Appendix: The Keys to the Universe
Let's be completely fucking honest for a moment: this was pretty much the sole reason anyone bought this book. 20 pages of stats which have been padded out with 65 pages telling you not to fucking use them. I fully believe that most of the poor bastards that paid real money for this book never read the preceding pages - they probably
started to, and about ten pages in just started flipping through it in increasing frustration until they hit page 65.
The Arch-Spheres
Only the greatest self-mastery, the strongest will and the deepest enlightenment can penetrate the Arch-Spheres. Some Masters spend their entire lives on the cusp of this awareness unable to discern the true depths.
Fuck yes, let's go!
Developing an Arch-Sphere, then, is not a simple matter of spending a double handful of experience points.
You're right, we're talking about dozens on dozens of XP.
It's a story arc, a microcosm of the quest for enlightenment.
God dammit, shut up.
Consider the needs of the story
Fuck you! I will invent Bad Dragon and fuck you with a griffon cock! One with spikes on it!
Finally, these Arts take time to learn. While experience costs are the same (or whatever the Storyteller decides), each dot takes about five years of study and training.
There is an idea in gaming that higher levels of ability must necessarily be progressively more difficult to obtain; depending on how they work out the costs/XP award ratio, in level-based RPGs this generally means
either that you spend approximately the same amount of time and challenge reaching each new platform of power, or you progress very quickly at low levels and then grinding to higher levels takes more and more effort and longer and longer down-time. In non-level based games (and in some level-based games that have unbalanced caps, like skill points in d20), you see a weird phenomenon where rather than chasing the highest point in <ability>, you can gain relative competence in some other, unrelated ability. So when you hit Level 14 in D&D, you increase your core class skills by a couple of points to the level cap, or you could buy an entirely new skill and raise it to relative competence; this works because skills have linear costs. In Shadowrun, instead of buying that 6th dot in an attribute, you could spend the same Karma and buy a couple points raising new skills; this works because skills and attributes have geometric costs. Some people see this as
cheating, which is why D&D set hard limits on, say, caster level - so the 19th-level Fighter doesn't take one level in Wizard and suddenly start casting spells at a 20th level.
World of Darkness tends to have the worst of both worlds. Their abilities have geometric costs, which makes them fucking expensive the higher you raise them
and they also have high initial buy-ins for many abilities. So the trade-off point for WoD is higher, and yet it's more expensive to raise any ability to the point of utility.
Case of point: in Mage, a new Sphere costs 10 XP. Raising a sphere costs current rating x 8 XP. So your costs for raising a Sphere from 0 to 3 are 10 + 8 + 16 = 34 XP. If you rim the Storyteller's asshole very well, you might get 7 XP per successful adventure, so that's about 5 months worth of gaming. But raising that Sphere from 3 to 4 costs 24 XP, and for that you could buy a new sphere at rating 2 and have some change. It's not
easy or
cheap, but it is
economical for players who don't have any specific purpose in mind to max out their chosen Sphere at char gen, then dip into a lot of different Spheres afterwards. But it's not
economical enough to really make it attractive compared to diving straight toward archmagery. Which, I suspect, was the fear. Raising Arete from 5 to 6 costs 40 XP and raising a Sphere from 5 to 6 costs 40 XP. So if you don't give a fuck about being a well-balanced mage, you could be knocking on Arch-Magedom's door after about a dozen adventures, depending on how you min-maxed at chargen. This is worse in WoD games like Vampire with hard caps that are lower, because it means you're generally better off expanding
within a Discipline (as with paths or combo powers) than in buying new Disciplines, because the costs are prohibitive to both to improve existing abilities and to buy new abilities.
Anyway. Back to the book.
Casting Difficulties
Most casting difficulties are based on the Effect's Sphere level plus some modifier. With the Arch-Spheres, casting difficulties can quickly become stratospheric. That's not a big problem; any time the difficulty is pushed to 9, additional difficulty increases simply require additional success from the dire roll. Thus, if you have a difficulty of 9 and receive one additional push, you now require at least two successes to achieve a base Effect. This removes successes from the total roll, so the final Effect is not as potent.
While I cannot say 100% that this rule has never appeared before in WoD, I am 90% sure this is a specific asspull just for this supplement to deal with the fact that floating target numbers are terrible. Anyway, this gloss is basically there to force PCs to spend quintessence and do rituals so they have enough dice to throw around to actually pull off the high-level effects.
We still haven't hit the actual effects yet, because they want to talk about crossover stuff, specifically how Arch-Spheres work against high-level Disciplines and shit:
When comparing powers, the easiest method is to cross-reference the mage's Sphere rating against the rating of his opponent's Discipline/Gift/whatever. A vampire with six dots of a Discipline can effectively counter a sixth-level Sphere, for instance. A werewolf of elder rank can contest any Archmage power. Simply roll the appropriate dice pools against one another; unless the other creature's Traits are (dare we say it?) twinked out to uber-dice status, chances are than an Archmage's Arete is equivalent to most other powers.
First observation: Wraith Arcanoi max out at 5, so Wraith are fuxxored against Arch-Necromancers. Sorcerers also cap out at 5, but they're fuxxored anyway.
Second observation: Most of the Disciplines/Gifts/etc. don't...work that way. I mean, they don't directly oppose other powers. Giovanni don't usually roll a big pile of Necromancy dice when they want to achieve an effect, the higher levels unlock specific effects they can try.
Third observation: There is another paragraph, and it's all ass-pulls anyway.
However, mage powers are abstract enough that, again, story considerations come first. In some cases, an Archmage's Sphere Mastery may blow away the competition. In others, it may seem appropriate for a specialized power of another creature to defend against or subvert the mage's Effect. Use your best judgment. An Archmaster of Mind may be skilled at all sorts of invasive tricks, but a vampire elder with six dots of Dominate and a few centuries of practice may be able to slip in unnoticed. If a mage's paradigm doesn't account for a specific attack, defense or divination, then there's no way for even an Archmaster to counter it.
So in the specific case about - a vampire with Dominate 6 and an Archmage with Mind 6 - if the vampire makes eye contact, that's probably pretty much game over, unless the Mage has set up a specific defense ahead of time.
Okay, enough bullshit about hypothetical cross-supernatural dick measuring Olympics - on to the Archspheres! This basically amounts to description of levels 6-9 for each Sphere, with no rotes given. Honestly, some rotes would have been nice; the descriptions of the powers are very broad and sometimes vague, and some specific examples of execution would be nice.
Correspondence
6: Fold Space/Create Space - You can manipulate distance. Not sure how this is different from Correspondence 5, except that you can "create space." Best not to think too hard about all that.
7: No Warding - Archmage realizes they can bypass wards and barriers and step inside magic circles and shit. Surprise the fuck out of anyone that summons you!
8: Limits of Spirit - You can teleport anywhere, and take a bit of space with you. This is described very poorly and even at Correspondence 8 it doesn't work everywhere, which seems to be missing the point.
9: No Limits - "At this level, any movement is possible." Warp 10, basically. Although, again, I'm not clear on what the difference is between this and lower levels except it's supposed to be easier or something.
Entropy
6: Stultifying Order/Utter Chaos - You can determine how the dice roll. In the game. Not at the table.
7: Destiny of the Species - Can control evolution of species. Not sure how this actually works, some gobblety-[EDITED] about "meta-Patterns."
8: Breach Shroud/Deny the End - Open the Shroud or close it off. Since the default is "closed," the latter should not be a huge issue; technically this is supposed to let an archmage return someone that's died to true life, but I
know there's more complicated rules for that somwhere.
9: True Destiny - Archmage can fuck with the Destiny Background. Suck it, whoever invested points in that!
Forces
6: Economy of Force/Sense Universal Force - Magical equivalent of using a sniper rifle instead of a fireball.
7: Plate Tectonics - You can move continents, etc. Amazingly not very applicable on a local scale.
8: Toss Around Realms - You can move Realms. Moving pocket dimensions is a bit like Superman pushing the Earth out of the way, in that it seems unworkable and of questionable utility, but there you go.
9: Alter Universal Forces - Mage can alter, eliminate, or create Forces. Example given: "This is the Force of Thon, which removes the distinctions of gender!" No actual details of how this works, except that "such a change lasts only a few turns at most."
Life
6: Prefect Transformation of Others/New Life - You can shapeshift others without turning them into mutants or idiots, even create new lifeforms.
7: Scale of Life/Infection - Instead of just affecting an individual or a group, the Archmage can target every critter of a given type within range. Like, mammals. Or opossums. And they can make their effects infectious. So you could potentially create a virus that turns humans into wolves. Just in case there wasn't enough dog-fucking in your game.
8: Create Shifter/Virus - Okay, apparently I lied. You can't create a virus until this level. However, it also lets you create new shapeshifter species. Although they lack any of the spiritual abilities of Changing Breeds. Still.
9: Perfect Immortality - Character can be functionally immortal - no worries about age, disease, or physical damage. Not clear if this is an innate effect, or something you have to roll for. Or if it's something they can apply to someone else.
Matter
6: Alter State - Like level 5, but easier. I wish I was making that up. Like the Thaumaturgy Path of Transmutation.
7: Transform Pattern - Change things into other things. But, y'know, better than at lower levels.
8: Create Pattern - Create a new thing. But, y'know, better than at lower levels.
9: Subjective Reality - You create things that appear as different things dependent on who is looking at them. So, like, a cottage that contains a giant ball pit, but only for children. That kind of thing.
Mind
6: Relive Past Lives/Sense the Universal Mind - Uh...okay, you can dive into your past lives. I don't see how that's a mind thing. Whatever.
7: Universal Subconscious/ Reprogram Avatar - How did Archmages deal with this shit before Jung and computers came along? Anyway, you self-edit your Avatar. Like Dilber the magical psychologist.
8: Self-Awareness - Archmage achieves zen, masters emotions, can remove Mental Flaws.
The mage who progresses this far understands the true insignificance of mental achievement in attaining Ascension. The process of thinking is not nearly so important as the state of being.
9: One Mind - Well, you no longer require a body can can exist as pure intelligence. Which sounds like something that they could have addressed as a goal a couple chapters back. Like Life 9's "Perfect Immortality," it isn't clear if this is automatic or something you have to roll for.
Prime
6: Paradox senses - You can see Paradox, and use Quintessence to cancel Paradox.
7: Weave Odyllic Paradox/Violate Pattern - You can steal Quintessence from avatars and throw Paradox at people you don't like.
8: Channel Paradox - You can offload all your Paradox on other people. Or take on somebody else's Paradox.
9: Expel Base Paradox/Create Universe - You can get rid of all of your Paradox without fucking anyone over. Also, you can create pocket universes. This latter ability was hinted at in a previous bit of intro-chapter fiction, and I'm not entirely sure how it differs from creating your own pocket dimension/Realm except you don't have to sustain it and can't control it once you've done it. You just...create a universe. Maybe keep it on your desk, in a snowglobe or something.
Spirit
6: Awaken Ephemera - You wake up "the sleeping spirits of objects, trees, and places." In case you wanted to give the statue of Abraham Lincoln its own consciousness.
7: Create Realm - You can create a tiny Realm with its own Gauntlet. Not sure how this is different from other ways of creating a Realm. Would have been nice if they had consistent metaphysics for this shit.
8: Remember the One - Lets you bring overlapping Realms together, with no Gauntlet. That sounds a lot like removing the Shroud, which is what Clan Giovanni wants to do, but which is strictly speaking what Entropy is supposed to do, so idk.
9: Awaken Avatar - Force a mundane character to Awaken if possible. This is supposed to be unpleasant, so less Shazam to Billy Batson than "point out on the doll where the Ancient One touched you."
Time
6: Aid the Past - You can send objects and Quintessence back in time. That sounds hideously badwrongfun and can result in Paradox on both your future
and past self.
7: Go to the Past - You can go back in time and change shit! Doc Brown is an Archmaster of Time for the Sons of Ether. At least in my headcanon.
8: Time Door - Create a portal that leads into the future or the past. "Time Doors could be better named Plot Doors."
9: Exist Apart from Time - This is, as they describe it, a bit of a Bad End where the Archmage exists outside of time, and while they can enter and interact with time at any point, this just generates alternate timelines. "About the only thing that the mage can do at this point is create Time Doors for others."
Now, that was all very long, but I thought we should go through it because that is the vague meat and questionable potatoes of the whole fucking book. 36 powers with few stats and which don't make a lot of sense, and a lot of magickal technicalese. Which is hilarious, given the Tradition's position on such things. The notable thing about all these Sphere descriptions isn't that they suck - although many do - but that it highlights all the shit that this book
could have covered, like more in-depth look at the metaphysics of the fucking setting, and greater history of the Traditions and their understanding of how things work. Instead, we get this cut-rate nonsense. And the thing is, whoever wrote this bit
gets the idea of lots of possibilities and potential posthuman powers that people really fucking wanted. They just can't be arsed to deliver it in any way.
So, as we head into the last ten pages we're given an optional rule for
Cascade Spheres, which means that going into Archmastery in one Sphere gives the ability to fake powers in related spheres. For those playing the home game, that means:
Dynamic - Correspondence, Mind, Time
Pattern - Forces, Life, Matter
Primordial - Entropy, Mind, Spirit
Which is good, because 1) it means less Spheres you have to buy, and 2) you're just pissing Quintessence away on these things anyway.
So if you have Entropy 6, you can also do Mind 1 and Spirit 1 effects. Fun, neh?
Also, for reasons I do not understand, a naked woman with blurred-out nipples is on this page (75).
Paradox gets three paragraphs with no mechanics, so it can't be important.
Two rotes are given for achieving immortality:
Shed the Years (Prime 5, Entropy 4, Life 3, Mind 2, Time 2) - You brew a potion of youth or whatever and it makes you younger. Has to be done periodically.
Serenity of the Stone (Prime 5, Time 5, Entropy 4, Life 3, Mind 3) - Aging is slowed drastically (50 years in real time = 1 biological year). Has to be done once.
I'm 95% sure there are other ways, but this at least provides something for non-archmage PCs to pick this supplement up for.
There's some paragraphs on Quiet and Jhor, but no mechanics, just a pointer to the
Book of the Weaver, which needs an OSSR (not it). Then we move on to
Friends and Enemies...a large part of which is dedicated to what happens when an Archmage outgrows their familiar. Shadowrun already had this down, where you just spend more Karma and improve your familiar so that it isn't a liability, but Mage resists this, and instead wants you to set it free and summon a better one. There's some other crap about Spirit Mentors, Arch-Nephandi (which apparently don't exist). Then they talk about how other Archmages and the Technocracy can fuck with you.
The real threat from the Technocracy comes from specialist op teams or colonies. [...] Furthermore, the Technocracy can encroach on an Archmage's paradigm with its technological toys. Reality stabilizers, orbital arrays and special sensors can quickly strengthen the Gauntlet and neutralize magical constructs, wrecking years of changes to the Umbra.
Then, despite literally spending the entire fucking book telling you not to play an Archmage, they give us a
Creating an Archmage section. Did they not learn anything from the Elder rules for Vampire? I guess not!
New Background: Spirit Mentor. They spent a lot of words a couple pages back talking about how these have no game mechanical benefit to Archmages, and can't have it higher than your Spirit Sphere, but you can buy it up to 10 anyway. WTF.
There are some Archmage merits and flaws. You don't care. Shit like Grand Reputation, Years of Wisdom, and Powerful Allies all don't have any actual mechanical benefits. Ascension Message (3 point "merit") is special because you can't take it if you're an archmage, and the benefit it provides is that it doesn't allow you to ever
become an Archmage. You can also access other paradigms with a +4 difficulty, but still, wtf. Being an Exemplar is a 7 point merit. Permanent Paradox Flaw is a 2 point flaw, which includes geasa like "All technological devices that you touch rapidly fail, but almost never to your benefit" and "You are incapable of speaking certain words, letters, or sounds."
Then there's the story questions, some final considerations ("If some of these numebrs seem low, remember that an Archmages has spent years, even decades, studying one Sphere to the exclusion of all other knowledge."), and the stupidest fucking bit to end on:
Above all, of course, remember to have fun If you want big explosions and mindless devastation, it's your game. If you want a more cerebral experience with ancient, wizened mages, you can do that, too. Better still, give both a try. These are, after all, infinite worlds out there.
Fuck you. Fuck you fuck you fuck you you fucking fucks. THIS ENTIRE GODDAMN BOOK, YOU HAVE DONE NOTHING BUT TRY TO SUCK ALL THE FUN OUT OF THE ARCHMAGE EXPERIENCE. YOU DO NOT GET TO TELL US TO HAVE FUN NOW. YOU TWATWAFFLES.
The book ends with three sample characters/archetypes: Burnout, Exemplar-in-Training, and Horizon Explorer. Unlike other Mage characters sheets, theirs have
six dots. The makers of this booklet gave so little shit, they didn't even give you a blank character sheets to copy.