Games, all sorts

Vigor represents your character's ability to channel eldritch energies. It is used to determine whether or not the spell your character is using is above his or her body's ability to safely channel.

Vigor is equal to the minimum of Stamina and Resolve. NB: Some pronounce this as V-eye-gor

Pick 2 arcana to be affinity arcana.

We aren't going to bother with an opposing arcana that is difficult for a character to learn.

A manifest's mana pool is double the size of the MtA mana pool. ¹⁾

In base MtA, improvised magic costs a point of mana if it included an arcana that was not an affinity arcana. Between this and rotes, manifests could throw down serious pain indefinitely (and potentially, little fear of paradox). With vulgar spells no longer a limiting factor, and rotes being uncommon, we're going to keep the rule that affinity arcana don't require mana expenditure (most of the time)

A spell will not require Mana expense if it possesses all of these traits:

• Trivial: dots used are equal to or lesser than Vigor (if non-Affinity) or Vigor + Eminence (if Affinity)
• Non-sympathetic: cast at sensory range or similar
• Affinity ²⁾ or Rote ³⁾: representing the character's specialties

Regardless of the above list, spells always require Mana if one or more of the following are true:

• Stressful: dots used are greater than Vigor (if non-Affinity) or Vigor + Eminence (if Affinity)
• Sympathetic: cast remotely or through Space 2
• Aggravated Damage: applies only to attack spells
• Requires Mana expenditure per the MtA writeup

Additionally, a Vulgar/Obvious spell's Nimbus Resonance may be avoided if an additional point of Mana is spent. This does not make the spell itself Covert; it only mitigates the Resonance flare.

In MtA, mana is pretty tough to get back. This kind of sucks for a fantasy game. To that end, we're going to make it a bit easier to recover. The following mana recovery mechanisms will be available:

• Pattern scouring: see MtA pg 77
• Blood Sacrifice: see MtA pg 78
• Oblations (MtA pg 77) will yield the hallows dots of mana OR successes on an eminence + composure (which is higher)
• 1 point whenever a point of willpower is recovered through rest ⁴⁾
• 1 point whenever a stunt is attempted

Further, a manifest may attempt to harvest mana from suitable environment sources (dependent on ancestry) through an eminence + appropriate skill roll. An elemental needs to commune with his or her elemental nature, while a demon may need to corrupt the virtuous. It takes an extended casting interval to perform this roll (so eminence 1-2 would be 1 roll every 90 minutes). There may be bonuses or penalties applied to this roll depending on circumstances (a manifest with fire elemental ancestry meditating at an active volcano eruption would get a +3, for example).

We're going to divide the extended casting times (mostly) by two. The following table has the eminence → extended casting intervals:

The length of time to cast an improvised-instant spell is a constant plus the highest number of arcana dots. After the initial game, the constant will be 1, unless we need to change it to reign in the power level. For example, a level 3 forces spell is going to take 4 rounds to cast.

Reflexive spells require a willpower if improvised.

In base Awakening, paradox is reality reacting to your will being imposed on it. As magic on Farne is far more real, we need to change the meaning a bit. Rather than the universe fighting back, paradox will be the ability to maintain control of a power while creating it. To this end, the concept of vulgarity drops out (that is, a vulgar spell doesn't invoke paradox by default), and is used for merely whether a casual observer can detect the magic.

With that out of the way, we'll divide spells into 2 classes:

1. Trivial - no risk of paradox
2. Stressful - risk of paradox

Trivial spells are those that won't require paradox. A spell is trivial if:

1. If the sum of all dots is less than or equal to Vigor + Eminence (if all dots are affinity arcana)
2. If the sum of all dots is less than or equal Vigor (if any dots are non-affinity)

Stressful spells require a paradox roll. All spells that aren't trivial are stressful. As they put stress on the body, the die pool will continue until the character has regained some mental fortitude. This means that paradox rolls will continue to increase until a character regains a point of willpower (through Vice/Virtue or a restful night's sleep). The extension of this is that if a character is unable to recover willpower, they're becoming increasingly stressed, and the paradox pool won't reset. Once reset, the default paradox pool will return to 1 die.

The base paradox pool is 1 die. Mitigation is the same.

We're not going to have rotes in the traditional sense. Every 12 experience points will earn the character a free rote. This rote does not incur a spell casting time penalty (see below). These rotes are effectively innate abilities, and have a +1 potence with respect to dispelling/counter-spelling. Additionally, a rote from an affinity Arcanum will not cost Mana.

TODO: figure out system so people don't get all max level free rotes.

Spending a point of mana allows the character to manifest a totemic anima banner. Such a display is an unmistakable sign that the character can channel the fundamental energies of the universe. Further, a nimbus flare up occurs when obvious abilities are invoked. These abilities are usually spells with the vulgar keyword in MtA, but not always. Further, some things listed as covert will also be obvious (and some vulgar things may be covert… we'll see). A stressful ability is always obvious (and thus always will incur nimbus resonance)

The manifest gains a point of nimbus resonance for each obvious ability that is invoked. Nimbus resonance goes down at 1 point per hour. The manifest gains a point of nimbus resonance equal to the highest level of the arcana being invoked. For example, a prime 3, life 2 ability will incur 3 points of nimbus resonance.

As nimbus resonance goes up, the manifest's otherworldly nature becomes increasingly hard to hide. The manifestation of the nimbus resonance is per caster, but the following chart should provide a rough guide. The manifest should customize this to his or her tastes.

Active observers get a bonus to notice the nimbus flare equal to half the current resonance level divided by 2, round up (resonance 5 would yield a +3 bonus). This bonus applies where thematically appropriate⁵⁾. Though seriously, hiding one's true nature at resonance 7 and higher is effectively impossible.

Nimbus resonance can be avoided either through the use of a point of mana, or through a -2 penalty⁶⁾ on the ability invocation.

As eminence increases, the more in tune with the exalted ancestry the manifest becomes. The following table describes eminence effects.

As Eminence increases, the nimbus will become more powerful.

The general notion here is that raining down death from the comfort of your living room works for the USAF, but not in a fantasy game. As such, we're going to make it a bit more difficult to do that. To this end, we're going to clip the bottom half of the sympathy table. A -10 penalty doesn't mean much if something is cast as a ritual with sufficient caffeine.

Next, unlike MtA, we don't have sleepers, or the Cult of Celebrity … (though we have the Occulted, MtA pg 115). However, the patterns of the Manifest resists being manipulated from afar. This provides a -1 penalty per dot of Eminence the target possesses.

Consider an intimate connection (-2 by default) to an Eminence 3 manifest. This would provide a -5 penalty to attack/target/manipulate/whatever sympathetically.