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| This page is a work of fiction. THE CAMARILLA, MAGE: THE ASCENSION, VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE, WEREWOLF: THE APOCALYPSE, CHANGELING: THE DREAMING, and WRAITH: THE OBLIVION are all registered Trademarks of White Wolf Game Studios. Any use of White Wolf Game Studios' copyrighted material or trademarks at this WWW site should not be viewed as a challenge to those copyrights or trademarks. Any references to real people (living or dead), or places are is unintentional, and thus should not be taken literally. THIS IS A LIVE-ACTION ROLE-PLAYING GAME AND IS INTENED FOR MATURE MINDS ONLY |
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| ======================================================================= Subject: News: Your CST Needs: By DST Bijan Sepheri ---- This is for Old and New members. As part of the New Chapter's duties on behalf of player education, I thought I should post this very clear and comprehensive report from the Aquilo Novus - National Newsletter, by Bijan Sepheri. He makes some wonderful points and in light of the newer members I thought this was the best summary to send out, to teach them and remind older players of the processes. (someone asked me about proxy play a little while ago, so I thought this would clear it up for everyone) ======================================================================= What Your CST Needs: How to Make and Track Characters By DST Bijan Sepheri This is to inform you about what your CST requires for making and maintaining a character. This helps you *and* your ST keep track of things... Part I: REQUIREMENTS FOR MAKING NEW CHARACTERS 1 - When you make a new character, your ST needs to know your current Member Class (MC), member number, and whether you have done the Wisdom of the Stage / Creation ordeal. This will be recorded on your character sheet & XP log. 2 - When you make a character, aside from getting all the points straight, this is also when you need to make a character history/ background. No back-ground = No character. If you want, you can do an extended Character Background sheet - it's long, but it really helps character development. If you have passed the Wisdom of the Stage ordeal, you get an additional 3 xp to your character when you turn in your background. 3- This is also the time to ask for any lores or languages or items that your character might start with based on his / her background, assets, or abilities. Do it now, because once in play, there are more restrictions. 4 - If your character has anything that is Med/High/Top level approval or higher, please get it all approved before the character is played. This can take a long time, and there is no guarantee approval will be given. Part II: REQUIREMENTS TO PLAY GAMES 1- You will need to have your character approved before beginning play. See the ST running the game first, and they will look at your character to approve it. 2 - ALWAYS bring your character sheet. Try to always bring your XP log also, and all your weapon / item cards. 3 - Don't forget to sign-in, or no proof of your XP can be made. Find out how much XP the game is worth, too. 4 - If you are playing outside your home domain, you need all the above, and more: a) your character sheet, b) your XP log, c) your member card showing your MC, d) written proof or a signature for any high-level approvals (RST+) - a printed e-mail will do, e) weapon / item cards to be approved. !This is no joke - people have had problems at events because they didn't bring this stuff. Also get the game's ST to sign your ST log as proof you played there. Part III: GETTING and SPENDING XP 1 - Record all the XP your character earns on your XP log, whether from games, or MC increases, or confirmed bonuses. Record when you got it, and from what. Also keep track of your total XP earned there. 2 - Notify your CST about all XP spending you do - either by e-mail, or hand the CST a written note. Just telling them isn't enough - they won't remember and need to keep records. When you notify your CST, don't forget to let them know when/ where you got the XP you spent. Also be aware that some things require ST approvals too. 3 - Record any spending of XP on your XP log: record what you spent it on, what each thing cost, and what your total XP spent is. 4 - If you get things approved, you need to record this on your XP log too, and keep a record of the notice of approval (Keep that RST e-mail, a hard-copy too). 5- Also record anything that changes your character stats, and notify your ST about it. Examples: Gaining / losing influences, gaining / losing items, being taught lores or powers (and who taught it), changes of rank or generation, changes of status or reknown, gains or losses or virtues / path, etc. If it changes reknown, your character's stats, your ST needs to know. PART IV: OTHER STUFF: - If you retire the character, or the character dies, the ST needs to know that too. - If you only wish to step away from playing a certain character for a bit, but not actually retire them, this needs to be made clear. - If you switch chapters or something, the ST needs to know to send your records to the new ST. - If you proxy a character, this requires that the character's records be FULLY disclosed and intentions given to the proxy location's ST, 48 hours before the game your character is proxied to. Be warned that proxied characters can die during proxies - you are putting your trust in someone else to run your proxies character. ====================================================================== |
| ====================================================================== Daily Weirdness in the Lives of Mages by Anders Sandberg -- This is an older article I accidently found on one of my disks. for those of you that have heard of Anders, he provided a lot of online sources for mage online before anyone else thought to do so. This will give you some ideas of what your magic can be like or how the day to day really goes. So read, enjoy. ===================================================================== Daily Weirdness in the Lives of Mages by Anders Sandberg To be a mage is not a profession but a way of life. After Awakening, life will never be the same again. Mages understand the world around them far better than sleepers and thus gain power over it, but this is just one side of the coin. The other side is the fact that they see the strange events that normal people rationalise away or simply ignore - or perhaps the mages cause them by their own presence. Or they exist only in their own minds, as results of Quiet or incipient insanity. Most of it is neither good or bad - it is just plain weird. SUBCONSCIOUS MAGICK Many mages believe the weirdness in their lives happens because they apply magick subconsciously. Others scoff at this notion, but the fact remains that many mages influence reality without thinking. In most cases this manifests as minor coincidental effects, usually inconspicious and nothing anybody would comment on, if they didn't appear so often. Correspondence mages always seems to find the things they search for - opening a book at random they find relevant information, and when looking for a certain street they find signs pointing the way. More powerful mages always seems to have things they need within reach all the time. Not to mention the fact that they always seems to find the quickest and safest route to any destination. Entropy mages usually have an inordinate amount of luck, at least when they don't rely on it. They also have a knack for walking through dangerous situations without thinking or barely avoiding accidents. That is the up-side - the downside is that chance and randomness often makes their lives more absurd than most (see Randomness below). Forces mages often have good relations with electronic machines. When they turn on the television, it will be on the right channel, microwave ovens heat their food evenly and disk errors just vanish when they pass. More nature-oriented mages often get weather suited to their moods, beams of sunlight hitting them on cloudy days, the fog thickening when they try to hide or have small breezes around them when it is hot. Life mages are proverbially healthy, and this often extends to their pets and plants. Often their moods spread to other living beings, plants wither and die when they are depressed and songbirds sing when they wake up in a good mood. They also tend to attract other living beings, especially animals they have an affinity for. A look at the garden of a mage can reveal many secrets. Matter mages are practically always good at making things work. It doesn't matter what it is - a kick or some jury-rigging and it's almost as new. Their possessions seems to be well cared for, and their homes often look neat and tidy without them ever trying to clean up. Of course, some mages have homes and labs which are eternally chaotic, resisting any attempts to order them. Mind mages are more variable than most mages, and often have many odd quirks. Most notable is that they always seems to know things, or happen to remember something they have read somewhere. Most have extensive social lives, and seem to attract friends and confederates around them. Prime mages are strangeness magnets. They are usually more than real, often gaining unwanted attention from all sorts of things. On the positive side, they have that certain something which makes people remember them. And often they can make others memorable too just by talking to them. Spirit mages are of course even more exposed to this. In their daily life, almost everything seems to have a personality. If you talk to things, you can often get your point across. It is not uncommon for mages to absentmindedly remind their possessions of what to do or encourage them on. Time mages are either always on time, or hopeless at keeping time - there doesn't seem to be anything in-between. However, their sense of timing is often perfect; they often appear at exactly the right moment regardless of the situation. They never have to wait for an elevator, when they are late their trains are also late and at parties they are experts at making grand entrances. They are never in the shower when the phone rings. Also, they often behave as if they are familiar with anything that happens, seemingly floating through life without any disruptions. ARCANE Arcane is one of the most prevalent factors of a mage's life. They seem to somehow drift apart from the everyday world and enter another, safer but weirder world in the shadows. Generally, the stronger the Arcane gets, the weirder everyday life will become. Forces and events which normal people hardly ever experience will become more common. At the same time, it hides the mage from prying eyes. Usually mages with high Arcane become very anonymous, at least to people who don't know them or just meet them on a professional basis. This extends to organisations and machines too. Sometimes their newspaper subscriptions will end unexpectedly, or the tax-computers forget them. This is usually beneficial, but also creates numerous irritations. Mundane affairs seems to slip away, and although the mage seldom suffers from it, his ties to the normal world are often severed. Common problems for mages with Arcane are that documents about them disappear; computers will crash when their name is fed into them, files get lost or accidentally shredded. Officials handling their cases get relocated, go on holiday or make administrative duties. Bureaucracies become even more kafkaesque than normal for mages, and while they eventually get proper treatment most of the time, hardly any transaction is done without some small problem. Another depressing effect of Arcane is that most people don't remember the mage, or will not be able to interact with him very well. There seems to be a wide gulf between him and the sleepers, almost impossible to bridge. Causal acquaintances will forget him, nobody remembers his name, girlfriends will often find another partner and forget the mage and his tailor will never be able to remember his size. SYNCHRONICITY Coincidental magick works by synchronicity, but there is more of that in the lives of mages than their magick can account for. Strange coincidences abound, and somehow they often make sense (at least to the mage). There is seldom an obvious interpretation, and most just seem to be pointless. The fact that the Danube happens to be 1776 kilometres long, exactly the same year Adam Weishaupt started the Illuminati may or may not be relevant. Mages report that they see their phone numbers revealed on winning lottery tickets. The patterns of reflected light from the windows of an office building form secret magickal symbols. When they turn on the radio, the speaker just finishes a sentence which may be interpreted as a direct comment to their current discussions. All cars in front of the traffic light outside happens to be placed so their colours form a nice spectrum. When the mage draws a tarot card in the morning, he will be followed by symbols or images from the card all day. Every morning the mage takes a walk, he will meet somebody asking him what time it is. A discarded paper blows into his face, revealing an article about another person with his name. A street preacher will start to rant, somehow managing to sound just like he was addressing the mage. A figure looking just like his Avatar or somebody the mage thinks of will appear in the background of a film. A mage may suddenly find that he has the same birthday as the President and his arch-enemy. Tabloids report events from his daily life and adventures, each morsel attributed to a celebrity. DREAMS The Dreams of mages are no less strange than their daily lives, and sometimes seem to cross over into it. Some mages experience scenes or meet people from their dreams in the real world, or even have actual precognitive dreams. Most such crossovers are rather mundane, despite the disturbing implications. Some mages are not so fortunate, and sometimes meet beings and things from their dreams which definitely don't fit into static reality, or even a nightmare. For them the line between dreaming and wakefulness become more and more blurred, with both melding together into a surreal world where anything is possible. They are filled with fear that their nightmares will come true, and sometimes other people accidentally walk into their dreams. Fortunately most sleepers are extremely good at rationalising things away or simply not notice strange events. Or perhaps it is just the mind of the mage which is playing tricks... It is not uncommon for mages to have revelations in their dreams, both from their own Avatar or from other sources. Ancient gods or spirits talk to him through dreams, or perhaps the universal subconscious may speak too. This is equally true for the drug-visions of the Cult of Ecstasy, the shamanic trances of the Dreamspeakers or the meditations of the Akashic Brothers. RANDOMNESS Mages studying Entropy have a close connection to random events, both for good and ill. They can control them, but a mage who accepts randomness into his life (say by earning a living on gambling) will also suffer from the effects of it. Random events and unlikely coincidences will appear quite often, and his life will often suffer strange random turns. On the other hand, some mages learn Entropy to prevent decay and randomness (this is especially true among technomancers). In their denial of chance, they suppress it around themselves. Almost nothing happens by chance, and their lives are exact and predictable. Randomness can take many forms. The most dangerous are random accidents. Some mages are haunted by car crashes; each day they witness more accidents than most city-dwellers do in a year, and all accidents seem to have some link to them: the colours of the involved cars correspond exactly to the colours of their clothes, the car plates spell out his name or phone number. The patterns of nature are sometimes influenced by randomness. Plants grow in odd patterns around the mage's home, exactly half of the bushes in a hedge die, insects appear in huge numbers and swarm in almost-recognisable patterns. Fruit trees give fruit on one half and not the other, and the patterns of falling rain or snow seems to form arcane symbols. Some mages are plagued by having entropy, decay and randomness attacking people close to them. Their loved ones die of cancer or heart attacks, or suffer unusual accidents. Their children get into all sorts of weird problems just because their names happen to be identical to the names of the sociopaths of the school. Their homes are hit by lightning. Twice. Other random events are phone calls from radio stations or constant mistaken numbers (apparently the mage has had the misfortune to have a number just one off from the local mortuary). Letters from signs fall off when they pass and the new text seems to be messages to them. Numbers sometimes follows mages, appearing everywhere they look. VISIONS Mages studying Correspondence, Spirit and Time are prone to see visions of remote events, other planes or the future and past. They are usually related to current emotional or personal stresses, or perhaps future problems. The most classic type of vision is a vision of somebody the mage loves in trouble. If the emotional bond is strong enough, the mage will suddenly get a distinct feeling that the other part is in danger, has got in an accident or suffers in some way. Sometimes the mage sees what happens or get a vivid impression what is going on. In rare cases they see visions of people planning to harm them or their loved ones, or people who will become important to them one day. Time mages often have flashes of pre- and postcognition. Old memories suddenly leap back very vividly, sometimes revealing facts they never suspected. If something awful is going to happen, they often feel it a long time before as a growing feeling of unease. Some mages get intense impressions from an object's past or future when they touch it, often the most important events. Sometimes these visions seems to form patterns, pointing at something in the future or past the mage must do something about. Spirit mages often feel the presence of the Other Side. They are usually very sensitive to the aura of places. They also notice things, usually in the corner of their eyes or heard among background noise. Sometimes they suddenly see scenes or beings from the spirit world, often superimposed with the everyday world. They can see the angels in the playgrounds or the loitering horrors which dwell near bus-stops at night. They see doorways that ordinary people don't see and definitely wouldn't open if they knew where they led. They notice the extra button in an elevator leading to a floor above the top floor, or the strange graffiti in the subway. Mages not specialising in these spheres also sometimes have strange visions, especially (of course) when they are very tired or drunk. SYMBOLS Some things seems to haunt the mage, symbolising events they might not want to think of, both future and past. Often the mage is not aware of the symbols or their meaning, and if they do they are often very uncomfortable around the symbols. Sometimes the symbols can be warnings from the Avatar of the mage or his subconscious, but they can also be misleading. For example, In Angel Heart, each time the protagonist is close to death and evil, a fan in the background will slow down and then start to spin in the opposite direction. Each time a certain mage is about to learn something depressing, a person wearing a t-shirt with Kafka will walk by. Another mage will always find roses on the table when his love-affairs are about to break up. A certain corporate logo will always appear to the mage in tense situations or when he is close to the spirit of his dead mentor. Each time the mage is depressed and lonely, a phone will be heard ringing in the background. PLAIN WEIRDNESS Many strange events just happen with no explanation at all and no obvious interpretation. Many mages just shrug and ignore them, while others become paranoid and constantly watch their environment for new surprises. A small girl walks up to the mage, exclaims Reality is fire! and runs away. A woman looking exactly like the Princess of Swords in the mages favourite tarot deck sits on a park bench feeding the pigeons. A book with unintelligible handwriting is found in his bookshelf, despite the fact that he knows that it wasn't there yesterday. At exactly the same moment the headlights of all the cars in the cabal start to flicker, only to end when one of them breaks down. When the refrigerator is opened, all food is found to be mouldy and rotten, despite being refilled only yesterday. The people on television appears to follow the viewer with their eyes or even talk to him. The colour of his pencil suddenly changes. The number of wardrobes in his home is suddenly different, although nothing else has changed. Somebody has crucified a flower on the door of the mage. The list is endless... ===================================================================== |
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