exploit a loophole in Catholicism to feed it, of course!