Mage Character Creation

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Traits

See Costs for information on how many dots you can assign during character creation.

Abilities

Please remember, that M20 carries with it a specific list of Abilities. They are as follows:

  1. Talents - Alertness, Art, Athletics, Awareness, Brawl, Empathy, Expression, Intimidation, Leadership, Streetwise, Subterfuge
  2. Skills - Crafts, Drive, Etiquette, Firearms, Martial Arts, Meditation, Melee, Research, Stealth, Survival, Technology (for code reasons, this appears as a Knowledge on your sheet, be aware)
  3. Knowledges - Academics, Computer, Cosmology, Enigmas, Esoterica, Investigation, Law, Medicine, Occult, Politics, Science

Secondary Abilities

While Secondary Abilities do come with a specific game-wide effect (see House Rules), it is the opinion of Mage staff that they create unnecessary sheet/stat bloat. As such, during scenes, the Abilities listed above will be the only ones that Mage staff will request players to roll. You may, at any time, request to roll a different Secondary Ability. Mage staff may, entirely in their discretion, allow the roll, disallow the roll, or change any and all parameters as they see fit (difficulty, dice pool penalties, possible end effect, etc). These decisions are final.

NOTE: The Secondary Ability of Do does not benefit from the -1 difficulty House Rule as other Secondaries do.

Backgrounds

Many of the Backgrounds in Mage: the Ascension make sense from the perspective of tracking a statistic, but many of them make little sense from the perspective of a character's history, in particular prior to play. No Background may be higher than 5 during character creation. Please see the notes below before choosing your Backgrounds:

  1. Arcane greater than 3 will be heavily scrutinized. Characters that can never be remembered might be a cute quirk for a NPC, but is harmful to the game at large for PCs.
  2. Avatar of 0 will be heavily scrutinized. How are you even a Mage?
  3. Certification is not in use here. Instead, see the 'License To...' Merit below.
  4. Chantry will not be allowed during Character Creation. Players who work toward this once in play may earn dots in the Background, however.
  5. Cult is not allowed.
  6. Enhancement is allowed for both Technocratic and Traditions PCs. The individual Enhancements themselves will still require individual approval, having a conversation with Mage staff will help here.
  7. Familiar uses the creation rules from Gods and Monsters.
  8. Influence will use the rules listed in M20, p 316-317. Please familiarize yourself with them, many people do not quite realize how this background works.
  9. Legend is not allowed. Walking, talking Nodes are too rare (and too coveted) to be allowed the agency that a PC requires.
  10. Library requires the choice of Abilities (two per dot) and Spheres (one per dot). These need not be Spheres or Abilities that are on your character sheet.
  11. Node is not allowed. Wars have been fought over control of Nodes, it makes no sense for a character early in their career to have control of one. Players who work toward this once in play may earn dots in the Background, however.
  12. Status higher than 1 will be scrutinized, higher than 2 will be heavily scrutinized. How have you achieved such Status at the beginning of your career?
  13. Totem is not allowed.

Merits

  1. Artistically Gifted can reduce magickal difficulties, despite the (poorly edited) text. It follows the same rules as other Merits of its type (Computer Aptitude, Lightning Calculator, Mechanical Aptitude, etc).
  2. Berserker is not allowed.
  3. Concentration is... really really good. There's no rules here, just a note.
  4. Fae Blood / Kinain is not allowed.
  5. Ghoul is not allowed. Additionally, becoming a Ghoul while on grid is extremely dangerous and will be met with drastic IC consequences.
  6. Immortal is not allowed.
  7. License To... merit from Revised is in use here. This effectively replaces Certification but uses a different ruleset. See Mage Staff for details.
  8. Judge's Wisdom is restricted.
  9. Mark of Favor is allowed, however, the chosen 'renowned god-form' may not be from the mythos of other supernatural creatures.
  10. Nephilim / Laham is allowed, however we do not use the optional rule of allowing 7 points in Advantages (last box on Book of Secrets, p80).
  11. Powerful Ally is not allowed, since we're not allowing Supernatural Companion.
  12. Shapechanger Kin / Kinfolk is not allowed.
  13. Stormwarden is not allowed. What Avatar Storm? We're partying like it's 1995!
  14. Supernatural Companion will not be allowed. Go find one on the grid or something.
  15. Too Tough to Die will be heavily restricted.
  16. True Faith is not allowed. I really don't know what they were smoking with this one. This merit runs oddly counter to the themes of Mage.

Flaws

  1. Addiction will be carefully scrutinized. Addiction is a serious malady that afflicts a large number of the world's population, and should be treated with an appropriate sensitivity.
  2. Bigot is not allowed. While Bigotry is a fact of life in the World of Darkness, it is inappropriate for players in a cooperative and collaborative storytelling process.
  3. Child is not allowed. All characters must be at least 18 (below 21 will be met with heavy scrutiny).
  4. Dark Secret will be carefully scrutinized. Dark Secret is a good idea in theory, but rarely in practice. Better options for this are Enemy 1 (someone knows the terrible thing you did and hates you for it) or Debts 1 (you're paying off a blackmailer).
  5. Extreme Kink is not allowed. C'mon, really?
  6. Fifth Degree is not allowed for characters outside the Technocratic Union (which should be obvious).
  7. Hero Worship is not allowed to target another PC. You may Hero Worship a known NPC if you wish, with ST approval.
  8. Inappropriate will not be allowed to be greater than 2. It's too disruptive otherwise.
  9. Mayfly Curse is not allowed. On the scale of time of a MUSH, this flaw does not come into play.
  10. Offline greater than 1 point is not allowed.
  11. PTSD will be carefully scrutinized. The wide gamut of difficulties represented by this Flaw should be treated with the appropriate respect.
  12. Shy, to fix what is obviously an editing error, only applies to social rolls with strangers, not people who know you well.
  13. Sphere Inept will be carefully scrutinized. It must be obvious that the chosen Sphere will be raised a few times over the life of the character.
  14. Sterile will be restricted as a Flaw.
  15. Stress Atavism is not allowed.
  16. Vanilla is not allowed. PCs are exceptional people. You do not become an exceptional person by being this sheltered.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds in Mage are more free-form than some other systems, and as such require a bit more definition before they can exist in a usable state. We will need a little more information than you may be used to ensure that we can provide the roleplaying experiences we think the game of Mage: the Ascension deserves.

  1. Allies - For each moderate or powerful ally, please list an 'NPC' (see below). For sidekicks, a simple description of the services they usually perform for the PC will suffice.
  2. Alternate Identity - Please include Name and some basic information about the identity (based on the value of the background).
  3. Arcane - No notes necessary, but should play a role in your background.
  4. Avatar - See Avatar below.
  5. Backup - Choose a Backup team (M20, p306)
  6. Contacts - Please list an NPC for each Contact.
  7. Demesne - A description of the Demesne itself
  8. Destiny - Please specify your 'Moment of Destiny'.
  9. Dream - No notes necessary
  10. Fame - What are you famous for?
  11. Familiar - We use the rules from Gods, Monsters, and Familiar Strangers for Familiars here. Please include a name, basic roleplaying notes, and a stat block.
  12. Influence - No notes necessary
  13. Library - A physical description of the Library and where it resides, and which Spheres/Abilities apply to it.
  14. Mentor - See NPCs below.
  15. Past Lives - No notes necessary
  16. Patron - See NPCs below.
  17. Rank - Denote which Sleeper institution your Rank is in.
  18. Resources - Where does your money come from?
  19. Retainers - One NPC entry per Retainer.
  20. Sanctum - A description of your Sanctum and where it resides
  21. Spies - The areas in which your Spies are deployed
  22. Status - Describe what you're known for among your group
  23. Wonder - We use the rules from Forged by Dragon's Fire for Wonders and their creation. Please include a name, description, and statblock.

NPCs

For each background which deal with direct NPCs, there is a chance that staff will need to roleplay as these NPCs. To facilitate such, we ask the following for each NPC that is linked to a Background:

  1. Name
  2. How the character knows the NPC
  3. What the NPC can do for the character
  4. Roleplaying notes

This may sound like a lot, but it often can be handled fairly succinctly. Ex: Lil' Fade is a member of the 616 Crew that Damien befriended during his days growing up in the Fifth Ward and pushed him away from the gang life. He still treats Damien like a little brother. Lil' Fade might be able to scrounge up a firearm without a serial number, but he excels at getting his hands on street drugs or the occasional bit of larceny.

Focus

Focus, as of M20, is made up of 3 separate (but related) facets: Paradigm, Practices, and Instruments. We also ask that you include information on your Avatar. The minimum necessary information for each of these continues below. The information can be split into various notes in whatever way you see fit.

Paradigm

Paradigms and their descriptions can be found in various M20 supplements (primarily the Core rulebook and Book of Secrets). Choose one of the listed paradigms. As every Mage's beliefs are as unique as the Mage themself is, you can (and should!) describe nuances to the chosen world view as they apply to your character as well.

Practices

Pick 2 or 3 Practices (M20 p573) that your Mage uses to perform their magick. You can, if you wish, describe how the practices tie in with your Paradigm.

Instruments

Pick at least 5 Instruments (M20, p588) that your Mage uses in their Magick. While not required, it can be helpful to pick one Instrument for each Sphere that your character has, and 2 or 3 'general' instruments that are used often.

Avatar

Describe your Avatar as you would any other NPC. The name that your PC knows their Avatar by (not all Mages know their Avatar by name), how the Avatar traditionally interacts with your character, what goals the Avatar has (which should be linked to Essence... remember, the Essence is the 'Avatar's', and need not align with your character's personality), and any other roleplaying notes regarding the Avatar itself. Remember, the way the Avatar is described will heavily inform your Seeking plots.

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