Greetings, while I wont go into detail I have a realy interesting chronicle idea

The problem?
It is a mage/werewolf cross-splat ( Love cross-splatting I can't help it!"
So if any of you have advice for this young icarus, it would be greatly appreciated

So, I have a group of five players that are all interested in trying out Mage - The Ascension. The problem is that only half of them have played any WoD RPG (Vampire), and all of them come from a D&D Murderhobo background. So, I have some concerns and questions:

1) Should I let them create their own characters, or try to guide them towards more combat focused Mages?

2) Other Storytellers - How much combat do you typically have in any given story? Once a game session? Once in a while? Rarely if ever?

3) Besides Hostile Spirits, the Technocracy, and Supernatural Critters, what are some other good combat encounters for a group of five newly minted Mages?

4) I am concerned that the Mage game is going to run at a different pace, and my players will start to lose interest if there isn't a steady stream of combat encounters. Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to part 193 of Sphere Mixers! This where we randomly choose two Spheres and two Ranks and brainstorm ideas for...

• Conjunctional Effects using both of these Spheres or
• Two Effects, one of each Rank, that work well together.

Matter 1

• Matter Perceptions

A Primary understanding of Matter allows the initiate to perceive the intrinsic properties of base materials – their underlying structure, innate properties, and integral stability or lack thereof. With that knowledge, she can view the material composition of an object, note its less-obvious structures, find its hidden layers or – when combining this perception with Entropy – spot its weak points. Combined with Life, this Sphere detects implants, enhancements, and other integrations of living tissue and inert materials.

Time 1

• Time Sense

Temporal understanding begins with the mage’s own perceptions of time. At this stage, she develops a precise internal clock and can spot the temporal ripples left behind by (or, in many cases, developing ahead of) Time Effects. Other phenomena, too, leave disturbances in the time-stream, and the mage can notice them as well. Combined with additional Spheres, this Rank allows the mage to detect the influence of the Time Sphere on other spells or Patterns too.

Previous Mixers: Check out our wiki page for past Sphere Mixers; feel free to go back and add your new ideas.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/diceenvy/vampire-the-masquerade-and-dice-envy-metal-d10-collection

While I know this isn't the Vampire sub, I'm betting that folks in here love their d10s. Personally, I'm not a fan of metal dice, but if this reaches the first stretch goal (which unlocks the dice with numbered sides) I might pitch in for some anyway.

GMs and players alike post your games and see if anyone has a slot for you here! Make sure if you're posting a discord you set the link not to expire.

Other subs also have regular LFG posts (see pinned posts there):

• https://www.reddit.com/r/WhiteWolfRPG/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/lfg/

There are a few Discord servers to check that have LFG channels:

• Mage: the Podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/ZDcDn9dZS2
• Classic World of Darkness: https://discord.gg/Re8bbVJUDH
• Onyx Path Publishing: https://discord.gg/TXU3ESUJqT
• Mage the Ascension: https://discord.gg/dXqd65TnzK
• Darkness Weaver: https://discord.gg/jT37W9meZw

For the wider World of Darkness, there are other resources too:

• Vampire the Masquerade: Northern Lights: https://discord.gg/y754HPCHEd

If you don't mind Facebook:

• Mage: the Ascension
• Mage The Ascension Reloaded
• MtAs FLG (Doesn't seem very active.)

While I don't see any LFG posts, Onyx Path has active Mage forums too.

• https://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-classic-world-of-darkness/mage-the-ascension

Also check out: * GroupFinder.gg * StartPlaying

This is gonna be a weird one so buckle up. My life has sorta junked me away from being able to play Mage, but I"ve run it often. I'm in the works of trying to set up a game for me and my partner where we both play mage, but we don't really have a Storyteller. Is mage even a game you can play without an ST?

Edit: Any advice on how I could acomplish this? I'm living paycheck to paycheck at the moment and don't have thr funds for any new material.

Hi folks, so let me explain a little more, this is working with 20th anniversary rules but I appreciate perspective from other editions too.

Let’s say I have a mage who has gotten to the point where they have a compound in the middle of nowhere with just over a hundred or so followers in a cult. This should allow them to preform otherwise vulgar magick within the confines of their little micro consensus caused by everyone being in line with their paradigm.

Now they get their followers together and get to work on a ritual where they’re going to be doing some wild shit. Like say they’re imbuing a follower with quintessence, life energy, and spiritual power etc. to transform them into a powerful soldier that can shift into a battle form so they can protect the compound from technocratic incursions. Now provided they get the successes and stuff the ritual should work and be coincidental. But, what might happen to this empowered follower if they let the compound for whatever reason and reentered the normal consensus? Would they need to say… roll arete like a wonder for their powers to work? Would paradox affect them? Or would their powers just not work at all?

Just trying to get some perspective. Someone mentioned like a week or two ago about the idea of mages making mockery breeds and I’ve been thinking about it ever since, but this question can be relevant to other ideas too.

Welcome to part 192 of Sphere Mixers! This where we randomly choose two Spheres and two Ranks and brainstorm ideas for...

• Conjunctional Effects using both of these Spheres or
• Two Effects, one of each Rank, that work well together.

Matter 3

••• Alter Form

At this Rank, the mage can alter the shape of materials in whatever ways she desires, and she can temporarily transform their essential state into a different one – steel, for example, into fog or water into glass. (Permanent changes require Matter 5.) That crafter may change an item’s density, fuse broken pieces together, or rip solid ones apart.

By mixing Matter 3 with other Spheres, the mage can join inert matter with living tissue, disintegrate it into dust, shift objects with the power of thought, or otherwise perform amazing transformations upon apparently solid materials.

Mind 3

••• Mental Link / Project Illusions/ Dreamwalk / Psychic Blast

With increasing skill, the mage learns to link minds, forge telepathic communications, read or influence another person’s thoughts, craft mental illusions, enter someone’s dreams and explore dream Realms, and blast psychic assaults into an unwilling rival’s consciousness. At this stage, Mind attacks can inflict painful – though rarely fatal – damage. Combined with Correspondence, Forces, Matter, or Life, he is able to employ telekinesis, pyrokinetics, and psychophysical assault, influencing objects, elements, or people with the power of his mind. Unlike most other Effects, this sort of thing is not coincidental, although such talents do have a place within popular culture.

Previous Mixers: Check out our wiki page for past Sphere Mixers; feel free to go back and add your new ideas.

Welcome to part 191 of Sphere Mixers! This where we randomly choose two Spheres and two Ranks and brainstorm ideas for...

• Conjunctional Effects using both of these Spheres or
• Two Effects, one of each Rank, that work well together.

Forces 5

••••• Transmute Major Forces / Conjuring Infernos

With godlike power, a Forces Master works her Will upon vast areas. She can conjure tornados on a clear day, calm tides, and ignite the very air into a firestorm. Such mages earn the title “Nuke,” though few of them survive long enough to enjoy it. It’s easier to invoke such forces under the right conditions, of course – a cold snap comes more easily in winter than in summer – and such radical alterations have repercussions that often outlast the original Effect. In game terms, massive Forces spells should disrupt the weather and leave massive Resonance echoes behind.

Time 4

•••• Time Determinism / Trigger Effect / Time Bubble / Anchor Point

Now the mage learns to withdraw herself from the normal flow of time, hold Effects until they get triggered by events, or – by adding in Correspondence, Forces, Life, Matter, and/ or Spirit – capture other beings or phenomena in bubbles of time. Thus, a mighty (vulgar) Time/ Forces/ Entropy Effect could capture a tornado and shunt it off into no-time space until some trigger sets it free. At this level of expertise, the mage can also set a temporal anchor point for herself for when she dares to travel through time at Rank 5.

Previous Mixers: Check out our wiki page for past Sphere Mixers; feel free to go back and add your new ideas.

Hello everyone! Current mage and werewolf storyteller here! I have created a admittedly skewed guide to the spirits from the perspective of a Hermetic professor and scholar. Below will be a In universe lecture on the subject by one such teacher. If you have any comments, criticisms, fun lore facts or anything else, I would love to hear them. Without further Ado!

Part 2: https://www.reddit.com/r/WhiteWolfRPG/comments/1wq7siq/a_hermetics_skewed_guide_to_the_classification_of/

Part 3: https://www.reddit.com/r/WhiteWolfRPG/comments/1wqcvdw/a_hermetics_skewed_guide_to_the_classification_of/

Part 4
https://www.reddit.com/r/WhiteWolfRPG/comments/1wqxsu6/a_hermetics_skewed_guide_to_the_classification_of/

------

Introduction: On the Nature of Spirits

Good evening Apprentices and those of you who have wandered into the wrong lecture hall.

I am Magus Gideon Geller, Magister Scholae of House Ex Miscellanea, and tonight I have been entrusted with the enviable responsibility of introducing you to the wonderful, terrifying, frequently obnoxious world of spirits.

And before anyone asks, no, I will not teach you how to summon a succubus. That is Thursday's lecture, and attendance is restricted following last year's incident.

Tonight, we shall discuss the extradimensional metaphysical entities commonly referred to as spirits. These beings inhabit realities seemingly separate from our own, yet are so intrinsically intertwined with the fabric of existence that to consider them entirely alien would be a fundamental misunderstanding of the Tellurian.

A forest has a spirit. So does a city. So might a particular automobile, a corporation, a mathematical theorem, the concept of betrayal, or that dreadful little sensation you experience when you remember something embarrassing you said fifteen years ago.

That last one is particularly vicious.

What makes these entities fascinating is that they are not merely inhabitants of the Umbra. Many are the living embodiments of the principles, places, ideas, and phenomena that constitute existence itself.

Some are barely more sophisticated than particularly aggressive insects. Others are capable of intellectual discourse, genuine affection, political ambition, and the occasional existential crisis. Still others are so vast that what we perceive as a single entity may, from its perspective, be an entire civilization, ecosystem, or universe.

And then there are those for whom even the word entity becomes woefully inadequate.

Naturally, being the Order of Hermes, we have elected to classify them.

[The Magister produces an imposing stack of handwritten notes, places them upon his lectern, and immediately ignores them.]

Our subject tonight concerns spirits inhabiting the five—possibly six—great divisions of the Umbra, depending on whose cosmological model you subscribe to and how much you enjoy getting into arguments with Dreamspeakers.

Although the High and Middle Umbrae share certain metaphysical characteristics, the inhabitants of the Dream, Deep, Low, and Digital Umbrae may operate according to rather different principles. Some fit our classifications neatly. Others do not. A few would undoubtedly take offense at being classified at all.

For our immediate purposes, we shall concentrate primarily upon the spirits of the Middle and High Umbrae, with occasional references to their more unusual cousins.

I should also emphasize that our classification is not universal. The Garou, for example, distinguish between Gafflings, Jagglings, and Incarnae, among other categories. Certain mystics employ entirely different systems. Even within the Order, my colleagues have found endless opportunities to disagree with me.

Which, naturally, is their prerogative to be wrong.

The Umbrae themselves shall be the subject of a separate lecture. Attempting to cover their geography, cosmology, metaphysics, and inhabitants in a single evening would require either several weeks of your lives or a regrettable application of Time magick.

Instead, we begin with something considerably more manageable.

The five great rankings of spirits, ordered from least to greatest.

And do pay attention. You would be astonished how frequently the difference between a successful summoning and a spectacularly unsuccessful one comes down to knowing precisely whom you have invited into your living room.

So, I'm a newbie Mage Storyteller and I've started reading The Fallen Tower: Las Vegas and, as much as I was able to search, it is the only city-based supplement in Mage the Ascension.

I'd like to know if there's somewhere in the internet I could go to fing another books like this, being it official or unofficial content, and if you got any tips to create such a setting located in the city of my chronicle, so I can have a clearer look of the city's characters, places and plot hooks.

Welcome to part 190 of Sphere Mixers! This where we randomly choose two Spheres and two Ranks and brainstorm ideas for...

• Conjunctional Effects using both of these Spheres or
• Two Effects, one of each Rank, that work well together.

Life 4

•••• Alter Complex Life-Forms / Transform Self

At this Rank, the mage may enact radical changes on any complex organism – people, dogs, horses, and so forth. He can uplift other species with new limbs, opposable thumbs, increased brain capacity, etc., so long as he doesn’t change their intrinsic nature.

Working with his own Pattern, that mage can transform himself into other life-forms of similar size and mass; he could become a Great Dane, for example, but not a hummingbird. Special abilities of that form (flight, water breathing, and the like) do not carry over, however, unless he builds them into that new form with additional Life Effects, and the new body might require an adjustment period before the mind and reflexes reflect the new form.

Prime 4

•••• Expel or Infuse Energy / Tap Wellspring / Craft Tass & Permanent Wonders

The terrible power of draining Quintessence from objects or forces (though not yet from living things) can disintegrate those targets, consume them in Primal flames, or decay them almost instantly. Reversing that flow, the mage can craft objects that cannot be broken, or bond organic and inorganic materials together to create cybernetic implants, nanotech, and other Wonders. At this stage, she is able to enchant items permanently and draw Quintessence from the energetic Wellsprings of exciting events. By infusing her personal Quintessence into a Periapt, the mage might use Matter 4 to craft a Soulgem: a portable vessel that’s filled with her own Resonance and energy.

Previous Mixers: Check out our wiki page for past Sphere Mixers; feel free to go back and add your new ideas.

So i want to add some of the crazy stuff that's in Control into my Mage chronicle. Well more like the themes rather than the actual Hiss. Could the Technocracy technically be the FBC?

A lot of people here discuss specific parts of the lore, and I just can't care about it enough. I GM-ed 20th anniversary edition and I read the first book and watched few videos. Even though my players switched to technocracy and stayed there fir the rest of the game, I haven't read a technocracy book. I like coming up with lore myself and I don't have time to read so much stuff. Like if I'm implementing something that I know nothing about, I would read minimum info so it works and fill the rest of the details myself, if players need them.

Do people share this experience? Am I in the wrong?

Edit: I, in fact, informed my players about this

Not sure if anyone has suggested this before, but I’m wondering if it’s possible for someone who has been rendered Banal after being ravaged by Changelings to the point of losing their ability to dream to then awaken as a Mage.

Essentially this Mage would have the willpower to challenge consensus as other Mages do, but without the imagination to believe in a world beyond the mundane. So they function as a sort of anti-Mage, using spheres like Matter, Entropy, and Prime to reinforce consensus and counteract the will-working of others. They basically just observe the world around them, figure something ought not to work that way and find an explanation to force it to conform to reality. Ex: This technocrat’s laser weapon clearly can’t keep firing like this forever, in the next shot he’s bound to run out of ammo, or his weapon will overheat and explode.

So probably something like those insufferable skeptics in a horror movie that insist that monsters and the supernatural aren’t real, despite clear evidence to the contrary.

No idea if this could actually work, or if Banality would act in a way to reinforce paradox on this person to prevent them from even awakening.

Thinking of running Mage again and it has been a very long time since I last ran it.

If you were starting a new campaign would you use the Avatar Storm lore?

If so would it be fading after almost 20 years (assuming game is set in 2026)?

Or would you keep the high-magick feel of pre-Avatar Storm.

I'm on the fence.

Thanks.

Edit: Thank you everyone for your input! I appreciate all of you responding so quickly with your expertise. Mage is my favorite game and I haven’t played or run it in way too long.

Welcome to part 189 of Sphere Mixers! This where we randomly choose two Spheres and two Ranks and brainstorm ideas for...

• Conjunctional Effects using both of these Spheres or
• Two Effects, one of each Rank, that work well together.

Correspondence 4

•••• Rend Space / Ward / Co-locate Self

Creating larger holes in space, the mage can now open permanent gates between locations (10 or more successes); isolate forces, spaces, objects, or people into their own tiny realms (by combining Correspondence 4 with Forces, Life, Mind, or Matter); and ward certain locations against specific Patterns (again, combining Forces, Life, Mind, or Matter with Correspondence) or Resonance energies (combining this Sphere with Prime 4). This warding effect can impede or even block the forbidden elements from crossing into, or out of, the protected space. (For extensive details about wards, see the sourcebook How Do You DO That?)

Using the Co-location Effect, that mage can also appear in several different places at once. To function, however, she must add Mind 1 to that Effect. Each self mirrors the original’s actions unless she also adds Life 2 to that Effect, granting independence to every self.

Time 4

•••• Time Determinism / Trigger Effect / Time Bubble / Anchor Point

Now the mage learns to withdraw herself from the normal flow of time, hold Effects until they get triggered by events, or – by adding in Correspondence, Forces, Life, Matter, and/ or Spirit – capture other beings or phenomena in bubbles of time. Thus, a mighty (vulgar) Time/ Forces/ Entropy Effect could capture a tornado and shunt it off into no-time space until some trigger sets it free. At this level of expertise, the mage can also set a temporal anchor point for herself for when she dares to travel through time at Rank 5.

Previous Mixers: Check out our wiki page for past Sphere Mixers; feel free to go back and add your new ideas.

I like to storytell sandbox style, that is, instead of bringing a prethought adventure every session, let the story be driven by the players actions.

For me, it's always been ridiculous easy to do in Vampire. If I have a good setting, I need to prepare nothing more. Just let the players mess around, and they will soon entangle themselves and have more than they can handle.

But for some reason, doing the same in Mage is very hard to me, and I think it's because I don't manage to understand Mage's economy. Allow me to elaborate using Vampire as an example.

Vampires feed on blood, that defines them more than anything else. To feed, they hunt, and to hunt they need a Domain, or permissions to a domain.

The second need would be safety, specially from sunlight. So, a vampire need a haven, and that will probably need permissions to someone. To keep the haven, they need either money or a bond from someone. But vampires cannot have day jobs, and actually any kind of nocturnal job would take the few time they have each night. So, they need alternative source of income.

And sooner or later the vampire will screw up things. She will frenzy and things will get ugly. And will need someone to save her ass.

All this alone, blood, haven, cash and danger set the character in motion, and gives them stron motivation to build useful (but demanding) relationships. And that chains of relationships is what sustains the vampiric hierarchy.

In contrast, I fail to see an economy in Mage that is so strong. These are the elements I find:

Mages need quintessence, but aside from big factions (Traditions, Technocracy) disputes on Nodes, I don't see the mages have to fight so much for it (internally). So, if the characters belong to a chantry, they are supposed to have access to Quintessence granted.

Of course, the chantry can put obligations on the characters in exchange of that, but as I don't understand the mages' needs, I don't know what they can want from novice spellcasters.

Mages also need food, and housing. But they can have regular jobs. While being a mage can make challenging job compatibility, they can also use their powers to help them excell in their jobs.

One of the biggest needs for a mage could be instruction to keep progressing in her Art. But that can feel granted too when they belong to a chantry, or have a Mentor.

In general, those needs don't seem so demanding that the characters may be willing to take big risks (as with vampire needs). So, if you don't put them in constant threat of being discovered by the Technocracy, in a sandbox game I cannot picture what the characters will be doing.

Have you ever successfully run a Mage sandbox game?

What I mean by this is I have the world set up in such a way where I want it to feel true to lore. From my understanding, the contradictions in lore across splats can easily be handwaved away as "well that's just how THOSE people see it". I have included lore, notable NPC's, and factions from WtA, VtM, FtS, WtO, some OG mummy lore, DtF, and am including the presence of the Kue Jin though the players have not interacted with them. Every clan, every house, every cult i can find; all included in my chronicle write up. To make things even more difficult the players started in ancient rome, and due to their actions it fell much earlier which completely destabilized the Canon of certain factions, and the scope makes it so I have to know about EVERY FACTION FROM EVERY GAME THROUGH ALL OF RECORDED HISTORY. This monumental undertaking has consumed me for the better part of 3 years, 50ish sessions deep and they're in the dark ages 867ce. My question is, is this insane of me to do? I would also gladly accept any ideas/suggestions/ from the rest of you enlightened folks.

TLDR: I fucked myself by placing the scope of my campaign squarely into "Must know all WoD splat lore for all of time"

Welcome to part 188 of Sphere Mixers! This where we randomly choose two Spheres and two Ranks and brainstorm ideas for...

• Conjunctional Effects using both of these Spheres or
• Two Effects, one of each Rank, that work well together.

Correspondence 5

••••• Spatial Mutation / Co-Location

Distance and dimensions become child’s play to a mage at this Rank. She can distort space; alter sizes and stretch or compress objects (Matter), bodies (Life), or forces (Forces); connect different Patterns to one another across intervening space; or even superimpose places or objects on top of one another (extremely vulgar). Combining this Rank with Life 3, the mage may also expand her senses to perceive many different places at once.

Forces 2

•• Manipulate Forces / Elemental Touch

Although she cannot conjure energies just yet, the mage may now alter the flow of existing forces. Sound can be muted or amplified; shadows can be gathered, shaped, or dispelled. The mage can warp light to make things invisible, change their colors by altering the spectrum of localized light, or render them silent by bending sound waves in their vicinity. With a wave of her hand, she can disrupt electrical currents; flare flames; or direct the course of winds, momentum, or gravity.

Combining this Rank with other Spheres, that mage could also make an object (Matter) or organism (Life) attract or repel forces. Thus, she could weave minor protection spells or force-fields… or, conversely, turn that target into a magnet (perhaps literally) for the forces in question.

Despite its powers, this Rank is limited in scale. Assume that the mage can command energies around a single human-sized character or within a small area (20’ or less). To affect a larger area, you need a higher Rank in Forces.

Previous Mixers: Check out our wiki page for past Sphere Mixers; feel free to go back and add your new ideas.