Writing Magick Scenes

When writing a scene involving the casting of magick, please describe the effect the character is trying to create, the spheres involved, and any willpower or quintessence spent. Assume that everyone has full willpower and quintessence up to their avatar rating. Please don't try to attempt magick that is clearly beyond the spheres your character possesses. As the game goes on, we'll do some sort of experience reward that will allow the characters to increase their spheres, so mind-boggling effects might someday become possible [grin].

It's probably safe in general to assume that low-level magic (level 2 and lower) that is not being opposed by a bad guy or other player simply works as you want it to. This is especially true for magic that is NOT cast in the heat of battle and that is simply used as part of the storyline. It's much better to keep the flow of the story going than to worry about too much spell failure!

Please think about the possible outcomes if you decide to cast any magick that will affect the other players' characters. Depending on the situation and the spell they may, or may not, be happy about the effect. You should give them an opportunity to counter your magick, and should therefore indicate in your post what you intend will happen, but also that there may be a different outcome. The other players will need to post their reactions to your spell.

The GMs will decide what then happens and solve any contested actions. We may then write a post putting everyone's actions together to indicate what actually happened. We'll judge based on the difficulty of the effect, the character's Arete rating, spheres rating, quintessence used, and willpower used. We'll want to encourage dramatic writing that enhances the story for everyone, so we'll consider the effect on the plot as well. You'll also get points for writing the scene when we award experience points.

Sometimes magick will fail and paradox might be earned. Paradox is important to the Mage system and offers a lot of dramatic potential, so we need to make sure we incorporate it somehow.

This rule can be skipped for trivial uses of magick that don't really affect the gameplay. Use your judgement here.