Mage the Awakening: Design help and questions

[Soultpp]

Hello everyone,

Our group recently started playing a nWoD (1st) campaign. It is a mixed campaign though, currently we have one mage (me), two vampires, a hunter (who is also one of the vamp's primary food sources), & a werewolf.

Now, none of us is extremely familiar with the system, though as the resident 'rulebook' I seem to be the most proficient with picking this stuff up. I do however have at least one question as well as a request for design help.

The question first: Is it possible to use Telekinesis for a grapple, using the Rote's dice pool in lieu of a strength check?

General advice: The book is somewhat vague with what can be done at each rank of Arcana so I could use more examples. Specifically, my character currently has Death 1, Forces 3, Prime 2, but really I could use some good examples from all of them.

Now, for the design help:

I have a concept for a backup character in mind. An anime fan/cos-player who is thrilled that she's suddenly a 'mahou shoujo' herself. Perhaps it isn't an original concept, I can't say, but the issue is I am not familiar enough with the system to translate it into MtA. She would want to be able to transform I think, but other than that the concept allows for so many directions I'm not sure which way to go. I will say that our games, regardless of system, tend to be very 'action movie' so that might push for certain skills.

Specifics are probably not necessary, but a few suggestions on direction (Which path/order/arcana) might help me.

This character also may end up as part of a triumvirate of cos-playing friends who each ended up down a different supernatural path (werewolf & vampire are the other two) but that is probably not important.

Edit: Title correction

[fishyfishyfishy]

You may want to change the title. Ascension is the classic game, most recent of which is the 20th Anniversary edition. Awakening is the Chronicles of Darkness game.

[Anonymouswizard]

First off, you're talking about Awakening, the terminology tells us that. You might want to see about getting the thread title changed, I came in expecting Ascension, which is different. Onto answering your questions, baring in mind I only know Ascension (hoping to pick up Awakening 2e at a later date).

Rote stuff: no clue, rotes worked differently in Ascension.

Arcana rankings: 1 see effects. 2 start manipulating. 3 manipulate more complex stuff. Assuming the general guidelines of Ascension hold true in Awakening Prime 2 allows you to start stuff quintessence (or mana as I believe it is in Awakening) into stuff and potentially dispelling low level spells by ripping the mana out of them, while Forces 3 of course allows you to throw and redirect fire and lightning, but depending on your GM's interpretation can allow you to negate the strong or weak nuclear forces and generate light. There's a lot more to Forces 3, but if you think of Forces 2 as rough control and each higher rank as gaining finer control you're doing fine.

For backup character, I can't help with path/order, but for Arcana:
-Life will allow you to transform your body, Matter to transform your outfit. The latter is probably much more important, at higher levels you'll be able to conjure weapons and clothes from thin air (and now I have ideas for an Etherite tailor, Matter 3 and Prime 3 to create and empower magical suits).
-Forces is your basic method of direct magical attack. Other Arcana can do it, I believe Life and Fate still have the good old 'instant cardiac arrest' powers (what, you thought that was Death? It fits all three perfectly) and with enough ranks in both Life and Matter you can begin unweaving people, but Forces is essentially flashy beams of light and blasts of fire.

[fishyfishyfishy]

This post may look a bit messy at first. I'm copy/pasting from a pdf on my phone, and then going back to edit on PC later.

Some sample powers for Death 1;

- Shape and thicken shadows.
- Control and shape ectoplasm.
- Sense the presence of ghosts and ectoplasm in the vicinity.
- Sense the presence of cadavers in the vicinity.
- Sense if something is decaying, low in vitality, being drained of life or dying in the vicinity.
- Observe a soul’s health, including injuries to and marks upon it.
- Determine the presence of derangements by the marks on their soul.
- Determine if a mage’s soul carries the marks that indicate he has made a soul stone.
- Determine the “soul stitching” that indicate that a soul had been detached and reattached to a body.
- Sense whether an object contains a soul (a Soul Jar).
- Determine a corpse’s cause of death.
- Understand and speak with ghosts.
- Perceive Twilight and everything within.
- See spirits in Twilight as indistinct shapes, unless Spirit 1 is added to the casting. With Spirit 1, can see spirits in Twilight as clearly as ghosts.
- Cannot perceive mental projections in Twilight unless adds Mind 1 to the casting.
- Mage Sight (Grim Sight). Sense magic. Scrutinise magic.
- Gain sensory perception of phenomena within the purview of the Death Arcanum.
- Sense if a person has killed, has witnessed death, or has simply suff ered loss or bereavement.
- Sense if an object has death associated with it, e.g. whether a knife or a gun has actually caused a death.
- Sense if a place is the scene of a death.
- Sense if a person, creature, object or location is the site of a ghost’s anchor.

Some sample powers for Forces 1;

- Guide the direction and fl ow of existing light.
- Split existing light into a spectrum as if through a prism.
- Focus existing light into a beam or a pinpoint.
- Disperse direct lighting, forming a local chiaroscuro eff ect.
- Draw diff use local lighting into a beam, like a reading light.
- Guide the direction and flow of existing radiated heat.
- Extract heat from one area, sending it into another area.
- Focus the heat onto a small spot, or diffuse it over an area.
- Guide the direction and flow of existing sound.
- Keep one’s own sounds from travelling too far from oneself: e.g. a zone of privacy.
- Redirect sounds of a conversation from a distance to oneself to overhear what is being said.
- Listen in on free-floating radio transmissions, e.g. mobile communications, radio broadcast TV signals, the images on non-Tempest protected TV screens and monitors. Making sense of it all requires Wits + Science, possibly Mind magic.
- Expand perceptions: find one’s way in the dark in conditions of very little light. Supplement nightsight with ability to perceive radiated heat, and to “see” the presence of obstacles in the dark through a form of echolocation.
- Hear sounds beyond the human hearing range.
- Mage Sight (Read Matrices). Sense magic. Scrutinise magic.
- Gain sensory perception of phenomena within the purview of Forces.
- Perceive energy and magical resonance.- Detect the presence of all of the Universe’s energies in the area, including magnetic fields, gravity and nuclear radiation.


Some sample powers for Forces 2;

- Brighten or darken an area by altering ambient light intensity. Can’t create light from nothing.
- Amplify or diminish the volume of sounds in an area. Can’t create sound from nothing.
- Increase or decrease ambient temperature in an area. Can’t create heat from nothing.
- Cause electricity to arc at someone. Aimed. Can’t amplify or diminish electricity. Can’t create electricity from nothing.
- Limited control over magnetism. Can’t amplify or diminish magnetism. Can’t create magnetic fields from nothing.
- Control the direction or flow of fire, causing it to jump in the direction the caster desires, or dance around. Can’t amplify or diminish fire, or create fire from nothing.
- Focus the kinetic impact of a blow to a pinpoint, turning bashing damage into lethal damage.
- Hijack an extant radio signal, superimposing his own signal onto the frequency.
- Render an object invisible to light, including cameras.
- Render an object inaudible.
- Render an object invisible to heat sensors.
- Deflect incoming physical attacks by dispersing the energies of those attacks along invisible contours surrounding the caster.
- Protection against kinetic blows, bullets, lasers, flame attacks, electrical arcs, lightning and nuclear radiation.
- Grants additional protection against knockdown.
- Does not protect against attempts to grapple the caster. Does not protect against attempts to overcome a grappled caster.
- Analyze the phenomena revealed by Forces 1 knowing effects.
- Grant Forces 1 knowing effects upon others.
- Grant Forces 1 Mage Sight upon others (Eyes of The Matrix).
- More in-depth scrutiny.

Some sample powers for Forces 3;

- Create an invisible, semi-autonomous servant to lift, fetch and carry. Mind 1 allows the mage to “multitask” control of the servant; Mind 5 grants the servant a measure of autonomy. Space 2 permits the servant to operate outside of sensory range.
- Call lightning from a pre-existing storm. Aimed.
- Diminish or cut off electrical power, or alter its flow/direction. Cannot create electricity from nothing at this point.
- Make a fire or chemical reaction more intense, or diminish its intensity. Can reduce the intensity of a fire enough to extinguish it altogether.
- Speed up or slow down a chemical reaction, or reverse it.
- Create light from nothing.
- Extinguish an existing light.
- Create sounds from nothing.
- Destroy sounds (including make oneself inaudible).
- Record sounds onto points of Mana (may require Prime to convert those points of Mana into Tass for storage and replay).
- Lift and operate objects remotely via telekinesis. Duration of Concentration. Requires Space 2 to operate beyond sensory range.
- Control the direction of motion of a fast projectile, e.g. a bullet, possibly turning it back upon an assailant.
- Create a ball of telekinetic force which is aimed at the target.
- Strip extraneous signals from a free-fl oating transmission, e.g. a signal jammer.
- Turn an ordinary light source into a source of laser light.
- Make oneself invisible (Concentration duration).
- Bestow Forces Shielding 2 protection upon others.
- Protect an object from being mechanically tampered with, e.g. to provide a computer with EMP shielding.

Some sample powers for Prime 1;

- Unweave (dispel) existing magic of any Arcanum (caster has to know each Arcanum being used).
- Inscribe Rotes into a Grimoire (caster loses Rotes, has to relearn them: but can read and activate them from within the Grimoire).
- Scrutinise an enchanted item, and (with exceptional success) identify its nature and powers, including any curses on it, etc.
- Mage Sight (Supernal Vision). Sense magic. Scrutinise magic.
- See through Prime-based illusions.

Some sample powers for Prime 2;

- Activate a contingent Artifact or imbued item.
- Squaring the Circle: Create a mystical space where two mages can fight the Duel Arcane.
- Transform one’s own Aura.
- Hide oneself from other mages’ magic senses when scrutinising their spells.
- Counterspell Prime: counteract any spell as it is being cast, Covert or Vulgar (must first detect it with Mage Sight). Do not need to identify any of the Arcana used. A Counterspell not using the Prime Arcanum (see “Counterspell”, p. 123, Mage: the Awakening) requires knowledge of at least Rank 1 in one component of the spell being used; further, it can only counteract Vulgar magic.
- Magic Shield (protect against magic directly cast at the mage, not aimed at the mage).
- Sense The Threads: Sense when a mage is scrutinising one of your spells or items. Space 2.
- Primal Flow (Grant Supernal Vision to others).

The information presented here comes from The Arcana of Creative Thaumaturgy, A Summary of Arcana Capabilities By Rank and Practice by Libra.

[Soultpp]

Thanks for the replies so far. Firstly I do want to apologize for the title mistake. I really do not know why I did that as I have never actually played or even read anything related to Ascension. I have corrected the title.

Thanks for the assistance on both major topics. The list provided does give me a little better idea of what is and is not yet possible for my current character, and the suggestions on arcana for the backup are very useful. I was looking at matter, but I may have missed looking at life as an option.

Now maybe some advice on how combining arcana works? And even a few (3 or 4) suggestions on how specific combinations could work. Again, I'd be looking at what my current character has now as priority, but I'm also trying to look ahead at which arcana might be the next one to start exploring and combinations might lead me.

Oh, and a further question occurs to me: About magical tools. Can a mage use more than one (order/path/arcana) simultaneously to further minimize the chance of paradox? Or is it just 'choose one' if you have more than one option?


Thanks again.

[The Random NPC]

Just want to point out that Fishyfishyfishy's post is about Ascension. Awakening, for example, allows you to scribe grimoires without losing rotes, and Prime Counterspelling is a 2 dot attainment.

[fishyfishyfishy]

Just want to point out that Fishyfishyfishy's post is about Ascension. Awakening, for example, allows you to scribe grimoires without losing rotes, and Prime Counterspelling is a 2 dot attainment.

No, it isn't about Ascension. Death isn't even a Sphere in Ascension, and Grimiores are an entirely different thing. Counterspelling and Dispelling can be done with Prime in both games. The Attainment only makes it easier since you don't have to spend mana on it, and it's a clash of wills.

From the wiki:

Apprentice (●●)

An Apprentice of Prime has the power to bestow one’s resonance detection upon others. One may counter spells from any Arcanum, or create armor against enemy spells (though not against regular damage like punches, or guns). The mage’s aura may be altered, making one appear as something one isn’t, and one may create the dueling circle for the Duel Arcane, a ritualized form of wizardly combat. One may also cloak oneself from the mystical senses of other mages as one alters or examines their magic, and may activate Artifacts and imbued items without needing to fulfill their triggers.

Emphasis added to the relevant text. I even provided page references in my post so you can check for yourself!

If there are mistakes in my post it's from the source. Which I should point out is a source for 1e. I don’t believe there are any mistakes however.

[The Random NPC]

No, it isn't about Ascension. Death isn't even a Sphere in Ascension, and Grimiores are an entirely different thing. Counterspelling and Dispelling can be done with Prime in both games. The Attainment only makes it easier since you don't have to spend mana on it, and it's a clash of wills.

From the wiki:



Emphasis added to the relevant text. I even provided page references in my post so you can check for yourself!

If there are mistakes in my post it's from the source. Which I should point out is a source for 1e. I don’t believe there are any mistakes however.

Whoops, I'm thinking of 2e, my bad.