White Wolf's World of Darkness

[MJ12 Commando]

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the most overpowered creature in the Technocratic beastiary.

The B-Type General Labor Clone, or the Bob.

B-Type General Labor Clone "Bob"

The Technocracy is a world-spanning organization, and no matter how much manpower it has, it always needs more. There are suits to be cleaned, meals to be cooked, reports to be typed, cars to be driven, plumbing leaks to be repaired-and oftentimes the Technocracy can't simply rely on an outside contractor for secrecy reasons. Certainly, its Enlightened personnel or Exceptional Citizens could fix the toilet, but most of them have duties to attend to and asking an Iterator to fix your construct's malfunctioning plumbing is a great way to make said Iterator very, very angry.

Iteration X has found ways to make limited AI units to do these menial tasks, but many of them have failed to catch on due to the runaway success of the B-Type General Labor Clone, or the Bob, as the Technocracy and Traditions know it. The Bob is a modified human being, optimized for its role of doing relatively simple blue- and white-collar work. Intellectually neutered in a way which doesn't impact their everyday performance, the Bob has very limited long-term memory. It means that Etherites and Virtual Adepts have put captured units to work with very limited (un)brainwashing-but also means that capturing a Bob gives very limited intelligence, pun not intended.

The deliberate trimming of a Bob's psyche is to reduce the complexity of Bob imprinting and creation such that Bob-units can be easily produced, unlike more complex cloned lifeforms. Like most mass-templated clones, FACADE has rotes which allow the creation of Bobs with Life 4, Mind 4, Prime 2 rather than requiring Life and Mind 5 (which is necessary for a bespoke human being) but Bobs are particularly simple even given those circumstances. With a cloning laboratory and knowledge of the rote, a FACADE biotech with the relevant spheres can create a Bob in less than a day's work, and with minimal monitoring, the bottleneck generally being time and materials rather than anything else valuable.

Attributes and Abilities:
Because they aren't designed with quite the same level of quality control as other clone genelines, Bobs may end up with higher or lower physical and mental attributes. A Bob's attributes are:

Strength 1-3	Charisma 1	Perception 1-2
Dexterity 1-3	Manipulation 1	Intelligence 1-2
Stamina 1-3	Appearance 1-3	Wits 1-2

However, Bobs who don't have at least 5 total dots in their physical attributes or 4 total dots in their mental attributes are typically labeled as defective and not used. Bobs are not particularly socialized, and although some of them might be given skill imprints to pass as normal, a typical 'Bob' is a silent worker whose behavior is generally off in immediately-visible ways. This is considered acceptable, as they are generally working in secure Constructs where any contact with the outside world means something has gone very, very wrong.

Bobs have Nature: Follower and Demeanor: Follower and Willpower 0-1.

Bobs have anywhere from 4 to 12 total dots in Abilities, and a maximum of 2 dots in any single Ability. These abilities generally relate to menial labor-any respectable Technocrat wouldn't be caught dead using a Bob as more than a low-level servitor. However, a few Bobs with higher physical attributes are given combat Abilities (Firearms, Brawl, Athletics, Melee, Alertness) and used as low-end, expendable forces capable of dealing with perfectly human saboteurs like werewolf kinfolk or your average ghoul, as long as they come in numbers. The higher the Ability rating and the more Attribute dots, the rarer and more expensive the Bob is. A Bob with no Attribute higher than 2 and its sole abilities being 2 culinary-related abilities at 2 dots, intended to man a Shock Corps cafeteria, is noticeably less expensive requisition-wise than a Bob with maximized Attributes who can act as competent light infantry or police backup.

Bobs have a multitude of flaws, including:

Minimal Long Term Memory-Bobs don't learn. They come from the cloning tube with the knowledge they need, and to make them cheaper and easier to build, they really can't learn any more than that. Bobs pick up very minimal information over their working lifespans and reading their minds for useful intelligence is a difficult task. Trying to piece together actionable intelligence from Bobs requires a minimum 3 successes on a Difficulty 9 Int + Strategy roll.
Short Lifespan-your average Bob has a working lifespan of approximately 10 years as they age 3 times faster than normal. Unlike many other FACADE clones, increasing Bob longevity has never been a high priority, especially since it's relatively trivial to build more.
Programmed Loyalty-A Bob is Conditioning 10 and requires the expenditure of 1 Willpower to willingly betray the Technocracy like most Constructs. They are programmed to enjoy their work and little else.

Awakened Bobs:
Very, very rarely, a Willpower 1 Bob manages to move past its station somehow and Awaken (Willpower 0 Bobs are considered to be Soulless). Somehow, Awakening removes the Long Term Memory flaw-the Traditions believe that this is because the Bobs which can't Awaken are equivalent to the soulless drones created as a result of Gilgul. Ironically, Awakened Bobs are the most common form of rogue construct-the Technocracy puts minimal monitoring assets on Bobs, and their recovery is a low priority. An Awakened Bob can easily slip under the Technocracy's radar and defect. Virtual Adepts and Etherites are more than willing to fix the other flaws Bobs possess, as an Awakened asset is valuable.

However, most Awakened Bobs end up having their genetics fixed and becoming loyal Technocracy members. Very few stay in the Progenitors, as the bigotry against former labor-clones is less pronounced in the other Conventions. Many Awakened Bobs, ironically, end up in the Operatives and become excellent NWO agents, as they are already used to-and practiced in-staying unnoticed for long periods of time and taking on roles which others would find demeaning or dirty.

 

[MJ12 Commando]

@Eukie said something. This led to an idea.

The Invisible Men
Radical Transgenic Infiltrators

As most Technocrats with a penchant for secret history know, the original Invisible Man is truth in fiction, much as many of H.G. Wells's stories are. The first experiment was a failure-although people and animals did turn invisible, test subjects generally went insane, human minds poorly equipped for invisibility. The technology fell out of use due to its multitude of side effects, and when Iteration X invented visual-spectrum cloaking devices the technology had gone away for good. Or so most people thought. But there are places where technology fails but biology does not. Places where an invisible man might be necessary or viable. The Invisible Men were originally resurrected to provide stealth support for HELMETSHRIKE operations in hostile RD territory-infiltrating special forces who needed no technology to be combat capable for they were weapons themselves. Later, the Shadow Ministry stole the genome and technology for Invisible Men in 1987, and the technology has made its way into the technomancer Traditions as well.

The modern Conventions and Traditions still make limited use of Invisible Men, but both prefer more versatile homonculi. Invisible Men, after all, are extremely impractical despite their stealth characteristics. They require a special low-residue diet to maintain their invisibility, require significant maintenance, and must be grown from scratch and custom-programmed because a normal human psyche cannot handle their condition and goes rapidly insane (as Dr. Griffin demonstrated over a century ago). Meanwhile, surgical modification of a human operative with chromatophores gets almost the same results with far less hassle. In a way, the Invisible Men are bygones of an older era, where both sides could afford to throw expensive, custom-built lifeforms on what were often suicide missions.

Appearance: Heavily modified Victor upgrades, Invisible men are designed for near-perfect optical stealth. They are only visible as nearly transparent humanoid silhouettes due to a combination of biological lightbending and their natural transparency. Modern Invisible Men are stealthed against even near-visual identification and millimeter-wave radar, their organs and musculature tuned for extremely high efficiency performance and skin designed to absorb radar and mask their thermal signature (allowing them to maintain an external body temperature at near-ambient temperatures). To ensure that their wet work capabilities are not compromised, their skin is hydrophobic and easily repels liquids such as blood. The modern Invisible Men are much less human than their designation would suggest-transgenic xenografts have made sure of that. They have slits for a nose, a thin, lipless mouth, and a hard armored skin. Everything about an Invisible Man is transparent, or nearly so. Their blood is clear, and so are their bones and muscles. Even if their natural light-bending capabilities fail, they still are almost impossible to see via the naked eye.

In combat, Invisible Men are silent killers, who don't even grunt in pain when injured.

Attributes and Abilities: An Invisible Man has the following basic attributes and abilities:

Attributes:

Strength 4 (Brutal)	Charisma 2	Perception 3
Dexterity 4 (Swift)	Manipulation 2	Intelligence 2
Stamina 4 (Tough)	Appearance N/A	Wits 3

Abilities:

• Alertness 3
• Athletics 3
• Body Control 5 (Patient Hunter)
• Brawl 4 (Surprise Attacks)
• Computers 2
• Firearms 2
• Investigation 3
• Medicine 2
• Melee 2
• Stealth 5 (Assassination)
• Subterfuge 2

Willpower 5
Health Levels -0/-0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-5/Incapacitated/Dead

Like most Progenitor constructs, they can have memory uploads of mission-relevant additional abilities should it be necessary. They are all fluent in English as well as at least 1-2 additional languages (generally the most common languages in the region, or the second most common if English is the primary language there).

Powers and Merits:

• Invisible: Invisible Men are, well, invisible. They're also very quiet. When making Perception-based rolls to find an Invisible Man, treat the character as if they were completely blind (+3 difficulty on most rolls). Even if an Invisible Man is not actively hiding, an Alertness roll is required to notice their presence. Even Forces magic is of limited help-an Invisible Man is treated as having a 3-success Forces 2/Correspondence 3 ward against any sort of visual Forces-based detection. This does not protect from other forms of detection such as Life, Mind, or Entropy sensing. Not coincidentally, Traditions tend to train their Consors in the art of blind-fighting.
• Silent Killers: Stealth operations are literally in an Invisible Man's DNA. Unless they botch a Stealth roll, they are always treated as having rolled either 1 success or the actual roll results, whichever is higher, as an Entropy 1 effect. While attacking from ambush, an Invisible Man instinctively targets weakpoints, lowering the difficulty of their damage roll by 3.
• Dermal Chitin: Because it was impractical to provide Invisible Men with actual body armor, they instead have dermal chitinous plating, giving them 3d of soak with no mobility penalty. Unlike most combat constructs, Invisible Men are relatively fragile and soak damage like a human, rather than soaking Lethal and Aggravated damage with full Stamina.
• Wolverines!: Invisible Men have retractable bone claws on their hands. These deal Strength + 3L damage. Like all other parts of an Invisible Man, these are transparent. These claws can be, and often are, poisoned.
• Innate Countermagic: Like Victors, Invisible Men have 2 dice of innate countermagic.
• Paradox: Invisible Men have 2 permanent paradox due to their inhuman traits, but if they act discreetly will almost never suffer a potential backlash. After all, stealthy monsters or assassins methodically dispatching anyone is a staple of certain forms of fiction. As long as they kill from the shadows and nobody sees someone die from a completely invisible monster thingy, it is easy enough for Paradox to accept their existence. Ironically, Invisible Men benefit to some extent from Paradox-if killed, their remains will rapidly degrade due to Paradox, leaving no evidence of their existence save their bloody wet work.
• Soulless: The Griffin Formula which Invisible Men are based on drives normal human psyches mad. To compensate for that, the Invisible Man's mind is radically different from human, more akin to HITMark than person. These programmed, soulless killers can never Awaken.

Equipment: Because of their design, Invisible Men almost never carry equipment. Should they need it, specially designed weapons and equipment made of transparent materials can be fabricated for their use.

 

[MJ12 Commando]

Myrmidons
Euthanatos Shock Troopers

"Let no man forget how menacing we are! We are lions!"

The Traditions fear the Technocracy's Men in Black, HITMarks, and other weapons. The Technocracy has these tools because its enemy in the Ascension War has things at least as fearsome. Myrmidons are ancient magic-dating well back to the days before there was any Ascension War. In those days, Myrmidons were often enchanted bloodlines-entire warrior-bloodlines produced via powerful magics manipulating the very essence of heredity. Legends suggest that you could get thousands of them-and they fought directly alongside demigods such as Achilles in battles which shook the heavens themselves. Today, Myrmidons are typically produced via training and direct enchantment. Although they are not directly comparable to the high-end war machines the Technocracy fields (there are worse things) a trained and clever Myrmidon can easily be the match of an inexperienced Garou or vampire. In the Himalayan Wars, the secrets of the Myrmidons were passed on by the Greek fate-magi to their Indo-Asian colleagues, and fought against the consors and Warring Fists of the Akashics. In bloody, bloody battles both sides eventually learned a grudging mutual respect for the other's mystically empowered warriors-and a distinct hatred for their use.

Upon the formation of the Council of Nine Traditions, the techniques used to bless Myrmidons were provided to the Council. The few bloodlines of Myrmidons which the Order of Reason had not either suborned via the defection of the Ixoi or annihilated in the Sorcerer's Crusade have become allies and valued resources for the Traditions, but many of the Myrmidons the Traditions use today are enhanced from scratch. Each Tradition has their own variant for creation of new Myrmidons-from Virtual Adept VR training and biohacking to Etherite super-soldier serums to the Verbena Blessing of The Ant to Hermetic methods virtually identical to the original rituals, Myrmidons have seen heavy use by the Council. Although in the heaviest fighting of the Ascension wars Myrmidons were used-and expended-in mass numbers, just like the HITMarks of the Union the Council has found such a practice unsustainable. Today, Myrmidons are treated as almost too valuable to lose, especially experienced ones.

Although the Order of Reason had many knights who had Myrmidon heritage, owing to the specifics of its creation, and made use of such blessed soldiers throughout the Sorcerer's Crusade, the Myrmidons eventually fell out of favor. Although the Order of Reason created them with hard training and education combined with special diet and drugs-a fully Union-valid paradigm-the dreamers in the Order who sought to perfect and then improve on the human body found more radical methods to do so, and the warriors in the Order eventually came to favor mechanized armor and high-caliber guns over perfecting the human inside. By the time Iteration X, through the Machine Cult and the Computer, returns to creating augmented super-soldiers, it does so via an entirely different paradigm and entirely different tools. Nazi Germany used many Myrmidons and with the help of Nephandi apparently created a few new Myrmidon bloodlines, which tainted the techniques further in the eyes of the Union. Along with almost all of the outspoken eugenicists in the Progenitors either recanting, dying, or being Mindwiped, the lack of care in managing Myrmidon bloodlines ensured the effective death of the Technocratic Myrmidon.

The Myrmidon bloodlines largely wiped themselves out via breeding with non-Myrmidons, but sometimes the magic in the blood skips generations-and one day someone is born with a concerning competence at violence and little squeamishness at using it. Such lost Myrmidons are often useful assets to recruit-they are lethal combatants often looking for a cause to become loyal followers of. And if nothing else, both Traditions and Technocracy can offer that cause.

Mechanics:

As Myrmidons are people, not constructed weapons of war, they have varying attributes and abilities, like anyone else. To create a Myrmidon character, add the changes and powers to any non-Mage NPC's attributes and abilities. Myrmidons who are atavisms, lucking out because of their family's vague ties to ancient bloodlines, can use any human NPC template. Myrmidons who are specifically trained should use martial-related templates instead, as the Euthanatos do not provide these blessings to people who will not be able to make use of these gifts.

Powers:

• Martial Prodigy: A Myrmidon gains a +1 bonus to the Athletics, Brawl, Firearms, and Melee abilities, which can bring their effective Ability rating above 5. A Myrmidon, no matter how little contact they have ever had with the weapons of war, will never have fewer than 2 dots (not including the +1 bonus) to Athletics, Brawl, Firearms, or Melee. Myrmidons will never have fewer than 3 dots in Perception, Dexterity or Wits and all have at least 1 combat-useful physical or mental merit. Acute Senses, High Pain Tolerance, and Light Sleeper are common.
• Fearless: As long as they have been directly ordered to confront a foe, Myrmidons gain an automatic success on Willpower rolls to resist fear or Mind effects. Myrmidons ignore Delirium.
• Ant Might: Myrmidons are very strong and hardy. They gain +2 to Strength, +1 to Stamina, and can buy both of these attributes up to 6. Myrmidons have an extra two -0 health levels because of their dense muscle and bone tissues. No Myrmidon has a Strength or Stamina less than 4-again, this includes people who don't even know of their heritage.
• Carapace: Myrmidons wear armor like they were born to it. As a Forces 2/Life 2 effect, almost any armor a Myrmidon wears is effectively weightless and unencumbering-they subtract their Stamina from the armor's penalty. They seem to be perfectly comfortable in their armor as well-a Myrmidon can patrol for hours in a desert environment wearing heavy body armor without becoming dehydrated. Modern Myrmidons in the service of the Knights of Radamanthys take advantage of this, often wearing 30 or more kilos of ballistic armor while moving like a gymnast.

The entire package is effectively 3 dots of Enhancement. The high minimum attributes (Strength 4, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4, Perception 3, Wits 3) count as 1 paradox "flaw." The remaining paradox effects manifest differently in different people. Some might be unquestioningly loyal to a cause, others might have mannerisms or appearances which are somehow ant-like, but they do not get to ignore the minor drawbacks.

 

[MJ12 Commando]

Probably not machine-guns this sweet, though. These are reserved for Iterators. @EarthScorpion should get the joke.

Click to shrink...

So as a different overt Titanfall reference, because this is easier and takes less effort than updating things, have the Smart Pistol.

IX-5S Intelligent Personal Defense Weapon/IX-5S2 Advanced Intelligent Personal Defense Weapon (Wonder)
Enlightenment 3 (6 Points) for the IX-5S, Enlightenment 4 (8 points) for the IX-5S2

The IX-5S IPDW fires self-guiding micromunitions and provides a low skill, compact personal defense weapon for Technocratic agents. Because the IX-5S renders operator skill effectively irrelevant, many combat operatives who are tasked with escorting non-combat oriented Technocrats on a regular basis keep one handy-it's a weapon you can give to your charge for self-protection without the risk of them shooting you in the back. Similarly, Virtual Adepts and Etherites who have had the good luck to capture, bootleg, or otherwise acquire IX-5S platforms find them incredibly useful tools to give to people who can't shoot straight. In the hands of a dedicated combatant, the IX-5S is more useful for sweeping the field of multiple hostile targets at once than as a primary weapon for engagement of high-end enemy combatants (therefore, its "personal defense weapon" moniker).

The IX-5S can be fired as a normal pistol, but it gains no special benefits from doing so. Instead, a character should take "Aim" actions with the weapon to lock it onto targets within the weapon's effective range. A Mind 2/Entropy 1 effect locks the weapon onto hostiles and also prevents it from locking onto friendlies. The firer may lock onto up to [Enlightenment] targets per Aim action. No target may be locked more than once. When the character fires, a Forces 2/Correspondence 1 effect guides individual rounds to different target. These attacks are all made in a single action, treated as if they had rolled 5 successes each, and ignore all modifiers for cover, poor lighting, operator distraction, or range. The IX-5S may attack as many targets in a single turn as it has ammunition. A character may not aim and fire the IPDW in the same turn without some source of extra actions (such as Time 3). Once fired at a locked target, all locks are expended and the weapon must be locked-on again.

The upgraded IX-5S2 allows for up to 3 locks to be assigned to a single target and has higher Enlightenment. In all other aspects, it is equivalent to the IX-5S.

Paradox flaws for the IPDW include lock-on system failures, IFF malfunctions, and the standard litany of weapon jams and malfunctions that can happen in the heat of combat. The IPDW is generally coincidental, because the operator's inexplicable accuracy is hard to notice and can be explained away as good marksmanship or just luck.

IX-5S: Damage 6L, Rate 3 (manual)/12 (lock-on), Range 50, Magazine 12, Conceal J.

 

[MJ12 Commando]

In honor of this:



Bullshit Teleporting Instant-Death Knife
Virtual Adept Artifact (4 pts)

Virtual Adepts like videogames. Like, really really like them. Virtual Adepts also like fighting The Man. Like, really really like it. But what if you could fight the Man, with your favorite videogame loadout? Yes, you dogfucker, we know you ran Marathon/Lightweight/Commando Pro. If you were one of the other kinds of Modern Warfare 2 dogfucker, fear not, the Virtual Adepts have infinite ammo pro pipes and double 1887s just for you. Okay, House Thig makes the latter (they turn the people they shoot into salt for some reason?) but moving on.

This is a knife. A tacticool knife. Like, straight out of a Cold Steel catalogue tacticool. It has to be a tacticool knife, because otherwise it isn't sufficiently tacticool and you might be one of those Euthanatos or House Janissary scary ninja bullshit guys who uses a very un-tacticool magic dagger, just ghosting motherfuckers and stabbing them to death from the shadows. But you aren't. You're a Cyberpunk. You bring a knife to a gunfight, and you actually win that gunfight. Because you're just that good.

What this knife does is very simple. It lets you stab someone to death from very, very far away. It has a Correspondence 2/Forces 2 effect that lets you close the distance between you and the person who you are about to exsanguinate with your tacticool looking knife, then make a bad pun about being "punctual" while they fall to the ground leaking so much blood they look like a Russian prince at a razorblade convention.

Roll Arete to activate the power of your Bullshit Teleporting Instant-Death Knife. You literally fly at them knife-first and then stab them to death. Each success on the roll increases your movement speed and jump height by 100% for the purposes of going "knife to meet you" to some unfortunate person who brought a gun to an instant death knife fight, and adds 2 levels of damage to the knife attack. This is coincidental if you're within reasonable stabbing range (approximately 10 meters) and if the target is something that is logically vulnerable to being knifed (like a guy not in plate armor, or someone who isn't a giant killer robot) and is vulgar otherwise.

 

[MJ12 Commando]

Hunter/Killer
Destroyer Angel


A large man or woman, tall and broad and well-muscled. They might have a gut, they might look like bodybuilders, but there's always the sense of power underneath, corded muscle and menace. They hide their eyes behind sunglasses, even at night, for they can see in infrared and ultraviolet. For their eyes are blank, dead simacrula. Perfectly formed, but without life in them, with none of the vitality of a human's eyes. They move far too fast for someone as large as they. And when shot, instead of flesh and bone underneath the skin and muscle, there are only corded black whips of carbon muscle, titanium bones, and composite armor plates.

The God-Machine sends Hunter/Killers to eliminate threats it finds inconvenient. They're more than a match for any single mortal, and even a cell of Hunters will be hard-pressed to stop one without suffering casualties if caught unprepared. As singular hunters, they seek out mortals who have enraged the god-machine. In packs, they seek out and hunt Demons, often led by a smarter Angel or commanded by a loyal God-Machine cultist, for a Hunter/Killer is not a subtle instrument. They hunt their prey in the most straightforward way-finding their location via the most obvious method (generally paging through phonebooks or social media pages), then taking the most direct path to the target, opening fire as soon as they are in sight with automatic weapons. Oftentimes, these actions are covered up as 'mass shootings' by the God Machine's cultists.

Without direct and constant command, they are stupid. Straightforward. Gullible. Vulnerable. A smart Unchained can exploit this. Trick them into going after the wrong target. Set traps along their path.

Basic Hunter/Killers rarely fall. They are not smart enough for that. This is why the God-Machine uses them so often-as simpleminded machines that almost lack self-awareness, they are predictable and reliable. And the loss of subtlety is considered acceptable.

Attributes:
Physical 5
Social 1
Mental 1

Skills:
Computer 3
Investigation 3
Medicine 3

Athletics 3
Brawl 3
Drive 1
Firearms 3 (Integrated Weapons)
Stealth 1
Weaponry 3

Intimidation 5 (Interrogation)

Angelic Form Powers:
Inhuman Strength: +2 Strength
Armor Plating: 3/3 Armor
Integrated Weapon: A H/K always has an integrated ranged weapon in its body. Oftentimes this weapon is either an automatic shotgun or a light machine gun, dependent on the H/K's role, but more 'subtle' H/Ks might be equipped with a suppressed SMG instead. The Angel has effectively infinite ammunition for the weapon.
Enhanced Vision: IR, nightvision, other EM spectra

Cover Rating (If Stolen): 1

 

[Quantumboost]

I am a terrible person.

Metagaming

Example Specialties: Crossovers, Heroics, Genre Enforcement, Plot-Relevance

Stories are how humans relate to their pasts, their surroundings, and other beings. Even in the beginning, the precursors to the magi told stories of the things they saw out in the world, stoking the imaginations of their people and spinning their own stories. Time went on, and soon the stories wove into a meta-framework, from which genre, tropes, memes, and other aspects wove structure into the overall pattern and spurred further form and maturation of existence.

Notice how that paragraph was, in its own way, also a story?

The Metagamer understands how reality is composed of myriad stories all intersecting, and how the threads of plot bind the world together. They learn to discern these threads, change how they and the events around them relate to the overall story, and at higher levels spin new stories from whole cloth and at great cost force genres to shift so they are more accommodating to the Mage's preferred type of storytelling.

Legends say that the Oracles of the Narrative Art have even transcended their need to exist within the stories of this world, and encountered a greater being who weaves the substance of Creation from raw imagination, called only "The Storyteller".

(Metagaming is an alternate version of Entropy)

• Sense Plot and Genre

The flow of events often conforms to particular tropes and memes, but myriad influences and forces often shape it in unexpected ways, subverting, inverting, or playing straight the many contributing factors. The Metagamer learns to perceive the signs that lead to the eventual outcome, and thus discern likelihoods and plot twists as they occur. This awareness of the story gives an intuitive feel for the mythic threads which give structure to a narrative, and when others are harnessing or tugging on those threads.

They may also discern where the story has been twisted and gone wrong, revealing Paradox flaws and backlashes.

With conjunctional use, they may perceive a potential twist before it happens, sense a particular entity's importance to the Plot, intuit whether a given rite is Vulgar, and sense when a faraway plot point occurs.

•• Roll the Dice, Play the Game

Sometimes a narrative device is, for reasons of dramatic suspense, left more-or-less to chance. It becomes easier to suggest how events could go at such places, as multiple outcomes are already valid, and a metagamer may shift which these crossroads in Plot tend as they come up – changing the difficulty of a roll for an event they can perceive. This applies nearly anytime a result hinges on a dice roll.

Likewise, they may defend the Plot against tampering from other sources, preemptively performing countermagic against Metagaming or other fate-shiftings for the duration of an effect, and weave their effects so that they respond to plot twists and other events. Usually, these events need to be anticipated when building them into the effect, at least broadly.

With conjunctional Spheres, the Metagamer may build enchantments set to go off at particular foreseen events of the story, tie effects to momentous decisions on another character's part rather than things visible to a third person perspective, and arrive somewhere at the most dramatically appropriate moment.

••• Chekov's Gun, Plot Armor, I Am Not Left Handed

With this level of Metagaming, the Mage learns how to increase the relevance of an item or character in the eyes of the Plot, altering the outcomes of events around it. The most usual effect is to shift events so that it is prevented from an inglorious end, performs exceptionally well (or poorly), or acts as a 'karma sink'; likewise, its relevance or 'luck' may be 'hung' to unleash when a climax or other event occurs. A weapon encountered ends up being critical in a later scene (expending its karmic potential) or being a Sword of Damocles that eventually dooms its wielder, and so on.

A Disciple of Metagaming may also create minor retroactive "bends" in the narrative, making something which was once presumed true unto falsehood, revealing that it was a ruse the entire time. This risks vulgarity if a fact was well-established and seems to come wholly out of nowhere, but these plot twists can deceive even destiny and the Players themselves if well-used.

With other Spheres, this narrative importance can be invested into a material, place, or future period, or even a phrase or relationship.

•••• Foreshadowing, Genre Shift, Break the Fourth Wall

Bringing up the relevance of an object is one thing; even more difficult to implement is foreshadowing future events, what the more traditional might term "destiny". An Adept of Metagaming may make implications or invoke tropes that bind a subplot into the greater Plot, creating Destinies and more complex blessings and curses. Story elements left to chance can be pushed into a path of success or failure within the bounds of their possibility.

Likewise, the very bounds of genre and good sense may be reworked by hammering the mythic threads into shape. An Awakened being can be realigned to the ambient genre, reducing the impact of Paradox by finding common ground. Conversely, a genre can be forcibly shifted to the metagamer's own, creating what amounts to a temporary Sanctum; this latter effect is always Vulgar, as it wrenches the very foundations of the Plot. Such events normally only last a scene before the strain forces it to revert.

In one of the more bizarre applications of this Sphere, the Metagamer may live up to their name and "look past the Fourth Wall", gaining fleeting glimpses of information they have no other way of knowing. In absence of Correspondence or Time, these always entail their immediate environs.

With the other Spheres, foreshadowing can be infused with resilience against other forms of magick and linked to the possession or presence of objects or beings. Genre shifts can be embedded in people, places, and other stranger things rather than the scene (which is believed to be one source of Marauders), and beings from other settings may be pulled across the gulf of the metaverse. The character may view omakes through the veil of alternate worlds and wield references to influence the other players.

••••• Subvert and Define Tropes, Mitigate Crossover, Mary Sue, Traverse the Fourth Wall

At the finest control of the narrative, the Metagamer has learned to reweave the underpinnings of the story. She may now bring a mythic thread into being and spread its influence, or degrade it to a stale cliche. Memes and counter-memes can be spread to encourage a gradual shift in the ambient genre.

When genres clash, the story itself degrades and lashes out to equalize the difference; with this level of knowledge, these conflicts can be mitigated and woven together in a satisfactory fashion, albeit at a cost of some effort and creativity. Much like with Prime 5, a point of Quintessence can be spent per point of Paradox to neutralize it.

In the most horrific application of the Sphere known, a character may be persistently granted the ability to warp the story about herself, succeeding consistently in endeavors where a more natural entity might merely have a substantial chance of victory. These Mary Sues live a life blessed beyond what any right-thinking individual might think safe or sane.

It is said that some Masters of Metagaming have learned how to bribe the legendary "Storyteller". These claims have not been substantiated, though persistent rumors of Archmastery doing so exist; however, it is known that Masters may travel to "omakes" and alternate presents. More traditional mystics consider this to be deliberately entering the Mirror Zone.

 

[Quantumboost]

So, tried my hand at writing up a full Sphere spec based on @MJ12 Commando's ideas, putting it here for critique (writing, intersphere balance, whatever):

Cybernetics

Example Specialties: Augmentation, Repair, Manufacturing, Organics, Giant Robots

The body is just a complex machine, made of nanotechnological components; in a way, non-vitalist Technomancers and Unionists all hold this as simple fact. Some factions, however — notably the Biomechanics and occasionally other Science Convention members — take this a step further than the simple rote acknowledgement. The field of Cybernetics specializes in the understanding of machines, how we use and interact with them — and how we, too, are machines. It spans between what others might term as 'Matter' and 'Life' to acknowledge that all machines have commonalities that may be used to understand them.

Users of this Sphere tend to have a very materialistic view of things, obviously, and also view others less as unitary beings and more as collections of interworking parts that also interwork with their surroundings. They operate on human bodies in ways that are almost eerie to more typical engineers and surgeons — and at times seem to treat their inorganic machines almost as people. Even though Iteration X is prohibited access to Spirit or Dimensional Science, some programmer-priests seem almost animistic in how they deal with machinery; this is even more pronounced in Mind specialists and defectors who learn Spirit.

Note that by its nature, Cybernetics is capable of working on what are more commonly considered 'Life' and 'Matter' patterns alike, as well as hybrids. Life can be operated on, repaired, and augmented much like other machines, though creating and properly transforming it is substantially more difficult. Cybernetics counts as both Life and Matter with respect to what creatures it can affect, so vampires, cyborgs, and liches are affected the same way as baseline humans. Other supernaturals (such as Werewolves, Chimerical entities, and so on) require conjunctional Spheres as normal, and some entities such as Digital Web constructs can be influenced with conjunctional Forces or Data.

Without an external source of mass (such as conjunctional Spheres producing things ex nihilo), this Sphere is subject to conservation of mass and the periodic table; only material that already exists may be included in this Sphere's effects by default, and prior to Mastery gross material properties are likewise conserved.

As a relatively young Sphere, Cybernetics (like Data) has not yet been divorced from its originating paradigm to any substantial degree, and so nearly all users are Iteration X Biomechanics, former members of that Methodology, or members of other Conventions who work closely with them such as Progenitors focused on medical nanotechnology.

• Analyze Machines

Mechanisms and tools are the key to the cyberneticist's craft, and at this level he learns to discern their function (or malfunction) at a glance. He may quickly diagnose how a broken machine might be fixed, areas where it is underperforming or exceptionally efficient, and whether a particular replacement part can withstand its stresses.

•• Create Simple Machines, Repair Self

In gaining further understanding of tools, the cyberneticist learns to sculpt raw matter into simple, functional structures and components; a knife may be crafted from a lump of bronze and piece of ivory, a pulley from wood and hemp, a circuit board from silicon and plastic, and a syringe from glass and surgical steel. Likewise, such machines may be refined and repaired by 're-creating' them into the desired result.

Most systems made with multiple interconnected working parts remain beyond the mage so far, but the one most familiar - her own body - may be restored to working order or re-calibrated within normal parameters. Hormone regulatory systems can be triggered or suppressed, temperature regulated through the usual processes, and so on.

••• Create Complex Machines, Repair Others, Self-Augmentation

Now, raw materials may be formed into working wholes made from complex interlocking parts, from guns to laptops to small robots, as long as they aren't substantially bigger than an ordinary human. Any technologies which can be made through 'mundane' effort may be assembled by the cyberneticist, and their grasp of how machines function and malfunction is so comprehensive that they may repair and calibrate any type of machine - including living bodies - in the same way as was previously only possible for herself.

Also at this level, she may go beyond the normal operational parameters of her own body, altering parts to perform more efficiently or integrating synthetic components and subsystems wholesale. Physical Attributes and Appearance may be increased with either biological or inorganic enhancements, as may other properties; equipment may be fused with the body without impairing either's function.

•••• Create Large-Scale Machines, Augment Others, Transform Machine

At this level, the cyberneticist can design and build machinery of substantial size and complexity, creating vehicles, large weapons, giant robots, and so on. Any machine short of nanotechnology may transform into another shape of similar mass and composition (including nanoscale properties), such as a car turning into a bipedal robot, a laptop into a skateboard, a prosthetic arm into a machine gun, or a suit of armor into a suitcase. They may also be merged or reworked to improve their functionality well beyond original design specifications; harder, better, faster, stronger is only the beginning.

••••• Develop Nanotechnology, Perfect Transformations, Cyberize

Finally, the Master of Cybernetics has comprehended machinery so well that they may craft nanotechnological mechanisms from appropriate precursors; self-replicating mechanisms operating at such scales may be crafted on the molecular level, including life from the smallest bacterium or virus to megafauna and anything in between. Full-organ replacements and augmentations may be produced in much the way a biological Life scientist might craft such things, and non-cellular nanotechnology can be developed to create molecular-scale symbiotes and mechanical organisms.

Masters of Cybernetics fully understand how to integrate biological and inorganic machines, and may transform the one into the other (again, respecting material constraints and conservation of mass), meld them flawlessly, and recombine the functionality of different machines freely.

In conjunction with a sufficient understanding of Matter, the Master may create nanofabricators and assemble things on a molecular (or with Matter 5 even smaller) scale to create metamaterials. Other Spheres can embed these technorganic creations or materials with even more exotic properties. With Mind 3, they may passively maintain their mental state on otherwise-insufficient hardware, similar to Life 5. With Correspondence 5 or Matter 3, machines may be miniaturized to the nanoscale without losing functionality.

Sample Rotes:

Equipment Transfer (Correspondence 3/Cybernetics 3): Reaching out across distance, the Mage partially transports their presence to the location of a tool she wants, links it to her self, and shifts back with the new portion in tow. The tool may be detached afterward, or used in vivo. This is the equivalent of Apportation for any small object; living things and large objects require Correspondence 4/Cybernetics 4.

 

[linkhyrule5]

So, @MJ12 Commando, @EarthScorpion - I'm running an oMage campaign, and I've basically attempted to hack together a homebrew set of "errata" for the core - I started with incorporating were Trainings/Talents (because they're cool) and rolling Arete/Enlightenment + Sphere (because it bugs me that getting better at a Sphere doesn't actually make you any better at using it), but then kind of saw a bunch more cool ideas in the Kerisgame write-up and went a little hog-wild. I had to do a bit of statistics to balance things out, so the result is a little questionable. Mind looking through this hash I've made of the RAW and seeing if anything really borked stands out?

---

Mage the Ascension: "Errata"

Attributes

Attributes use a six-stat condensation: Physique, Endurance, Cognition, Reaction, Persuasion, and Poise. This is essentially the Kerisgame writeup, except that I've broken off a bit of Endurance and Persuasion to be its own thing: Poise is a blend of mental resilience to trauma and ability to keep one's feet in a social situation. This also results in a nice reflection of the original nine-stat lineup, where we have physical, mental, and social attributes, one active and one passive.

Note in the xp section that I haven't changed the relative costs of Attributes. This, and the somewhat broadened abilities provided by Talents/Trainings in practice, is intended to free up more xp for the heart of the game, the Spheres. I haven't touched the Paradox rules at all, so using magic is still dangerous - but if you're at all good at paradigm construction, it should be possible to throw out effects pretty casually, and I want to enable that with the mechanics.

Abilities

Abilities has adapted the Talents/Training idea, replacing five-dot Abilities + a specialty dot with two three-dot Traits. However, the intended role of the two have been flipped: Trainings are now the "base" skill pool, with Talents representing particular narrow specialties.

As a general rule, you should have one "occupational" Training per major rank - representing mastery of fieldwork and bureaucracy versus mastery of leadership and ... well, different kinds of bureaucracy, for example - and one "personality" Training per major paradigm shift - representing major hobbies, passions, and priorities.

To somewhat reflect the greater value of Trainings, I've increased their relative xp cost. The intention is that you should be able to use some primary "occupation" for about half your rolls, and two or three fallback options on each side of the split - and at that point, you should have a skill for any scenario that's not completely outside your specialty. They're not quite as valuable as Attributes, but they're getting close. I'm basically fine with this, for the above reasons - less resolution outside of magic means more focus on the magic.

Spheres, Magic, and General Rolling

As mentioned above, casting uses Panopticon Quest's Arete/Enlightenment + Sphere rolls. Unfortunately, checking the statistics of this dicepool reveals that just setting the base difficulty, before epic feats and whatnot, to the Sphere level of the effect, means that I can't use the pre-written difficulties and Devices according to their naive adaptations. Playing with anydice a little, I found that setting the base difficulty to (Sphere - 1) and letting everyone double 10s whenever they show up works at TN 7. In order to keep things simple, the latter two rules apply to everything.

(As a side note, specialties for four-dot Traits still exist; they just add one extra dice to relevant rolls.)

Fast-casting difficulties are not a thing, because buying Rotes with xp is going to be rather rare in this game; instead, you get a difficulty break if you do buy the Rote and you can already cast the effect. Extra dice from augment skills and extra success from augment magic are not capped. Unlike in Creation, where this could a create a rather nasty Elder Problem, '99 and the Ascension War keeping whatever's left of the Elders busy means that this mostly just balances out, I think?

Extended Rituals (and Wards)

Any time you want to cast a ritual, separate the difficulty of the effect into internal penalties and external penalties. You have to beat (and subtract!) internal penalties from every roll you make, but you can build up successes to beat external ones. In general, external penalties represent the difficulty of the task - trying to find someone in a massive search space, or building a massive and complex construction project - while internal penalties represent the difficulty of the casting - finicky rituals, distraction during casting, working a material that resists alteration (like Primium and lesser derivatives). Wards can count as either, depending on context.

Spoiler: Wards

In fact, that deserves a little elaboration. As written, anybody who can average better than two successes on Enlightenment + Corr can eventually watch Senex in his bathtub (assuming he doesn't put up active wards that murder you for trying, but that's not the problem here), but it takes a whopping five successes just to make a magic sniper rifle - because wards count as external penalties that negate final successes, but Corr table difficulties count as internal penalties that increase target number in core.

So! I'm going to split wards into three general categories:shields, which are just ablative barriers between point A and point B, bans, which try to keep various magic out of an area (or concept, or away from a piece of Data, or whatever) but don't fail if they're bypassed, and cloaks, which try to keep an area from being found in the first place. The first two are generally of the form Corr 3/(Sphere) 2 when they're not just outright Matter; the latter are generally pure Corr (or alternate Spheres.) Cloaks are always an internal penalty; if Senex has set up a ten-success cloak on his location, then at minimum you're going to need to get ten successes to scry him, even if you have his blood or whatever. (If he wasn't over Enlightenment 5 this might not actually be true, since it's possible that having his blood would deny him his focus for his ward.) Shields, meanwhile, are always an external penalty - knock down the wall and you're through.

Bans, on the other hand, vary. Directly casting their targeted magic through a ban turns it into an internal penalty; the interior of the space rejects your effect and you have to force it through with every roll. However, scrying - or more importantly, Chaining - through a ban is an external penalty. If you take the time to set up a Correspondence link first, then you can ignore a ban entirely. Think with portals.

Successes required by a Correspondence table now fit right in as bans. If you're trying to directly cast over a really crappy sympathetic link, it's an internal penalty; if you're trying to Chain it, it's an external penalty and you can build up successes.

... Okay, looking back on that, that's kind of ridiculously complicated and I don't think the thing I was trying to express actually needed it. This bit can probably be simplified. The takeaway is that "battering" is external, "where the hell is it" is internal, and "my wifi sucks" is internal if you're trying to brute force something through it and external if you're trying to fix it.

Enhancements and Devices

Shamelessly cribbed MJ's notes and merged his ideas, with a bit of my own flavor.

Both Device/Wonder and Enhancement are double-cost. Device is as written, which appears to be "two background points for Devices per dot, plus one." Enhancement has approximately double that effectiveness: halve the costs of all Devices bought as augmentations before checking against your Enhancement rating (round down). Your first two dots (eight to ten points) of cyberware do not grant permanent Paradox, instead granting the Paradox Flaw attached to all cybernetic enhancement. Your first dot (four to six points) of implanted bioware do not grant permanent Paradox either, under a lesser version of the cybernetic flaw that does only one additional aggravated damage - because it should totally be possible for a Life mage to give you fatal allergies, and that should totally be easier if you really do have alien tissue in you.

As a miscellaneous piece of errata, both the exomuscle and the exoskeleton have double their listed cost. Meanwhile, buying an ADEI is free: the rather minor benefits it provides are more than paid for by their incursion of the cybernetic Paradox Flaw.

Convention/Tradition Bonuses

This is something I introduced because it seemed kind of weird that all Backgrounds cost the same for all factions, when their applicable resources and specialties are so totally different. Every Convention or Tradition now gets four dots worth of faction-appropriate Background or Merit for free.

Technocratic Union: Resources (Enlightenment + 1)
NWO: Master of Red Tape
Progenitor: Enhancement 2, to be spent on Convention-appropriate augs. (Gengineering counts.)
Iteration X: Enhancement 2, to be spent on Convention-appropriate augs, and a free ADEI.
Syndicate: Four additional dots of Resources (stacks with Technocracy faction bonus)
Void Engineer: Node 4

Traditions: Chantry (Enlightenment)
Akashic Brotherhood: Do 2, Martial Arts 1
Celestial Chorus: Revelation 4 - Dream, renamed and refluffed
Cult of Ecstasy: Wonder 2, to be spent on a Tradition-appropriate drug stash.
Dreamspeakers: Mentor 4
Euthanatos: Destiny 4
Order of Hermes: Library 4
Sons of Ether: Wonder 2, to be spent on Tradition-appropriate Artifacts. Steampunk is recommended.
Verbena: Sanctum 4
Virtual Adepts: Wonder 2, to be spent on a custom ADEI or similar digital interface.

Experience Points

Last, but most certainly not least: experience points. These are running on a tiered system, preserving some of the effects of the quadratic system (encouraging breadth over depth, making mastery rare) without quite making building up the experience for the last few dots quite so intensely frustrating (particularly in short-ish campaigns.)

In general, the first half (round up) of a trait cost some base value; the second half cost double that. In other words, for everything except Trainings and Talents, the first three dots cost X points and the last two cost 2X points. T/Ts cost X for the first two and 2X for the last one. Willpower just starts at 5 dots for simplicity (can you even be a Mage with Willpower less than 5?). Certain Backgrounds that can go over 5 just keep gaining factors in the same way: 6-8 are 3X points and 9-10 are 4X points.

The base values for traits are essentially canonical, with few modifications:

Talents: 2xp
Trainings: 3xp
Attributes: 4xp
Sphere (sp): 7xp
Sphere (etc): 8xp
Arete/Enlightenment: 12xp (*)
Background: 3xp
Merit (if applicable): 2xp

(*) Arete and Enlightenment are a little special. Track your experience since your last Seeking: you need to have earned enough experience to be able to buy your next dot of Arete before undergoing a Seeking. However, you are not actually charged for this dot, and are free to spend your experience elsewhere. This is just to provide a mechanical reason to not sprint through your first five dots in as many sessions. The sixth dot does not actually "cost" any more experience beyond the usual triple-base, but should absolutely have the greatest roleplaying requirement.

 

[Revlid]

What interests me is that they're releasing this book when Vampire and Demon are in 2e, and Mage and Werewolf are on the verge, but everything else is still in 1e and has at most been greenlit for conversion.

So either Changeling, Promethean etc are going to be using 1e rules in the same book that Vampire and Demon are using 2e rules... or else no-one but Vampires and Demons get concrete mechanics?

I dunno, given the interest the fanbase has shown in a huge variety of eras, it almost feels like it would have been better to do a core book of Vampire/Mage/Werewolf Dark Eras, three chapters each. Tudor Vampires, Prohibition Vampires, Qin Vampires. New York 70s Werewolves, Viking Werewolves, Mesoamerican Conquest Werewolves. Hellenistic Mages, Neolithic Mages, British Hong Kong Mages. Demons can come too. Then you've got a nice buffer for the other 2e splatbooks to be released so you can do them without mechanical issues, too.

Well, whatever. Possibly hindsight, possibly they've thought of something clever, possibly just errata.

...

Anyway, while digging around my hard drive, I found some old homebrew material for a Changeling character I played quite a while back - the cleaner for an Autumn Court hitsquad ostensibly put together to take out fetches. Anyway, this one set of Contracts only needed a little bit of dusting off, so I decided to post it here, despite 2e being firmly on the horizon.

Jesse, let's cook.


CONTRACTS OF ALEMBIC
Thought to have been first forged somewhere in the Middle-East, where the Courts change with the passage of hours, the Contracts of the Alembic allow changelings to work wonders of alchemy that rely more on narrative convention than atomic law. Particularly popular among the wizened, these powers rely on use of a lab space, and reward some fairly erratic behaviour - as such, alchemists tend to work alone, in inhospitable but well-stocked laboratory-Hollows. This position does little to improve their sanity, perceived or otherwise.

Though these Contracts often refer to "potions" and similar terms, they have no bias in favour of liquid - or even edible - products. Balms and oils, pellets and powders, even incense and smokables are all valid ways in which the alchemist's art can manifest itself.

Universal Modifiers: All but the first of these clauses require the use of chemical equipment, whether modern distillation tanks or a home-made pestle and mortar, and apply equipment modifiers to the Contract's dice pool. Specialties in "Alchemy", "Chemistry" or similar areas are always considered applicable to these activation rolls, regardless of the Skill they are associated with.

Extended actions produced by these Contracts consist of a number of intervals no greater than the changeling's Science. These are distributed throughout the process according to the Storyteller's discretion. He can also add a +1 or +2 bonus by doubling or tripling the amount of time the process takes, taking especial care over his concoctions. Further extensions offer no benefit.


LITMUS TONGUE (•)

Spoiler

The changeling divines the entire chemical makeup of an object or substance with but a taste.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Wits
Action: Instant
Catch: The Contract must be used to analyze something that is dangerous to the changeling when ingested. This offers no protection against the substance, and the applicability (or not) of this clause cannot be used to determine a substance's safety ahead of time.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The changeling is completely mistaken about the recipe of whatever he's tasting, drawing misleading or even dangerous conclusions.
Failure: The character learns nothing concrete.
Success: The character intuits the substance's composition - every present element, mixture, compound and so on. He also learns the proportions in which they are present, and the nature of their inclusion - contamination as opposed to coating, for example.
Exceptional Success: Along with its composition, the changeling also learns the details of the substance's creation - how long it was heated at what temperature, what tools were used to distil or smelt or glaze it, and so on.
Suggested Modifiers:
+1 The character swallows at least a full mouthful of the substance.
+1 The changeling is familiar with the substance's fundamental ingredients.

GENIUS OF IMPROVISATION (••)

Spoiler

The changeling can replace ingredients in his brews with implausible substitutes, whether replacing Sudafed with gravel when cooking up drugs or using paper in place of apples for a hot pie. Only mundane ingredients can be replaced in this way.
Cost: 1 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Science
Action: Instant
Catch: Every time the changeling has made something using the replaced ingredient in the past month, he's used this same substitute to replace it.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The substitution appears to work perfectly, only to totally spoil the mixture in some unforeseeable way - beverages become poisons, explosives become stink bombs.
Failure: The Contract fails to function, and the added item clearly retains its usual properties.
Success: The added ingredient perfectly replaces whatever the original recipe called for. It does not transform, but simply gains all the appropriate properties for that recipe. These properties only manifest as part of a greater mixture, and last for only (Wyrd) days after the concoction's completion, before the ingredient returns to normal.
Exceptional Success: The altered recipe retains its intended properties indefinitely.
Suggested Modifiers:
-1 Other ingredients have been substituted with this Contract (-1 each).
+1 The changeling is experienced with this recipe, regardless of substitutions.

ELEMENTARY DISTILLATION (•••)

Spoiler

The changeling can reduce any object down to one of its constituent substances through an arcane alchemical process. This can involve anything from boiling to sun-drying andtakes no fewer than (object's Size) hours, but is fairly low-intensity and can be left mostly alone between intervals. Objects with a Size greater than the changeling's Wyrd + Intelligence + Craft cannot be processed.
Cost: (object's Size ÷ 4) Glamour, rounded up
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Craft + equipment
Action: Extended
Catch: The changeling intends to use the product of this Contract as an ingredient in another mixture.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The object is violently wasted, yielding nothing but a useless, half-recognizable mess of rust and hedge-mud which damages the changeling's equipment beyond use.
Failure: The object breaks down into an unusable, half-dissolved mess.
Success: The intended material is extracted from its parent object in whatever (physically possible) form the changeling desires - powder, crystals, liquid solution, etc - reducing the latter to an unidentifiable stain in the process. Only substances that actually exist within the treated object can be extracted - this Contract does not create matter, just retrieve it. Common materials such as iron, glass or rubber require two successes to distil. Rarer or more precious materials such as gold, uranium or diamonds require five successes.
Exceptional Success: At the last moment the changeling spots a rare reaction, and can capture its product instead of the material he originally intended to extract. This substance is some ethereal quality of the original object, captured in a physical form - crystallized crimson, or liquid sharpness. Though useless for practical craft, such things can fetch a price at Goblin Markets or be used in hedgespinning.
Suggested Modifiers:
+2 The distilling equipment is large enough to fully encompass or submerge the object.
+1 The changeling has Clarity lower than five.
-2 The object is not even half-way submerged or encompassed by the distilling gear.
-1 The changeling has a Clarity higher than five.

THE GREAT WORK (••••)

Spoiler

The changeling can produce potions and tinctures with the same effect as the mystical bounty of the Hedge (Changeling: The Lost, pp. 222). He can duplicate any he has so far encountered, or create effects original to him with sufficient research. This process requires eight successes and takes no less than three hours of undisturbed work.
Cost: 2 Glamour + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Occult + equipment
Action: Extended
Catch: The character is working in the Hedge, alone except for any hobgoblin assistants.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The synthetic "fruit" has all the downsides - and none of the benefits - of its "natural" equivalent. If it has normally has no downsides, the Storyteller may invent a suitable one, or else choose one from another fruit.
Failure: Despite the changeling's best efforts, his creation is at best harmless.
Success: The changeling has managed to concoct a compound with a magical effect equivalent to a goblin fruit, oddment or trifle. The logic of the imitated token must remain intact - a Stingseed might be an Arcadian-derived chemical for use in dart rounds, while a Gravenail would be a Hedge-perfume sprinkled on a pillow. He can also spend a point of Willpower to allow mortals to make use of it. These tokens do not spoil as fruits and oddments do, but still count against the usual limit that can be carried (1 for mortals).
Exceptional Success: The creation is particularly concentrated, allowing it to be used twice. This does not increase the number of "slots" it occupies.
Suggested Modifiers:
+5 The changeling uses an existing fruit, oddment or trifle with the same qualities as a component in his brew.
+2 The changeling has Clarity lower than five.
-2 The changeling's Clarity is higher than five.
-1 Exclusively mundane ingredients are in use.

CAULDRON FOR A WOMB (•••••)

Spoiler

The changeling can derive artificial life from his experiments, incubating something that could pass for a soul within his beakers and vats. This requires one week of largely uninterrupted work, and ten successes. Creating life with this Contract is a Clarity 5 Sin.
Cost: 5 Glamour
Dice Pool: Wyrd + Occult + equipment
Action: Extended
Catch: At each roll the changeling makes, he must include a lethal health level's worth of flesh or blood from a different changeling.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The homunculus is born as described below, built by the Storyteller with successes equal to the changeling's Wyrd x 4. However, more than a hobgoblin, it ultimately resembles a Fetch. It naturally hates its creator for bringing it into existence, and can include any Echoes as though they were Contracts with a dot rating equal to their minimum Wyrd - treat the creator as "its" changeling.
Failure: The clause fails, producing nothing but unsightly sludge of half-formed inhuman organs.
Success: A synthetic hobgoblin stumbles from the changeling's workshop. It resembles a stunted human, with other qualities determined by the ingredients used - which always includes at least one Flaw. Its traits are determined by the player at its birth, though the alchemist should have a general idea while incubating it - it begins with 1 dot in every Attribute, Size 1 and no Skills. Successes are spent to increase these values, up to the usual maximum for a human, at a rate of two per Attribute and one per Skill, Size or Specialty. As its name suggests, a homunculus cannot be bigger than Size 4. It is Wyrd 1, though it can only regain Glamour through artificial versions of the Hedge's bounty, created through this Contract. It has the qualities of a single Seeming appropriate to its ingredients, and can be born with innate powers derived from the flesh of any fae creatures used to make it - these are represented by Contracts, at a cost of three successes per Contract dot. It is naturally loyal to its creator, but is ultimately an independent being - if sufficiently maltreated, it will consider betrayal. Most do not live long enough for this to become an issue, as the creature's natural lifespan is one year.
Exceptional Success: A truly brilliant creation is formed - the extra successes are their own reward.
Suggested Modifiers:
+3 A sapient creature was used as a primary ingredient, freshly killed for that purpose.
+2 The changeling has Clarity lower than five.
-3 The ingredients include no flesh or blood from a sapient creature.
-2 The changeling's Clarity is higher than five.