Suggest me a plot for MtA

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

So am a reading Let the Streets Run Red and Chicago Folio, and find myself disappointed there is no similar material for MtA. So, what do you suggest as a some basic plots for newbie Mage players?

[Dwight]

Always the classic Macguffin involving some magical trinket or missing friend of a friend.

Personally I like some sorta mystery that at face value looks pretty mundane but once you scratch the surface it's gets pretty spoopy.

Also:

http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-classic-world-of-darkness/mage-the-ascension/1067534-1000-mage-plots

[baakyocalder]

I think something where the Nephandi attack is always a good starting point. You could go with a minor corrupted mage, a web site that trolls people to do more evil (see M20 Book of the Fallen and get that mirror to slay Basilisk!) or a detective story to bring justice to someone who was victimized and whose perpetrator got away.

With Mage, since each character sees the world differently and has different powers, you definitely have to think of the characters.

For my current campaign, I used Weighing the Cost. Some development is needed and be careful what the PCs do because although they should be rewarded for assisting the NPC who has the problem, the wrong rewards set the wrong precedent.

https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/257749/Weighing-the-Cost

also, check out Mage Made Easy for some story ideas and making characters more on archetypes than going fullbore into the lore (easier on new players to not go, must read everything on Order of Hermes to play a Hermetic mage).

https://www.storytellersvault.com/product/314476/Mage-Made-Easy-Advice-from-That-Damn-Mage-Guy

[Shakanaka]

An unusual Bygone not affected by Paradox is seemingly causing horror and death across a particular city. It is up to the PCs, whether Tradition, Technocracy, or Disparate to resolve this matter as none of the mundane authorities even know what this thing is nor any knowledge to take it down. How this Bygone isn't a simple beast and it somehow during its tenure of existence has cultivated a vast network of control throughout the series. You'll have to deal with its various cultists, proxied crime syndicates, subverted civic officials, thugs, and much more as you trail it down.

This Bygone can be anything you want for the chronicle; A Griffon of somesort, a Dragon, Minotaur, some alien humanoid, etc.

[Muad'Dib]

There is also a 1001 plots thread for Mage: the Awakening, might give you some ideas http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/m...ge-story-hooks .

For starting players, some reconnaissance and information gathering mission that requires them to investigate magical anomalies with level 1 Magick could be good. Additionally, the mission could have a cameo by a Paradox Spirit, to introduce the characters and the players to the consequences of their actions.

[Czernobog]

There's also the Vegas city book, and if you're playing in the 2e timeframe some stuff on Doissetep and Horizon.

[Enginseer-42]

For newbies, it might be fun to play a first steps into magic campaign. Have everyone start off as mortals and over the course of the first session have everyone awaken as they get dragged into supernatural events.

[Ramnesis]

For newbies, it might be fun to play a first steps into magic campaign. Have everyone start off as mortals and over the course of the first session have everyone awaken as they get dragged into supernatural events.

As a modification to that, have everyone be a group of freshly awakened who found each other online as they were trying to figure out what just happened to them. They've all had a few days or weeks to try and find answers (aka they can have partially developed paradigms), but that's it. No one is there to explain things to them, but there is that crazy old man who lives at the edge of the woods..

The point of this one is that every step of entering this world is an adventure. No one has noticed them let alone has time to protect them or show them the ropes, so they have to figure things out for themselves. There won't be any mentors unless the players force the issue and even then they will be distant.

[Dataweaver]

Might I recommend Mage Made Easy? It's literally written with “stories for new Mage players” in mind.

[Ramnesis]

Might I recommend Mage Made Easy? It's literally written with “stories for new Mage players” in mind.

Looks interesting, I'll check it out.

My idea isn't so much an introduction for new players, though. Just a way for anyone to experience a part of characters' lives I don't see explored as much. About the only real setting change is that instead of racing to recruit new blood, the established mages don't have the time or inclination to take on an apprentice or even give more than very quick bits of advice. The factions and metaplot aren't gone, just distant.

In my experience most games start with the characters already in the know, and those that don't have them recruited and informed relatively quickly. This is meant to be the opposite. If the characters want to be in the know they are going to have to do the legwork. Without already knowing where to go there are a lot of false leads for the characters to chase.

[CaptOtter]

The Cabal learns that one of the U.S. Senator for their state is a Nephandus who came to power by riding a populist wave of nativist ultranationalism. They hold huge rallies that feature many of the trappings of religious rituals (unified chants, calls and response, singing, abject displays of worshipful devotion, etc.,) where participants can reach an almost ecstatic state, and some participants who may have gone to the rally unenthused can leave totally radicalized. There are rumblings that they are eyeing a Presidential run in in whatever amount of time provides the sort of narrative pace you're aiming to achieve--i.e., for a slow burn it would be like 3-4 years; immediately actionable and deeply concerning, but not imminently hazardous, would be like 2 years; record-scratch, sound the alarm, and summon your bannermen, would be 1 year, and they're favored to win the nomination of their party; and for a more pants-shitting "omg my hair is on fire" tone, they've already won the election, and there's scarcely a few months until they're sworn in.

Mind you, you can tailor this to whatever your table's political sensibilities happen to be. Instead of a Nephandus, or populism, nativism, and ultranationalism, the evil Senator could be an elitist technocrat hocking globalism and open borders--and if you have very thin-skinned people at the table, you can make the evil Senator a member of a third-party, or an independent who doesn't caucus with anyone (i.e., as opposed to someone like Bernie Sanders who is an Independent, but who nevertheless caucuses with Democrats.)

[Astromancer]

Try this one..

In an area where the Native American population was cleared out in the 19th century a long forgotten seal has been disturbed. Looters, looking for Native American artifacts to sell on the black market, found an old religious site, abandoned since the 1830s. They stripped the place bare and have left an unstable gateway from our reality to the Umbra slowly coming open.

This game would work best in Ohio, Indiana, or the lower Apilachians. Let the PCs become aware of dangerous, but not necessarily hostile, umbroods on this side of the Gauntlet. The PCs would need to be diplomatic and sly to get these umbroods to go home.

Then tracking down the gate and controlling it would become the new priority. If the PCs play their cards right, the could become the owners of a major gateway to the umbra. If they foul up, the Technocracy or the Nephandi become the owners of a major gateway to the Umbra.