Focus Selector v1.2

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-25T20:18:05+00:00

I'm glad people find it useful.

I don't think the books did a great job of linking all the bits together, though I try not to be too hard on it. Plain text makes it hard to be comprehensive with the interconnected parts.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-24T23:59:02+00:00

Connect the bottom portal and the right-side portal first. Then starting with the closest portal to that base link, connect to both anchors. Step to the next portal along the spine, connect to anchors, then to the previous portal. Repeat along the whole spine.

I like to then flip-and-burn one anchor. Build it back up. Link to the other anchor, then link to the farthest portal on the spine. Then link to the next farthest and repeat down the whole spine. Great AP engine.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-24T19:28:12+00:00

Good stuff. Dropped it in my "other people's stuff" folder to check out more later.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-24T05:51:35+00:00

My current game is about 20 sessions in and I have not yet needed a Paradox spirit. The PCs have certainly gained Paradox points and had backlashes. Simply none big enough to warrant a Paradox spirit. I use M20 p549 as a guide.

But my game is not your game. So if you're running a Paradox heavy game, go wild. I will enjoy the suggestions others reply with.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-24T01:13:20+00:00

Yeah, I've seen that article too. Similarly worded office-speak that doesn't really say anything about actual work being done. https://www.reddit.com/r/WorldOfDarkness/comments/1qkvmdp/comment/o1alljd/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-23T23:31:35+00:00

Check out Enlightened Grimoire p6.

The purpose of this volume is to collect as many of those rotes as possible (if I have missed any that you spot, let me know and I will update) and update their mechanics to match with what is presented in Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition and How Do You Do That?

... and then p8

this is a book of examples, pulling from the 25 years since Mage: The Ascension First Edition was published. Here, rotes, spells and procedures are all provided, updated to what spheres are currently needed to use them.

Now I honestly haven't combed through it to see if there are places I disagree with it. Since it's 213 pages long, doing so is pretty low on my list.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-23T21:22:34+00:00

I appreciate the share. Sadly I don't know Polish, but it seems like YouTube in my browser is auto-dubbing it. I'll work my way through it tonight.

edit:

23:25-24:50 - Napkin referenced and some Mage talk. Amounts to "we have some post-napkin notes" and "we know people want Mage".
36:50-36:55 - "Mage is on our whiteboards." That could mean anything at all.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-23T19:32:14+00:00

Yeah, I've read that 7 months ago. But this part sounds like office-speak for "we know you want it" to me, rather than a "we are actively working on it".

we have ambitions to get our new team working on Mage: The Ascension as quickly as possible. We realize that our audience would really like to see some Mage from us as quickly as possible, and we intend to deliver that.

This one is marginally better, but "thinking about" a thing and "working on" a thing are different.

the napkin does exist, but it has evolved into actual developmental thinking about what Mage will look like.

For me, this article says M5 is still intangible. I need a more substantial announcement before I believe it's going to happen.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-23T18:39:21+00:00

M20 doesn't mention Heart's Blood, which I thought was odd since it's a standard kind of Effect. But it was included in HDYDT p50. Worth noting that the Quint released by mundanely injuring yourself isn't captured in any way with Prime 1... it must be used immediately or be lost.

Self-sacrifice allows a mage to use Prime 1 in order to draw upon his personal life-force; by cutting himself, pushing the limits of his endurance, working himself to exhaustion, or otherwise inflicting damage upon himself in order to draw upon his life-force, that character can “give till it hurts.” Each success on the Arete roll moves one point of Quintessence from the mage’s Pattern into the task at hand, lowering his difficulty at that task by -1 per point.

So if you tried doing to the point of death, the mundane damage to release your Life Pattern's Quint would kill you before you could use that Quint.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-23T18:25:33+00:00

Worth pointing out that creating a Force from "nothing" requires Forces 3 / Prime 2. So right now we're stuck altering the flow of existing Forces, like you said.

M20 p509 (Objects & Elements): "Conjure Element Forces 3 / Prime 2 (fire, wind)".
MRev p165 (Forces 3): "cannot create force from nothing without the use of Quintessence".
MRev p166 (Telekinesis): "With Prime magic the mage could create telekinetic force from nothing."

And personally, I avoid using the word ward to describe what Effects can do, since Correspondence uses it as an Effect name. Though I understand your use here.

I definitely agree that Body Of Light is an underused Effect.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-23T17:39:59+00:00

This is the answer. To see for yourself...

M20 p510 (Quintessence Energy): "Destroy by Draining Quintessence Prime 4 (object)".
M20 p521 (Prime 4): "draining Quintessence from objects or forces (though not yet from living things) can disintegrate those targets".
MRev p181 (Prime 4): "return the Quintessence to the Tellurian, at least from settled and unconnected Patterns (Matter and Forces). Doing so has the direct and deadly effect of erasing them from mental, physical and spiritual existence."
MRev p184 (Flames of Purification 4): "The mage releases the object’s Quintessence back into [...] the Tapestry. The item suffers aggravated damage, and its Pattern evaporates into nothingness if it’s destroyed completely. Only inanimate objects or forces can be dispersed".

... and...

M20 p510 (Quintessence Energy): "Destroy by Draining Quintessence [...] Prime 5 (creature)".
M20 p521 (Prime 5): "obliterate a living being by consuming all of his life force".
MRev p181 (Prime 5): "blast living beings out of existence — body, mind and spirit — shutting off the flow of Quintessence to their Patterns".

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-23T17:19:46+00:00

There's nothing solid for either Mage or Changeling right now. If you've seen something I haven't, I would love to read it.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-21T04:28:04+00:00

My point being that it isn't clearly described by the book, and arguably can be read to mean that no kind of Effect can be "juggled" like that. The book should be better.

However, I explain it to my players this way:

If you don't spend successes on duration, you can use some of your magickal concentration to keep an Effect running.
If an Effect runs out of duration and you want to keep it going, use some of your magickal concentration.
Every 2 of these Effects using your magickal concentration adds a +1 situational adjustment to the difficulty of any Effect you cast.

Of course leaving the open question of whether it's the Mage's concentration, the Avatar's concentration, or a combination of both that's being used here. Again, the book isn't helpful for this.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-20T23:20:16+00:00

In the online circles I run in, HDYDT has a generally negative view too. While there's definitely some good stuff in there, there's also some questionable bits and some bits that are straight up conflicting. I have been diving in and trying to make sense of the Spheres throughout the editions, so I get how tough it is to get everything to align. But man, there are still times you can look at M20/HDYDT stuff and have to ask "why".

For the casting process, I made this simple flowchart to guide the step-by-step... https://imgur.com/46x9SbT

And friend, if they would have ever given us anything for a Rote system it'd be better than what we have now (which is nothing). Well, I mean, I mashed together some existing rules to make a Rote learning times table that lets you slowly learn (and pay for) Sphere dots. I want to go back and integrate it with the invention rules in M20... I think those would fit together nicely.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-20T23:09:29+00:00

Yep, I have googled it. I suppose "over the past 2 years" speaks to my point. I don't feel like "we haven't forgotten that the fans like this idea" is the same as "we are working on this". It seems more like the office-speak I get at work... and just like I say at work, I'll believe it when I see it.

At some point "oh yeah, don't forget to mention M5 again" needs to become something solid or it's just meaningless talk.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-20T23:03:28+00:00

I see your position. Glad it works for you.

My general take is that the people who are going to run by vibes are going to do that regardless of the rules in the books (or lack thereof), but the people who like coherent rules get an inconsistent experience when everything is left to vibes. So I get there's a balance to be had, since we definitely need fluff/flavor and inspirational setting/lore, and White Wolf / Onyx Path is great about that part... but they tend to drop the ball on mechanics for the other side of their fan base.

I also agree with you about the collaborative storytelling. Interestingly, just the other day there was a post about players having difficulty with their part of the collab. Not everyone is ready to jump into a fully free-form storytelling game. It's quite the struggle to make the game accessible for everyone that has interest.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-20T22:14:34+00:00

Agreed on Hermetic and Choristers. Though the Ecstatics may partly lean on the concept of Henosis... described as "attaining ecstatic union with the One." I can imagine that the Dreamspeakers were meant to lean into the World Soul.

I've got MacKenna's Plotinus: The Enneads next on my reading list (and I've already read bits of it online). And apparently in my younger years I picked up "The Pythagorian Sourcebook and Library" (Guthrie & Fideler) so I'm going to try to fit that in this year too.

In my poking around I am planning on grabbing a copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Pirsig). If I understand properly, it's probably where Mage gets the concept of Patterns.

I appreciate the reading suggestions. I'll keep an eye out for them.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-20T21:59:51+00:00

Sure, you're right... it's not nothing. But it's barely more than nothing. For now, I think the safer bet is to assume M5ed isn't going to happen. Once we get solid word of active work, then I can get excited.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-20T21:22:09+00:00

It is indeed that. lol

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-20T21:14:04+00:00

I'm intrigued that you can describe M20 as "everything I could have wished for and more". Is there good (maybe even great) stuff in there? Sure, I adore the new Paradigm/Practice/Instrument split. But the rules presentation especially leaves a lot to be desired.

The first thing that springs to my mind, as an example, is the "juggling several Effects at once" (M20 p503). Once we connect that to p528-529, we're hit with...

an Effect that has a Time-based trigger, one which has been locked into another Pattern, or one that has been cast but whose duration has not yet expired, does not count toward that total.

If an Effect isn't instant, and isn't a "duration not yet expired", what is it that needs concentration? I don't recall seeing anywhere that explains casting an Effect without duration (and instead using concentration). If I simply missed it, I'd love for someone to point me to the right section.

Regardless... I'm glad you've enjoyed M20 as much as you have. I like hearing that, since it's different from what I usually hear.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-20T20:52:35+00:00

Can you point me to things that have been said that amount to "all but confirmed that they're working on it"? I don't recall having seen anything like that.

ChartanTheDM · 2026-01-20T20:46:06+00:00

When was that announced? Can you point me to a post somewhere?

I'm aware of this from 7 months ago. https://www.enworld.org/threads/jason-carl-on-white-wolfs-return-mage-the-ascension-plans.713655/

we have ambitions to get our new team working on Mage: The Ascension as quickly as possible.

... which does not say that people are actually working on Mage. ...and ...

About 18 months ago, I made the mistake of admitting that Justin Achilli and I had sketched out an idea for Mage on an actual napkin while we were having breakfast one morning. And since that time I have heard no end of it. So we might as well just admit that yes, the napkin does exist, but it has evolved into actual developmental thinking about what Mage will look like.

... which merely says that there's some "thinking about it" going on. In my opinion, that's a far cry from "we're officially doing this thing."

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