San Francisco by Night
Mage Creation & Development Rules
Please send Mage character sheets to both:
The Master Storyteller -- Bill (Screen Name: SFbNST),
The Mage Storyteller -- Chris (Screen Name: Rubiks Cubed)
Voodoo (SFbN Mage Newsletter, 1st Edition)
Official Revised Update (from the White Wolf Web Site)
These rules are by no means mandatory. They are simply for use if you choose to use the same rules set as Vampire Revised.
- Attributes remain the same.
- Abilities get a 13/9/5 spread, just like all other supernatural critters (one table in
the ol' Second Edition book says 13/7/5, but that is wrong).
- 6 dots of Spheres; one goes into the Tradition/Convention/Craft's specialty, but can be
placed freely if the character is a Hollow One or Orphan.
- Start with one dot of Arete.
- Start with five dots of Willpower.
- Start with 7 dots of Backgrounds.
- Choose Nature, Demeanor, Essence as described in Mage Second.
- Freebie point costs are unchanged.
- The Backgrounds available are all of the ones listed on p.139 of Mage Second Edition,
even though some of them were not included in the full text description section.
- Experience point chart is changed. It now reads: New Ability: 3; New Sphere: 10;
Willpower: new rating; Abilities: New rating x2; Attributes: New rating x4; Specialty
Sphere: New rating x6; Other Sphere: New rating x7; Arete: New rating x7.
- Mages can take bashing damage, lethal damage and aggravated damage. Mages get to roll
stamina to soak bashing damage. They get no soak against lethal or aggravated damage,
except by using magic. Magical healing of lethal damage can be coincidental, but magical
healing of aggravated damage is always vulgar.
- Traditions stay the same. Ditto for the five Conventions.
- The character record of Abilities will now feature:
Talents - Alertness, Awareness (note that Awareness no longer allows seeing auras), Brawl, Dodge, Expression, Intuition, Intimidation, Leadership, Streetwise, Subterfuge
Skills - Crafts, Drive, Etiquette, Firearms, Meditation, Melee, Research, Stealth, Survival, Technology
Knowledges - Academics (includes elements of Culture
now), Computer, Cosmology, Enigmas, Investigation, Law, Linguistics, Medicine, Occult,
Science
- Technocracy characters have the Abilities of Talents: Alertness, Athletics, Awareness,
Brawl, Dodge, Expression, Intimidation, Leadership, Streetwise, Subterfuge; Skills: Drive,
Energy Weapons, Etiquette, Firearms, Hypertech, Melee, Research, Stealth, Survival,
Technology; Knowledges: Academics, Computer, Enigmas, Finance, Investigation, Law,
Linguistics, Medicine, Politics, Science
- Technocracy characters have Dimensional Science instead of Spirit, under Spheres.
- Technocracy characters have Enlightenment instead of Arete.
- Technocracy characters have the Background of Device instead of Talisman, Construct
instead of Chantry, Hypercram instead of Dream, Genius instead of Avatar, Cloaking instead
of Arcane, Laboratory instead of Sanctum and Companion instead of Familiar. They also can
get Proles, Requisitions, Secret Weapons and Spies.
- Optionally, you can allow mortals (and mages) to soak lethal damage at difficulty 8, or
with half stamina. This depends upon how deadly you want your game to be.
- When splitting up actions, you lose a number of dice on the first action equal to your
number of additional actions, and then that amount plus one cumulative on each extra
action. For instance, if you want your mage to dodge, strike and strike, you lose three
dice on the dodge (for taking three actions), four on the first strike (for taking three
actions, plus one more die because it's the second action), and five on the final strike
(three actions, plus two dice because it's the third action of the turn). Regardless, a
mage can never peform more than one magical effect in a turn, even with Time magic.
- When a difficulty for a magical effect pushes above 9, keep the difficulty at 9 but
require additional successes. Thus, if you are performing a level 5 vulgar effect (Sphere
rating + 5, or 10), your difficulty is 9, but you lose the first success from the roll.
This success is simply absorbed by the difficulty of casting the effect; you do not botch
if you score no successes and no 1s.
- Botches only occur when you score a 1 (or more) and get no other successes, including
those canceled out. Thus, if your mage casts a level 5 effect in the above example and you
roll 1, 1, 5, 9, the first 1 cancels the 9, there is a leftover 1 and the additional
success needed for the effect is not met, but it's still not a botch because of the 9
(even though the 9 was canceled).