Mage the Ascension Fate Hack

Mage The Ascension

Rational

I love the lore and factions of Mage the ascension but the system is far too crunchy for me to cope with these days, so the only way I am going to engage with the setting at all is through a Fate Hack.

There are dozens of really good fate hacks out there, both for Ascension and for Awakening. I have used and enjoyed these before, but I have never been entirely satisfied by the manner in which the spheres were implemented.

In the hacks I have seen and used, Implementation of the spheres has fallen into one of these categories;

Spheres as skills – either as part of the standard skill pyramid or as an extra

Spheres as stunts – either with a single stunt buyng access to the whole sphere, or buying each ranks separately

Spheres out the window – basically using Dresden files (core or fae) and ignoring spheres altogether

The problem with the latter is that spheres seem like an integral part of the mage experience for me, and the problem with the former is that (and this is probably just me being picky) neither skills or stunts really seem to encapsulate what sphere knowledge does.

In my mind;

Skills – are about how you affect the story

Stunts – modify the way you interact with the rules

Aspects – are about WHAT you can do

And spheres more than anything else are about WHAT you can do. They are basically narrative permissions.

Creating a Character

Aspects

Aspects are an important part of setting the tone for the game and the kind of stories that play out. For a standard game use these aspects, but if you want to guide the game in a particular direction then changing the aspects might be the first place you want to look.

I have taken inspiration from a lot of places, but aspects primarily owe to Max Peters hack.

As usual with Fate Core, mages have 5 aspects. For mage, 4 of these are specified, and the last can be anything to round out the character. The defined aspects are High Concept, Trouble, Avatar, and Paradigm.

High Concept

The High concept defines who the mage is. It should encapsulate the mages ability to work magic (which is a defining part of who mages are) and their place in the magical world. For most mages this will mean membership of a faction, but it might just as easily state that they are orphaned.

A good way to construct the high concept is by combining a character trait, the characters broad magical identity, and their role or motivation. If you tell someone your high concept they should have a pretty good handle on who your character is.

Note that the faction element might be a tradition, but could just as easily be a faction within a tradition if that describes your character more accurately.

Character Trait (if in unsure, one of the FAE approaches works well); Forceful, Angry, Caring, Lonely…

Magical Identity (Faction or sub faction); Hermetic, Verbena, Progenitor, Flambeau, Akashic, Jnani…

Role (Job or Function; what they do); Scholar, Soldier, Dancer, Assassin, Diplomat, Driver, Teacher…

·         Arrogant Flambeau Gangster

·         Ambitious Progenitor Doctor

·         Ruthless Akashic Lawyer

Trouble

The kind of problems the mage faces. This can have a big impact on the kind of game you play, as the place a mages problems stem from have a big impact on where they take the game.

If you want mages who are tied to the sleeping world then they should have troubles which define mundane connections – family, work etc.

If the mages are more detached from the sleeping world then their troubles should be more personal or magical in nature.

Remember that regardless of the source of your problems, they need to be something you want to come up in play as a constant source of complication.

·         My family don’t know I’m a mage

·         I have to pay the rent

·         I have children to look after

Or for more detached mages

·         Master Kell always has jobs for me to do

·         Distracted by the secrets of the universe

·         Something is stalking me in the shadows

Avatar

The mages Avatar is what allows them to work magic, and what drives them towards their destiny. It is an essential part of a willworkers existence.

The avatar can manifest as a ghostly presence either seen through mirrors or some such, or ‘halucinated’. It could manifest through someone (or someones) in the mages life. It could manifest as flashes of insight, memories of past incarnations, glimpses of patterns. Anything that could guide and influence the mage.

The Avatar aspect is invoked to trigger a seeking, and can be invoked to give insight into the mages actions or compelled to drive the mage in complicated directions.

·         Whispers in my mind

·         I am a vessel of the spirit

·         My son is my Guide

Paradigm

Magic is shaped and controlled by belief. The paradigm through which a mage works their will is both their strength and their weakness. It guides both what they are capable of doing as well as how they do it.

Mage 20 has a great system for devising a mages paradigm, and my advice would be to follow it and think it through fully then describe it in a single sentence as an aspect.

As with M20, the mage should have a single paradigm and up to 3 practices defined by the aspect.

As the mage grows and develops, so should their paradigm.

·         Hypertechnology takes advantage of natural laws (Mechanistic cosmos/Hypertech)

·         Faith shapes the world (Its all good/Faith)

·         Symbolic rituals manifest my will (Might is Right/High Ritual)

In addition to describing how the mage works their magic, the mages Paradigm represents a fundamental shift in how they perceive and understand the world. It can be invoked any time this understanding is helpful, and compelled whenever it leaves themout of their depth.

Free Aspect/Relationship aspect

The final aspect can be used to round out the character with anything important that falls outside the scope of the other aspects. Perhaps with an important relationship, item of equipment, personality trait, or other such.

Follow the usual aspect guidance for fate core.

Alternatively, the final aspect can be used to define a relationship with another PC. This may be a useful way to tie the characters together at the start of the campaign.

Skills

Mage uses a standard skill pyramid from fate core. By default the peak skill should be Great (4), but this could be lowered to good (3) if you want greener and less capable mages.

The skill list, and in particular Lore have been (mostly) taken from the Lex arcanum fate hack.

The following skills are available (Note: * Denotes new skills, which are outlined below). They basically consist of the Fate Core skill list plus Lore.

• Academics (originally Lore)
• Athletics
• Burglary
• Contacts
• Crafts/Technology
• Deceive
• Drive
• Empathy
• Fight
• Investigate
• Lore*
• Notice
• Physique
• Provoke
• Rapport
• Resources
• Shoot
• Stealth
• Will

·         New Skill: Lore

·         Unlike Academics (which replaces Lore in the standard Fate Core skills list), which represents your knowledge and understanding of the mundane world, Lore represents your occult knowledge. Looking at the world at large, most people don’t have this skill or even know it exists. But for those who've studied the real teachings of the occult, Lore allows them to gain useful insight into the arcane elements of the mortal world.

Overcome: You can use Lore to overcome any obstacle that requires applying your character’s occult knowledge to achieve a goal. For example, deciphering the ancient runes that are etched into the outside of a lock box, preventing access to the contents within. Lore can also be used to determine if you character might know the answer to a question about the occult, whether through having heard or read something on the subject.

Create an Advantage: Like Investigate, Lore provides a lot of very flexible opportunities to create advantages, provided you can research the subject in question. For instance, you could use Lore to uncover a detail about the monster, such as it's weaknesses, or use your knowledge of occult rituals to etch a rune on the floor to enhance your magic. Both uses involve creating an advantage for yourself based on either occult knowledge you have learned, or have uncovered during the story.

·         

·         Attack: Lore isn't used in conflicts.

Defend: Lore isn't used to defend.

Stress, Consequences, Refresh, and stunts

Mages get the standard physical and mental stress and consequences from fate core.

They also get mana stress (detailed later).

Mages begin with 3 refresh and get 3 free stunts as in Core.

Stunts can be taken as usual in fate core, and in addition to representing abilities and gear they can be used to represent advantages like avatar, node, or sanctum. When I get the chance I will write up some examples of mage specific stunts.

EXTRA – Spheres

The first extra mages get is access to the Spheres.

Each sphere is an aspect consisting of a sphere and its rank.

The ranks are as follows;

Scale	Rank
1	Initiate
2	Apprentice
3	Disciple
4	Adept
5	Master

Because I am not a fan of the entropy sphere, I prefer to use the 10 spheres from Awakening rather than the 9 from Ascension. If you prefer to use the ascension spheres, you can easily do so using these rules. Mages should also feel free to adjust the names of the spheres according to their paradigm (as long as it is made clear which original sphere they are referring to)

Example aspects;

·         Master of Mind

·         Adept of Forces

·         Disciple of Correspondence

Or with adjusted names (taken from Anders mage page) ;

·         Adept of Medium frequency wave interference (forces)

·         Disciple of Chi (Prime)

·         Initiate of the Flesh (Life)

These aspects, in conjunction with the mages paradigm aspect, give justification for actions which would not normally be available without them.

For example an Adept of Medium Frequency wave interference could deploy his equipment (probably a blaster of some sort) to launch a blast of plasma.

Spells cast using a sphere have a scale equal to the rank of the highest sphere involved in the effect. This scale cannot be applied to casting magic, but can be applied to anything else the spell interacts with.

For example if a mage conjures a flaming sword then their attacks with it will operate at the scale at which the sword was created. If they then conjure a fireball, then again it will operate at the scale at which the fireball was cast. Because of this, aspects created by spheres need to include the rank at which they operate (even if it is just in parenthesis);

Eg a Disciples flaming blade, or  a Wall of Force (adept).

Magical actions use the normal skills. If you are creating a Muscled like the Hulk aspect using life then you roll Physique to do so. If you are shooting a fireball then you do so using shoot.

Using magic carries a passive difficuly which is dependent on the scale of the effect, plus one for each additional sphere needed.

Scale	Base Difficulty
1	0
2	2
3	4
4	6
5	8
Each extra sphere needed	+1

There is an additional difficulty in affecting targets who are not present when the effect is cast;

Sympathetic Connection Between Caster and Target

Affecting a target at anything beyond the sensory level requires the addition of Correspondence to the effect (at minimum rank 2 or higher depending on the effect)

• Sensory (+0): You can see, hear or otherwise sense your target directly. This is the default factor, a sensory spell.
• Intimate (+1): You have a piece of the target’s physical substance, such as hair, nail clippings or blood from a creature, a leaf or flower from a plant, or a sliver of material from an object. Or you know the target very well, such as a longtime friend or close family member, a beloved pet or a prized possession.
• Known (+2): You know the target, which might be a friend, co-worker or personal possession. You have a photo or other accurate representation of the target, or you can see the target on live video or hear the target over live audio.
• Acquainted (+3): You’re acquainted with the target. It might be a casual acquaintance, a co-worker you hardly know, or an item you held or used once.
• Encountered (+4): You have encountered the target briefly, such as a person you passed on the street or an item you touched once.
• Described (+5): You have never encountered the target, but can describe it. You might know a person’s name or physical description, or what an object or place looks like.
• Unknown (--): If you know nothing about the target, you cannot cast a sympathetic spell on it. Knowing that there is a rival mage in town is not enough to affect the mysterious figure from afar. You must at least know his name, description or location.

Note: If the caster does not know the real name of a target, the difficulty of achieving a sympathetic connection is increased by two degrees on the chart. So, for example, an Intimate connection would become an Acquainted connection.

Affecting multiple targets divides shifts as equally as possible between targets. Affecting an area applies half the number of shifts rolled to each target in the area.

When creating an effect roll first against the difficulty of the effect. If this roll is successful it can then be applied to any other opposition to the effect.

Overcome – a successful effect then uses its full shifts (plus scale) against the opposition it is trying to overcome

Create Advantage – unless there is opposition to the effect which is greater than the difficulty of the effect itself, then the difficulty of creating the effect will usually be used to create the advantage. If not then the roll can be applied to the advantage as normal

Attack – if the effect is successful then the roll is applied directly against the target, remembering to take scale into account. If the roll is a tie with the effects difficulty then the attack takes place as normal but the mage also creates an aspect representing a minor paradox flaw in addition to any other paradox the effect accumulates.

Defence – If an effect is able to be deployed quickly enough to act as a defence, it uses the same rules as an attack.

Examples:

An Adept of Forces shoots a fireball at an opponent. He rolls shoot and compares his result to the difficulty of the effect (4 for a disciple effect, although if he was confident enough he could create an adept level effect for the extra scale). If he attained the difficulty of the effect then his roll would be applied as an attack on the target, with scale applied.

An Apprentice of Life creates an advantage on himself to bulk out and become strong. This is apprentice level effect so he rolls Physique against difficulty 2, and if successful he creates the advantage Bulging Muscles (2) remembering that he can apply the scale anytime his bulging muscles will give him an edge.

Extended Casting

Sometimes the difficulty of casting an effect makes it impossible to do with a single roll. This is where extended casting comes in.

Extended casting is built up by creating advantages which may be used in casting the effect. Carefully drawing a ritual circle, selecting and harvesting important ingredients, carefuly washing preparing and donning robes etc. The time taken to prepare a ritual will vary depending on the preparations necessary.

Descriptions of the permissions given by each sphere can be found in mage the ascension books.

EXTRA  - Paradox

The next defining feature of magic in mage is Paradox.

There are 2 real ways of handling this; Paradox happens whenever a spell is cast, or paradox happens whenever a casting roll is failed…

Actually I like the idea of mixing both…

Mages have a paradox stress track, beginning with two boxes ([1] and [2]). They gain boxes in accordance with their highest sphere rating. An initiate gains a [3] stress box, while a Disciple gains a [4] stress box.

When a spell is cast, the mage gains paradox.

The base paradox is given by the type and scale of an effect;

Coincidental: No shifts the first time the effect is cast in a scene, then as vulgar without witnesses (you can only get away with the same coincidence once).

Vulgar without witnesses: Shifts equal to the scale of the effect

Vulgar with witnesses: Shifts equal to double the scale of the effect

If the mage fails to reach the difficulty of the effect then an extra paradox point is gained for each point they fail by.

Paradox can be reduced by the following methods;

Using a Rote reduces the paradox of an effect by 1

Spending a fate point to invoke the Avatar aspect reduces Paradox by 1

Paradox is soaked using Paradox stress, but make a note of the total amount of paradox that has been soaked (as it may be different to the boxes used). When a mage is taken out by Paradox, add up the total amount of paradox they have accumulated.

The total shifts of paradox are applied as an attack roll on the mage, which can be defended against using Will.

If any shifts remain they can be applied to either the mages physical or mental stress tracks, and can be absorbed as consequences.

Whether the damage is physical or mental is the storytellers choice and depends on the effect being attempted. Both  physical and mental paradox can result in spiritual consequences if the story teller decides it is appropriate.

Consequence	Shifts	Physical	Mental	Spiritual
Mild	2	Minor Flaw	Minor Quiet	minion
Moderate	4	Moderate Flaw	Moderate Quiet	preceptor
Severe	6	Severe Flaw	Severe Quiet	Lord
Taken out	/	Explosion	Realm	NA

Flaws

Paradox flaws are changes to the mage and the environment. They should be tailored to suit the spheres used in the effect.

Example flaws for each sphere might be (taken from anders mage page);

Sphere	Minor	Moderate	Severe
Correspondence	Altered perception	Things keep moving Mage cant control direction of anything	Body is turned inside out
Entropy	Altered perception Bad Luck	Mage Rots things they touch People nearby feel ill	Mage ages rapidly, becoming a withered husk, then slowly becoming young again on recovery
Forces	Hair stands on end Altered perception	Nearby electronics fail Mage floats off floor	Struck blind and deaf and dumb
Life	Muscle spasms Illness	Plants grow alarmingly Limb stops working	Violent epileptic seizure
Matter	Surface becomes slippy Equipment breaks	Becomes intangible to a substance Water the mage touches freezes	Body crystalizes
Mind	Mage speaks exactly whatis on their mind Distracting psychic static	Mental chameleon, adopting habits and manerisms of others nearby Phobia or delusions	Unable to form coherent thoughts
Prime	Pulses with magical energy A rote stops working	Magnet for magical effects	Loses touch with avatar and cant cast magic
Spirit	spirit	spirit	spirit
Time	Clocks stop Altered perception	Slowed Lose short term memory	Vanishes and reappears at future time

Quiets

Explosion

The mage suffers the effects of a severe flaw, and everyone in the area suffers half the paradox shifts. They may defend with Will and soak the paradox with stress and consequences in the same way the mage did. Being taken out does not cause further explosions.

Realm

The mage is dragged into a paradox realm, and may be stuck there until they find a way to escape.

Spirits

Instead of directly taking consequences, a consequence may be taken to represent a Paradox spirit. The spirit is designed as an extra, and the consequence will not begin to heal until the spirit has been dealt with.

Seekings

When a mage would gain a skill they can instead choose to gain a seeking token.

This token can be used to invoke the avatar aspect to trigger a seeking.

Alternately the GM can compel the aspect at an inconvenient  time and swap the seeking token for a fate point.

Examples

Casting magic might seem complicated, so I think a few examples are in order.

Attack spell

Zain is a hermetic mage who is being attacked by HIT MARKS. He wants to hurl a fireball at them;

A fireball is a Forces 3/Prime 2 effect, so it has a difficulty of 5 (4 for the forces, plus 1 for the extra sphere). Zain has a Fair (2) shoot skill, so he rolls the dice and gets a total of 3 (2 for his skill,plus 1 rolled on the dice). He spends a fate point to tag his high concept, adding a further 2 and gaining success at a minor cost. The cost is a minor paradox aspect, and as the world around Zain blurs into fiery hues of red and orange he releases his fireball at the HIT marks.

Zain attained a total of 5 shifts so they are now applied as an attack on the HIT mark, along with a scale of 3. There is no reason for the fireball to hit more easily, but it should be damaging so the scale adds 6 shifts of damage to any successful attack.

The Hit mark now has to defend against 5 shifts of attack with a weapon rating of 6!!

The spell is a vulgar effect without witnesses, and Zain cast it successfully so he nets 3 paradox which he soaks with his [3] paradox stress box.

Creating an Advantage

Having seen the mangled wreck of the HIT mark zain has realised how devastating offensive magic can be and wants to create a defensive ward. This time he just wants to be able to redirect forces – he doesn’t need to create them so he doesn’t need prime. Redirecting forces arguably only needs forces 2, but he can use forces 3 to give him a stronger shield. So the difficulty is 4 (for a forces 3 effect).

Defending against attacks comes under the athletics skill which Zain also has at fair (2). He rolls the dice and gets a total of 5 (2 for his fair athletics, and another 3 from his dice roll). This gives him an aspect shielded from incoming forces (3) with a free invoke and a scale of 3.

In addition to the invoke, when he defends from incoming forces he can make use of the aspects scale for either +3 to his roll, or 6 armour after the roll.

This is another vulgar effect without witnesses, netting him another 3 points of paradox. He has already used his [3] stress box, so he is forced to soak it on his [4]stress box.

Backlash

Later he attempts another fireball. Again the difficulty is 5 for a Forces 3/Prime 2 effect.

He rolls his fair (2) shoot for a total of 1 (2 for his shoot, and minus 1 from the dice), failing by 4.

This time he has no fate points to spend and he fails to cast the effect.  

He gains 3 paradox from a vulgar effect without witnesses, and a further 4 paradox from failing the roll. This gives him a total of 7 paradox to soak, and without any way to do so he is taken out.

Zain has been taken out by paradox because he is unable to soak it with stress, and this results in him suffering an attack with shifts equal to the total paradox he has accumulated.

He soaked 6 points earlier and has just garnered another 7 points, so he has to defend against a 13 shift attack!!

He defends with his Great (4) will and rolls a total of 6 (4 for his will, plus 2 for his roll). Leaving him with 7 shifts still to soak.

Given the physical nature of the effect he has just cast, he takes the damage as physical stress. He marks his [3] stress box to soak 3 shifts, and takes the other 4 as a moderate flaw metaphysical spark. Until he can recover from the consequence, flammable items nearby will constantly catch on fire.

Example Characters

Zain Basford

HC: Ambitious Hermetic enforcer

Trouble: Cant escape my Gangland past

Avatar: I see visions in the flames

Paradigm: Ritual magic gives me power over the Gods (Gods and monsters/High ritual magic)

Free: Indebted to Ironclaw

Disciple of Forces

Apprentice of Prime

Initiate of Spirit

Zain sees reality as governed and ruled by monstrous Gods, much like the Gangs of his youth ruled the social world he grew up in. Ritualised magic and arcane symbols allow him to force those Gods to reshape reality to his whim, at least until he loses control and they enact their revenge.

Great	Will
Good	Contacts	Lore
Fair	Shoot	Athletics	Stealth
Average	Resources	Notice	Burglary	Deceive

Physical: [1] [2]

Mental: [1] [2] [3] [4]

Paradox: [1] [2] [3]

Mild:

Moderate:

Severe:

Stunts:

Notorious Gangster: Use Contacts as provoke when dealing with sleepers who know about his Gang membership

Node: Add two to any casting rolls when within the same zone as the node

Backup: When Contacts is used to create an advantage representing Gangsters, they can be created as an extra