aWoD: Continued

[Ganbare Gincun]

I could never work out how the technocracy could lose at anything.

The Technocracy is an relatively small organization that is encumbered by a byzantine and ineffective bureaucracy and constant infighting between the factions that comprise its membership. They must also work to root out the seeds of both internal dissent and Nephandi corruption festering within their ranks at all times. These factors have a severe impact on their operational effectiveness, which in turn means that many supernaturals can stay off their radar altogether and may only face minimal Technocratic opposition upon discovery.

[Username17]

Mages in general cannot lose as long as they are even passably familiar with physics. Changing root constants in the general theory as applies to specific people is seriously like Forces 2, and that shit goes up to 5. The Technocracy is full of Mages and thus can't lose to any bullshit that vampires and shit pull out no matter what. However they are the "defenders" in the Mage War, which means that they are capital F fucked - as noted Mages cannot lose, so the acting party always wins. And in that schema, it was the traditions.

Anyway, that kind of bullshit is why I'm making aWoD in the first place. So right now, the Orphic Sorceries are looking done to me. Editing complaints?

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Orphic Sorceries

Orphic Sorceries are collections of spells and occult knowledge that draw their arcane power from Mictlan. The Gloom provides power that is dark, timeless, destructive, and really very frightening to the living. And for good reason, it truly does act as a window into one's mortality. The land of the dead calls inexorably to all living creatures, and sooner or later it will claim them all, and when Orphic Sorceries are used, the draw of death becomes even stronger. This effect is not particularly noticeable for large creatures like humans or even dogs – the cells on the outside of your body are in a constant state of death and rebirth anyway, and even the heaviest exposure to the Gloom is unlikely to give you more than a mild frost burn. But for the very tiny and ephemeral creatures whose lives are over in a day anyway, death magic signals the end. A skilled occultist can use a bag of mayflies or the like to spot the moment that death magic is used, and to gauge the strength, distance, and direction towards the source of The Gloom.

Magic of Mictlan is highly antithetical to seeds, and you can counter Orphic Sorceries by throwing grains at them. Rice, wheat, barley, or maize kernels work equally well, but they have to be live grains. Remember that many commercial food products are neutralized with radiation or flash heating to keep them from going bad.

Lure of Destruction
Lately just gazing into the Abyss has lost its thrill. I'm pissing into it.

There is something distinctly alluring about the end. Not just that we cannot help but eventually reach the conclusion, but that indeed there is always a part of us that wants to. Practitioners of the Lure of Destruction are very well acquainted with doom in all its forms and their Death Threshold increases by 1. With Advanced Lure of Destruction, the Death Threshold increases by 2, and with Elder Lure of Destruction it increases by 3.

Basic Disciplines

• Tongue of the Serpent The character's bite is toxic. Upon gaining this ability, the character must choose whether their poison is continuous or optional. A character whose poison is optional will have some kind of clear and potentially masquerade breaking physical manifestation of their poison “turning on” while a character whose poison is continuous has no outward sign that their bite carries unusual properties. For example: a Ventrue has retractable serpent fangs, and they are perfectly capable of retracting them and kissing people without anything special happening; while a Soulless has a mouth that appears to just be a normal human mouth but their saliva is a deadly venom. A character with Tongue of the Serpent is immune to poisons.

  Poison	Effect	Notes
  Euphoric	Victim dazed and anesthetized, addictive	This is the poison that Ventrue get.
  Hallucinogenic	Victim goes crazy, addictive	This is the poison that Deep Ones get
  Paralytic	Victim immobilized	This is the poison that Triffids get
  Soporific	Victim fatigued
  Toxic	Victim suffers damage	This is the poison that Soulless get

  
  
• Touch of Darkness The character's physical attacks inflict aggravated damage. The character can also scratch and bite into metal without hurting themselves.

Advanced Disciplines

• Glimpse of the Abyss The character can show a bit of the inevitable doom that awaits us all to a group of targets. The character makes an opposed Strength + Athletics or Willpower + Expression test against each victim's Willpower. Every victim who is affected is stunned for a turn with awe and despair. Even Doom loses its impact, and a target who is affected will be harder to affect in the same evening – apply a 1 hit penalty to the character for each time a particular victim has been assaulted. Using Glimpse of the Abyss takes a Complex Action, and extends to Line of Sight.
• Withering The character can accelerate the rush to death of those around them. By spending a Simple Action, the character can weaken a foe until they cannot even stand. The character makes an Agility + Combat or Strength + Athletics test and the victim's Strength is reduced by the number of hits until the end of the scene. Multiple Witherings do not stack, but a victim whose Strength is reduced to zero collapses.

Elder Disciplines

• Death Knell The character shuts off access to The Gloom. All creatures with a Potency of zero and an Orphic power source (such as shamblers) simply cease to be supernatural creatures (or indeed, creatures at all). The character makes an Agility + Combat or Strength + Athletics test and all Orphic creatures lose that many power points. Creatures without enough Power Points to lose take damage levels equal to the difference. All Shadow Gates close, and all Ghosts are deported to the Deep Gloom. The power takes a Complex Action and a power point, and it extends out to 100 meters per point of Potency.
• Shadow Gate By spending a power point, the character creates a Shadow Gate, a rift in space that allows the jealous power of Mictlan to rush through into the material world. Depending on the size, creatures may be able to move back and forth through it. The strength of the gate is equal to the hits on a Strength + Athletics test or a Willpower + Expression test. The Shadow Gate requires a complex action and a Power Point to open.

Necromancy
“Everything ends and everything dies. That is not a good thing or a bad thing. It's simply inevitable. More than any other truth, the end cannot be eternally avoided.”

Necromancy is the incredibly creepy sorcerous path of handling the dead. Necromancers can see Ghosts and things that are in Mictlan without actually putting themselves into those areas and the potential harm's way that could entail. Characters with advanced Necromancy can intuitively sense what items constitute a Wraith's fetters and where the fetters of a viewed Wraith might lay. A character with Elder Necromancy can feel the presence and knows the goals of all Poltergeists and Shadow Gates within 100 kilometers of their position. Ghosts intuitively know that a Necromancer can sense them, and they react accordingly.

Basic Disciplines

• Compel Spirits The character can send Ghosts from Mictlan into the material world or vice versa. By spending a Complex Action and making an opposed Willpower + Empathy or Logic + Bureaucracy test against the Ghost's Willpower, it can be sent to the Material, the Shallow Gloom, or the Deep Gloom, at the necromancer's option.
• Summon Spirit By naming a dead person or holding up a part of their body, the character can draw their Ghost to themselves unless it has been bottled, destroyed, or subsumed into a Poltergeist. The character makes a Logic + Medicine or Logic + Operations check, with a difficulty of how exactly they can describe the Ghost they are looking for.

Advanced Disciplines

• Nightcry The character screams a wail of pain and despair into the deepest portions of Mictlan, and draws a Poltergeist to their position. This requires a Power Point and a Complex Action. By making a Willpower + Empathy or Logic + Bureaucracy test against the Poltergeist's Willpower, the character can compel it to begin its rain of destruction upon a target of their choice. What else the Poltergeist does from being in the material world is totally up to it.
• Reanimate The character makes a body into a Shambler or Soulless. A Shambler comes into existence under the control of the necromancer, and a Soulless does not. If the body was once a Luminary, their spirit is drawn back into their body and they become (an uncontrolled) Revenant. A necromancer can only maintain control of 2 Shamblers per point of Willpower they have. If they make more Shamblers than that, they lose control of some of their Shamblers at random at some inconvenient time in the next day or so. Reanimating the dead is hard (Threshold 3), costs a Power Point per corpse, and has an expected time of 1 Day (net hits reduce the time normally). It is a Logic + Medicine or Logic + Operations check. Remember that Shamblers don't have the capacity to follow complex orders.

Elder Disciplines

• Resurrection The character can return life to someone who is dead. In order to work, the character must have access to the target's ghost and an “appropriate” body. The target's own body is appropriate, as is any other body of the same sex and build. Resurrecting the dead is hard (Threshold 3), and requires a Logic + Medicine or Willpower + Empathy check with an expected time of 1 day (net hits reduce the time normally). Resurrection costs 3 Power Points. Resurrecting a Revenant retores them to humanity.
• Zombie Mastery The character has no particular limit for how many Shamblers they can create and retain control of with Reanimate (if they have that ability). In addition, the character can take control of Zombies of any type (Shamblers, Soulless, or even Revenants). This takes a Complex Action and costs a Power Point. The character makes a Logic + Operations or Willpower + Tactics test and takes command of a number of Zombies equal to the hits. Revenants are allowed to resist with Willpower. Commanded Zombies reel and cease brain eating while shuffling about as if struck until given orders.

Obtenebration
“Spooky. Seriously.”

Obtenebration is a sorcerous discipline that governs and depends upon shadows. Darkness is in no short supply in something called the “World of Darkness” and areas with no light at all can be thought of as being like some singular giant shadow. Even extremely bright lights cause objects to cast shadows that are really quite noticeable. As such, in a general sort of way, the fact that Obtenebration requires shadows to function is pretty much a formality. However, if characters are in the process of sky diving or are in the areas of exceptional ambient light, the powers of Obtenebration can seriously be neutralized. Having Obtenebration makes a character sneakier and spookier, giving them a +1 bonus to Stealth and Intimidate. This bonus increases to +2 with Advanced, and +3 with Elder Obtenebration.

Basic Disciplines

• Eyes of the Night The character can see and hear out of distant shadows. The character can see in darkness at any time (unlike Supernatural Senses, this use does not render the character susceptible to glare), and by spending a Power Point they can draw their senses from a pool of darkness that is within 100 meters per Potency. The character makes an Intuition + Empathy or Intuition + Perception check, with a threshold based on how accurately they can describe the shadow they wish to peer out of.
• Shadow Play The character's lighting appears to have been done by professional special effects technicians. They can manipulate shadows and to a lesser extent light as well. This gives a +2 bonus to any attempt to become the center of attention or to escape unnoticed. This bonus increases to +4 with Advanced Obtenebration and +6 with Elder Obtenebration.

Advanced Disciplines

• Call the Lamprey The character can through force of will drain Power out of a victim through their shadow. By spending a Complex Action and making an opposed Intuition + Larceny or Intuition + Combat check against the target's Willpower, the character can cause unsoaked damage equal to the number of net hits, and regain a number of Power points equal to the number of net hits.
• Solid Darkness The character can spend a Power Point to fashion steel hard tendrils of solid shadow and use them to grasp, carry and tear. The darkness can extend out to a meter per Potency from its source Shadow, and has Strength equal to the Character's Intuition. Solid Darkness is completely silent, and can rather easily grab someone by complete surprise.

Elder Disciplines

• Parambulum in Tenebris The character can step into one shadow and come out of another one that they can perceive. The transportation itself is a Simple Action that costs 1 Power to activate. No intervening space is used, and nothing can block the movement. The character may take anything and anyone they or their shadow tendrils can carry.
• Shadow Body The character can transform into an intangible shadow form. A body of shadow pass harmlessly through physical objects save for those of a material they are vulnerable to. Entering or leaving the Shadow Body is a Complex Action. Assuming the Shadow Body takes a Power Point. Being made out of pure shadow makes it very easy to hide in areas which have any dimness worth mentioning. But it's also super hard to explain from a Masquerade point of view.

Path of Blood
Given time, blood does become thicker than water.

The Path of Blood delves into the intricacies of life and death from a very liquid and visceral standpoint. Deep familiarity of this sort with blood gives advantages. The character gains a +1 bonus to Medicine and Survival for having this discipline. The bonus increases to +2 if they have Advanced, and +3 if they have Elder Path of Blood.

Basic Disciplines

• Blood Bondage
  The character can invest a power point into a sample of their own blood, allowing them to transfer power points to others – even to character's who cannot normally have power points or who are at their limit of power points. The character's blood is also horrendously addictive; like freebase cocaine.
• Thaumaturgical Forensics
  The character can make accurate pronouncements about biological samples and give weird CSI tirades given access to creepy magical equipment. The character makes a Logic + Medicine or Logic + Research check. The kinds of information gained varies by the number of hits. Examples follow of investigating the origin of a lock of hair and investigating the source of a lethal wound:

  	Hits	Hair Sample	Wound
  	1	“Human Woman. Blond.”	“Burns. Nasty Ones.”
  	2	“She's still alive.”	“These fires burned by magic.”
  	3	“She's a Luminary.”	“A Firestarter did this at short range.”
  	4	“Her name is Susan.”	“The Firestarter was a Baali Witch.”
  	5	“She is currently in Dresden.”	“His name was Karlov.”
  	6	“She is thinking about betraying her friend Elizabeth.”	“This was a fight over money.”

  
  

Advanced Disciplines

• Blood of Acid
  The character can bleed like one of the xenomorphs from Aliens. Anyone who is within melee range when something inflicts damage on the character is subject to being sprayed with black caustic fluid. Little droplets of the stuff sent in such a circumstance are sufficient to constitute a damage 3 attack. If the character is conscious, they can actively attempt to get their blood to go onto a specific person and try to stage it up with a Strength + Survival or Strength + Combat test. The character can also use their blood in more controlled fashions – that stuff will burn through the lock on a fire door in a few minutes.
• Theft of Vitae
  The character draws blood and power directly out of a victim. Little spheres of blood fly out of the victim towards the character, who thence absorbs the droplets in some suitably dramatic fashion such as having them pop into the character's mouth or outstretched hand. The character uses a Complex action and makes an opposed Agility + Larceny or Logic + Medicine test against the target's Strength. Every net hit causes the victim an unsoaked damage level and if they have any power points they lose one of them per net hit. This power does not cost power points, and indeed the character gains one power point per net hit (up to their normal maximum).

Elder Disciplines

• Crimson Death Given a sample of blood from a target, the character an send a lethal curse against them that will brutally murder them no matter how far they have traveled. The character burns the blood sample and spends an hour sending evil thoughts into it and spends a power point. The character makes an opposed Logic + Medicine or Logic + Survival test against the target's Strength. On a success, the victim snaps into a dozen pieces or more, looking momentarily like they were painted upon a broken window pane. Blood gushes from every crack, and they fall into chunks dead as dry bones.
• Blood Puppets The character can take control of victims by puppeting their blood around. By spending a power point and a complex action, the character can turn a number of people into marionettes. The character makes a Willpower + Medicine or Logic + Operations check, and takes control of a number of human extras equal to the number of hits for the remainder of the scene.

Symphony of Silence
Silence is Deafening.

The Symphony of Silence is a set of magical music that brings things to a frozen stop. Supposedly it constitutes portions of the inevitable music that ends all of existence. In order to use any ability from the Symphony of Silence, the character must be capable of making music – although whether through playing a musical instrument or singing is irrelevant. Learning the Symphony of Silence gives you perfect pitch. A character with Advanced Symphony of Silence can hear every sound uttered within the range of music they make – effectively giving themselves active sonar.

Basic Disciplines

• Frozen Note The character can play a song that sharply reduces the temperature in an area or object. The character makes a Logic + Artisan or Charisma + Expression test, a reduces the temperature by 5 degrees per hit. When focused on a living creature, this can be quite damaging. Cold blooded creatures pass out, and warm blooded creatures resist one damage per hit. This has no adverse effect on undead or inanimate creatures like vampires and prometheans. Temperature dropped in this way returns to normal when exposed to heat sources (such as those contained inside a mammal), but there is nothing preventing the character from maintaining the song round to round to keep the temperature low. Multiple songs played in rapid succession do not stack.
• Missing Voice The character can move the apparent origins of sounds. The required music appears to eerily come from empty space, and the character can decide the origin of any other sounds as well. The character makes a Logic + Artisan or Charisma + Expression test, and the character gains control of the apparent origin of every sound they are aware of within 3 meters per hit for as long as they play. At Advanced Symphony of Silence, this control extends to 10 meters per hit, and at Elder the control extends to 30 meters per hit.
• Silent Toll

The character can suppress all sound up to the volume of the music generated, including the music itself.
Advanced Disciplines

• Prison of Ice The character creates ice sufficient to hold someone in place or build something out of. By spending a power point and a complex action, the character can create a cubic meter of ice within 10 meters of themselves. The ice can be in any shape, forms instantly, and can cover someone's wrists, feet, or even mouth. The character can make a Logic + Artisan or Charisma + Expression test to improve the workmanship and solidity of the ice.
• Death Note The character plays the song that ends a man. The character spends a complex action and makes a ranged attack, using Logic + Artisan or Agility + Combat and inflicts lethal damage equal to the character's Charisma attribute. Death Note is resisted with Intuition rather than Strength and ignores armor or its equivalent and cannot be dodged. This ability can only be used if the character has already been playing for a minute or more.

Elder Disciplines

• Frozen Day The weather is shifted into bitter cold. The character spends a power point and an expected amount of time of 1 day. The character makes a Logic + Artisan or Charisma + Expression test, with net hits reducing the amount of time required. The cold snap extends up to 10 kilometers in every direction per Potency of the character. The character can choose any amount of reduction in temperature, and the thermometers will drop pretty linearly to that extent.
• Planar Discord Travel between the worlds becomes essentially impossible while the song is played and for some amount of time afterward. The area covered can be any size centered on the character, to a limit of 1 kilometer per point of Potency in radius. The character makes a Logic + Artisan or Charisma + Expression test to increase the time frame of the discontinuity. The timeframe starts at 1 hour with one hit.

-Username17

[Vnonymous]

Why does Symphony of Silence have a third ability with no text?

[A Hammer]

Why does Symphony of Silence have a third ability with no text?

Silent Toll does have text, it's just that a misplaced list tag has deposited it just above the "Advanced Disciplines" heading.

[The Lunatic Fringe]

What temperature system does frozen note use?

edit: The perfect pitch granted by Symphony of Silence ought to have a defined effect on playing music.

[Ice9]

On Solid Darkness, what's the range between the character and the source shadow? Line of sight?

Also, am I missing something, or is Crimson Death pretty much a guaranteed kill against pretty much anyone? Given that even a single bloody knife can yield dozens of blood samples with a small enough syringe, you can just keep trying it until you succeed. Meanwhile, they have a very hard time doing anything about it, because you could be anywhere in the entire world.

[Quantumboost]

Khaibit are listed as having Tongue of the Serpent, do they have a predefined poison or can it be chosen freely?

Would it be desirable/undesirable for Tongue of the Serpent to be selected multiple times for multiple poisons, like Abyss of the Body?

Does Death Knell affect its caster if they happen to be an Orphic-powered creature?

In the "you get this for Basic/Advanced/Elder" description for Necromancy, "advanced Necromancy" doesn't have the descriptor capitalized while "Elder Necromancy" does. Not necessarily wrong, just inconsistent.
Summon Spirit - "a difficulty of how exactly they can describe the Ghost they are looking for" - could there be examples?

Reanimate - "they become (an uncontrolled) Revenant." - should be "they become an (uncontrolled) Revenant."

Call the Lamprey - "The character can through force of will drain Power out of a victim through their shadow." - commas around "through force of will" seem appropriate. Possibly subjective, don't care enough to actually push it against resistance

Shadow Body - "A body of shadow pass harmlessly through" - should correct to "A body of shadow passes harmlessly through"

Shadow Body, Blood of Acid - Should add "This ability is a Protean power."

Blood Bondage - "even to character's who" should be "even to characters who"

Frozen Note - "a reduces the temperature by 5 degrees per hit" should be "and reduces the temperature by 5 degrees per hit"

Edit: Also, hooray Lure of Destruction - now we just need Potence to make all kinds of types "playable".

[erik]

I'm with Ice9 on Crimson Death. It seems a bit over the top. If blood samples must be fresh/viable and of some not-insignificant amount, that would limit repeat attempts at least. Perhaps that was implied, but it could also be seen as a near certain death against anyone you can cut and run from.

[Username17]

I am genuinely working on the edits, thanks QB. I don't have any power at my flat, so it makes things really annoying to both update the master doc and post the results.

I'm with Ice9 on Crimson Death. It seems a bit over the top. If blood samples must be fresh/viable and of some not-insignificant amount, that would limit repeat attempts at least. Perhaps that was implied, but it could also be seen as a near certain death against anyone you can cut and run from.

I just can't really see the ability to spend an hour murdering someone as a big deal when people are running around with Elder disciplines. There's an Elder discipline that no-nonsense brings you back from the dead. Also, high end attacks are... big. Like blowing up sizable portions of cities big.

-Username17

[Mask_De_H]

Hey Frank, how come Song of Silence doesn't have an Elder Discipline special ability? Basic = perfect pitch, Advanced = active sonar, Elder = ????

[erik]

The Elder disciplines are definitely major.

It's not really that the power is out of line with the other disciplines, just that it can feel really arbitrary, unstoppable, and unpredictable. Granted a DM should give plenty of foreshadowing, like letting players know some blood mage is out to get them, and possibly showing fates of other guys who had run afoul of him, but it still will feel kind of abrupt if just all of the sudden someone dies like that.

If there's more flavor to say, warn people that something is happening to them during that hour, or that at least an attempt on their life was being made after the roll fails, and perhaps requiring enough fresh blood that it should be more obvious that something is afoot rather than having folks sweat bullets about any given fight where they might have left a bit of blood unaccounted for afterwards.

I was just thinking that it would be kinda bogus for a situation to be possible like this:

DM rolls some dice. "Hey, Chuck, you're dead."
Chuck: "Say wha?"
DM: "Remember when you got stabbed by that mook who ran away after that bar fight?"
Chuck: "... no."
DM: "Well, I guess you didn't think it was important at the time, but he was employed to gather some of your blood to deliver to a guy with the Elder Path of Blood Discipline, Crimson Death. He has been using that blood for the last week in order to try to kill you. He finally rolled well enough to succeed."

Hilarity ensures.

[violence in the media]

I'd think that Crimson Death would be used more often for control than killing. Having a shadowy puppetmaster controlling you is a very WoD/cyberpunk thing. Chafing under that person's control until you discovered a means to break it (or spontaneously resurrect after it's been done to you) and hunt down the perpetrator would be a great character arc.

[Quantumboost]

So we seem to have a general notion of what power schedules involve, but nothing actually formalized - I'm going to put forth the following so's we have something solid (and so I can get the nagging out of my head):


Power Schedules and Replenishment

Every type of supernatural creature has some manner in which they can replenish their power points to keep using whatever abilities they personally have. While not all of the monsters in the source material necessarily show how they recharge on screen, and it's possible to balance being able to use powers anytime with periodic bursts of greater effectiveness in some sense, it causes more difficulties than it's worth. So we don’t do that. Instead, each character has distinctive times when they are more or less powerful, and while this may be more exploitable in some sense, it also means that they have roughly the same general notion and can generally be assumed to have roughly the same amount of power at the start of things.

In aWoD, there are three basic power schedules, and whenever the event linked to a particular creature’s power schedule happens their power points are replenished in full.

• Feeding A supernatural with a feeding power schedule needs some sort of sustenance from sapient beings to keep their powers running. This can be something physical (in which case they have to actually consume the material), or something abstract (in which case they only need to be near the victim). Whether the victim can actually survive the process depends on what is being extracted – a healthy person can live after losing some blood or being tortured, but not after their brain is eaten. Supernaturals with a Feeding schedule also need constant influxes of power to survive – each day, they must spend a power point in order to stay conscious, separate from any need for actual food (or lack thereof).
• Lunar The moon has been a symbol of magic since at latest the Iron Age, and its cycles are referred to in tales of werewolves and other creatures of the night. And in the World of Darkness, there are a lot of creatures which get their powers based on the cycles of the moon. A creature with the Lunar power schedule restores their power points whenever the moon rises above the horizon – which, depending on the date, may not actually happen. There is usually about one day each month where there is no moonrise, right around when it reaches the third quarter. When in other worlds, creatures with a Lunar power schedule always replenishes their power when the moon rises at their corresponding location in the Material World.
• Ritual A lot of monsters simply get their power from some specific magical or technological process they must perform. Creatures with a Ritual power schedule have some sort of activity that they must perform in order to recharge, and this activity takes 2 hours of (effectively) uninterrupted time to finish.

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Some questions:

• How many power points should creatures with any particular schedule receive, and how much should be replenished on each event?
• We want vampires to actually have to drink blood and zombies to eat brains in order to keep unliving (even if they don't use their powers ever), but is the “must expend power points” thing offset enough by being able to recharge both quickly and often?
• We seem to want, for example, feeding on Luminaries to be more desirable than feeding on Extras, but that causes other problems – do we make it give bonus power over the normal maximum? Recharge extra points, which necessarily means feeding on an extra doesn’t fully restore power? How would this map to the other schedules?

[Vnonymous]

I think bonus powers over the normal maximum would be fine, unless there's some crazy extra use for them I'm missing out on.

As for moving to the other schedules, lunar could simply be a matter of the full moon giving the bonus.

Ritual bonuses are a bit harder, but adding in a sacrifice or having it occur on various holidays like Samhain and Halloween and Walpurgis Night etc seems alright to me. There are enough crazy mystical nights out there that you could have them pop up pretty regularly.

[zeruslord]

Frank had a fairly specific power schedule design in the old thread, but it doesn't appear to have been reposted. I'm pretty sure it included variable power for creatures on a Lunar power schedule depending on time of month and spike power available for Feeding power schedule creatures who drained a Luminary.

[Username17]

So here's an update on the Orphic Sorceries. Sorry about the whole "living like a homeless person" thing - that's supposed to end circa next week.

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Orphic Sorceries

Orphic Sorceries are collections of spells and occult knowledge that draw their arcane power from Mictlan. The Gloom provides power that is dark, timeless, destructive, and really very frightening to the living. And for good reason, it truly does act as a window into one's mortality. The land of the dead calls inexorably to all living creatures, and sooner or later it will claim them all, and when Orphic Sorceries are used, the draw of death becomes even stronger. This effect is not particularly noticeable for large creatures like humans or even dogs – the cells on the outside of your body are in a constant state of death and rebirth anyway, and even the heaviest exposure to the Gloom is unlikely to give you more than a mild frost burn. But for the very tiny and ephemeral creatures whose lives are over in a day anyway, death magic signals the end. A skilled occultist can use a bag of mayflies or the like to spot the moment that death magic is used, and to gauge the strength, distance, and direction towards the source of The Gloom.

Magic of Mictlan is highly antithetical to seeds, and you can counter Orphic Sorceries by throwing grains at them. Rice, wheat, barley, or maize kernels work equally well, but they have to be live grains. Remember that many commercial food products are neutralized with radiation or flash heating to keep them from going bad.

Lure of Destruction
Lately just gazing into the Abyss has lost its thrill. I'm pissing into it.

There is something distinctly alluring about the end. Not just that we cannot help but eventually reach the conclusion, but that indeed there is always a part of us that wants to. Practitioners of the Lure of Destruction are very well acquainted with doom in all its forms and their Death Threshold increases by 1. With Advanced Lure of Destruction, the Death Threshold increases by 2, and with Elder Lure of Destruction it increases by 3.

Basic Disciplines

• Tongue of the Serpent The character's bite is toxic. Upon gaining this ability, the character must choose whether their poison is continuous or optional. A character whose poison is optional will have some kind of clear and potentially masquerade breaking physical manifestation of their poison “turning on” while a character whose poison is continuous has no outward sign that their bite carries unusual properties. For example: a Ventrue has retractable serpent fangs, and they are perfectly capable of retracting them and kissing people without anything special happening; while a Soulless has a mouth that appears to just be a normal human mouth but their saliva is a deadly venom. A character with Tongue of the Serpent is immune to poisons. A character who takes Tongue of the Serpent multiple times may change the poison they secrete at will between available choices.

  Poison	Effect	Notes
  Euphoric	Victim dazed and anesthetized, addictive	This is the poison that Ventrue get.
  Hallucinogenic	Victim goes crazy, addictive	This is the poison that Deep Ones get
  Paralytic	Victim immobilized	This is the poison that Triffids get
  Soporific	Victim fatigued
  Toxic	Victim suffers damage	This is the poison that Soulless get

  
  
• Touch of Darkness The character's physical attacks inflict aggravated damage. The character can also scratch and bite into metal without hurting themselves.

Advanced Disciplines

• Glimpse of the Abyss The character can show a bit of the inevitable doom that awaits us all to a group of targets. The character makes an opposed Strength + Athletics or Willpower + Expression test against each victim's Willpower. Every victim who is affected is stunned for a turn with awe and despair. Even Doom loses its impact, and a target who is affected will be harder to affect in the same evening – apply a 1 hit penalty to the character for each time a particular victim has been assaulted. Using Glimpse of the Abyss takes a Complex Action, and extends to Line of Sight.
• Withering The character can accelerate the rush to death of those around them. By spending a Simple Action, the character can weaken a foe until they cannot even stand. The character makes an Agility + Combat or Strength + Athletics test and the victim's Strength is reduced by the number of hits until the end of the scene. Multiple Witherings do not stack, but a victim whose Strength is reduced to zero collapses.

Elder Disciplines

• Death Knell The character shuts off access to The Gloom. All creatures with a Potency of zero and an Orphic power source (such as shamblers) simply cease to be supernatural creatures (or indeed, creatures at all). The character makes an Agility + Combat or Strength + Athletics test and all Orphic creatures (possibly including the character) lose that many power points. Creatures without enough Power Points to lose take damage levels equal to the difference. All Shadow Gates close, and all Ghosts are deported to the Deep Gloom. The power takes a Complex Action and a power point, and it extends out to 100 meters per point of Potency.
• Shadow Gate By spending a power point, the character creates a Shadow Gate, a rift in space that allows the jealous power of Mictlan to rush through into the material world. Depending on the size, creatures may be able to move back and forth through it. The strength of the gate is equal to the hits on a Strength + Athletics test or a Willpower + Expression test. The Shadow Gate requires a complex action and a Power Point to open.

Necromancy
“Everything ends and everything dies. That is not a good thing or a bad thing. It's simply inevitable. More than any other truth, the end cannot be eternally avoided.”

Necromancy is the incredibly creepy sorcerous path of handling the dead. Necromancers can see Ghosts and things that are in Mictlan without actually putting themselves into those areas and the potential harm's way that could entail. Characters with Advanced Necromancy can intuitively sense what items constitute a Wraith's fetters and where the fetters of a viewed Wraith might lay. A character with Elder Necromancy can feel the presence and knows the goals of all Poltergeists and Shadow Gates within 100 kilometers of their position. Ghosts intuitively know that a Necromancer can sense them, and they react accordingly.

Basic Disciplines

• Compel Spirits The character can send Ghosts from Mictlan into the material world or vice versa. By spending a Complex Action and making an opposed Willpower + Empathy or Logic + Bureaucracy test against the Ghost's Willpower, it can be sent to the Material, the Shallow Gloom, or the Deep Gloom, at the necromancer's option.
• Summon Spirit By naming a dead person or holding up a part of their body, the character can draw their Ghost to themselves unless it has been bottled, destroyed, or subsumed into a Poltergeist. The character makes a Logic + Medicine or Logic + Operations check, with a difficulty of how exactly they can describe the Ghost they are looking for.

  Threshold	Description
  1	“My brother Mike.”
  2	“My friend Todd.”
  3	“The owner of this body.”
  4	“That missing girl Karen.”
  5	“The guy who was killed last night.”
  6	-Any dead person known only from books.-

  
  

Advanced Disciplines

• Nightcry The character screams a wail of pain and despair into the deepest portions of Mictlan, and draws a Poltergeist to their position. This requires a Power Point and a Complex Action. By making a Willpower + Empathy or Logic + Bureaucracy test against the Poltergeist's Willpower, the character can compel it to begin its rain of destruction upon a target of their choice. What else the Poltergeist does from being in the material world is totally up to it.
• Reanimate The character makes a body into a Shambler or Soulless. A Shambler comes into existence under the control of the necromancer, and a Soulless does not. If the body was once a Luminary, their spirit is drawn back into their body and they become a(n uncontrolled) Revenant. A necromancer can only maintain control of 2 Shamblers per point of Willpower they have. If they make more Shamblers than that, they lose control of some of their Shamblers at random at some inconvenient time in the next day or so. Reanimating the dead is hard (Threshold 3), costs a Power Point per corpse, and has an expected time of 1 Day (net hits reduce the time normally). It is a Logic + Medicine or Logic + Operations check. Remember that Shamblers don't have the capacity to follow complex orders.

Elder Disciplines

• Resurrection The character can return life to someone who is dead. In order to work, the character must have access to the target's ghost and an “appropriate” body. The target's own body is appropriate, as is any other body of the same sex and build. Resurrecting the dead is hard (Threshold 3), and requires a Logic + Medicine or Willpower + Empathy check with an expected time of 1 day (net hits reduce the time normally). Resurrection costs 3 Power Points. Resurrecting a Revenant retores them to humanity.
• Zombie Mastery The character has no particular limit for how many Shamblers they can create and retain control of with Reanimate (if they have that ability). In addition, the character can take control of Zombies of any type (Shamblers, Soulless, or even Revenants). This takes a Complex Action and costs a Power Point. The character makes a Logic + Operations or Willpower + Tactics test and takes command of a number of Zombies equal to the hits. Revenants are allowed to resist with Willpower. Commanded Zombies reel and cease brain eating while shuffling about as if struck until given orders.

Obtenebration
“Spooky. Seriously.”

Obtenebration is a sorcerous discipline that governs and depends upon shadows. Darkness is in no short supply in something called the “World of Darkness” and areas with no light at all can be thought of as being like some singular giant shadow. Even extremely bright lights cause objects to cast shadows that are really quite noticeable. As such, in a general sort of way, the fact that Obtenebration requires shadows to function is pretty much a formality. However, if characters are in the process of sky diving or are in the areas of exceptional ambient light, the powers of Obtenebration can seriously be neutralized. Having Obtenebration makes a character sneakier and spookier, giving them a +1 bonus to Stealth and Intimidate. This bonus increases to +2 with Advanced, and +3 with Elder Obtenebration.

Basic Disciplines

• Eyes of the Night The character can see and hear out of distant shadows. The character can see in darkness at any time (unlike Supernatural Senses, this use does not render the character susceptible to glare), and by spending a Power Point they can draw their senses from a pool of darkness that is within 100 meters per Potency. The character makes an Intuition + Empathy or Intuition + Perception check, with a threshold based on how accurately they can describe the shadow they wish to peer out of.
• Shadow Play The character's lighting appears to have been done by professional special effects technicians. They can manipulate shadows and to a lesser extent light as well. This gives a +2 bonus to any attempt to become the center of attention or to escape unnoticed. This bonus increases to +4 with Advanced Obtenebration and +6 with Elder Obtenebration.

Advanced Disciplines

• Call the Lamprey The character can through force of will drain Power out of a victim through their shadow. By spending a Complex Action and making an opposed Intuition + Larceny or Intuition + Combat check against the target's Willpower, the character can cause unsoaked damage equal to the number of net hits, and regain a number of Power points equal to the number of net hits.
• Solid Darkness The character can spend a Power Point to fashion steel hard tendrils of solid shadow and use them to grasp, carry and tear. The darkness can extend out to a meter per Potency from its source Shadow, and has Strength equal to the Character's Intuition. The source shadow must be within line of sight of the character and the origin of the shadows can move along continuously shadowed path at the rate of a careful walk. Solid Darkness is completely silent, and can rather easily grab someone by complete surprise.

Elder Disciplines

• Parambulum in Tenebris The character can step into one shadow and come out of another one that they can perceive. The transportation itself is a Simple Action that costs 1 Power to activate. No intervening space is used, and nothing can block the movement. The character may take anything and anyone they or their shadow tendrils can carry.
• Shadow Body The character can transform into an intangible shadow form. A body of shadow can pass harmlessly through physical objects save for those of a material they are vulnerable to. Entering or leaving the Shadow Body is a Complex Action. Assuming the Shadow Body takes a Power Point. Being made out of pure shadow makes it very easy to hide in areas which have any dimness worth mentioning. But it's also super hard to explain from a Masquerade point of view.

Path of Blood
Given time, blood does become thicker than water.

The Path of Blood delves into the intricacies of life and death from a very liquid and visceral standpoint. Deep familiarity of this sort with blood gives advantages. The character gains a +1 bonus to Medicine and Survival for having this discipline. The bonus increases to +2 if they have Advanced, and +3 if they have Elder Path of Blood.

Basic Disciplines

• Blood Bondage
  The character can invest a power point into a sample of their own blood, allowing them to transfer power points to others – even to characters who cannot normally have power points or who are at their limit of power points. The character's blood is also horrendously addictive; like freebase cocaine. A character who has Blood Bondage and Vigor or Revive the Flesh may use these transferred power points to strengthen or heal the subject.
• Thaumaturgical Forensics
  The character can make accurate pronouncements about biological samples and give weird CSI tirades given access to creepy magical equipment. The character makes a Logic + Medicine or Logic + Research check. The kinds of information gained varies by the number of hits. Examples follow of investigating the origin of a lock of hair and investigating the source of a lethal wound:

  	Hits	Hair Sample	Wound
  	1	“Human Woman. Blond.”	“Burns. Nasty Ones.”
  	2	“She's still alive.”	“These fires burned by magic.”
  	3	“She's a Luminary.”	“A Firestarter did this at short range.”
  	4	“Her name is Susan.”	“The Firestarter was a Baali Witch.”
  	5	“She is currently in Dresden.”	“His name was Karlov.”
  	6	“She is thinking about betraying her friend Elizabeth.”	“This was a fight over money.”

  
  

Advanced Disciplines

• Blood of Acid
  The character can bleed like one of the xenomorphs from Aliens. Anyone who is within melee range when something inflicts damage on the character is subject to being sprayed with black caustic fluid. Little droplets of the stuff sent in such a circumstance are sufficient to constitute a damage 3 attack. If the character is conscious, they can actively attempt to get their blood to go onto a specific person and try to stage it up with a Strength + Survival or Strength + Combat test. The character can also use their blood in more controlled fashions – that stuff will burn through the lock on a fire door in a few minutes.
• Theft of Vitae
  The character draws blood and power directly out of a victim. Little spheres of blood fly out of the victim towards the character, who thence absorbs the droplets in some suitably dramatic fashion such as having them pop into the character's mouth or outstretched hand. The character uses a Complex action and makes an opposed Agility + Larceny or Logic + Medicine test against the target's Strength. Every net hit causes the victim an unsoaked damage level and if they have any power points they lose one of them per net hit. This power does not cost power points, and indeed the character gains one power point per net hit (up to their normal maximum).

Elder Disciplines

• Crimson Death Given a sample of blood from a target, the character an send a lethal curse against them that will brutally murder them no matter how far they have traveled. The character burns the blood sample and spends an hour sending evil thoughts into it and spends a power point. The character makes an opposed Logic + Medicine or Logic + Survival test against the target's Strength. On a success, the victim snaps into a dozen pieces or more, looking momentarily like they were painted upon a broken window pane. Blood gushes from every crack, and they fall into chunks dead as dry bones.
• Blood Puppets The character can take control of victims by puppeting their blood around. By spending a power point and a complex action, the character can turn a number of people into marionettes. The character makes a Willpower + Medicine or Logic + Operations check, and takes control of a number of human extras equal to the number of hits for the remainder of the scene.

Symphony of Silence
Silence is Deafening.

The Symphony of Silence is a set of magical music that brings things to a frozen stop. Supposedly it constitutes portions of the inevitable music that ends all of existence. In order to use any ability from the Symphony of Silence, the character must be capable of making music – although whether through playing a musical instrument or singing is irrelevant. Learning the Symphony of Silence gives you perfect pitch. A character with Advanced Symphony of Silence can hear every sound uttered within the range of music they make – effectively giving themselves active sonar. A character with Elder Symphony of Silence knows the location of every source of sound no matter how soft within 40 meters of themselves, giving them a frighteningly effective passive sonar ability.

Basic Disciplines

• Frozen Note The character can play a song that sharply reduces the temperature in an area or object. The character makes a Logic + Artisan or Charisma + Expression test, and reduces the temperature by 5 degrees per hit. When focused on a living creature, this can be quite damaging. Cold blooded creatures pass out, and warm blooded creatures resist one damage per hit. This has no adverse effect on undead or inanimate creatures like vampires and prometheans. Temperature dropped in this way returns to normal when exposed to heat sources (such as those contained inside a mammal), but there is nothing preventing the character from maintaining the song round to round to keep the temperature low. Multiple songs played in rapid succession do not stack.
• Missing Voice The character can move the apparent origins of sounds. The required music appears to eerily come from empty space, and the character can decide the origin of any other sounds as well. The character makes a Logic + Artisan or Charisma + Expression test, and the character gains control of the apparent origin of every sound they are aware of within 3 meters per hit for as long as they play. At Advanced Symphony of Silence, this control extends to 10 meters per hit, and at Elder the control extends to 30 meters per hit.
• Silent Toll The character can suppress all sound up to the volume of the music generated, including the music itself. The noise suppressed equals to local peak amplitude, you don't have to keep track of potential spaces between notes and the like.

Advanced Disciplines

• Prison of Ice The character creates ice sufficient to hold someone in place or build something out of. By spending a power point and a complex action, the character can create a cubic meter of ice within 10 meters of themselves. The ice can be in any shape, forms instantly, and can cover someone's wrists, feet, or even mouth. The character can make a Logic + Artisan or Charisma + Expression test to improve the workmanship and solidity of the ice.
• Death Note The character plays the song that ends a man. The character spends a complex action and makes a ranged attack, using Logic + Artisan or Agility + Combat and inflicts lethal damage equal to the character's Charisma attribute. Death Note is resisted with Intuition rather than Strength and ignores armor or its equivalent and cannot be dodged. This ability can only be used if the character has already been playing for a minute or more.

Elder Disciplines

• Frozen Day The weather is shifted into bitter cold. The character spends a power point and an expected amount of time of 1 day. The character makes a Logic + Artisan or Charisma + Expression test, with net hits reducing the amount of time required. The cold snap extends up to 10 kilometers in every direction per Potency of the character. The character can choose any amount of reduction in temperature, and the thermometers will drop pretty linearly to that extent.
• Planar Discord Travel between the worlds becomes essentially impossible while the song is played and for some amount of time afterward. The area covered can be any size centered on the character, to a limit of 1 kilometer per point of Potency in radius. The character makes a Logic + Artisan or Charisma + Expression test to increase the time frame of the discontinuity. The timeframe starts at 1 hour with one hit.

-Username17

[Username17]

Universal Disciplines
“This is what we are, and this is what you are.”

There are many things that magic can do in the World of Darkness, and one of the most salient things is that it allows supernatural creatures to do amazing things. Universal powers are those that owe no special allegiance to any world or cult. They require no magic words or special gestures. They are not “spells” in any meaningful sense and one cannot muster a counterspell against them. Most importantly of all, they can be spontaneously developed. A character who has the requisite points can simply acquire a Universal Discipline without any access to special training or magical research books.

Auspex
“You see what you want to see. You hear what you want to hear.”

Auspex is the power to have unusual and enhanced senses. A character with Auspex can perceive what others cannot. A character with Auspex gains a +2 bonus on Perception tests. This bonus increases to +4 if they have Advanced Auspex, and +6 if they have Elder Auspex.

Basic Disciplines

• Supernatural Senses A character with supernatural senses can enhance their perceptions well beyond human norms. Vision can become telescopic or even function in total darkness. Hearing can become acute enough to hear heart beats. Smell can become powerful enough to track at a brisk walk. And so on. Bringing one's senses into the realm of magical basassery also makes one vulnerable to intense sensory input. Bright lights can blind, strong smells can overpower, and loud noises can deafen. While a sense is enhanced, the threshold to resist overstimulation is increased by 2. Activating or deactivating Supernatural Senses is a Free Action.
• Aura Perception A character using Aura perception can bleed themselves into other worlds and see and interact with the things that are there. This extends them only into the Shallows, and they are still in the material world. Activating or deactivating Aura Perception is a Simple Action.
• Sensory Damper A character with sensory damper is protected from harmful stimuli such as glare, pepper spray, and loud noises. They are able to dial down their sensations to the point of unobtrusiveness. This can be effectively instantaneous in the case of bright flashes, and highly selective in the case of filtering out noise while listening to a conversation across the room. Such a character can stay conscious regardless of wound level (ignoring pain sufficient to knock them out), but it does not affect wound penalties at all.

Advanced Disciplines

• Spirit's touch The Spirit's ouch allows a character to view past events by touching and concentrating upon items or people that were involved in those events. The event in question must be described (although that description may well be entirely conversational such as “What happened here?” in the case of a brutal crime scene, the context makes that description sufficient), and must have taken place within the last month. Dicepool for Spirit's Touch is Logic + Research or Intuition + Empathy. Using Spirit's Touch requires one power point, and the expected amount of time is one minute. Seeing farther back into time can be done by increasing the expected amount of time by one step and increasing the cost by 1 power point for each time increment the viewing window is increased.
• Telepathy A character with Telepathy can communicate mentally with people within line of sight. Voluntary telepathic messages can also be sent and received between people the character knows the name of and who they have touched (regardless of line of sight) so long as they are within a number of kilometers equal to the character's Potency. The contents of an unwilling mind can be read, but only with physical contact and difficulty. Telepathy is always on, but mind reading is a Resisted Extended Action. Mind reading uses either Willpower + Intimidation or Intuition + Empathy.

Elder Disciplines

• Divination Divination allows a character to ask questions about reality and the future and get actual (if often vague and cryptic) answers. Using Divination takes an hour and costs one Edge. The Dicepool is either Logic + Research or Charisma + Bureaucracy.
• Twilight Projection Activating Twilight Projection sends a character and everything they are carrying into the shallows of an other world of their choice (Limbo, Maya, or Mictlan). The character can also return to the material world using this ability, but only from the point they last entered the other world. Crossing either way requires a Complex Action and a Power Point.

Celerity
There she goes again.

Celerity is the power to move with the astonishing speed of the supernatural. Celerity must be consciously activated at a cost of 1 Power point, and its effects last for one scene. Distinct from other disciplines, the effects of Celerity are cumulative. The discipline as a whole is activated or not during a scene, and may be activated as a Reflexive Action while rolling initiative. When activated, the character gains a +2 bonus to Initiative tests. With Advanced Celerity this bonus increases to +4, and with Elder Celerity this bonus increases to +8. During the initiative phase, a character with Celerity may choose to reduce the speed that will move at to a more normal velocity. The degree of speed utilized cannot be changed again until next initiative phase. In general, character whose Celerity more than doubles their speed in any dimension would constitute a masquerade breach.

Basic Disciplines

• Quickness While Celerity is active, the character gains an extra initiative pass during any confrontation turn.
• Nimble Feet While Celerity is active, the character is able to walk and run at stupendous speeds. The character's personal movement rate is quadrupled. If the character has Advanced Celerity, the speed increase is itself increased to six times. If the character has Elder Celerity the movement increase is eight times. In addition, the character ignores penalties for acting while moving over difficult surfaces (although she may be slowed down by them as normal).

Advanced Disciplines

• Alacrity While Celerity is active, the character gains an extra initiative pass during any confrontation turn. This is cumulative with Quickness (for a total of 2 extra IPs if both are known).
• Quicken Sight While Celerity is active, the character may perceive and derive meaning from fast moving objects. She may follow a specific card in a shuffled deck, read a sign on a fast moving train, or gauge the trajectories of bullets in flight. She gains a +4 bonus to Defense Rolls, and suffers no penalties from dodging more than one attack during an Initiative Pass. If she has Elder Celerity, the bonus increases to 6 dice.

Elder Disciplines

• Blur While Celerity is active, the character gains an extra initiative pass during any confrontation turn. This is cumulative with Alacrity and Quickness (for a total of 3 extra IPs if all are known).
• Rapid Thought While Celerity is active, the character is able to consider their situation and their surroundings carefully as if they had little or no time pressures. All penalties for splitting one's attentions between two or more activities (such as wielding two pistols or picking a lock while dangling from a rope) are canceled. The character ignores all penalties for a “rushed job.” And finally, the character always wins initiative against enemies, and must roll only if another character also has Rapid Thought.

Dominate
“Look me in the eyes and tell me that again.”

Dominate is the power to impress one's Will directly upon another. Dominate requires eye contact to function, although only cursorily. A character who is closing their eyes or wearing mirror shades cannot be Dominated. A character who is actively attempting to avoid seeing a potential dominator's eyes may be able to do so, depending upon the actions of the dominating character. Activating Dominate is generally an opposed test with the target defending with Willpower. When a character is compelled to do something which is against their nature (generally including following suicidal orders), they may spend an action dithering. They at this point lose an entire round of actions as they have their internal struggle, making an additional resistance check to attempt to shake off the effects. Most uses of Dominate require instructions to be given to the victim in a manner that they can comprehend. Usually this requires verbal orders to be given in a language they understand; but sign language, written directions, and even silent telepathic commands can suffice.
Basic Disciplines

• Command The character gives an instantaneous verbal command, which the victim will follow to the best of their ability. The action itself must be essentially instantaneous, using up no more than a single complex action. If it is of an open ended nature such as “lie down,” then the victim will perform it for one complex action worth and then they are free to do as they please and wonder why they did that. Using Command is a Complex action, and requires a successful opposed test using either Willpower + Intimidation or Logic + Persuasion against Willpower test.
• Mesmerism The character can hypnotize a victim, allowing them to give extended commands that will be obeyed. Commands must be stressed and repeated, with each major instruction taking approximately a minute to convey. During the period of hypnotism, the victim stands there like an obviously hypnotized drone, but behaves seemingly normally when they go off to carry out their instructions. Any sudden sensory stimulation (such as a nearby gunshot or someone shaking the victim) during the Mesmerism breaks the spell. Using Mesmerism is an opposed, extended test pitting the character's Logic + Persuasion or Willpower + Intimidation against the target's Willpower. The expected time to bring someone under Mesmerism so that instructions can begin is one minute.
• Suggestion The character can offer a suggestion that the victim will then immediately themselves suggest as if it were their own idea. Whether this idea is followed up upon or discarded as “a bad idea” depends entirely upon how they feel about the idea once they've said it. The immediate victim does not remember being fed the suggestion in the first place, but the scene may look odd to onlookers. Using a Suggestion is a Simple Action and requires an opposed Logic + Tactics or Willpower + Expression vs. Willpower test.

Advanced Disciplines

• Forgetful Mind The Forgetful Mind allows the character to erase or alter the memories of a victim. A single use of Forgetful Mind can alter about 5 minutes of memory, but net hits increase the time frame. Using Forgetful Mind is a Complex action, and requires a successful opposed Willpower + Expression or Logic + Artisan against Willpower test. A Luminary who is presented with proof that their memories are incorrect may spend an Edge to remember. Extras just have to resolve those discrepancies somehow.
• Conditioning Using extended mind controlling techniques, a victim's will is broken and they are transformed into a servant of the character's. Breaking someone's mind in this manner is an extended task that has an expected time frame of 1 day per point of the victim's Willpower, with a dicepool of Willpower + Intimidation or Logic + Tactics. Conditioning is Hard and has a threshold of 3. Conditioning supernatural creatures with higher Potencies than the dominator is even more difficult, and the difference is added to the threshold in that case. Once a victim has been thralled, they follow all orders their new master gives them as if they had been imparted with the force of a successful Mesmerism. At the time of conditioning, the character may choose to alter the nature and demeanor of their victim (this is often done to make the giving of orders that would be against the original nature easier to do. Using Conditioning requires an Edge, and it fails if the process is interrupted long enough that it is not continued between when the sun rises or sets and the next time it sets or rises.

Elder Disciplines

• Possession Using Possession, the character can transfer their mind and spirit into the body of another. While the character is possessing a victim, their original body is inert and vulnerable, but they have full control of the other's body. They use the victim's Strength and Agility, but their own Social, Mental, and Special attributes as well as their own skills. They may use their own disciplines in the body of another, and cannot activate any of the victim's disciplines (but these disciplines do not necessarily turn off in the case of powers with ongoing effects). Activating Possession is a Complex action, and requires a successful opposed Willpower + Empathy or Logic + Persuasion against Willpower test. The character returns to their own body as soon as the sun rises or sets, the body they are in is knocked unconscious, their Possession power is suppressed by any means, or they spend a Complex Action to return to their own body. The character can only actually be in one body at a time.
• Mob Mastery A character with Mob Mastery may affect a number of characters with their Domination powers simultaneously. The character's dicepool is reduced by 1 for every doubling of the number of victims.

Fortitude
Endure. And in enduring, grow strong.
Fortitude is the power to resist destruction. Some powers of Fortitude are continuously in operation, while others must be activated with power points. What makes Fortitude special is that it does not require the active choice to activate it. A character may activate their Fortitude powers passively while unconscious, or in some cases even while dead. A character with Fortitude is generally resilient even when their powers are not being activated, gaining a bonus on physical Resistance rolls of +2 dice. If they have Advanced Fortitude this bonus increases to +4, and if they have Elder Fortitude it increases to +6.

Basic Disciplines

• Patience of the Mountains The character does not need to eat, drink, or breathe. They persist night after night as the mountains and valleys do. Never aging, never changing. Such a character can hold any position no matter how awkward without cramping or moving. This ability is continuous.
• Revive the Flesh The character can heal their wounds by drawing upon their magical power. By spending a Power point, the character's wounds suture themselves, restoring their body to its original condition without mark or scar. Each power point heals one box of Lethal or two boxes of Nonlethal damage. Wounds healed in this manner are gone in one round. Any wounds short of death can be healed in this manner. Aggravated damage is harder to heal, and takes two Power points and an hour per box.

Advanced Disciplines

• Restoration Death is no longer an insurmountable obstacle. While the character is dead, they may spend 2 Power points plus an additional Power point per point of Potency they possess and four hours to reduce the amount of damage on themselves to one less than Lethal. If the character lacks the Power points to use this discipline, they may yet get a chance if the vast majority of their body is placed together and invested with sufficient Power by others.
• Indomitability Wounds do not hamper the character. This discipline is continuously active. The character suffers no wound penalties and does not go unconscious from injury before they die.

Elder Disciplines

• Endless Persistence By spending an Edge, the character becomes literally invulnerable for a brief period of time. For one round per Potency, the character ignores all damage, whether aggravated or not. This discipline can be activated reactively when damage would be sustained.
• Skin of Night This passive discipline converts all aggravated damage to normal damage.

Obfuscation
...Now you don't.

Obfuscation is the ability to draw upon one's magic to hide things from view. Obfuscation does not affect cameras or other objective traces of a creature's passing, merely prevents observers (even indirect observers) from noticing what is there. Normally, Obfuscation can only take effect while the target is not being observed. If observation is continuous, the observers will not see any change. Onlookers do not normally have any say in what they see as presented to them by obfuscation any more than they have any choice to not see things that are actually there. Characters who have Auspex powers active or who carefully search the area that the character is in have a chance to perceive through it by making an Intuition + Perception test against the number of hits made to activate the power. Anything a character covered by Obfuscation carries is likewise covered by Obfuscation and anything that the character stops carrying will cease being covered by Obfuscation. An onlooker who notices an object pass into or out of Obfuscation pierces the Obfuscation altogether.

Basic Disciplines

• Hide From Notice While active, the character is not noticed so long as they don't do anything incredibly obvious to give themselves away. Activating Hide From Notice is a Simple Action and requires an Agility + Stealth or Intuition + Survival test.
• Mask of a Thousand Faces While active, those who meet the character will treat them as if they were a different person. The character may choose the appearance (including clothing and carried items) freely, but taking any action that would be impossible for the facade allows onlookers to see through the illusion. So if a character uses the Mask to appear as a person who had no gun and they fired their gun, then people would see them as they really are. Activating Mask of a Thousand Faces is a Simple Action and requires an Agility + Stealth or Charisma + Larceny test.

Advanced Disciplines

• Touch of Shadow By spending a Power Point, an object can continue being covered by Obfuscation after it leaves physical contact with the character. The character makes an Agility + Stealth or Intuition + Larceny test and the Obfuscation remains affecting the object for an hour (time frame increases with additional hits).
• Vanish from the Mind's Eye By spending a power point, the character may activate other powers of Obfuscation while being observed. All onlookers are entitled to a resistance check as if they had been carefully searching the area, but if they fail to notice the discrepancy, their mind will fill in vague details that excuse the character's disappearance.

Elder Disciplines

• Cloak the Gathering A character with Cloak of the Gathering can allow their Obfuscation powers to be used by others, so long as they stay within 20 meters per point of Potency. Characters so cloaked and cloaking can still perceive each other in the same way that an obfuscated character can see themselves.
• Soul Mask A character with Soul Mask can fool magical detection. Making a successful Charisma + Stealth or Intuition + Medicine test, Soul Mask character can appear to feel, think, or be whatever they want others to perceive under magical investigation unless the magical investigator gets more hits activating their power. Changing one's Soul Mask is a Complex action that costs a Power Point, but continuing to have fake thoughts and emotions pass that are consistent with one's false existence requires no action at all.

Potence
I have the power.

Potence is the power to draw upon the great strength of the supernatural in order to perform feats of literal strength. Those who can draw upon their magical power to augment their physical prowess in this manner find themselves becoming stronger even without drawing directly upon their magical might. A character with Potence gains a +1 bonus to their Strength score. If they have Advanced Potence the bonus increases to +2, and if they have Elder Potence the bonus increases to +3. Potence is an odd case as regards the Masquerade because while it is accompanied by no flaming runes or crawling shadows, demonstrations of incredible strength strain credibility and perhaps worse they draw comments from observers.

Basic Disciplines

• Feat of Strength The character can do something wholly incredible with their physical power. They can buy an additional four hits on a Strength related test by reflexively spending a Power Point. If they have Advanced Potence, the bonus is increased to five hits, and with Elder Potence the bonus is 6 whole hits. Feat of Strength can only be used once per turn, and it cannot be made to stack with itself. Whether used to bounce a bullet off the chest or tear a car in half, the feat of Strength has an only barely perceptible shimmer when used, generally only those quite familiar with the supernatural will be able to identify it.
• Vigor The character may spend a power point to increase their Strength by 1 for the remainder of the scene. This may be activated more than once, and its effects stack. While

Advanced Disciplines

• Devastation The character's Strength can emanate from many places at once along an object being touched, allowing them to lift very large, awkward and even fragile things without issue. It also allows them to have a blow from their hand or foot repeated many times across a wall or floor, causing it to shatter (which is where the power gets its name). This kind of contact telekinesis is best represented in super hero comics – where characters routinely lift cars by the ends without parts falling off or the ground underneath them giving way. The source of force can be directed out across a distance of 2 meters per Potency, and the character can effectively lift or smash something that they could accomplish with 5 identical friends. With Elder Potence, the number of identical friends increases to 9.
• Giant Size The character can grow extremely large. By spending a power point, they can expand to a muscular 3.5 meters in height. This is a Protean power. While in Giant Size, the character has an additional 6 points of Strength, they gain a point of armor, and the base damage of any weapon they use increases by 2 (assuming that it is allowed to grow with them). All of the things that a character wants to grow along with them grow along with them while they are being carried by them, and anything they aren't carrying or that they wish to leave normal size stays normal size.
  Some creatures have Giant Size permanently on, and they don't have to pay power points for it (but they can't turn it off).

Elder Disciplines

• Earth Quake By spending a power point, the character can do something stupidly powerful (and generally destructive) with their Strength. A blow reverberates across the ground like a meteor strike, shaking and crushing things out to up to a hundred meters per Potency from their person. A creature or object struck with the full force of ground zero of this strike is likely obliterated – the melee attack at the center of this is a formidable (even ludicrous) Damage 12. The character can attempt to restrict the power into doing something useful such as boring out a tunnel, stacking logs, or hurling debris out of a collapsed building. This kind of Popeye-like activity uses an Agility + Athletics or Logic + Rigging test to determine its accuracy.
• Force Field The character can project force some distance away from their person. This allows them to stop bullets aimed at compatriots, strangle people from a distance, and even hover by “holding themselves up.” Their Strength can be projected reflexively out to 3 meters from their person, and any attacks that target someone or something within or through that area may get blocked by the force field – meaning that they have to contend with being soaked by the character's Strength before being resolved (yes, this means that the character can effectively use her Strength twice when soaking bullets fired at their own person). Their Strength can be used actively as a normal action on things within line of sight.

Presence
Alright everyone! Let's hear it... for me!

Presence is the power to affect others with the otherworldly charisma of the supernatural. Characters with Presence are especially adept at making an impression and getting people to like them, and gain a +1 bonus on all Socialization tests. At Advanced, this bonus increases to +2, and at Elder this bonus increases to +3.

Basic Disciplines

• Awe The character can “turn on the charm” and become the center of (generally positive) attention. This provides a distraction for everyone else in the room who is prepared for it, and provides a decent conversation starter or segue, and makes the character very memorable to everyone around them. Awe can be activated as a Complex Action, and remains active until the end of the scene. The character makes a Charisma + Expression or Charisma + Tactics test to determine how much of an impression they make, and for the remainder of the scene that number of hits can be used as a bonus for any socialization or subterfuge test's dicepool.
• Dread Gaze The character can become extremely frightening and intimidating, inspiring fear and shame in onlookers. Using the Dread Gaze is a Simple Action and it requires a Willpower + Intimidation or Strength + Tactics check opposed by the victim's Willpower or Strength. An affected victim runs away or cowers in terror for at least a number of rounds equal to the net hits. Thereafter, an affected victim is shaken up for the remainder of the scene and suffers a -2 morale penalty on actions.

Advanced Disciplines

• Majesty The character can wrap themselves in the air of authority, making aggression against them or even refusal of their demands almost unthinkable. By spending a Power Point, the character's majestic demeanor takes hold until the end of the scene. The character makes a Charisma + Tactics or Willpower + Intimidation check, and anyone who wishes to summon the nerve to act against them must generate an equal number of hits on a Willpower + Intimidation or Willpower + Survival test. Failure to do so results in a round lost to dithering. The character's orders are also extremely likely to be obeyed, and the hits are added as a bonus dicepool on any Intimidation or Tactics tests to command or demand.
• Summons The character can send a brief telepathic message (no longer than a twitter post) to someone whose name they know so long as that person is in the same world and no more than 10 kilometers away per point of the character's Potency. The target can then send back a brief reply. If the character so chooses, they may also demand the presence of the target by making an opposed Charisma + Bureaucracy or Charisma + Empathy vs. the target's Logic. If successful, the target becomes aware of where the character basically is, and must attempt to figure out how to get there themselves. This compulsion lasts until the next time the sun rises or sets. Issuing a Summons (whether or not the compulsion for a personal appearance is added) costs a Power Point and requires a Complex Action

Elder Disciplines

• Mind Numb The character can reduce those who hear their words to frothing lunacy. The character spends a Power Point and begins speaking. With an expected time of 10 minutes and a Threshold equal to each potential target's Willpower, a listening victim becomes a raving fanatic, their Willpower reduced to zero until the sun next rises or sets. Mind Numb carries as far as the character's voice does, even over telephones or television broadcasts. Mind Numb uses Charisma + Persuasion or Charisma + Bureaucracy.
• Siren Song The weak willed are drawn to the character like moths to flame. By spending a Power Point, the character can let out a song that instills a compulsion in everyone within a radius up to one kilometer per Potency to come to where the character is. Dangers are ignored, and tasks previously engaged in are abandoned. The character makes a Charisma + Expression or Charisma + Persuasion test, and the threshold to affect any target is its Willpower.

Sorceries
Paths of Sorcery are different from physical disciplines in many ways. While they still retain the essential framework of Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced versions, Sorcery doesn't “just happen.” It can be potentially countered because it takes the form of actual manipulations of magical energies associated with one of the three mystical worlds being used and directed. Sorcerous disciplines work poorly when used against creatures with the same power source as their power source world, and have means by which they can be held at bay with means specific to the type of magic that they are.

Astral Sorceries

The mercurial rain of the Deep Maya has an origin that few can even speculate upon. But whether The Dreamlands represent an intrusion of our subconscious minds into the realm of the physical or the intrusion of an alien realm into our sleeping thoughts, the fact remains that it is a source of power that those who delve deeply into its mysteries can tap. Astral Sorceries are spells and powers that tap into that strange reality. Magic from Maya has a tendency to be as untamed and inhuman as the implacable beasts and plants that inhabit it.

Astral Sorcery disturbs magnetic fields, including that of the Earth itself (at least on a local level), and a skilled augur can track and judge the strength of the magics of the dreamlands by carefully observing a lodestone. Astral magic “feels wet” to those who feel its wrath, and indeed it can be countered by judiciously throwing clean salt on it. Salt used in this manner becomes caked and discolored like it had absorbed dirty water.

Animalism
“Be what you want to be until you don't any more.”

Animalism is the sorcerous path of dealing with and becoming an animal, hence the name. This attunement provides great benefits when dealing with animals even in a nonmagical manner. The character gains a +2 bonus on Animal Ken. This bonus increases to +4 with Advanced, and +6 with Elder Animalism. These bonuses are increased by 50% when dealing with creatures that the character can personally transform into with Beast Form (so for example a character with Beast Form (Bat) would gain a +3, +6, or +9 bonus on Animal Ken checks to train bats).

Basic Disciplines

• Beast Form The character can transform into an animal by spending a power point and taking a complex action. The type of animal transformed into is chosen when the ability is learned. When Beast Form is gained as a fixed ability from a character's supernatural type, the form of the beast is often predefined (for example, a Nezumi becomes a rat). This ability can be learned multiple times, and each time the character can choose one more new form than the time before (two new forms with the second learning, for a total of 3). No beast form can be much larger than a human, or smaller than a mouse. Some animals are stronger or more agile than a human, but the total bonus to these attributes never exceeds +2. Many animals are much weaker than a human. For example: a Rat Form always has a strength reduced to 1 regardless of the original character's Strength score, and gains a +2 bonus to Agility. This ability is a Protean power.
• Feral Whispers The character can speak to and understand the speech of beasts. This is invaluable in training and information gathering. But remember that animals do no gain any special understanding of their environment even though they are able to convey their thoughts to the character. Honestly, dogs speak kind of like the dogs from Up! and rats and cats are no better. Most non-mammalian beasts are downright disappointing conversationalists (with exceptions made for some wicked smart non-mammals like crows and octopuses).

Advanced Disciplines

• The Beckoning The character emits some suitably animalistic noise and calls all creatures of a specific type to their location. The character can only choose a type of animal, and the power reaches out to 100 meters per point of Potency. Using The Beckoning requires a Power Point and a Complex Action. The number of beasts that come is dependent upon how many of the type of creature that are within the area, and the urgency with which they come and the degree of control the character has over their actions upon their arrival is based on the number of hits achieved on a Strength + Survival or Charisma + Empathy test. When dealing with large or predatory animals, the range of The Beckoning increases to 500 meters per potency. When calling large predatory animals, the range extends to 5 kilometers per point of potency.
• Transformation The character can transform a victim into a beast. This is a humiliating ordeal, and as the target doubtless has little familiarity with their new form is generally quite awkward and difficult for the victim (over and above being transformed into a frog or pig). The character makes a Strength + Empathy or Willpower + Survival test against the target's Intuition. The victim becomes a beast of the character's choice until the next sunrise or sunset. Net hits increase the time frame of a victim's transformation. This ability is a Protean power. A character can't be transformed into an animal much larger than their original size, but they can be transformed into something much smaller.

Elder Disciplines

• Songs in the Dark The character can create horrible monsters out of ordinary animals. By spending a power point, any mundane beast can be invested with enough astral power as to be transformed into a monster. The investment takes an hour and the transformation itself takes a day. The character makes a Charisma + Survival or Willpower + Medicine test. Making a Behemoth is hard (Threshold 3), while making a Kaiju is crazy extreme (Threshold 5). The Giant Animal is created under the character's loose control. A character can control a number of such animals equal to their Willpower.
• Soul Investment The character can place a portion of their soul into another being, and subsequently take the target's body over when the investing character's current body goes unconscious or dies. The character must touch the target for a Complex Action, spend a power point, and make an opposed Willpower + Empathy or Strength + Survival test against the target's Willpower. A character can have portions of their soul hidden in a number of creatures equal to their Intuition, and they must choose only one of their victims to hop to when the time comes. While controlling a body, use the Strength and Agility of the host, but all other attributes and all skills of the character. The character does not lose control of a host by sleeping, but they do automatically hop again (losing their soul investment in that victim) if they are actually knocked unconscious. The character never loses their effective Soul Investment in their original body, but if they are ever forced to hop and there are no living bodies with remaining Soul Investment, the character dies.

Chasing the Storm
Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
When he comes back.

Chasing the Storm is the astral sorcery dedicated to understanding and controlling the weather. A character with Chasing the Storm knows what the weather should be for a week in advance (which means that they likewise know when weather sorcery is employed), and they gain a +1 dicepool bonus on Survival tests. With Advanced Chasing the Storm, a character knows the upcoming weather a month in advance and gains a +2 bonus. With Elder Chasing the Storm, the character's predictive capabilities extend for a year and a day and they gain a +3 dicepool bonus on Survival.

Basic Disciplines

• Howling Winds The character can make winds rise or soften and blow in a direction of their choice. The character can spend a complex action to make an Agility + Rigging or Logic + Operations test to increase or decrease the Strength of the winds by the number of hits.
• Rising Mists The character can fill areas with thickening fog that obscures vision and makes things seem really spooky. By spending a Complex Action, the character can fill up their immediate vicinity with mists, extending up to 3 meters per Potency from their person. By spending a power point, they can create an actual weather pattern, with mists creeping in out to a kilometer per Potency from their person. The character makes an Agility + Rigging or Logic + Operations test to decrease visibility through the mists:

  Hits	Distance to Total Concealment
  1	6 meters
  2	3 meters
  3	1 meter
  4	50 centimeters
  5	20 centimeters
  6	5 centimeters

  
  

Advanced Disciplines

• Lightning Strike A cloudy sky can be split by a lightning bolt crashing to Earth. By spending a complex action, the character can direct a lightning bolt to strike an individual or object. The lightning bolt cannot be dodged and is a Damage 5 weapon. It is powered by an Agility + Rigging or Logic + Electronics test. Once unleashed, the bolt of lightning is real electricity, and can be defended against with conductive materials in classic Franklin or Tesla fashion.
• Tumultuous Rain The character can pull clouds into a clear sky and rain from clouds. It takes a base amount of time of an hour to bring rain from a clear sky, and net hits on an Agility + Rigging or Logic + Operations test can reduce the timeframe. The more it is “naturally” clouded, the easier this is, and the character gains a +2 bonus if there are already clouds somewhere in the sky, raising to a +6 bonus if there is already some tiny amount of rain coming down. The weather can be affected out to 5 kilometers per Potency of the character. Once established, a weather pattern persists until natural forces blow it away.

Elder Disciplines

• Form of Mist The character can transform themselves into a fine mist as a Free action by spending a Power Point. This is a Protean ability. While in mist form, a character's body is essentially impervious to physical attacks, save those that are made with a weapon that the character is vulnerable to. Everything the character is carrying when they transform transforms with them, and other creatures thus transformed are essentially helpless until the character becomes solid again. While in mist form the character can fly, but they move no faster than a normal walk.
• Victory of Typhon By spending a power point, the character can create and direct a “tropical depression” at their location. This requires an hour and a power point. The character makes an Agility + Rigging or Logic + Operations test, and the massive storm takes form and is unleashed in a direction of the character's choosing. Creating a Tropical Storm is a Professional Task (threshold 2), creating a Category 2 Hurricane is Crazy Extreme (threshold 4), and creating a Category 4 Hurricane is threshold 6. Remember that your storm may in fact be called a Typhoon or a Cyclone, depending upon its ocean of origin.

Coil of Thorns
Leaves drop in Autumn not because of the shortening of the day, but because of the lengthening of the night.

The Coil of Thorns is the Astral Sorcery dedicated to understanding and manipulating plant life. Characters who practice this magic are able to do much with practically any plant matter. The character's Artisan and Expression skills gain a +2 bonus when working in primarily plant matter media. This bonus increases to +4 with knowledge of Advanced Col of Thorns, and to +6 with Elder Coil of Thorns. Characters with Coil of Thorns can also make something edible and even delicious out of literally any plant matter. It's not at all obvious how it's done, but their redwood pasta is not bad at all. This magic is inextricably linked in the minds of many supernaturals with the Evil Plants, and indeed any practitioner can speak with Evil Plants of any kind. It has even been suggested that Verbena Witches are actually Pod spies. Most Coil spells are quite powerful but quite time consuming to use. A Coil of Thorns laboratory is called a “Kitchen” and can indeed be created with materials purchasable at a farmer's market.

Basic Disciplines

• Bitter Fruit The character can make powerful medicines and poisons out of ordinary fruits and roots. By spending a power point and an hour working in a kitchen, the character's result can be a balm or a curse to those who consume it with a strength equal to the number of hits on a Logic + Medicine or Intuition + Survival test. Such products can be made into clearly medicinal pastes and the like, or covertly disguised as fresh foods. Doses with other effects can also be produced, but if the requisite number of hits is not achieved the resulting product is merely a standard damaging poison with a strength equal to the actual hits achieved.

  Hits	Poison	Effect
  1	Anti-toxin	Reduces the power of toxins by its hits.
  3	Sleep Drought	Consuming victim falls into a deep sleep.
  5	Hypnotic	Consuming victim enters a highly suggestible state for an hour.

  
  With Advanced and Elder Coil of Thorns comes the learning of additional recipes such as making powerful acids, paralytics, or explosives. The seed that transforms a Luminary into a Verbena has a threshold of 6 to brew.
• Grass Rope The character can have plant matter grow at tremendous speed according to their will and grasp their enemies with wooden fastness. The character spends a Complex Action and makes a Logic + Rigging or Intuition + Survival test, and the leafy strands lash out with a Strength and Agility equal to the number of hits.

Advanced Disciplines

• Mind Root The character plants a seed in a victim that slowly roots into the unfortunate's brain and leaves them an emotionless pawn. Creating the Mind Root takes a power point and an hour in the kitchen, and it takes an hour or two for the tendrils to work their way into the victim (making it essentially worthless against a target that is not willing, bound, or sleeping). The Mind Root uses the character's Logic + Medicine or Intuition + Survival against the victim's Strength.
• Puppetry The character can command plants to perform actions and have the plants actually perform them at a reasonable speed. By spending a Complex action, the character's plant minions will move about with distinctly non-plantlike mobility for one round – attaining an effective Agility equal to the character's Intuition or Logic. The character can also give long term commands to plants, which they will go about performing at their normal speeds (often centimeters a day). Commanding sapient (and presumably evil) plants is more difficult, and requires the character to best them in Logic + Medicine or Logic + Rigging against their Willpower to control one of them for a number of rounds equal to the number of net hits. Otherwise Puppetry extends to any number of plants within 10 meters of the character per point of Potency.

Elder Disciplines

• Abomination The character can work in a kitchen for an hour and grow an evil plan from inert plant material and evil magic. The product is a harmless if strange looking potted plant that will grow into a horror over the following night. The character makes a Logic + Medicine or Intuition + Survival test to get the process started. Making a Man Trap is threshold 3, making a Triffid is threshold 5, and making a Pod is threshold 7. Creating these abominations bestows no special ability to control them.
• Seeds of Destruction Time destroys all things according to mortals, but even amongst supernaturals it is known that the work of your hands will eventually be claimed by the legacy of nature. Using this ability, the character accelerates this process, causing the progression of seasons and flora to rip things to shreds. Roots shatter stone and flesh alike and tiny pieces blow away in pollen laden dust. This is a damage 3 attack that assaults each target in a cone that is up to 100 meters in length per point of Potency. No inanimate object is treated as larger than small, as bigger things are torn apart from every direction and even the inside. The character must spend a Complex Action and a power point, and uses Logic + Rigging or Intuition + Survival. This power can be used on a much smaller scale without spending a Power Point, but it only projects 2 meters per point of Potency.

Trail of Tears
Bitterest of all is not the sorrow but to have one's sorrows ignored.

The Trail of Tears is a magical discipline which harvests the power of misery. In the Deep Astral there is a liquid that is literally created by the fact that sadness exists. This material is called the Tears of Maya, even though in a very real way it is the psychic residue of human sorrow from the Material World. Those who follow the Trail are incredibly good at finding the clouds in life. They gain a +2 bonus to argue against any proposal, fact, or course of action. At Advanced, this negativity increases to +4, and at Elder the ability to speak against things rises to a full +6 bonus.

Basic Disciplines

• Curse of Failure Using astral sorcery, the character curses a victim to have luck abandon them at a later date. If the character succeeds on an opposed Willpower + Sabotage or Willpower + Rigging check that takes a Simple Action, evil magic hangs like a dark cloud of misery over the target's head. At any later date, the character may reactively end this curse to force the victim to reroll all hits on a test. The Curse of Failure is totally covert, all the character actually does is look at the victim funny and the sorcery has no overt special effects (although it can be detected as normal Astral magic).
• Pain Drops Tiny drops fall at the target, dampening not their skin but their pride. The character spends a simple action to direct Tears of Maya to fall at a target, and makes an Agility + Combat or Willpower + Rigging test to make a standard ranged attack. Pain Drops have a damage rating equal to the character's Willpower, and are soaked with Willpower rather than Strength. Pain Drops cause only illusory damage, and while they cause wound penalties and even incapacitation, they do not actually kill or wrap around into lethal damage. Virtual damage from Pain Drops fades in an hour.

Advanced Disciplines

• Dark Night of the Soul By spending a complex action belittling the target, the character can provoke a Despair Frenzy in them. The character makes an opposed Willpower + Sabotage or Willpower + Intimidate test against the target's Willpower, and if successful the victim enters an immediate Despair Frenzy (regardless of their Master Passion, if any). This ability is largely covert, as it does not appear that the character did anything other than behave in a rude and perhaps senselessly cruel fashion towards the victim.
• Water Prison With a complex action and a power point, water can be manipulated into three dimensional shapes that hold their form and are strong as steel. Actually capturing someone with titular prison made of water requires a ranged combat test using Agility + Combat or Willpower + Rigging. Grasping water has a Strength equal to the character's Willpower.

Elder Disciplines

• Astral Projection Activating Astral Projection sends a character and possibly their friends into the deep or shallow Dreamlands or back to the material world. Anything the character carries as well as a circle of hand holding creatures up to the character's Willpower in number (and everything they are carrying as well) shifts across the worlds with the character. Astral Projection requires a Complex Action and a power point.
• Object of Envy The character can reach into a target's mind and create some physical thing that the target deeply desires. This can be something as simple as a sandwich or as complex as a whole person. This costs a power point regardless of how elaborate or abstractly valuable it is. Electronics created in this way don't function super well because they are made out of evil magic even more so than a modern operating system normally is. A person created in this way is always an Extra with no edge stat or supernatural powers. They are otherwise able to pass as the actual person they are based upon (if any), though they are preternaturally disposed towards evil and cruelty and are under the control of the character who made them. The character makes a Charisma + Expression test to set the quality of the mimicry of a person; a Logic + Electronics test to set the quality of created electronics; and an Intuition + Artisan test to set the quality of most other things. An Object of Envy so exactly duplicates a desired thing that it can set off a Greed or Love frenzy in the target from whom the desire was plucked (in general, the number of hits on the ability generates the threshold to resist the frenzy. A targeted creature can try to keep their desires to themselves, making a Willpower + Sabotage test as a reactive action – if the target gets at least as many hits as the character, the Object of Envy never takes form. When an Object of Envy is destroyed, it reverts into tears. Creating an Object of Envy takes a minute.

Veil of Morpheus
When you dream, dream of me.

The veil between the waking world and the world of sleep is both vast and unfathomable. And yet to those who scry deeply into Maya can see past it, and in time they learn to reach across and pull things from one side to the other. A character who practices the Veil of Morpheus is able to perceive their surroundings normally while they sleeping, able to wake themselves at will. With Advanced Veil of Morpheus, the character can perceive what other people are dreaming about by perceiving the dreamer. And when a character has Elder Veil of Morpheus, the veil of sleep is no veil at all and they can simply reach into dreams and interact with them while they are physically present at the dreamer's location (whether they are currently in the Dreamlands or the Material world).

Basic Disciplines

• Enchanted Slumber Using astral sorceries the character makes people supernaturally sleepy. The compulsion to sleep is virtually impossible to overcome for people who are already asleep, and is at best a minor inconvenience for those whose adrenaline is pumping. Activating it is potentially covert, in that the target is not especially aware of anything other than a feeling of sleepiness. The character however produces faintly glowing dust from their hands when used. Using Enchanted Slumber requires an opposed Charisma + Expression or Logic + Medicine vs. Intuition. An affected target that is already asleep will not awaken for at least an hour (longer with net hits) even in the face of loud noises or shaking. An affected target who is not asleep will go to sleep at the first opportunity and then stay asleep for at least an hour (longer with net hits).
• Dream Vision The character can send messages and images into the dreams of another creature.

Advanced Disciplines

• Denial of Privacy The character v
• Horrid Reality The stuff of dreams becomes the stuff of reality. The character spends a Complex Action and suddenly the physical effects of events that take place within a dreamer's dream reality draw their toll on their body. While the effects of a sexy or merely surreal dream may not even be immediately obvious upon waking, the effects of a nightmare can be catastrophically fatal. The character need only know the name of a potential victim and their location while dreaming, the ability works at any distance.

Elder Disciplines

• Dreamscape The character shapes the Deep Dreamlands to be as they want it to be. The character spends an Edge and the dreamlands of Maya begin to adjust themselves to the substance and reality that the character wishes them to contain. This transformation takes a base amount of time of one day, but they can make a Charisma + Expression or Logic + Operations test, and reduce the timeframe with net hits.
• Dreamstep The character can move seamlessly between the Shallow Dreamlands and the Material World at will. Crossing the threshold between the Shallow Maya and the physical world is a Simple Action and the character can take anything they can carry with them.

-Username17

[A Hammer]

When a power calls for an opposed test, shouldn't the opposing character be allowed to roll attrubute + skill rather than just attribute? Or am I missing something obvious?

Extremely petty editing nitpicks, spoilered in order to avoid cluttering up the thread:

When descibing a character, you switch between using 'she' and 'her' and using 'they' and 'their'. Which is preferable?

Do you want Discipline names to be capitalized or not? Right now you're waffling back and forth between them.

Supernatural Senses: Might sound better as 'Vision can become telescopic or even function in total darkness, hearing can become acute enough to hear heart beats, smell can become powerful enough to track at a brisk walk, and so on.'

Spirit's Touch: 'Touch' is misspelled as 'ouch'.

' “What happened here?” in the case of a brutal crime scene, the context makes that description sufficient' - you could probably use a hyphen or something before the 'in'.

Twilight Projection: 'shallows' should be 'Shallows' and 'an other world' should be 'another world'.

Celerity: 'a character with Celerity may choose to reduce the speed that will move at' is missing a pronoun. The last sentence might want to be changed to something like 'In general, a character using her/their Celerity to more than double her/their speed in any dimension would constitute a masquerade breach.'

Command: Should probably read as 'If it is of an open ended nature such as “lie down,” the victim will spend one Complex Action performing it, and are then free to do as they please and wonder why they did that.'

Conditioning: '(this is often done to make the giving of orders that would be against the original nature easier to do' is missing a bracket.

Patience of the Mountains: Could possibly be changed to 'They persist night after night as the mountains and valleys do, never aging and never changing.'

Obfuscation: 'have a chance to perceive through it' should probably be changed to 'see through it'.

Mask of a Thousand Faces: Should probably be 'For example, if a character uses the Mask to appear as a person who had no gun and then fires their gun, people would see them as they really are'.

Feat of Strength: In order to be consistent, you might want to change 'four' to 4 and 'five' to 5. Should probably read as 'Whether used to bounce a bullet off one's chest or tear a car in half, the Feat of Strength has an only barely perceptible shimmer when used. Generally, only those quite familiar with the supernatural will be able to identify it.

Vigor: Truncated.

Earth Quake: 'full force of ground zero' - should the 'of' be changed to an 'at'? I'm not sure.

Prescence: The last instance of 'this bonus' could probably just be 'it'.

Awe: You use 'provides' two times in rapid succession. Maybe change one of them to 'makes for', or something similar?

Dread Gaze: 'Dread Gaze is a Simple Action and it requires a Willpower' should lose the 'it'.

Summons: Should probably be 'he target becomes aware of roughly where the character is'.

Siren Song: 'weak willed' should be 'weak-willed'.

I'll direct my OCD towards the Sorcery section later, if no-one else does so first.

In other news, I didn't realise until just now that the Fortitude quote is from Dak'kon. I feel so stupid.

[Gelare]

When a power calls for an opposed test, shouldn't the opposing character be allowed to roll attrubute + skill rather than just attribute? Or am I missing something obvious?

I think that's intentional, possibly because we want (evidently) peoples' awesome abilities to succeed reliably, and giving both sides attribute + skill makes the success rate too low. It's intentional Rocket Launcher Tag.

[CatharzGodfoot]

When a power calls for an opposed test, shouldn't the opposing character be allowed to roll attrubute + skill rather than just attribute? Or am I missing something obvious?

I think that's intentional, possibly because we want (evidently) peoples' awesome abilities to succeed reliably, and giving both sides attribute + skill makes the success rate too low. It's intentional Rocket Launcher Tag.

Not quite rocket launcher tag. Also, there will probably be a greater disparity between the attributes of humans and supernaturals than between the skills.

[The Lunatic Fringe]

Denial of Privacy is truncated.

Further, what can Dreamscape specifically do and not do?

[Gelare]

Not quite rocket launcher tag.

Come on, there's abilities that explicitly kill someone dead based on the results of a single opposed roll, and the defender rolls fewer dice than the attacker. You gotta admit, that's at least a pretty close assessment.

[CatharzGodfoot]

Not quite rocket launcher tag.

Come on, there's abilities that explicitly kill someone dead based on the results of a single opposed roll, and the defender rolls fewer dice than the attacker. You gotta admit, that's at least a pretty close assessment.

Yeah, I originally assumed that the resisting attributes were a static target number. Even then, though, you're right about it being RLT. I forgot how hard those things can be to aim.

[virgil]

I keep thinking Potency is used as a defense here, either as a bonus to all resist rolls or to act as a threshold for any offensive power (likely the former); but I'm beginning to think that's me thinking crazy. But if you don't do something like that, it's a level of Rocket Launcher Tag that rivals high-level D&D, even between supernaturals of disparate power levels.

Question about countering the sorceries with salt/seeds. Does it act as a counterspell that you throw against the caster when they use it? Does it dispel lingering effects (like some of the offensive shapeshifting)? Does it act as a ward against incoming effects if placed preemptively?

[Username17]

I of course thought of giving people +Potency to defenses like they do in nWoD. I don't find it very satisfying, because the bonus isn't one starting PCs notice. I'm leaning more towards +Edge.

-Username17