<TBODY> Major Arcana and Minor Indiscretions

Newsletter           January 12^th, 2008</TBODY>

<TBODY>Wade Lahoda	Head Storyteller   storyteller@saskatoonbynight.com or 477-0145
Narrators:    Allan Schnell & James Nobel

The official Saskatoon by Night webpage can be found at www.saskatoonbynight.com

Next Game Date Saturday, February 9^th.  Downtime due in Saturday, January 26^th.

Switching to MET Mage rules as of next month

I’ve finished my evaluation of the Mind’s Eye Theatre Awakening rules, and am plenty pleased – as of next month, I’m going to switch over to those as our primary rules reference.  It’ll also mean I’ll redo the House Rules, likely shrinking them significantly because a lot of the things I fixed are already fixed in the MET book.  As promised on the forums, I’m going to make available a document that spells out most of the changes between the rulebooks.  Really, though, for most things you should be plenty fine still using the tabletop book for – most of the broken things that MET: Awakening fixes I wouldn’t have let you do anyway, right?

Double-check your contact info on sign-in tonight!

Next month I’m going to update and republish the Contact list, so please make double sure to write down your phone number and e-mail on sign in so I can ensure it is correct on the Contact list.

Small ritual bonus for the Cabal hosting the gathering

I’ve been thinking there needs to be some type of  mystic perk for the Cabal that goes to the work of hosting the Gathering each month.  I’ve decided on a small bonus to ritual castings done at the gathering, in line with the other types of bonuses given out.  The bonus will be +1 for just hosting the gathering, with another +1 if they do so with exceptional flair(decorating in theme with their Cabal and otherwise making the event feel “magical”), and another +1 possible if the decorations and set-up have specific tie-ins to the performance of the ritual being cast.  For those keeping track, these then are all the possible bonuses for casting a Ritual at the game:

+1 Includes chanting, singing, or other vocalization
+1 …and Vocalization is interesting and ritual specific(it has meaning, at least to you, instead of just made up syllables to fill time)
+1 Includes gestures, dance, signing or other ritual movements
+1 …and ritual movements are interesting and ritual specific(as above
+1 Includes props or visible physical preparation of the space
+1 …and props or space preparation is specific to this one ritual(instead of having one prop for all your casting, you have a prop that is specially designated for this spell and no other, and reflects that in its design, frex)
+1-3 Elements require significant coordination and interchange between participants in a group ritual

+2 There are equal numbers of all Paths participating

+1 All participants are part of the hosting Cabal

+1 …and the event was hosted with particular magical flair and decoration

+1 …and the event’s set-up is incorporated into the casting
+2 All participants are of the same Path, and incorporate the path's symbolism into the casting*
+2 All participants are members of the same Cabal, and the Cabal's ritual theme is incorporated into the ritual*
+2 All participants are members of the same Order, and the Order's symbolism is incorporated into the ritual*
* Bonus only applies to group castings with three or more participants

The first roll takes half an hour, subsequent rolls 15 minutes, but you can only make a number of rolls equal to your Gnosis without spending Willpower.

Sanctum Information

If your Cabal hasn’t gotten information on your Sanctum to me, I recommend you do so.  I won’t be adding any of your Sanctum bonuses into anything until you do.

Buying off Risk

Some folks have asked “Is there a way to not automatically fail on a one?”  Generally no, but in some circumstances you can buy using the “Buying off risk” optional rule in the Mind’s Eye Theatre book that I’ve indicated in the house rules we are using.  Here is the summary:

A player may sacrifice a portion of her test pool to “buy off” the chance of outright failure. Doing so reduces the number of successes that she can expect to achieve in return for a greatly reduced chance of failure. She must have a test pool of 10 or higher (after all situational modifiers). She also announces that she is “buying off” the failure chance before the roll. Doing so imposes an immediate –3 penalty directly to her test pool. (Yes, this penalty might reduce the player’s test pool to below 10, but that’s the price paid for diminished chance of failure. It doesn’t invalidate her use of this optional rule.)

  If a one is rolled, the player immediately rerolls. If she rolls a one a second time, she suffers an automatic failure. Otherwise, her roll is considered zero and adds nothing to her test pool, regardless of what number was rolled on the second roll.

  For example, suppose that Nick is an incredibly skilled burglar, with a total test pool of 15 for picking locks. Using this rule, Nick could take a –3 penalty to his pool to buy off the risk of failure, lowering his pool to a 12 in the process. If he rolls a one, however, he does not automatically fail; he must roll two ones in a row to fail outright. By sacrificing a little bit of his expertise to make sure he does the job carefully, Nick reduces his overall result, but makes it much less likely he will simply fail.

Note:  This variant does not apply to chance dice in any way. A one rolled on a chance die always indicates tragedy, regardless of how capable a character is. Likewise, this variant should never apply in combat or under high-stress circumstances such as when diffusing a bomb. Some circumstances are just too uncertain for characters to ever have a chance to make them “safely.”

Downtime actions that are primarily magical

You may have noticed that some downtime actions that are primarily magical are rolled with an Attribute + Arcanum combination.  This is in contrast to when you are taking actions which have mundane goals, but that your spells would be useful in accomplishing - for those, you roll Attribute + Ability, but can spend 1 Mana to add in an Arcanum rating to a roll.  If you’ve got a stack of coins and you want to change them into lead with Matter, it’d probably be something like a Stamina + Matter roll to see how many you can change in a month.  If, on the other hand, you’re wandering around the city changing gang member’s weapons to cotton balls, that’d probably be a Wits + Streetwise roll instead, with you spending 1 Mana to add your Matter to the roll – what you’re really doing is disarming gang members, and using your Matter to help.

If you’re using a rote on an action that is primarily magical, you’ll roll your Rote pool (including Order specializations) in downtime.  Yet another advantage to having rotes.

In Character Venue:  Vacant commercial property on 17^th Street

The In Character venue is a vacant commercial property on 17^th street.  Assume the layout is more or less WYSIWYG, and that ICly lights and power might indeed be questionable.  The Wicked are hosting this event.  

In the Community: Winter and Construction- A Changeling the Lost Chronicle (January-June)

Talk to Andrew (lordgrymm@gmail.com / 374-7311) and check out the SLARPA forums for more information.