[OOC] [Mage: the Awakening 2E] The Supernal Suburbia

[wtaylorjr2001]

No problem, I just need to add to the background to bring it up to date. I will have something you can judge today. Please tell me if it is OK.

[Caladriu]

Added some info about Awakening and game preferences, because the post wasn't big enough already.

Character connections: Moonstone isn't a total recluse among Sleepers, even if he doesn't exactly have a day job. Here's a few ideas!

• He's got a background in dance, and sometimes performs in the local cabaret/burlesque/pole scene to feel pretty and blow off steam (he has a lot of steam). He might be friends with a regular audience member or patron or someone involved in the local arts scene.
• He's one of those people who regularly plays chess with strangers at the park. Strategy games are fun, and it's a nice way to interact with other people without getting to know them too closely.
• He's queer, and might know other LGBT people from a meetup group or brief torrid fling.
• He's had some lifelong mental health issues that were being managed through Mind magic and the solid routine of being with Hakim and his cabal. Now that he's by himself, he's backsliding and he knows it. After his Awakening (which looked from the outside like a self-harming nervous breakdown), he briefly checked himself into the hospital and has been seeing a therapist to see if it gets him anywhere. He may have met someone there, or just be known as "that dude who lost his boyfriend and is taking it really hard."

[crapcarp]

Character Sheet

Player: Epicarp (or crapcarp, whichever you prefer)
Chronicle: The Supernal Suburbia
Shadow Name: Phoenix
Alternate Name: Garrick Royce
Sympathic Name: Timothy Carlyle Kemp

Path: Obrimos
Order: (Adamantine Arrow)
Cabal:
Legacy: (Tamer of Fire)

Virtue: Compassionate
Vice: Rigid
Concept: Hero in Darkness

Attributes
Intelligence: 2
Wits: 3
Resolve: 3

Strength: 3
Dexterity: 3
Stamina: 2

Presence: 3
Manipulation: 1
Composure: 2

[4/5/3 w/ extra dot in Resolve]

Skills
Academics:
Computer:
Crafts: 1
Investigation:
Medicine: 2
Occult: 1 (Mythology)
Politics:
Science:

Athletics: 2
Brawl: 4 (Striking)
Drive:
Firearms: 1
Larceny: 1
Stealth:
Survival:
Weaponry: 3

Animal Ken:
Empathy: 2
Expression: 2
Intimidation: 2
Persuasion:
Socialize:
Streetwise: 1 (Hunters)
Subterfuge:

[4/11/7; extra Occult dot hasn't been added]

Advantages
Health: 7
Willpower: 5
Defense: 5 (7)
Initiative: 5
Speed: 11
Size: 5

Gnosis: 1
Wisdom: 7
Max Mana/Per Turn: 10/1

Merits

• Alternate Identity (Garrick Royce) 1
• Status (Dojo) 1
• Defensive Combat (Brawl) 1
• Safe Place 2
• Martial Arts 3
• Danger Sense 2

Arcana: Forces 2, Mind 2, Prime 2

Praxes

• Supernal Vision (Prime 1)

Attainments

• Precise Force (Forces 2)
• Mind's Eye (Mind 2)
• Universal Counterspell (Prime 2)

Rotes

• [insert Rotes]

Nimbus

Long-Term - Events play out like a written tale. A college graduate gets the opportunity they needed, a devious businessman gets the comeuppance they deserve, an innocent child is afflicted with tragedy that changes the course of their life forever, the unconnected situations of strangers weave into one another to bring them together.

Immediate - The skin of the Fallen World cracks as the pure, raw stuff of creation itself pours out. Cracks form wherever the spell was focused. If he cast an Unveiling spell on himself, his eyes would glow and cracks would form from that point on his face. If he cast a Fraying spell on someone, cracks would appear on the wound.

Signature - The cracks shrink into words of High Speech. The High Speech describes a deed in a classic mythological sense. For the Unveiling spell, the words might read "And illusions were swept aside". For the Fraying spell, it might read "Tongues of flame had lashed against flesh".

Tilt - The elemental force is too much to handle, resulting in a -1 penalty on Composure rolls.

Aspirations

• Solve bill problem
• Join an Order
• Fail to keep the other Hunter cell away

Obsessions

• [insert Obsession]

Equipment

• [insert equipment]

Details

General
Age/Birthday: 19/February 20
Gender: Male
Height: 6' 5"
Build: Athletic
Occupation: Martial Arts Teacher
Ethnicity: Mixed
Nationality: American
Hair Color: Grey
Eye Color: Brown
Sexuality: Bisexual

Background

Sleepwalking - Timothy was born to an Awakened mother and a Sleepwalking father who happened to be a former Thaumaturge. Due to this heritage, Timothy was born with a sensitivity for magic and knew about it ever since he could remember.

Unfortunately, his father resented magic after practicing it for so long to negative result. His parents divorced and was raised by his father alone. He gained his father’s resentment toward magic, which was further cemented after finding out about a sorcerer who gained immortality through regular acts of human sacrifice. Working together with a Hunter cell, they ended the lich. It turned out the cell was based in La Grange, and they offered him a place to stay there among their ranks. He accepted, believing it would be best to be missed than risk getting his friends and family involved (he doesn’t know his father practiced magic, he just knew magic existed).

So he was a Hunter for a few years, taking on the name Garrick Royce as a code name. He utilized his magic sensitivity to take out those who practiced the forbidden arts. Most of them were gutter mages, and of the few that were Awakened, were usually troublesome rogue mages, Banishers, Scelesti, and the like. Oftentimes, he was used as an unwitting pawn by the Orders to take them out. However...

Awakening - It all started with a dream. He saw a tall, thin, pitch-black shape jut from the distance. It birthed a light brighter than a thousand suns, frightening his eyes away to hide in his eyelids. He woke up to find the morning sun shining in his eyes. Later that day, he was in a populated cafe when he began to hear voices in his head. Worse, he could sense magic...coming from him. He was reading the thoughts of the ones around him. The message of his dream was clear: Magic had come for him.

Every day since brought with it another incident. He read invisible words in between the inked ones in his book, he felt the ebb and flow of various energies against him as he walked down the street, his heart broke in the same manner as some stranger who had lost a loved one. Each night came with the same dream. The landscape always varied from windy plains, to thundering storms, to a calm sunset, but the event was always the same. The tower shone its light, blinding him. The only difference was that it got closer and closer every time.

He refused the tower’s call. Pushing the daily events to the back of his mind, and shouting defiance at the tower even as it blinded him. He would not have magic claim him, he would fight it to his last breath. And he would fight alone, he couldn’t bring the others into this. He fought for as long as he could, but the magic pursued still.

It all came to a head during the tragic hunt that took his comrades’ lives. The dream collided with the waking world. The tower, now right in front of him, stood over reality along with a dragon who guarded the entrance. He cried rebellion against tower and dragon. The dragon responded by burning him alive. Dead for a time in Fallen reality, his comrades mourned his loss, which was cut short by the ending of their own lives.

He revived in the middle of the tower itself. His stalwart opposition to magic proved his resolve to the Obrimos Watchtower. He wept at the irony, then the Watchtower poured truth into his soul: Magic is a pure force. It did not corrupt those who wielded it for evil ends, they corrupted themselves. Magic could just as easily inspire and enrich lives. That understanding gave him a pen with which to write his name on sacred pages. Now, he understood. Now, he accepted.

Now. he Awakened.

Awakened - Only a week has passed since that fateful day, the loss still fresh on his psyche. So far, he's managed to drown his grief in exercises, training, and teaching, but he knows that will only last for so long...

Personality
Phoenix is very much a what-you-see-is-what-you-get type of person. He never wore a mask and probably will never fully understand why some people do that. He was also never one to take anyone's bullshit, no matter how much authority they had. If he feels like punching you in the face for making some snark, well, expect to have a fist in your face then. He's not stupid, though. Experience has taught him that punching authority figures results in lots of trouble. That doesn't mean he'll take things lying down, he'll just counter in a way that gives him less trouble.

A lover of mythology, quite a bit of his free time is spent in the local library with his nose in a book. His Awakened perspective has not only enhanced his appreciation for the classics, but it's also given him some unique insight into the world. The tale is what's real, not the tired laws of science. He is the Hero of his own story, as is everyone else to theirs. While this perspective does give him a rare degree of compassion, seeing everyone as necessary to fill out their own roles in the world, it does tend to make his thinking rigid. He might make assumptions about how one's story is supposed to go, or certain possibilities about what could happen won't enter his mind.

Daily Life
Phoenix works as a martial arts teacher at the local dojo (many students who have watched a little too much anime have taken to calling him Royce-sensei). This was very practical as a former Hunter, as it helped pay the bills and he spent his down time training and keeping in shape, not to mention it was one of the things he was good at. The leader of his cell owned the house he lives in. With them gone, their next of kin decided to let him have the house, seeing as he was a good friend to the previous owner and had a job. Unfortunately, the bills are a bit too big for his income to handle all alone, so he’s looking for some roommates.

Status

Health: 0000000
Willpower: 5/5
Mana: 10/10
Wisdom: 7
Conditions: Guilty
Tilts: None

Experience Log

Beats: 0/5
Experiences (Unspent/Total): 0/0
Arcane Beats: 0/5
Arcane Experiences (Unspent/Total): 0/0

Dots Purchased - XP Cost

• [insert dots purchased]

[wtaylorjr2001]

Caladriu could Michael know your character through playing chess please. He has been known to play from time to time. Nothing more though he is straight.

[Caladriu]

Yeah, that works! Chess buddies it is. I wonder who wins a game when both players have Fate?

[rwknoll]

crapcarp - I find the idea of your character very, very cool. I've always thought it would be really interesting to roleplay a Hunter who went through a transformation to become something like a Kindred, Uratha, or Mage. The character background and description of his Awakening are both very fleshed out and rich. Great details and interesting ideas.

One reaction I had while reading your submission, similar to Moonstone's, is that your character is not necessarily going to have automatic access as a newly-Awakened mage to accurate, helpful, IC knowledge about magic-related issues. I've been a player in other campaigns with players who argued that they should have bonuses to certain checks or de facto knowledge about certain topics because of how they constructed their back stories. While I can definitely appreciate the ability to pull in plot hooks and use that well-crafted backstory in my story as a ST, I would ask you to have that knowledge represented in experience points through Merits or Skills in some way (e.g., Occult dots/specialties related to Awakened society or magical creatures). It's all too easy for Hunters to think that they know about what it was they're up against, but that information can be inaccurate or completely misguided, too.

The other thing I want to be transparent about, and this applies to everyone, is that I'm still learning the Mage 2E rules and I'm a relatively less experienced Storyteller. I am really excited about running this game, and I will do everything I can to make it interesting and well-written on my part -- and I absolutely encourage people to let me know as we go how they think I'm doing, for better or worse. But there's a possibility I'll make a bunch of mistakes, and I don't want to let you down because I don't fulfill the hopes you have for a long-term character like that. Does that make sense?

Please let me know what you think about my comments.

[Retias]

This would be my first time playing 2E mage too, so am hoping you're patient with my mistakes too.

[Caladriu]

Understood! I'm more than happy to gate knowledge behind an Int+Occult or Politics roll where each success yields a rumor about some specific phenomenon we're dealing with, or something along those lines. I'd rather be helpfully spouting the information you want to make available to the party than spoiling surprises and making the strange and exotic seem familiar and boring.

There's definitely part of me that wants to make use of all those misspent years reading Mage books, but I fully sympathize with wanting to keep your game world under your control as an ST, so to speak. I'll play with the approach that "the world consists of the stuff that the ST describes, don't assume other things exist until they're on-screen."

[Tambov]

I hope this submission is better (it's still kinda short, though):

1. Concept: Cryptid Hunter.
(May need adjustment depending on where Mystagogues fall between "use all beings as tools" and "it doesn't matter if you're human or youkai")
Phillip Pittman was always fascinated by the unknown. He certainly was more fascinated by things that go bump in the night than by his job as a dietician. His determination to capture a cryptid (on camera or otherwise) pushed him to comb forests around the supposed sightings alone.
2. Awakening: Thyrsus
On one of his searches, he got lost in the woods. High from deprivation, he went further on the trail. Somewhere along the way, the trees began to grow to gigantic size. Finally, he encountered an impressive creature (details tbd) and stalked it. Even as it eluded his grasp, he Awakened, beholding the majesty of the Primal Wilds. (Could make the hunt successful, with a primitive spear)
3. Prefered style:
The gamestyle should focus mostly on Mysteries and adventure, preferably Bio-Archaeomancy. Player (me) is interested in being the most awesome scolar.

[Haberdasher]

Love the character ideas. Wish there was room for another.

[Caladriu]

Love the character ideas. Wish there was room for another.

Roll the dice dewd, no one's been picked yet!

[Haberdasher]

Player: Haberdasher
Chronicle: The Supernal Suburbia
Shadow Name: Ragnar
Sympathetic Name: Simon Collins

Stats

Path: Acanthus
Order: (Silver Ladder)
Cabal:
Legacy: (Walkers in Mists)

Virtue: Patient
Vice: Addictive
Concept: Renaissance Man

Attributes
Intelligence: 4
Wits: 2
Resolve: 2

Strength: 1
Dexterity: 3
Stamina: 3

Presence: 2
Manipulation: 3
Composure: 2

[5/3/4 distribution with extra dot put into Stamina]

Skills
Academics: 3 (Literature)
Computer: 0
Crafts: 0
Investigation: 2
Medicine: 1
Occult: 3
Politics: 1
Science: 2 (Biology)

Athletics: 2
Brawl: 0
Drive: 1
Firearms: 0
Larceny: 0
Stealth: 1
Survival: 0
Weaponry: 0

Animal Ken: 0
Empathy: 1
Expression: 3 (Guitar) (Rote Skill)
Intimidation: 0
Persuasion: 2 (Rote Skill)
Socialize: 1
Streetwise: 0
Subterfuge: 0 (Rote Skill)


Advantages
Health: 8
Willpower: 4
Defense: 4
Initiative: 5
Speed: 9
Size: 5

Gnosis: 1
Wisdom: 7
Max Mana/Per Turn: 10/1

Merits
Area of Expertise (Academics): 1
Shadow Name: 1
Contacts (Professors): 1
Safe Place: 1
Mentor: 3
Status (UChicago): 1
Striking Looks: 2
Status (Silver Ladder): 1*
High Speech: 1*

Arcana: Fate 2, Life 1, Space 1, Time 2

Praxes: Exceptional Luck (Fate 2)

Attainments
Counterspell: Fate, Life, Space, Time
Fate (2): Conditional Duration
Time (2): Temporal Sympathy
Mage Armor: Fate, Time

Rotes (Not yet active)
Fate (2): Warding Gesture (Occult)
Life (1): Speak with Beasts (Expression)
Space (1): Locate Object (Occult)
Time (2): Hung Spell (Expression)

Dedicated Tool
A silver-bladed knife that Ragnar found lying on the ground next to him after his Awakening, with the Supernal symbol for his Shadow Name imprinted on it. (Damage 0L, Initiative -1, Strength 1, Size 1, Availability 1)

Nimbus

Long-term: Probability starts flying out the window. The event that has a tiny percent chance of happening, more often than not, ends up happening.

Immediate: Things seem to start aging around Ragnar, as the effects of corrosion, weathering, and life seem to accelerate on the object.

Signature: Locations where Ragnar cast a spell have a sense of historicity and consequence, like Something Important happened there. Objects with his Signature Nimbus on them seem older than they actually are, and have an aura of being instruments of destiny, tools that changed the course of history.

Tilt: Those under the effect of one of Ragnar's spells feel the ravages of time start to set in. Muscles seem to atrophy, bones seem to grow brittle, and the subject's body feels frailer and significantly older. Subjects of Ragnar's spells suffer a -1 to Strength rolls.

Aspirations
- Graduate from UChicago (long-term)
- Join an Order (short-term)
-Determine if Patty is a Sleepwalker

Obsession
Find signs of the Supernal in Sleeper worship spaces

History

Background
Simon was born into a conservative, educated East Coast Catholic family. From a young age, Simon was encouraged to pursue knowledge for its own sake, in whatever form it interested him. To that end, he threw himself in to science, music, literature, and history. Simon became obsessed with understanding everything, with learning how everything fit together and interacted with each other. He was of particular conviction that history- and existence in particular- was a circular story, and that it was possible to predict the future by knowing the past.

Simon's studies were accompanied with a growing discomfort with his faith, which he began to feel did not capture the truth of the matter. He kept his doubts to himself, pursuing his own inquiries. He began studying other faiths, learning what they had to offer, and finding that they all seemed to miss the mark. Simon did not reject the notion of some sort of divine or intangible force in the world, but he did not believe that it matched up with any mortal conception of the divine. At the same time, Simon began to take his first tentative steps in affairs of the heart, and finally admitted to himself that his interests lay with men, not women. 24 and holding multiple degrees in science and liberal arts, Simon graduated from college and returned home to family and difficult truths.

Neither religious apostasy nor homosexuality were developments that sat well with his family- combined, they proved too great a disappointment for Simon's family. After a few chilly family gatherings, Simon decided that the best course of action for him was to start over. He cut off contact with his family and decided to see "where the road took him."

Awakening
Of course, Simon now recognizes that his departure was the first step of his Awakening. The road, as it turned out, carried him into the Appalachian Mountains. He followed a path that led up a mountain, a trail that was hemmed in with wicked thorns and strangling vines, obscured by thick mists. When he emerged at the top, he found himself at the top of a mountain that does not exist in our world, at there was the Watchtower of the Lunargent Thorn. At the top of the tower was a man Simon did not recognize, who asked him a simple question: "What is the order of things in this world?" As if he had practiced the response a thousand times, Simon replied, "That which was, is once more; what is, shall be once more; what shall be, was before. It was, and is, and shall be evermore." The stranger commanded Simon to guess his name. Simon said, "You are Ragnar, he who discovers what others think to not exist." The stranger says, "And thus is your new name, for I am you as you wish to be, and I am you as you now are."

Simon returned to the Fallen World transformed, suddenly aware of the cyclical nature of all things- and possessed of a new-found ability to transcend that cycle. He was free. And so the Fool walked down the mountain, ready to go where the world took him. He ended up in La Grange, and slowly began to involve himself in Awakened society. In Sleeper Society, he's working on his Doctorate in Literature, with an especial focus on monomyth and evolution of primitive narratives.

Simon is still fairly ignorant of Awakened society. He Awakened on his own and didn't have contact with any Mages on his way to La Grange. Of course, this could make him a prospective member or potential threat in the eye of every sect in La Grange.

Personality
Ragnar is more than a little shy and geeky. Normally quiet around strangers, he lights up whenever he has a chance to share his knowledge. Unfortunately, he has a bad habit of assuming that his audience always knows what he’s talking about. Ragnar’s pretty good about giving a helping hand or supportive shoulder when he senses that somebody’s in need of assistance or emotional support. He’s too honest and open to be precisely cunning or suave, but people know that he’s reliable and trustworthy: traits that he finds to be far more useful in getting through life. Ragnar’s far more of a follower than a leader, preferring to give support than to lead the way, a trait that has been reflected in both his social life and his handful of clandestine romantic encounters. After twenty years of sexual repression, followed by four years of mostly-anonymous one-off flings, Ragnar wants a more substantive relationship, but is lacking in dating experience and is a little afraid of sabotaging his chances by pushing for intimacy too quickly.

Daily Life
Ragnar is a grad student at the University of Chicago. His days are mostly spent taking classes and working as a Teaching Assistant in an undergrad English course. In his free time, Ragnar is typically enjoying some quiet time with his guitar, reading for pleasure, or learning about the local gay scene and Chicago’s arts and entertainment scene.

Condition

Health: OOOOOOO
Willpower: 4/4
Mana: 10/10

Beats and Experiences

Beats: 0/5
Experiences (Unspent/Total): 0/0
Arcane Beats: 0/5
Experiences (Unspent/Total): 0/0

[wtaylorjr2001]

rwknoll Please tell me what you think of my revised backstory. Just skip down to Amendment to link to game

Caladriu Michael gives your character a book about a man who becomes a mage, should you take and read it, it is good, and it has things you experienced in your past with your mentor. He enjoys your chess games in the park in the day.

Beans could Michael know Vo from the neighborhood, he lives in the haunted house all the kids avoid. He also goes to the park a lot.

Retias could Michael know you from Vo

We can all revise our backstory to know each other. Please remember weak Fate magic is at work here.

[Thorbes]

Thorbes - Surgeon sounds great. Another idea would be a forensic pathologist / medical examiner. That always made a lot of sense to me as a Moros mage, because you get tons of opportunities to practice your craft.

Any of those fits like a glove. the only thing that would change is the Specialty I finally choose for Medicine. Forensic Pathology, perhaps.

[Haberdasher]

Caladriu I noticed that Moonstone and Ragnar have a commonality in that they are both LGBT. Perhaps they met a gay bar or pride event after Ragnar arrived in La Grange?