Replacing MtAw Paths with MtAs Focus

[CrackedMan]

So I really like the whole paradigm and stuff from M20 and wanted to try using it with Awakening as I prefer the mechanics better. Here are the changes I’ve come up with and I’d love to know if I missed anything that should be addressed from a rules perspective.

Remove
Path
Watchtower
Path Tools

Add
Paradigm
Practice
Instruments

Mantras, Mudras, and Runes are modified based on the Focus (PPI) of the mage.

Mages choose 1 gross Arcana and 1 subtle Arcana to be their ruling Arcana. No inferior Arcana. Limits for ruling Arcana remain 5, but all 8 common Arcana are capped at 3 without a teacher.

The summoning of Supernal beings is not reliant on Path, but ruling Arcana.

As a note, I am absolutely not looking for reasons why I shouldn’t do this, just if I missed any places where the mechanics of Paths need a change to use Focus instead.

[Neos01]

How would demesne and emanations fits with this system?

[CrackedMan]

The Supernal Realms remain unchanged, so Verges/Demesnes and Emanations would still be based off of the Arcana connected to the specific realms. This does mean that a mage’s demesne won’t necessarily match both of their ruling Arcana. I may give some small bonus to make up for this, I’m not sure.

[Stupid Loserman]

First or second edition Awakening?

The Mage Translation Guide is a short supplement written by old hands on both Ascension and Awakening games to provide support for translating setting and rules between Ascension and first edition Awakening.

Second edition Awakening is a harder row to hoe, as it jettisons covert and vulgar spell aspects as the central mechanic governing the risk of Paradoxes, in favor of mages testing the reach of their spells against their safe grasp, which does a lot to defang and deemphasize the relevance of an Ascension mage's paradigm to their spell effects.

[CrackedMan]

Second edition, but none of the paradox & coincidental stuff has anything to do with what I have planned. I’m merely adding personal flavor to how mages perform magic. The Awakening Abyss and paradox rules are still going to be used.

This is strictly about changing from your Path guiding what kind of magic you do to having your Focus guide you. Magic is still about reaching across the Abyss. Paradigm is more of a philosophy than a “belief equals magic” thing.

[Michael]

I've played around with the idea. I kept the paths and just use the M20 framework over it

[BlueWinds]

So I know you're talking much more flavor-wise, but I wanted to take this opportunity to post a rules-hack I've been using for running Ascension games using the Awakening system. Well, most of the Awakening system. I took a hatchet to a much large portion of it than you're looking to. This was built up and refined over the course of about a year and a half of bi-monthly face-to-face games, so it's not completely pulled out of my ass.


Spellcasting Spellcasting depends on Skills as much as it does Arcana and Gnosis. Your paradigm, practice and instruments determine what skills are appropriate.

Throw out the Yantra and dice system in the book. It's cool, but it's not what we're using here. Instead, first calculate the Reach and Paradox pool of a spell as normal. The Instant Casting reach functions differently (see below). Each previous time you've rolled Paradox in a scene adds to a spell's paradox pool, even if it wouldn't normally have one. However, do not roll paradox chance dice - if you reduce the pool to 0, no roll (and thus doesn't add to future totals). Paradox is contained with a Resolve + Composure roll, or released as normal.

Second, count up the number of successes needed to cast the spell. Successes = (Dots of the spell) + (Additional spell factors). The Primary spell factor is still boosted to your dots in the Arcana, but each additional spell factor costs an additional success. You are limited to additional factors = Gnosis + Arcana. Now you're ready to start rolling. Casting a spell is an extended Gnosis + Skill action. A specialty may apply. The interval of this roll depends on the number of successes needed:

• 1-3: One action (with Instant Casting Reach) or one Minute (without it)
• 4-6: Ten minutes
• 7-9: One Hour
• 10-12: One Day
• 13+: One Week

Combined Spells
At Gnosis 3, you can combine two spells, and at Gnosis 6, three. For Combined Spells, use the highest dotted spell to determine the Primary Spell Factor. Use (dots + extra spell factors) to determine the interval of the casting roll, then add all other combined spells to determine the number of successes needed.

For example, a Mage with Prime 3 wants to combine Wards and Signs with Platonic Form, and a total potency of 5. She uses Potency as the primary factor (from Platonic Form), getting Potency 3 base. She adds the dots of Platonic Form (3) + Extra spell factors (2) = 5, which means she'll roll once per ten minutes. She'll need a total of 7 successes though: 3 (Platonic Form) + 2 (Wards and Signs) + 2 (Extra Potency).


Spell Control
You do not have a spell control limit. Conversely, you cannot reflexively end spells that you've cast. They are actions you've taken on the world, no longer reliant on your will. They will end when their Duration runs out, when a mage with Prime dispels them, or when their material prerequisites run out. If you cast Telepathy to read someone's mind by talking with them, then the spell will end when you stop talking. If you move people between locations with a teleporter, then the spell ends if someone smashes your teleporter!


Dissonance and Consensus
The other way spells decay is through conflict with the Consensus. Depending on how Obvious they are - how much a random passerby who noticed the effect would believe it impossible - spells lose one spell factor on an interval. Sleepers do not cause Paradox in prexisting spells the way they do while spells are being cast.

• 1/scene for obvious effects that lots of sleepers notice (a burning bush in Times Square)
• 1/day for an obvious effect that only a few Sleepers notice (a burning bush in your office that a Sleeper visited)
• 1/week for a subtle effect that would violate the Consensus if Sleepers noticed it, when Sleepers are around (A burning bush in your sanctum in a city, an effect that makes everyone at a bus stop always late)
• 1/month for a subtle effect without sleepers around, or an extremely isolated obvious effect (a burning bush in the middle of the desert, or reading the mind of anyone who enters your sanctum when Sleepers are kept away)
• Never, for effects on worlds without Sleepers, or extremely isolated subtle effects, or if a Sleeper would believe it even if they noticed it.

Given the common belief in the power of technology, many technocratic spells fall much further down this list than those cast under Tradition paradigms. This is a feature, not a bug.


Spells on Mages
Spells cast on Mages, or carried closely about their person, are an exception and do not decay over time through Dissonance (though their durations run down as normal). The cost of this is that the Mage takes 1 Resistant Bashing damage per Advanced Duration spell on/carried with them, which cannot heal until the spell ends. This damage represents the stress and fragility of a Mage's Pattern as it struggles against the consensus. It fades into existence over the course of a few minutes rather than immediately - don't bother tracking it in combat-time, only at the end of a scene.


Wisdom
There is no Wisdom stat. We're not using it. Be free, eat babies.


Avatar (Merit 1-5)
Awakening defines the mage. Whether she refers to it as some mystic inner god or the scientifically explainable Enlightenment of higher consciousness, the Avatar or Genius allows a willworker to do the things she does. Some Avatars, though, are more potent and effective than others. This Trait measures your Awakened self, reflects its ability to shift and hold Mana, and determines how real it is in your character’s perceptions. You can spend mana per turn equal to your rating in Avatar (minimum of 1), and add your rating to your Gnosis-derived mana capacity.

• X An ephemeral Avatar hardly capable of magick.
• • A notable presence
• •• A dynamic presence
• ••• A discernible entity
• •••• A potent spirit (not a Spirit)
• ••••• A powerful force of Enlightenment

[CrackedMan]

I understand the similarities, but I don’t appreciate you jumping on my thread with your own thing. I’d appreciate it if you made your own thread for this.

[CTPhipps]

I understand the similarities, but I don’t appreciate you jumping on my thread with your own thing. I’d appreciate it if you made your own thread for this.

Then report them. Don't call them out publicly.

[CrackedMan]

Then report them. Don't call them out publicly.

Sorry, I guess I thought asking nicely first was the way to go.

[LostLight]

I too have always thought that reporting someone was the last thing one should do, after attempts to talk about the subject have failed. Live and learn, I guess?

[Archivist]

I am very interested in this thread, and I love the core idea, since for me it's a way to make magic feel more "magic-y".

I wonder about the mechanics though. My initial impression is that the core system of OWoD 20th is simpler than Chronicles of Darkness, as the latter just has simple dice pools, whereas Chronicles of Darkness is a more complicated core system (subsystems, dice tricks, conditions, etc.). However, the magic system of Mage the Awakening is better organized. I could be wrong! Correct me!

[CTPhipps]

I too have always thought that reporting someone was the last thing one should do, after attempts to talk about the subject have failed. Live and learn, I guess?

I try not to do make things too harsh. Think of me as a....moderate. Moderator.

In any case, BlueWinds, this is a bit much to dump into one thread. No warnings to anyone. Best to ask first before posting all that.

[CrackedMan]

I am very interested in this thread, and I love the core idea, since for me it's a way to make magic feel more "magic-y".

I wonder about the mechanics though. My initial impression is that the core system of OWoD 20th is simpler than Chronicles of Darkness, as the latter just has simple dice pools, whereas Chronicles of Darkness is a more complicated core system (subsystems, dice tricks, conditions, etc.). However, the magic system of Mage the Awakening is better organized. I could be wrong! Correct me!

WoD has as many subsystems and fiddly bits as CofD does, CofD is just more up front with them. I like CofD better and it was much easier to bring over the elements of Ascension that I wanted than the opposite.

[Archivist]

I'm very exited CrackedMan to see more of your homebrew! Storyteller's vault this baby so I can buy it!