1) Initiation: The Next Step Advanced Initiate Groups Details: How initiate groups work. Basically, initiate groups ease magical advancement by guiding the initiate along a set path of gradual revelation, using the group's mythology and rituals to guide the initiate through the metaplanes. By understanding the group's mythos and lore, the initiate essentially already has the keys to overcome their challenges in a structured manner; i.e. their way is already paved for them by the magicians that started the group. The most advanced magicians in the group are the ones researching and experimenting with how to take the next step. - Politics (multiple memberships, multiple initiations) - Avatars (spirit-intermediaries of groups) and group-specific astral quests - Benefits of Leadership (or "Why We Start Initiate Groups") -- Teamwork -- Sharing Resources -- Cooperate and Graduate Optional Rule: Changing Astral Signature - Your astral signature is an effect of the way you uniquely understand and manipulate magic. Flexible Signature can alter it, when you choose to think about it, but your astral signature is always tied to you. - With significant effort, you can change the way you view and interact with magic just enough that your astral signature alters as well. Not a lot, but enough that your current and former astral signatures are distinct. - Anyone with a copy of the old astral signature has a harder time using it against you (2 dice negative modifer). This is cumulative - change your signature twice, and using your original signature (if you can find it) has a 4 dice negative modifier. - Choosing to permanently alter your astral signature in this manner can only be done during initiation, and costs an amount of Karma equal to (2 x new Initiate Grade) Metamagics: - Blocking - Prerequisite: Geomancy -- Can "lock" a site, preventing it from increasing, lowering, or altering the aspect of its background count. -- Blocking requires Ritual Spellcasting; time is proportional to rating and requires unrestricted access to the site. This can be speeded up with Rush the Job if the character has Forcing (see above). -- Can also "unlock" sites, which is the same test and duration. -- Cannot "lock" or "unlock" mana lines unless the character also has Feng Shui; this takes longer and will not lock individual power sites on the mana line (i.e. those with a rating higher than the mana line's) - Cycling -- Prerequisites: Quickening, Anchoring -- A Karma Pool method. The user can spend X Karma, where X is up to his Magic + Initiate grade, which gives him a pool that he can spend instead of Karma for anchored and quickened spells. The trick is that he gets those points back in his pool when the spell goes off (anchoring) or when the effect ends(quickened spells) -- In the interest of making this not completely negate sustaining foci, the magician might only get the points back in his/her pool when the spell ends - i.e. when the anchored spell goes off, or the quickened/anchored spell is dispelled. -- Needs to be checked to make sustaining foci still viable - Diversion - Prerequisite: Reflecting -- The magician can reflect any spell they successfully counterspell, even if they are not the intended target. The new target of the spell must be in LOS. If this is a ritual sorcery spell, the caster does not necessarily know that the spell has been diverted. -- If there are no other valid targets, the spell can be diverted to target the magician themselves. The magician cannot then re-divert or re-counterspell the diverted spell. - Feng Shui -- Prerequisite: Geomancy -- By extended and repeated use of Ritual Spellcasting over time, can actually increase the power level of a site, create or extend a manaline between two power points which share the same aspect -- Each level of power requires further investment in time and participants, we're talking months (rating 2) to years (rating 3) to decades (rating 4) or centuries (rating 5) -- Increasing the potency of a power site on a manaline is easier, but creating a mana line is no easy task. - Forcing -- Postmodern magic is all about reducing magical traditions to their basic, doing away with ancient trappings and ceremonies and getting things done with the force of their will alone. Essentially, the character can cut the time required for a ritual sorcery spell dramatically - they can Rush the Job on ritual magic. They can do this repeatedly to reduce the casting time from hours down to mere minutes, but with greater chances of failure. -- Caveats/drawbacks: Every interval reduction increases the chance of failure. All Drain from Forcing is automatically physical. -- So normally, Rushing the job would reduce the time required by half (1 hour per Force to 30 minutes per Force) and the caster(s) would glitch on 1 and 2. If the character forced it further, it could be reduced to 15 minutes per Force and glitches would occur on 1, 2, and 3; and so on. - Forging -- Like with Forcing, but with enchanting; the magician forgoes the painstaking ceremonies of imbuing the power and form of the enchantment, instead working to complete the task as quickly as possible. Can use the Rush the Job rule, as above, and repeatedly. -- Caveats/drawbacks: Every interval reduction increases the chance of failure. All Drain from Forcing is automatically physical. -- So normally, Rushing the job would reduce the time required by half (1 hour for a fetish to 30 minutes) and the caster(s) would glitch on 1 and 2. If the character forced it further, it could be reduced to 15 minutes per fetish and glitches would occur on 1, 2, and 3; and so on. - Ghostwalk -- Prerequisite: Astral Perception -- Initiate can manifest (not project) onto the astral plane. This does not make them dual-natured. In this manner, they are unable to attack or be attacked, or pass any form of astral barrier; mana spells cast on the astral can still affect them, and they can cast mana spells on the astral as well. -- Restrict to adepts (?) -- This is effectively a means to get around the worst aspects of being dual-natured, i.e. getting the crap beat out of you by things faster and stronger than you are and getting eaten by FAB. Allows you to poke your head into the astral without it getting bitten off. - Greater Calling - Prerequisite: Invoking -- Used to call certain specific, unique, extremely powerful groups of spirits (see calling and offering rules in Running Wild), such as the Wild Hunt or the Morrigan (each of which is given stats). The threshold for these tests is so high that it essentially requires ritual magic to be effective. Different metamagic for each group; different offering for each group. - Grounding -- Character can target a spell through the astral form of a dual-natured object or person into the physical--or through a dual-natured physical form onto the astral -- An old spellcasting method from previous editions, removed because of its tendancy for abuse. Couple caveats apply, however, which should provide some balance. --- The target of the spell is the dual-natured individual or object; they cannoy be exempted from the spell effect and if they resist successfully, the spell fizzles --- Must be an Mana-type, area spell. Physical spells cannot be grounded, period. --- The spell affects both the astral and physical planes in the area --- 2 dice negative dice pool modifier for grounding --- Can work with ritual spellcasting, but only using an astral spotter and if they target is dual-natured at the time. - Life Magic -- This is a severely restricted version of the Sacrificing metamagic; it follows the general rules for the Sacrificing metamagic but the targets can only be the caster themselves. It does not count as the prerequisite for the Invoking Blood Spirits, Cannibalize, or Power Bleed metamagics. -- Limited version of Sacrificing that may be learned by self-initiation. - Limited Astral Projection -- Prerequisite: Astral Perception - Naming -- Make an Assensing Test against an object; if successful gain its True Name and can subtract your Initiate Grade from its Object Resistance - Passage -- Can press through astral barriers, including mana barrier spells, wards, astral constructs, and the living earth -- Adds Initiate Grade to such tests, improves speed by (Initiate grade) meters/round (?) - Possessing -- Prerequisite: Astral Projection - Postmodern Magick -- Postmodernism is about departing from tradition and embracing a change in perspective. In magical terms, it means a magician broadening their basic assumptions, expanding their understanding of their tradition by understanding other traditions. The character can name (Magic + Initiate grade) traditions other than their own; they can freely use the formulae and theses from these traditions without translating them into their own. - Retrogression - Prequisite: Psychometry -- Magician can scan for impressions of a person or place's past, going back years, decades, centuries, even millenia. Only strong emotional or magical impressions stand out, but can be used to recover an astral signature on the object that has faded. -- Naturally faded. Cleansed/erased astral signatures remain undetectable. - Severing -- prequistie: Flux -- Can temporarily severe magical links within LOS on the same plane -- This is essentially using Flux on an another object or individual; you can use Flux on yourself at the same time. The individual or object must remain in your LOS at all times or the power ceases. - (Spirit) Summoning -- Can summon and bind a spirit outside of your usual tradition -- no spell association for this spirit type (?) --- No Aid Sorcery, spell learning, spell sustaining (?) -- Spirit has materialization or possession as appropriate to your tradition (?) - Unseeing - Prerequisite: Masking, Extended Masking -- Can mask a number of individuals equal to (Magic + Initiate grade) within LOS (including up to Magic + Initiate grade foci per individual). -- Piercing the mask on one individual in the group allows the assensing magician to see the true auras of the entire group. 2) Advanced Character Concepts Advanced CharGen: Initiation - Joining Initiate Groups - Buying Magic and Metamagics Advanced Character Concepts: PC Inhabitation Traditions -- The ability to summon spirits with Inhabitation instead of Possession or Materialization. -- Not insect spirit traditions, but there are caveats. The spirits you can summon cannot inhabit living beings: that limits them to corpses, objects, and homunculi. -- Any spirit you summoned that is currently inhabiting a vessel is counted against your limit for bound spirits until the vessel is destroyed (even if the spirit goes free); this encourages the repeated binding of the spirits. -- Uses the Rebinding same spirit rules (above) by default; the character's inhabited spirits can grow more powerful with time. Playing an Insect Magician - These are basically rules and guidelines for creating and playing a PC that follows an insect tradition. While communicating with intelligences as alien as insect mentor spirits takes its toll mentally and physically, some magical traditions incorporate insect mentor spirits (or at least an aspect of them), and players can either walk the line between sanity and madness or take a long, slow slide into becoming yet another magical threat. Advanced Free Spirit PCs: Flesh-Form Free Spirit - Additional rules for creating free spirits with the inhabitation power as a PC option - No, this doesn't mean insect spirits; the character is assumed to be a free ally or the like - Can inhabit a homunculus or choice of small critter (ref. Running Wild for pets) Mundane Arcana - What can a mundane learn? Not a whole hell of a lot, but more than you might think. - Possibility of limited version of Assensing available for mundanes - mainly restricted to interpreting astral photographs or if the character is caught in an astral shallow; would default to Intuition Optional Rule: Syncrestic Traditions - The traditions of the Sixth World did not develop independently; many magical traditions derive or interact with other traditions. Because these traditions share much of the same background, and often similar original texts and source material, members can share formulae and theses without having to translate them into their own traditions first. New Positive Qualities: - Acolyte - Prerequisite: Mentor Spirit -- The character is something of a mercenary among magicians; their allegieance to a mentor spirit shifts and changes with their needs. Such a relationship has its benefits and suits many magicians, but the mental and spiritual strain can be too much for others. -- Once every 28 days, the character /must/ change their mentor spirit to another of their choosing. The character receives all the advantages and disadvantages of the new mentor spirit, and loses all the advantages ad disadvantages of their old mentor spirit. - Blood Magician -- The character can purchase the Sacrificing metamagic. Blood magic carries legal and social penalties above and beyond those normally associated with magic to non-blood magicians, if its practice is known. - Chosen -- Can manifest mentor spirit's mask for a bonus to Intimidate (and possibly other social skill) tests at will - Seventh Son -- The character, because of circumstances of birth, the sign they were born under, or some other auspice appropriate to their culture or magical tradition, has a greater magical potential than normal. The character can begins play with one metamagic technique that they meet the prerequisites for, without needing to initiate. For purposes of the metamagic, the character's initiate grade is considered zero until they initiate. - Suppress Magic -- Through willpower and self-control, the character can willingly reduce their Magic attribute to lower than its actual rating, to a minimum of 1. The character's Magic attribute is treated as this new, lower rating for all tests, assensing, maximum force of foci and all other purposes except raising their Magic attribute until they decide to stop suppressing their Magic. Suppressing or unsupressing Magic requires a Complex Action. -- Adepts who suppress their Magic do not lose any adept powers or the use of any adept powers; the number of ranks they may have in a power is equal to their full Magic rating. While suppressing their Magic, the character's effective Magic rating for any powers that call for it is the lower rating. -- When attempting to increase their Magic attribute, the cost in Karma is based on the character's full Magic rating. -- If the character suffers any temporary or permanent Magic loss (such as from loss of Essence or an Energy Drain (Magic) attack), the Magic loss is taken from the full value of the character's Magic. --- I.e. if the character has Magic 6 and suppresses it to Magic 3, and then loses 1 point of Essence, then their effective magic is 5(2). New Negative Qualities: - Astral Dreamer -- A character with the ability to astrally perceive unconsciously uses this ability at times when they are asleep, rendering them vulnerable to astral attacks. Dual-natured sleeping characters can also be woken up by nearby astral phenomena, such as nearby astral forms, with an Intuition + Magic Test. - Aura Void - Cannot be taken by characters with an Essence higher than 1. -- The character has almost no aura; they cast a shadow on the Astral and little else to indicate that they are living beings. This is, to say the least, pretty freaky to any magician, spirit, or dual-natured paracritter that the character comes in contact with (-4 to all Social modifiers except Intimidate), any assensing test targeting the character takes a -6 dice pool modifier. - Black Magician -- Earned or not, the character has a negative reputation among other magicians of their tradition, by dint of their style, training, mentor spirit, etc. 2 dice negative modifier to Social tests with such individuals, and cannot join ritual magic or initiatory groups of such traditions unless they are also "black magicians" - Bleeding Oath -- The character willingly made a promise on their own blood, and is magically bound to uphold or fulfill that obligation. If the character breaks the oath (or fails to fulfill it within the agreed time period) they die. Their Essence drains away at 1 point per round; physically it appears that the character is bleeding out. -- The oath cannot be forced; the character can be drunk, drugged, exhausted, or tortured, but not magically controlled or coerced. -- Must be administered by a magician that knows the Sacrificing metamagic technique. -- Alternately, this can be a spell or opened up to all characters by eschewing the need for the Sacrificing metamagic. - Rote Learner -- The character never bothered to learn the subtleties of spellcasting. As far as they're concerned, all spells are fire-and-forget. The character cannot cast a spell at a Force lower or higher than their Magic rating. To participate ritual sorcery, the spell /must/ be cast at a Force equal to their Magic rating. - Third Eye Blind -- The character cannot perceive or receive communication with manifesting astral forms. -- The character also cannot make Perception Tests to see if they realize they are being targeted by ritual sorcery New Mentor Spirits -- Seriously, as many as we can squeeze in, particularly ones with different advantage/disadvantages. 3) Advanced Astral combat - Blindfighting and the Astral -- All the questions we never really wanted to ask - Size modifiers (ref. Arsenal) - Astral forms are idealized, but approximate to the character's physical body, or in the case of spirits roughly metahuman in size (no modifiers). Cases of extreme ego can cause astral forms to be significantly larger than the physical body (negative quality), whereas awareness and denial of self can cause a relative reduction in the size of the astral form. - Astral combat vs. foci -- Based mostly on the Disrupt Focus spell - astral martial arts -- Equivoque --- Modern European tradition, focuses on the use of weapon foci against manifest spirits, astral forms, and mana barriers -- Exorcism --- Derived from multiple religious traditions, focuses on combating spirits and Attacks of Will -- Lin kon ji --- Tibetan meditative art adapted for astral combat; increases astral reach, defense -- Mahojutsu --- Specialization of unarmed techniques for delivering touch spells, adept abilities like Nerve Strike and Disruptive strike -- Parascientific Boxing --- "Psychic" discipline; increases DV of astral attacks, Attacks of Will -- Testa di Fantasma --- Derivation of an Eritrean head-butting combat art, known for its "dirty tricks" New Maneuvers: - Attenuation -- The character is never treated as "Defender Unaware of Attack" on the Astral - Aura Rend -- When using a weapon focus or unarmed attack that deals physical damage in astral combat, can severely damage the target's perception of self; the attacker may choose to temporarily lower the target's Charisma (and derived attributes) by 1. Lost Charisma returns after 1 minute. - Ego Negation -- By taking a simple action, a spirit or astrally projecting character can reduce their astral form to a small target. - Mantra -- Dice penalties to sustain spells or adept powers are reduced by 1. -- So a -1 penalty to sustain one spell, -3 penalty to sustain two, etc. - Refraction -- If you successfully parry an astral attack, you can instead choose for the attacker to be subject to a held touch-based adept power such as Nerve Strike or Disruptive Strike. The net hits are equal to the attribute points the attacker loses. 4) Advanced Enchanting - Optional: Modular Enchanting System - Optional Rule: Multiple Bindings -- With a joint binding ritual, two or more magicians can bond to a single focus. Only one magician can use the focus at a time, and they have to have skin contact with the focus to do so. - Advanced Alchemy -- Brief discourse on the difference between Awakened drugs, magical compounds, mystical healing, and how the metahuman body handles them, how they can be combined, etc. Includes small sidebar on what they look like, how they're applied, identifying them, etc. -- Possibly consolidated table(s) -- True aqua regia --- Highly corrosive but short-lived Awakened acid -- Tincture of Orichalcum --- Awakened drug believed to expand the lifespan; overdoses can cause discoloration of eyes and skin (among other effects) -- Eye of [Critter] --- A category of relatively simple magical compounds that grant Enhanced Vision -- Wine of Lethe --- Powerful magical compound derived from laes; user treated as under the effects of Flux for the duration, but also suffers from amnesia for the same period. Some memories may be lost permanently. - New Enchantments: -- Astral Battery --- "Charged" with Absorption, can hold (Force) "charges" to help offset drain -- Channeling Vessel --- Living metahumans only; this is a much more time consuming and costly investment --- Allows the recipient to channel a spirit, provided the summoning magician or free spirit allows it --- Also works if a magician loans the subject a spirit and orders it themself, otherwise they have no control -- Essence Battery foci (for the Infected) --- Can hold (Force) points of Essence which can only be spent fueling powers -- Mana Web --- Dreamcatcher-like fetish used to "record" an astral signature before it fades away -- Blood Charm --- Minor blood enchantment that can be used by mundanes. Stores 1 point of Edge, does one unhealable box of damage while attached. -- Spirit Key --- Magicians can normally "loan" services to another specific metahuman. This technique would allow the magician to craft a specific minor enchantment (a spirit key) attuned to a spirit when it is summoned, whoever holds it can use its services as if the magician loaned them to that individual -- Restrictions can be placed on the spirit-bound object (aspected enchantments) to prevent the user from accessing all of the spirit's powers. Aspecting making the enchantment easier. -- Does not extend the duration of the spirit's service -- Still counts against the magician's bound spirits -- Re-binding can increase the number of services as normal ("Gotta recharge the old wand.") -- Unless the spirit can accomplish the task in the aether (like Aid Sorcery), the spirit must appear, materialize, or manifest to accomplish the service -- For possession magicians, the spirit key can also be a vessel that the spirit possesses; this can lead to more interesting effects -- Spirit Gyre ("Permanent Binding Materials") --- We actually had these in SR3, they sorta went out the window with the new summoning/binding paradigm. Basically, they're binding materials that don't get used up. Caveats: they have a single, set force and spirit type; one a site is chosen and set up, they cannot be moved; and they are hard to cover up. A large throw rug might work for a small spirit gyre, but more powerful ones can take up proportionally more space. -- Advanced Homunculi --- Instead of building a homunculus, you can grow one. This follows a similar form to the traditional method of homunculus creation: a mass of organic material is gathered and subjected to physical, chemical, alchemical, and magical processes until it takes on a substance similar to flesh, shaped like a living creature. Such things are lifeless, and in most cases the resemblance is merely cosmetic, but advanced versions can have fascimiles of internal organs, teeth, internal skeletons, etc. Very advanced ones can pass for metahumans unless one tries to check their biometrics. -- Growing a homunculus takes longer, and is fairly expensive. -- Intended for inhabitation spirits only (Ally spirits and Inhabitation traditions, you might make a rare one for a crazy insect shaman or shedim caller), and the process of crafting the homunculus can be guided by the inhabitation magic. 5) Advanced Conjuring - Binding, Long Term Binding, and Spirit Abuse -- Limitations on people trying to abuse spirits - Advanced Banishing -- By performing a ritual banishing, can keep a disrupted spirit that has retreated to the metaplanes to refresh itself/heal/etc. from returning for one period (28 days); a successful ritual banishing adds 4 to the threshold of the astral quest to retrieve the spirit -- Extended Banishing + Magic (Force, 1 day) test, need (Force) binding materials, foci apply. - Permanent Banishing for Free Spirits using True Name -- Ramifications for PC Free Spirits -- All natural copies of spirit formula dissapear, leaving only recorded copies -- /Can/ be undone only if someone is stupid enough to go retrieve the free spirit from the metaplanes, which is much harder, and impossible without a copy of their spirit formula - Rebinding/summoning the same spirit -- The magician has a specific spirit (or group of related spirits) which act like a contact (Force rating, Loyalty rating) that s/he summons repeatedly and develops a working relationship with. The upshot is that the spirit will remember previous encounters, can take more complicated orders, and can be substantially more loyal if treated well. The downside is 1) it can get more powerful from repeated summoning, making it harder to summon/bind and 2) it remembers past summonings and can become /disloyal/ if you do things that really piss it off. -- Costs are equivalent to those for a contact. Spirit can be of a different type than the magician can normally summon. 6) Advanced Sorcery - Reverse Ritual Magic -- If you're targeted by ritual magic, you can use the link to track the sending or send your own ritual spell back down the link to disrupt it. Since there is no indication of how long the ritual is, your own casting is probably going to be fast and furious -- Alternately: you can use a bonded focus or a properly prepared link object to set up a reverse ritual in advance - i.e. instead of taking a chunk out of a building to blow it up, you mail them a lock of your hair, then cast a ritual fireball that'll destroy the link object and damage the surroundings. --- Could be munchy - Advanced Mind Probe -- The metahuman memory has never been simple, but lately it's gotten a bit more complex. This isn't an expansion of the effects of the mind probe spell on a wider variety of subjects, and answering questions on the use of mind probe against animals, spirits, sapient critters, metahumans who have had their memory erased/altered, metahumans who have had memory conditioning (Deep Cover, etc.), metahumans using skillsofts/datasofts, and magical memories (adepts with the Three-Dimensional Memory power, for example). - Cantrips -- Reduced cost (1 BP/2 Karma each) extremely limited spells -- Exclusive, cannot be overcast, cannot be cast as a ritual spell, requires two geasa-like limitations: gesture, incantation Grimoire: - Combat -- New Elemental Effects: --- Blood (Toxic) ---- Physical damage against non-blood spirits, stun damage against all others; otherwise treated like Water. --- Sludge (Toxic) ---- Treated as an inhalation vector toxin attack, follows the Anaphlyxis toxic spirit power. -- Hellball/bolt/touch --- Wounds caused cannot be healed magically --- Can be combined with elemental traits: Hellfire ball, Hellfire bolt, Hellfire touch -- Fatigue --- Easy, low Drain spell, causes fatigue damage -- Flashbang --- Elemental effects (Light, Sound); Stun damage only. Basically emulating a flashbang grenade. -- Slow Burn --- Deal damage for (hits) round. - Detection -- Expiration Date --- This simple spell gives the time of death of a living thing on whose remains it is cast; difficulty of the spell based on when the person, plant, or critter died. -- Gene Scan --- Not scientific by any means, one hit can determine species, two hits recognize a sample of the DNA you'd scanned before, three hits to notice significant differences (gross geneware, cancer, massive mutation), four hits to notice subtle, etc. -- Map -- Sustained spell; the character retains a perfect sense of their distance and orientation from the time and place the spell was cast, and a perfect memory of the route travelled from that point and time, even if blindfolded and carried or driven. This information is retained after the spell is no longer sustained. -- Memory Scan --- Unlike mind probe, this more subtle spell attempts to find out if a subject's memories have been altered, and with enough hits how they were altered. Cannot be used to recover memories, but may be enough to trigger the realization that altered memories or implanted memories are false. -- Mind Tap --- Listen in on telepathic conversations -- Survival Instinct -- Tribe (area version) --- This spell augments the magician's awareness of their basic bodily needs and focuses their senses on supplying them. Add the hits to the character's Survival Tests. - Health -- Deathly Pallor --- Opposite of Healthy Glow; you look like death warmed over -- Fury (singular) -- Riot (area) --- Subjects go berserk, as a bear shaman. -- Recussitate --- Can revive a recently deceased character (i.e. whose damage goes past overflow on their Physical condition monitor) --- Recussitated character still has their physical overflow damage, but any damage beyond that (no matter how much) is ignored --- Threshold for the Spellcasting Test is the number of Combat Rounds the target has been dead --- Does not count as healing a set of injuries, the character can still benefit from a Heal spell --- Character is /not/ stabilized; will continue to suffer damage every (Body) Combat Rounds unless treated -- Steal Biometrics (sustained, or sustained-to-permanent and only lasts Magic hours) --- Touch someone and mimic a single biometric parameter (retina, fingerprints, etc.) while the spell is sustained --- Essentially limited disguise, number of hits on the spell is the Rating of the disguise against scanners, only one trait per spell -- Tattoo --- Sustained-to-permanent; modifies skin cells into a specific and permanent pattern; similar to a birthmark, colors limited to natural skin tones -- Young Flesh --- Sustained-to-permanent youth spell (appearence only, lifespan not affected) - Illusion -- Charms --- Sustained-to-permanent; cannot create standing illusions, but can create permanent impression of a sensory illusion. Compare/contrast with Alter Memory et al. -- Glamours --- Sustained, provide bonuses to certain Social Skill tests --- Not a mental compulsion; cultural/biological differences might apply (i.e. chimps still see a grin as a challenge) -- Psychometric Message --- Sustained-to-permanent; leaves a specific message to anyone that uses psychometry on the item later. ---- Psychometric Trap ----- Can also be used to trap an object by recording a hideous and painful memory/emotinal event, which does (Force) Stun damage. - Manipulation -- Trying to fight manipulation bloat - False Metal -- Sustained-to-permanent -- This spell physically alters a metal's color and texture to resemble that of another metal. This is a superficial change only; any chemical, alchemical, or metallurgical analysis will immediately reveal its true nature. Still, it can make lead bars look like gold, or gold look like orichalcum, or a chrome cyberarm look like platinum. -- Caster has to beat the substance's object resistance, so most pure or highly-processed metals (advanced alloys, etc.) are much more difficult to handle than metal reagents and hand-crafted metal objects. - Forbid - Forbid (Species) -- Mental compulsion, area effect, sustained -- It's basically a shaped effect, like a barrier spell, except instead of barrier anyone that passes inside the boundary faces a single, simple but powerful compulsion - leave or stay, as determined by the caster. This compulsion is resisted. Specialized spells can target critters et al. by species. Does not work on drones. -- Forbid Ork, Forbid Insect Spirit, etc. 1 7) Adepts Way of the Paragon - Some adepts approach their magic as an attempt to emulate a mythical figure, some exceptional individual who embodies their ideal. In attempting to achieve this ideal, the adept tries to live their life in the same manner as their idol. Adept-specific Codes of Conduct. -- Adept CoC benefits may include being able to take one specific level-based power at one level higher than usual. -- I.e. an adept with Magic 6 cannot normally have higher than Pain Resistance (6), but with the proper CoC could take Pain Resistance (7) -- Not all combat-oriented. - Cu Chulainn -- The mythic Celtic hero was known for his invincibility in battle, and his recklessness that would kill friend and foe. -- Advantage: The Beserk adept power only costs 0.75 power points for this character. -- Disadvantage: Cu Chulainn was known to kill his friends and family, even his own son in the blind fury of combat. The character does not receive dice pool modifiers for having friends in melee. If a character glitches on any Combat Skill roll, they hit a friend or innocent bystander in range instead. The character may spend a point of Edge to negate this. - Muramasa -- One of the most famous swordsmiths of ancient Japan, renowned for the sharpness of his blades and his fiery temper -- Advantage: Character may take the Mystic Weapon power for 0.5 power points. -- Disadvantage: Muramasa focused his anger into his blades, almost to the point of madness. 2 dice negative modifier on all Willpower Tests to avoid getting angry or showing emotion. - Shaka -- Credited as one of the greatest Zulu chiefs, and inventor of a number of martial and tactical developments -- Advantage: Character may take Improved Ability (Combat Sense) at one higher level than normal. -- Disadvantage: Shaka was a charismatic leader that led by example. Every time the character improves or buys another Martial Arts quality, they must improve a Social Active Skill before they can upgrade it again. - Tesla -- An authentic genius, and a mysterious one, seen these days as one of the earliest oracles of the wireless Matrix. -- Advantage: The dice pool modifier from the Analytics power also applies when using technical skills to build or repair a device. -- Disadvantage: Tesla was eccentric in his habits and prone to bizarre claims. The character's Street Cred may never be higher than their Notoriety. New Adept Powers: - Alchemist's Gift -- Prerequisites: Improved Sense (Smell, Taste) -- The character can tell if a given substance is a magical compound, refined or radical reagent, or Awakened drug with only the slightest smell or taste - insufficient to trigger the magical compound, but concentrated Awakened drugs or toxic reagents may affect the target. A Magic + Intuition Test successfully identifies the substance if the character has come across it before. +2 postive modifier to Assaying Tests. - Ars Memoria - Prerequisite: Three-Dimensional Memory -- The adept can store additional scenes. For each (Magic attribute) number of scenes remembered, the test to remember any scene increases the Threshold for the Magic + Perception Test to recall them by 1. - Boost Senses -- Like Boost Attribute, but temporarily increases senses to supermetahuman levels. -- Cannot grant new senses. - [Critter] Call - Prerequisite: Animal Empathy -- Can attempt to attract animals of an appropriate type within (Magic) kilometers, who arrive at their own pace -- Opposed Charisma + Magic Test -- Works a treat on cockroaches, not so much on paracritters. Sapient critters resist automatically, but can sense the call and choose to heed it. - Disruptive Strike -- Prerequisite: Nerve Strike -- Instead of inflicting damage, each net hit temporarily lowers the target's Force or Magic by 1. Lost Magic or Force returns at a rate of 1 point per minute of rest. If Magic is reduced to 0, target loses all Awakened abilities until they rest for 1 minute; if Force is reduced to 0, the target is disrupted. - Elemental Arc - Prerequisites: Elemental Strike, Distance Strike -- Can use Elemental Strike in conjunction with Distance Strike - Enhanced Melanin Control - Prerequisite: Melanin Control -- The adept can alter their hair/skin color within the limits of metahumanity's natural variety of colors - from the pale green of hobgoblins to the blue of Night Ones to the cethereal of certain elves. In addition to a greater palette to draw from, the adept can limit the alteration to certain parts of their body in order to mimic birth marks or conditions like virago. (Requires Disguise Skill for successful deception) - Hellstrike - Prerequisite: Killing Hands -- Wounds dealt by the adept's killing hands cannot be magically healed - Improved Mystical Healing -- Prerequisite: Empathic Healing -- Adept can use empathic healing to speed up the natural healing process in others. Each level of this power adds 1 die to the character's pool for Mystical Healing tests /and/ raises the cap on net hits on the test by 1. - Improved Senses -- Clarification on the Adept power, in addition to new options --- Depth sense (how high above/below the surface you are), perfect depth vision (equivalent to range finder) --- Perfect time --- Body Awareness (immediately aware of the extant of injuries, even when pain is blocked) --- Electroreception --- Magnetoreception --- Aura awareness (immediately aware if an astral form passes through their aura) - Loan [Adept Power] -- An adept can temporarily grant one specific power to another; no test if this recipient is voluntary. The adept cannot use the power while it is being loaned. The power uses the adept's Magic rating, not the Magic rating of the recipient. -- Sustained -- May be purchased more than once. The adept still has all the powers on loan, even if they can't use them, and so can't try to buy them again. -- Requires the adept to touch the target. -- The adept can choose to loan only a specific number of levels of a multi-level power, and retain the other levels. Does not have to loan prerequisite powers to loan someone a power that has a prerequisite. - Mind Trap -- Causes psychic backlash (Willpower/round) for attempted telepathic contact (mind probe, etc.) and mental manipulations -- Can be used reflexively -- Requires concentration (2 dice negative modifier) to maintain --- Dream Trap --- Prerequisite: Mind Trap ---- Power is on constantly, even when asleep, with no modifier to maintain ---- Can be turned off selectively - Mystic Weapon - Prerequisite: Killing Hands (?) -- Any melee weapon the adept wields is counted as a magic weapon for purposes of overcoming Immunity to Normal Weapons - Mystic Venom -- Develops a personal, temporary, and debilitating venom present in the character's blood and other body fluids - normally transmitted by biting or spitting. This venom loses potency (Magic) Combat rounds after it leaves the adept's body. With a successful Magic + Enchanting (3, 1 round) test, a sample of the character's poison, contained in some of their blood or other bodily fluid, may remain potent for (Adept's Magic) days away from their body. -- The adept is immune to their own Mystic Venom. - Nemesis - Prerequisite: Combat Sense -- The character can choose to focus all their precognitive awareness on a single opponent; while so focused they do not receive their normal Combat Sense bonuses. For that opponent and that opponent only, they bonus is doubled; for everyone else a negative modifier equivalent to the bonus applies. -- The individual the target is focused on can be changed with a free action. - Plaguebearer - Prerequisite: Natural Immunity of Supernatural Immunity -- The adept can host a disease he is immune to, and will it to spread when he makes contact with an individual. Once released, the adept has no control over the disease or its vector. With HMHVV-I and -II, the subject becomes a Carrier, but does not transform. -- Can be taken multiple times. - Power Move - Prerequisite: Improved Ability (Any Combat Skill) -- The adept immediately learns two martial arts maneuvers, without paying the normal costs. These maneuvers do not count toward the character's normal restriction on how many maneuvers they may learn. -- May be taken more than once. - Power Sense -- Prerequisite: Magic Sense -- The adept can intuit the Magic rating of an opponent in LOS; this requires an Assensing test but not Astral Perception. Masking works against it, but there's the same chance of piercing Masking. - Power Mimic (variable cost) -- The adept can mimic the powers another adept demonstrates within line of sight as a Free Action; this must be a live performance, not recorded or broadcast in any fashion. The total cost of the power must be less than half the power points spent on the Power Mimic power, and the rating cannot be higher than the highest rated power that the adept can have. The total number of powers an adept can mimic at one time is equal to the number of power points he or she has spent on Power Mimic. Mimicked powers last for (Magic) Combat Turns; they may voluntarily drop a mimicked power before its duration is up. - [Sense] Communication - Prerequisite: Improved Sense (Hearing, Smell, or Thermographic Vision) -- The adept can subtly communicate with someone else with extraordinary senses; this communication is often somewhat limited but difficult or impossible to detect without augmentation or magical assistance. -- High/Low-Frequency Communication [Improved Sense (Hearing)] - the adept can communication at frequencies outside the normal range of metahuman hearing -- Scent Communication [Improved Sense (Smell)] - the adept can release specific pheromone scent combinations, indistinguishable from regular body odor to the average nose; these scents are limited in range and meaning (generally, the scents can clearly mark property, health, and emotion), though canny adepts can develop scent-based codes. Pheromones can be used to mark individuals, places, and objects, but requires 'painting' the target with a bodily product (sweat, saliva, urine, feces, etc.) -- Thermographic Communication [Improved Sense (Thermographic Vision)] - the adept can control the bloodflow in their face, to change the pattern of heat seen by others with thermographic vision. This can be developed as a code, or used to increase difficulties when others with thermographic vision attempt to judge the character's intentions. - Shadowed Aura (leveled; limit 4?) -- The character's aura dims and melds with the shadows cast by material objects on the astral. Every level adds 1 to the threshold to perceive the adept's aura on the Astral. This stacks with the results of a successful Stealth test. - Spontaneous Remission -- The character can focus their power inward in order to stave off a deadly health condition, such as cancer, cirrhosis or asbestosis. It cannot cure the underlying cause, or completely regrow missing organs, and it does not effect pathogens or poisons, but it can negate the worst of the symptoms, preserve the character's life, and allow what is left of the organs affected by that condition to work at peak effieciency. -- Basically, in addition to suspending cancer or TLE-x if you contract it, this power also offers immunity to each type of condition each time it is taken. -- May be taken more than once. - Supernatural Immunity -- The adept gains immunity to a specific Awakened disease, such as an HMHVV strain -- Can be purchased more than once - Unerring Step -- Prerequisite: Traceless Walk, Wall Running -- The adept can hover indefinitely, slightly above any surface. This allows them to walk, run, crawl, or sprint over any surface, even dangerous, volatile, and non-solid surfaces, and in any direction. The character could, for example, sprint up a waterfall against the force of gravity, or across the top of an open container of molten iron without sinking. -- Does not protect them from environmental dangers, i.e. the heat of the lava -- Penalties apply based on how turbulent the surface is. -- On a glitch, they trip and fall - Willing Vessel -- The adept can willingly choose to open themselves as a vessel for a possessing spirit; they may also choose to turn this ability off in order to make them harder to possess. Adepts that were previously made vessels by a magician (or who are subject to that ritual after gaining this power) may still determine whether or not they are considered vessels for purposes of possession. -- An adept that is also made a channeling vessel may still choose whether or not to channel the spirit. - Withdraw - Prerequisite: Dual-Natured critter -- Pretty much the inverse of Astral Perception; the adept can turn their dual-nature on and off. 8) Advanced Astral Quests - Inner Quest -- Adepts only; astral projection not required. -- The character takes the equivalent of an astral quest, except instead of looking for information outside themselves attempts to plumb the depths of their own being, searching for inspiration. -- Can be used to discover knowledge of metamagic techniques, adept powers, spell and foci formulae, and intiatory ordeals. -- Unique use: Can be used as a form of introspection, to retrieve forgotten (but not destroyed) memories and sensory impressions in exact detail; to become aware of internal physical status (and damage, as well as cancer or poison) -- Unique use: An inner quest can unlock certain exceptional abilities of the adept's body; they gain the potential to buy the Adrenaline Surge, Ambidextrous, Analytical Mind, Double Jointed, Exceptional Attribute, Hawkeye, Lightning Reflexes, Perceptive, Perfect Time, Photographic Memory, Quick Healer, Resistance to Pathogens/Poisons, Speed Reading, Tough as Nails, Toughness, and Will to Live. The character pays a number of Karma equal to (2 x BP cost of the quality). Each subsequent inner quest increases in difficulty. The character may not buy a quality they already have, unless it is available in levels, and then may only buy it up to the maximum number of levels. --- The availability of this quality would help ease the need to "front load" qualities at chargen, and allow older characters to pick up qualities they might have "missed." Also provides "minor powers" for low-level adepts and games, giving players an alternative to expand their characters without seeking higher and higher levels of initiation. - The Journey Circle -- An Official Method(TM) to take your friends with you on an astral quest; for non-magician-with-astral-projection friends this involves either the intervention of a spirit with the Astral Gateway power or, more often, the ingestion of a magical compound and the linking of hands. The leader magician is the guide, and all the other participants are linked to him; he determines which metaplane the group will go to. The number of friends is limited to the lead magician's Magic + Initiate Grade. -- Mundanes can help, but also face the risks every magician does on such a journey. The Journey Circle does allow magicians to use the Teamwork rules to accomplish astral quests a single magician would have difficulty with. - Metaplanar Lodge -- Characters can engage in an astral quest to create a metaplanar magical lodge on a fractal metaplane, a secret place of power and safety in the metaplanes where they can create copies of their magical formulae, metamagical theses, and non-magical writings and creative works. After the initial astral quest to create the metaplanar lodge, the character can visit it any time in the future by undertaking another astral quest. A character can dictate or use automatic writing to transfer the information in the lodge back to the physical plane. -- Characters can create multiple metaplanar lodges, but must spend some time in them each month or they collapse -- The initial difficulty of the quest represents how well it is hidden; characters who are aware of the metaplanar lodge's existence must meet this rating to find and travel to it. Characters who receive instruction from another on how to get there get +4 dice positive modifier. -- Some intitiatory groups have "group" lodges where they maintain their most secret writings, and is where they meet in the astral to engage in their deepest instruction. -- Can protect a metaplanar lodge by stationing a spirit there 9) Goods and Gear Recording the Astral - Astral photography: what does it look like? - Simrecordings of spellcasting and possession: what does it feel like? - Why simsense can't record astral perception - Simsense and other magical and magic-derived senses Karmaware - Implanted Weapon Foci -- How to do it, why to do it - Fauxfront -- A false memory and personality tied to a dreamgate personafix BTL program -- The primary purpose of a fauxfront is to attempt and circumvent mind probing. When the subject feels the mind probe begin, conditioning automtically triggers the fauxfront personality. The caster may or may not be fooled by the fauxfront, depending on how it meshes with the circumstances and their own knowledge of the subject. -- Reading the character's actual thoughts requires delving into the subconscious. - Fetish port -- Basically a rivet in the skin, anchored into the bone or muscle, to attach a fetish to so you don't lose it easily; sensors tie the fetish into the user's PAN so that you know immediately if one is gone. - Manasense symbiont (tongue thing) -- Symbiont that replaces the subject's tongue; removes sense of smell and taste, but provides astral senses that approximate them -- Can detect proximity of astral forms/phenomenon (by strength of sensation) and type by "taste" or "smell" - Praxis gizzard (refine/radicalize as you walk around!) -- Secondary stomach, usually accessed via a discrete orifice on the chest or abdomen, which can process a unit of raw reagents while still allowing the owner to walk around and do things. - Astral camera cybereye implant -- Implanted mini-version of mana-sensitive film camera -- Does not provide astral perception -- Can hold six microfilm plates, which have to be removed and processed to view the images (unless the character also has microvision augmentation) - Orichalcum bone gilding -- Bone lacing upgrade; hideously expensive, moderately invasive -- Weaves a very fine enchanted orichalcum chain into pre-etched grooves in the character's bone lacing -- Unarmed attacks count as magical weapons for purpose of overcoming Immunity to Normal Weapons - Chakraware -- Specific natural radical reagents implanted in the character's body at specific points which more or less correspond to the major chakras -- Developed principally in India, with widespread debate about the actual mechanism(s) and principles involved; many magicians believe that chakraware disrupts and imblances the body's natural energies -- Not compatible with cybertorso, cyberskull, or cyberlimbs; if too much of the body is replaced they just stop working --- Sahasrara (Crown) - A crystal or gem mineral radical is installed at the apex of the skull; when rolling dice on any test involving the Magic attribute, all dice are subject to the Rule of Six, even if Edge is not spent, but the character may not spend Edge to negate a Glitch on a Magic Test --- Ajna (Brow) - This bindi-like adornment involves the surgical installation of a natural animal radical, like the stone from a stone toad or a piece of unicorn horn. The subject's Magic rating is treated as 1 higher for all purposes; this does not actually increase their Magic rating, but it increases the limit on the Force of spells, the rating limit on adept powers, the character's apparent Magic when being assensed, etc. --- Vishuddha (Throat) - A natural herbal radical is attached to the character's voicebox. A negative dice pool modifier equal to the character's Essence Loss applies to all magic used against the character, even those beneficial to the character. This modifier --- Anahata (Heart) - When the subject of magical healing, all dice on that test are subject to the Rule of Six, even if Edge is not spent, but neither the character or the magician providing the mystical healing may spend Edge to negate a Glitch on the Healing Test --- Manipura (Solar Plexus) - --- Svadisthana (Sacrum) - Manatech - FAB Netgun -- Does /not/ trap astral forms. Rather, the forced passage of an astral form (the target) through a weak astral barrier (the FAB net) is designed to disrupt the astral form and send it back to its meat body (it also kills all the FAB in the net). So on a successful attack, the victim is treated as having run into an astral barrier; even if the target doesn't pass out, it still kills the FAB. - FAB Torc -- Not properly a restraint, the FAB torc is basically an insulin pump that circulates a FAB colony in the character's blood stream. While this colony is active, any attempts to astrally perceive or project are the mental equivalent of trying to teleport into a rock wall (or, mechanically speaking, hitting an astral barrier at full speed). This is usually sufficient to knock the character out. -- As FAB is essentially a minor infection, it doesn't last long - without the torc continuing to supply fresh FAB, your average immune system would burn through it in about an hour. - Laseredge Weapons -- Descendants of the Laser Crescent Axe. These aren't lightsabers by any means, the weapon is a physical blade with a weapons-grade laser along the "edge" using advanced mirror technology. They are always slashing weapons, and they burn as they cut, which is why they do elemental damage that can injure materialized spirits. They have a limited battery life, which can be extended by hooking them up to an external pack. - MageAid Software Package - Suite of unrated programs no mage should be without -- FetishTracker - keeps track of your fetishes and where they are using tags -- Dictaphone/virtual stylus - automatic writing/talk-to-text for Catalog spells and Metaplanar lodges -- Mapsoft editor - ease recording data gained from Spatial Sense spells -- Wardshaper - finds the best basic geometric shape to ward the room, maps out possibilities in terms of area and visible surfaces -- VirtualTarot - Never be without a divination tool -- SmartSpell plugin for use with smartlink; used for targeting Indirect Combat spells, calculating area of effect - MCT Blue Blood -- Temporary vaccine for HMHVV, lasts for 1 year, with booster shots every six months thereafter. Temporary allergy to sunlight. Subject appears as a false positive on HMHVV tests. -- Small chance of survival if completely drained of Essence -- Only available for certain strains, HMHVV-III and HMHVV-I, and not the weird ones (gaki, nosferatu, etc.), but would provide +6 bonus dice against those. 10) Beyond the Pale A highly tentative chapter, and intended for NPCs, which describes extremely edge-of-possibility transformation magic - the kind of spiritual and magical development and specialized rituals that take someone and make them greater, or less, than metahuman. In SR terms, this is the domain of would-be-liches, mad thaumaturges, and those seeking to /become/ the divine. Dance of Pale Shadows Prerequisites: Cybermancy - Basically, a cure for HMHVV. Essentially requires ripping the character's spirit out of their body, eliminating the virus, re-writing their genetic code, and then binding the spirit back to the body. Incarnation Prerequisites: Ally Conjuration, Channeling, Possession - The character summons an ally spirit and attempts to channel it as it inhabits them; if successful they become a flesh-form free spirit, Immune to Age and with new powers as a spirit. Of course, whether they actually transform or if they're just deluded ally spirits who believe they are their casters (which would make Incarnation a highly novel form of suicide) is a matter of academic debate. Ascension Prerequisites: Astral Projection, Flexible Signature, Flux - The character astrally projects one final time and then enters flux, severing all of their magical connections - even the one to their body. If their body is already dead, this succeeds automatically; if the body is not dead, there's the possibility the astral self could die before the ritual succeeds. Anyway, if it works, the character is now a permanent astral projection, with no ties to their old body (which is in a coma) - if the body dies, the magician is not harmed. As a permanent astral form, the character is ageless and does not need to eat, sleep, or breath - though they do rest to help recover from drain and damage. Most "ascended" get the most out of taking Possession, since it allows them to affect the physical world. Spectral Legacy Prerequisites: Enchanting, Psychometry - The character becomes a ghost when they die, their chain being either one of their foci or a part of their corpse. The ghost is highly limited in interacting with others; its purpose is to teach the magician's skills and knowledge to another magician. When they have passed on all their knowledge to their "successor," the ghost ceases to exist. Investment Prerequisites: Astral Projection - The character's astral form takes up permanent residence in an "empty" body - i.e. one where the astral form has died but the body remains comatose (any other source of coma does not work). No damage is healed, which means if you take up residence in someone with a horrible head injury, you're no better off. Character retains their old Mental and special attributes, (Magic, Essence) but gains the Physical attributes of the new body (which may have degraded from, y'know, being comatose. Any qualities that apply /specifally/ to the new body and the old mentality or spirit are retained. Reclamation Prerequisites: Special - This is essentially an astral quest to reclaim an astral form that has "died" from being separated from its body to long and reunite it with it's still-living comatose body. The ritual is difficult and requires the actual body, not a clone, and the body must still be alive. Rumored connections with cybermancy. Possible downsides include Astral Hazing, Spirit Bane, and other magical negative qualities associated with the unnaturalness of their ressurection. Resurrection - Cryogenics was never a really solid technology or widespread in use, and most of the few storage facilities were destroyed in the Crash of '29 and the Crash 2.0. However, as technology improved a very slim minority of individuals continued to get their bodies - or in many cases their heads - frozen in the expectation that science would be able to resurrect them. However, some corps have found another workable option: cybermancy. The procedure is rather difficult even as cybermancy goes, and candidates are rare - the longer they've been dead, the more difficult the procedure (on top of the additional tissue damage from the older cryogenics technologies).