So hey, I'm adapting MJ's old Mana writeup for my
Visions of Brass, because I have... er, exactly the same problem he does with the sheer scarcity of quint versus how often you're expected to use the stuff. (Especially since they're most commonly used to supercharge magic.)
For the most part I can just use it, it's pretty well-written, but there's a bit I have problems with.
First:
- Prime 4 allows a character to sacrifice objects to gain Quintessence. The sacrifice must have great value in-paradigm and will generate Quintessence equal to the sum total of Resources permanently burned during the scene. A Syndicate Enforcer who literally liquidates five million dollars will get 5 points of Quintessence (burning 5 dots of Resources). This is always vulgar and may only provide Quintessence once/scene.
Honestly, this is more a problem with the sacrifice rules in general. First, it doesn't seem like it leaves room for paradigms where sacrificing sentimental value is more valuable than material worth - a precious teddy bear that's Resources 1 if that, or whatever. Worse, though, it seems like a Syndic can get a functionally unlimited amount of Quint by sacrificing at values significantly below his wealth. A Resources 8 Syndic (liquid wealth in the tens of billions, in my system) could make a whopping ten thousand Resources 4 sacrifices - in practice, he ends up being a living Node that produces some varying amount of quint a week that depends on how often you let him sacrifice in real-time. Further, if he sacrifices more than Resources 4 at a time, he can negate his own paradox from that Rote and still come out ahead.
Now, this isn't
necessarily a problem - Prime 5 lets you just conjure up quint from nothing, after all - though I'd at least like to know what the real-time limits are. But it also sets something of a precedent, since the principles of game design would suggest that the rules for gaining quint from sacrifices be balanced against sacrificing them directly for a ritual - and now we've got even low-ranking Technocrats sacrificing "expensive" Resources 3 bullets or whatever for charges, and by the Resources rules they can do that pretty much however often they want.
... In general, I feel like wealth should make sacrifices
easier, but not to such a trivializing degree.
Also, just how common is Mana intended to be? I'm thinking about making a mana-as-motes model, where you can pretty trivially stunt back enough motes to stay mote-neutral unless you really need to burn power for a ritual - is that likely to break anything?
