Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Tyler Dion
tfdion@gmail.com
Version 1.4
Contents Paradox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
An Example of Play . . . . . . . . 7
1 Introduction 1 Permutations of Magic . . . . . . 8
Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
So Whats in This Document? . . 2 6 Summary Tables 8
2 Characters: It Takes All Sorts 2
7 Special Thanks 9
True Mages . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Sorcerers (AKA Hedge Wizards) . 3
8 Document History 9
Sleepers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
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Unisystem Mage
2
Unisystem Mage
Option: For high-flying super-mage action, you taged in the world of Mage, because they lack
may wish to consider using the Greater Gifted the ability to face (and in some cases even
character type and its higher point totals for True
perceive) many of the dangers that hide be-
Mages (see The Book of Hod or Armageddon: the
End Times 2nd Edition). Furthermore, the En- neath the shadows of reality.
lightened Human Quality would put True Mages Sleeper Cast Members should be extraor-
on par with the supernatural creatures presented dinary individuals (perhaps with a few At-
in Armageddon. tributes near or at the human maximum),
whose great physical or mental prowess al-
Sorcerers (AKA Hedge Wizards) lows them to be of assistance to their Gifted
allies and friends.
Sorcerers, sometimes called Hedge Wizards, Sleepers start out with 25 points for At-
are characters who practice linear or static tributes, 20 points for Qualities (and up to 10
magic. To make up for their lower occult abil- points in Drawbacks) and 35 points for Skills.
ities, Cast Members who select this Type are They get no points to buy Metaphysics (and
more accomplished in other areas. Although cannot buy any with extra points gained from
they are weaker in the area of Metaphysics, Drawbacks), nor can they purchase many of
Sorcerers have higher Attributes and skills the Supernatural Qualities.
than their more supernaturally-adept counter-
Note: Sleepers as detailed here are the same as
parts.
Mundane PCs in WitchCraft. They are extremely
These characters are less likely to attract capable, possessing both high Attributes and ex-
the attention of supernatural beings except tensive Skills. GMs desiring Sleeper characters
when they actually use their special abilities. more in line with those presented in Storyteller
They have a better chance of living a rela- Mage can start with the Sleeper guidelines pre-
tively peaceful existence, although their pow- sented here and removing 10 points from each cat-
egory, perhaps even 15 if Sleepers are particularly
ers will often lead them into trouble. less impressive than True Mages and Sorcerers.
Sorcerers start out with 20 points for At-
tributes, 15 points for Qualities (and up to 10
points in Drawbacks), 30 points for Skills and
15 points for Metaphysics. Sorcerers must 3 Qualities and Drawbacks: A
buy the Gift Quality. Slight Flaw in Your Character
In WitchCraft terms, sorcerers are every-
day Gifted magicians. A game mixing True Some Backgrounds, Merits and Flaws are
Magic as another variety of magic in general best implemented as Unisystem Qualities,
really doesnt need to make this distinction. while others would be better off as elements
of Metaphysics. As a rule of thumb, if
Sleepers the Background/Merit/Flaw is a personal trait
that is always in effect that is, it isnt
Sleepers have no supernatural skills whatso- turned off and on like a Metaphysical abil-
ever. They may find themselves disadvan- ity such as Arcane or even Dream, consider
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Unisystem Mage
it a Quality or Drawback, as the details war- teller Resources scale would be appropriate.
rant. Storyteller Backgrounds and Neme- Either way, each level costs 2 points.
ses, if using the option presented in Guide to
the Traditions cost (or grant, in the case of
True Mage
Nemeses)) 2 points per level during character
creation. 5 point Supernatural Quality Prerequisite:
The Gift Quality
Avatar This Quality bestows all the abilities and
other characteristics of the protagonists of
Variable Supernatural Quality, 1 level per Mage: the Ascension. Knowingly or not,
2 points Prerequisites: The Gift and True they exert their will over reality, influencing
Mage Qualities and causing events and actions. True Mages
The Avatar is the core of the True Mage. initially rely on procedures and physical ob-
Through her Avatar, the True Mage works her jects to focus their will; these are known as
will upon the world. It is also a measure of foci. With time and personal development,
her ability to do so. Every level of Avatar al- the Mage may learn to discard or internalize
lows the Mage to channel 1 point of Essence her foci (see Abandoning Foci, pg. 203 of
per Turn for use in working True Magic; so a Mage Revised).
Mage with Avatar 2 could channel 2 Essence
points in a Turn. True Mages automatically
gain Avatar 1. Mages may further buy up to 4 Skills: The Best At What You
Avatar 3. Do
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Unisystem Mage
that its considered a Special skill in Unisys- The Nine Spheres of Magic
tem mostly meaning it costs two points
per level. For those using True Magic in The sphere system remains precisely as pre-
a WitchCraft game, the Gifteds ability to sented in Mage Revised. Use sphere lev-
perceive magical workings adequately covers els and their abilities as written. A sphere
this skill. level costs 4 points during character creation.
Tradition specialty spheres cost 3 points per
level. As their association bonus, characters
Cosmology, AKA Umbral or Dimensional receive one free level of their Traditions spe-
Navigation (Special) cialty sphere. The first level in a new sphere
As per Mage Revised. Its worth noting this during play costs 8 points; additional levels
is distinct from WitchCrafts Occult skill and learned during play cost the same as during
sub-skills, in that it deals specifically with the character creation.
realms and regions of the Umbra.
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Unisystem Mage
6
Unisystem Mage
Designers Note: To determine a ratio between Option: Those incorporating True Magic into
Storyteller Health Levels and Unisystem Life WitchCraft games may wish to consider equating
Points, we took the weapons the two systems had Paradox with Taint. In this case, wielding True
statted in common and compared their maximum Magic might be a result of having been touched
damage capability. For example, a .38 revolver by one of the Mad Gods, or some other outside
does a maximum of 4 HLs or 18 LPs. Since influence, for good or for ill. Paradoxical Taint
magical effects inflict whole health levels, with- negates Essence on a one-to-one ratio, as usual in
out a chance for soak, it seemed best to average the WitchCraft setting.
the maximum damage ratings. Of the ten firearms
in common other weapons were excluded be-
cause they rely in part on strength the ratio aver- player wanted her to be pretty good at magic,
aged to 4.5 Life Points per Health Level. Double so she has Willpower 4 and Arete 3, as well
that, because one Storyteller success inflicts two as Avatar 3, Forces 3 and Prime 2.
Health Levels, and you get 9 Life Points per Suc-
cess Level spent on damage.
Exploring the bowels of a reputedly
haunted city tenement, Jane stumbles across
a group of pale, mis-shapen creatures that are
Paradox decidedly hostile to her unannounced visit,
going so far as to lunge at her, claws out-
Paradox accumulates and dissipates at the stretched. In her defense, Jane uses a rote
same rates described on pg. 194 of Mage to call upon the fire elemental living in the
Revised. Paradox flaws can be applied us- buildings furnace to strike out at her ene-
ing the guidelines described in the same sec- mies.
tion. In terms of inflicting damage, when a The GM rules this is a coincidental version
mage gains five or more points of Paradox of the classic Forces 3, Prime 2 effect. Calcu-
see the bottom of the Creating Magical Ef- lating Arete + Willpower + modifiers + 1d10
fects sidebar, pg. 207 of Mage Revised the yields the following, as shown in Example of
GM makes a Paradox roll: total number of Casting Modifiers on p. 5.
points of Paradox the mage has + 1d10. Each
Success Level inflicts magical damage as per Example of Casting Modifiers
usual.
With regards to Essence, every point 3 (Arete)
of Paradox reduces the mages maximum + 4 (Willpower)
Essence capacity by one. So if a mage with a - 1 (level 3 effect)
normal Essence capacity of 20 were to gain 3 - 1 (coincidental)
Paradox points, her capacity would reduce to + 1d10
17. 7 - 2 + 1d10
5 + 1d10
An Example of Play
Suppose then we have an up and coming
young Hermetic mage named Jane. Janes For the effect to succeed at all, Janes
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Unisystem Mage
player needs to roll a 4 or better. Whether in due course. Applying the Crowd Effect to
the effect actually does anything depends on mages workings as well as normal Paradox
how many Success Levels the roll garners. rules would be a double whammy not appro-
priate for all games.
Permutations of Magic
Acting in Concert
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Unisystem Mage
7 Special Thanks
Thanks go to:
Redfox Whiteruff, of RPG.net, with
whom I initially began this project; he
created the outline from which every-
thing followed.
Frank Sronce, of RPG.net, for his sug-
gestion on incorporating sphere levels
into difficulty modifiers.
8 Document History
4/18/2005 Unisystem Mage v1.0 first pub-
lished online as HTML document.
4/19/2005 v1.1 posted. Changes include re-
costing Avatar, True Mage and Paradoxs
Essence-reduction effect. Added sphere
level costs, sphere level difficulty modi-
fiers, an example of play and a trait sum-
mary table.
5/23/2005 v1.2 posted. Changes consist of
adding options for Sleeper characters.
7/2/2005 v1.3 posted. Fixed some HTML er-
rors.
2/27/2008 v1.4. Converted into PDF format
using LATEX. Removed unncessary skills
High Ritual and Hypertech. Added cost
for learning new spheres during play. Re-
moved minor typos and clarified sentence
structure.