Mage Translation Guide: the Lost Outtakes

[Dataweaver]

I remember that shortly after Mage Translation Guide was published, Malcolm and Dave Brookshaw posted a couple of outtakes: the Technocratic Utopias, and the special abilities for each of the Traditions. Unfortunately, the forums that these were posted on have since disappeared. Does anyone have copies of these lost outtakes?

[Yossarian]

Voila: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OhT...ew?usp=sharing

[Dataweaver]

Technocratic Actualizations and Utopias

Technocrats don’t undergo “vision quests” or “mystery plays”— or at least say they don’t. At the cusp of comprehending Enlightened Science, these prodigies undergo a moment of Actualization, where they harness their knowledge to fulfil a moral imperative. They imagine a glorious end of history their methods will bring about: a Utopia.

In a game where Technocrats Awaken to the Watchtowers, their Paths and Realms might look
something like this:

The Garden, Utopia of Engineered Life (The Primal Wild)
The prodigy dreams of an engineered natural paradise, where all human needs can be met by biological machines. Intelligence has been engineered into virtually every species, and immortal humans live among them as simply as hunter-gatherers, but free of disease and filled with the sum total of human knowledge, which grows within them as an instinct. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Biology and often become Progenitors.

The Market, Utopia of Free Exchange (Arcadia)
Humans become true rational economic actors, rejecting all laws except for freely negotiated contracts. This is a culture of tremendous wealth, able to build projects requiring eons to complete. Still, one must be careful of the self-made Executives who can build worlds out of their desires. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Utility and often join the Syndicate.

The Republic, Utopia of Social Harmony (Pandemonium)
Ubiquitous surveillance and rational ideologies create a world without conflict. Only merit determines one’s social position. Advanced psychology diverts destructive emotions to useful ends. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Society and often join the New World Order.

The Singularity, Utopia of Transhumanism (Stygia)
Engineering, AI and uploaded minds create a world of spiritual machines. Humanity is gone; self-modifying, immortal patterns of information construct the bodies they wish. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Engineering and often join Iteration X.

Type V, Utopia of Cosmic Humanity (The Aether)
Spreading across the known universe, humanity harnesses the total energy of this reality and others seething in quantum foam—a “Type V” civilization on the Kardashev Scale. Technocrats with this vision Actualize the Path of Physics and often join the Void Engineers.

In a game with this setup, many Virtual Adepts Awaken to Utopias instead of conventional Supernal Realms, though some may tread into their mystic manifestations instead, and spend their lives reconciling reason and mysticism.

[Dataweaver]

Tradition Special Abilities

Akashic Ability: Do
Do is a martial art, and a form of universal mind-body training that breaks through conditioned human limitations. Do allows feats that balance on the edge between magic and extraordinary mundane abilities. To learn Do, an Awakening character must learn the Akashic paradigm and study the new Physical Skill: Do. Add it to the Akashic Brother’s character sheet.

The first dot of Do gives the mage the Law of Embodiment Merit (see Tome of the Mysteries, p. 77) and one free dot in any Brawl or Weaponry-based Fighting Style Merit. Each additional dot increases the chosen Fighting Style to the next rank. The mage does not need the normal prerequisites to learn the Fighting Style. In addition, the mage may spend one point of Mana (or Quintessence) to use any other single Brawl or Weaponry-based Fighting style maneuver allowed in the chronicle with a dot rating equal to or less than the character’s Do Skill.

Finally, the character may use Dexterity + Do in lieu of standard Brawl and Weaponry dice pools as long as these Skills have been trained to at least the same number of dots as the character's Do dots.

Celestial Chorus Ability: True Faith
Some Choristers are blessed with True Faith: beliefs so powerful they touch the Mystery of the divine in the World of Darkness. Players purchase True Faith dots for the same price as Gnosis dots, and their characters can never attain a higher rating than the lower of Wisdom or Gnosis. Furthermore, any time a character loses a rank of Wisdom, she loses a dot of True Faith. If the character’s magic emulates a miracle from her religion, she may add her True Faith dots to its dice pool. These spells are always considered to be covert unless they’re used to violate the character’s religious ethos or degrade her Wisdom. If either of these circumstances are true, the spell automatically becomes vulgar. Add True Faith to the character’s Paradox dice pool in these situations. These Paradoxes may not be mitigated,
absorbed with a voluntary backlash, or magically manipulated, as it comes from the divine Mystery that grants True Faith, not ordinary magical forces.

Cult of Ecstasy Ability: Perceptual Stacking
An Awakening Cultist’s perceptual prowess serves him well. He may combine a number of Knowing and Unveiling spells equal to the lower of his Wits or Gnosis. This does not apply to advanced applications that grant others these extraordinary senses. Furthermore, he gains a form of the Meditative Mind Merit (see the World of Darkness core rulebook, p. 109) that functions as a reflexive action, which allows him to ignore all penalties for distractions caused by magical senses, pain or pleasure.

Dreamspeaker Ability: Spirit Authority
Awakening Dreamspeakers know the secret taboos and societies of spirit beings. Therefore, they constantly benefit from the non-magical equivalent of the spell “Spirit Court” (see Mage: The Awakening, pp. 255-256). They acquire an effective spirit Rank equal to the lesser of Gnosis and Spirit (or Gnosis and Mind for Astral Dreamspeakers, who affect Astral entities instead of Shadow-dwelling spirits). The Dreamspeaker may exercise the benefits of Spirit Court on a number of spirits whose combined Rank does not exceed the character’s Gnosis + Spirit (or Mind, affecting Astral entities). No individual spirit may possess a Rank higher than one below the Dreamspeaker’s effective Rank.

Euthanatos Ability: Necromantic Affinity
Although Awakening Euthanatos concentrate on the Fate Arcanum, they do possess a special affinity with the dead. Each member journeys to the Underworld, and returns with the unspeakable secrets, learned from her incarnation among the ghosts. Thus, Euthanatos mages who do study Death acquire a limited version of the rote benefit (re-roll failed dice) on Death spells used to affect ghosts or corporeal dead, such as zombies or revenants. This lesser rote benefit limits the number of re-rolled dice to the lowest of Gnosis or Death. Euthanatos do not gain this benefit while using Death’s other features. According to their beliefs, ghosts and the walking dead are spiritual remnants, left by a soul’s fear of transcendence.

Hermetic Ability: Magical Specialty
The unmatched rigor and variety of Hermetic magic provides the ability to acquire Arcanum Specialties. To acquire a Specialty, the Hermetic’s player spends 6 experience points for a Ruling Arcanum, or 7 for any other Arcanum except for his character’s Inferior Arcanum. (Hermetics cannot learn Specialties in their inferior Arcana.) This Specialty is an area of particular competence, similar to a Skill Specialty, and must be selected in consultation with the Storyteller to ensure it isn’t too wide-ranging. When using a Specialty, the Hermetic mage gains +1 die to spellcasting rolls, and may cast spells within the Specialty that require one dot higher than the character’s true Arcanum dot rating.

Sons of Ether Ability: Wonder Arcana
The Tradition makes heavy use of Enhanced and Imbued Items—almost all Sons of Ether know at least a little Prime, and trade amazing devices with one another. In fact, Sons of Ether possess the ability to produce magical items more potent than the “spells” they can personally cast. A Son of Ether’s player may reduce the experience cost multiplier by 3 to purchase a new Arcanum dot that may be used to create Enhanced and Imbued items, but can’t be used to cast other improvised or rote spells. To attain full ability, the player must pay the difference between the discount and the rank’s normal cost. These Wonder Arcana dots can be raised up to two dots higher than the mage’s standard Arcana, and up to one dot higher than the mage’s Gnosis-based limit on Arcana acquisition. They must be “filled in” (purchased fully) in ascending order, subject to the normal, Gnosis-based limits on Arcana mastery.

Verbena Ability: Mythic Threads
A Mythic Thread is a real world myth or superstition Verbena harness to make their magic stronger and less vulnerable to Paradox. The Verbena must use speech, song and symbols to invoke the Mythic Thread to the point where the myth she references would be clear to anyone who was familiar with the culture and language used. Invoking a Mythic Thread is never subtle, and requires freedom of movement.

If the Verbena invokes a Mythic Thread by herself, she enjoys a -1 die modifier to Paradox pools. This stacks with the benefits of a dedicated magical tool. She also gains a +1 bonus to the spellcasting roll. If the Verbena leads a group to invoke a Mythic Thread, each participant gains +2 to teamwork spellcasting, in an enhanced version of the bonus for thematic cabals, as well as a -1 to Paradox dice pools. The Verbena can also recruit ritual actors to assist in an extended spell if they all invoke Mythic Threads together, to a limit equal to the lower of the Verbena’s Gnosis or her ability in the spell’s primary Arcanum. These participants may be Sleepers or Awakened—they can even be other supernatural beings. Each participant adds 1 die to the spellcasting roll.

Virtual Adept Ability: Astral Digital Web
In Awakening terms, the Digital Web is a manifestation of the Astral Realm that spans as far as the Temenos, but no farther—the Anima Mundi is not available. A Virtual Adept may travel there through an instant Unveiling Space spell instead of a meditation roll. Furthermore, he may use Space upon Astral Space as if it was the material plane, with the exception that he may not pull solid objects from the Astral to the material this way (though other magical methods might be available). He can send material objects, including living beings, “digitizing” them for transport.

Unlike the usual Astral Realm, the Digital Web only contains information that has been transcribed — instead of dreams, the Adept may visit social network profiles and web pages. On the other hand, an Adept is not limited to human thoughts, and can visit digital data collections as well. Finally, he can use Space to “teleport” across zones with related data, even if they would be stored on different levels of Astral Space. The Digital Web’s “Oneiros” contains individual user presences and servers, while its “Temenos” contains entire networks, sentient memes, secure data fortresses and according to legend, self-propagating AIs with Awakened abilities.