Playing as Mages

TMcCaine have given me permission via PM to see if anyone besides me are interested in being mages. TMcCaine agreed that we could play mages as long as there is atleast two persons who would like to do so.

That means that if there anyone other then me that wants to play a mage we can do so. We are probably going to be gathered at the start in a single group.

Because this is mostly a group of Vampires, having one other mage would be helpful. A group of two would also make it worth the time to have both the Vampire and Mage books on hand as it isn't necessary to slow things down for one person.

I'm also interested in playing a mage. In the other thread he mentioned some limitations or obstacles we need to get out of the way, do you know what those are? Is that something we need to do during character creation or more of something to be dealt with as the game progresses?

Haven wrote:I'm also interested in playing a mage. In the other thread he mentioned some limitations or obstacles we need to get out of the way, do you know what those are? Is that something we need to do during character creation or more of something to be dealt with as the game progresses?

Part-n-parcel to both actually. Vampires are often racist when it comes to other magical types and don't always get along with other groups such as Mages. There are exceptions.
Vampire friendly Mages will obviously have Occult as a skill and a large amount of patience as they will always be viewed as lesser beings that are used for their ability that they do not posses. Also not being tied to the world of the dead a Mage can offer a great deal of help to the undead due to their obvious ability to walk during the day.
These thoughts should be kept in mind, but if you are not interested in being a Vampire servant you will be part of your own group and more dependent on each other. Dealing with vampires would be a tricky bit of negotiation as you won't have an open door into their world so you will need an angle, or a literal foot in the door. This can be through contacts or resources, but you don't want to depend on chance meetings to dictate your future.

Go ahead and develop a character with this in mind, figure out how you want to interact with the rest of the group and post the character synopsis in this thread instead of the other one. I will get my hands on the book to help make suggestions for the both of you.

I'd also like to play as a mage, being the servant of a vampire seems a bit boring though...

Ok, I have the Mage Books. Now I need you to post your character concepts here so I can start on what tradition would best suit you.

Questionnaire:
Name, Nickname:
Vital Statistics:
Residence:
Occupation:
Hobbies:
Loves:
Hates:
Personal Style:
Voice:
Relationships/Interaction:
Greatest Desire:
Pockets:
Issues:

{Days used generically}
Typical Saturday morning:
Typical Saturday night:
Typical Sunday morning:

Name, Nickname: Elwood (El) (lastname pending)
Vital Statistics: Big burly man, 24 years old
Residence: No permament, but very often in his and his brothers car.
Occupation: Rumrunner and former Boxer
Hobbies: Several years of unloading exotic foodstuff in the harbors of Boston have left him a facination for food and the cooking of it.
Loves: Boxing and heavy "not to much thinking involved" jobs, so he can in peace and quiet daydream and think. Also flapjacks.
Hates: He dont like people that thinks that he is dense becuse of his size.
Personal Style: A white shirt and working pants with suspenders, a fedora on top.
Voice: High but wheezing due to some damage to his vocal cords in his boxing days.
Relationships/Interaction: His brother Jake and their contacts. Jake usally talks but they all know him, some family back in boston
Greatest Desire: To one day open his own speakeasy/cafe
Pockets:Knife, some money and bandages
Issues: Not many, he still have some scars (both physical and mental) from his boxing years though.
{Days used generically}
Typical Saturday morning:Get up early and do his morning training.
Typical Saturday night: Shady activities.
Typical Sunday morning: Hopefully not arrested.

In case someone wants to know I am using the Dark Ages mage book to create the characters as this is still to early in the technological revolution to use the modern book. However, there is a definitive shift to the new book and if you find a tradition in there I would make exceptions based on the character concept.

However, for the Dark Ages book there are very few traditions to go by, it is mostly by religious following. So for your character, we will need a belief structure. Something outlined so I can know how the character believes in magic and thusly how they would execute it as they are related.

Here's my character--an arcane cat burglar. I'll probably flesh him out later, but this is a start.

Name: Jack
Vital statistics: average sized, lithe, blue eyes
Occupation: Cat burglar
Hobbies: Carousing, the arcane
Loves: Drinking, dancing, jazz, a job well done, and a soft spot for children (he secretly donates a good deal of his "earnings" to various local orphanages)
Hates:
Personal style: A brown bowling hat and coat, bow tie. And completely black clothes when it's time for a job
Voice: Slick as hell; capable of adopting high-society airs when the need arises (such as when dealing with the Ordial Society)
Relationships: The Ordial Society; a wide web of contacts and acquaintances (some who know him as the cat burglar he is, some who think him just another bored rich man--as the Society do)
Greatest desire: 1. To keep on living life as it is, perhaps in yet greater excess. 2. To gain a deeper understanding of the new world his Awakening has brought him into.
Pockets: wallet, ritual knife, various thief's tools, various foci, and a matchbox with a rune scratched into the back
Issues: A nagging, yet vague, glimmer of his shallowness. As the Ordial Society (vain and stuffed-up though they may be, academic though their pursuits are) and his Awakening have shown him, there's a much wider world than he was previously aware of. Fortunately, the speakeasies are there to take his mind off it, at least for now.
Typical Saturday morning: Get up, shake off a hangover, shower, shave and otherwise make himself presentable
Typical Saturday night: Meet with the Ordial Society (usually at one of the members' homes--being a junior member, Jack is not required to host, which is fortunate), discuss magical lore and theory
Typical Sunday morning: Go over the plan for the evening's heist in his head.

Belief structure: Everything is connected, and symbolic, and thus can be manipulated through the use of runes, words and gestures.

Haven wrote:Here's my character--an arcane cat burglar. I'll probably flesh him out later, but this is a start.

Name: Jack

Oh this sounds fun.
An Arcane cat burglar? Explain that a bit better so I can see where your coming from. Just so I can make sure we are on the same page. It sounds like you are either a burglar of the arcane or are the arcane burglar.

Religious Following suggestion;
Messianic Voices - An old cultural occult that has grown in strength through time, but wanes now. Its old and often forgotten ties with many modern religions has it becoming a fad, or a growing spark of interest in the more powerful mortal view. Many find it to be just a passing fancy of religious worship, others are more devout. Those true followers, know you to be a true follower, a messiah, a saint, and a powerful occultist with humble origins. Outside this world you are seen as a con artist, a sham, and are often ridiculed for it.

The Old Faith - The runic passages, the enigmatic arrangements, the ties with the old, ancient, world. Very much a similar path to the Messianic Voices, this has you in a more shadowy present looking at the pre-christian world as the true world, and the christian faith (its crucifix, and its symbols) all taken from your grasp to be used as trophies or displayed as their own, stolen from you, you seek these things as your own. The pagan beginnings of your faith have been bastardized and forgotten for the more rigid, culture soaked sham that is Christianity.

TMcCaine wrote:

Haven wrote:Here's my character--an arcane cat burglar. I'll probably flesh him out later, but this is a start.

Name: Jack

Oh this sounds fun.
An Arcane cat burglar? Explain that a bit better so I can see where your coming from. Just so I can make sure we are on the same page. It sounds like you are either a burglar of the arcane or are the arcane burglar.

Oh, it's the latter--he mostly uses his magic to aid in mundane thefts, though he might branch out into stealing artifacts or whatnot for more of a challenge/as he gets more ambitious.

And "The Old Faith" sounds fitting. BTW, what are the differences in "The Dark Age" rules? I'm not familiar with them, I'm afraid.

Right now I am going over some Vampire Character sheets, and as soon as I am done with taht I am moving onto reading the Dark Ages version of casting magic. I printed up the Dark Ages PDF for mages and it is sitting here on a stack next to me. It used up my black toner cartredge surprisingly (its a laser printer too).

Now that we have the questionnaires done we need to move onto the building of the character, assigning flaws/merits/backgrounds and so on. So if everyone starts on that I will post the system for the Magical use in a moment. Also, I posted a link to download the book for Hutter, if he shares it (becuase I didn't save it) you can download it too because there isn't an online version.

Smygegrabben wrote:I'd also like to play as a mage, being the servant of a vampire seems a bit boring though...

Smygergrabben!
Where are you?!?

Smygegrabben wrote:Name, Nickname: Jacob (Jake) Boulder

Awesome, thanks.

I have done a bit of reading, so when you make the Mages you make them exactly like Vampires with one distinct difference that we will go over after you have the character sheet at hand.
Click here for the Dark Ages Mage sheet.

Once you have that look at the bottom of the sheet at advantages. Attributes & Abilities are derived using the same point spread as the vampires so refer to the character creation thread for details.
On Advantages;
you have 5 points for Backgrounds. Look at page 82 in the Dark ages book for more details on specific Backgrounds for Mages.
Foundation is a 1
and there are 3 dots to divide in the Pillars. This is where things get screwy but more on that later.

Starting Willpower = 5
Starting Quintessence = 5 (max 10 unless proper backgrounds are purchased)
or
Starting Quintessence = Cray + Fount backgrounds (whichever is greater)

Freebie point expenditure is the same but here are the unique points;
Foundation; 5 points per dot
Pillar; 3 points per dot
Again, the rest is the same.

Haven
Here is your Pillars (p115);
Autumn: The powers of Earth and the Harvest.
Spring: The blessings of Air and Rebirth.
Summer: The magic of Fire and Vitality.
Winter: The gifts of Death and Water.

The Sweedish Viking Brothers Hutter & Smygegrabben
Here are your Pillars (p130);
Fara: Runes of wanderlust and conveyance.
Forlog: The runes of wealth and good fortune.
Galdrar: Runes of all that is hidden of forbidden.
Hjaldar: Runes to empower or control those who make war.

These pillars are the foundation of your belief, and how it effects your magic casting. You may only do what is within these pillars as how you were taught magic. This is a very important concept for the mages you are so remember it well. When spending these points I wold suggest focusing one one pillar, and if your daring, two (but no more). Become an expert in that pillar before you move onto the next each are special casting a variety of effects. So read the ones you want for your character and submit your worked out sheets as soon as you can. The sooner the better.

Oh, and before I forget. Here is the link to the book so you may all have it.
Megaupload

Oh noes! The rules are much more different than I had anticipated.

When I made my character I was envisioning him as an Order of Hermes type--do they exist in New York in "The Roaring 20s"? If so that's probably what I'd go for...although...hmm. May need to rethink character a little.

Haven wrote:Oh noes! The rules are much more different than I had anticipated.

Yes and no. If you can download the book or I will suggest pillars based on the magic you want to cast. The Old Path is a good one allowing you some great magical abilities, but the Order of Hermes is not really all that different. Again, its your belief structure that allows you to cast magic and what you believe is intrinsic to the character.
Yes the Order is available, if you want to switch to them go ahead. Here is a quick synopsis;
Order of Hermes
The philosophy of the Order of Hermes stems from its ancient heritage, being an amalgam of Egyptian and Greek ideas, with several other strains of magical thought (primarily Aribic) thrown in for good measure. True to its Greek ancestry the order has an answer for almost any question an Apprentice (or even Adept) might ask about the true nature of reality and humanity's relation to it.
The order of Hermes is a powerful and ancient tradition of mages. Indeed, its members claim it to be the most ancient of all such traditions (or even the only sch tradition - all others being mere illusionists and charlatans).

I would attempt to steer you away from them because of their pompous generalization towards others, and in New York this will not serve you to unintentionally push you away from others.

The Old Faith
The Dark Medieval age may be a time of Christian ascendancy, but the ascendancy isn't total. Even in the 13th century, there are nations in Europe that have not yet succumbed to the power of the Church, such as Lithuania and its Baltic neighbors. Despite the determined efforts of priests and kings, paganism remains a vital part of human society, providing what Christianity cannot: comfort, tangible benefits and a connection to the past.
Despite its disunity of organization and diffusion through several cultures, the Old Faith does possess some thing approaching coherent philosophy. Broadly speaking, all mages of the Old Faith revere life in all its forms. Furthermore, the Old faith believes that nature is replete with symbols and signs that teach humanity about valuable truths.

Ok, I have completely refamiliarized myself with the Mage book. I have one character sheet done, and I need the other two to start.

Haven, it isn't as different as you might think so a heavy rethink isn't necessary. Also, Unfortunately WW never did a more expanded character sheet than the one page that we are most likely used to already, so i will be adopting other pages to complete a good 4 page character sheet that I am using with the Vampires.