Fate Core: Aeon Trinity pt 1

Psi

When you wish to play a psion, you must subtract one from your refresh, and pick an aptitude. This aptitude is the only way you can access psi. Once you have picked an aptitude that is your only power from then on, you can never use another aptitude. you must also have something in your high concept related to being a psion. 
Psi Aptitudes

Biokinesis
 Mostly this is used for creating advantages, and overcoming obstacles by changing your shape, altering your internal organs, and the ability to adapt to hostile environments. You cannot directly attack and defend with this power, you have to have prepared an advantage before hand to represent the changes you make to yourself.

Biokinetics tend to be loyal to NORCA, leaving is seen as traitorous and often they are hunted down by the NORCA. If you have left NORCA you will need a good reason to have gotten free.
Clairsetience
Use this to create advantages and overcome obstacles either through looking into the past or the future. Directly attacking is impossible and defense is defined by creating an advantage.

ISRA will take just about anyone who shows latency for clairsentience. Their is a predominance of the Baha'i religion within the order. Often those who see the past or the future are distrusted. 
Electrokinesis
 Advantage, and overcome actions, only related electricity and light(photokinesis). 
Psychokinesis
You can make attack actions and overcome actions for kinetic and thermal energy.

The Legions are the last line of defense for mankind against the Aberrant threat. They are the largest order, and always looking for new recruits. They only accept volunteers in the Legions.
Telepathy
You can overcome and create advantages dealing with understanding the mind and emotions. you can read thoughts and emotions.

Telepathy is not as common as telekinesis or Vitakinetics. The Ministry recruits all it can find, though they are careful, as only telepaths can be, to recruit those who share there goals.
Vitakinesis
You can overcome obstacles and create advantages related to the healing. you can speed up the healing of yourself and others, you roll psi vs a difficulty equal to +[the combined level of the consequences you are trying to heal], should you succeed at the roll treat the consequence(or consequences) as one level lower for the purposes of healing it. if you succeed with style it counts as two levels lower(can't be lower than minor).

Vitakinetics tend to come from a medical background, after they go through the Prometheus chamber they spend a few years interning. Many stay with the Aesculpian Order, but some move onto other jobs.
Teleportation
You can roll overcome and defense actions involving teleporting, either yourself or others. Overcome action to move distances. the bigger the object and the less you know about the location, the more difficult it is. Roll defense action to avoid physical damage by a short hop out of the way of the damage.

Upeo Wa Macho have a hard time of it. They left the earth for a time to remain free from the control of outside forces. Now they are back and dealing with the mistrust of the world they abandoned. Teleportation is the least common latency, now that the Chitra Banu have been purged.

Fate Core: Fantasy

I played in a game of Fate Core tonight. We played a fantasy one shot. There was a long discussion about how the world and characters should go, and a large scuffle with a band of outlaws. I ran into a few issues that I found troublesome during the game.

At one point the GM used a compel to deny one player an action. I found this distasteful. I understand why it happened, I just did not care for it. A player's only real handle on the world is the character they play. If you deny the player their action you are negating their ability to choose. I realize that the player can spend a Fate point to ignore the compel, but it seems wasteful to spend a point just to do what you want in the game.

Concessions, I have ever really got these. I understand them on paper, and when the PCs wish to concede there is no problem. It is when the NPCs wish to concede that I find the problem rearing its head. I think that if the players and GM were more direction stating what is at stake in the conflict this would be better off.

Can you take more than one consequence in a single round? I just can't remember. Overall the game was enjoyable; fun was had by all. Check it out:

Fate Core: Magi pt 10

http://no.wallpapersus.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Abstrakt-Green-Smoke.jpg

An in-depth look at skills. You will need to have access to the Fate Core rules to get the most out of this post. Check out the Kickstarter, all it takes is a buck and you get access to the whole shebang. I am not liking how I worded the Spirit section, any thoughts on that would be very helpful. Having been writing game material for almost thirty days straight now, I have had some thoughts on the process. Writing for RPGs is very different from the other types of writing I have done. Normally when I am writing I spend all day spewing forth a steady stream of words and then going back through later and making it clear. In game writing I spend all day working on details. I will write a few sentences, look at them and then look at them again. Editing three to four sentences is weird.

Affinity
Description: Everything is connected.Or more to the point, everything can be connected. This skill deals with the connections between people, places, and things. It is a difficult skill to fully grasp on its own. The easiest example is movement and teleportation.
Overcome: you roll to move through rough or blocked terrain, or to move further or faster. This could be via teleportation, seven-league-stride-altering you form to a faster one, cybernetics, or whatever. This can also be used to understand the connection between things, roll to find out what that connection is. This could be post-cognition(the past connects to the present), some sort of Kirlian apparatus(aura reading the connection between people),  or whatever.
Advantage: Creating an advantage with this skill is changing the distance, altering the relationship, or creating a new relationship: being in two places simultaneously, Someone liking yo for no real reason(this does not manipulate memory, just relationship).
Attack: You attack to break down relationships, physical or mental. Mental attacks are easier with this, but physical attacks are also doable. remember this is about altering an existing relationships and affinities. Major movement(kinetic energy) is covered by Forces. Attacking someone mentally(altering there relationship with another person or thing) will not change the memories of how they were, just the emotions of how they relate. If you have ever fallen out of love, its a lot like that. Physically altering the affinity of someone with gravity or there connection to the world can send them flying into things.
Defend: You defend with this skill by altering where you were, or altering when you were, or altering how people view you. You can stop someone from hating you, or wanting you dead.


Elan Vital
Description:There is a difference between the living and the nonliving. What the difference is has been debated and fought over for many cycles. But the difference is there. This skill deals with living things. Examples include manipulation of form, creation of/summoning creatures and people, and anything dealing with living things.
Overcome: Use this skill to understand living things and the residue they leave behind. you can see the living, know the living, feel the living, and in all ways comprehend them. This may also be used to create a new living thing. This could be done with some kind of mystic circle(summoning), A genetics lab(creation), or a spidey sense(sensing living things)
Advantage: Creating advantage with this skill would involve temporarily changing yourself or adding temporary creatures to the scene. Shape shifting, Biokinesis, summoning(pokemon style), and any other short term life effect works well for this.
Attack: Again this can be done with claws or a summoned creature, or simply rending the forces of life itself. Disintegration effects and the like are just as good as claws and fangs.
Defend: You can form a hard carapace, have a creature you create jump in front of the attack, or changing your form to move quicker. This is using life as your defense.

Forces
Description:There are things that exist, being neither life, spirit,nor matter. These things are known as forces. they direct and follow laws. those laws can change, but to be a force law must apply. Fire, speed, kinetic force, gravity, light, and many many others are examples of forces.
Overcome: To know what forces are affecting you, understanding of them. Removing obstacles and barriers are also there.
Advantage: Creating advantages with this is very easy, moving faster, removing gravity, altering the flow of light, adding heat, or removing it are all the kind of advantages you can create.
Attack: Forces are a blunt force in a fight.lighting things on fire, shoving them, breaking them, rending the very universe around you itself. Forces are not often subtle, and when they are subtle, they are lethal in unpredictable ways.
Defend: Using the forces of the universe to block(force field. eh? eh?), to increase your speed, or to reduce the speed of others. Much like attacking with this skill, defending is not subtle. This is the brute force solution.


Matter
Description: The 'things' in the universe are made of matter. Matter has no person-hood. It has no animation, no life.  Matter is the stuff of the universe.
Overcome: To create/change matter(lead to gold, or creating a table, both are doable), remove/overcome obstacles(create a door in the wall, or just flatten the wall).
Advantage: when creating items you can treat them as short term aspects(longer term stuff is much harder), also you can alter the terrain around you to aid you in a conflict. Building traps and understanding your environment can give you subtle advantages with this skill. Beware the master of matter for they are long in memory and subtle in their anger. Often this skill is technological or highly ritualistic, it takes time to shape the world, and the masters of this skill often take the long view on things.
Attack: You can do a direct attack with matter(earthquakes, heaving a boulder at them, using a gun), or indirectly(weird Rube Goldbergesque coincidences, cars flying off the road and hitting the bad guy, guns exploding in their face, and the like).
Defend: The attacker fails because suddenly there is a wall there, or the ground pitched to the side, or his bullets refuse to harm you. If they are using a weapon, they are making a mistake. That weapon is made of matter, and that is all you need to stop them.


Psyche
Description:The mind is a haunted house, a labyrinth with no map. masters of this skill are the guides that can get you in and out, they know the rules of the mind and can change themselves or anyone else as easily as breathing.
Overcome: to know the thoughts of others, you can create a mind(in a body if you build it with Life), understanding others is the purview of this skill.
Advantage: against a mind you can create advantages all day. you can ask questions that cut them to the core, you can find the core of their beliefs, tear away the layers of deception and see the truth of them, and all other forms of mental manipulation.
Attack: Attacking the mind directly can lead to aneurisms, or crisis of faith, loss of belief, or severe brain damage. 
Defend: to attack the master of Psyche is folly, for they know what you are going to do as soon as you do. they have altered their minds to deal with stress. they have sped up their mental processes, and are so smart that the confrontation was won before you even got there. they are the psychics and super geniuses of the Magi community. Tread carefully around them.


Spirit
Description: there are beings and locations that exist in neither matter, life, nor mind. these are places and beings of spirit. Masters of the art often claim that spirit is the prime material of the universe. That all things started out as spirit and the other concepts came later. The other are creatures of almost pure spirit, so there is some traction with that theory. they do not have minds or bodies(though they can if they choose) they merely believe things without thought. they are alien. If spirit is the prime material of the universe, that says many strange things about the nature of being.
Overcome: To find your way in the spirit pathways, or to create/summon a spirit being, or overcome a barrier of spirit. You can travel through the spirit realm and understand its inhabitants.
Advantage: creating an advantage with spirit involves the spiritual places and beings. it is difficult to create an advantage against a Magi or shadow with this skill.
Attack: Attacking spirits and spiritual entities is the primary focus of the attack action with this skill.
Defend: defending from spirits and spiritual attacks.


Tempus
Description: Time is the ordering of events sequentially along a path through a fourth dimension. It flies, it heals all wounds, and it marches on. Time is the eternal river, flowing inexorably to the end of days. It makes nonsense of infinity and requires eternity. Time is a truly subtle skill.
Overcome: to see the streams of time, the future, the past, all things are revealed in time. overcoming obstacles, or altering the time stream(time travel)
Advantage: Creating advantages with time is easy, anything where forethought would be useful, or where speeding up or slowing down time would be handy is fair game. you can travel back in time and give yourself aid in the current battle, or leave the item you need for yourself.
Attack: You ever see the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade? The part where Donovan(I think that was his name) drinks and ages to death and dust in seconds? Yeah, you can do that. or you can alter time to hit precisely and hard. or you can study each and every micro expression in slow motion.
Defend: You know where all the attacks are coming from, you have seen it in a thousand futures. Dodging attacks is as simple as walking across the room. You can play the temporal game, having left yourself a clue or item you need to defend. Or you can jump back in time and stop the attack from happening.

Skill issues, and my REAL second project

I was going to have a post describing my skills in detail and building stunts for them. As you will see, that is not the case. I am having difficulty with the skills section of Magi. I was going along alright, then I realized i was uncertain if I was being clear. I am entirely to close to this project and I may not be objective. So I give you a sample of my skill writing and I ask that you let me know if it is clear, or if you think it needs more. Here is the trickiest one I have:

Affinity
Description: Everything is connected.Or more to the point, everything can be connected. This skill deals with the connections between people, places, and things. It is a difficult skill to fully grasp on its own. The easiest example is movement and teleportation.
Overcome: you roll to move through rough or blocked terrain, or to move further or faster. This could be via teleportation, seven-league-stride-altering you form to a faster one, cybernetics, or whatever. This can also be used to understand the connection between things, roll to find out what that connection is. This could be post-cognition(the past connects to the present), some sort of Kirlian apparatus(aura reading the connection between people),  or whatever.
Advantage: Creating an advantage with this skill is changing the distance, altering the relationship, or creating a new relationship: being in two places simultaneously, Someone liking yo for no real reason(this does not manipulate memory, just relationship).
Attack: You attack to break down relationships, physical or mental. Mental attacks are easier with this, but physical attacks are also doable. remember this is about altering an existing relationships and affinities. Major movement(kinetic energy) is covered by Forces. Attacking someone mentally(altering there relationship with another person or thing) will not change the memories of how they were, just the emotions of how they relate. If you have ever fallen out of love, its a lot like that. Physically altering the affinity of someone with gravity or there connection to the world can send them flying into things.
Defend: You defend with this skill by altering where you were, or altering when you were, or altering how people view you. You can stop someone from hating you, or wanting you dead.

So, while I work that out I will be working on another project for a bit. I was going to continue with Buck Rogers, but I found that it lacked any kind of change to the rules of bog standard Fate Core, save for dog fighting which is covered in Kriegzeppelin Valkyrie.

I had a few other thoughts on what settings to do, but eventually I set my sights on one of my favorites. There is loads of material and many different kinds of campaign frameworks within the setting. It has many different in setting systems that interact with the rules, so there will be loads for me to consider and convert. I will be converting the Aeon Trinity continuum to Fate Core.

Aeon has several really interesting parts to it: Psionics, Superpowers, Faster-than Light Travel, Aliens, War, Mecha, espionage, conspiracy, and loads of others. The setting itself stretches from an alternate 1920s to the 2120s.  I will be breaking down the parts of the setting I like and reworking them to fit how I see the setting. It will be mostly the same, but there will be some changes so that that setting will work better for the types of campaigns I tend to run. Also I will be adding little tweaks to the setting, just for my own enjoyment of setting creation.

Psions
Artificially enhanced humans, with powers beyond those of normal men. They seem to be the salvation of man. If only they could unite. Created by secret alien masterminds, for purposes known only to them, the Psions work hard every day to fight the Aberrant menace.

There are several parts of the Psions I really like and would enjoy monkeying around with. The psionic powers are a bit of trouble. I think I will probably build a bunch of broad skills for the aptitudes and then use stunts to represent various pieces of the modes. this is problematic in a way, as it adds quite a few extra skills to the list.  

Another thing they have is bioware. Basically they can build living tools that only those with psi can use in the original game there is a limit to the amount of bioware you can attune to. I am not sure if this is still required for a Fate version. If I do it would also work well as a system for using some types of cyberware, so it is a thought I have had.

The Psi factions are also very interesting, and I think they would work far better in Fate Core. I am thinking of having an organizational aspect as one of the steps in character creation. I will work on this as the project goes on.

Aberrants
Wielding powers beyond their ability to control. Forged in quantum fire, tempered in the madness of war. These beings are terrifying, not for their alienness, but for the fact that they were once human. Mad and mutated, genius beyond human thought, these beings are power incarnate. Or at least that is the story the Trinity tells everyone.

They show up out of nowhere, like the titans of old they seek only the subjugation of man and reclamation of the Earth. They are not ravening monsters. They are calculating and cunning. Like the people the spawned from they are fractious. Some wish to leave Earth and its people alone, some to rule, and some to destroy.

I really want to do something really special with the Aberrants. I would like them to be playable in the Trinity era. I would also like to make them playable alongside Baselines and Psions alike. THis will be tricky, but not impossible. I think I may use bits from Strange Fate to make it work. Some of the largest Changes to the game world will probably involve the Aberrants. I would like to see a few more o the worlds they control, what they have done in 60 plus years(some of them had left Earth as early as 2020). These strange planets would allow me to do some of the wierder stuff I would like to do with the setting.

I also want to do some stuff with the aliens and the mechs(known in setting as VARGs). There was some interest, when I brought this up, in doing a Babylon 5 hack. As much as I like that series I do not know it well enough to do a setting hack for it. I do intend to bring some of the elements of it to the game, however. We will see how well that works.

Fate Core: Magi pt 9

http://kuragariokami.deviantart.com/art/Yggdrasil-71971498

The Magic System Toolkit was released in draft form to us yesterday. Oh wow, this thing is just filled to the brim with unadulterated awesome sauce! Seriously, if you have not have not donated to the Kickstarter, now is a perfect time to do so.  Now, having had a look at how some other magic systems were built I can see a few areas that helped me figure out how to present the magic system for Magi.

In the Magic System Toolkit +Rob Donoghue puts forward a series of defining traits of magic. I have decided to question my game using those traits. I hope to end up with my magic system a bit more defined than it was before. Here goes:

What is the tone of magic? Magic is basically neutral. It is the stuff of the universe, and thus has no will, desires or influence of its own. It has no will or personality, there is no light or darkness in it, though it can be influenced by those who use it. Magic is the turning point between the three pillars of the universe: Stasis, Destruction, and Creation. Without using magic, these forces tend to remain balanced, magic allows the Magus to tip that balance.

What is the cost of magic? Magic has no inherent price. Anyone with the belief, can do it. Even somethings without belief can do magic, or a reasonable facsimile thereof. Magic does have a great deal of risk. Altering the world to suit your beliefs is dangerous work. You may come away from it changed beyond recognition.

What are the limits of magic? Theoretically magic might have limits. But for all practical purposes it does not. Only the skill of the magic user limits the magic. Most limits are those imposed by the mind. The skills themselves limit magic in a way. They only allow for control of a piece of the universe. The skills you choose will effect what you can do.

How available is magic? Anyone can have magic. Most people don't. there appears to be very little difference between a Shadow and a Magus, yet the difference is vast. Why some people can do it and some can't is a mystery, though a thousand theories exist. There probably all wrong too.

What is the source of magic? Magic comes from the beliefs of people(however that is defined). Before there was consciousness, there was nothing. Before belief, there was unity. Magic comes from that initial conflict. When the first world view argued with the second. Where belief met doubt for the first time. That is where magic comes from. It may have a deeper source as well.The Other seem to have no beliefs, no purpose. Yet they work magic as great(maybe greater) than any Magus. Magic is the power of creation, and it steps from and channels through the true believers, the Magi.

.I hope that helps with the understanding of magic. I know I found it useful. The questions allowed me to look at Magi and magic from a different angle and see where the edges are. I wish to talk about how casting works for Magi. I do not yet have the whole system laid out, though. I am still having a great deal of difficulty with nodes. They are crucial to my game and I have hit a bit of a wall on how they work.

When using magic the default difficulty is +2, the node can spend one of its fate points(it gets as many as there are players in the game) to increase this difficulty as a passive defense/obstacle. At any point you can be compelled to allow the Node to actively defend and attack. The fiction of how this happens is dependent on the node. If it adheres to Methodical Naturalism, the attack and defense would have to follow the conservation of energy so creation ex nihilo becomes much harder. Whereas in a node that follows an ancient Egyptian world view would allow for that easily, provided you were channeling the power of the gods(Heka) and met with the metaphysical balance(Ma'at). It gets a bit iffy in some cases, and corner cases abound. I am still working on a way to make the system of adjudicating what magic works where.

I have this idea to give magic a cost like property and add to the players power base at the same time. I got this idea from the Magic System Toolkit. You can take a Discord consequence and add the shifts of damage it would normally avoid directly to your magic roll. this allows for you to purposefully cut loose with your magic but you are creating a great deal of dissonance in the world. I think this will work well, I will have to play test it to be sure though.

I also had a few random, incomplete, thoughts on how magic will work, sort of. These are just one sentence explanations for something that will probably be its own post once I have worked them out a bit.

Ritual casting
Slow and big, makes permanent things, not for combat magic, easier way to get around Discord.

Fast casting
Very quick, but nothing it makes is permanent and it has more of a tendency to generate Discord

And that is what I have on the magic so far. I will be refining skills and stunts tomorrow. Hopefully by Monday I will know how nodes work. 

Fate Core: Magic Sytem Toolkit Test

I just finished running a game of Fate Core using one of the new magic systems presented in the Fate Core Magic System Toolkit. The system was called Stormcallers. Basically the players each had control over an storm element: Inferno, Glacier, Flood, Earthquake, and Thunder. we made characters and I ran them through a heist scenario. Over all it was a blast to play and the magic was very quick and intuitive. It was a thrill ride.

We did run into a few issues though. The first was the names of the various storm elements. It was inconsistent, which led to some debate as to what each power was actually called. Not a huge issue really, but still it was a bit annoying.

the other issue we ran into was that some of the elements were poorly defined in the fiction. I had assumed that Thunder would allow for control of the winds. But there is nothing in there saying that. It talked mostly about lighting and thunder. If it had been described a bit more I think that this  would not have been an issue. We also ran into an issue with misunderstanding what a barrier is. Barriers are introduced in Stormcallers as a way to block movement from one zone to another. One of my players wished to use this a s defense, and as written it does not do that in the way he wanted(i.e. in the same zone as the baddies). I did not think that this is a problem with the rule itself, more in its perception.

If you wish to watch the game we recorded it on hangouts, check it out if you like:

Fate Core: Magi pt 8

http://hideyoshi.deviantart.com/art/The-Morrigan-145615010

Today I am going to try something a little bit different from my normal design. i am going to go through character creation and make a couple of characters. I would like to see how easy(hopefully) or hard(hopefully not) it is to conceptualize a new character. Through out the examples I will also be introducing some new(ish) mechanics for the game; don't let that throw you.

Throughout this post I will be following two of my friends, Chuck and Adrienne, as they create characters for my game. Chuck is a hard hitting, in your face action maniac. Adrienne is very into swashbuckling adventure, along the lines of Captain Blood. Before we even sit down to play I know that this game will have lots of high flying action and a distinct lack of patience. It is good to know your game group.

Step 1
Name: Names have power. They are you, in as much as anything is. If one were to know your true name, they would have power over you. Your name is not an aspect in itself, but it provides good conflict, or an aspect you can build to get one up on another Magus.
Belief: What do you believe about the world around you? How do you think it should behave? How do you see yourself? What is the thing that drives you to act? This is the trickiest aspect to get down, but if you nail this one then all the dominoes will fall neatly in place.

Style: How do you change the world? what is your system of magic? do you do rituals? Speak the names of dead gods? Take loads of drugs and become part of a larger universe? Do you know an ancient martial art? Are you a super hero? A god? a dragon? A Jedi? This aspect will be central to how you interact with the world. It dictates when you are in tune with the universe and when you are disassociated with it. It will inform how you do your magic

Adrienne decides she wishes to play a forgotten goddess from many cycles before. She thinks that a good belief would be that technology poisons the world. She think that this fits as without technology men will once again worship the old gods. she chooses the aspect Fire Must Be Returned To The Gods. She then moves on to her style. Adrienne sees the goddess as very driven, perhaps a battle goddess. She sees the style as involving meditation and seeing the future. She chooses the aspect Actualized Temporal Wrath. She then chooses a name, she goes with Morrigan after a Celtic goddess.

Chuck thinks it over and he decides that he wants to play a more traditional wizard. He looks through Wikipedia and finds that there were a lot of different kinds of magic users in history as well as fiction. He centers in on true names and thinks that sounds really cool, as does mystical equations. He thinks about the kind of person who uses those powers. He just watched The Mummy and like the character of Imhotep, so he decides that is his character's name. For his belief he goes with I Will Break The Bonds Of Life And Death. For his style Chuck chooses the aspect Numerals And Nomenclature. 
Step 2
Love: What do you care about? Who do you love? What could you not bear to lose? What did you lose that you NEED to get back? This aspect is on your mind. This is your Lois Lane, your Holy Grail, your object of worship.
Failing: How have you failed in your life? What is your worst tendency? Your weakness? This works like your trouble in standard Fate Core. Magi have great power that stem from their passions and beliefs, this leads to greater failings.
Cohort: Look to the players around the table. Their characters are all part of your cohort. You all seek to change the world together. What drew you together? What can the other members do for you? What do they need you to do? Do you all get along? Who do you dislike? Why do you have to work with them? This aspect can be about the group as a whole, or about the time you came together, or even about a specific member of  the group talk it over together and see what you can come up with.

Adrienne thinks about what Morrigan loves. What could she not stand to lose? Adrienne decides that Morrigan has a child that she is going to raise to be her vengeance on the world. She chooses the aspect My Son My Vengeance. Her failing comes easily enough from that, it is her pride, her hubris. She is a goddess after all. Adrienne goes with the aspect Fallen Pride to represent her status as a forgotten goddess and her pride in her station still. After talking it over with Chuck they come to the conclusion that both of their characters are remnants of bygone cycles using ancient magics. Adrienne tells a story of How Morrigan was being hunted by a nasty Jinn and its Fire Hounds and Imhotep helped her. She writes the aspect Debt Owed Through Blood And Fire.

Chuck knows exactly what he wants for his Love. Imhotep's wife died. that was bad, but then in the new cycle she was erased from reality. That was worse. He chooses the aspect I Will Get Her Back. He then must come up with Imhotep's failing. Chuck's firs instinct is to make that about his wife as well, but then he thinks of the kind of situations he wants to get into, and he goes with a tendency to rush to judgement and alack of patience. He takes the aspect Rush To Judgement. After talking it over with Adrienne and hearing her story of how they met, he decides to go off of that. He sees Imhotep as using Morrigan to help him getting what he wants. He writes down Morrigan Can Help Me as his aspect.

Step 3
Skill ladder: There are seven(7) skills in Magi: Elan Vital, Matter, Forces, Spirit, Affinity, Psyche, and Tempus. Elan Vital is the skill that deals with living things, creating them, harming them, healing them, and in all ways affecting living things. Matter is the same but with inorganic material. Forces controls things like fire, electricity, light, and other 'forces.' Spirit deals with things that are not of this world. It is the main skill for dealing with The Other, as well as summoning and binding the representation of an idea(a spirit or genius). Affinity deals with the connections between things, people, locations, or ideas. Psyche deals with the mind, and time deals with, well time.

When creating a character pick three skills, one at +3(Good), one at +2(Fair), and one at +1(Average). the remainder of the skills are rated at +0(Mediocre). These can be increased during a milestone like normal(just ignore the rules on having skills in a pyramid or column. Any skill can have any rating.

Adrienne looks over the skills and sees a couple that stand out. She will definitely need Life as a war goddess she will need to be able to hurt living things. She also needs time as Morrigan can see the future and Psyche seems to fit. She her final skill selection is Time +3, Life +2, and Psyche +1.

Chuck is nearly as quick. Going over it he focuses on Forces, he wants to shoot lighting and such. Life is also a good one for him as he wants to affect others. He hems and haws over the last one for a while then remembers that he wants to deal with death and life, so he takes Spirit, to control the boundary of life and death. His final skill ladder is Spirit +3, Forces +2, and Life +1.

Step 4
Skill aspects: You get three skill aspects. these are different than other aspects in a couple of ways. Firstly they are transitory, you can change them with a roll versus a difficulty of +2.  Secondly they represent the mundane skills you might have. When you invoke these aspects you gain the normal bonus, however the action you are taking counts as a mundane action. If the skill aspect does not mach up with the aspects of the node you are in you can get compelled to no longer be able to use the skill until you change it.Generally these aspects will be one word only, usually some sort of action word.

Adrienne now must pick her skill aspects for Morrigan. She goes with Fighting, War, and Speed as her three aspects as they represent how she sees her character's default state.

Chuck then thinks it over and takes Knowledge, Fighting, and Literacy as his three. He sees Imhotep as a warrior scholar and this fits that idea.

Step 5
Stunts: Pick a stunt that works for your character, you can pick more stunts than one at the cost of one refresh per stunt. you cannot start with less than one refresh. I will add a stunt list in a future post, right now, there are no stunts for this.

Adrienne and Chuck pick one stunt each, it was very exciting.

Step 6
Finishing touches: Record your starting Pattern and Discord stress(two each, unless you take a stunt that increases it). Record your refresh(three, unless you took extra stunts, then less).



Name: Morrigan
Played By: Adrienne
Belief: Fire Must Be Returned To The Gods
Style: Actualized Temporal Wrath
Love: My Son, My Vengeance
Failing: Fallen Pride
Cadre: Debt Owed, Through Blood And Fire

Skills
+3 Time +2 Life +1 Psyche

Skill Aspects
Fighting
War
Speed

Stunts
She has taken one stunt(these will be detailed in a later post(probably tomorrow, we'll see how I feel)

Refresh: 3
Pattern Stress: [1] [2]
Discord Stress: [1] [2]


Name: Imhotep
Played By: Chuck
Belief: I Will Break The Bonds Of Life And Death
Style: Numerals And Nomenclature
Love: I Will Get Her Back
Failing: Rush To Judgement
Cadre: Morrigan Can Help Me

Skills
+3 Spirit +2 Forces +1 Life

Skill Aspects
Knowledge
Fighting
Literacy

Stunts
He has taken one stunt, this will be fleshed out later, once I have built the stunts for the game

Refresh: 3
Pattern Stress: [1] [2]
Discord Stress: [1] [2]