This week, I worked on a scene with my players. They wanted to do an action against the Seers of the Throne, fellow Mages who collectively make the Illuminati look like a gossip circle at recess. Their goal was to use Mind Magic to enter their mind's and take out valuable information.
They were successful, to a point. It wasn't until the Seers got hip to it that things went south. A bunch of close calls, and a player action that inadvertently helped the antagonists lead to the Seers escape from harm.
Actually, I've got to mention the action. The scene took place on the shoreline of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. It initially began as a group of Mages pooling their Space magic to Scry on the Seer. In his bid to stop one of the Seers, the Scrying window (which can only observe) was turned into a Portal (which can be walked through), and one of the Matter Mages jumped through it. He turned the street he and the Seer were standing on from concrete to dandelion seeds using Matter Magic. This worked, and both he and the Seer descended into the freezing water of the Bay. However, this got the Seer out of line of sight of the Space Mages he knew were responsible for the scrying window and the portal, allowing him to escape without major difficulty.
The Matter Mage's player and I spoke, and he expressed his dissapointment. He wasn't sure how that could have, in any way, gone any better. As if they were impossible to beat.
They weren't actually. There were alot of close calls. The Seer that escaped left hemmorhaging because his teleportation spell went wrong. The major thing was that the Seers were prepared for a magical attack. I told the player that if someone actually drew a gun and kneecapped the asshole, he'd have had better luck than if he had used magic.
I think a lot of the problem is that many see Mages as a one for one type character. I have a thing, I do a thing, problem solved. In other systems like D and D, that's normally the case. Except this is Mage, where everyone has the potential access to the exact same magical skillset as you. You aren't just chucking fireballs at a person, you're potentially playing chess against them. Point, Counterpoint, Contingency, Reply. If I know Matter Magic and I attack a Matter Mage, he can counter, trying to cancel out my spell or lower it's effects. Sometimes it's easier to bum rush him physically than actually taking on someone with straight up magic.
That's one of the reasons why when someone tells me their character and I ask what can they do? I don't mean their magic, I mean what can they do outside of magic? That 1) Tells me what they'll lean towards with their magic and 2) Tells me a lot more about their character. These people weren't born to magic, so it makes no sense that that's all they can do.
So, in the interest of time, here is Craig's Tips For Using Magic in Awakening
1) What is your role? Are you a Healer? An Explorer? A Fighter? A sniper? Are you a researcher? An Administrator? A Tactician? That flavors how you do your magic, not the other way around. My Mages are often explorers and intel gatherers, seeking depth and understanding and using that. Their Magic is usually based around that as well.
I mention this because I have had a lot people answer What does your character do? by answering with their magic. Don't do this. Tell me what, if your character was human, would they be qualified to do? And what they wouldn't be qualified to do. It adds flavor and context to a magic system, and considering that this is a game where the sky is the limit on what you can do, flavor counts.
2) Your opposition are other Mages. With very few exceptions, you're most likely dealing with other Mages. That means that there is a very good chance that your opposition has the same skillset magically as you do. This makes life so much fucking complicated. Consider that a lot of the magic is also good at mitigating itself, and this can get tedious pretty quickly if the pulls are right.
3) Tactics, tactics, fucking tactics. Going in blindly against another Mage you've no knowledge about is a last ditch effort. Intelligence, planning, and precision are actually the best methods. A good mage assault should be like that...a tactical assault. Knowing what the opposition can do helps in mitigating what they can do against you, and this becomes doubly important if they are of higher power ranking than you or have a decidedly perilous Legacy, which cannot be mitigated as easily and requires special consideration.
A case in point. I play a character who is an urban explorer. What this means is that I can gain information about the history of a location, and a taste for the overall energy in the area. I can potentially learn about things in the present, the way to get around me is to be mobile, or to begin cloaking in time and space, and putting up false signals and clues. And doing a lot of, at the time, really unnecessary things. But it helps keep me off the scent, and buys you enough time.
I'm my own worst enemy.
4) Old Tricks are the best tricks. Sometimes, simply going around the magic is the best way of taking out the Mages. Mages are human, they require (to various degrees) food, water, shelter, and their internal organs and blood to remain internal. Taking those away will most likely take the Mage out of the equation, or leave them vulnerable. This is why most Mage fights begin in Proxy Wars where they use mortals to take assault them in ways where magic would just complicate matters. Siccing the cops on Mages is a great way to tie their hands as anything they would do risks drawing attention to them.
5) Paradox is the great equalizer. Paradox is what happens when you pull on Realities Strings too hard and the Abyss notices. Paradox can cause a lot of problems on a truly Lovecraftian level, or can cause massive amounts of damage. It affects all Mages, even those who worship the Abyss. That means that throwing around Magic, while effective, is potentially dangerous for all considered. That is something that needs to be considered in all means.
This all leads me to point 6)
Mage is not about what you can do with Magic. So you're a Mage, congratulations, so are most of the people in the room. Mage is about what Magic can do to you, how it changes and enhances who you already are, and how you think. It opens up a new level of how you do what you already do. If you're a set of magic abilities with a body attached, congratulations, you're a glass bomb waiting to blow.
Don't take that the wrong way, so long as you're willing to accept you're going to go off eventually.
Later.
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