oMage v. nMage

General questions, debates, and rants about RPGs

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Voss
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Post by Voss »

hyzmarca wrote:
virgil wrote:Man, I remember the debates early in my gaming career on the whole Vampire vs Mage thing. I argued about the explicit option for a mage to make his flashlight count as true sunlight, while the vampire-lover said the vampire burning was vulgar to send the mage into Quiet AND it wouldn't work because the mage would get eaten by an Elder.

We even did the age-old technique guaranteed to settle all debate, we each made starting-level vampires and mages to duel each other.
Did you remember that converting a sphere of lead into a sphere of uranium-238 of the same diameter is possible using matter 2, and teleporting that sphere is possible using Correspondence 2? And that doing both at the same time could easily be mistaken for an unknown suicide bomber activating a suitcase nuke?

A flashlight that burns vamps might be vulgar, but the Technocracy has already established nuclear weapons as part of the Consensus. And it's so easy to make them.
You've touched on some of the stupid, irritating and downright irrational aspects of the game all at once. And it goes really deep. Plus the whole 'what level is it' aspect (as I doubt most storytellers would accept matter 2 for that).

But a nuke is coincidental, because it fits the technocratic paradigm (except possibly in rural third-world countries, a concept the books explicitly raise)- but only if it is constructed and deployed as a nuke. Just summoning a nuclear explosion isn't coincidental. Except, maybe having a suitable prop and yelling "Bomb!" might make it coincidental. And thats where the observer bullshit comes in. Hell, I've seen Mage arguments that involve setting up a fake movie team and describing shit as 'special effects' makes things coincidental, despite the fact that anything outlandish would be added in post production- not in the shot.

And of course, none of this gets into the fact that the stuff the technocracy actually uses is all future tech bullshit which doesn't actually work, but is somehow kind of accepted as coincidental anyway. Complete fucking mess.

On the other end of the scale, using much the same argument a fucking lighter or possibly even matches qualify as 'magick.' Cellphones as a forces effect (soundwaves and electricity) and so on and so forth. If you wander out of the technocratic paradigm, particularly in an umbral realm more attuned to one of the traditions, flicking a damn lighter should be a magickal effect, and that is damn difficult to grasp, because, well, fucking fire mastery is dawn of sapience tech.

As powergaming goes, being an independent (I forget what the equivalent of 'caitiff' mages are called, but they're out there) who uses generic technomagic is one of the most ridiculous exploits in the game, because done right, nearly everything is coincidental.

Of course, for starting characters just having a gun is always superior to trying to do direct damage (at least in oWoD, simply because the magic dice pools are ridiculously small in the older versions - being straight Arete rolls, which are supposed to be no more than 3 for starting characters.


Koumei, don't be silly- 4e D&D is sailor moon, what with the laser clerics, paladins and warlocks. Sailor Moon doesn't have the roiling focus on self-hartred and social disgust that mage would require.
Last edited by Voss on Sat Aug 03, 2013 3:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Whipstitch »

These Planescape and WW screeds are oddly reassuring to me. I was pretty young when this shit came out and frankly had fairly low self-esteem, so I vaguely remember reading this crap and thinking maybe I wasn't getting it or something because I felt like the Bleakers and Technocracy kinda had a point. These days, it's just really obvious that the writers were pants-on-head retarded in ways that even a 13 year old can start picking up on.
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Post by Voss »

Whipstitch wrote:These Planescape and WW screeds are oddly reassuring to me. I was pretty young when this shit came out and frankly had fairly low self-esteem, so I vaguely remember reading this crap and thinking maybe I wasn't getting it or something because I felt like the Bleakers and Technocracy kinda had a point. These days, it's just really obvious that the writers were pants-on-head retarded in ways that even a 13 year old can start picking up on.
Some of it really seems like they got excessively caught up in modern atrocities, and don't have the historical knowledge to understand that really horrible things happened in the past as well. And that none of the benefits of modern society (particularly in health, communication and a growing belief that treating people like shit is bad) actually happened or outweigh the bad things.

This is particularly true for werewolf and mage, which sort of try to have larger themes, while the other WoD games are supremely self-indulgent. But the way they handle the large themes is fairly questionable at best. Partly because it is a fairly thin veneer of pop psychology and pop philosophy, but also, like with werewolf, you're left with the uncomfortable feeling that 5 square acres of forest really are supposed to be worth the lives of several hundred if not several thousand humans. And possibly that fucking dogs is a reasonable lifestyle choice, or at least more socially acceptable than being even vaguely associated with the oil industry.
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Post by TheFlatline »

Surgo wrote:I'll be honest here, this whole thing has made oMage sound like a blast to play as a short-term campaign.
If you had a good-natured MC it was a lot of fun. Problem is, White Wolf was the "Serious business" RPG company, and the odds of you getting a good-natured MC were kind of slim.
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Post by Lokathor »

Frank Trollman wrote:nMage manages to have game mechanics that you can't possibly hope to know, not by constantly changing them, but simply by having the mechanics be so long and complicated that neither you nor anyone else can ever hope to master them. On top of the core rulebook of 222 pages, nMage provides a magic chapter (covering much of the magic system) that is 186 pages of dense print. There's just no fucking way that anyone ever figured out what the fuck was going on or how anything was supposed to work. Keep in mind: it's turtles all the way down. We have a half dozen people writing this thing under the direction of a baker's dozen of ego maniacs. There never was a coherent vision, and no amount of deep reading of this thing will ever unravel its mysteries. The contradictions simply are.
Oh come on it's not that hard. Now, admittedly, it's more like the old DnD books where they give you most of a game and then your group at your table fills in the rest somehow, so that each table is playing it slightly differently in the end, but this isn't some super hard esoteric RPG here.

Or maybe my aspergers gives me accidental supreme mastery of nMage, but I don't think that's the case.
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Post by Whipstitch »

Voss wrote:Some of it really seems like they got excessively caught up in modern atrocities, and don't have the historical knowledge to understand that really horrible things happened in the past as well. And that none of the benefits of modern society (particularly in health, communication and a growing belief that treating people like shit is bad) actually happened or outweigh the bad things.
It really didn't help that my family is mostly a bunch of former military personnel or medical professionals and that I was sent to a Catholic private school in which multiple faculty members had experience doing labor intensive missionary work--sometimes it felt like every major adult figure in my life had some sort of "And that's why the little children shit themselves to death" story to share if you got them talking long enough about life outside of the first world. I'm honestly not sure what kind of paradigm you could possibly set up that could turn me against plumbing, even just for pretend.
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Post by Rawbeard »

hyzmarca wrote:A flashlight that burns vamps might be vulgar, but the Technocracy has already established nuclear weapons as part of the Consensus. And it's so easy to make them.
Actually nukes are a sleeper inventions. Mages, technocrats or not, had nothing to do with it. Still a Flashlight that burns vamps was used in so many stupid movies, it shouldn't be a problem.
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Post by Username17 »

Ice9 wrote:Unless I totally misread it, people in nMage don't have a "spirit" - buildings and roads and shit have spirits; people have minds, and might leave behind a ghost when they die. Mages also have a Prime pattern thingy. People might also have souls, but there's no magic that interacts with that. So - still excessive, just not quite as much.
I'm guessing you totally missed it. As we mentioned in the main comparison post, "Soul Jar" is a spell on both the Death list and the Spirit list. It creates a jar that you can put souls into. You can also look at peoples' souls with Death 1, and you can split parts of your soul off into "Soul Stones" (basically horcruxes). You can also pull a soul out of someone's body, leaving them as a mind and a body without a soul with Death 3 (using the spell "Sever the Sleeping Soul").

Your soul (as interacted with by the Death arcana for the most part) is basically like your conscience. Like the souls in Angel.
nMage wrote:In rules terms, each week that a character’s soul is gone, he loses a dot of Wisdom (Morality for mortals).
But this is totally different from a person's "aura" which is generated by its "resonance", which is a Prime thing. And the Spirit arcana also has a bunch of stuff that interacts with Souls, some of which do so in a different context to the souls described in Death. For example, you have an "Awakened Soul", which is the thing that makes you a mage, and that's different from both your Mind and your soul that keeps you from kicking puppies. In that you can keep having it while you are degenerating for lack of a soul. This is the soul that the Spirit Arcana uses with the spell "Soul Bonding" to share power with a familiar.

Also there are "shadow souls" which are like souls that are made (rather than born) out of ephemera from the shadow realm. These require Death and Spirit to fuck with, and thus people normally do not bother. But that's also totally a thing.

Bottom line: as a Death/Spirit/Prime/Mind caster, you would actually have four distinct non-material selves that you could fuck with in incredibly poorly defined ways.

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Post by virgil »

Voss wrote:Of course, for starting characters just having a gun is always superior to trying to do direct damage (at least in oWoD, simply because the magic dice pools are ridiculously small in the older versions - being straight Arete rolls, which are supposed to be no more than 3 for starting characters.
Hot damn, one of my friends did well with that in a campaign he told me about. He used almost all of his magic just toward buffing; because even the more anal Storytellers would admit that being more accurate/damaging with a gun is coincidental. As that campaign's Storyteller was mixing it with Vampires (he was the only player interested in being a Mage), everything died.

AND the actual dice penalties and risks from doing occasional vulgar magic was entirely exaggerated. After all the soaks and such were done, he smacked a room by turning all of the shadows into true sunlight, and suffered like 3 boxes of damage from the Paradox.
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Post by Username17 »

virgil wrote: AND the actual dice penalties and risks from doing occasional vulgar magic was entirely exaggerated. After all the soaks and such were done, he smacked a room by turning all of the shadows into true sunlight, and suffered like 3 boxes of damage from the Paradox.
This is an anecdote. Other anecdotes exist of mages exploding also exist. And this is unsurprising because the paradox category your spell counts as is determined by the Storyteller after you cast and before you roll. And the paradox category can in fact include doubling and redoubling the values that the dice generate. And the dice are really swingy.

So if the player took 3 damage, he probably could have just as easily rolled some more 1s and taken 15 damage boxes instead.

It makes SR4 conjuring drain look deterministic.

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Post by Voss »

Rawbeard wrote:
hyzmarca wrote:A flashlight that burns vamps might be vulgar, but the Technocracy has already established nuclear weapons as part of the Consensus. And it's so easy to make them.
Actually nukes are a sleeper inventions. Mages, technocrats or not, had nothing to do with it. Still a Flashlight that burns vamps was used in so many stupid movies, it shouldn't be a problem.
I'm not actually sure where you are getting the impression that sleepers are capable of anything, especially in the oWoD. Technology as a whole is firmly established as the sole province of magic, and devices only become available for use by normals once they are accepted into the overall paradigm. The hidden history is either Oppenheimer (or someone else on the team using him as a front) was a mage himself, or mages developed nukes years before, and guided the team into creating a sleeper-functional version, establishing them as part of the Technocratic Paradigm.
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Post by Ancient History »

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FrankT:


oMage had a political system that was frankly too complicated. There was a Tradition group for every single magical sphere, plus an extra bonus tradition of the “Hollow Ones” who are jack-of-all-trades types and just do their own shit. The main enemies are the Technocracy, which comes in five flavors. There are also Marauders (madness mages) and Nephandi (demon mages). Also, oMage explicitly nyoinks all the other books, so you very explicitly have to worry about Vampires, Werewolves, Wraiths, Changelings, and Hunters.

But let's just focus on the factions actually in the oMage book: that's Akashic Brotherhood, Celestial Chorus, Cult of Ecstasy, Dream Speakers, Euthanatos, Order of Hermes, Sons of Ether, Verbena, Virtual Adepts, and Hollow Ones for team Tradition; and New World Order, Iteration X, Progenitors, Void Engineers, The Syndicate, the Nephandi, and the Marauders for team Antagonist. If that sounds like a lot, it's because it is. There are literally seventeen flavors of Mage running around. And that's just in the modern nights. In each previous era there are other factions that have apparently changed their name or died out like the Craftmasons and Ahl-i-Batin.

nMage doesn't really have a political system at all, because none of the mages actually aspire to anything in the world at all. Everyone's nominal goal is to phase out like dead Jedi and do stuff in an otherwise unreachable supernal world that is totally undescribed. But because it's a nWoD product, the player characters are nominally members of two or three different things, which each have five constituent types. There's no Council of Nine or Technocratic Union to be a member of or oppose – the bad guys just want to fuck with you because they are dicks. There are evil mages who dick with you because they think that is what the Exarchs want them to do, there are evil mages who dick with you because they are self hating Jews mages, there are evil mages who dick with you because they are crazy, there are evil mages who dick with you because they worship demons who are dicks, and there are a couple of flavors of necromancers who dick with you just because. While the setting doesn't bother trying to integrate itself with the other splats, it does have a fair number of non-mage enemies available such as the demons and the leftover semi-autonomous super weapons of Atlantis.

So for team protagonist, there's The Adamantine Arrow, The Free Council, The Guardians of the Veil, The Mysterium, and the Silver Ladder, with the Orphans of Proteus, the Perfected Adepts, the Subtle Ones, the Uncrowned Kings, and the Walkers in the Mists as the Legacies. And for team Antagonist, we have the Seers of the Throne, Banishers, the Mad, Goetic Sorcerers, Ghost Mages, with the Tremere Liches and the Scelesti Accursed as the antagonist Legacies. And all of them have to be on one of the five paths: Acanthus, Mastigos, Moros, Obrimos, or Thyrsus. Theoretically, that's a veritable fuck-lot of mage flavors, because they are independent selections. You could be a member of the Silver Ladder on the path of Mastigos and attain status of Uncrowned King. It's nominally like 125 flavors of player character Mage. But in a really important way, all the resortment possibility doesn't mean dick, because you're still full up after putting five characters onto the table. So really we have like 5 flavors of protagonists and 5 flavors of antagonists... but 22 distinct pieces of information
AncientH:

Of course, in both oMage and nMage the Mages are explicitly human, as opposed to vampires and werewolves and such like. While the various groups all have their specialties, no one group or individual mage really has a leg up on the others in the spells they can potentially cast because they all use the same Spheres/Arcana. The exception to this in nMage is, of course, Legacies.

Legacies were a retarded effort to cram the V:tR concept and execution of bloodlines onto Mages – except, as I pointed out, mages are all human and thus this makes no fucking sense. Worse, joining a legacy is supposed to give you some special power, but again, everyone is borrowing from the same crayon box so there really is nothing that your Tremere Lich can do that a regular fucking necromancer cannot do. The legacies are fucking pointless drivel, and their very existence makes me angry.
FrankT:


White Wolf has always struggled with racism. Partly it's that it was made in Georgia. Partly it's because a lot of the people writing this stuff were not terribly well informed about the topics they were spouting off on, and they ended up saying things that were ignorant in a way that is actually pretty offensive. Sometimes White Wolf has just plain lost that struggle, as when they made Ebony Kingdoms or most egregiously when they wrote World of Darkness: Gypsies. oMage clearly treads clumsily on the line. There are three traditions given over to various different European magical traditions, and only one for “all of East- and South-Asian peoples and philosophies sort of rolled together, because you know, whatever”. But you know what? At least Asian people exist in oMage.

Yes, it's marginalizing for there to be only one flavor of Asian mage in oMage. But in nMage, there are zero flavors of Asian mage. Also zero flavors of Native American mage. And zero flavors of Middle Eastern mage. And that's considerably more marginalizing of colored people. All magic comes from reincarnated Atlanteans, and those guys were recognizably Europeans. No one else gets any magic unless they are “culture bearers”, having been given the spark from Europeans in the past.

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[/img]

I don't think nMage went out of its way to be racist or anything, but it's so insular that it's just sort of racist by default.
AncientH:

As bad as White Wolf generally is at attempts at cultural verisimilitude or sensitivity, the fact that nMage is actually worse at it does not frankly come as a terrible surprise. It is to be remembered that in oMage, the bad guys were more or less grounded into the real world of that setting, running governments and corporations and so forth, and when they did the whole ridiculous Year of the Lotus bit there was specifically a faction of the Technocracy running shit in Japan.

Actually, slightly more needs to be said about this: WW games are by and large amazingly centered around white people. The closest thing to a default game setting for V:tM for many years was Chicago, and any time you ventured outside of Europe/the United States/Canada you were setting yourself up for some Special Native Magic Bullshit, and such efforts almost always followed the attempts of white people to go to these strange new places like “the Far East” or “Africa.” The approach to some of these places as exotic and exciting varied from hamfisted to insulting. For example: All of Africa (except ancient Egypt!) shares one big afterlife, and unlike all the other kingdoms of the underworld the animals get to pal around there too. Why is that? Isn’t that a bit insulting, to consider all Africans like that and equate them with animals? Bullshit.

Year of the Lotus of course was WW’s eighteen month love affair with anime, because their early attempts at Asian vampires were deemed too shitty and racist even for them. Mage didn’t get a vast amount of love from YotL, but maybe that’s for the best, because seriously we can only take so many manga-style drawings and hamfisted efforts at squeezing different flavors of Buddhism together and calling it the Middle Kingdom.

Anyway, nMage removed the connections that the oMage traditions et al. had with the real world aspects of the setting in favor of more Atlantean bullshit, which pretty much put the kibosh on any efforts to expand the cultural milieu. Normally you might expect them to expand the nMage cultural horizons slightly by stealing a bit of sunshine from other sourcebooks, but they kyboshed crossovers so effectively that didn’t really happen either. This also means they rather hamstrung themselves when it came to referencing/stealing from various real-world occult traditions, which were the bread and butter of oMage.
FrankT:


One of the most subtly frustrating things in Mage of every version and edition is that it never really delivers on the core premise: making magic through mimicking traditional sorcery. Instead it runs headlong into the Shadowrun problem: traditional magic is based on rituals, but in the game you're casting magic on the fly in lieu of pulling out a pistol and shooting someone. Producing a magical effect takes seconds, and there just isn't time to boil a cauldron or put on a special hat or read a poem about your penis.

This is most painful in oMage, where they try to get you to embrace traditional magical paradigms when explaining how you effect magic upon the world. But in game, transmuting lead into gold takes 3 seconds. What possible paradigm of traditional anything is going to be recognizable in a 3 second abridged format? The Sons of Ether are supposed to be “mad scientists”, but all the shit they can do takes a finger snap's worth of time to come into being and they never actually spend time slaving away in a lab to make a new creation.

Here, nMage actually benefits from reducing all its magical trappings to some incoherent ramblings about Atlantean runes. Yes, their magic is over and done with in the time it takes to throw a brick, but since all that's happening is some glowing runes show up while you shout a few words of Atlantean. I mean, it's boring and stupid, but at least it fits with the combat-speed timeframes the magic actually has to work with.
AncientH:

You can sort of argue that oMage makes do because all the old-school occultist stuff is really just what the Sorcerers are supposed to be doing, but here again life tends to fall down because this is a game and no one wants to cover your ass in combat while you mix potions in your little fucking pot. So just as Mages can bend reality by squeezing their buttcheeks together firmly, so can most sorcerers and blood mages and everyone else manage to do something in your average combat round.

Now the exception to this are rituals – which, despite what you might believe, are more a thing for vampires and werewolves than practically anything else. Rituals for any brand of WW magic, old and new, were always terrible haphazard things which were just catchalls for effects generally too shitty to justify being their own dot on a power, and the amount of time they took was always and forever a complete ass-pull. Mage rotes sometimes include weird timing, but for most of the game using extra time was just an optional thing for flavor or, at best, some crappy little bonus.
FrankT:

In those few cases where magical things take enough time to actually do something magical looking to make them happen, it tends to take the form of enchanting or ritual sendings. These rules make us very sad. The most basic enchanting takes the form of pumping Prime into stuff in order to replicate other spheres/arcana you don't have and break the game. More advanced enchanting is for moving dicepools around in order to acquire dozens of dice on boosted actions and really break the game.
AncientH:

Enchanting was never something that White Wolf was ever really consistent about. There were dozens of unique or spontaneous artifacts for each setting, and on top of that vampires, werewolves, etc. all had their own rituals and powers and crap to make other little artifacts, and then oMage had their special talismans and foci that they could make and use, and none of that shit was balanced against each other. Ghost help you if you were a vampire and picked up a pinecone dagger or glaive or some shit, because there was never any indication of what the hell would happen. Dozens of rituals and several paths of Sorcery were devoted to making various charms, talismans, potions, and weapons, and they were all generally really rather crap.

The basic rule of thumb was that whatever level your enchanting magic was in, the product would be one or two levels shittier than that. In oSorcerer for example, at three dots in Alchemy you could make a knife that deals aggravated damage, and at four dots you could make bullets that burst into flame (for an extra two dice of fire damage). This doesn’t sound bad until you realize that at three dots other sorcerers are throwing around lightning bolts and catching bullets in their bare hands, and that’s all shit that mages could do a dot earlier. And of course Alchemy wasn’t alone, since there was also Enchantment in the same fucking book which basically did the same damned thing as Alchemy, although its effects were generally better. For example, three dots of enchanting got you magic bullets that do an extra two dice of damage without bursting into flame, and at four dots you got a knife that stabs directly for the heart that does Str+5 dice of damage.

So really, the only purpose of being an enchanter/alchemist type in WW is to make all the magic goodies to power up your coterie. Which is basically the same complaint that people had in Shadowrun, where the mage-enchanters spent all their time enchanting instead of Shadowrunning because they made more fucking money that way. It’s a valid complaint, but it mostly only applied to sorcerers, vampire blood mages and the like, because despite having several supplements devoted more or less entirely to new magic items for your Mage, most of the time it’s easier and more effective to just do the fucking spell yourself when you have need of it. Actually enchanting something was never exactly arduous, it just required extra time and energy for no fucking purpose – and that’s if your Storyteller allowed you to do it anyway.

Storytellers didn’t even think of magic items as treasure per se. This was not a setting where everyone is running around with +1 flak jackets and whatnot. Magic items were always some sort of deus ex machine/macguffin plot point. In the fucking Giovanni Chronicles they have special magic shrouds that let people see into the Underworld just in fucking case nobody has managed to put any dots into Necromancy yet, and then they are never every mentioned anywhere else ever.

…so that’s a lot of ranting to say that, in general in oWoD and nWoD, enchanting was a mass of rubbish that the game designers rightly feared would be exploited by the players, and the systems were so idiosyncratic and scattered that practically nobody followed the rules as written because they were rubbish. nMage did make an effort to sort shit out a little, and they made a bit of a hash of it. They separate magic items into “Enhanced items” (read: normal items made better), “Imbued items” (read: has a spell effect on it you don’t have to maintain/can use), and “Artifacts” (read: storyteller bullshit/anything goes). It is at once simple and fundamentally flawed. But then we get into some serious bullshit, because five dots of the Matter Arcanum lets you make “thaumium” and in other supplements you get to make various True Metals and things. It’s all very annoying because these are magical substances that clearly do not fit into any of their enchanting categories and shows they just did a really shoddy job at this whole enchanting business.

There are also various wands and ritual paraphernalia you’re nominally supposed to muck about with for a bunch of spells/rotes in o/nMage, but how much you actually depend on that nonsense is entirely determined by how far the stick has been shoved up your Storyteller’s bottom that day.
FrankT:

Not just items could be imbued with magical effects you don't care about, there were also magical places. Some of these were naturally occurring, like a Werewolf’s Cairn. Others can be made through time and effort. What they actually do varies a lot, but mostly revolves around letting you do bigger magic while you're in one and attuned to it. This is usually somewhat on the pointless side, because magic is a 3 second affair that you do on the fly. Being able to throw bigger, better, or cheaper fireballs while in your house is generally somewhat on the pointless side because people rarely go on adventures while still at home.

Where this sort of magic site shenanigans gets game breaking is when it comes to enchanting items and buffing one's person. Once you make magic that you can “take with you”, those magic sites become a tremendous power option. Of course, it's a power option that will usually boost just one of the players at the table. Both because many characters simply do not “buff”, and because not everyone is going to be able to attune and benefit from the same sites.
AncientH:

oMage power sites are called nodes, and were basically the intersections were several Tron lines came together, and if you were a very lucky Mage indeed then it created tass, which is a kind of fossilized Quintesssence that you can carry around and eat like meth candy whenever you need a hit of magic. Mages could even bust into werewolf cairns and Tremere vampire strongholds to harvest them for magical energy, but this was generally considered a Bad Thing. Of course, sufficiently powerful mages could also just rearrange the local ley lines and make their own nodes, so the whole point was a bit moot.

nMage power sites are demesnes, which again is stolen from Vampire for reasons no one can understand, and they’re meant to be a bit like Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, where you keep all your cool shit and magic is easier…although, as Frank said, you don’t normally have a lot of people in your home so you wonder why that’s a major concern.
FrankT:

Aside from conquering a site that serves no purpose but to exacerbate power discrepancies within the team, there's actually fairly little that the other characters would want to help your character with in Mage of any flavor. In oMage, each character is trying to use their phenomenal cosmic power to be a terrorist who overthrows society and ends the unnatural acts of refrigeration. But it's generally fairly hard to come up with terrorist activities that everyone's abilities are even helpful for.

nMage of course has it worse, because there isn't really a great reason to do anything. Indeed, the supposed goal of the game is not for your character to fight and defeat the evil mages or even to acquire vast cosmic power. It's supposed to be to throw off wants until you are so wise and disconnected from things that you no longer even have selfish thoughts and then ascend off in a puff of golden smoke. Why or even how the other player characters are supposed to assist you in this endeavor is beyond me.

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AncientH:

Yes, the whole gaming concept of playing a Mage is pretty much the same difficulties involved in playing a vampire. Back in my one brief stint gamemastering oMage, I sorted this shit out by insisting that everyone be a member of the Order of Hermes; they could be from different Houses if they wanted to, but by gumption they would all act like teammates or assholes who at least knew each other and cooperate to achieve vital mission objectives like dealing with the demons in the phone lines that the lich upstairs was certain was running up the telephone bill. (Of course, then one of the PCs asked on the sly if he could be a Tremere vampire and we’d nod/wink through his magical whatsits.)

And really, a single-Tradition campaign is not a bad way to go, because it at least gives the PCs a reason to cooperate and be together and do shit. Unfortunately, with only 10 Spheres/Arcanum this generally means quite a lot of overlap.

Really, I think the sheer difficulty of character interaction is one of the reasons that Mage novels just didn’t really exist as a thing, while they did something like forty or fifty vampire novels. Vampires in V:tM or V:tR are recognizable as vampires, oMages and nMages are much more difficult to portray with anything like the verisimilitude unless you try to cop off the Harry Dresden novels, and even then you’re looking at a) a fair number of artificial limitations that don’t apply to Mage, and b) a bunch of shit your average Mage cannot do.

Which is annoying. At one dot of any Sphere or Arcana you have potentially infinite power stopped only by really incredibly vague limitations and a mage’s own knowledge and creativity. Really, the only limits on mages beside personal flaws are the fact that bigger and more powerful mages tell them not to do certain things, and presumably can enforce that because they are bigger and more powerful indeed and can take anything you throw at them. Except…well, the various nMage organizations aren’t quite set up like that. It’s not a working society by any means, it’s not even as organized as the freemasons or the Ku Klux Klan or the Catholic Church, so without any kind of central authority everybody’s at a bit of loose ends. It’s like the writers took the bits they liked out of oMage and then didn’t really think of ways to implement them.

Like, dueling. Magical duels were kindof sortof a thing for the Order of Hermes and the early Tremere in oMage, and that was about it because the other Traditions didn’t give a damn about that sort of thing. It was a formalized ritual duel where mages stood in their circles and took turns trying to kill each other in a civilized fashion, and I rather enjoyed that in my own campaign because it was a bit like Pokemon challenges with a bit of blood and bile, but it never really caught on in oMage and while they do have a section on it in nMage, I cannot for the life of me see why anyone would do it given that is both easier to run your opponent over with a car and call it coincidental and to just tell whoever wants the duel to go fuck themselves in quite elaborate fashions, possibly with the aid of charts.
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Ancient History
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Post by Ancient History »

The Organizations of Magick
One of Us!

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FrankT:


oMage had a political system that was frankly too complicated. There was a Tradition group for every single magical sphere, plus an extra bonus tradition of the “Hollow Ones” who are jack-of-all-trades types and just do their own shit. The main enemies are the Technocracy, which comes in five flavors. There are also Marauders (madness mages) and Nephandi (demon mages). Also, oMage explicitly nyoinks all the other books, so you very explicitly have to worry about Vampires, Werewolves, Wraiths, Changelings, and Hunters.

But let's just focus on the factions actually in the oMage book: that's Akashic Brotherhood, Celestial Chorus, Cult of Ecstasy, Dream Speakers, Euthanatos, Order of Hermes, Sons of Ether, Verbena, Virtual Adepts, and Hollow Ones for team Tradition; and New World Order, Iteration X, Progenitors, Void Engineers, The Syndicate, the Nephandi, and the Marauders for team Antagonist. If that sounds like a lot, it's because it is. There are literally seventeen flavors of Mage running around. And that's just in the modern nights. In each previous era there are other factions that have apparently changed their name or died out like the Craftmasons and Ahl-i-Batin.

nMage doesn't really have a political system at all, because none of the mages actually aspire to anything in the world at all. Everyone's nominal goal is to phase out like dead Jedi and do stuff in an otherwise unreachable supernal world that is totally undescribed. But because it's a nWoD product, the player characters are nominally members of two or three different things, which each have five constituent types. There's no Council of Nine or Technocratic Union to be a member of or oppose – the bad guys just want to fuck with you because they are dicks. There are evil mages who dick with you because they think that is what the Exarchs want them to do, there are evil mages who dick with you because they are self hating Jews mages, there are evil mages who dick with you because they are crazy, there are evil mages who dick with you because they worship demons who are dicks, and there are a couple of flavors of necromancers who dick with you just because. While the setting doesn't bother trying to integrate itself with the other splats, it does have a fair number of non-mage enemies available such as the demons and the leftover semi-autonomous super weapons of Atlantis.

So for team protagonist, there's The Adamantine Arrow, The Free Council, The Guardians of the Veil, The Mysterium, and the Silver Ladder, with the Orphans of Proteus, the Perfected Adepts, the Subtle Ones, the Uncrowned Kings, and the Walkers in the Mists as the Legacies. And for team Antagonist, we have the Seers of the Throne, Banishers, the Mad, Goetic Sorcerers, Ghost Mages, with the Tremere Liches and the Scelesti Accursed as the antagonist Legacies. And all of them have to be on one of the five paths: Acanthus, Mastigos, Moros, Obrimos, or Thyrsus. Theoretically, that's a veritable fuck-lot of mage flavors, because they are independent selections. You could be a member of the Silver Ladder on the path of Mastigos and attain status of Uncrowned King. It's nominally like 125 flavors of player character Mage. But in a really important way, all the resortment possibility doesn't mean dick, because you're still full up after putting five characters onto the table. So really we have like 5 flavors of protagonists and 5 flavors of antagonists... but 22 distinct pieces of information
AncientH:

Of course, in both oMage and nMage the Mages are explicitly human, as opposed to vampires and werewolves and such like. While the various groups all have their specialties, no one group or individual mage really has a leg up on the others in the spells they can potentially cast because they all use the same Spheres/Arcana. The exception to this in nMage is, of course, Legacies.

Legacies were a retarded effort to cram the V:tR concept and execution of bloodlines onto Mages – except, as I pointed out, mages are all human and thus this makes no fucking sense. Worse, joining a legacy is supposed to give you some special power, but again, everyone is borrowing from the same crayon box so there really is nothing that your Tremere Lich can do that a regular fucking necromancer cannot do. The legacies are fucking pointless drivel, and their very existence makes me angry.
FrankT:


White Wolf has always struggled with racism. Partly it's that it was made in Georgia. Partly it's because a lot of the people writing this stuff were not terribly well informed about the topics they were spouting off on, and they ended up saying things that were ignorant in a way that is actually pretty offensive. Sometimes White Wolf has just plain lost that struggle, as when they made Ebony Kingdoms or most egregiously when they wrote World of Darkness: Gypsies. oMage clearly treads clumsily on the line. There are three traditions given over to various different European magical traditions, and only one for “all of East- and South-Asian peoples and philosophies sort of rolled together, because you know, whatever”. But you know what? At least Asian people exist in oMage.

Yes, it's marginalizing for there to be only one flavor of Asian mage in oMage. But in nMage, there are zero flavors of Asian mage. Also zero flavors of Native American mage. And zero flavors of Middle Eastern mage. And that's considerably more marginalizing of colored people. All magic comes from reincarnated Atlanteans, and those guys were recognizably Europeans. No one else gets any magic unless they are “culture bearers”, having been given the spark from Europeans in the past.

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[/img]

I don't think nMage went out of its way to be racist or anything, but it's so insular that it's just sort of racist by default.
AncientH:

As bad as White Wolf generally is at attempts at cultural verisimilitude or sensitivity, the fact that nMage is actually worse at it does not frankly come as a terrible surprise. It is to be remembered that in oMage, the bad guys were more or less grounded into the real world of that setting, running governments and corporations and so forth, and when they did the whole ridiculous Year of the Lotus bit there was specifically a faction of the Technocracy running shit in Japan.

Actually, slightly more needs to be said about this: WW games are by and large amazingly centered around white people. The closest thing to a default game setting for V:tM for many years was Chicago, and any time you ventured outside of Europe/the United States/Canada you were setting yourself up for some Special Native Magic Bullshit, and such efforts almost always followed the attempts of white people to go to these strange new places like “the Far East” or “Africa.” The approach to some of these places as exotic and exciting varied from hamfisted to insulting. For example: All of Africa (except ancient Egypt!) shares one big afterlife, and unlike all the other kingdoms of the underworld the animals get to pal around there too. Why is that? Isn’t that a bit insulting, to consider all Africans like that and equate them with animals? Bullshit.

Year of the Lotus of course was WW’s eighteen month love affair with anime, because their early attempts at Asian vampires were deemed too shitty and racist even for them. Mage didn’t get a vast amount of love from YotL, but maybe that’s for the best, because seriously we can only take so many manga-style drawings and hamfisted efforts at squeezing different flavors of Buddhism together and calling it the Middle Kingdom.

Anyway, nMage removed the connections that the oMage traditions et al. had with the real world aspects of the setting in favor of more Atlantean bullshit, which pretty much put the kibosh on any efforts to expand the cultural milieu. Normally you might expect them to expand the nMage cultural horizons slightly by stealing a bit of sunshine from other sourcebooks, but they kyboshed crossovers so effectively that didn’t really happen either. This also means they rather hamstrung themselves when it came to referencing/stealing from various real-world occult traditions, which were the bread and butter of oMage.
FrankT:


One of the most subtly frustrating things in Mage of every version and edition is that it never really delivers on the core premise: making magic through mimicking traditional sorcery. Instead it runs headlong into the Shadowrun problem: traditional magic is based on rituals, but in the game you're casting magic on the fly in lieu of pulling out a pistol and shooting someone. Producing a magical effect takes seconds, and there just isn't time to boil a cauldron or put on a special hat or read a poem about your penis.

This is most painful in oMage, where they try to get you to embrace traditional magical paradigms when explaining how you effect magic upon the world. But in game, transmuting lead into gold takes 3 seconds. What possible paradigm of traditional anything is going to be recognizable in a 3 second abridged format? The Sons of Ether are supposed to be “mad scientists”, but all the shit they can do takes a finger snap's worth of time to come into being and they never actually spend time slaving away in a lab to make a new creation.

Here, nMage actually benefits from reducing all its magical trappings to some incoherent ramblings about Atlantean runes. Yes, their magic is over and done with in the time it takes to throw a brick, but since all that's happening is some glowing runes show up while you shout a few words of Atlantean. I mean, it's boring and stupid, but at least it fits with the combat-speed timeframes the magic actually has to work with.
AncientH:

You can sort of argue that oMage makes do because all the old-school occultist stuff is really just what the Sorcerers are supposed to be doing, but here again life tends to fall down because this is a game and no one wants to cover your ass in combat while you mix potions in your little fucking pot. So just as Mages can bend reality by squeezing their buttcheeks together firmly, so can most sorcerers and blood mages and everyone else manage to do something in your average combat round.

Now the exception to this are rituals – which, despite what you might believe, are more a thing for vampires and werewolves than practically anything else. Rituals for any brand of WW magic, old and new, were always terrible haphazard things which were just catchalls for effects generally too shitty to justify being their own dot on a power, and the amount of time they took was always and forever a complete ass-pull. Mage rotes sometimes include weird timing, but for most of the game using extra time was just an optional thing for flavor or, at best, some crappy little bonus.
FrankT:

In those few cases where magical things take enough time to actually do something magical looking to make them happen, it tends to take the form of enchanting or ritual sendings. These rules make us very sad. The most basic enchanting takes the form of pumping Prime into stuff in order to replicate other spheres/arcana you don't have and break the game. More advanced enchanting is for moving dicepools around in order to acquire dozens of dice on boosted actions and really break the game.
AncientH:

Enchanting was never something that White Wolf was ever really consistent about. There were dozens of unique or spontaneous artifacts for each setting, and on top of that vampires, werewolves, etc. all had their own rituals and powers and crap to make other little artifacts, and then oMage had their special talismans and foci that they could make and use, and none of that shit was balanced against each other. Ghost help you if you were a vampire and picked up a pinecone dagger or glaive or some shit, because there was never any indication of what the hell would happen. Dozens of rituals and several paths of Sorcery were devoted to making various charms, talismans, potions, and weapons, and they were all generally really rather crap.

The basic rule of thumb was that whatever level your enchanting magic was in, the product would be one or two levels shittier than that. In oSorcerer for example, at three dots in Alchemy you could make a knife that deals aggravated damage, and at four dots you could make bullets that burst into flame (for an extra two dice of fire damage). This doesn’t sound bad until you realize that at three dots other sorcerers are throwing around lightning bolts and catching bullets in their bare hands, and that’s all shit that mages could do a dot earlier. And of course Alchemy wasn’t alone, since there was also Enchantment in the same fucking book which basically did the same damned thing as Alchemy, although its effects were generally better. For example, three dots of enchanting got you magic bullets that do an extra two dice of damage without bursting into flame, and at four dots you got a knife that stabs directly for the heart that does Str+5 dice of damage.

So really, the only purpose of being an enchanter/alchemist type in WW is to make all the magic goodies to power up your coterie. Which is basically the same complaint that people had in Shadowrun, where the mage-enchanters spent all their time enchanting instead of Shadowrunning because they made more fucking money that way. It’s a valid complaint, but it mostly only applied to sorcerers, vampire blood mages and the like, because despite having several supplements devoted more or less entirely to new magic items for your Mage, most of the time it’s easier and more effective to just do the fucking spell yourself when you have need of it. Actually enchanting something was never exactly arduous, it just required extra time and energy for no fucking purpose – and that’s if your Storyteller allowed you to do it anyway.

Storytellers didn’t even think of magic items as treasure per se. This was not a setting where everyone is running around with +1 flak jackets and whatnot. Magic items were always some sort of deus ex machine/macguffin plot point. In the fucking Giovanni Chronicles they have special magic shrouds that let people see into the Underworld just in fucking case nobody has managed to put any dots into Necromancy yet, and then they are never every mentioned anywhere else ever.

…so that’s a lot of ranting to say that, in general in oWoD and nWoD, enchanting was a mass of rubbish that the game designers rightly feared would be exploited by the players, and the systems were so idiosyncratic and scattered that practically nobody followed the rules as written because they were rubbish. nMage did make an effort to sort shit out a little, and they made a bit of a hash of it. They separate magic items into “Enhanced items” (read: normal items made better), “Imbued items” (read: has a spell effect on it you don’t have to maintain/can use), and “Artifacts” (read: storyteller bullshit/anything goes). It is at once simple and fundamentally flawed. But then we get into some serious bullshit, because five dots of the Matter Arcanum lets you make “thaumium” and in other supplements you get to make various True Metals and things. It’s all very annoying because these are magical substances that clearly do not fit into any of their enchanting categories and shows they just did a really shoddy job at this whole enchanting business.

There are also various wands and ritual paraphernalia you’re nominally supposed to muck about with for a bunch of spells/rotes in o/nMage, but how much you actually depend on that nonsense is entirely determined by how far the stick has been shoved up your Storyteller’s bottom that day.
FrankT:

Not just items could be imbued with magical effects you don't care about, there were also magical places. Some of these were naturally occurring, like a Werewolf’s Cairn. Others can be made through time and effort. What they actually do varies a lot, but mostly revolves around letting you do bigger magic while you're in one and attuned to it. This is usually somewhat on the pointless side, because magic is a 3 second affair that you do on the fly. Being able to throw bigger, better, or cheaper fireballs while in your house is generally somewhat on the pointless side because people rarely go on adventures while still at home.

Where this sort of magic site shenanigans gets game breaking is when it comes to enchanting items and buffing one's person. Once you make magic that you can “take with you”, those magic sites become a tremendous power option. Of course, it's a power option that will usually boost just one of the players at the table. Both because many characters simply do not “buff”, and because not everyone is going to be able to attune and benefit from the same sites.
AncientH:

oMage power sites are called nodes, and were basically the intersections were several Tron lines came together, and if you were a very lucky Mage indeed then it created tass, which is a kind of fossilized Quintesssence that you can carry around and eat like meth candy whenever you need a hit of magic. Mages could even bust into werewolf cairns and Tremere vampire strongholds to harvest them for magical energy, but this was generally considered a Bad Thing. Of course, sufficiently powerful mages could also just rearrange the local ley lines and make their own nodes, so the whole point was a bit moot.

nMage power sites are demesnes, which again is stolen from Vampire for reasons no one can understand, and they’re meant to be a bit like Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, where you keep all your cool shit and magic is easier…although, as Frank said, you don’t normally have a lot of people in your home so you wonder why that’s a major concern.
FrankT:

Aside from conquering a site that serves no purpose but to exacerbate power discrepancies within the team, there's actually fairly little that the other characters would want to help your character with in Mage of any flavor. In oMage, each character is trying to use their phenomenal cosmic power to be a terrorist who overthrows society and ends the unnatural acts of refrigeration. But it's generally fairly hard to come up with terrorist activities that everyone's abilities are even helpful for.

nMage of course has it worse, because there isn't really a great reason to do anything. Indeed, the supposed goal of the game is not for your character to fight and defeat the evil mages or even to acquire vast cosmic power. It's supposed to be to throw off wants until you are so wise and disconnected from things that you no longer even have selfish thoughts and then ascend off in a puff of golden smoke. Why or even how the other player characters are supposed to assist you in this endeavor is beyond me.

Image
AncientH:

Yes, the whole gaming concept of playing a Mage is pretty much the same difficulties involved in playing a vampire. Back in my one brief stint gamemastering oMage, I sorted this shit out by insisting that everyone be a member of the Order of Hermes; they could be from different Houses if they wanted to, but by gumption they would all act like teammates or assholes who at least knew each other and cooperate to achieve vital mission objectives like dealing with the demons in the phone lines that the lich upstairs was certain was running up the telephone bill. (Of course, then one of the PCs asked on the sly if he could be a Tremere vampire and we’d nod/wink through his magical whatsits.)

And really, a single-Tradition campaign is not a bad way to go, because it at least gives the PCs a reason to cooperate and be together and do shit. Unfortunately, with only 10 Spheres/Arcanum this generally means quite a lot of overlap.

Really, I think the sheer difficulty of character interaction is one of the reasons that Mage novels just didn’t really exist as a thing, while they did something like forty or fifty vampire novels. Vampires in V:tM or V:tR are recognizable as vampires, oMages and nMages are much more difficult to portray with anything like the verisimilitude unless you try to cop off the Harry Dresden novels, and even then you’re looking at a) a fair number of artificial limitations that don’t apply to Mage, and b) a bunch of shit your average Mage cannot do.

Which is annoying. At one dot of any Sphere or Arcana you have potentially infinite power stopped only by really incredibly vague limitations and a mage’s own knowledge and creativity. Really, the only limits on mages beside personal flaws are the fact that bigger and more powerful mages tell them not to do certain things, and presumably can enforce that because they are bigger and more powerful indeed and can take anything you throw at them. Except…well, the various nMage organizations aren’t quite set up like that. It’s not a working society by any means, it’s not even as organized as the freemasons or the Ku Klux Klan or the Catholic Church, so without any kind of central authority everybody’s at a bit of loose ends. It’s like the writers took the bits they liked out of oMage and then didn’t really think of ways to implement them.

Like, dueling. Magical duels were kindof sortof a thing for the Order of Hermes and the early Tremere in oMage, and that was about it because the other Traditions didn’t give a damn about that sort of thing. It was a formalized ritual duel where mages stood in their circles and took turns trying to kill each other in a civilized fashion, and I rather enjoyed that in my own campaign because it was a bit like Pokemon challenges with a bit of blood and bile, but it never really caught on in oMage and while they do have a section on it in nMage, I cannot for the life of me see why anyone would do it given that is both easier to run your opponent over with a car and call it coincidental and to just tell whoever wants the duel to go fuck themselves in quite elaborate fashions, possibly with the aid of charts.
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Post by Rawbeard »

Voss wrote:I'm not actually sure where you are getting the impression that sleepers are capable of anything, especially in the oWoD. Technology as a whole is firmly established as the sole province of magic, and devices only become available for use by normals once they are accepted into the overall paradigm. The hidden history is either Oppenheimer (or someone else on the team using him as a front) was a mage himself, or mages developed nukes years before, and guided the team into creating a sleeper-functional version, establishing them as part of the Technocratic Paradigm.
Guide to the Technocracy.
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Post by Voss »

Rawbeard wrote: Guide to the Technocracy.
Never heard of that one, to be honest. Back when I was playing (which I think was largely 2nd, and not revised), there were just individual splats for the individual technocratic sects, not a overall book. And really, after a few horrible splatbooks (Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand being the obvious standout) there was only so far in the splats I was willing to go. As time went on, that shrank from 'not very fucking far' to 'not at all.' So while its news to me, I'm terribly surprised at the change of direction there, because they had to fill space with something.
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Post by norms29 »

Hang on, I got this one. search out the old PDF,

Guide to the Technocracy, published June 1999 acording to the ISBN search.

page 72, sidebar Technocracy or Technology? waffles slightly on the issue, in the 'Sleepers did it' camp we
The Technocracy alternately claims and denies
credit for many modern inventions. Foremost among
the hotly debated claims is the development of nuclear
weapons....
Certainly, many incredible devices had
apparently been invented before by people who were not
verifiably Enlightened.
And
Ultimately, the Technocracy claims that the development
of the nuclear weapon was an unforeseen and
unplanned development, a "random occurrence" from
the chaos of the Second World War.
EDIT: the sidebar is a half a page in total, and I'm not sure how much I can post contiguously before it's a copyright violation
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After all, when you climb Mt. Kon Foo Sing to fight Grand Master Hung Lo and prove that your "Squirrel Chases the Jam-Coated Tiger" style is better than his "Dead Cockroach Flails Legs" style, you unleash a bunch of your SCtJCT moves, not wait for him to launch DCFL attacks and then just sit there and parry all day. And you certainly don't, having been kicked about, then say "Well you served me shitty tea before our battle" and go home.
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Post by Rawbeard »

The point of the sidebar is that the Technos Paradigm is so prevalent that even sleepers can use it to do crazy shit from time to time.
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Post by Username17 »

Lokathor wrote:
Frank Trollman wrote:nMage manages to have game mechanics that you can't possibly hope to know, not by constantly changing them, but simply by having the mechanics be so long and complicated that neither you nor anyone else can ever hope to master them. On top of the core rulebook of 222 pages, nMage provides a magic chapter (covering much of the magic system) that is 186 pages of dense print. There's just no fucking way that anyone ever figured out what the fuck was going on or how anything was supposed to work. Keep in mind: it's turtles all the way down. We have a half dozen people writing this thing under the direction of a baker's dozen of ego maniacs. There never was a coherent vision, and no amount of deep reading of this thing will ever unravel its mysteries. The contradictions simply are.
Oh come on it's not that hard. Now, admittedly, it's more like the old DnD books where they give you most of a game and then your group at your table fills in the rest somehow, so that each table is playing it slightly differently in the end, but this isn't some super hard esoteric RPG here.

Or maybe my aspergers gives me accidental supreme mastery of nMage, but I don't think that's the case.
You know what? I straight do not believe you. nMage is a game which literally cannot be played without copious amounts of mind caulk. And you saying that you don't find the game "hard" basically tells me that you aren't trying very hard to understand how the game is "supposed" to work.

So let's run through a simple scenario: two mages with different Arcana are vying for the affections of the barista with the big boobs at the local coffee shop. And so they go about making spells for this purpose. The first Mage has a bunch of dots in Spirit, which means that he is going to make a spell that alters her soul so that she wants to go out with him and put out. The second Mage realizes that the first Mage is ahead of him, but he has a bunch of Mind (meaning that getting into the barista's panties is trivial), so the spell he is putting together is one to stop the first Mage's ploy from succeeding.

Questions:
  • How much Spirit does the first Mage need to accomplish this task, and what does he roll to do it?
  • What does the second Mage's spell to stop the first Mage's spell actually do?
  • Would either or both of the Mages have to make degeneration rolls if their Wisdom was 6? What if their Wisdom was 9?
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This is as big a quest as you can get in nMage

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Post by hyzmarca »

Rawbeard wrote:The point of the sidebar is that the Technos Paradigm is so prevalent that even sleepers can use it to do crazy shit from time to time.
It's probably just a case that the Technocrat who invented Uranium and Plutonium didn't check his math rigorously. The guy probably spent decades hanging around labs and carefully using Forces to adjust the decay rate of certain elements until those decay rates were accepted as fact, and just screwed up at one point.
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Post by Lokathor »

FrankTrollman wrote:And you saying that you don't find the game "hard" basically tells me that you aren't trying very hard to understand how the game is "supposed" to work.
Or I drank way too much of the nMage kool-aid.
So let's run through a simple scenario: two mages with different Arcana are vying for the affections of the barista with the big boobs at the local coffee shop. And so they go about making spells for this purpose. The first Mage has a bunch of dots in Spirit, which means that he is going to make a spell that alters her soul so that she wants to go out with him and put out. The second Mage realizes that the first Mage is ahead of him, but he has a bunch of Mind (meaning that getting into the barista's panties is trivial), so the spell he is putting together is one to stop the first Mage's ploy from succeeding.
I haven't opened a nMage book in like 5 years, but I'll get the nMage PDF and give this a try. *spends 4 minutes downloading* Okay here we go. Fuck I forgot how much I hate this gold text bullshit.
[*] How much Spirit does the first Mage need to accomplish this task, and what does he roll to do it?
Well, since humans aren't spirits in nMage (317 kinda spells this out; they're a creature category unto themselves, similar to how ghosts aren't humans even though they come from human souls), and the Spirit arcanum has nothing to affect humans with directly, you'd have to summon a spirit and have it possess the girl for you, then you can command the spirit (and thus the girl) to take actions. "Lesser Spirit Summons" [2] can pull up spirits on the mortal side of the Gauntlet, and "Greater Spirit Summons" [3] can pull up spirits from the far side of the Gauntlet. Then you use "Spirit Possession" [4] to give it the "Possession" Numina if it doesn't already have it (p. 212 of the World of Darkness rulebook, the Rote reminds you), at which point it can possess the girl for you. Then you issue commands with either "Control Spirit" [2] (but that's just 1 word commands) or just plain talking to the spirit and convincing it to go along with all this using "Spirit Tongue" [1] and some normal social interaction.

All of this possession stuff is a Wisdom 3 offense though (forcefully abducting and/or exiling another person (mage or Sleeper) into the Shadow Realm, or causing her to become possessed by a spirit against her will.), so what you'll probably really do is call up a Lust spirit or something like that and have it use one of its basic abilities, Strengthen, Manipulate, Control, etc. to affect her. The chart for this is page 318.

So you need potentially as much as Spirit 4, though you could do it with just Spirit 2 or 3 most of the time. For each spell you'd roll either Gnosis + Spirit, or the Rote's Stat+Skill+Spirit listing if you know it as a rote. If the spirit is using an Influence effect it rolls Power+Finesse of course.
[*] What does the second Mage's spell to stop the first Mage's spell actually do?
It depends on what you pick to do in response. The Mind Mage can't affect the summoned spirit's mind (it has none), but it can affect the Spirit Mage's mind. So you could attack the Spirit Mage with mental damage until they go down via "Psychic Assault" [3] or "Psychic Sword" [4]. You could use "Possession" [5] to possess the Spirit Mage and order the summoned spirit away; or you could use it on the Barista to have some sort of internal struggle with the possessing spirt, but I don't even know if there's rules for that and you wouldn't get the girl's attention if you went that route even if you did win because she'd just be possessed by you instead. "Telepathic Control" [4] or "Psychic Domination" [5] is available, targeting either the Spirit Mage (and ordering the spirit away as before). With "Psychic Domination" you could target the Barista herself to alter her 'most deep-seated moral convictions' on the fly, essentially giving you the power to declare that every action the spirit takes is against her nature and giving her a roll to resist the Possession every single action the spirit tries to take, though her rolls to resist the spirit probably aren't that good so that wouldn't do much there. You could mess with the Spirit Mage's perceptions via "Hallucination" [4] so that they give (or don't give) their spirit orders in response to false stimuli.

So you might be able to do it with Mind 3, but you'll probably need Mind 4 or 5. Again, regardless of which spell you'd roll Gnosis+Mind or the Rote's listed roll if you have the Rote.
[*] Would either or both of the Mages have to make degeneration rolls if their Wisdom was 6? What if their Wisdom was 9?
Wisdom isn't even in the index of this book. Fuck White Wolf. Nor does the glossary entry give a page number for what page the full system is listed on. The first they mention a page number for it is pg64. They tell you to go to page 79.

Anyway, let's have a chart of what magical options open up to you as you fall down the scale:
WisdomActs of HubrisSpirit can still...Mind can still...
10Using magic to accomplish a task that could be achieved just as well without it.None, Wisdom 10 is a joke to make you not play the game.same
9Magically coercing another so that he acts against his own free will.Spirit Summon and then Influence"Augment the Mind" [3] yourself to be more charming, there's also "Willful Process" [3] (Mysterium p200) to make a mental skill roll into a Rote action (reroll all fails once). Both of those would require though that the Spirit mage didn't get to the girl first though, which is why they aren't talked about above.
8Magically coercing another so that he violates his own moral code.no new options compared to 9Now you can mind control people as long as they don't violate their code.
7Laying a curse on someone.no new optionsNow I guess you can mind control people and make them violate their code.
6Forcibly binding an unwilling sentient being or spirit to a place or task.no new optionsno new options
5Magically transforming a person into a lesser being against his will.no new optionsNow you can mind control people as long as you want.
4Using magic to harm someone. Draining another's Mana against his will. Creating a soul stone.no new optionsNow you could probably get a long-term Psychic Domination going to turn someone into a mind thrall.
3Forcefully abducting and/or exiling another person into the Shadow Realm, or causing her to become possessed by a spirit against her will.no new optionsNow you can use Psychic Assault to blast the other mage's mind out.
2Intentionally preventing an Awakening. Using magic to murder someone.Down here you can just go the Possession routeHere you could Possession (the Mind spell) to command the summoned spirit away. We'll say for simplicity that spirit possession and psychic possession are equally offensive on the Wisdom scale.
1Stealing a soul.Pretty much anything you can think of is allowed down here.same.

And I'm sure I didn't think of everything you could possibly do, these are just the most obvious things to try.
This is as big a quest as you can get in nMage
I dunno, hunting Vampires is pretty fun too.
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Post by Username17 »

Lokathor wrote:Well, since humans aren't spirits in nMage (317 kinda spells this out; they're a creature category unto themselves, similar to how ghosts aren't humans even though they come from human souls), and the Spirit arcanum has nothing to affect humans with directly
You've already lost this challenge. Souls determine what you want and do not want to do from a standpoint of feelings and morals. Page 276. Spirit Arcana affects Souls. Page 245.

The first question was how much Spirit the mage would need to get her soul to decide she wanted to go out with and put out for him. The third question of course is unanswerable, because it's a question of whether changing what someone wants involves violating their free will, which cannot be answered. But you didn't even get the first part.

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Post by Lokathor »

Spirit does "soul retrieval", Death does "soul stealing" as well as "health of the soul". Which is a totally stupid way to carve it up, but that's how they try to slice it. I'm pretty sure they made it like that for the same reason that 3e Cure Light Wounds is a Conjuration spell instead of a Necromancy spell like Cause Light Wounds is: so that "only bad guys use Death" somehow can be a thing. Even though that's completely stupid.

I tend to stick to example spells for Arcana level requirement indicators. Actually tampering with someone's soul to change their nature doesn't have any examples listed anywhere, as far as I know. You'd probably need Death 4 or 5 to do it, or even 6. Sounds like a Patterning or an Unmaking type of effect to me, and possibly with a +1 level requirement to do it in others. Slay Own Aura lets you blast out your own aura and then have a new one grow in, and that's a Death 5. So doing it to someone else would be Death 6. If you wanted to make a temporary change instead of a permanent change that could bump it back down a level to 5 again. Soul Binding is a level 4 effect that lets you take a soul that you have and a soulless person that you have and glue them together, but that's an Extended cast spell so you wouldn't be able to do it right there in the shop. But again if you bumped it up to 5 you'd probably be able to do it as a single action spell. So that's two things that kinda point to it being a Death 5 effect to rewrite a soul on the spot.

But regardless of all that, since the girl's soul is already fully retrieved and attached to her body then Spirit doesn't really seem to apply in this situation.
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Post by phlapjackage »

Lokathar, even if you manage to finally come up with a coherent answer, you're doing nothing but absolutely proving that the rules are in fact a mess and that it is that difficult to interpret the rules. Look at all the "maybes" and "probablys" and "doesn't seems" and other MTP-words you're using.
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Post by Ancient History »

Guidelines like that get even wiggier when stealing/emulating powers from other WW games, just because you can get the same basic effect at different levels.
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Post by Lokathor »

phlapjackage wrote:Lokathar, even if you manage to finally come up with a coherent answer, you're doing nothing but absolutely proving that the rules are in fact a mess and that it is that difficult to interpret the rules. Look at all the "maybes" and "probablys" and "doesn't seems" and other MTP-words you're using.
But I conceded that they're a mess to start with. At no point am I saying that they're anything but a giant ball of mess. There's so much magical tea party you could rival the East India Company.

The thing is though, I've had a player that couldn't manage to keep Earthdawn straight in their head because "it's way too complicated" still be able to play nMage and keep up with the rest of the group. So what I'm asserting is that it can't actually be that completely impossible to play nMage. It's not at all clear from a rules angle a lot of the time what should and shouldn't be allowed, but to many of the people that wanna play nMage that's probably part of the actual fun of playing the game, in the same sense that I know for a fact that there are DnD players that would seriously list "rolling the dice" as their favorite part of all of DnD.
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