Guidelines for writing magic scenes

The point of this game is dramatic entertainment, a sense of fairness, and a good story. There is a price for spellcasting (and also mundane actions) but anything that advance these three points are firmly encouraged. Anything that doesn't, is tolerated if minor – and will exact a high price from the character or player if it continues.

Quintessence, willpower, and paradox have a direct bearing on what feats the characters can accomplish. The act of using magic doesn't actually use any mystical "energy" unless quintessence is expended to make the casting easier. Of course, like anything that takes intense concentration, the use of powerful magic will be fatiguing. For example, staying up most of the night doing ritual magic is especially tiring, but rest and food will relieve those symptoms.

Another side effect of magic use is paradox, which is accumulated in a mage's body when he/she attempts to warp reality too much or too often. Eventually, when enough paradox builds up, something bad happens to the mage.

This is also why Mind, Spirit, and Entropy magic isn't as 'dangerous' as Forces, Correspondence, Life, or Matter. The effects of Mind magic, even gonzo rank 5 Mind Magic, are difficult to prove or disprove using empirical evidence. Spirit magic deals with a world that can't be perceived by sleepers and their technology. Entropy affects probability, so unless it's used to destroy an object, it's so subtle that it's virtually impossible to prove with casual observation.

That's the price that Mages with Life and Forces have to pay: you get the Hollywood special effects explosions and shapeshifting, but it's a lot less subtle and darned difficult to disguise.

Quintessence can be used to reduce the difficulty of casting magic (1 point of quintessence reduces the difficulty by 1). Quintessence can be restored by meditating in a Node (up to your Avatar rating). You can actually get more quintessence stored in your pattern by using Prime magic at a Node (each success on the magic roll gets you 1 quintessence).

Willpower, too, comes into play. You can spent a point of willpower to get an automatic success at doing something (including magic). Willpower is restored at the end of a story or by completing certain personal goals.

MtA is interesting in that Arete is never affected by wound penalties. Technically, you could be an armless bleeding cripple and still toss off a spell using your entire Arete pool. Some GMs might think this is bunk, but others might like this concept just fine.

Foci are a mixed blessing. According to Mage 2.0 rules, all Mages (regardless of school) start with a focus for each sphere. No focus, no spellcasting- and a focus can be anything from your favorite teddy bear to Middle Egyptian Heiroglyphs, with GM approval. However, as your Arete and comprehension increases, you can discard 1 sphere-related focus for each dot of Arete you gain past the first. Should you choose to use a Focus anyway, you gain the benefit of -1 from your target number, as if you had spent a point of Quintessence.

Once the characters are away from a Node and casting in front of sleepers, the difficulty level of casting magick rises a lot. Fast-casting is also a factor in the difficulty of magic. The use of circles, candles, ritual components, and assorted cool mumbo-jumbo are not just ceremonial trappings- these actions are like following a blueprint to build a house. To continue the metaphor, you can build a shelter out of sticks and straw with no master plan, but don't expect to get similar results to a log cabin. Slow and steady is less demanding than fast, furious, and frantic.

TJ started to gather power, preparing to redirect the energy from the running car motor into some severe ass kicking action. Dragging all the kinetic power he could, TJ grabbed a nice blunt instrument about two feet in length, and made his way upstairs toward the bedrooms. As TJ mounts the stairs he gathers together the potential kinetic force garnered from the running engine, and mustering the Prime quintessence he imbues his blunt instrument with the powers combined. Mating it to Aleska's pattern from his last confrontation with her, he creates a weapon that will discharge a lethal discharge of kinetic energy, and a holy stroke of destruction upon whomever he strikes with it. Aleska will also feel her essence being ripped off piece by piece. Any hit will be extremely nasty. However each would tend to taken as just lucky blow of exceptional force rather than a bolt of energy across the room.

In terms of the MtA rules:

TJ is charging a piece of lumber with potential kinetic energy to make it a more effective weapon, as a Forces-3 effect. It would be considered non-vulgar so the difficulty will be 3+3 = 6.

The other effect to enchant the weapon is with Prime so that it does extra aggravated damage is a Prime-2 effect. This could probably be considered vulgar too in front of sleepers. Difficulty is 2 + 5 = 7. So, to work out the damage from the club:

Club: Strength + 1 (or 3 + 1 = 4)
Forces-3: This will add 2 dice of damage per success
Prime-2: This will do an additional 1 die of damage per success in aggravated damage that is non-soakable.

In order to cast it successfully, TJ will probably have to expend some quintessence on each effect to lower the difficulty to something reasonable. If I were him, I'd also spent some willpower to ensure at least one success on each effect.