Stop-gap God-Machine mechanics for Mage

[Yawgmoth]

I'm curious about obsessions:

Do I get an arcane beat each time I complete my obsession or each time I get closer to completing it (and: do I get a beat after completing it, anyway?)

Also: does "forging weapons made out of prime" count as an aspiration or an obsession?

I am also curious about this, since I have issues with making aspirations/obsessions that can be completed in a session.

[Raikirah]

...One of them provides defense against attempts to start a grapple, and the other provides defense against overpower maneuvers once you're already in a grapple...

Slight correction here: the second type provides a reduction to attempts to damage the bearer in a grapple, not attempts to overpower in general.

[Strill]

I am also curious about this, since I have issues with making aspirations/obsessions that can be completed in a session.

Obsessions/Aspirations should be short-term immediately achievable goals. They can be a part of a long-term goal, but shouldn't be the long-term goal unless you wanna bicker over what counts as for the beat.

[Octavo]

I run now Mage game with GMC update and here are my concersc - how would you see those Armors working in fight? For exmmple Death's 2 Entropic Guard get's you 2/0 Armor or +2 Defence? How would they relate in unarmed combat? How now Firearms would work with them? Those are real questions I got on my session in last hour. Need rather simple clarification on this.

I modified DaveB's post with some additional info to address your question.

Mage Armor

Mage armor spells differ depending on if they protect against Grappling or not. Grappling-defending armors work by supernally dodging attacks (one's even called Supernal Dodge). Armors that don't work against Grappling work by absorbing damage. GMC now handles the two sorts of armor differently, so;

Grapple-applicable Mage Armor
(Fate) Fortune’s Protection, (Mind) Misperception, (Space) Untouchable, (Time) Temporal Dodge,

Arcanum Dots
2 - +2 Defense
3 - +3 Defense
4 - +4 Defense
5 - +5 Defense

Grapple-vulnerable Mage Armor
(Death) Entropic Guard, (Forces) Unseen Shield, (Life) Organic Resilience, (Matter) Unseen Aegis, (Spirit) Ephemeral Shield

Arcanum Dots
2 - 2/0 Armor
3 - 3/1 Armor
4 - 4/2 Armor
5 - 5/2 Armor

Mage armor doesn't penalise Speed or Defense, and stacks with mundane Armor. The two kinds of Mage Armor don't stack.

In unarmed combat, defense is calculated by adding the basic defense on the sheet to the defense bonus that magic gives you.
In gun combat, the only defense you get is the defense from the grapple applicable mage armor.

Armor works the same way in both armed and unarmed combat. Armor piercing rounds still pierce magic armor granted through grapple-vulnerable mage armor.

[wyrdhamster]

My new player want to play Legacy member from the start so we want to make him Gnosis 3 character. He found this rule in Mage corebook:

A character’s Awakening gives him one dot of Gnosis. Merit dots may be spent to increase it. The rate is three Merit dots per one additional Gnosis. In other words, you may spend three of your seven Merit dots for Gnosis 2, or six of your seven for Gnosis 3.

Is it still curent after GMC? Can character start in higher Gnosis? How much Merit dots he is left with then?

[Satchel]

My new player want to play Legacy member from the start so we want to make him Gnosis 3 character. He found this rule in Mage corebook:



Is it still curent after GMC? Can character start in higher Gnosis? How much Merit dots he is left with then?

Barring some oddity, supernatural characters post-GMC start play with ten Merit dots, which may be exchanged on a five-for-one basis for Supernatural Tolerance Trait dots, in keeping with those traits costing five Experiences per dot and Merits costing one Experience per dot.

[wyrdhamster]

Ruling Arcanum: 3 Experiences per dot
Common Arcanum: 4 Experiences per dot
Inferior Arcanum: 5 Experiences per dot
(...)
These are the current costs for Vampires, transplanted over to Mages. I have pitched Rotes here at the same level as in the corebook, where they cost the same as Merits, but I should note that I personally think that's still too expensive, and in my house game I have them as being one Experience per two dots.

On topic The Cost of Rotes and the Rote Economy there is very interesting post about costs of Arcana and Rotes. Here I would want to talk about it.

Rotes in pre-GMC cost 2 exp per dot, so post-GMC they should cost 2 beats per dot. Of course, no one bought rotes pre-GMC, so cutting the cost in half is a reasonable decision.

I also would say that cost in Beats is more logical to the favor the Rotes do to spellcasting. It's only sometimes better dice pool, Merits are more versatile, and should be more expensive.

Honestly I think 3xp for an arcanum dot is ridiculously cheap. Being able to go from a starting character to a master in just six sessions doesn't sit well with me. Personally I hope that a lot of the tangential benefits of arcana dots, like Advanced spell factors and upgrades to low-level spells, get taken away from arcana dots and moved into new stats.

I would say, that like in pre-GMC rules Arcana was most expensive powers to buy, I would put them in the same region after GMC. Not sure only if costs should be:

Ruling Arcanum: 4 Experiences per dot
Common Arcanum: 5 Experiences per dot
Inferior Arcanum: 6 Experiences per dot

Or maybe one Experiences per dot higher? Also, I think that system would be much better with all "Inferior Arcanum" thing. It's only make's mess in character concepts and poerwers builds. I didn't heard that Vampires or Werewolves had one power that were very costly to them, do you?

[Strill]

I would say, that like in pre-GMC rules Arcana was most expensive powers to buy, I would put them in the same region after GMC. Not sure only if costs should be:

Ruling Arcanum: 4 Experiences per dot
Common Arcanum: 5 Experiences per dot
Inferior Arcanum: 6 Experiences per dot

Or maybe one Experiences per dot higher? Also, I think that system would be much better with all "Inferior Arcanum" thing. It's only make's mess in character concepts and poerwers builds. I didn't heard that Vampires or Werewolves had one power that were very costly to them, do you?

Now you have the opposite problem. Buying new arcana is much too expensive since you get next to nothing from the first two dots of an arcana. Combined with the discount on ruling arcana, you have a much bigger incentive to max out your 3-dot arcana immediately and never branch out. Mage was designed with exponential progression for Arcana power, which is why I think linear GMC exp costs are simply a bad idea for it. If anything, the exp costs instead of being linear, should be exponential like Pre-GMC, but with the early dots even cheaper and the later dots even more expensive.

[Thorbes]

Maybe not exponential, but geometrical increase: first dot cost 3xp, second cost 4, etc, etc.

[Yuukale]

the fifth dot would be the same as buying Gnosis?
What about inferior arcana? More expensive than Gnosis? (5-6-7-8-9 ?)

[wyrdhamster]

What is state on Ghost Mages in post-GMC rulesets? Each Ghost now have Rank, and how it transplant to their Gnosis? What about Influnaces and Arcana? For example, I plan to use ancient Ghost Mage as "guide" in Atlantean Temple, just after the Fall. What Rank should it have? What level of Influnaces, or just Arcana?

[Thorbes]

Ghost Mages used to have a Rank equal to half their living Gnosis rounded up. I don't see why changing it. Its Influences will be based on its former Arcana, and it may have Numina based on its Rotes (plus regular ghostly Manifestations).

[wyrdhamster]

But what Rank ther would have fresh post-Fall reasercher trying to solve problem of Fallen World, as it is? This character would on beginning have Gnosis 10 compared to modern standards, and it still be a big reduction of his Supernal understanding. Basiclly, this character be like Juno from Assasin's Creed series.

[Thorbes]

A Rank 5 being is a Minor God. You could directly port Gnosis as Rank, but then the Ghost Mage is just a Plot Device.

[wyrdhamster]

Translating High Speech

On tomorrow game session I plan to make PCs to translate gigantic pice of Atlantean "mundune" Runes. Secret of the Ruined Temple describe it as Reaserch roll, but God Machine Chronicle don't describe what kind of dice pool this kind of translation would be. Also, no charcter have Language ( Atlantean), only some have High Speech Merit - what would be modifires for this in convinince?