Posted: Tue Jun 27, 2017 8:02 pm
Errr. 'quality posts'. I will try to make a review once I'm done with my thesis and finish the NWO OSSR, but for now just a magic change overview.
So, upsides:
* Compared to nMage 1 and especially oMage, nMage 2 is very strongly moving away from using multiple arcanas for a single spell in favor of making every arcana awesome. That's great. In oMage making a character who specializes in Correspondence, Time and Prime frequently meant making a character who can do absolutely nothing.
* Vulgar/coincidental distinction is completely gone. There is still Paradox (which comes as a result of there being an evil baby-eating realm between you and the magic realm), but no of the coincidental magic silliness. If you do any visible magic there is a small increase in spell's paradox, but that's it.
* No multiple action clusterfuck. This is a general change in nWoD 2 - everything that gives multiple actions went in the trash. Using Time magic gives increases in Speed and initiative fuckery instead.
Now, how did the magic system actually change? The core of the new system are "yantras", essentially casting tools. The spellcasting roll is Gnosis+Arcana+Yantras-Modifiers, with Yantras-Modifiers being limited to a maximum of +5. There are a bunch of yantras and they give +1 or +2 bonus, with a few merit-based yantras giving +3. The number of yantras you can use in a single spell is determined by your Gnosis - 2 yantras at Gnosis 1-2, 3 yantras at Gnosis 3 (maximum chargen Gnosis). +2 yantras generally take more than a turn to use, and you can only use one yantra per turn, so in combat mages will just use their best yantra for spells. You also have a "dedicated tool", a single +1 yantra item that also reduces the paradox dice. While this is important will be covered later. Example casting:
Mary Mastigos wants to cast a spell to read thoughts of a hot bartender. She has Mind 3 and Gnosis 2. Mary uses two yantras - a ring that was given to her by her father on the 16th birthday (her dedicated tool) and Concentration. Concentration is a +2 yantra that causes spells with long duration to stop working as soon as you take any action. Mary rolls Gnosis 2 + Mind 3 + Yantras 3 - Modifiers and gets or doesn't get a success. The yantra system may seem complicated at first, but it's actually isn't. Each player will have 3-4 yantras they use all the time and they all give very similar small bonuses, so it's easy to remember.
So what are these modifiers? Spells have factors: Potency, Duration and Scale. Scale is how many targets the spell affects. Duration is duration, but also affects spell penetration against magical defenses (Clash of Wills). Potency is the effect's strength and also has to account for spell penetration against people in general. Some spells don't care about Potency, some do. All spells have a Primary Factor (either potency or duration) which gets a bonus from your Arcana rating. To get more of a factor you have to buy it, 1 point for -2 to the casting roll. For Mary's example, Telepathy's primary factor is Potency so the spell will have Potency 3, Duration 1, Scale 1. To make the spell last for more than one turn Mary will have to take a -2 penalty to get it to Duration 2.
Spell factors are a bunch of math. They work perfectly fine in a PbP, but at a table I can imagine them being annoying.
There is one other aspect of the spellcasting, and that is Reach. Reach improves the effect of the spell in some way. For example, by default Telepathy just lets the mage read target's thoughts. By adding 1 Reach you can allow the target to selectively transmit the thoughts. By adding 1 Reach you can also make the telepathy go both ways. You can do both Reach options. You get a certain amount of free Reach and you can get more by increasing the number of Paradox dice you'll have to roll. That's where dedicated tools come handy - they are one of the few ways to decrease Paradox.
You can also spend Reach on other things. By default all spells are cast as rituals, and to cast them in a turn you have to spend Reach. All spells are also touch-only, and going to LOS costs Reach. Going to an Advanced Duration scale also costs Reach (normal Duration goes from 1 to 10 turns, Advanced goes from 1 scene to year).
Most spells printed in the book have Reach options written for them. How do you determine Reach options for spells not in the book? Go fuck yourself, that's how. The core spell list does actually cover most obvious uses of arcana, but still.
And that's my brief overview of the main bits of the magic system. I've probably poorly explained something, so if you have questions - ask away.
So, upsides:
* Compared to nMage 1 and especially oMage, nMage 2 is very strongly moving away from using multiple arcanas for a single spell in favor of making every arcana awesome. That's great. In oMage making a character who specializes in Correspondence, Time and Prime frequently meant making a character who can do absolutely nothing.
* Vulgar/coincidental distinction is completely gone. There is still Paradox (which comes as a result of there being an evil baby-eating realm between you and the magic realm), but no of the coincidental magic silliness. If you do any visible magic there is a small increase in spell's paradox, but that's it.
* No multiple action clusterfuck. This is a general change in nWoD 2 - everything that gives multiple actions went in the trash. Using Time magic gives increases in Speed and initiative fuckery instead.
Now, how did the magic system actually change? The core of the new system are "yantras", essentially casting tools. The spellcasting roll is Gnosis+Arcana+Yantras-Modifiers, with Yantras-Modifiers being limited to a maximum of +5. There are a bunch of yantras and they give +1 or +2 bonus, with a few merit-based yantras giving +3. The number of yantras you can use in a single spell is determined by your Gnosis - 2 yantras at Gnosis 1-2, 3 yantras at Gnosis 3 (maximum chargen Gnosis). +2 yantras generally take more than a turn to use, and you can only use one yantra per turn, so in combat mages will just use their best yantra for spells. You also have a "dedicated tool", a single +1 yantra item that also reduces the paradox dice. While this is important will be covered later. Example casting:
Mary Mastigos wants to cast a spell to read thoughts of a hot bartender. She has Mind 3 and Gnosis 2. Mary uses two yantras - a ring that was given to her by her father on the 16th birthday (her dedicated tool) and Concentration. Concentration is a +2 yantra that causes spells with long duration to stop working as soon as you take any action. Mary rolls Gnosis 2 + Mind 3 + Yantras 3 - Modifiers and gets or doesn't get a success. The yantra system may seem complicated at first, but it's actually isn't. Each player will have 3-4 yantras they use all the time and they all give very similar small bonuses, so it's easy to remember.
So what are these modifiers? Spells have factors: Potency, Duration and Scale. Scale is how many targets the spell affects. Duration is duration, but also affects spell penetration against magical defenses (Clash of Wills). Potency is the effect's strength and also has to account for spell penetration against people in general. Some spells don't care about Potency, some do. All spells have a Primary Factor (either potency or duration) which gets a bonus from your Arcana rating. To get more of a factor you have to buy it, 1 point for -2 to the casting roll. For Mary's example, Telepathy's primary factor is Potency so the spell will have Potency 3, Duration 1, Scale 1. To make the spell last for more than one turn Mary will have to take a -2 penalty to get it to Duration 2.
Spell factors are a bunch of math. They work perfectly fine in a PbP, but at a table I can imagine them being annoying.
There is one other aspect of the spellcasting, and that is Reach. Reach improves the effect of the spell in some way. For example, by default Telepathy just lets the mage read target's thoughts. By adding 1 Reach you can allow the target to selectively transmit the thoughts. By adding 1 Reach you can also make the telepathy go both ways. You can do both Reach options. You get a certain amount of free Reach and you can get more by increasing the number of Paradox dice you'll have to roll. That's where dedicated tools come handy - they are one of the few ways to decrease Paradox.
You can also spend Reach on other things. By default all spells are cast as rituals, and to cast them in a turn you have to spend Reach. All spells are also touch-only, and going to LOS costs Reach. Going to an Advanced Duration scale also costs Reach (normal Duration goes from 1 to 10 turns, Advanced goes from 1 scene to year).
Most spells printed in the book have Reach options written for them. How do you determine Reach options for spells not in the book? Go fuck yourself, that's how. The core spell list does actually cover most obvious uses of arcana, but still.
And that's my brief overview of the main bits of the magic system. I've probably poorly explained something, so if you have questions - ask away.