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Mage: The Awakening

VSS

1. ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION

1.1. Venue Details

Venue Name: Of Mysteries and Men
Domain Code: SCMtA2.0
Domain Name: Southern Cross
Domain Code: SC

1.2. Venue Personnel

VST: Ishtar Dawe - 2015050007
VC: Ali Lawrie - 2001010334
DST: Nikita Boston - 2015070006
DC: Duncan Harris - 2006080004

1.3. Game Location, Time and Fees:

Game Location: Game on Discord. Server at https://discord.gg/A3pgjMN
Game Time: Game on Discord. 1 set time live game per month. Times and Dates for 2017 available here
Game Fees: N/A

1.4. Mailing lists, websites and other online resources used:

Southern Cross currently has no dedicated website although most of our information can be found on the wiki at http://wiki.beyondthesunset.org.au/

Information about our games can also be found on our facebook group page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1710440142557058/

The forums can be located at http://spi.freeforums.net/

For out of character mailing lists, please go to ooc.southerncross@lists.beyondthesunset.org.au

The game venue can be found on Discord https://discord.gg/A3pgjMN

The official addenda should be referred to for in-game content at http://wiki.shadowplayinternational.org/index.php/Global_Addenda_and_Settings_Documents, please refer to Chronicles of Darkness (NWoD 2nd Edition), Mage: the Awakening 2e for the appropriate content and their approval levels.

2. GAME INFORMATION

2.1. Genre

Chronicles of Darkness: Mage: the Awakening 2.0

2.2. Setting

Launceston, Tasmania

2.2.1. Introduction:

In this world, you are one of the privileged; one of the Awakened. Here you have been gifted the ability to see and understand the truth of the world around you. And it is sad. Everywhere around you, people, the non-magical, must exist in a world of oppression and dullness. They must exist in the Lie. Your goal as Awakened is to have enough power to be a beacon to the Sleepers, the non-magical, to help them awakened. You must decide how you will achieve this. You must decide what philosophy will you live by as an Awakened.

2.2.2. The City:

The city in roughly 200km2 with a population of approximately 150,000 people as of 2011 (this means the city is approximately twice the size of real life). Further info to come

2.2.3. The Economy:

Information to come

2.3. Themes & Mood

Icarus: The story of Icarus is that of someone who reaches too close to the sun and gets burned. Similarly, to magic, you reach higher and higher until your reach goes further than you can grasp. And so you fall...
Hubris: Prideful to the point where you consider yourself to be better than the gods, is a recurring theme in Mage the Awakening. Everyone lives with their own perspectives and opinions. The more you think you know, the more frustrating it is when others don’t understand. Do you become selfish and keep to yourself or do you push past pride and work together?
Mystery: One of the core themes of Mage the Awakening is unlocking and understanding the Mysteries. There will be times you get to explore ancient temples, find artifacts, solve enigmas, fight monsters, and more. As an Awakened you become obsessed with understanding and knowing. The world is your candy store.
Responsibility: You enter a city under the control of a Seer cell. Is it your responsibility to fight against them and free the people from their oppression, or do you sit back and let things go while you unlock more power? When people get hurt who holds responsibility for their suffering? If your magic does something are you truly responsible or is it someone, or something, else’s fault?
Fighting the Man: The Seers represent The Man; big business, corruption, abuse of power, everything wrong with the world. Tasmania is a very environmentally conscious state and has an inbuilt distrust of big corporations damaging their land and resources.
Thinking Outside the Box: There is more than one way to solve a problem...
Overcoming Adversity: The world is stacked against you everywhere you turn. Fighting sickness, fighting The Man, fighting fate, fighting boredom. People cannot progress without suffering hardships. Life pushes us and we push back. Something is always happening which will wear us down, but we rise above it.

2.4. Preferred character types, and restrictions

Players are encouraged to read the city and venue history document. Any amount of time awakened is acceptable unless where against the global addenda. More experienced players are recommended to play experienced mages, new players to the genre are recommended to play newly awakened and come to understand the system as their characters do. Experienced mages are encouraged to mentor newer mages. Sleepwalkers and Proximii can be played on the caveat that the player has written a reasonable and in depth justification to the character concept.

A balance and wide array of skills is preferred to a character with a high focus in one area alone. That is not to say they will be denied outright, just that a preference will be given to well spread characters. Skills at 4 or greater will not be approved without extremely good justification from the player. A skill at 3 dots represents a natural lifetime of dedication to that skill within this VSS, with the meaning of each dot as stated in the Chronicles of Darkness core book. Any character who has been awakened for longer than 6 months should have at least a single dot in Occult to represent what it means to be Awakened and understand their arcane ability. Any character who joins an Order receives a free dot in Occult to represent being taught by their Order. Players should have dot spreads that accurately represent their character’s abilities. You cannot play dots that you do not possess on your sheet.

Characters with an attribute at 1 dot will be considered Mid Approval as minimum human average for any attribute is 2 dots in this VSS. A character’s arcana rank is capped by their understanding of different arcanas (e.g. a Master must have at least 1 dot in 5 different arcanas, including the arcana which is Mastered, an Adept must have at least 1 dot in 4 different arcanas, etc). Exclusions to this rule can only be applied for at character creation with justification.

2.5. Location of Venue history information

History not included in this VSS, will attach a history and settings document in future

2.6. Transport In/ Out Information

Tasmania can be accessed by land, air, sea, and portal with no impediment. Launceston can be accessed by any method whatsoever. Changes to the control of transport within the city is at the jurisdiction of the Venue Storyteller with approval from the Domain Storyteller.

3. EXTERNAL FACTORS INFORMATION

3.1. Experience Awards

3.1.1. Creation

All primary characters receive their MC x 1 + 30 in experience points as per the universal addenda.

In addition, characters may also receive experience points at creation for the following, at the discretion of the VST:

4XP (20 beats) for completion and submission of the relevant Character Development Document
Variable beats/XP for assisting the VST in world building
Other tasks for the VST as approved and only with final say by the VST

These XP bonuses are considered Creation XP, and are not subject to the Incremental Maximum.

3.1.2. Monthly Experience

1 beat - Downtime Submissions (every fortnight) - See Template
1 beat – Participating in meaningful RTRs/ Forum interactions. (Up to 3 per month at STs discretion). For this ‘meaningful’ means developing the story, plots or characters. ST must receive a key points summary of the RTR, transcript, or be included.
1 beat - Game participation awared at the conclusion of play.
1 beat - Game materials created to help the story (not just the player themself) and the majority of characters (creating maps, NPCs, plots, places of interest, world building items, etc.) at discretion of VST
variable beats - ST Discretion (Exceptional roleplay, improving the Domain OOC, Wiki updates)
1 beat - Downtime actions that are dedicated to resolving Obsessions, at ST discretion
1 beat - Online activity such as maintenance of online resources (wiki, forums, etc) of character that are not inclusive of the game server, at ST discretion
1 arcane beat - Resolving aspirations while achieving Obsessions
1 beat - Resolving Conditions, at ST discretion
1 beat - Making major strides towards fulfilling long term aspirations, at ST discretion
1 beat - When electing to take Dramatic Failure on a dice roll to further narrative, at ST discretion
1 arcane beat - When performing an act of Hubris in a narrative way, at ST discretion
1 arcane beat - When tutoring or being tutored by someone in a legacy
1 arcane beat - When encountering new supernatural creatures or events, at ST discretion

Beats will be easier to earn in groups as the game has a focus on team work and cabals. Players who tackle Obsessions and Mysteries together will progress further and gain beats more rapidly than those who work alone. Similarly, working in groups gives more opportunities for dramatic events or revelations to occur.

3.2. Custom Rules

Below are the following custom or altered rules for this VSS.

3.2.1. Attribute Approval

Characters with an attribute at 1 dot will be considered Mid Approval as human average for any attribute is 2 dots in this VSS.

3.2.2. Buying Arcana and Rotes

Arcane abilities can be purchased in downtimes with matching downtime actions from all parties involved (if one person is missing a listed action at that time the they have not shown up to teaching), or they may be purchased through RTRs so long as a VST is present or a downtime report is submitted including the abilities learned.
Every path is limited to how much of every arcana they can study without a teacher. For a character’s ruling arcana they may achieve Mastery (5 dots) with no teacher in both. For their path’s common arcanas they may learn up to Adept (4 dots) without a teacher. For their path’s inferior arcana they may only learn up to Apprentice (2 dots) without a teacher. Arcanas that can be learned without a teacher cost 4XP to learn per dot however arcane abilities that require a teacher to learn cost 5XP per dot. Arcanas may be purchased with standard XP or arcane XP.
At first awakening characters are encouraged to have a balanced arcana spread of 2 dots in both their ruling arcanas and either 2 dots in a tertiary arcana or 1 dots in a pair of tertiary arcanas. Alternatively they may awaken with a specialist arcana spread of 3 dots in their primary ruling arcana, 2 dots in their secondary ruling arcana, and 1 dot in their tertiary arcana.
All awakened begin play with 3 free rotes at character creation. Rotes cost 1XP to learn each regardless of level and may be learned in RTRs (with either the VST present or with the submission of a downtime report listing what has been learned) or they may be purchased through downtime actions (as with arcana above, can only he learned with actions from all involved parties). They may only be purchased with standard XP.

3.2.3. Chance Electrocution

When a character is electrocuted by any means then a chance die is rolled. On a critical failure, the character’s heart stops and other characters must make a Wits+Medicine check (perform CPR) or use the Life arcana to restart the heart. This rule is recommended to all characters except when a character is travelling alone, to add a sense of realistic danger to electrocution. When a character is alone then this rule is waved to avoid instant character death. This rule applies to PCs, NPCs, and CPCs. A character who intentionally electrocutes another character, be they PC, NPC, or NPC, will be subject to a Wisdom Sin check equivalent to that of Falling (Wisdom 1-3) for attempting to murder another person, regardless of whether the act was intentional or not.

3.2.4. Attainments

Characters gain one Attainment per level of an Arcana they learn. This Attainment is added to their sheet. Attainments do not require the use of Imagos (which includes Mantras and Yantras) to perform.
At this time Attainments available are only those found in the Mage the Awakening Second Edition core rulebook on pages 192-196. The exception to this is Legacy Attainments as they are made available.
As per the Addenda, custom Legacy Attainments are not available at this time.

3.2.5. Imbued Items

Imbued items are defined as items which has a spell to the object. Imbued Items can also be Enhanced Items. An Imbued Item requires one point of Mana and the activation manoeuvre in order to activate the spell stored inside. The rolls to activate an Imbued Item is based on your character's Gnosis + the item's Arcana rating (i.e. the rating of the Arcana of the user who creates the item at the time of item creation). If the item is used by someone without Gnosis (or an equivalent Powerstat) the roll is made purely by the Arcana rating of the item. The activation manoeuvre of the item is defined when the item is created, this can be an action, word, phrase, or more.
This merit is not bound by a maximum of 5 dots. The number of dots on the merit is equal to the Arcana required to perform the rote + additional Mana stored inside the object (like a battery). Each additional dot beyond the minimum requirements for the Arcana adds 2 Mana to the object. Restoring the Mana in an Imbued Item requires an hour of casting per dot with Mana equivalent to the Caster's ability to channel Gnosis. An Imbued Item may have 6+ dots if it contains a Master level spell and a Mana Battery.
Imbued Items have a base Paradox pool of 1 dice + the user's Gnosis + any extra Reach effects the users adds. Mages can spend the Mana in the Imbued Item to mitigate Paradox rather than their own, but they are still limited to what they are able to manipulate based on their Gnosis. Paradox from Imbued Items cannot be contained by a Willworker and will automatically be released into the environment.

3.2.6. Artifacts

Understanding how to use an Artifact requires an extended research roll equal to twice the dot rating of the Artifact (e.g. a 5 dot Artifact will require an extended research roll with a target of 10 successes) or may be scrutinised with Prime on an extended roll equal to the dot rating of the Artifact to determine how it works. This merit has a minimum or 3 dots and may exceed 5 dots at creation.
The Artifact can store up to twice the dot rating in Mana as an internal battery to power it. An Artifact cannot naturally perform Reach, it requires the use of a Willworker to add Reach to any effect used by an Artifact. An Artifact will automatically release Paradox unless the Willworker spends his own Mana to contain it.
All Artifacts add a +1 modifier to Yantras performed by any willworker whose Path's Ruling Arcana match the highest Arcanum rating of the Artifact. For clarity this means:

Acanthus receive +1 when an Artifact's highest Arcanum is Time or Fate
Mastigos receive +1 when an Artifact's highest Arcanum is Mind or Space
Moros receive +1 when an Artifact's highest Arcanum is Death or Matter
Obrimos receive +1 when an Artifact's highest Arcanum is Forces or Prime
Thyrsus receive +1 when an Artifact's highest Arcanum is Life or Spirit

3.2.7. Hallows

The Hallow must be defined when taking the merit and describe how it releases Mana into the world. A Hallow can only produce one mana per dot in the merit per day. A Hallow can only allow 3 x dot units of Tass to accrue inside it before it becomes unable to continue producing Tass or Mana until the Tass is harvested. A Hallow can become tainted by Supernatural effects, an Arcana, and in extreme cases an emotion. A Hallow influenced by an Arcana will produce Tass that provides a +1 benefit when being used with the appropriate Arcana and a -1 modifier when used without. A Hallow infused with an emotion provides a +1 benefit to all actions that coincide with that emotion, a -1 modifier when used without, and a -2 when used against that emotion.
The Hallow merit can be shared amongst a Cabal. A character may take the Hallow merit multiple times.

3.2.8. Willpower

A Mage cannot gain or access more willpower than is available on her sheet as Resolve+Composure. Spells that may allow the Mage to effectively gain "infinite willpower" do not work and attempts to perform them will lose a Mage willpower. A Mage may regain willpower by the en-action of their Vice or Virtue.

3.2.9. Souls

All human based creatures are in possession of a soul. Spells that target another creature's soul are subject to the resistances of that creature.
Mages who lose their soul suffer permanent loss of willpower and Gnosis until their soul is returned. Every chapter the afflicted Mage rolls their Resolve+Stamina, any successes on this roll hold at bay the effects of soul loss for another fortnight. Any failed rolls cause a permanent drop of 1 willpower dot until the Mage's soul is reconnected to their body. If a character is left without a soul permanently they fall into a depressive state that prevents them for taking care of themself or performing any defensive actions.
Observing a soul can only be done with Active Death Sight. Scrutinising the supernatural qualities within a soul requires both Active Death Sight and Active Prime Sight. Scrutinising any soul (not the use of the Death Rote "Soul Marks") requires a point of willpower. When removed from a host body a soul is visible as a vaguely humanoid shape by any of the Subtle Arcana's Ruling Sights (Fate, Spirit, Death, Prime, and Mind). All Mages may spend 1 point of Mana to physically interact with an unattached soul.

3.2.10. Soul Stones

Creating a Soul Stone is an act of Hubris to anyone of Wisdom 4+. Creating a soul stone limits the creator's potential Gnosis by 1 point (i.e. a Mage who creates 3 soul stones can never achieve Gnosis above 7 dots) and costs one willpower dot to create. A soul stone may be created out of any object up to size 2. Souls stones may be made out of any material, living or dead, as long as it is up to a maximum of size 2. When a soul stone is destroyed the caster immediately feels the effect. A soul stone has a permanent connected sympathetic connection to the creator.
A mage who has lost ownership of their soul stone and it becomes the property of another mage must perform 3 acts of service to the owner of their soul stone before they are able to regain ownership of their soul stone. This rule applies to all NPCs and NPC factions.

3.2.11. Gnosis

The abilities of Gnosis are defined by the following table:

Gnosis	Ritual Interval	Trait Maximum	Yantras	Paradox Dice	Combined Spells	Obsessions	Mana in Pattern	Mana spend per Turn	Highest Arcana Maximum	Other Arcana Maximum
1	3 hours	5	2	1	1	1	10	1	3	2
2	3 hours	5	2	1	1	1	11	2	3	3
3	1 hour	5	3	2	2	2	12	3	4	3
4	1 hour	5	3	2	2	2	13	4	4	4
5	30 minutes	5	4	3	2	2	15	5	5	4
6	30 minutes	6	4	3	3	3	20	6	5	5
7	10 minutes	7	5	4	3	3	25	7	5	5
8	10 minutes	8	5	4	3	3	30	8	5	5
9	1 minute (20 turns)	9	6	5	4	4	50	10	5	5
10	1 minute (20 turns)	10	6	5	4	4	75	15	5	5

A Mage's Gnosis cannot, at any time, exceed 10 dots.
A Mage can only spend Mana per turn equal to their rank of Gnosis by the above guidelines.

3.2.12. Sleepwalkers

Sleepwalkers may be created via the spell "Stealing Fire". It is possible to convince the Sleepwalker to hold the spell for a Mage in order to not go back to sleep. However the spell may be dispelled by another Mage at any time. Attempts to hang spells on Sleepwalkers requires their full un-coerced consent in order to work. A sleepwalker holding a spell for a Mage has either a medium or strong sympathetic to that mage. It is not possible to create infinite Sleepwalkers using this method.

3.3. Mana

3.3.1. Gaining Mana

Every day mages make a Gnosis+Composure roll to determine their base starting level of Mana for the day. Mages who do not use all of their available Mana in a day carry it over to the next day. This occurs until the Mage has exhausted all the Mana in their pattern. A Mage may elect to never spend Mana until their Pattern is completely full. Noting whether Mana has been saved is to be denoted in downtimes using the template listed section 3.3.
Mages with a Hallow can perform Oblations as per the Mage 2.0 core for extra points of Mana up to their dots in Hallow. Mages with a Hallow can allow their Hallow to convert Mana into Tass and carry it physically but only on the condition they do not perform Oblations. Disciples on Prime may perform the Channel Mana spell (either knowing the rote or fast casting it) to obtain Mana from a Hallow without Oblation.
Supernal revelations (e.g. fulfilling Obsessions) generates one point of Mana. Scouring your pattern will gain extra Mana as per the Mage 2.0 core page 87. Blood Sacrifice can gain Mana as per the Mage 2.0 core page 87.
Spells that can circumvent how much Mana a Mage can obtain per round will automatically fail in this VSS.

3.3.2. Spending Mana

Mages must spend a point of Mana to perform each of the following:

Improvise a spell not from their Ruling Arcana
Remove 1 die from their base Paradox pool. A Mage's base Paradox pool can not be reduced below 1 dice. It is not possible in this VSS to take a Paradox roll to a chance die.
Activating certain attainments

Mages spend varying points of Mana on the following actions:

Legacy Attainments which would otherwise cost multiple Mana only cost 1
Powerful spells that go against the Lie require Mana to activate depending on the spell
Bolstering their pattern in order to heal physical damage requires a point of Mana per unit of Bashing or Lethal. This cannot remove Aggravated damage.
Bolstering their pattern in order to remove mental conditions requires one point of Mana per Condition. This cannot remove mental Tilts but can remove physical ones. This does not allow a player a beat.
Activating an Imbued Item requires one Mana, either from the caster or from the item itself.

A Mage cannot spend more Mana than their Gnosis allows per turn, as stated in section 3.2.11.
A character that attempts to spend more Mana than they are able to per round will require extra rounds to perform their action.
Spells that can circumvent how much Mana a Mage can spend per round will automatically fail in this VSS.

3.3. Downtime Handling Procedure

Downtimes are to be emailed to VST Awakening every week after game and every week beforehand. A full timetable of downtime due dates is available at Beyond the Sunset Southern Cross' facebook page. Downtimes should use the SCMtA2.0 Downtime Template created by the VST and DST.
Downtimes are considered to be mostly safe. Unless your PC is intentionally walking into something dangerous, intentionally performing an action that will attract negative attention, or intends to cast a large number of spells beyond their reach then their downtimes will not result in a dangerous conclusion. PCs may still encounter dangerous things accidentally within their downtimes however they will not come to any harm or ill effects without a full scene being run with that player present. If a player is not present to do a scene before the regularly scheduled game is played then that character is considered currently uncontactable and cannot be found by the PCs during game or until such time as the necessary scene has been completed.
Players who intentionally perform dangerous actions will be given an OOC warning that their actions are dangerous but the scenes will still continue regardless. Those that are considered to be of White Lanyard status will have the option to take back dangerous actions and retain their status or continue the action and lose their status. Warnings will only be given if an action may result in what the VST knows to be potential character death, there will be no danger warnings given to anything less except for White Lanyard players.
PCs intentionally attempting to kill PCs through Downtimes are directed to the Universal Chronicles of Darkness (NWoD 2nd Edition) section 0, part A:

0. THE GOLDEN RULES
- A. LARP is not a “shoot-em-up”. You don't get notches in your belt for killing other PCs. You don't win by making the game miserable for everyone else. This is a storytelling game, and you win by telling a good story with others. If you do insist on making the game miserable for everyone else, the presiding storyteller has every right to tell you, in plain and simple terms, “No. Not here, not today.”

3.4. Crossover limitations

Crossover between genres is considered the same as listed in the Cross Genre Appendix for Chronicles of Darkness (NWoD 2nd Edition) as found at http://wiki.shadowplayinternational.org/index.php/Global_Addenda_and_Settings_Documents Where there is no prelisted crossover limitation by the Appendix, crossover is considered to be Mid Approval.

4. NEW/INTERSTATE PLAYERS

4.1. Information for New Players

New characters should use the standard rules for character creation, extra notes from this VSS, and refer to the Global and Australian Addendas where appropriate. New players are encouraged to email the VST at VST Awakening while considering their concept for assistance in developing their idea.
For the new member guide, please follow this link http://wiki.beyondthesunset.org.au/index.php?title=New_Member_Guide

4.2. Information for Transferring Players

For characters transferring VSS, please forward character sheets, CDD, and any Approvals to the DST and VST for clarification and integration into the local domain and venue. Please also submit the last three months of downtimes and responses from your previous domain where possible to understand more about the character and how they act in their between periods. Also, note that transferring characters may be subject to some alterations to their sheets to account for the change in VSS or to make them more consistent with the new VSS, all alterations will be done after consultations with the player.

4.3. Information for External Players

Proxies are recommended to be sent two weeks prior to the arrival of the character to give the supervising VST an opportunity to discuss with the visiting player anything they need to know. Visiting characters may be subjected to temporary alterations to their sheets (with consultation) if their sheet is deemed inappropriate to the tone of the local game. Character sheets for a character outside Australia should be sent through the relevant story teller channels at least two weeks before the proxy commences in case any conversion need to be made.

Southern Cross Awakening CofD VSS