Too much Tass/Mana

[Therian]

So while reading about Obligations it occurred to me my players would probably never take any because they seem be stockpiling a huge amount of Tass from their Hallow. The game seems to assume Mana shouldn’t be so plentiful. How have other STs addressed this?

[Satchel]

The game is generally written from the perspective that mages don't have any difficulty topping off theirs stores of Mana during downtime, but to speak to your specific game: where are they keeping it and how often are they spending it?

[Therian]

The game is generally written from the perspective that mages don't have any difficulty topping off theirs stores of Mana during downtime, but to speak to your specific game: where are they keeping it and how often are they spending it?

They have said that they made a garden in their Hallow to get the edible Tass, which if they don’t use they channel over to bricks which they are stacking up in a storage closet. So whenever we have downtime the Tass just builds and builds.

[Satchel]

They have said that they made a garden in their Hallow to get the edible Tass, which if they don’t use they channel over to bricks which they are stacking up in a storage closet. So whenever we have downtime the Tass just builds and builds.

Are these bricks "tass" that they've made with e.g. Platonic Form? If so, are they relinquishing the spell unsafely?

Also, what's the general nature of the Hallow, in terms of Resonance and type of location?

[thenate]

One thing to consider is the planning process itself.

How do they know when they can sit around and stockpile mana? Not suggesting it's illegitimate, mind you. If they are simply mana hoarders and uptime is the only time these characters are imposed upon enough to spend mana, they are just being more frugal than most magi and are reaping the rewards. If they are super careful and casting all sorts of spells to prepare for any contingency during uptime, yet power down to stock up during downtime, they might need to be reminded that not all threats show up to Premonition.

[Therian]

Are these bricks "tass" that they've made with e.g. Platonic Form? If so, are they relinquishing the spell unsafely?

Also, what's the general nature of the Hallow, in terms of Resonance and type of location?

Oh that’s an interesting implication. The Obrimos was just using Channel Mana to move the Mana to regular bricks. Is that not something that would work?

And the Hallow is level 4 at the top of a building. So a node with resonance of Rage and Time.

[lnodiv]

Oh that’s an interesting implication. The Obrimos was just using Channel Mana to move the Mana to regular bricks. Is that not something that would work?

Normal mundane objects have a maximum Mana capacity of 0. Using Imbue Item and a spell/merit in Signs of Sorcery one can make Mana Batteries this way, but it's a pretty specific process, and would require a lot of relinquishing.

[Therian]

Normal mundane objects have a maximum Mana capacity of 0. Using Imbue Item and a spell/merit in Signs of Sorcery one can make Mana Batteries this way, but it's a pretty specific process, and would require a lot of relinquishing.

Oh that’s good to know. Is that stated specifically somewhere?

[KaiserAfini]

One thing to consider is the planning process itself.

How do they know when they can sit around and stockpile mana? Not suggesting it's illegitimate, mind you. If they are simply mana hoarders and uptime is the only time these characters are imposed upon enough to spend mana, they are just being more frugal than most magi and are reaping the rewards. If they are super careful and casting all sorts of spells to prepare for any contingency during uptime, yet power down to stock up during downtime, they might need to be reminded that not all threats show up to Premonition.

There is always the option of the enemy kicking in the door and forcing them to flee as a plot hook to spice things up. That being said, they could just end up editing ley lines to make other Hallows. It could also end with them using a bag of holding to keep the supply on hand from now on.

Why not make a heist that makes them want to sink the mana to make things easier ? If they have a reason to wrap it up quickly and in an especially clean/untraceable way, they will be more inclined to burn through their unused stock.

[Therian]

Also, I don’t think 2e says this anywhere but going off something I found in my old 1e corebook it seems that edible Tass doesn’t last too long if that still holds.

[Satchel]

Oh that’s an interesting implication. The Obrimos was just using Channel Mana to move the Mana to regular bricks. Is that not something that would work?

It's not stated specifically, but when the spell says it allows the mage to move Mana between vessels and then lists a bunch of example vessels that are all things with stated limits to how much Mana they can hold, that's a pretty clear implication.

And the Hallow is level 4 at the top of a building. So a node with resonance of Rage and Time.

What's the story there? Rooftop park with a recurrent history of violent confrontation? Master Obrimos pet-project? Spiritual oddity?

[lnodiv]

Oh that’s good to know. Is that stated specifically somewhere?

Kind of.

Signs of Sorcery specifically states the need to Imbue items in order to use them as Mana batteries. Outside of that (very very recent, and very clear) callout, previous evidence is limited to the fact that nothing in the books says you can channel Mana into normal, mundane objects. Every specific example the Channel Mana ability gives is something that has a predefined capacity for Mana.

If you allow it, you can easily end up in farcical situations where you can channel infinite mana into a rock, because it's capacity is never defined, but only limited Mana into Artifacts which actually have a defined capacity, despite the fact that the former is a rock and the latter is a fragment of the Supernal.

[Satchel]

Reiterating an earlier question because I realize my phrasing was imperfect: How often are your players spending Mana in the the first place? Are they Reaching often, improvising outside their Paths and Legacies, engaging in accelerated Scrutiny, et cetera? Are they using the tass for its Persona bonus?

[Michael]

If you allow it, you can easily end up in farcical situations where you can channel infinite mana into a rock, because it's capacity is never defined,

Presumably if you put too much in, the rock awakens and ascends to the Supernal along with all your mana.

[saibot]

They have said that they made a garden in their Hallow to get the edible Tass, which if they don’t use they channel over to bricks which they are stacking up in a storage closet. So whenever we have downtime the Tass just builds and builds.

This may be ever-so-slightly off-topic, but I think the last sentence is the real issue. I would not allow players to just stockpile tass during downtime without a cost. In any Chronicle with major downtimes that would get ridiculous really fast.
I assume that even during an extended downtime the characters are active in some way, following their Obsessions, doing other magical research, entering the Astral for quick sojourns, having small chats with their Daimons or minor Supernal entities, casting the occasional spell requiring Paradox mitigation (which during downtime probably means splurging them down to Chance Dice) and maybe doing some low-key trading with other individuals or tithing some tass to their Order as part of their membership. All these events are perhaps less important and relevant than those happening during playtime, but I still assume they happen. If a player seriously suggest that their character is inactive during downtime, I could see allowing them to hoard tass but then maybe requiring them to pay Beats for it (representing the time they rather spent watching reruns of their favourite TV shows all day instead of deepening their Gnosis or mundane abilities).