Mage: the Awakening

[BraveEarth]

Put me down for a Hallow for the Sanctum.
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=1108914 WIP will tighten her up, suggestions always welcome.

[Angie]

Current Sanctum Status:

Size: 3 (example include Warehouse and large family home, 5-8 rooms)
Security: 3 (-3 to all attempts to break in, +3 to defender's Intiatives)
Hallow: 1 (1 Mana per day)

[Muse]

Here's Ronia:

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=1109705

I think she's mostly ready. 

I was going to give her the abilty to speak broken swedish and another dot of resources, but buying into the sanctum is important. 

[Muse]

Oh, can anyone talk me through dedicated tools? 

[Angie]

Oh, can anyone talk me through dedicated tools?

Simple enough: You have a tool that has special symbolic significance to your Path or Order. In this, we will use Angelo's Katana as an example (why do you think he took that Enhanced Item Merit? To ensure he gets that sword!). Curved swords hold symbolic meaning to the Mastigo path, representing the weird, MC Escher nature of Pandemonium. So, if Angelo uses his Katana in some manner when casting a Vulgar Spell (which can be just flourishing it), he reduces his Paradox chance by 1 die.

Now, in order to use a tool, you must dedicate it. Very simple process-get an appropriate item, carve a rune or two on it, perform a ritual and roll Gnosis+Composure. It's an extended action, so you need to roll five successes over a period of time. You make it, hooray, it's dedicated.

Each Arcana also has dedicated tools. A couple can be done without dedication (such as Life allowing the use of freshly drawn blood and freshly plucked flowers-which Angelo WILL be making use of).

[Muse]

  How many are you supposed to start wtih? 

[Angie]

  How many are you supposed to start wtih?

It doesn't say, but you can only have one Path OR Order tool. You can also have one tool for each Arcanum, but those tools can only be used with the selected Arcanum.

[Zeth]

Put me down for a Hallow for the Sanctum.
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=1108914 WIP will tighten her up, suggestions always welcome.

You don't have status in any order, so no free high speech. Other then that she looks good.

[eternaldarkness]

The Sheet: http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=1109237

And the background: Evan Miller is the oldest child of Arthur and Cadence Miller and scion of the famous weapons manufacturing family. Groomed to take over as the owner and CEO of the company and taught the intricacies of the business from birth, Evan turned out to be better at the technical side of the firearms business than the actual business side, and he has been a certified master gunsmith since he was eighteen years old. He spends more time in the companys research and development labs working on new designs and on the firing range than he does in the boardroom. His awakening came one day when he was shot and nearly killed by an anti-war activist while leaving his home, and got a nice trip to Stygia while he was bleeding to death. The irony of someone shooting him with one of his companys weapons and failing to kill him to protest war and his familys arms manufacturing business was not lost on anyone, and it made him even more dedicated to creating quality firearms. His reasoning: The shooter used a Miller weapon and the shot didn't kill him, so obviously their product isn't good enough.

[eternaldarkness]

Here's Ronia:

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=1109705

I think she's mostly ready. 

I was going to give her the abilty to speak broken swedish and another dot of resources, but buying into the sanctum is important.

The Language merit got errata'd. 1 dot just flat-out gives you the language fluently.

[Zeth]

Here's Ronia:

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=1109705

I think she's mostly ready. 

I was going to give her the abilty to speak broken swedish and another dot of resources, but buying into the sanctum is important.

Swedish will not come up in this game. Just an FYI.

[Zeth]

Yeah I was wondering on that as well, because usually Status dots of any sort aren't just for basic membership but something extra in White Wolf games. It does look Errata'd Which means she doesn't have to be an apostate which would be wholly detrimental.

One dot of status does give you something special. It gives you access to the Order's rote specialties and High Speech for free. Without it Jennifer Maxfield can say she s part of the Free Council, as they are trying to recruit her. That is why they taught her those starting rotes. You can spend 2 xp in play to officially join an order and get 1 dot Status. Then you get high speech and access to the rote specialties on all new rotes you learn.

[BraveEarth]

Umm no I don't agree if that was the case then the book wouldn't tell me, Choose an order, a mystical society of which your character is a member. If you don’t want him to join an order, write “Apostate” on your character sheet. Orders teach their members to cast rotes more efficiently when using certain Rote Specialties. See “Rote Specialties,” pp. 75, It would instead bring everything about Rote Specialities and High Speech in the Status Merit to show that is the benefit, instead of just mentioning that Rotes cannot be learned without status which is the special thing not to mention Social dice and recognition. That's all I'm going to say on this I've to go to bed I'll look at this thread in the morning.

[laa]

Brave, I don't think it's a matter of agreeing or not, as what Zeth is saying is written plainly (but poorly detailed, the writers should've put more thought into it) in the book.

Although, one could also gain status in-game without the use of XP. I don't remember what page this is on, but I'm sure I read that you can gain merits and such via achievements in the RP. So, say I suddenly get richer, my resource dots would increase. Or say our sanctum is destroyed, we'd loose our sanctum+hallow dots.

@Eternal:
I see some errors in your sheet. When choosing arcana, you have a 2-2-1 split between three different arcana, so it's impossible to have only two arcana, and it's impossible to have a 3-3 split.

Also, High Speech is free if you're in an order. =P


@Zeth:
I've made me sheet digital! Here: http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=1110044

For weapons and such, I used the melee weapons chart and ranged weapons chart to plan out something that seemed fair to me, while also being based off of the idea as to how I got them: After turning a mage, my character turned to his boss, who obviously knew more than he let in on, for a round of equipment. So, for a discount, my char was allowed to get some of the security-staffer's gear, hence the baton, glock and kevlar.

Oh, and the ID-card, suitcase + suit explains itself. =P
(Except the 'banker+'. The idea is I get bonuses to rolls in relation the financial sector. And the suit/suitcase gives me bonuses for formal situations and situations requiring an aura of authority. I mean, if you allow it, of course)

[Lockepick]

With me being wishy washy, and the current spread of characters, I think I'll lean more towards a mental Obrimos; gunning for Prime 3. I should be able to contribute 1 Point to Sanctum (the group can decide if it's Size or Security or whatever), as well as 1 Point to Hollow. I'm probably going to go with a concept of a Ex-Recluse -- somebody who used to be a shut in before Awakening, and is now all too eager to see the world. Not sure on Mysterium or Guardians, honestly, but probably one of those -- unless there is some social/plot reason I'd join another. I don't imagine I'll get too entrenched int he Order anyway.

@Eternaldarkness: You can't start with Death 3 and Matter 3. You have to allocate 2 dots / 2 dots / 1 dot, and your Ruling Arcana (Death/Matter for Moros) must be each of those. Then you can add one more Dot (either to one of those, or do a new Arcana). Meaning the closest you can do your current configuration is 3 / 2 / 1. You also get High Speech for free -- you don't need to spend a point on it.   Iaa beat me to it :)

[laa]

Sounds like we've almost gotten every character in the bag then! Yay! =D

Perhaps we should talk on 'how we met' and get that noted down sometime soon. Like, agree on it and such. Consilium or generic bar meetup?

@Muse: I just noticed something. If you compare your weapon to the melee weapons chart, you will notice the closest similar weapon is the 'greatsword', which has size 3. This means it cannot be hidden, and that it requires 3 strength to carry. AKA: You need to increase your strength by 1 to be able to use it properly. (Core rulebook, page 170)

[Zeth]

Advancing your character states that gaining a new rank in a merit costs the new dot in the merit x2 in XP.

Well we got are group together it seems. I will post the in game thread today.

[laa]

Yea, I can't find where I read that stuff about progression, so I'm probs wrong. Sorry 'bout that one. >.<

And awe! Can't wait to get started. =3

[Lockepick]

@Muse: You can use a weapon with a greater Size than your Strength -- you'll just take a -1 to use it. Also, using a one-handed weapon with both hands increases your Effective Strength by 1 for wielding it -- though that doesn't work on weapons that are inherently two-handed. I'm not sure where a Bastard Sword might fall.

I'm not sure I'm super ready to post IC yet -- don't have a picture/name/anything yet, really. Working on a sheet now. Though I also have my RL game tonight, so probably won't be around to post anyway until tomorrow...

[Zeth]

That is an excellent point. How did you guys meet? Some of you are from the same order and Boston has a Consilium. Did you meet through those?

To help spice things up I picked up nWoD antagonists, so not every threat you face will be directly the result of Awakened magic.

[eternaldarkness]

With me being wishy washy, and the current spread of characters, I think I'll lean more towards a mental Obrimos; gunning for Prime 3. I should be able to contribute 1 Point to Sanctum (the group can decide if it's Size or Security or whatever), as well as 1 Point to Hollow. I'm probably going to go with a concept of a Ex-Recluse -- somebody who used to be a shut in before Awakening, and is now all too eager to see the world. Not sure on Mysterium or Guardians, honestly, but probably one of those -- unless there is some social/plot reason I'd join another. I don't imagine I'll get too entrenched int he Order anyway.

@Eternaldarkness: You can't start with Death 3 and Matter 3. You have to allocate 2 dots / 2 dots / 1 dot, and your Ruling Arcana (Death/Matter for Moros) must be each of those. Then you can add one more Dot (either to one of those, or do a new Arcana). Meaning the closest you can do your current configuration is 3 / 2 / 1. You also get High Speech for free -- you don't need to spend a point on it.   Iaa beat me to it :)

Yeah i'd forgotten about that. Any game i played in we always ignored the 2, 2, 1 thing. Guess he's getting a dot in something else.

[Angie]

@Muse: You can use a weapon with a greater Size than your Strength -- you'll just take a -1 to use it. Also, using a one-handed weapon with both hands increases your Effective Strength by 1 for wielding it -- though that doesn't work on weapons that are inherently two-handed. I'm not sure where a Bastard Sword might fall.

WHAT? WHAT? I wish I'd known that! I wouldn't have put that point into Strength, then, I'd have given Angelo 4 Dexterity...or 3 Stamina. Since he uses Dex for attacks with his Katana (that's the Fighting Finesse) he only needed the 2 Strength to wield it properly, and now you're telling me he could do it with 1 Strength...

Angelo also has another way into the party-every Mage needs a Doctor eventually. If any of you have been involved in scraps (or even something as minor as a car crash), you guys might have already met. Granted, he can't tell if you're Mages or not, but the Consilium probably has his name on file.

[eternaldarkness]

WHAT? WHAT? I wish I'd known that! I wouldn't have put that point into Strength, then, I'd have given Angelo 4 Dexterity...or 3 Stamina. Since he uses Dex for attacks with his Katana (that's the Fighting Finesse) he only needed the 2 Strength to wield it properly, and now you're telling me he could do it with 1 Strength...

Angelo also has another way into the party-every Mage needs a Doctor eventually. If any of you have been involved in scraps (or even something as minor as a car crash), you guys might have already met. Granted, he can't tell if you're Mages or not, but the Consilium probably has his name on file.

Evan provides consilium members with untraceable firearms and other equipment at reasonable prices or for favors. He custom-makes them with no identifying marks and cleansed of any arcane signature or evidence of maker (since i'm changing his arcana dots around).

[laa]

Perhaps some met outside of the consilium and some after the consilium. But I personally definitely think the consilium should be involved. Opinions?

[eternaldarkness]

Perhaps some met outside of the consilium and some after the consilium. But I personally definitely think the consilium should be involved. Opinions?

Anyone needing something made might have contacted Evan for some reason or another, and he's fairly likable and outgoing and would have been actively looking for cabal-mates.

And here's a link to a PDF I found unbelievably useful playing Awakening: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4h3dKZ4IlleUDdCeXhkeWRSakU&authuser=0