electricpaladin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
electricpaladin) wrote2009-01-18 02:28 pm
electricpaladin) wrote2009-01-18 02:28 pm
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Character Creation G: Mage: the Awakening
I wrote this one up a while ago, right before my computer stopped scanning altogether. Now that that problem is finally solved, it seems appropriate to throw it up. After all, Mage: the Awakening is one of my favorite games, up there with Mage: the Ascension, Changeling: the Dreaming, and Exalted.
The Game: Mage: the Awakening
Publisher: White Wolf
Familiarity: High. It sure as hell better be.
Mage: the Awakening is a very straightforward and tight modern occult horror game. You play someone who has awakened to the secret of the Supernal Realms, the higher world whose themes and patterns influence this, Fallen World.
How did the World Fall? Funny story, that. You see, back in the day, a bunch of mages decided it would be nifty to reach the Supernal Realms bodily, rather than just through vision quests. So they built a spiritual tower. Other mages tried to stop them, believing that it was wrong and mistrusting what their fellows would do once they had the power to stick their hands into the workings of reality and mess with things.
Well, the good guys lost. The Celestial Ladder broke, trapping the arrogant mages and the humble ones who chased them up the Ladder on the far side. Now the world is separated from its soul by an Abyss of madness and ruled by the Exarchs, the now-godlike arrogant mages who remain in the Supernal Realms. Fortunately, the other mages became the equally godlike Oracles and created five watchtowers in five of the Supernal Realms. Following the light of those Watchtowers, humans can still awaken to magic.
Mage: the Awakening is about being a person with power in a world full of madness and conspiracies. It’s part Mage: the Ascension, part Changeling: the Dreaming, part The Matrix, and part… well, it’s part a lot of things. I think you get the point.
Step One: Character Concept
I like the idea of playing an urban shaman, someone in tune with the spirit world, but in a modern way. He knows there is an invisible world in the cities as well as the wilderness, and he knows that he can exploit it. At the same time, he’s not just another urban magus; the word shaman has connotations of responsibility. It’s a role, a job, a calling. He doesn’t just manipulate spirits for personal gain (I mean, he does that, too), he also acts as go-between for spirits and humans. This can be rough, especially in cities, where lots of people don’t believe in spirits…
I’ve got a story for this dude, too. His name is David. His mom was an Indian activist in a reservation near Chicago and his dad was a white lawyer and activist from Chicago. They met, fell in love, and had a baby. Both their families and friends gave them a lot of grief over this. Both of them were marrying outside their cultures, and worse, she didn’t want to leave the reservation. Living there, in defiance of the lousy conditions, had become an act of defiance for her.
Well, being in love, they compromised. He bought some land at the edge of the reservation and built a house. They were happy for a while.
When David was 11 years old, their marriage fell apart. No one was the good guy and no one was the bad guy, it just wasn’t working. Maybe they had been wrong for each other all along, maybe the cultural difference really was too big. Anyway, their divorce was kind of a big deal, especially since they both wanted custody, and David’s family sort of crossed national lines.
David’s dad won, but not in court. He went on a walk through the reservation with his soon-to-be-ex-wife and looked at all the squalor, all the poverty, all the drinking and violence. Sure, they had made things better, but let’s not forget that this is the World of Darkness… so not too much better. He asked her if she really wanted her son to grow up in this. For the first time, her resolve failed her, and she sent David to live with his father.
So David grew up being shuttled back and forth between two different worlds. He never much liked his mom’s world, but he loved his dad’s. If you had told an eighteen year old David that by the time he graduated college he was going to be a shaman, he would have laughed at you.
Of course, that was before he awakened.
Step Two: Select Attributes
I want to go with the idea that this has been David’s calling all along, though he didn’t know it.
I think Social is David’s Primary category. He’s built for getting his way, seeing people’s (and spirits’) weaknesses and exploiting them. Having a high-powered trial lawyer who split his time between the corporate cases that paid for the nice house and the pr bono activist work that made him feel human helped, too. That means I have five points to divide up amongst my Social Attributes. I’ll take Presence 3, Manipulation 2, and Composure 3. The Manipulation could be higher, but David’s a dumb kid in his twenties. Subtlety is something he can learn later.
Mental is Secondary, because I think David is smart. I’ll go with Intelligence 3, Wits 2, and Resolve 2. I’d like to go higher, but you know, points.
Finally, Physical is Tertiary. Average across the board: 2, 2, 2.
Step Three: Select Skills
David has never specialized in much of anything. I think he drifted through college, never really sure what he wanted to focus on. So his Skills are going to be pretty spread out… but if I do this right, they should still betray the influence of his destiny.
Because David did a lot of his drifting in college, I think Mental Skills should be primary. The means 11 points. In the end, I settle on Academics 2 (he’s learned the history of everything), Computer 1, Crafts 1, Investigation 2 (lots of research in many fields), Medicine 1, Occult 2 (the invisible hand of destiny), Politics 1, and Science 1.
That’s right. He has at least a dot in everything.
I think Social is Secondary, with 7 points. Again, here is the influence of his father. I’ll take Empathy 1, Expression 1, Persuasion 2, Streetwise 1, and Subterfuge 1.
That leaves Physical Skills Tertiary. Athletics 1, Drive 1, Firearms 1, and Survival 1.
Step Four: Select Skill Specialties
Using the list three things method, I get David likes cool technological toys, David knows his way around the city, and David likes to solve problems for people. That gives me Computer (Cool Toys), Investigation (Urban), and Persuasion (Deals).
Step Five: Add Mage Template
Here’s where the magic happens.
First of all, I need to give David a path. The choice here is easy: David is definitely a Thrysus, the shamans on the path of ecstasy. This is might be interesting, because they have a very primal feel and are often associated with “native” traditions… and David has a bit of distain for people who live in the past. Being Thrysus means that David’s Composure gets a boost, going from 3 to 4. It also means that Life and Spirit are my Ruling Arcana and Mind is my Inferior Arcana.
Next, I have to pick an Order. I cannot imagine David as anything other than a Libertine. He likes cool computer toys, he embraces the work of humanity (the city) as an arena of spiritual significance, and he has that anti-authoritarian activist streak he inherited from both his parents. That means that David’s Rote Specialties are Crafts, Persuasion, and Science. Nifty.
Next it’s time for Arcana. Magic powers, yay! I get 2 in two Arcana, 1 in a third Arcana, and +1 in any Arcana, including one of the above. Two of those have to be my Ruling Arcana. Well, 2 goes in Spirit (obviously). The other 2 I’ll put in… Matter, I like the idea of David being able to directly effect his technological toys (and also because I did a write up of the Ghost Wheel Society as a Legacy, and I’d want to take that for this character one day…). I’ll put my 1 in Life (because both my Ruling Arcana need a rating). I’ll put my +1 in Spirit, because Spirit 3 has lots of cool tricks that are kind of essential for a shaman-type mage.
Step Six: Select Merits
Now I get to spend seven points on Merits. Since I’m a member of an Atlantean Order, I get High Speech for free. Yay!
I also really want a Familiar. Because they’re nifty, and I have a fun idea. I think one of the first things David did was get himself a familiar, so he sought out and bound a spirit of Information. Only… he didn’t find a spirit of Correct Information, just Information. His familiar knows a lot, but not all of it is exactly accurate, and it loves to talk. The slightest thing can set it off, going on and on and on about things that might be true, or might be really, really weird misinformation. As far as David can tell, the spirit is incapable of understanding the difference.
He calls it Wiki.
I think it’s an embodied familiar, to make it a little more exciting. It has the shape of a big black crow.
I’m going to skimp on Status for now and say that David has been coasting on basic allegiance in the Free Council. He’ll want to rise higher, eventually, but figuring out his place in the world – between the worlds – has taken precedence.
Instead, I want to take 2 dots of Destiny. After all, his Destiny to be a shaman was pushing him from an early age even before he awakened. David’s Destiny has a Ban, a doom that will come for him some day. This doesn’t mean he’s really DOOMed, but it does mean that fate will turn against him whenever the Ban comes up, fickle bitch that she is. David’s Ban is “the enemy god,” whatever that means.
Finally, I’ll take a dot of Contacts (Activists) to reflect the friends he made while involved in the activism scene in college and contacts inherited by his parents.
I’ll take a moment now to stat up Wiki. He gets 5/4/3 in Attributes and 9/6/3 in Skills. Well, I can make Wiki pretty much identical to a standard Crow with the points I’ve got. I’m going to give him Wits 4 and Resolve 3 (rather than Wits 3 and Resolve 4), to reflect his fast-moving little spirit brain. Of course, his Intelligence stays 1. He knows a lot… but he’s not too bright. I’ll spend his two points of Influence on Information 2.
And… Skills. I’ll give Wiki the following Skills: Academics 3, Animal Ken 1, Athletics 3, Brawl 1, Computer 2, Intimidation 2, Investigation 1, Occult 3, and Survival 2, which makes him pretty much a normal crow with a head full of random occult and mundane trivia.
Finally, Wiki gets two Numen. One of them is automatically Innocuous. The other will be… a spirit version of the spell “Tune In,” which will let Wiki attune his senses to the ever-present chatter of electromagnetic communication, which is where he learns al lot of his information, true and false.
Step Seven: Determine Advantages
Just some math here. Nothing to see. Move along.
Except… Virtue and Vice! I think David’s Virtue is Justice, not necessarily punishing the wicked, but more bringing order and balance to the world (and the worlds). Making sure everyone gets what they deserve. His Vice, however, is Pride. He may be ambiguous about living between the worlds, but damn, if it isn’t sometimes really cool! David likes to be on top – the coolest clothes, the best toys – and he can be pretty arrogant.
Step Eight: Awakening to Life
So, David is living in New York, having graduated college. His awakening near the end of college really drove home to him that he doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life. He isn’t even at home in either the real world or the spirit world. He’s having a quarter-life crisis of epic proportions.
Finally – and the character creation steps leave this out – David gets six dots worth of rotes, spells he can cast very well.
David’s rotes: Aura Perception, Ephemeral Armor, Second Sight, and Spirit Tongue. Enough to do a lot of his work as a shaman, but he has a lot to learn.
In retrospect, there is one thing I'd change about this character (well, two actually, only the other was so dumb I fixed it already). The rotes Ephemeral Armor and Second Sight are both a little too easy for him to cast off the top of his head. It isn't worth it for him to have rotes for them, and the points would be better spent elsewhere. The other thing was that I originally had two points in Mind, not Matter, so David could "convince" recalcitrant spirits, but I have since realized that you don't need Mind to mind control spirits, Spirit does it just fine. One of the quirks of Awakening - like Ascension before it - is that humans and other animals are made of multiple Arcana Mind for the mind, Life for the Body, and Death for the soul (for humans), but most other things - spirits, ghosts - are made of only one Arcana. Weird, but there you have it.
And that’s it. Mage: the Awakening. I’m very fond of this character, possibly the most fond of any so far. I’d like to play him one day.
The Game: Mage: the Awakening
Publisher: White Wolf
Familiarity: High. It sure as hell better be.
Mage: the Awakening is a very straightforward and tight modern occult horror game. You play someone who has awakened to the secret of the Supernal Realms, the higher world whose themes and patterns influence this, Fallen World.
How did the World Fall? Funny story, that. You see, back in the day, a bunch of mages decided it would be nifty to reach the Supernal Realms bodily, rather than just through vision quests. So they built a spiritual tower. Other mages tried to stop them, believing that it was wrong and mistrusting what their fellows would do once they had the power to stick their hands into the workings of reality and mess with things.
Well, the good guys lost. The Celestial Ladder broke, trapping the arrogant mages and the humble ones who chased them up the Ladder on the far side. Now the world is separated from its soul by an Abyss of madness and ruled by the Exarchs, the now-godlike arrogant mages who remain in the Supernal Realms. Fortunately, the other mages became the equally godlike Oracles and created five watchtowers in five of the Supernal Realms. Following the light of those Watchtowers, humans can still awaken to magic.
Mage: the Awakening is about being a person with power in a world full of madness and conspiracies. It’s part Mage: the Ascension, part Changeling: the Dreaming, part The Matrix, and part… well, it’s part a lot of things. I think you get the point.
Step One: Character Concept
I like the idea of playing an urban shaman, someone in tune with the spirit world, but in a modern way. He knows there is an invisible world in the cities as well as the wilderness, and he knows that he can exploit it. At the same time, he’s not just another urban magus; the word shaman has connotations of responsibility. It’s a role, a job, a calling. He doesn’t just manipulate spirits for personal gain (I mean, he does that, too), he also acts as go-between for spirits and humans. This can be rough, especially in cities, where lots of people don’t believe in spirits…
I’ve got a story for this dude, too. His name is David. His mom was an Indian activist in a reservation near Chicago and his dad was a white lawyer and activist from Chicago. They met, fell in love, and had a baby. Both their families and friends gave them a lot of grief over this. Both of them were marrying outside their cultures, and worse, she didn’t want to leave the reservation. Living there, in defiance of the lousy conditions, had become an act of defiance for her.
Well, being in love, they compromised. He bought some land at the edge of the reservation and built a house. They were happy for a while.
When David was 11 years old, their marriage fell apart. No one was the good guy and no one was the bad guy, it just wasn’t working. Maybe they had been wrong for each other all along, maybe the cultural difference really was too big. Anyway, their divorce was kind of a big deal, especially since they both wanted custody, and David’s family sort of crossed national lines.
David’s dad won, but not in court. He went on a walk through the reservation with his soon-to-be-ex-wife and looked at all the squalor, all the poverty, all the drinking and violence. Sure, they had made things better, but let’s not forget that this is the World of Darkness… so not too much better. He asked her if she really wanted her son to grow up in this. For the first time, her resolve failed her, and she sent David to live with his father.
So David grew up being shuttled back and forth between two different worlds. He never much liked his mom’s world, but he loved his dad’s. If you had told an eighteen year old David that by the time he graduated college he was going to be a shaman, he would have laughed at you.
Of course, that was before he awakened.
Step Two: Select Attributes
I want to go with the idea that this has been David’s calling all along, though he didn’t know it.
I think Social is David’s Primary category. He’s built for getting his way, seeing people’s (and spirits’) weaknesses and exploiting them. Having a high-powered trial lawyer who split his time between the corporate cases that paid for the nice house and the pr bono activist work that made him feel human helped, too. That means I have five points to divide up amongst my Social Attributes. I’ll take Presence 3, Manipulation 2, and Composure 3. The Manipulation could be higher, but David’s a dumb kid in his twenties. Subtlety is something he can learn later.
Mental is Secondary, because I think David is smart. I’ll go with Intelligence 3, Wits 2, and Resolve 2. I’d like to go higher, but you know, points.
Finally, Physical is Tertiary. Average across the board: 2, 2, 2.
Step Three: Select Skills
David has never specialized in much of anything. I think he drifted through college, never really sure what he wanted to focus on. So his Skills are going to be pretty spread out… but if I do this right, they should still betray the influence of his destiny.
Because David did a lot of his drifting in college, I think Mental Skills should be primary. The means 11 points. In the end, I settle on Academics 2 (he’s learned the history of everything), Computer 1, Crafts 1, Investigation 2 (lots of research in many fields), Medicine 1, Occult 2 (the invisible hand of destiny), Politics 1, and Science 1.
That’s right. He has at least a dot in everything.
I think Social is Secondary, with 7 points. Again, here is the influence of his father. I’ll take Empathy 1, Expression 1, Persuasion 2, Streetwise 1, and Subterfuge 1.
That leaves Physical Skills Tertiary. Athletics 1, Drive 1, Firearms 1, and Survival 1.
Step Four: Select Skill Specialties
Using the list three things method, I get David likes cool technological toys, David knows his way around the city, and David likes to solve problems for people. That gives me Computer (Cool Toys), Investigation (Urban), and Persuasion (Deals).
Step Five: Add Mage Template
Here’s where the magic happens.
First of all, I need to give David a path. The choice here is easy: David is definitely a Thrysus, the shamans on the path of ecstasy. This is might be interesting, because they have a very primal feel and are often associated with “native” traditions… and David has a bit of distain for people who live in the past. Being Thrysus means that David’s Composure gets a boost, going from 3 to 4. It also means that Life and Spirit are my Ruling Arcana and Mind is my Inferior Arcana.
Next, I have to pick an Order. I cannot imagine David as anything other than a Libertine. He likes cool computer toys, he embraces the work of humanity (the city) as an arena of spiritual significance, and he has that anti-authoritarian activist streak he inherited from both his parents. That means that David’s Rote Specialties are Crafts, Persuasion, and Science. Nifty.
Next it’s time for Arcana. Magic powers, yay! I get 2 in two Arcana, 1 in a third Arcana, and +1 in any Arcana, including one of the above. Two of those have to be my Ruling Arcana. Well, 2 goes in Spirit (obviously). The other 2 I’ll put in… Matter, I like the idea of David being able to directly effect his technological toys (and also because I did a write up of the Ghost Wheel Society as a Legacy, and I’d want to take that for this character one day…). I’ll put my 1 in Life (because both my Ruling Arcana need a rating). I’ll put my +1 in Spirit, because Spirit 3 has lots of cool tricks that are kind of essential for a shaman-type mage.
Step Six: Select Merits
Now I get to spend seven points on Merits. Since I’m a member of an Atlantean Order, I get High Speech for free. Yay!
I also really want a Familiar. Because they’re nifty, and I have a fun idea. I think one of the first things David did was get himself a familiar, so he sought out and bound a spirit of Information. Only… he didn’t find a spirit of Correct Information, just Information. His familiar knows a lot, but not all of it is exactly accurate, and it loves to talk. The slightest thing can set it off, going on and on and on about things that might be true, or might be really, really weird misinformation. As far as David can tell, the spirit is incapable of understanding the difference.
He calls it Wiki.
I think it’s an embodied familiar, to make it a little more exciting. It has the shape of a big black crow.
I’m going to skimp on Status for now and say that David has been coasting on basic allegiance in the Free Council. He’ll want to rise higher, eventually, but figuring out his place in the world – between the worlds – has taken precedence.
Instead, I want to take 2 dots of Destiny. After all, his Destiny to be a shaman was pushing him from an early age even before he awakened. David’s Destiny has a Ban, a doom that will come for him some day. This doesn’t mean he’s really DOOMed, but it does mean that fate will turn against him whenever the Ban comes up, fickle bitch that she is. David’s Ban is “the enemy god,” whatever that means.
Finally, I’ll take a dot of Contacts (Activists) to reflect the friends he made while involved in the activism scene in college and contacts inherited by his parents.
I’ll take a moment now to stat up Wiki. He gets 5/4/3 in Attributes and 9/6/3 in Skills. Well, I can make Wiki pretty much identical to a standard Crow with the points I’ve got. I’m going to give him Wits 4 and Resolve 3 (rather than Wits 3 and Resolve 4), to reflect his fast-moving little spirit brain. Of course, his Intelligence stays 1. He knows a lot… but he’s not too bright. I’ll spend his two points of Influence on Information 2.
And… Skills. I’ll give Wiki the following Skills: Academics 3, Animal Ken 1, Athletics 3, Brawl 1, Computer 2, Intimidation 2, Investigation 1, Occult 3, and Survival 2, which makes him pretty much a normal crow with a head full of random occult and mundane trivia.
Finally, Wiki gets two Numen. One of them is automatically Innocuous. The other will be… a spirit version of the spell “Tune In,” which will let Wiki attune his senses to the ever-present chatter of electromagnetic communication, which is where he learns al lot of his information, true and false.
Step Seven: Determine Advantages
Just some math here. Nothing to see. Move along.
Except… Virtue and Vice! I think David’s Virtue is Justice, not necessarily punishing the wicked, but more bringing order and balance to the world (and the worlds). Making sure everyone gets what they deserve. His Vice, however, is Pride. He may be ambiguous about living between the worlds, but damn, if it isn’t sometimes really cool! David likes to be on top – the coolest clothes, the best toys – and he can be pretty arrogant.
Step Eight: Awakening to Life
So, David is living in New York, having graduated college. His awakening near the end of college really drove home to him that he doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life. He isn’t even at home in either the real world or the spirit world. He’s having a quarter-life crisis of epic proportions.
Finally – and the character creation steps leave this out – David gets six dots worth of rotes, spells he can cast very well.
David’s rotes: Aura Perception, Ephemeral Armor, Second Sight, and Spirit Tongue. Enough to do a lot of his work as a shaman, but he has a lot to learn.
In retrospect, there is one thing I'd change about this character (well, two actually, only the other was so dumb I fixed it already). The rotes Ephemeral Armor and Second Sight are both a little too easy for him to cast off the top of his head. It isn't worth it for him to have rotes for them, and the points would be better spent elsewhere. The other thing was that I originally had two points in Mind, not Matter, so David could "convince" recalcitrant spirits, but I have since realized that you don't need Mind to mind control spirits, Spirit does it just fine. One of the quirks of Awakening - like Ascension before it - is that humans and other animals are made of multiple Arcana Mind for the mind, Life for the Body, and Death for the soul (for humans), but most other things - spirits, ghosts - are made of only one Arcana. Weird, but there you have it.
And that’s it. Mage: the Awakening. I’m very fond of this character, possibly the most fond of any so far. I’d like to play him one day.