Chronicle and Character Creation

What kind of story do we want to tell, and what kind of characters do you want to play in it?

Where do we want to set the game? I live in San Antonio TX, and there's a lot of interesting things to work with here. Or we can set the game in another big American city, like New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, or New Orleans. Or somewhere out in the Midwest or the mountains, or somewhere not in the US (although you'll have to forgive me for not being as familiar).

I'll always be a bit biased in favor of Seattle, but honestly San Antonio is fine with me.

Whoa! Holy crap!

I did not expect an invite (so soon)! :P

Stoked to be here. Hi all.

RE: location of the campaign, I'm happy to defer to the ST completely in this regard. If you want to play on some place you're personally familiar with, because that will make your experience easier/better? Perfect. Do that. I will adapt.

RE: the kind of story... I will say, I personally find the Ascension War really hard to understand. Like, I understand the motivation and end games but ... what I don't understand is how a cabal of Mages really shapes that. :P

And granted, as a player, that's not necessarily my job to understand, it still just makes the whole Ascension War thing kind of opaque to me. Like, I don't prefer a campaign that is a bunch of Mages killing each other so... how do you wage a war for reality that doesn't discuss focus on killing.

Point that I'm trying to get around to is; I personally prefer a Mage story that is more about, like, discovery. Discovery of Magely secrets, personal/character discovery. Discovery of a city's secrets. Weird metaphysical stuff that Mage touches on. Whatever.

To speak in terms of the M20 "Types of Chronicle" section (so that we're all speaking the same language), I'd say I tend toward a mix of "Urban Fantasy" and "Occult" genres, and an "Orphan Chronicle" or a "Traditions Chronicle" where the Sects aren't being too burdensome on the PCs (i.e. aren't trying to force them into the Ascension War).

I'm down with a "Everyone fighting a common Enemy"-thing, so long as fighting the thing doesn't necessarily require fighting. i.e. I don't want to feel like I need to create a Mage that can wield raw magical power in combat. I like infiltration and investigation and maneuvering and, yes, some combat.

Does any of that make sense?

Those are my thoughts.

EDIT: ugh, bunch of typos, but also had to add some clarifications

For the location/setting i'd be fine with San-Antonio, though when you mentioned mountains i remembered seeing"Rage across Appalachia". Yee-haw, perhaps?

As for the story. If we are going with what we landed upon in the IC, the spy-thriller motif, then i would prefer some backdrop for it, either as part of the chronicle or at least the prelude. Let us get to know our future betrayers, make connections to them, to make the split hurt and be meaningful. I do agree with emc, the grand plots never felt as fulfilling in Mage, as smaller, more personal ones. So i would also prefer to abstain from cleansing Control of Nephandic influence or becoming Oracles.

For character concepts i'd be fine following everyone's lead in theme. If it's fairly free, then i was ruminating on one idea for a while. A more soft spoken, quiet man, content with his place in life, follows his office crush to a series of meetings of a strange new-age group, ultimately joining the cult. The last thing he remembers is some "ultimate ritual" being performed. Next he is awake in empty room, everyone's gone and he is covered in gore, blood and viscerae. Something evil happened, and this newfound power of his surely stems from whatever happened. He is frankly scared of using his abilities and is suspicious of other's. Can fit a few different Traditions, but i initially imagined him a hermetic.

I'll go read through what was discussed in that thread...

Hello all! Glad to be here!

Public service announcement; the well-known Drive-Through site has a lot of M20 material on discount at present, if anyone is lacking anything. This being my first M20 game, I’ve picked up a selection.

I support the Storyguide using a setting they find familiar enough to reduce the burden. Being from across the pond, I will likely struggle with any specific geographical references, but that’s probably bound to happen to somebody. Last time, I dealt with it by building a mage who was a foreigner and hence understandably unfamiliar with their surroundings. If I’m truly stuck for a good concept I might even re-use that build, but I’d rather try something different.

Okay, so are we rolling with Traditions centered chronicle? And if so, which one everyone's feeling?

Another question is for ST - how much/little are we touching on technomagic? Would Etheretrites and VA's have stuff to do, or are leaning more on a mysticism/occultism angle?

So I'm hearing everyone's fine with San Antonio.

As far as the story, I want to make sure everyone's happy with it. I had originally envisioned something epic about exposing Nephandic influence in both the Technocracy and the Traditions, perhaps uniting both sides against a common enemy. But I'm hearing folks want something more grounded and down to earth, so maybe we should abandon the Nephandi idea and instead focus on awakenings and growth.

As for technomagic, I want you to play what you're going to enjoy. If you play a technomage I'll make stuff for you to do.

Hi everyone! I like what this is shaping up to be! I haven't had a chance to brainstorm character concepts but I will today and post here soon!

If the "epic" you describe above, JM, is more or less consistent with the "spy thriller" kind of discussed in the recruitment thread (plenty of venues for mixed styles of gameplay), I'm good with all that. Especially if that's what you've already been forming thoughts around. I don't want to make you redo work you've already done.

I have troubles, personally, attaching to the grand scale meta plot of Mage, but I can push through that.

I definitely understand/acknowledge that creating situations that bring 5 Mages in on things with gameplay requires a pretty epic scenario, so.... ultimately, I'm happy to go with whatever the ST wants to do.

There doesn’t have to be a grand epic plot for there to be Nephandi at the back of it behind a patsy or two.
Epic events can be hard to handle, but especially so for starting mages (which I assume we’ll be building as standard). If the game lasts long enough for the characters to grow into Masters, such plot lines could be worthy of them. If there is a potentially far-reaching plot afoot, what form might it take at street level?
As to concept, I’m hatching an Etherite interested in sound and vibration; I can think of rationales for several spheres at varying levels and I want to spend some time mining the Book of Shadows for ideas for suitable merits and flaws. The hardest part I often find is whittling down the Backgrounds I want to a sane level, and M20 has more than previous editions, and Avatar is now expected rather than exceptional.

We will be starting with the standard character build, so yes, beginning level characters.

What themes and ideas do you all want to explore in this chronicle?

I'm truly open. My experience with Mages (outside of using them as NPCs in other games) is limited.

I personally still think that the spy-thriller/going rogue is a good setup - we can begin with a short awakening prelude and then start with our new life at the chantry, where we will get to meet and form connections with each other and the higher ups (easy introduction), learn about our particular Tradition and settle into our focuses/paradigms. Once stuff hits the fan we can do the thriller, horror, drama, action., you name it.

Also if you're interested in Nephandi in particular feel free to include them. It's not like they HAVE to be some grand scheming overlords with otherwordly masters. Subtlety is their main weapon after all.

I also don't have strong interest in our PC's (or mine at least) becoming Masters/Oracles/Ascending. Keeping it (or starting at very least) at the low power scale and making advancements meaningful feels much more thrilling and rewarding.

All right. Shall we do individual preludes for everyone and then start off in a chantry?

I've created my character. I won't post it here in case we want to save that for a different thread. In summary he is a Cult of Ecstasy mage, a backpacking Tai Chi practitioner with a happy go lucky air about him; a Himbo if you will. I've taken 3 dots of Life and 3 dots of Mind.

Since the Chantry is going to already exist, and we’re likely to lose access to it in time, is it reasonable or safe to ignore the Chantry background?
Some of the others, like Library, could easily represent personal or at least portable resources, but Chantry is… awkward.

@ThetaSigma Please give me a book and page number to reference and I'll look at the background.

Core book, p.308-9.