Mage the Ascension: The Dark Ages (Freeform, but based on a Tabletop Universe).

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Templum Domini

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Edit: Disclaimer - this is not canon-compliant with Dark Ages: Mage, due to the fact that I don't have that book. Expect me to make things up for areas where there isn't any available information. Also, we are using Spheres instead of Foundations for Mage powers.

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Basically, I want to start a game based on Mage: The Ascension in the Dark Ages, long before the Traditions versus Order of Reason/Technocracy War and the OOC flamewars that proceed after it. This game will be freeform, no dice, and rely on mutual trust and a 'co-writing' aspect to keep things fair. Note however, that unlike the last time I ran a World of Darkness game, 'races' other than Mage or Mortal need special GM permission to play; this is so that the themes of each gameline do not clash with one another and we are not drawn into debates about 'which race will win in a fight' every other page. Also, fair warning; those who do a bit of digging would know just how I wanted the last game to end back in 2015. However, that outcome is not necessarily what's going to happen in this game; that depends on what the players do.

The area of interest will be Anatolia and the Balkans - or the Haemus Mountains - in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade, or more specifically, after the Battle of Antioch on the Meander. You will be allowed to play from various Magical Factions:

- Vampires (With GM Permission)
- Werewolves (With GM Permission)
- Magi (Craftmasons)
- Magi (Messianic Voices)
- Magi (Cosian/Hippocratic Circle)
- Magi (Old Faith)
- Magi (Order of Hermes)
- Magi (Ahl-i-Batin)

As well as various Mundane Factions:

- Latin Empire of Constantinople
- Bulgaria
- Seljuk Sultanate of Rum
- Empire of Nicaea

The Supernatural Side of the World of Darkness is still reeling from the Vampire intrigues that led to the Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople, with the Werewolf Silver Fangs vowing revenge. The Messianic Voices, meanwhile, have been struck by a scandal as it was revealed that several of their own members unwittingly helped the Lasombra Vampires in the Crusade and Sack.

In Nicaea, meanwhile, members of the Artificers, more members of the Messianic Voices, and the remnants of the Cosian/Hippocratic Circle meet in order to discuss reactions to the exile of the Byzantine - no, Roman - Emperors from the 'Second Rome'...

Edit: Basic Character Sheet:

Name:
Appearance:
Age:
Sex:
Skills (Mundane Skills and Magical Ones; add Spheres here if you're a Mage):
Short bio:


There are 9 different types of Magic Power.

Correspondence: The magic of Communication and Transportation
Entropy: The magic of Fate and Death
Forces: The magic of fireballs, lightning strikes, and freeze rays
Life: The magic of healing or Biological construct
Matter: The magic of matter and manipulating it.
Mind: The magic of Enthrallment, Empathy, and Mental Organization
Prime: The magic of magic, making magic permanent, affecting people's magical circuits
Spirit: The magic of the Soul, and manipulating the unseen supernatural worlds of ghosts and ethers
Time: The magic of Time, and Time Manipulation

Each type has a measured level of power from 1 to 5. Note that from Level 2 onward, every example listed on the list are merely suggestions; if you have the required level for one type of Magic, then you can do every sort of spell equivalent to the examples listed. For example, Level 2 Correspondence allows not just messaging and warding, but also scrying; any Mage that can do one of those things can do all of them and equivalent miracles.

Level 1 is sensory; you can see magic of the type you select, as well as see the hidden secrets of the Universe.
Correspondence: You can detect portals, teleporting people, and attempts to spy on you with Magic. You also have a perfect sense of direction.
Entropy: You can see Ghosts, magically sense dead bodies and decaying objects even when they are hidden from you, and abnormalities in luck/fate.
Forces: You can see outside the range of visible light (infrared, ultraviolet, etc) hear sounds outside the normal hearing range, and see magic spells that affect those things.
Life: You can sense living beings and organic matter and instantly diagnose any form of disease.
Matter: You can see the composition of inorganic matter, as well as small details in craftsmanship; you can instantly know if a bill is counterfeit.
Mind: You can sense the minds of Humans and Animals, and detect Mind Control.
Prime: See all Magic, but not know what type a certain spell belongs to.
Spirit: See nature spirits and other dimensions (Hyperspace).
Time: See people stopping or speeding up time. You also know what time it is even without seeing the sun or having a watch.

Level 2, is where you can do the little power stuff. You can affect things in small ways:
Correspondence: Send messages that cannot be intercepted, or cast a mystic ward, stopping incoming teleporters or preventing magical eavesdropping.
Entropy: Affect probability in small instances (like dice rolls), Break simple machines, predict future, talk with Ghosts.
Forces: Featherfall, Ball Lightning; Control existing Sound, Light (including Radiation), Heat, and Kinetic Energy. Cast holographic illusions (as opposed to mental).
Life: Heal yourself (Just yourself, not others), control insects, fungi, and plants.
Matter: Make an excellent counterfeit bill, transmute lead to gold.
Mind: Give someone a mental compulsion, cast mental illusions (as opposed to holographic ones).
Prime: Create Magitech, Set magical patterns, enchant a weapon to do damage unhealable by magic.
Spirit: Commune with Nature Spirits.
Time: Get a prediction of the future (not perfect), see events in the past (this, however, is unless counteracted with magic).

Note: As said, the examples listed above are just suggestions; if something falls under [Insert Sphere Here], isn't listed, and is equivalent to this level, feel free to have that spell as well.

Level 3, is more powerful and allows you to push others...
Correspondence: Teleportation, SuperSpeed. You can also see multiple places simultaneously.
Entropy: Break Complex Machines or Structures, Raise Skeletons
Forces: Palpatine Lightning Attacks, Fireballs, Telekinetic Assault, create Light, Sound, Radiation, and Heat, as well as other natural forces.
Life: Heal others, enhance your eyesight, grow your fingernails into claws, control Animals. You can also turn lesser forms of life (snails, insects) into other lesser forms of life (turnips, orchids).
Matter: Turn lead into fog, solid into liquid, ice into burning plasma.
Mind: Mental Command on a conscious level not subconscious or Dreamwalk.
Prime: Create complex magitech. Create biological magi-constructs (non-perpetuating), blast people with bolts of silver light whose damage cannot be healed by magic.
Spirit: Summon Nature Spirits, Enter Hyperspace by yourself.
Time: Slow Time to a crawl for you, loop time for a few seconds (Requires the permission of the majority of players and the GMs).

Note: As said, the examples listed above are just suggestions; if something falls under [Insert Sphere Here], isn't listed, and is equivalent to this level, feel free to have that spell as well.

Level 4, is super powerful, and has to be earned during gameplay.
Correspondence: Mass Teleportation or Portals. You can also use this spell in conjunction with Mind and Life to appear in multiple places at once, cloning yourself.
Entropy: Destroy Living Things, Create Complex Undead (with Prime).
Forces: Summon Storms, Fire Rain.
Life: Affect Life in Complex ways.
Matter: Create stable forms of matter that have magical properties (Orichalcum, Mithril, Nihilitic Fluids)
Mind: Dominate a person or Brainwash.
Prime: Merge Magitech into any human form, suck out magical energy from ordinary objects.
Spirit: Create Nature Spirits, and stay in Hyperspace for years without needing to eat, sleep, and drink.
Time: Set time (Conditional effects that go off on specified conditions, for example; pressing this trigger causes your gun to emit a fireball.). Stop Time.

Note: As said, the examples listed above are just suggestions; if something falls under [Insert Sphere Here], isn't listed, and is equivalent to this level, feel free to have that spell as well.

Level 5 is deity-like, and unavailable to players and requires GM permission to even try to do.
Correspondence: Warp Space, Teleport to anywhere.
Entropy: Destroy Thoughts and ideas, Perfect Prediction of the Future.
Forces: Summon Hurricane or equivalent natural disasters.
Life: Perfect Transformation to another form.
Matter: Make materials that shatter the Laws of Physics.
Mind: Mass Mental Control, Permanent Enthrallment.
Prime: Make a place of Power of any scale, Siphon Magical Energy from Other Mages.
Spirit: Bring Cthulhu-level entities into the material world.
Time: Time Travel (Forbidden forever).

Note: As said, the examples listed above are just suggestions; if something falls under [Insert Sphere Here], isn't listed, and is equivalent to this level, feel free to have that spell as well...Not.

After reading the above hider, if your character's a Mage (not a Vampire or Fae, but a Mage), distribute 12 points among the 9 Spheres; you can have up to Level 3 in one of them:

Correspondence:
Entropy:
Forces:
Life:
Matter:
Mind:
Prime:
Spirit:
Time:
 
I hope this character is acceptable.

Name:
Serena Cuthbert

Appearance: A woman of average height and weight, Serena is a woman of somewhat fair complexion with jet black hair done in a ponytail and deep emerald green eyes inherited from her Norman father. She is often clad in a black hooded cloak and a simple gray peasant's tunic and pants, and is often barefoot or only wearing simple sandals. She also wears a small iron amulet around her neck, shaped like the symbol of Jupiter.

Age: 19

Sex: Female

Skills (Mundane Skills and Magical Ones; add Spheres here if you're a Mage): Melee 1, Hearth Wisdom 3, Medicine 2, Linguistics 1 (Latin), Occult 1, Life 3, Prime 2, Spirit 2, Forces 2, Entropy 2, Correspondence 1

Short bio: A socially awkward woman of mixed Norman and Italian descent, Serena is of a lower-class background, hailing from a family of peasant freemen. Her mother and grandmother were both extremely superstitious and well-versed in the pagan traditions and folklore of the old Roman times, though neither of them were Awakened. Serena became obsessed with both the concepts of local folk magic and Greco-Roman paganism, eventually becoming a believer in the Old Gods and Goddesses and secretly renouncing her Christian upbringing. Upon obsessively researching the old ways as best she could and meditating on the old myths and legends, she became awakened at the age of sixteen. Three years later, she is associated with the Magi of the Old Faith and is living in Greece, having traveled from Italy along with the Latins who came during the Fourth Crusade and she is trying to connect with other Magi in the area. Originally illiterate, Serena is in the process of learning to read and write.
 
I might be able to get someone to play in this setting.

I PM'd mechabunny mechabunny about this game since I've met him in real life (in fact, I recommended he join this website) and now I'll see what his response is.
 
Note, though, that if we only have two players, we are going to turn this into a 'party' RP instead of an 'open-world' one.
 
Since I'm new I guess this is what I'll come up with

Name: Dairou Xia
Appearance: Tanned, Asian-Faced, Wears robe (Mage, duh)
Age: 30
Sex: Male
Skills (Mundane Skills and Magical Ones; add Spheres here if you're a Mage): (Will post after looking up skills)
Short bio: (Will put next post once I figure out how mages work here lol)
 
I'm usually much more detailed, but without information I can't give much.

I can fill you in on any information you may need. There's also the links to the White Wolf Wiki that are located in the opening post of the thread.
 
Basically, you just do everything freeform.

Edit: And by that, no dice, no stats except for Sphere numbers/level, and for skills and biography, you write what your character is good at and what is your backstory.

Within reason, of course; write too many skills or too powerful skills or too vague skills and you get rejected. Write a backstory that's improbable and you get rejected.

Edit 2: And yes, Doctor Sammy did use the official list of skills from the original tabletop game books. That is optional.
 
Last edited:
Basically, you just do everything freeform.

Edit: And by that, no dice, no stats except for Sphere numbers/level, and for skills and biography, you write what your character is good at and what is your backstory.

Within reason, of course; write too many skills or too powerful skills or too vague skills and you get rejected. Write a backstory that's improbable and you get rejected.

Edit 2: And yes, Doctor Sammy did use the official list of skills from the original tabletop game books. That is optional.
Um, as for being rude, I don't think you've been rude. But, I've never been one to remove anything that makes sense. I've always made characters with a sense of balance.
 
Um, as for being rude, I don't think you've been rude. But, I've never been one to remove anything that makes sense. I've always made characters with a sense of balance.

I see. Now, you have little knowledge of Old World of Darkness, I take it?
 
I'll get back in touch with mechabunny. Last I heard, he was going to make his character one of the Craftmasons.
 
I've been at an anime convention this past weekend so I haven't been able to get back in touch with him yet.
 
I've been at an anime convention this past weekend so I haven't been able to get back in touch with him yet.

All right; tell me when you do, although I am pondering just shutting down this game...
 
Sorry, I just am not a big fan of forums due to this site doesn't ever keep me logged in so I hate repeating the process, via logging in through facebook.
 
Thursday I'll have my character fleshed out if you still are going to run the game then
 
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