THE MAGE

Mages are among the deadliest and most powerful of all humans. Their ability to re-shape the world around them grants them tremendous powers. Nothing corrupts quite like power.



LOOK: (pick as many as apply)
• Ambiguous, Female, Male, Neither
• Human, Dwarf, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, Gnome, Half-Orc (half-humanoid killer whale)
• Archaic Clothing, Comfortable Clothing, Dark Clothing, Fancy Clothing


DEMEANOR (pick one): Detached, Nervous, Ominous, Volatile


CHARACTER STATS (Add 1 to one of these):
--Blood -1
--Heart 0
--Mind 1
--Spirit 1

STARTING FACTIONS (Add 1 to one of these):
--Mortality 1
--Night -1
--Power 1
--Wild 0

INTRO QUESTIONS
• Who are you?
• How long have you been in the city?
• What keeps you up at night?
• What have you sacrificed for your power?
• What do you desperately need?

GEAR
• A nice apartment or simple house, a decent pocket crystal ball
• A mystical focus (detail) and sanctum (detail)
• 1 practical weapon:
----Crossbow (2-harm close/far reload)
----Dagger (2-harm hand concealable)
----Sword (3-harm hand messy)


SANCTUM
Choose 4 features of your sanctum:
• an extremely knowledgeable assistant
• a testing ground, magical booby traps,
• a library of old tomes,
• a scattering of ancient relics,
• a mystical prison,
• magical wards,
• a portal to another plane of reality,
• a focus circle,
• an apothecary.

Choose and underline 2 downsides of your sanctum:
• it attracts otherworldly attention,
• it contains many volatile substances,
• its location is known by many,
• it always lacks a key piece or ingredient,
• it’s tough for you to access.

When you go into your sanctum to work on something, the GM tells you what it will take to complete your task, as if your sanctum was a mystical workspace.

FOCUS:
You have a mystical focus item that helps you channel your magics. Without it, take -1 to Channeling (see below).
Choose a benefit your Focus grants you:
•  Inflict +1 harm with your magics
•  Gain armor+1 while you have hold from Channeling (see below).
•  Gain 1 additional hold when using Channeling (see below).

DEBTS:
• Someone is helping you keep your problems at bay. You owe them a Debt.
• Someone is your go-to when you get into trouble. You owe them 2 Debts.
• You are helping someone keep a dangerous secret. They owe you a Debt.

MAGE MOVES:
You start with these two moves and your spells:

--Channeling: When you channel and collect your magics, roll with Spirit. On a 10+, hold 3. On a 7-9, hold 3 and choose 1 from the list below. On a miss, hold 1, but you cannot channel again this scene.
• Take -1 ongoing until you rest
• Suffer 1-harm (ignores armor)
• Mark corruption
Your hold lasts until you spend it. You can spend it to cast any spell you have as per the spell’s details.

--Sanctum Sanctorum: When you go to your sanctum for a spell ingredient, relic, or tome, roll with Spirit. On a 10+, you’ve got pretty much just the thing. On a 7-9, you’ve got something close, but it’s flawed or lacking in some significant way. On a miss, you don’t have what you’re looking for, but you know someone who probably has it in stock.

SPELLS (Cast by using Hold, see CHANNELLING above) (CHOOSE 3):

• Elementalism: You conjure the elements to strike out at your enemies. Spend 1 hold to use unleash an attack with your magic as a weapon (3-harm close or 2-harm close area).
• Shielding: Spend 1 hold to provide armor+1 to yourself or someone nearby, or spend 2 holds to provide armor+1 to everyone in a small area, possibly including yourself. This armor lasts until the end of the scene. You can stack multiple uses of Shielding at once.
• Veil: Spend 1 hold to make yourself invisible from sight for a few moments.
• Teleport: Spend 1 hold to teleport yourself a short distance within a scene you’re in.
• Tracking: Spend 1 hold to learn the location of someone. You must have a personal object that belongs to the target or recent leavings of their body (a lock of hair, fingernail clippings, their blood, etc.). If they are mystically protected against this spell, take +1 forward.
• The Line: With your finger, point at a solid surface, and draw a line, straight or with a curve. A glowing line will appear. The line will last for 1d6 times 10 minutes. Anyone besides you who crosses the line will take 3 (piercing) damage. OR, The line will last for 1d6 times 10 days, but will only do 2 damage. Either way, the line will disappear the first time it deals damage.
• Ectoplasm: you can make one target surface or object very sticky or slippery (your choice). Lasts for 5 minutes.


DRAMA MOVES:
»Mage Corruption Move
When you strike a deal with someone dark and powerful, mark corruption.


»Intimacy Move
When you share a moment of emotional intimacy with another person, decide whether you care about them or not. If you don’t, they go about their business as normal. If you do, pick one of your spells. If you cast the spell you chose in order to find them, to go to them, to protect them, or to avenge them, your Hold isn't used up to cast that spell. If you share a moment of emotional intimacy with someone else (and you also care about the new person), then this benefit moves to another person.


»End Move
When you die, you may place a devastating curse on someone nearby. Specify the effects of the curse, and how they may end it.


STANDARD ADVANCES:
Advances available at beginning of play:
• +1 Heart (max +3)
• +1 Mind (max +3)
• +1 Spirit (max +3)
• Add 2 features to your sanctum
• Take 3 more spells
• A move from another playbook
• A move from another playbook
• Change your Faction


After 5 advances you may select:
• +1 to any stat (max +3)
• +1 any Faction (max +3)
• Erase a scar
• Remove a downside from your sanctum
• Add a benefit to your focus
• Advance 3 basic moves
• Advance 3 basic moves
• Retire your character to safety
• Change to a new playbook

CORRUPTION ADVANCES
• Take a corruption move
• Take a corruption move
• Take a corruption move
• Take a corruption move from another playbook
• Retire your character. They may return as a Threat


CORRUPTION MOVES
• The Dark Arts: When you unleash an attack with magic or psychic energies, mark corruption to roll with Spirit instead of Blood for the rest of the scene.
• Upon a Pale Horse: Mark corruption and speak the true name of an NPC in the scene to inflict 3-harm (piercing) on them.
• Ancient Lore: Mark corruption to ignore a requirement set by the GM when using your sanctum.
• Warding: Mark corruption to create a magical ward the size of a small room. The ward lasts for a month and a day, or until you release it.


PLAYING THE MAGE
Powerful, dedicated, hermetic, strange. The Mage relies on years of training to channel intense magics. With enough preparation, these mages can move mountains... or turn them to dust. When caught alone and unprepared, they are still painfully mortal.

With great power... comes every damn problem in the world.

People think you’ve got what they need: the resources, contacts, and power to make things right. But all that power doesn’t mean that you know how to solve any of their fucking problems. Or that the other mages who live in the city are too keen on attempts to “fix” things with powerful magic. Your kind takes the long view.

But maybe you can do a little good. Maybe you can fix the things that really need fixing. Maybe you can take all that power and knowledge and training you’ve accrued and do something with it that someone will remember long after you’re gone.


»Note on Your Moves
In order to cast spells, you first have to Channel and collect your magics. Each spell tells you how many hold you must spend to activate it. If you want to be ready for trouble, you might want to channel first.

You start with three spells, but you can gain more through standard advancements. Some notes on your spells:

• Elementalism creates an elemental weapon for a single attack. You still have to unleash to attack another character. You have to decide before the attack which type of weapon it is (3-harm close or 2-harm close area).

• Veil and Teleport almost always give you the opportunity to escape, so long as no one else can magically pierce your illusions or teleport to pursue you.

When you use your sanctum to work on a problem, the GM may give you requirements that are extremely difficult to fulfill; you may need to turn to allies and cash in Debts to get what you need. You can only use Ancient Lore once per project, even if you’re willing to mark additional corruption to ignore additional requirements.

Warding allows you to protect a location from whatever you like for a month and a day. You must declare what threat the ward is supposed to exclude when creating the ward.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:57, Mon 13 June 2022.