"House Rules" for Mage

In a nutshell, playing a mage in Vamp City or associated channels can be summed up thusly: play nicely, or get kicked out of the sandbox!

In a perfect world, all of us play in the channel because we enjoy playing together; our personal goals are compatible enough that we can all have fun while pursuing them. In the channel, as in this thing we call real life, I believe that the greatest potential can be realized when we all work together towards a common goal... and that generally involves setting aside individual goals which compromise our virtual community.

The game is the thing, first and foremost; maintaining game balance is everything. Keep in mind that not all gaming staff is familiar with MtA. If there’s a question or issue, work with the gaming staff. With their ability to dynamically redefine Reality around them, few character types can match Mages for the potential to unbalance the game, to abruptly squash a story-line in the formative stages, and to pretty much guarantee nobody else has much fun… and that would be a place we don’t want to go.

Mages exist to keep alive a sense of wonder in an increasingly jaded world. Mages teeter on the uttermost edge of incredulity, transforming the impossible to miraculous, the miraculous to the tentatively plausible, and the merely difficult into the commonplace by degrees.

If your idea of the ultimate fun gaming experience is to find any excuse to soundly thrash senseless every being you encounter in the gaming universe, to subjugate everyone and everything your character encounters, to kick butt and take names, then reconsider playing a Mage; that gaming style is more suited to playing a stereotype Garou shock-troop warrior, an avenging Hunter, or an NPC. Expect life to be short, and life insurance for your character will be generally unavailable... though a bookmaker might be willing to give you odds on surviving for a year or more in game time. (Expect it to be a long shot.)

BASELINE Paradigm

Start with current technology, ranging from state-of-the-art to venerable. Add second edition M:tA rules. Simmer gently.

What this means is that if your desired effect resembles existing devices, albeit cutting edge technology, I consider it to be coincidental. (Yes, Virginia, there really are lasers, stun-guns, kirlian fields, and thermal imaging devices. ) Likewise, if your character has been built around a performance concept (TV evangelist, stage magician, circus performer, or mentalist) or some paranormal concept (research psychiatrist, Zen master, Taoist magician, shaman, New Age mystic, etc.) the bounds of disbelief can be pushed back a little as long as you're working within the concept of your character. (Faith-healing, while not an everyday occurrence in most towns, is not entirely unheard of. On the other hand, if your source is National Enquirer or similar tabloid, you've better figure out how to get to some of the more inaccessible and remote third-world places on earth, because those are the places to which the tabloids attribute outlandish phenomenon.) The secondary ability, Blatancy, can also help to ease reality’s constraints.

In terms of describing effects, keep in mind that coincidental means subtle. Chances are, if you're playing down the visibility of magic, people will readily attribute it to something else. If you're playing down the visibility of magick, your character should maintain plausible deniability for coincidental magick. Ideally, it can't be traced back to him or her, and if it can be, there should be a reasonable, rational, non-magickal explanation. 

Overt magick or "vulgar" magick tends to draw lots of attention. Sometimes, in a life or death situation, you have to do what you have to do. Keep in mind that Paradox isn't the only thing a mage as to worry about. The Technocracy opposed such "superstitious and irresponsible" use of magick, and members of Traditions aren't going to be too happy about anything that draws attention, either. A wise mage does not get placed into that sort of situation, or associate long with those who do.

Allowed Mage Character Types:

                Traditions, Crafts, and Orphans are the human player-character “norm” for mages.

Card-carrying members of the Technocratic Union or its conventions are reserved for NPC’s.  Unless your character has had a genuine change-of-heart conversion experience and has for all times forsaken being part of the Technocratic Union, reality deviants and the Technocracy mix like lithium and water. (And be forewarned that turn-coat Technocrats tend to have LOTS of problems, many of which will be unknown to the player until its too late….) Characters “recruited” by the Technocracy become NPC’s under control of the gaming staff.

Marauders? Trust me, you really don't want to go there... Marauders are reserved for use as NPC's. Characters who go too far to the Wyld side become NPC's under control of the gaming staff.  

Nephandi convert? Unless looking for a quick way to become an unsavory NPC with a bad aftertaste, I highly discourage knowingly going to bed with the Wyrm. There's a reason that rotten apples are not routinely packed into the basket, and there's already a great plenty that's rotten and corrupt in the World.of Darkness.

For purposes of game balance and the enjoyment of all, I do not allow mix-and-match character classes. Mages, Kindred, Garou, Changelings, and Ghosts are all different and generally non-compatible critters. (A mage may become a vampire, mummy, ghost, or Kuei-jin, at which point he or she ceases to be a Mage and becomes something else!)

 As a mage player character, ghouling by any means tends to be a real bad career choice.

 Starting characters are generated with the standard numbers, to include the standard 25 points of freebies. Keep in mind that starting characters will have an Arete of 3 or less, and a sphere rating no higher than their Arete.

For the record, any player character may learn Do. Keep in mind that Do may only be taught by an Akashic Brother, and various Akashic schools have differing requirements for would-be students. As a rule, if you’re not an Akashic Brother, you must be able to find an Akashic Brother and convince him or her that you can favorably operate within Akashic paradigms to be considered a student.

 Special maneuvers that are not part of do rotes require special training. Non-rote special maneuvers can be learned by anyone.   Do rotes, on the other hand, are jealously guarded secrets NEVER to be taught to anyone outside the Akashic Brotherhood. ONLY an Akashic may teach Do rotes, and no Akashic would every teach a Do rote to a person not initiated into the Akashic tradition.