Mage the ascension: A Storytelling Game of Philosophical Knife-Fights
The basic premise is that reality does not operate by any set law. Rather, reality exists by certain laws because mankind believes it exists by certain laws. Each average human, or "Sleeper," perceives the world in certain terms, and these terms go to the consensus make-up of reality. Except, that is, for mages. Mages are humans who've Awakened: They've realized the truth of the world, and have the ability to reshape it to their will.
A few things stand between mages and the magical playground of reality, of course. First, there are the competing paradigms: Every mage understands magic in different terms (be it "hyper-advanced science," "the divine emanations of the Almighty," or "the Old Ways"), so trying to get any two mages to agree on anything is tricky. But they kind of have to, because of the second reason: The Technocracy. Long ago, when the mages actually did have their magical playground, there were a few too many getting their Sorcerous Overlord on and making life even harder for the hapless majority of Muggles. In response, a group of scholars/knights/builders/etc decided to team up as the Order of Reason and fight the sorcerers (and vampires, and were-things and evil spirits, and so on) with Science/Art/Religion/Not Magic to make the world better for the average Joe and Jane. Well, they won— And in the process they went a tad too far, until they had largely succeeded in stamping out any other reality save the non-magical worldview they endorsed. The thing is that the technocracy is also mages, their enlightened science is just as much magick as everything else. Also your tv, car and camputer is also magic and created by the technocrats.
This leads to the final hurdle between the mages and their goals: Paradox. Do anything that's too explicitly magic, flaunt your ability to alter the way things have become, and Reality will smack you down and smack you down hard.
Personally speaking. I find the core of mage is not "what will work" but "what should work". A Luddite fantasy would be as utopian as a state run by a supercomputer. All this stuff about painting the Union, or the Traditions, good or evil gets in the way of that. In my vision the ascension war started something like this:
All the different Mages showing up to a big meeting somewhere and the Order of Reason unveils their new discovery: Reality is governed by consensus. Everyone loves it, they all agree that for the average person life sucks and now they can fix that.
The Chorister says that they can build a world where Miracles are common and God personally watches over each virtuous soul. Miracles will no longer belong to the Awakened Chorister but to everyone!
The Order of Reason disagree, they say that by making a world that runs on fundamental mechanical principles you will be able to build machines that exploit these principles. Power can be mass produced and given to the public.
The Hermetics like the idea of a universe where anyone can have power, but feel it should require some effort for power without learning is power used unwisely. They propose a world where anyone could go to magic university: Power for everyone who wants to put the effort in gaining the required wisdom.
Ten minutes later the first fireball is thrown.
Magick
Magick is, of course, the heart and focus of this entire game. It is the
primary tool of every Mage. It is the means by which they can break,
alter or re-write the reality of their universe.
There are nine Spheres of Magick, each with its own Sphere stat.
The Spheres can be used individually, or combined for really neat effects.
The Spheres are as follows:
➢ Correspondence: Control over locations.
➢ Entropy: Control over decay.
➢ Forces: Control over energy and forces.
➢ Life: Control over life forms.
➢ Matter: Control over inanimate matter.
➢ Mind: Control over the mind, both the Mage's and others'.
➢ Prime: Control over Quintessence, the stuff of Magick itself.
➢ Spirit: Control over Spirits and the Spirit Realms.
➢ Time: Control over time.
There are rumours of a tenth Sphere, with each Tradition holding out on
their own theories on such, but nothing has ever been discovered on that
subject.
Static vs. Dynamic Magick
Magickal effects are either Static (Coincidental) or Dynamic (Vulgar). A
Static effect could be explained away: A lucky coincidence, stage magic, or
so on. A Dynamic effect is something that is obviously impossible.
The classic example of Static vs. Dynamic magick: A Mage decides to
use Forces to fry a target with electricity.
➢ The Vulgar version: the Mage winds up and lets fly with a lightning bolt.
All the non-Mages standing around say, “Hey! That's not possible!”
Paradox descends on the luckless Mage.
➢ The Static version: an electrical cable above the target breaks, and falls
on his head. “Bad luck for him,” say all the non-Mages around. Paradox
says, “Huh? Did I miss something?”
The difference between the two is crucial to a Mage. Non-Mages
(known as Sleepers) still slightly influence reality, but they all do it in mostly
the same way. Trying to fight against the ingrained beliefs of six billion
people, so you can impose your own will on the universe, is rather difficult.
Therefore, Static Magick is easier to use, and less likely to go
catastrophically wrong. Dynamic Magick is much more difficult, especially if
there are Sleeper witnesses, and can cause Paradox. There is not a single
Mage out there who wants to deal with Paradox.
The Technocracy: our heroes
What is the technocracy? The technocracy is the conspiracy that wants to create a stabile reality that works on hard and absolute rules so that everyone can have power, learn techniques and use devices that makes their lives better.
The Technocracy has "technology": spaceships, cybernetics, genetic engineering, and a lot of other stuff that looks like science fiction. Most of their enemies do "magic": they keep genies in rings, summon storms by chanting the right prayer, or do other things that look like fantasy. Ultimately subverted: the mages will tell you that the the Technocracy still uses magic, it's just that their magic has been accepted as common knowledge by the public, and the Technocrats will tell you that "magic" is just wild applied para-science created by people who don't understand the forces they touch. The truth is, the metaphysics underlying magic and science are exactly the same, and both "science" and "magic" are pretty inaccurate terms to describe the primal energy that shapes reality.
The different factions of the Technocracy are:
NEW WORLD ORDER: Once a combination of many sects, this unified and uniform Convention polices information and it’s dispersal. Their greatest weapons are blackmail, espionage and psychological programming through the subconscious. Their specialty influence is Mind. The NWO host the ubiquitous Men in Black called Operatives, Watchers manage them and report to the political and information superstructure of the Technocracic Union, the White Tower of Langueadoc.
ITERATION X: Machines have always defined Man, and Tools are his birthright to change his Reality. Iteration X, also known as the Clockwork Convention, has always dedicated itself to developing the best tools for humanity to reach its potential. They hold sway over the sphere of Matter, and with their advances in Information Technology (also pioneered by the rogue Virtual Adepts), Iteration X has created nearly every Device used by any Agent today. Their Dimensional Base, Autocthonia holds The Computer, a sentient machine the Convention created on a small planetoid that achieved sentience at the Xth iteration of its algorithms. Their Time-Motion Managers are logistics experts, and can construct futuristic structures, and locate perfect demolition sites. The Statisticians predict future possibilities with computer generated models and mathematical formulae. The BioMechanics are the designers of the HITMark X and previous editions, as well as all the cybernetic utilities and AI’s in use by Union Personnel.
SYNDICATE: Time is Money, Money is Power. With both these things The Syndicate’s network of business executives and Grand Financiers move nations with calculators. Stretching back to the first Guilds, these financial wizards have become a leading player in Union politics and the driving factor behind many missions before the storm was The Bottom Line. Their specialty sphere is Entropy, and their weapons are as subtle as the death and chaos that their attacks can cause. Criminals, Politicians, and Corporate Chairmen are all pulled by the paradigm of the Money Convention. Disbursments and Media Control do the grunt work of PR and paying those who the Union needs to do its work. Financiers manipulate markets and sometimes accompany high risk missions when the Bottom Line has enough to gain from it. Enforcers protect the Conventions interests, and use security companies and Gangsters of all stripes to harass those who don’t pay.
PROGENITORS: Life is what we are all about really. From the tiniest protozoa to Homo Sapiens, we are all biological. The Progenitors have studied Biology before they could discuss their thoughts in the daylight. Advanced pharmaceuticals, Biotech implant organs, and cutting edge genetic manipulation are the tools of their Convention. The FAÇADE Engineers generate cloned troops for the Union and operate the research facilities where the Genegineers create biological monsters, and implants that can increase strength, stamina and perception. The Pharmacopiests advance medicines and stimulants to help supplement the human body. Their specialty sphere is Life.
VOID ENGINEERS: Space; it’s now what the Atlantic Ocean was during the Age of Sail, and what the outside of the Cave was to primitive man. These brave souls have always sought the unkown through exploration. Space Cruisers and numerous Orbital Platforms make up the bulk of the Union Fleet; although, the Explorers have been hit hardest by the Avatar Storm. They are eager to get back out into space now that the storm is quiet, though many of the old installations have been overrun by deviants or Outsiders. The Pan Dimensional Corps fights to protect humanity from afar; in alternate reality strings and in the rigors of Deep Space with energy pulse rifles and the best genetic implants that money can buy. The Border Defense Corps operates as the Earth-side companion to the PDC, and the Neutralization Specialist Corps eliminate Union enemies out in the void. Research and Execution help coordinate the effort with the latest ships and drive technology to propel humanity from its cradle and into its birthright. Their specialty sphere is Dimensional Science.
But how do I come up with a concept for a technocrat?
One way is taking stuff that actually can be done, but pushing it well into the range of what people in the field would consider absurd. Pick a reasonable basic "job", and figure out how that person can do it impossibly well. Always have a very loosely plausible scientific justification.
Most stuff on CSI-style shows, for instance. Maybe even the absurd aspect of technicians who should have a very limited role and powers being both competent and empowered to question suspects and carry out investigations.
A Syndicate analyst coming back after a couple of hours and saying something like, "So, I crunched through credit card transactions for the district, and after doing a few transforms on the major trends and certain key transaction types, I identified a nexus of activity. Or actually non-activity, in some ways. Anyway, somewhere in the basement of this building, there's a long-standing socioeconomic input cluster. Yes, a node, but of a particular...nah, that's not important. What's important is I'm sure there's at least three Reality Deviants guarding it. I think they're well supplied, and my colleague in the dashing dark suit has constructed speculative dossiers that suggest they're very prone to violence."
The guy who walks into the office of a company, looking as if he belongs, and hangs out for a day, randomly talking to people and getting pulled into meetings and discussions. By the end of the day, nobody's caught his name and the company's been either saved or destroyed by the effects rippling out of his interactions.
Crazy super-spy gadgets and activities. I think the likes of 007, Mission: Impossible, La Femme Nikita, all get mentioned in that book. Specials Ops teams with ridiculously high success rates and absurdly low casualty rates. CQC experts who effortlessly take down normal opponents and stand impossibly good chances against vampires and werewolves.
Looking at a crowd of people from fifty feet away and realizing, purely from one person's posture and gait, that she's carrying several well-concealed weapons and has at least two armed confederates elsewhere in the crowd.
Throwing caution to the wind and going all Scanners on someone for a very vulgar effect, if psionics is a PC's shtick.
Character creation
This is really easy, take a look at the character sheet below and fill it out by following the instructions. Focus is what your technocrat will use to bend reality, this can be things like psychology, math, robotics and so on, take a look at the last chapter if you need ideas.
Name:
Convention:
Focus:
Attributes (Prioritize 5/7/3)
Power
Finesse
Resistance
Health: 5 + Resistance
Spheres (One at three, two at two, one at one. Plus the free + one according to convention)
Entropy:
Mind:
Time:
Forces:
Spirit:
Life:
Matter:
Prime:
Correspondence:
How do I actually play?
You want to do something? You roll a number of six sided dice equal to the atribute that is most relevant. So if you want to seduce someone you roll finess, if you want to keep from screaming out everything you know when the verbena witch takes a blow-torch to your face you roll resistance and if you want to bash in a door you roll power. All dice coming up 5 or 6 is a sucess. You ordinarily only need one dice to succed at something but the story teller may be a son of a bitch and tell you that you need more.
Want to do something magical? You say what you want to do and determine which sphere and atribute is relevant and if the effect is static or vulgar. You roll a number of six sided dice equal to the atribute that is most relevant plus the sphere that is most relevant. If you want to use two spheres you use the lower number. All dice coming up 5 or 6 is a sucess. You ordinarily only need one dice to succed at something but the story teller may be a son of a bitch and tell you that you need more. If your magic is static and comes up with no succeses and one or more 1 you get hit by paradox and something bad happens. If your magic is vulgar and one or more dice comes up a 1 something bad happens. The more 1:s the worse the thing are.
What if I am in a fight? The guy who says he attack first attack first. He can then attack you either mundanly and roll his power atribut or with some direct magical attack. You can then roll you resistance to block or your finess to dodge if those things are possible or roll an atriute plus the apropriate sphere to throw up a magical defense. For every attack against you except for the first one you get minus one dice to the roll. The diference between the attackers number of succeces is how much damage the defender takes if the attacker have more succeses. Some attacks there is no mundane defense against, it is kinda hard to block or dodge sinking into the ground when the floor you are standing on turns to quick-sand. Likewise, if you do not have the correct magical defense you are just fucked in some situations.
