New, not-to-shabby-looking, playtested version of Mage. It’s a replacement for Wizard, meant to invoke the fun of open-ended magic. Watch out for paradox! Feel free to use, or let me know if you have any feedback, especially if you try it in your games.
Note: this was designed to support a party of mages, so the Tradition determines the faction. Feel free to leave that out if you only have one.
I also figured out how to use Google Docs to make the character look almost like a real Archetype. I’m happy to share if anyone is interested.
UPDATED VERSION: 6.2 – updated mana rules.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_8U7ClGoQInLXpiN2xWSFd6SlU/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_8U7ClGoQInMUdKcXhReDNjRHc/view?usp=sharing
Better save this quick in case it makes a certain publisher unhappy. 🙂
Have you playtested this one?
It looks pretty good but what is Mana? I can’t see in the playbooks what is it?
We playtested it on Saturday, 4 mages in the party. I tweaked Change Reality a little since, but it’s almost exactly the same. The Magic itself was super fun and went very well. I also had more debt choices on there since they were all the same archetype.
I’m thinking of adding extra rules and clarifications below the sheet. That might help with mana confusion (my players were confused too).
Yeah, the way I’m presenting mana is confusing. You start with the ability to use it, but no way to store it and no mana source, so you have to go out and find one in the fiction if you need it, or pick up a mana source as your choice for another Mage move. You saw the “Use Mana” move right?
Yeah. I think you need to add clarifications. As I understadn it, Mana is Magic present in some places, items, ingredients, etc. You cant “magically store it”, but you can use it if it is present, right? You need to clarify were you can find mana, what happen if you used (the source is exhausted?) and what move could be triggered to find mana. Maybe use some of your own magic or maybe a “let it out” move?.
Maybe you can represent Mana point as a HOLD, and let the players pick some choices spending it. Maybe you can rephrase the Use mana move to something like :”When Mana is available you can spend it….and how the move follows.
Even you can add something about what happen to mana sources when you used in the same move. When you spend it ask the GM if the mana source is permanent or temporal : If it is temporal, the mana source is exhausted. A exhausted mana source can be used again in the story. If it is permanent, te mana source is temporally unvailable. The Gm Will tel you when the mana source can be used again.
Finally your mage moves related to mana need to be revised to indicate if the mana produced is temporal or permanent.
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Danilo Jara Cool I’ll work on it, thanks for the feedback!
This looks very interesting! Is the intention for this to be specifically for Mage: The Urban Shadowing or to fit in with a regularly US group?
Also, the format looks great. Is this something you could share with other people interested in doing some skin-hacking? I’ve a couple of ideas percolating rather nicely, I think.
It think it could fit into a regular US group but you would probably want to have it replace the wizard. I also added way more moves than normal, but I don’t think that would hurt. If you try it will you let me know?
I’ll absolutely put it out for the next time I’m fielding new characters!
Can you copy this to make your own sheet? You should realize that this is one huge hack, with screenshots and hidden characters and tables to get it looking niceish, but you should be able to duplicate it. Let me know if it works! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U_qmPeeW5X6RRA99Web0VrNlIWOEjaYbJ2W398eZPg8/edit?usp=docslist_api
Man, that is a thing of beauty! Thank you for sharing that with the community!
I should get a good chance tomorrow to check out some of the moves and I’ll give some thoughts on that as well! I just was so excited by the formatting I had to ask before delving!
Ok I revised the mana rules. Let me know what you think. Here is all the new text referencing mana:
FRONT PAGE:
Mana is the current of change beneath the surface of reality. Certain places of power, objects, and creatures can serve as mana sources, but you may need to Hit the Streets to find them.
MAGE MOVES:
☑ Draw Mana: When you draw from a source of Mana to Change Reality, ignore one Paradox per mana. The source is drained. The MC will tell you if and when it will become available again.
☐ Battery: When you Draw Mana, you may store it in your body or focus for later, but the more you store the more attention it attracts.
☐ Ley lines: You control a place of power that collects mana: mana-3
☐ Familiar: A small magical creature is your companion. Choose one: Spirit, Faerie, Animal, Demon, Construct. Choose three tags: mana-1, reliable, combat, guard, hunt, knowledge, well connected, speech.
☐ Sacrifice: Sacrifice life as a mana source. Loved pets are mana-1, while a person could be mana-5 or more
☐ Zen: Meditate for hours in a positive place as a mana source: mana-1
☐ Tass: When you Draw Mana, you may store it in an object for later. Large sources require large or costly objects. Drawing from it destroys it.
OH sounds a LOT LOT better. I’m excited! Some guidelines to know when a source is restored will be very useful. Mana should be rare. I think you can incluse some thing like “Most Source will be drained after used but powerful source can will be restored after some time”. Do you have the Playbook Updated?
Yes the playbook is updated. I may think about better wording over the next couple of days. Thanks for your help and feedback!
Yeah, that mana change looks like a really good one! Mage seems quite interesting!
I goofed around with my copy of the Mage in order to make a ‘The Archetype’ template for easy editing. Would you be interested in me tossing that your way?
Sure send it along! We still need to do an actual print test on Legal paper and makes sure the folds line up well.
Yeah, I actually haven’t printed it out even on illegal paper. Here’s The Archetype!
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9JOP_0re0PEfnZ1aUxqVnd0SFhwS0g3ell6ZFN2R3dGVXZFellDVHUtUUpHWDNMTy1tWXc
I tried to basically set things up for what would be easiest for me personally to play with, so it has things like a big list of clothing styles that I can just remove things from in order to make it for any particular archetype.
Just now came across this. Excellent work! It’ll tide me over well until they release Awakening 2E. 🙂 Or just whenever I want to bring that fun little “class” into Urban Shadows.
Sean Hess Hey! Do you have the updated version of the Mage, with the mana rules revised? The link just have the previos version without the revision that you described in the post . I would love to see the final archetype.
Hi Danilo Jara, The current version is here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U_qmPeeW5X6RRA99Web0VrNlIWOEjaYbJ2W398eZPg8/edit?usp=sharing. Make sure to read the printing instructions!
If you run or play a game with it, will you let me know how it goes? You too R S
Here’s an updated PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_8U7ClGoQInLXpiN2xWSFd6SlU/view?usp=sharing
I really don’t want to necro this thread, but I’m so curious about this Archetype. Have been wishing to run a Mage game since forever, but I’ve never found a group with the energy to learn the rules. This would be perfect!
But I have one question: What triggers paradox? Seems like there are loads of ways to protect yourself against paradox, but only one way to accrue it? (By letting humanoids see the change)
Victor Segell Right. The first time any conscious mind can’t write it off as something that fits into their world, you mark corruption. It also unravels the effect the more this happens. So normally you’ll be creating effects that could have been coincidences, or could be mistaken for one. It’s raw “oh shit that’s magic” that triggers it
Thank you Sean Hess for travelling back two years in time and helping me with this! 🙂
Ok, so if a Mage performs a Magic behind closed doors it can never trigger Paradoxcorruption? Only if they use Corruption Moves?
It doesn’t matter where the Mage is, just whether the effect causes any sleepers to question their sanity. So yes, if a mage changes reality behind closed doors and no sleepers observe it, no paradox. Or if they do something in the open, but it’s readily explainably some other way.
Also they only get one paradox per change, no matter how many people interact with it
Sean Hess Oh, right the EFFCT of the spell can be somewhere else than the mage under the right circumstances! 🙂
May I trouble you with a couple of more questions?
– Why did you remove the Death and Prime arcana?
– Is there anywhere where you wrote about tags and/or Practices?
Right!
This was designed to emulate Mage the Ascension, not Awakening. Ascension had this cool hard sci fi matrix vibe. Like the mages were understanding true physics and manipulating the universe. They added Death in awakening. I’ve played awakening several times, and Death always felt redundant with Fate, Life, and Spirit. They even made up ghosts as something different from spirits to give Death something to do. Anyway, ascension was cooler. It just didn’t have tight enough rules.
I felt like Prime was too meta, and it was better represented as advanced moves.
Sean Hess Ah! There were somethings I didn’t recognize, I never looked into Ascension! But after reading a little bit about it, I can see why Urban Shadows would fit, it just seems more political than Awakening.
Anywho, thank you so much for taking the time! Have a nice weekend!