Mummies might actually be Fate as well, or maybe Prime. Based on my minimal knowledge of nMummy, they're more like pseudo-Mages who bound themselves to the wheel of Time so they could eternally serve their dead civilization.

Fate is what I'd use for Deceived but the normal Arisen are a little different. I chose Death because of the death-cycles, the emphasis on the Underworld (Yes I know Duat is a Lower Depth) and the fact that Sekhem is litterally life energy

But then we can try something more definitive

Oh mighty @davebrookshaw what arcanum you would add to Life to affect an Arisen or other Sekhem creatures?
 
Yeah I think the rule is to affect Prodigals with Life Magic you need
Spirit for werewolves
Fate for changelings
Death for vampire

Personnaly I add Prime for Promethean and possibly Demon and Death for Mummies.

I would say that Demons are affected with Life when they're in human form, and Spirit when they're in demonic form. They're not hybrid creatures, they're literally dual-mode transformers.
 
I think 2nd Edition Corebook sells Mage the Awakening a lot better than the 1st edition corebook. Some of the later stuff from 1st Edition really worked well but the corebook itself was a bit...bland.
 
I seem to recall people distinctly not liking the rule set though?

Yeah, my advice would be, even if you don't like the rules-set, do Mage 2e for the fluff, and then you can dive back into specific 1e stuff once you're done with it.

Like, in something so bizarre I don't get it, huge parts of 1e failed to really be completely clear in what Awakening was like. They talked about it and described it... and then entire books forgot what they were saying in favor of making things up, or ignoring the implications.

1e core might have some of that, but it's behind an origin myth chapter, sooo. So go with 2e for the basic overview of what the Mage world is like as of the end of 1e, and then from there I can advise which books you might want to check out for more in-depth stuff.

Basically, use 2e as a catalogue, because it briefly mentions a lot of things that were created as 1e went on, like having three pages on the Astral Realm that you can then extrapolate to, "Go read Astral Realms. Now. You'll never regret it."

Or two pages on Silver Ladder, by the end of which you'll realize that you must read the Order book. :p
 
Which corebook is better for getting into MTAW, 1e or 2e?
I'll be the devil's advocate and suggest 1e core over the new one in terms of fluff.
It meanders a bit in the early part, but it has pretty much all the basic information needed in it about the Awakening's setting. 2e otoh is where you wanna go for rules. Ignoring wether you like the post-GMC rules or not, the Mage specific part of the update is better to start with for someone new.
 
Mummies might actually be Fate as well, or maybe Prime. Based on my minimal knowledge of nMummy, they're more like pseudo-Mages who bound themselves to the wheel of Time so they could eternally serve their dead civilization.

Mummies are the only splat to actually have detailed crossover rules with Mage, in the Dark Eras Companion (the others are coming in the Contagion Chronicle) and... No.

To cast a Life spell on a Mummy, you just need Life, but as their Sahus are more like a solid hologram projected by their Sekhem, a lot of Life spells have no effect - giving a mumy a heart attack won't work, as he doesn't actually use it. And his heart's probably off in a jar somewhere. Shapechanging spells and such work, though.

As mummy itself says, the Arisen register as both alive *and* dead to supernatural powers, and Mage follows that - Death Sight shows a mummy as dead, Life Sight shows them as alive, both simultaneously is confusing.
 
I mean, detailed Mage crossover rules both seem like they could be interesting, and also... uh, frustrating? Not that I haven't broken this rule, but Mage and... basically everything else don't play nice together.
 
Having just finished the Banner Saga, I have many thoughts and feelings, but one of them is that the Silver Arrow at the end is honestly a perfect Changeling or Hunter Token/item.

It's an arrow made from a special magical silver that does not kill anything, but rather it can convince, with magic, an immortal being that it is dying. Yes. Trick it into believing it's dead. Even when it's actually unkillable.

I could totally see a Changeling game ending in the main characters shooting an immortal and undefeatable True Fae with the arrow, since the Fae obviously operate on narrative logic, so of course there'd be a special arrow that can defeat him. He plays along by instinct.

Or a Hunter game, going up against some bizarre immortal god being that would be a challenge even for Mages in a straight fight, etc, etc, where the only possible way you can win is to completely cheese it.

...also known as the thematics of both Changeling and Hunter, which are even more Underdog Story than any of the other splats.
 
Incidentally, does anyone who plays Mage: The Awakening want to add to this list of pet peeve assumptions.

1) Age=Power. As if everyone Awakens at 21, while getting drunk, instead of it being a highly personal thing that can happen at 40, 80, or 12.
2) Admittedly this is the actual gameline itself, but the focus that's sometimes gotten on how to pidgeon-hole Obrimos as, "The Religious Mages." When if you actually think for a quarter of a second, you can have a religious-focused Awakening on literally every single Path. It's not a hard and fast rule, but the extent that people just go, "If you're religious, Obrimos" in their minds is annoying.
 
Yeah, I love religious Obrimos(because explosions and religions are my shit) but theere is a lot of them due to how it's portrayed in the core.

I'm also just pointing out that Religious Mastigos makes sense too. And so do Religious Thyrsus (though those might be more animism religions, but who knows), and so do Religious Moros (Death and souls and religion, oh my), and Acanthus Religion?

"God Wills it!"
 
Incidentally, does anyone who plays Mage: The Awakening want to add to this list of pet peeve assumptions.

1) Age=Power. As if everyone Awakens at 21, while getting drunk, instead of it being a highly personal thing that can happen at 40, 80, or 12.
2) Admittedly this is the actual gameline itself, but the focus that's sometimes gotten on how to pidgeon-hole Obrimos as, "The Religious Mages." When if you actually think for a quarter of a second, you can have a religious-focused Awakening on literally every single Path. It's not a hard and fast rule, but the extent that people just go, "If you're religious, Obrimos" in their minds is annoying.

It's more that Obrimos are the Path who Awaken due to an instinctive need to discover some kind of order to the universe, which lends itself particularly well to Awakening in the midst of a religious crisis.

And we push it because lots of fandom (and not a few freelancers) are under the mistaken impression that mages would be inherently anti-religious, fuelled by one Ministry of Seers being based around the evils of dogma and using what seems like every Christian denomination as the basis of a separate Hunter splat. Mages aren't more or less atheist than anyone; for the majority of Western history, the Diamond used the Church as very effective cover.
 
I had an idea for a Vampire: The Masquerade fanfiction of sorts, but I'm not sure if I should go through with it or not.

See, the idea is very meta and experimental in nature because it's not a straight-up WoD fanfic per se, but is a "story within a story" about a Vampire LARP group and things get out of hand because the LARP group is full of Goths, Hardcore Anime Otaku, Yaoi Fangirls, Dudebros, Militia types, Stoners, Emo kids, Sonic fans, Nintendo gamers, and other overt miscreants.

Think if everyone you tried to avoid in high school formed an unsanctioned Mind's Eye Theatre LARP group that was not only a collection of Vampire role-players but also a pseudo-paramilitary street gang as well. There would be two intertwining narratives of the LARPers and the characters they play and how the lines between the two become blurred. It would be a dark comedy and a satire, containing heavy amounts of parody and self-deprecating humor. (Especially since I fit into some of the categories of overt miscreants in the LARP, seeing as I am an anime otaku and a yaoi fanboy)

Here are some links for reference material of concepts.....

Mazes and Monsters - Wikipedia

Rod Ferrell - Wikipedia (there would be no murder in this fic, though)

Vampire lifestyle - Wikipedia

Father Sebastiaan - Wikipedia

Chaos magic - Wikipedia

Mind's Eye Society | an authorized fan club of The Camarilla

One World By Night | An international network of World of Darkness live-action role-playing games

Paramilitary woo - RationalWiki

Mall ninja - RationalWiki

Deagle Nation (Web Video) - TV Tropes

Mind's Eye Theatre - Wikipedia

Live action role-playing game - Wikipedia

American Civil War reenactment - Wikipedia

Farb (reenactment) - Wikipedia

Yaoi fandom - Wikipedia

Black metal - Wikipedia

Early Norwegian black metal scene - Wikipedia

4chan - Wikipedia

Survivalism - Wikipedia

Goth subculture - Wikipedia

Super Smash Bros. - Wikipedia.

Army men - Wikipedia

Miniature wargaming - Wikipedia



I know these articles seem disjointed and random, but all of them were used as reference or inspiration in writing my fanfiction, which is currently in the outline stages.
 
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The Laurent's Supernal Shoppe: Shifting Skies, Seraphim of the Aether
The Laurent's Supernal Shoppe--The Shifting Sky, Angel of Force

Rank 3

Forces 3, Space 3

Description: It comes as fire and rain, and darkening clouds. To summon the Shifting Sky, one must be above ground, wherever you are, and with the sky visible. Only then will it arrive, falling from the sky, invisible to everyone except Mages who can see entities in Twilight--of which, in truth, there are many--before it lands down.

He lacks a humanoid form, instead appearing as a crackle of lightning and the clap of thunders, powerful and brutal, and he--the old tomes describe it in male terms, though there is little in the way of logic behind this choice other than tradition. He is curt, and not all that intelligent, but he is quite powerful, and rather fast, moving as quick as lightning when he needs to, and few call him down for his skill as a conversationalist.

Trial: Only the worthy can wield the power of the Gods. The worthy are those who are powerful, but also those who are willing to seize it. Powerful winds buffet the area, as the weather turns dark and it begins to rain. The storm is not usually fatal--though the Mage is responsible for its consequences--but when combined with careful use of Force and Spaces, it can be very, very hard to reach him.

When one does, one must push one's hands into his body. Doing so electrocutes the Mage, dealing one bashing damage, and probably not being very good for those with weak hearts.

When one pulls their hands out… there. There is the Service.

Service: On one hand is burned a lightning bolt, while their other hand is damp, as if very sweaty, and even drips water of pressed against a surface for long enough. Each of these hands, these marks, holds a single use of a single powerful spell. The left hand, the hand of lightning, allows one to control the weather with a number of free Reach equal to the Mage's Gnosis+Willpower. This works as the Control Weather spell, and has an automatic Potency of 4.

Second, the other hand, which drips water, can drip enough to form a pool of it, given time and the right surface. The Mage may automatically cast Scrying on any subject. Though it follows the rule of sympathetic casting (one must have a sympathetic object), the sympathy is bumped up one degree on the chart. Thus, a person's car keys (weak sympathy) can be used as if they instead have Medium sympathy. Secondly, in any clash of Wills (such as someone trying to Ward the area), the Mage using it uses Shifting Sky's Rank x2 (6) as their Gnosis, unless their Gnosis is higher.

A Mage may use Yantra to cast either spell, but it does not count towards their spell control limit.

Upon using a particular power once, the mark fades, and the signs stop. To gain it again, one must summon him again.

Summoning/Obscurity: Often a very blatant and obvious thing to Summon, he has something of a reputation among Obrimos, for his Service is one whose mark is obvious, and while quite useful, those who are more subtle, such as Guardians of the Veil, find that there is very little they can do with it. However, for those who wish to flaunt their mastery of the Supernal, it is popular, and controlling the weather can certainly be useful.

One must summon him outside, and if it is storming, this is thought to help. Paradoxically, the less prepared an area is for a storm, the better. A house that is, despite regulations, not earthquake proof, not prepared for a tornado… for one who commands the powers of the Gods should not have to fear the weather, or so the logic goes. Finally, those that were struck by non-manmade (including Mages) lightning within the last week find calling him down oddly easier.

******

A/N: So here we go!
 
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So, should I go through with seeing this post-postmodern work of self-deprecating parody and satire that is my Vampire LARP fic all the way through to completion, or is it too out there and meta?

I honestly don't know, for the way it is formulated in my mind right now, this story is either my greatest idea yet or the worst fanfic ever since My Immortal, and I can't really tell which is which.
 
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So, what's ya'lls opinion on the kickstarter draft of Changeling 2e? I'm not terribly familiar with changeling so I was wondering how people who like changeling see the new material.
 
So, what's ya'lls opinion on the kickstarter draft of Changeling 2e? I'm not terribly familiar with changeling so I was wondering how people who like changeling see the new material.

I've kinda given up on Changeling 2e, so I gave it a pass. Did they change the literally unstoppable and endless Huntsman thing that basically eats good storytelling alive if you use it as it mechanically functions?

Edit: Basically nothing about that I've heard about the Huntsman is okay or more than, at most, a one-off idea you make up for an individual chronicle it fits, and then never again.

What is with 2e adding new villains that aren't needed?

If, however, they've changed the Huntsman... that'd be good?

******

Edit: In an attempt at positivity, the Autumn-Court write-up they provided us is actually pretty nice.
 
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The Laurent: Changeling--Proposed Modifications and a New Contract!
The Laurent: Changeling--Proposed Frailty Modifications

As a sort of attempt to try something new, I'm going to codify some ideas I've had. Ever since a conversation on Changeling's weaknesses, I felt like I might as well at least offer this out there. It's been a while, but it just occured to me that I might have something to really offer. Feel free to use this or not.

First, the common weakness remains the same. Relatively pure iron, not mixed in with anything else, can cut through Fae defenses, and Fae armor, both of which are quite common in battle. Unless your players choose to have it be a weakness, iron is not a frailty, and touching it does no harm to a Changeling, a fact that often leads Changelings to hand-forge iron weapons that are a weakness greater than frailties, dealing aggrevated damage to the Gentry.

Now, what are Frailties? They come, as in canon, in two types, of two severities. Banes are frailties that do damage to the Changeling. The chiming of bells, the touch of a virgin, a goat's blood, being quite literally pained by intentionally forced rhymes… or by the presence of children. For as long as a Changeling is exposed to the bane, they suffer either a point of bashing damage per turn (if a minor frailty) or a point of lethal (if a major). Taboos are actions they cannot do. One Changeling might be unable to cross a line of salt, another has to speak in limerick, a third cannot walk under the light of the moon, and the last cannot enter a home without an invitation. Minor taboos can be resisted for a scene by spending a single willpower, while one has to spend willpower every turn to resist the compulsion.

Minor frailties are inconvenient, but shouldn't be common in everyday life. Needing permission to enter a private home is a minor taboo, while being burned by the touch of children, literally burned, is in fact a major bane.

Major frailties, then, are things that can and do impact someone's entire life. You'll face them and live a life shaped by them, and many of them are very inconvenient, though other times they are the annoying kind of convenient, where an honest man suddenly finds it impossible to lie, or a vegan's mouth burns at the touch of meat.

Now, in traditional Changeling, the first Frailty wasn't until you hit Wyrd 6. This has its virtues, let it be known. Because it's sudden and a definite sign that you've become incredibly powerful, it can often be a kick in the head to PCs, in character at least. Asha Ashblood, a character in Kansas City Shuffle, had her entire life changed by her first major frailty, the details of which she had hidden well.

An accomplished swordswoman, but also a tree, her Major Taboo was the inability to wield metal weapons, forcing her to rely entirely on her famed and infamous (and dangerous) Token wooden-sword, and to bluff and keep away from duels in which she'd be likely forced to 'play fair' by using an ordinary blade, an act that would have quickly drained her willpower to keep up.

Thus, it can create story opportunities, as the malady and limit of the elite: powerful Changelings, steeped in this power, now have to hide or deal with increasing restrictions.

But if one imagines a society where everyone has frailties, and it's merely that the most powerful have more and stronger ones, then it creates a very different atmosphere.

Thus, the following chart, after this brief note on choosing frailties. They should be thematic, they should be interesting, they should be in service of the play, and for the first two, the sub-6 Wyrd ones, both should be references in different ways to their Durance.

Chart:

Wyrd 1: 1 Minor Frailty.
Wyrd 2: 1 Minor Frailty
Wyrd 3: 2 Minor Frailties, the newly chosen frailty has to be the opposite type as the first (if you chose a bane, now choose a taboo.)
Wyrd 4: 2 Minor frailties
Wyrd 5: 2 Minor Frailties
Wyrd 6: 1 Major Frailty, 2 Minor Frailties
Wyrd 7: 1 Major Frailty, 2 Minor Frailties
Wyrd 8: 1 Major Frailty, 3 Minor Frailties
Wyrd 9: 1 Major Frailty, 3 Minor Frailties
Wyrd 10: 2 Minor Frailties, 3 Minor Frailties

Of course, if one wants to make it harsher, they can make it 2 at Wyrd 9, and 3 at Wyrd 10, but I was trying to emulate the actual chart, but have it start earlier, and then smooth it out.

But the important thing about this is: what does it mean? In a world where all Changelings have frailties, hiding and protecting them is important. They're things you only reveal to those you trust, like your Motley, and they're weapons in the hands of both your Keepers, the traitors and enemies you will face… and in your own hands, since that which can be used against you can also be used by you.

This, of course, is all but a mantra among Changelings, whose very powers and nature are distressingly similar to that which changed them.

Contract of Nemesis

In a world where frailties were more fundamental, one powerful and ambitious Changeling made a deal with the very frailties that bound her, that were destroying her life, and that would later lead to her death. By making herself all but a slave to them, she was able to forge a Contract, one she taught to others.

While any type of Changeling can learn it, and equally well, as a Contract it is poorly understood, and thus knowledge of it is often scattershot: well known and taught by almost anyone in one Freehold, but nothing more than a whispered rumor of strange powers in the next, though at the rate it's spreading, no doubt one day it might be a universally known Contract.

This Contract covers Frailties of all sorts, first learning to understand them, then to protect against them, and finally to use them as a weapon, albeit a double-edged one.

(*) Bane-Sense

The first step to being able to use an enemy's banes against them is to know that they have them. With this simple Clause, a Changeling may be able to find out how many Frailties the target (who must be within line of sight) has, and thus, indirectly, how powerful their Wyrd.

Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd+Investigation
Action: Instant
Catch:The user is in the presence of one of their own frailties

Roll Results--
Dramatic Failure: The Changeling's look into other frailties has consequences. For the next scene, the effects of frailties are doubled (two bashing damage instead of one for a minor bane, two willpower a turn instead of one for a Major Taboo.)
Failure: Nothing happens, the Changeling cannot get a grasp on the slippery nature of frailties.
Success: The Changeling knows how many Frailties (and whether they are major or minor) the target has.
Exceptional Success: As before, but the Changeling knows whether these frailties are taboos or banes.

Modifiers: +1, the target is currently touching or under effect of a frailty, -1, the target has not been harmed by their frailty, or effected, in at least one week.

(**) Sinner's Contagion


Learned and discovered via careful understanding of the possibilities of turning the failure-states of the previous clause outwards, a Changeling can make a person's Frailty worse, though they must physically touch them in order to use it.

Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Intelligence+Wyrd
Action: Instant
Catch: The Changeling is currently under the effect of their own frailty.

Roll Results--
Dramatic Failure: Their own power is turned on themselves, and they lose one willpower, disheartened at the failure.
Failure: Nothing happens.
Success: All frailties the target has are doubled for the next Wyrdx3 hours. Thus a single bashing damage a turn becomes two, a single willpower a scene also becomes two.
Exceptional Success: This weakness instead lasts for a number of days equal to the Wyrd of the Changeling who used it.

Modifiers: +1 (The Clarity of the Changeling using it is below 4), -1 (The Clarity of the Changeling using it is above 7.)

(***) Sinner's Gloves

Frailties are difficult to live with. But through careful study of their nature, a Changeling can figure out how to mitigate the costs, at least a little.

Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Resolve+Wyrd
Action: Reflexive
Catch: The Changeling is wearing literal gloves

Roll Results--
Dramatic Failure: The Changeling loses one willpower and takes one bashing damage as his own protect backlashes against him.
Failure: Nothing happens.
Success: For the next scene, the Changeling may spend Glamour one-to-one, subject to all glamour-per-turn limits that their Wyrd allows, to cancel a frailty. They may spend one glamour to make it so that a minor taboo is inactive, just as they could have spent one willpower. They can cancel out the bashing damage on a one-to-one basis. For a Major Bane, it instead requires three glamour spent for every lethal damage that would have been dealt.
Exceptional Success: As above, but the Changeling regains one willpower, as they feel accomplished, as masters of their weaknesses.

Modifiers: +1 (Occult is higher than 3), +1 (The Changeling has avoided any contact with frailties for the last 24 hours), -1 (The Changeling lacks entirely in Occult Skills.)

(****) Exchanging Maladies

Changelings often hate their frailties, and many wish they could discard them, or think that someone else had it lucky. With this clause of the Contract, a Changeling can touch someone and exchange one of their frailties for that of another. Neither Changeling can be in contact or under the power of their frailty when it works, and yet both as a means of willing exchange, and as a trap meant to doom an enemy, it is feared by many.

Cost: 3 Glamour
Dice Pool: Occult+Wyrd, if resisted, contested with Wyrd+Composure
Action: Contested/Instant
Catch: The target has complained about the nature of their frailty in the past day, while the user listens in, unknown to them.

Roll Results--
Dramatic Failure: Instead of switching a single frailty for another, the user gains the frailty that the target has, without
Failure: Nothing happens at all! Failure states are pretty boring, I admit!
Success: The Changeling pickes one of their frailties, and exchanges it with a frailty of the same strength that another person possesses. Major for Major, Minor for Minor. The Changeling does not know what the nature of this new frailty is, nor does the target automatically know what frailty they were given.
Exceptional Success: The Changeling automatically knows the nature and details of the frailty he gains.

Modifiers: N/A

(*****) Frailty Plague

All can suffer as the Changeling suffers. Anyone who the Changeling can see--and thus whom their eyes can infest, in a very old-fashioned view of how such things come to pass between people--can be stricken down with the same frailties that hurt the Changeling. A taste of the Changeling's own dangerous medicine. This works on all types of beings, including those with major templates.

Cost: 4 Glamour (7 for Major Frailties)
Dice Pool: Occult+Wyrd, contested by Wyrd+Resolve (or relevant power-stat)
Action:Contested
Catch: The Changeling chooses to make the gained frailty one of their own.

Roll Results--
Dramatic Failure:Gain a Major Frailty for the next week.
Failure: Nothing happens.
Success: A number of targets within line of sight equal to ½ Wyrd (minimum of 1, may target less than the number you can target) gain one Frailty that the clause, which is actually two closely related clauses that are learned together, allows. The target possesses this frailty for twenty-four hours. With a minor frailty, they do not know what it is until they find out the hard way, but the impact and power of a Major Frailty is so great that they instinctually know its nature.
Exceptional Success: The Changeling may pick two of their frailties, and 'infect' a number of people equal to their Wyrd.

Modifiers: +1 (The Wyrd of the user is above 8), +1 (The target/s is someone who has broken an oath with the Changeling), -1 (If cast in a hospital or church, places of healing, symbolically.)

*******

A/N: And yes, that's a juicy capstone. It might be too juicy, and I'll have to nerf it, but I thought it very thematic.

The Contract as a whole might not be balanced, it was made in a rush, and would need to be refined. It also only makes sense as a common (or semi-common) set of Contracts in this particular everyone-has-Frailties world. If one is using the original rules, then this would be the personal and custom Contract of a high-Wyrd Changeling who uses it to fuck over other High-Wyrd Changelings, and it'd never spread beyond them by the various ways I imagine Contracts might spread.
 
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