WarpObscura
Sleepy Big Stick
- Location
- A dot at the edge of continental Asia.
Might I get some examples of where and how?
Mage the Ascension Discussion, Homebrew, Worldbuilding, and Game finding.
- Thread starter TheLastOne
- Start date
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
It's been a long time, and I didn't reread it multiple times so my memory isn't good, but I remember the enhancement/blessings/cyberware whatever rules actively disagreeing with themselves. I don't remember how anymore, because, again, I would never use it so I didn't develop rulesmastery.
dragonx99
Actually Satan
As someone who tried to learn from M20 it is also just horribly laid out, with completely irrelevant things being on the same page while directly related things are in completely different chapters. A friend of mine who tired to learn at the same time would have more example because that really upset him, but off the top of my head, irc, the rules for attacking and the rules for attacking with a weapon are in completely different spots with no guide between them so that you can jump from one to the other.
Even as a kid back in the early 00s, I was like wha...
I third this, with the addition of checking out some of the rules in Sorcerers' Crusade. My group enjoyed the scourge system instead of modern Mage's paradox, and the How You did it Section wasn't bad from what I remember. M20 has some interesting rules to grab if you want to, but I wouldn't recommend the book to a first timer.
Add: The Technocracy section in M20 was good IMO, but I believe that chapter was written by someone else.
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WarpObscura
Sleepy Big Stick
- Location
- A dot at the edge of continental Asia.
While doing some rereading of PQ, I wandered over Gretkov's list of charms and it got me wondering: pre-Void Adaptation, what kind of Spheres would he have had in order to pull this sort of stuff?
MJ12 Homebrew: Coldheart
Coldheart
6 pt Talisman
Arete 4
A shard of a twisted devilish mirror that was once owned by a powerful faery troll who sought to challenge the heavens, Coldheart demonstrates the creativity and cruelty of humanity when applied to war. And the Ascension War is the war to end all wars, the war for humanity and its future. When House Janissary acquired the mirror frame from a Chorister soon after the formal formation of the Council of Nine Traditions, they immediately realized that the shards of the mirror were valuable, and spent decades gathering them from the ones who had been stung when the troll had failed and his mirror shattered. Not out of mercy, no-for those were the times when the Traditions were still callous wizard masters seeking a return to their towers and kingdoms, and the Order of Reason still knights in shining armor who had not yet become so like what they had sought to overthrow. Those were not the times where the Traditions had gained the mercy of youth and the Order of Reason hardened with the cruelty of age and become the Technocratic shadows who set the world spinning to their desires.
But because the shards could be changed, improved, applied as a tool. A tool to regain what the knights and cannons of the Order of Reason had taken from them. For what does someone who can see all the cruelty of the world care about mercy? Why would one such as that hesitate to maim or kill or torture? And with a minor change to the nature of the shards, they could give their victims knowledge all the cruelties that could be inflicted, provide them with preternatural viciousness and lethality.
The Order of Hermes still makes limited use of these human weapons today, even after the fall of House Janissary. However, most of the time Coldheart is used by the Nephandi, whose worldviews are often nihilistic enough that they see the altered perceptions it provides as a benefit, not a curse.
System:
Coldheart is a needle-shard of black glass which burrows into the heart of a human being. This talisman is implanted by stabbing a willing character above the heart with this mirror shard (doing 1 lethal level of damage that heals normally and removing a dot of permanent Willpower as the character adapts to the shattering of the facade over the unspeakable cruelty of the world)-although the original shards of the mirror would work even upon the unsuspecting, the changes which transformed Coldheart into a weapon have limited its use only to those willing to accept the sacrifice of all beauty in the world. Typically, these shards are temporarily implanted into a young adult who has been taught for years in the belief system of House Janissary, loyalty indoctrinated until it is a matter of instinct rather than conscious thought-for the implantation of Coldheart rapidly degrades lesser forms of loyalty.
A character who has accepted a Coldheart is immune to love, empathy, or other appeals to their better nature as a Mind 3 effect. Appeals to mercy against the character automatically fail, and the character never has to roll or spend Willpower to steel their nerve before inflicting any cruelty. Similarly, the character is immune to Delirium, because they have already seen the horrors of the world and are no longer fazed by a mere wolf-man with delusions of grandeur. Finally, a character whose heart has been pierced by this black-glass thorn may not regain Willpower-their dreams are no respite from the cruelty of the world, and any accomplishments they make are meaningless to them.
In exchange for these sacrifices, Coldheart whispers into the character's ear about what ugliness and evil they could inflict on others, and guides the character's eyes to see the cruelties that others might suffer. A character whose heart has been impaled by this faery shard reduces the difficulties of all combat rolls-both attack and damage-by 3 as a Mind/Entropy 1 effect, and suffers no wound penalties whatsoever. Their mere existence is already agony, with nothing redeeming. What care do they have for pain?
Characters may have Coldheart removed via surgery. This surgery requires the character to be sedated or restrained and demands 5 cumulative successes on an Int + Medicine roll, with the surgery inflicting a level of Lethal damage per roll. Coldheart may also be exorcised from a character via a conjunctional Life 2/Spirit 2 effect. Technocrats must use Mind 3/Dsci 2 instead, as they see the world in materialistic terms and see this as an EDE malady disturbing the mind of an individual, not a thorn of faery glass piercing a human heart.
6 pt Talisman
Arete 4
A shard of a twisted devilish mirror that was once owned by a powerful faery troll who sought to challenge the heavens, Coldheart demonstrates the creativity and cruelty of humanity when applied to war. And the Ascension War is the war to end all wars, the war for humanity and its future. When House Janissary acquired the mirror frame from a Chorister soon after the formal formation of the Council of Nine Traditions, they immediately realized that the shards of the mirror were valuable, and spent decades gathering them from the ones who had been stung when the troll had failed and his mirror shattered. Not out of mercy, no-for those were the times when the Traditions were still callous wizard masters seeking a return to their towers and kingdoms, and the Order of Reason still knights in shining armor who had not yet become so like what they had sought to overthrow. Those were not the times where the Traditions had gained the mercy of youth and the Order of Reason hardened with the cruelty of age and become the Technocratic shadows who set the world spinning to their desires.
But because the shards could be changed, improved, applied as a tool. A tool to regain what the knights and cannons of the Order of Reason had taken from them. For what does someone who can see all the cruelty of the world care about mercy? Why would one such as that hesitate to maim or kill or torture? And with a minor change to the nature of the shards, they could give their victims knowledge all the cruelties that could be inflicted, provide them with preternatural viciousness and lethality.
The Order of Hermes still makes limited use of these human weapons today, even after the fall of House Janissary. However, most of the time Coldheart is used by the Nephandi, whose worldviews are often nihilistic enough that they see the altered perceptions it provides as a benefit, not a curse.
System:
Coldheart is a needle-shard of black glass which burrows into the heart of a human being. This talisman is implanted by stabbing a willing character above the heart with this mirror shard (doing 1 lethal level of damage that heals normally and removing a dot of permanent Willpower as the character adapts to the shattering of the facade over the unspeakable cruelty of the world)-although the original shards of the mirror would work even upon the unsuspecting, the changes which transformed Coldheart into a weapon have limited its use only to those willing to accept the sacrifice of all beauty in the world. Typically, these shards are temporarily implanted into a young adult who has been taught for years in the belief system of House Janissary, loyalty indoctrinated until it is a matter of instinct rather than conscious thought-for the implantation of Coldheart rapidly degrades lesser forms of loyalty.
A character who has accepted a Coldheart is immune to love, empathy, or other appeals to their better nature as a Mind 3 effect. Appeals to mercy against the character automatically fail, and the character never has to roll or spend Willpower to steel their nerve before inflicting any cruelty. Similarly, the character is immune to Delirium, because they have already seen the horrors of the world and are no longer fazed by a mere wolf-man with delusions of grandeur. Finally, a character whose heart has been pierced by this black-glass thorn may not regain Willpower-their dreams are no respite from the cruelty of the world, and any accomplishments they make are meaningless to them.
In exchange for these sacrifices, Coldheart whispers into the character's ear about what ugliness and evil they could inflict on others, and guides the character's eyes to see the cruelties that others might suffer. A character whose heart has been impaled by this faery shard reduces the difficulties of all combat rolls-both attack and damage-by 3 as a Mind/Entropy 1 effect, and suffers no wound penalties whatsoever. Their mere existence is already agony, with nothing redeeming. What care do they have for pain?
Characters may have Coldheart removed via surgery. This surgery requires the character to be sedated or restrained and demands 5 cumulative successes on an Int + Medicine roll, with the surgery inflicting a level of Lethal damage per roll. Coldheart may also be exorcised from a character via a conjunctional Life 2/Spirit 2 effect. Technocrats must use Mind 3/Dsci 2 instead, as they see the world in materialistic terms and see this as an EDE malady disturbing the mind of an individual, not a thorn of faery glass piercing a human heart.
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- Location
- Denmark
- Pronouns
- She/Her
danish nationalism surging with pride, h. c. andersen greatest author ever, technocracy cannot suppress powerful national pride
Rereading 1e ... wow, the Technocracy didn't have a paradigm of its own back in the day. Literally. I'm amazed. It's not even that they were mustache-twirling cartoon villains, they literally shared the same viewpoint with the Traditions on how everything worked.
Also, NWO Agents could summon Paradox spirits to sic them on their enemies. Just plain bizarre ...
Also, NWO Agents could summon Paradox spirits to sic them on their enemies. Just plain bizarre ...
- Location
- my house
I always liked that. They knew how the world worked, but they suppressed that knowledge so that they could control consensual reality.
I've read the proto-Convention books, and I can safely say that the 1e Technocracy are not only non-PC-viable, but not even particularly compelling or interesting antagonists.
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- Location
- my house
I disagree? Yeah they aren't pc viable but they aren't meant to be in 1e. They're the villains. The guys who know the truth of the world but who hide it from the people. The ones who say its "for the masses own good" as a way of justifying their selfish lust for power.
Jemnite
CVN-69 Fella
- Location
- 清源书院
Non-mainstream elements that are looked upon with disdain by 'respectable society' is pretty much what the core of the Traditions are. Mage is basically all about people who are weird and dorky to everyone else actually having magical powers.
Mage's target audience is dorks.
- Location
- New Delhi, India
And I will embrace trecnhcoats, katanas, John Woo gunfights, EDGE and TESTOSTERONE with gusto, thank you.
Chloe Sullivan
Subdefective
- Location
- 1630 Revello Drive, Sunnydale CA
- Location
- New Delhi, India
dragonx99
Actually Satan
It's clearly every different major organization having a competition over whose can use this franchise for the best and most popular propaganda. For example Fourze? Totally the Void Engineers. Wizard? Hermetic as shit. OOO? I dare you to tell me the Syndicate didn't fund that entire season.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
So I can across this music video in a youtube random walk, and it's... just the most Mage thing. Like, you want to know what the Traditions see when they look at the world, it's this.
- Location
- East of the Sun and West of the Moon
I think it works even better for the other Mage. A secret cabal dedicated to making things shitty and Hobbesian to keep people away from the Truth? Yep, that's the Seers all right.
- Location
- my house
Speaking of good materials to mine for inspiration, I just picked up the Bubblegum Crisis tie in comic by Adam Warren and it's a great source for ITX stuff.
Anyone else have media which they feel does a really good job of portraying certain factions or mage in general? Besides the obvious like The Matrix, The Terminator and Blade runner?
Anyone else have media which they feel does a really good job of portraying certain factions or mage in general? Besides the obvious like The Matrix, The Terminator and Blade runner?
OctarineShrike
I ask again, what does Hongyuan need?
I did a post with some things a while back about what a world where each Tradition's paradigm is dominant might look like on SB. It transfers over semi-well here.
Order of Hermes: Gurps Cabal, Ars Magica, Craft Sequence, Eberron, Nanoha
Celestial Chorus: If you assume all their references to the one are talking about Neoplatonism, whatever a world where that is true would look like.
Euthanatos: Psycho Pass? Logans Run? Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light?
Sons of Ether: Girl Genius
Virtual Adepts: Some variation on the Eclipse Phase outer system as the writers see it?
Verbena: Don't know
Akashic Brotherhood: Some mix of Neoplatonism, Buddhism, Blindsight/Echopraxia, Street Fighter and Exalted?
Cult of Ectasy: Don't know.
Hollow Ones: Don't know
Ivan the Not-so-Terrible
AH MEW CHEEKI BREEKI I V DAMKE
- Location
- Mikonyan’s USSR
The TSAB are just Void Engineers with a paper-thin Etherite disguise. "It's not hypertech powered by an anomalous extradimensional feature of human biology, it's magic, honest!"
dragonx99
Actually Satan
I defy anyone to tell me that Kamen Rider Fourze isn't the Voidies having fun
WarpObscura
Sleepy Big Stick
- Location
- A dot at the edge of continental Asia.
- Location
- my house
Council of 9: Planescape