From nv91-asa@nada.kth.se Sat Aug 2 15:59:15 1995 Status: RO X-Status: Received: from epsilon.qmw.ac.uk (epsilon.qmw.ac.uk [138.37.6.3]) by mail.nada.kth.se (8.6.10/8.6.10) with SMTP id PAA02468 for ; Wed, 2 Aug 1995 15:59:13 +0200 Received: from QMWCC2.qmw.ac.uk by epsilon.qmw.ac.uk with SMTP-DNS (PP) id <10070-0@epsilon.qmw.ac.uk>; Wed, 2 Aug 1995 14:58:36 +0100 Received: from QMWCC2/MAILQUEUE by qmwcc2.qmw.ac.uk (Mercury 1.13); Wed, 2 Aug 95 14:59:00 GMT0BST Received: from MAILQUEUE by QMWCC2 (Mercury 1.13); Wed, 2 Aug 95 14:58:35 GMT0BST Received: from pc-108-084.stu.qmw.ac.uk by qmwcc2.qmw.ac.uk (Mercury 1.13); Wed, 2 Aug 95 14:58:28 GMT0BST Date: Wed, 02 Aug 95 14:58:30 -0700 From: Space Dog Organization: qmw.ac.uk X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Windows; I; 16bit) MIME-Version: 1.0 Newsgroups: alt.games.whitewolf To: ah4186@qmw.ac.uk, nv91-asa@nada.kth.se Subject: My House Rules on Prime, Avatar, and Quintessence (long!) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Message-ID: Greetings all and sundered, once again. It seems there is a great deal of doubt among Mage players about the use of Prime and Avatar ratings, given all the questions that fly around this group on Prime. I'd like to offer here what are basically my own 'House Rules' on using Prime for your delectation, perusal, and general taking apart piece by piece in a fit of constructive nitpicking and general disaggreement... 8-). This is basically how I personally interpret the rules, and will no doubt differ from the viewpoints of others. As the Net abbreviation goes, YMMV - take with a pinch of salt - and of course all of this is In My Humble Opinion! In my usual tradition, this is quite wordy as I'm justifying my thinking as I go - net result is that there's a lot to wade through but hopefully you'll understand why I come to these conclusions! OK. First off, it should be noted that since Quintessence, Avatar and Prime are all (obviously) linked, one must consider all of these when trying to make House Rules governing them. What I'm going to do here is dissect the rules for these with a fine toothpick (or whatever the phrase is...), split hairs incessently, and hopefully try to make some sense out of the IMHO confused and often contradictory rules that are presented in Mage. So here's my take on things.... ----- AVATAR (pg 154, Mage rulebook): Everyone, even Sleepers possess Avatars - most Sleepers call them 'Souls'. However, Mages possess much stronger Avatars that allow them to perform True Magick. Even if a Mage has no Avatar Rating on paper, it is still stronger than a Sleeper's (otherwise he will not be able to perform magick) - however, he does have certain disadvantages. The description here in the rulebook implies that a Mage's Avatar is a representation of how much *Raw Quintessence* is flowing through the Mage's Pattern (see Prime 4 for details - this is important!!) - viz. it is only usable by the Mage himself and is an inherent part of his Pattern. Remember this, its important for later..... As stated in the book, a Mage can use his Avatar rating to regain Quintessence by meditating in a Node for at least an hour (Perception + Meditation, difficulty 7). The number of successes gained determines how much Quintessence the Mage taps from the Node, *but the Mage can only hold as much Quintessence as his Avatar Rating*. Thus, a Mage with Avatar 4 who rolls 6 successes on his meditation roll can still only hold up to four points of Quint in his pattern in toto. He also cannot gain more Quintessence than the rating of the Node. Avatar does NOT allow the mage to recharge himself with Quintessence *outside* a Node (Prime 1 does this). A Mage starts the game with as many Quintessence Points as he has in Avatar rating for free. He cannot start with more unless he has Prime 3 to start with - these must be bought with Freebie Points. One glaring contradiction in the rules can be found here: in the Avatar description it says that the limit to the number of Quintessence Points that can be spent in one turn to reduce the difficulty is equal to the Mages Avatar rating. However, on page 175 it states that the maximum amount of Quintessence that can be spent in one turn is equal to the Mages rating in the PRIME Sphere. Nix to the editors for letting THAT one slip thru... ;) Personally, I'd go with what Anders (I think) suggested in his own House Rules - the limit is the HIGHER of either Avatar or Prime. This makes more sense to me, and avoids horrific confusion. Of course, an obvious side effect of this is that is the Mage possesses neither Prime nor Avatar, he cannot spend Quintessence on his magickal effects. ----------------- PRIME: OK, kids, here's where the fun starts. Contradictions and fudges galore can be found in here. Having a good read through of it last night, I figured that there were more inconsistencies in this Sphere Description alone than in the whole darned book!!!!! 8) I really hope they sort this out in Mage 2nd Ed., and I hope I'VE laid it out clearly enough for everyone to follow my logic in explaining it all!!! 8) RAW AND FREE QUINTESSENCE: Free Quintessence is essentially the excess energy contained within Patterns - if one knows how to get it, then one can easily absorb it. Raw Quintessence is on the other hand locked into ALL Patterns (thus allowing them to physically exist) and in the case of Life Patterns also flows through these and sustains their living existence. It is RAW Quintessence that is used at Prime 2 when a Mage creates a new Pattern, NOT Free Quintessence.Without Raw Quintessence, the new pattern will not exist. Newly created Patterns do not appear to contain *Free* Quintessence, although if left alone for a while they will probably absorb it naturally from the environment (like everything else does, presumably). My take on the Avatar is that the Avatar represents the Raw Quintessence FLOWING through the Mage's Pattern (see Prime 4). This in turn affects how much FREE Quintessence (ie. the number of dots on the Quint circle on the character sheet) the Mage can hold. TASS: Tass is basically physical, solid, Free Quintessence. As such it can be carried around my Mages and can be tapped at Prime 1 to power effects. See below for details. ----- PRIME 1: Prime 1 allows the Mage to store more Quintessence than his Avatar Rating allows - in effect, it 'loosens' the Avatar up to allow more room for Free Quintessence in the Mage's Pattern. However, he still cannot channel Free Quintessence from the environment into his Pattern himself - this requires Prime 3. Prime 1 does allow the Mage to collect Quintessence up to the limit of his Avatar Rating without recourse to meditation in a Node. He does this by using Prime 1 magick to directly tap the pool of Free Quintessence that permeates the environment. Whether or not this is vulgar is up to you, but personally I'd say this is a Vulgar effect. This means that if the Mage has no Avatar Rating, but at least has Prime 1, he can use his Prime Rating as an equivalent to Avatar - thus, a Mage possessing a rating of Prime 1 or Prime 2 but no Avatar Rating can still hold Free Quintessence, and gains it using Prime 1 Magick as described here. His Prime Rating acts as the ceiling for his Quintessence Pool in the same way that Avatar would. Note that at Prime 3, he can break through this ceiling and hold as many Quint Points as he has room for. Prime 1 also allows the Mage to perceive Raw or Free Quintessence as described in the rulebook. In addition, at Prime 1 the Mage can use Tass by converting it directly to Free Quintessence to lower the difficulties of a magickal effect. However, without Prime 3 he still cannot channel the Quintessence from the Tass into his own Pattern - at Prime 1 he just uses it to power his magickal effects. ----- PRIME 2: This allows the Mage to Fuel Patterns. It sets up the Raw Quintessence that allows the Mage to create new Patterns. Patterns that require fuelling are newly created Forces, Matter or Life Patterns. In the first two cases (Forces and Matter), the Raw Quintessence is the framework around which the Pattern is built. In the case of Life, a Raw Quintessence *Flow* is set up to allow the Life Pattern to exist. Healing or repairing Patterns magickally does not require Prime 2, since this is accomplished by repairing the Pattern directly with the Pattern Spheres. In my view, Prime 2 only allows the Mage to set up the Raw Quintessence framework or Flow to fuel the pattern - nowhere does it say in the Prime 2 description that the Mage can alter the flow of Raw Quintessence into a Pattern. Thus, the 'Rubbing Of The Bones' Prime 2 effect on Page 211 is seemingly out of place - this should come under Prime 5. ----- PRIME 3: At this stage, the Mage can finally channel Free Quintessence from one vessel to another (including himself). This means that he can now fill that 'extra space' he made in his Avatar with Prime 1 - he can now gain more Quintessence than is allowed by his Avatar Rating. He can also transfer Free Quintessence to objects, thus creating Talismans. In addition (House Rule here...), by manipulating the Free Quintessence of existing Magickal Effects, the Mage can use Prime 3 to alter these existing long-duration magicks. ----- PRIME 4: At Prime 4, the Mage can affect the Raw Quintessence within objects, though he cannot affect Raw Quintessence FLOWS that sustain living Patterns. This allows him to expel the Raw Quintessence within Matter or Forces, thus weakening the Pattern's incarnation in this existence. He can also remove properties of Matter or Forces by directly removing the Raw Quintessence that allows these properties to exist. However, the mage cannot ADD Raw Quintessence to a Pattern above its natural state. LIVING PATTERNS: The Raw Quintessence makeup of a living Pattern is two-fold. Like Matter and Forces Patterns, a Life Pattern contains a fixed amount of Raw Quintessence that is always locked into the Pattern. However, there is *another* component unique to all Living Patterns - that component which makes them alive. This is a FLOW of Raw Quintessence, originating from the universal pool of Raw Quintessence and returning back to this pool via the Life Pattern. While the Pattern is alive, this Flow passes through it perpetually. Without this, the Life Pattern is dead, inanimate matter - in effect, the Flow no longer exists once the Pattern dies, and all that remains is a dead body containing 'locked in' Raw Quintessence, which is eventually recycled into the universal pool through bodily decay. Here we gain an insight into what a Mage's Avatar, or a Sleeper's soul (which is a weaker version of an Avatar anyway) is. It is well known that Souls/Avatars are somehow recycled. Knowing the above, we can see that when a living Pattern dies, the Flow of Raw Quintessence disappears. THIS is what the Avatar is - the Flow of Raw Quintessence through a living Pattern! This implies that the stronger the Flow of Raw Quintessence is, the more powerful the Avatar will be. At Prime 4, the Mage cannot affect this Flow of Raw Quintessence. However, at Prime 5 he can, and this is explored below.... ------ PRIME 5: At Prime 5, the Mage can affect the FLOW (either increasing or decreasing it) of Raw Quintessence that sustains Living Patterns, and can also INCREASE the Raw Quintessence within any Pattern (even living ones). The Mage also realises that Quintessence and Paradox are analagous to positive and negative forces, and can use Free Quintessence to cancel out Paradox energies that have not yet coalesced within a Pattern (as described in the rulebook). The effects of increasing the flow of Raw Quintessence is poorly (and IMHO confusingly) defined in the rulebook. The 'Rubbing of The Bones' Prime 2 rote (as defined in the book) is by the definitions herein obviously now a Prime 5 rote - it is manipulating the flow of Raw Quintessence through a living Pattern. Let us in particular examine the connection between Prime 5 and the Avatar. As described above (see Prime 4, LIVING PATTERNS), the Avatar is a reflection of the strength of the Flow of Raw Quintessence that keeps a living Pattern alive. Prime 5 allows the Mage to increase either the Flow of Raw Quint through a Pattern, or the Raw Quint contained within that Pattern itself. So at Prime 5, with these definitions in mind, the Mage can actually INCREASE his Avatar Rating by increasing the Flow of Raw Quintessence through his Pattern. This in turn allows him to store more Free Quintessence within his Pattern as described above. More terrifyingly though, with Prime 5 the Mage can REDUCE the Flow of Raw Quintessence through a living Pattern. This explains what the dreaded Gilgul is - by reducing the Flow of Raw Quintessence, the Master can inhibit a Mage's ability to cast magicks. In effect, the Mage can reduce the Avatar rating of a living target! This has horrible consequences if enough successes are rolled - the flow of Quintessence through the target Mage's Pattern can be reduced to such an extent (permanently) that he effectively loses the ability to cast magick, thus effectively becoming a Sleeper!!! Taken even further, one can quench the Flow of Quintessence completely, thus killing the target, and quite possibly stopping him from being reincarnated in future lives. With this in mind, the Prime 5 effect that is given, 'Recharge Gift', becomes largely pointless. Recharging one's Quintessence Pool up to one's Avatar rating is a trivial matter, requiring only Prime 1 - quite why it is classed as Prime 5 is beyond me! Now however, with these new rules this becomes much more useful. With 'Recharge Gift' the Mage can now INCREASE his Avatar rating by increasing the Flow of Raw Quintessence through his pattern, which allows him at the very least to spend more Quintessence on magickal effects in one turn. Also, Rubbing of the Bones becomes a potent Prime 5 effect. By fluctuating the flow of Raw Quintessence through a living Pattern, the mage can stun targets as described in the book. By reducing the Flow he can prevent Mages from using Magicks, and if he gains enough successes he can make this permanent! --------------------------- AFTERWORD: Of course, the Avatar is a lot more than just a flow of Raw Quintessence. It is the guiding force within the Mage - Dynamic, Pattern, Primordial or Questing. There is a spritual aspect here as well as a metaphysical/mechanical one, that cannot be defined by any Game or House rules. And why should the Avatar be considered as an entity quiding the Mage? It can appear in any manner to the Mage - as a vast expanse of land that the Mage must explore, gaining enlightenment on his own internal spiritual journey, or as an infinite black ocean that floods over the Mage and permeates his core, flooding him with insight, memories and even possibly torment. Why stop at a personalisation? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- These House Rules are (c) Constantine Thomas 1995. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anyway, I hope these House Rules of mine prove useful and hopefully may strike a chord and clarify things a little. Like I said, this is all just my personal take, so YMMV. Anyway, if anyone's got any opinions, comments etc feel free to email me anytime or post on the group - I'd certainly appreciate some input on this! TTFN, Constantine -- ===================================================================== Constantine Thomas Deny Everything ah4186@qmw.ac.uk --------------------------------------------------------------------- "The me that you know is now made up of wires And even when I'm right with you I'm so far away" - NIN, The Becoming ===================================================================== Space-Doggin' on the Internet!