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Major Arcana and Minor Indiscretions |
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Newsletter February 9th, 2008</TBODY> |
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<TBODY>Wade Lahoda |
Head Storyteller storyteller@saskatoonbynight.com or 477-0145 |
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Narrators: Allan Schnell & James Nobel |
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The official Saskatoon by Night webpage can be found at www.saskatoonbynight.com
Next Game Date Saturday, March 8th. Downtime due in Saturday, February 23rd.
Remember that extended castings need Sacraments
Something easy to forget because it isn’t a big mechanical bit and is hidden away in the rulebook is that rituals need Sacraments. From the book:
“Sacraments
Extended-action castings require a sacrament, a disposable component associated with the Arcanum used in the casting. This sacrifice might be powdered bone for Death, a fire for Forces, blood for Life, incense for Spirit or wine for Prime. As long as the substance can symbolically represent the Arcanum for the mage and can be ritually disposed of (burnt, ingested, broken) during the casting, the substance is a valid sacrament. If no such sacrament is at hand, the caster suffers a –1 penalty to each of his extended-casting draws.”
If you have a particularly well-crafted or cool-looking Sacrament that you actually destroy during role-playing out a casting at a gathering, I’ll also give you a +1 bonus to the ritual casting bonus. I’ll put it on the list of modifiers next time it gets printed.
Duel Arcane: Bigger Boost for the Winner
Normally the winner of a Duel Arcane regains one Willpower. I am changing that so that they gain all the Willpower they took as “damage” during the Duel, or one Willpower if they took no “damage”. This should make it a little bit more feasible to face multiple duels in short order, at least so long as you’re winning.
Die pools for casting Rotes House Rule
If you know a spell as a Rote, but your Gnosis + Arcana total would be higher than your Rote die pool, you can use your Gnosis + Arcana total instead and still get the benefits of casting as a Rote.
Official rules set: Mind’s Eye Theatre: World of Darkness & Mind’s Eye Theatre: Awakening
A reminder that we are now officially switched over to using the Mind’s Eye Theatre: Awakening book instead of Mage: the Awakening. We’ve been using Mind’s Eye Theatre: World of Darkness from the beginning of the chronicle, of course. Most of the changes are minor and primarily intended to prevent abuse – the main change is the new Paradox system, which seems a lot faster and more streamlined. Of course, the house rules still apply, although hopefully now I can significantly slim them down.
Following is a list of the changes, although it certainly isn’t exhaustive. Feel free to ask me if you have any rules questions but don’t have access to the new book, as always.
-Note that many of the changes are actually just taking into account we're using MET, but since we have been using MET:WoD since the start, those aren't really changes(they just make interpreting the rules easier).
-We aren't using the MET status or downtime systems, so anything that deals with status or downtime actions should probably be ignored.
General change - Almost anywhere where something would be "per day" is now "per chapter".
p. 54 - Characters start with Mana equal to their Willpower instead of Wisdom
p. 139 - You can only cast an Instant Spell as an Extended casting if it the Arcana is one of your Ruling, or the spell is a Rote. Otherwise, you must spend one Mana per roll.
p. 139 - Ritual attack spells require one higher dot of Mastery than usual(this is a ruling from Tome of Mysteries, I believe).
p. 145 - If you are the target of a sympathetic spell, you count as having at least an Encountered connection back to the caster, if not better.
p. 148 - Specifies that the Damage Limits from MET apply to spells, too, but since we're not using that part of MET, it doesn't really matter.
p. 151 - Relinquishing Control of spell is no longer part of the base rules, although there is an optional rule that could be used(which works similarly, if not the same, to the rule in the tabletop book).
p. 154 - More specific about how Prepared Spells are to be handled(including resistance as normal for extended castings). Prepared
p. 157 - Paradox has changed significantly, although since I've been keeping Paradox as largely a Storyteller-side thing it shouldn't change your perception too much(and my earlier caveats about "Paradox might behave unexpectedly" still definitely apply). The system is simpler most of the time, although when an actual Paradox is created there is an extra roll. The chance to produce a Paradox is now always the same - roll a die, if you roll equal or less than your Gnosis score, you've likely generated a Paradox. You can spend Mana to reduce this chance as usual, and a one always generates Paradox. If a Paradox is generated, only then do you bother checking all the normal Paradox factors(is it a rote? am I using a dedicated magical tool? are sleepers watching?) and add it to a roll to determine severity(this is stuff I'll normally handle behind the scenes). So from the player perspective, Paradox is much simpler and doesn't require me to necessarily adjudicate - roll a die when you cast a Vulgar or Improbable spell, and only if the result is equal to or less than your Gnosis do you need to come get me to figure out Paradox.
p. 185 - Specifies all beings in twilight can interact with each other, with the exception of mental projections(which have no ephemeral body).
p. 222 - Summoned shadows no longer have Durability(thankfully).
p. 234 - The Perfect Moment now has an easier to resolve effect - for every dot of potency, you can take back or replay one faux pas or other unfavorable social exchange. This can be done to redo a test, or simply to take back something embarrassing you said.
p. 293 - Alter Integrity is now Prolonged instead of Lasting.
p. 301 - Forge Thaumium uses the Advanced Prolongation chart.
p. 318 - Specifies that psychically projected mages may not cast magic from Twilight into the Fallen world. He can cast Unveiling or Knowing spells that affect only himself to increase his perceptions, but he can't cast any spell that targets another creature(who isn't in Twilight).
p. 354 - Specifies Teleportation can not Teleport other people.