Настольные ролевые игры. Блог Sardagon-а

Памятка по написанию кассового боевика

2009-11-23T02:01:00.003+07:00

(c) Не мое

Краткая инструкция по написанию кассовых боевиков

1. Минимальный объём — один большой палец ноги вертикально.
2. Обязательно должен быть Главный герой. Бывший спецназовец (собровец, разведчик, оперативник, на худой конец — омоновец), воевал во всех горячих точках (Афган, Приднестровье, Чечня, Таджикистан, Босния, Солнцево). Несправедливо уволен. Забыт, брошен, отставлен. Хорошо помнит Империю. За державу ему обидно. Ненавидит нынешнюю власть и нармоманов, демократов, интеллигентов и гомосексуалистов, но ненавидит снисходительно.

Жена ушла к другому (умерла, убита врагами, сделал операцию по перемене пола). Жестоко любим девушками и женщинами, любит их нечасто, но конкретно, в процессе
соития не теряет головы и отслеживает ситуацию. Садится всегда лицом к двери. Говорит тихо, с паузами (не длиннее минуты, чтобы не накладывался негативный оттенок). Никогда не читает книг, хотя постоянно цитирует известных писателей. Разбирается во всех видах оружия, включая фугасные огнемёты и корабельную артиллерию. Знает наверняка, какой провод резать:
красный или зелёный. Америкотов называет янкесами. Не менее сотни раз прыгал с парашютом, раз пятнадцать тонул, погибал среди акул, свергал режимы, дрался на ножах. Курит. Пьёт много, не пьянеет, только крепчает. Финансово обеспечен за счёт налогоплательщиков и частных фирм, но стремится служить государству (державе, Империи, Союзу). Зря не убивает, убивает не зря. новых русских презирает, доит их и считает лохами. Физически развит, по-мужски красив, смышлён, сдержан, характер чисто русский, нордический. Имеет маленькую слабость (клеить модели, играться с котятами, мастерить
скворечники).
Краткий лексикон: честь, офицер, родина, слава, друг, мы же профессионалы, не надо со мной шутить, я с тобой не шучу, ты что со мной, шутишь?
Примечание: обязательна кличка (ник, псевдоним, погремуха, погоняло). Возможные варианты: Ярый, Лютый, Серый, Чёрный, Синий, Бешеный, Конченый, Слепой, Косой, Глухой, Больной, Тупой (сокращение от Тупой Предмет), Ствол, Крест, Страх, Скат, Слон, Зрелый, Тяжкий (сокращение от Тяжкие Телесные Повреждения).
3. Главный друг Главного героя (тяжело ранен в финале, с трудом выкарабкивается из лап смерти). Туповат, великан, силач, стрелок, смельчак, весельчак. На одно звание меньше. Любит тесаки. Ходит с трудом, хочет бегать. Примечателен тем, что готов по первому предложению ГГ отдать жизнь.

Краткий лексикон: честь, офицер, родина, слава, замочить, ствол, завали хлебало, чмо, кадык вырву, гнида, все козлы, забыли!
4. Просто друг ГГ и ДГГ. Однозначно погибает. Занимается всякой фигнёй (программист, писатель, журналист, филателист). Болен чем-то незаразным. Тщедушен, ходит в растянутом свитере, роняет на себя пепел и кофе, забывчив, ослепительно честен, горяч, вечный мальчик. Помогает техникой, советами, связями, специальными знаниями. Бескорыстен. Стрелять не умеет, но любит, но ему никто не даёт. Погибает, совершая подвиг. Выходит один против стаи,
зародыш страшной мести.
Лексикон обширен и утомителен, преобладают книжные выражения и слова-паразиты: простите, извините, разрешите, вы позволите?
5. Женщины.
а) Хорошая. Подруга ГГ. Живут изредка, мучаются, понимая, что при таких опасностях, которых подвергается ГГ, сочетаться браком не удастся. Хорошая хозяйка, умна, играет на фортепиано прелюдии ко всем известным классическим произведениям. матерится, когда занимается любовью. Утром делает вид, что этого не было. Мало, но умело пользуется косметикой. Разбирается в оружии (дочь лесника, сестра офицера, бывшая жена Главного антигероя).
Примечание: описание мазками. Светлая улыбка, добрые глаза, утончённая красота, внутренняя красота, лепные ладони, точёные ноги, упругая грудь (две шт.), очень острые соски, звонит родителям каждый день, помогает бедным, с соседями в прекрасных отношениях, обожает детей , собак и котят, работает и (или) учится, знает цену трудовой копеечке, детство бедное, но счастливое.
б) Плохая. Гадина с яркими губами. Фигуристая, сучка. Атласные перси, смугловатые ланиты. Нимфоманка, педофилка, наркоманка и алкоголичка. Беспринципна, цинична, зубы белые. Постоянно просит застегнуть пуговицы на спине, расстегнуть зиппер на боку, ластится, трётся и подмигивает. Всех обманывает, вертит мужиками, бандитка, прости-господи.

Примечание: описание схематичное. Желательно употребить следующие словосочетания: она призывно улыбнулась; она призывно наклонилась; она призывно застонала; глаза её расширились от безудержного желания; в душе у неё шевельнулась гадость; она залпом опрокинула фужер; пальцы её, дрожа, пересчитывали крупные купюры; её грудь выпирала из бесстыдного декольте; под платьем у ней ничего не было; плотоядно улыбаясь; с размаху положила трубку; втянула полные ноздри кокаина.

6. Антигерой. Умён, подл и гнусен. Силён и гибок. Брюнет или блондин. Обычно бывший сослуживец (одноклассник, сосед, друг) ГГ. Виртуозно владеет всеми видами оружия, кроме фугасных огнемётов и корабельной артиллерии. Живёт большей частью за границей. Однозначно погибает в конце. Красной нитью должна пройти тема его нравственного раскола. Желательны аллюзии - Достоевский, Кафка, Сартр, Фёдор Абрамов, Справочник практикующего психиатра. Любит разговаривать сам с собой. Преступление, которое он собирает совершить, его последнее. Проявляет глубинные низменности своей больной натуры в мелочах: то защемит пальчик ребёнку дверью, то мелко-мелко режёт яблоки, то съест воробья живьём. Подонок, мразь, как враг - заслуживает уважения.
Примечание: нужно подпустить немного масонщины и агентсмитчины. Пипл хавает. Фамилия (НАСТОЯЩАЯ) АГ должна заканчиваться на ~ович, ~ман или ~швили. Возможен чеченский след. Возможные клички: Демон, Ястреб, Сокол, Чёрт, Дьявол, Шайтан, Ангел, Архангел и что-то в этом роде.
7. Остальные персонажи. Берутся от балды. Фамилии из телефонного справочника методом тыка. Основное правило: запоминающиеся фамилии и однотипность. Категорически не допускается оживляж. Всё как в шахматах: красные и белые.
Примечание: клички для бандитов: Злобарь, Свин, Сыса, Мага, Вован, Колян, Жбан, Ждан, Джавдет…
8. Необходимо помнить, что:
— не дуло, а ствол;
— анаша и марихуана одно и то же;
— у револьвера нет обоймы;
— в обоймы заряжаются патроны, а не пули;
— гильзы из нагана не вылетают;
— пули не визжат;
— килограмм пластиковой взрывчатки это очень много;
— когда бьют ногой в голову, это не смешно, а больно.
9. Побольше крови, грязи и мата. Необходимо привнести авторскую индивидуальность в это. Придумать необычные проклятия и брань. Например: змеегор; козляк висячий; сучара скошенная и т.д. Приветствует сленг и арго. Важняк, висяк, жмур, ствол, крыша, наезд, стрела, бычьё, лавэ, тёрка, развод и т.д. Рекомендуемая литература: Словарь уголовного жаргона, Кримпресс, М.:2003 г; Пособие юного следователя; СМИ.
10. Концовка очень важна. Главное правило: оставить возможность продолжения. Главный герой (пусть раненый, больной и нищий) выживает. Последние фразы - хлёстко, остро, мудро, звонко, как в бочку. Ни в коем случае не ставить в конце точку. Только отточие…

Solar Combat Tactics от Касуми (1-я ред., репост от 14.06.2005)

2009-11-23T01:52:00.004+07:00

Offence - General

Allright. I'm reasonably confident now that you're not going to die. This is good, because as much as I loathe you all, let me assure you that I find some Peleps, Cathak or Ledaal that won't shut up about their successful Wyld Hunt infinitely worse.

Now we're going to get onto the topic nearest and dearest to my heart - killing people. Pay attention, and you'll do a lot of it (and while you're at it, why not polish off the last of the Tepet for practice?).

Let's talk some general principles.

Do not, for the love of Gaia, blow your big attack in the first turn

Defence in this game is good. It's very good. It's so good, that the first time you fire up a huge attack against a Dragon Blood, it won't work. Honestly, if you pour 10 motes into Excellent Strike and have a swing, he'll Full Dodge, buy some Dodge dice on the cheap, you'll hit him with a couple of extra successes, and he'll soak the damage down to the minimum 1 die with his heavy jade armour that he got cheap with his superior Artifact background. Then, if your defence isn't well set up, his buddies will slam you into the ground. This is how Wyld Hunts operate. Don't play into their hands.

Instead, start with probing attacks. Make them spend essence on defence when your attacks are free. Learn how they defend, and the moment they're weak, punish them. Why do you think battle-poetry always describes a decent exchange of blows before any serious wounding is done? Because that's the way combat works, it's naturally dramatic.

That's not to say be too miserly with your essence, however. I strongly recommend that you spend (as opposed to commit) at least some motes as soon as you can - after all, you're going to be earning 2-4 motes a turn back from stunting, right?

NB: As a general rule, don't spend essence if your GM doesn't award stunts according to the rules. Commit it all away on scene-length charms, and only spend it when a REALLY juicy opportunity comes up, or when you need it for defence. It's boring, but it's tactically a much better idea. Conversely, if your GM awards stunts normally, make sure to NOT commit too much essence - leave yourself some room to regain motes from stunts!

The immortal question...death of a thousand cuts, or death of instant obliteration?

A frank look at combat tactics for Exalted (like, for instance, this one) might conclude that Damage is disadvantaged compared to Accuracy. After all, without a high attack pool, you'll never get to apply your base damage in the first place, attack successes convert to damage anyway, and no matter how pathetic your damage, you'll always do the minimum 1 damage, so you'll always be able to just wear an opponent down.

This is all true, but like the idea that you don't need Soak if you have a good enough Defence, overlooks just how useful Damage can be. In fact, damage is even more useful than soak because it doesn't really suffer diminishing returns in the same way; more damage is almost always more useful.

The principal advantage high damage gives you is time - less attacks to disable an opponent. While it is certainly very possible to kill virtually anyone with a long series of minimum damage attacks, it is rather time consuming. In a duel, this may not be a problem, but in the far more common situation of two or more groups engaging in battle, being able to swiftly slay an opponent - even a lesser one - takes pressure off your Circlemates and allows them to concentrate their abilities against the most formidable foes. Furthermore, it is extremely likely that you will increasingly find yourself in the position of having objectives other than killing your foes (as will they), and as such you may simply not have time for a full-length heroic duel. Being able to score a quick wound, or slay a foe's escorts and move on could be decisive.

The first critical damage threshold is 8L base damage (conveniently accessible to anyone with a Str of 3 and a daiklaive). This will allow you to automatically kill an unarmoured extra with only 1 success on the attack roll. Not only does this avoid the humiliating spectacle of having to attack an extra more than once, it allows you to guess how many successes you'll need to automatically kill an extra based upon their armour (usually the only lethal soak they'll have), and take multiple actions accordingly. For instance, if you're attacking extras with a lethal soak of 4, you'll need to do 13L to automatically kill them - 5 successes if you have 8L base damage. With an attack pool of 16, you'd want your last attack to have 10 dice (which has an expected 5 successes). 4 actions and a +1 stunt gets you 13, 12, 11 and 10 dice, meaning you're almost certain to kill 4 extras without needing to roll damage. If you're confident of getting a +2 stunt you could take the risk and make 5 attacks at 13, 12, 11, 10, 9 dice, and probably kill 5 extras. Against unarmoured extras, you'd only need 1 success, so with a +1 stunt you could take seven actions at 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 dice. In general, however, you probably want to avoid rolling less than 5 dice when you can, owing to the risk of botching.

14L base damage is another fairly crucial threshold, though more difficult to obtain (Grand Daiklave + Str 3 being the easiest method, though a Str 4 character with a daiklave, Essence 3, Increasing Strength Exercise and orichalcum hearthstone bracers can also do so). At this level of base damage, you can automatically kill any Elite Troop extra (usually clad in Lamellar) with a single success. Crucially, a single attack success will allow you to do two damage dice after soak to your average Dragon Blood clad in articulated jade plate - the heaviest armour we commonly send out into the field on our ungrateful children. It will also allow you to do four dice damage on a single success against the extremely common reinforced jade breastplate (Dragon-Blooded get six total dots of artifact (split 3, 2, 1) for Artifact 3 - a reinforced breastplate, daiklave and a minor wonder being a very common assortment). When doing this much damage, it is usually possible to swiftly kill a young Dragonbloooded either by overwhelming them with a rapid series of attacks, or by striking ruthlessly with offensive charms when their defence is weak.

Furthermore, being in the region of 14L base damage helps against certain powerful beings, such as gods and some Lunars, that can ignore attacks doing damage beneath a certain threshold (much as with Invulnerable Skin of Bronze). Powerful Gods can ignore attacks doing less damage than half their soak - so Ahlat, with a soak of 35L, can ignore any attack doing 17L damage or less. Hence, you need to do 18L just to do minimum damage against him! Such protection is extended to those wearing Warstrider armour as well, so if you plan to quarrel with powerful gods or Warstrider pilots, make sure someone in the circle can exceed 15L damage with relative ease!

Doing decent damage also tends to stun enemies, since the health levels inflicted needs to exceed their stamina in order to stun, and becomes the difficulty of the Stamina + Resistance roll to avoid stun (remember waaaay up at the top I told you good Stamina + Resistance was useful? This is why).

Now, I know what you're thinking - "But Mnemon, why do I need high base damage? Surely I can get all the damage I need with my Excellent Strike + Hungry Tiger Technique + Leaping Tiger Attack combo!"

Well, I have two answers for you. Firstly, as a domineering matriarch, I don't actually care what you think. Secondly, you're right, each Dawn ability and the Athletics ability have charms that increase damage - sometimes spectacularly. However, ALL of these charms are more effective when enhancing a high base damage than a low one, because you want as many points of damage pushing past soak to become damage as possible - you don't want to be spending lots of essence just to get past the soak. Having a high base damage might mean you only need to activate your offence combo once to kill a powerful foe, or only need a single charm rather than a combo to slay a lesser foe. It's just more efficient.

Finally, having a good base damage is less demanding tactically. You're pretty much guaranteed to do something significant so long as you can hit, meaning that if you can keep your defence up and keep attacking, you'll probably do all right. This makes it rather helpful for beginners, since it's less frustrating while you're learning to look for openings.

Defence and attack pools are more potent in combat, but damage is always useful - grab it if you can.

So how do I get decent damage?

Generally damage is a function of the combat ability you choose to fight with, as that dictates the weapons and charms available to you. However, there are a number of more generic means to increase the damage you deal.

* Strength. Not only through giving the Attribute a decent rating, but the charm Increasing Strength Exercise. ISE is fairly expensive in terms of essence (especially since it's committed essence), but those extra few points of damage can make a great deal of difference over the scene if you're skilful enough to hit consistently.

* Orichalcum Hearthstone bracers. While 2 artifact dots for an extra 2 damage might seem a bit much, the two damage applies to all attacks - including unarmed or ranged attacks, particularly helpful for non-Melee fighters who might otherwise struggle to reach higher base damages. Power Combat also upgrades Hearthstone Bracers of all kinds to provide 3 bonus dice to all dodges, and your GM may use this change even if not using Power Combat.

* Athletics charms. Leaping Tiger Attack and Thunderbolt Attack Prana both double damage - after soak and after it is rolled respectively. Usually Leaping Tiger Attack is more useful, as it is slightly cheaper and allows a full sprinting move, wheras Thunderbolt Attack Prana prevents movement. However, TAP is more useful for meleeists, as when put in combo with Fire and Stones Strike it results in more damage (F&S converts damage dice to automatic successes, which TAP will then double).

Mobility and Target Selection - offensive movement

Almost every time your initiative arrives, one of your opponents will be more vulnerable than the others, by virtue of poor position, having failed to reserve sufficient defence, being forced to spend a great deal of essence or simply being weaker. Circumstance can bring even very powerful opponents into this position.

Fall upon these foes and kill them without hesitation or mercy.

If no such foe presents themselves, hold your action until they do, or pick a foe likely to be vulnerable to the tactics of a Circlemate who is yet to act, and attack them furiously in order to divert their defensive resources.

Unless you plan to use social abilities to force a relatively bloodless surrender, there is no use in wounding many enemies rather than killing a few. A wounded enemy can still take actions, and can still get a lucky roll, even if down a few dice. An incapacitated foe can do nothing. Every foe you kill is one less drain upon your Circle's defensive resources, and becoming outnumbered by Solars is certain doom for nearly any foe. This does not mean you must commit to a single foe once you have wounded them; do not hesitate to abandon a foe that you have wounded if there is a target within your range that you have a better chance of killing.

In short, on your turn, identify the most vulnerable enemy within your range (movement range for Melee, Brawl and Martial Arts, movement range + weapon range for Archery and Thrown), and attack them. For hand-to-hand fighters, this usually means moving.

Moving in battle nearly always helps. Not only does it allow you to attack the foe least able to defend against you, but crossing scenery makes it easy and natural to incorporate that scenery into your descriptions - allowing easy stunt bonuses. Furthermore, it allows you to seize the most tactically viable ground for your attack - if you have the high ground, your opponents lose dice from all actions against you - especially useful against opponents who dodge and parry, as both actions will be penalised. This is even easier on attack than defence, for an attacker only needs relatively higher ground than whoever they're attacking, rather than needing to grab the highest ground in the area (since an attacker could otherwise simply move to higher ground still).

How do you know when a target is vulnerable?

* An unarmoured target is almost always vulnerable, since even with good defences they're likely to be badly wounded by a lucky hit. Even targets using charms for soak are usually worse off than armoured targets, since they usually need to spend essence - often a great deal - to bolster their soak, and can be quickly ran out of essence in this fashion. There are exceptions, particularly some Lunars, Solars and Earth Immaculates, but even these tend to be vulnerable while putting up their scene-length soak charms, and thus can be killed swiftly if caught unawares.

* Virtually any target other than a Celestial Exalt who has already been attacked that turn will have been forced to use defence actions, and will have few if any actions left to defend (and at reduced dice to boot). This goes doubly if they've also attacked. As a bonus, you'll almost certainly have been able to tell how skilful they were when they were attacked, and you'll have an excellent idea of how badly you'll maul them. Even if they spent essence to defend against or survive the earlier attacks, they're still an excellent target, since you can force them to spend more, moving them quickly towards being exhausted.

* Any enemy who uses an offensive charm without a combo signature is vulnerable, since you know they can't use any defence charms. The exception to this is Dragon-Blooded, who can still use reflexive charms, but don't hesitate to fall upon them like hungry wolves if they've used a Simple or Extra Action charm, since their reflexive charms simply aren't good enough without actions to back them up, or so expensive that it's almost as good as wounding them anyway. In my opinion, if they're stupid enough to not make me Empress, and then compound it by using a Simple charm in front of a Solar, they deserve to be spitted on an eight foot golden razor. Useless inbred leeches. Watch out against Earth or Water Immaculates, though, since they actually have some rather nice Reflexive defence charms.

* Enemies in difficult conditions. Prone enemies, those thigh or waist deep in water or mud, on the wrong side of scree or abatis - they'll all have defence penalties against you. Wounded enemies also count, and will be quicker to finish off to boot.

* A sorcerer casting a spell is exceptionally vulnerable. On the downside, they may explode when you gut them, so don't try this unless you have decent soak or are feeling lucky.

* Any enemy in a clinch is extremely vulnerable. Kill them swiftly.

* An enemy unable to defend against your attack mode is vulnerable. For instance, if your enemy is relying on reflexive dodges, hit them Cascade of Cutting Terror, an undodgeable attack. If they are unable to use perfect defences, use Accuracy Without Distance, which is a perfect attack - even if they get more defence successes than your attack successes, the attack will hit for base damage. As an extension of this, anyone relying on their Soak to defend is deeply vulnerable to non-damage deleterious effects of a hit (Ox-Stunning Blow, anyone?).

* An opponent who has not acted is not vulnerable, but by attacking them and forcing them to abort to a defence, you may consume enough of their defensive resources to make them vulnerable to a Circlemate.

Concentrating your Circle's attacks on a single target is usually a good way to go, since that will overwhelm and quickly kill most enemies. There's no need to concentrate on this, however, since it's quite likely that the most vulnerable target available to you will be the one just attacked by a Circlemate.

These tactics are exceptionally effective, but there are occasions where you should not use them relentlessly. When facing a group of enemies, some who you could easily kill, and some who would be difficult foes for you, but impossible for some of your Circlemates, you should probably ensure that you leave enough lesser foes for your Circlemates to fight, and engage the greater foes. Otherwise, your Circlemates will probably whine because they have nothing to do, and I think all of us hear enough whining as it is, don't you? Wishy-washy types like Arianna would probably say you're hogging the spotlight and not being a good player too. Of course, if there's plenty in the field for your less-combatitive friends to do, you won't need to worry about this too much.

Whether or not Extras (who are always vulnerable by their nature) can be safely ignored depends on your circlemates - if their defences are poor enough that massed extras (particularly archers, where more than five can attack an individual at once) pose a threat, you may want to kill the extras swiftly. Some situations somehow manage to produce limitless streams of extras, however (filthy Pattern Spiders), and if you suspect such is the case, ignore them.

Initiative

Inititiative's importance is largely dictated by your defences. For you horrible Anathema, that means it's often almost entirely safe to ignore, because you can manage your defences Reflexively. If you're planning on using actions rather than just charms to defend, however, having a high initiative can be quite important, since the only way you can use your dice action to both attack and defend is if you haven't been forced to abort to a Full Dodge or parry before your initiative.

Initiative is always useful, though, for two reasons. One is that a good initiative will allow you to get those crucial scene-length charms up that little bit earlier, which is helpful on those occasions where you can't put them up before the fight (when you're ambushed, for instance). The second is that it gives the option to attack foes before their initiative, which against most enemies will result in them aborting to a defence, and losing their attack.

You might note that forcing opponents to abort to a defence is actually an argument for attacking as many foes as possible, forcing as many aborts as you can and preventing their attacks. This is actually a viable strategy, ESPECIALLY if your defences are poor, but it is time consuming and a bit tedious. Solars with their excellent defences are often better served by allowing their enemies to expend their resources in useless attacks, and then counterattacking ferociously. With good initiative, however, you can simply delay your action if you wish, and thus choose whichever of these tactics best suits your fancy.

To get a decent initiative, you're best off having a good Dexterity and Wits, and then go for a weapon with a high speed. If you're particularly keen, go for Jade equipment and pay the full attunement cost (not recommended in terms of value-for-essence, but it's extremely difficult to compete in initiative with Dragon Blooded otherwise). Brawl's Thunderclap Rush Attack and Snake Style's Striking Cobra Technique are both useable with other abilities, in or out of combo, and are thus useful for all characters.

In summary, Initiative is useful, but not crucial for any Solar with good reflexive defences. Unless you're particularly fond of forcing opponents to abort, or you plan to use actions to defend, you'll probably find your resources better spent elsewhere. Many of your opponents (such as Dragon-Blooded) find Initiative to be crucial, and will likely have invested in it - let them have the victory there and invest where they are weaker.

Universal Offence - Use EVERYTHING at your disposal

Listen to the tales of the most glorious of your kind, Anathema. Do you hear of how they stood still in a blank stone corridor, trading blows with their enemy until one fell?

No - their voices rung out over their battles. They fought in places fascinating in their own right, and with their hands changed them. They used allies, tools, vehicles, and every other thing Fate put in their path.

Listen to the tales of the failures amongst the Solars - how they stood still, or ran a little, how they treated battle grounds as if they were dojos, how they thought only of their daiklaves, and how the Wyld Hunt killed them.

These Solars died with their best weapons rusting in their sheaths, wondering how they were defeated when their essence remained unspent, their most powerful charms unused.

Look to your charms. Apart from the perplexing impotence of your horsemen and sailors, your non-combat charms are far mightier than your Dawn powers. Compare Masterful Performance Exercise to Excellent Strike. Speed the Wheels to Reflex Sidestep Technique. I'd strangle every living person on the Isle for such charms, and you would put them aside just because someone draws a knife?

"But Mnemon, the Wyld Hunt is warned about our powers. They're told we're silver-tongued manipulators, so how can we usefully use social charms on them?"

Rubbish! Are they not told you are powerful warriors? Do they not attempt to parry your blows? Do you not cleave their heads from their shoulders regardless?

Is there a third party on the field? Bring them into the battle on your side. Does your enemy have followers? Shatter their morale or win them over. Impressed by an honourable foe? Show them mercy and bring them under your banner. An opponent's defences too good? Taunt him into a rage. Either side using large bodies of troops? Use Bureaucracy charms to speed or slow the passage of orders. Enemy's daiklave not yet in his hands? Larceny charm. Kill an opponent out of sight? Use Perfect Mirror and infiltrate their ranks. Trying to discern the enemy's plan based on their actions? Ten Magistrate Eyes.

Have you been forced to fight in a location without interesting, useful terrain, or does the terrain favour the enemy? Change it. Smash a hole in the earth and push enemies in - you now have high ground. Enemy fortresses are there to be torn down. A river is a weapon waiting to be diverted onto foes. Towers can be toppled to make bridges or to crush foes. If the enemy is on flammable ground, burn it. Use your Craft and Athletics to make the field just the way you want it. Scenery doesn't dodge, and how can any action changing it not be a +2 stunt?

All of these abilities can be used before the battle to disadvantage the enemy, but they do not stop being useful when swords are drawn - and not only that, but when everyone's using combat magic anyway, who's to say whether the anima glow came from defence or a social time? Etiquette demands a time and a place for everything - battle is always a good time, and if the place isn't good enough, make it so with your fists.

Use everything on your character sheet. No character with ten Solar charms is useless in battle.

Offence By Ability

Archery

Ah...Solar Archery. Really, in my position, I should hate it, but I can't help but smile when I think of all those Tepet boys and girls lying under the Haltan redwoods, riddled with the arrows of the Bull of the North. I sent him a big box of thank-you chocolate (anonymously, of course).

Archery is the pre-eminent offence ability for the Solar Exalted. It is both the tool for punching holes in a single foe, and for killing extras en masse (I do so love the bit where you make armies evaporate. Just don't do it to mine, or I'll have Octavian eat your gizzard).

Firstly, get a Short Powerbow. Long Powerbows aren't worth the extra artifact dot, and mortal bows are totally inferior - they don't add any extra damage, and they cap your effective strength. Powerbows are fine for any strength (hello, Increasing Strength Exercise!), and have enormous range. However, their Rate is quite low - 2 - and hence this is one of the rare times you might consider a Jade version, for the extra point of rate. The accuracy and damage for orichalcum is excellent, however, so either choice is viable. Orichalcum Hearthstone bracers are also an excellent pick, allowing an easy 11L base damage before ammunition for a Str 3, Essence 3 character with Increasing Strength Exercise and an Orichalcum powerbow.

The reason why it's worth focusing on damage with archery is because in general, ranged attacks are assumed to do less damage, and tend to have charms balanced accordingly, so doing lots of damage tends to get a lot of effectiveness out of those charms. Arrow Storm Technique allows you to continue attacking so long as you don't miss or repeat a target, and hence is excellent for killing extras - automatic kills are extremely useful there. Furthermore, with Accuracy Without Distance, you have an attack that can be relied on to do at least base damage against anyone without a perfect defence - so making that base damage HURT can ruin someone's day, career, chance of inheriting the throne etc etc.

Choose your ammunition on a per-target basis, but expect to overwhelmingly use target arrows. Most of your enemies will rely on armour for their soak, so halving the benefit of their armour can drastically reduce their soak. For instance, if you did 11L base damage and hit an average Dragon Blood wearing Articulated Plate (normally a 13L soak assuming Sta 2-3), you would do 5 dice damage with a single success, since the armour's 12L soak would be cut to 6L.

Against targets with less than 6L but more than 1L armour soak, generally you'll want to use a broadhead, as it will give a slight advantage in damage over a target or frogcrotch arrow. Broadheads are also a safe bet if you're not sure of the soak situation - they don't mess with armour soak at all, and hence aren't actually a risk.

Frog Crotch arrows are best against armour soaks of 1L or less. They add +4 base damage, but double armour soak.

Nearly all the charms for Archery are excellent, though you may find There Is No Wind only particularly useful if you fight in poor conditions relatively often (or wish to lure foes into such poor conditions) and Immaculate Golden Bow only useful if carrying around your powerbow is problematic. Solar Spike does too little damage to be useful. Trance of Unhesitating Speed is worthlessly expensive, but required for Arrow Storm Technique (the Player's Guide corrects Trance of Unhesitating Speed to cost 3 motes per attack - try asking your GM to use this ruling).

Accuracy Without Distance is a perfect attack, and the most powerful offence charm available to Solars. Only perfect defences can prevent it from hitting, though some special defences can interfere with it (for instance, Dragon Blooded have a charm that burns all physical arrows that come near them - which can be defeated by Phantom Arrow - and a charm that redirects attacks to nearby targets). Generally, if you use this charm on a target, you can assume you'll do at least base damage, or force them to use a more expensive charm to defend. Use it on a foe who can't use a Perfect defence, and you're set.

Arrow Storm Technique is the best multiple action charm in the game, allowing shoot every single target within range so long as you hit each target. The key (apart from either having Inexhaustible Bolts of Solar Fire from the Dawn castebook, or be sitting on a wagon full of arrows) is the order in which you attack your foes. If your first shot is directed at an enemy Abyssal, she will certainly defend, and your charm will be over. However, if you start with the easiest targets and work up, you'll get many, many attacks - shooting first her zombies, then her war ghosts, then her nemissaries, then her horse, and then finally the Abyssal herself. She'll still defend, but she'll be down an army.

Dazzling Flare Attack is a great little damage adder, letting you add up to 2xEssence damage for Essence motes to an attack. It also throws in an extra attack die for good measure. Usually more useful than Firey Arrow Attack, but they work well together in combo.

Rain of Feathered Death is an excellent substitute for an Extra Action charm, as it's supplemental, allowing you to still take multiple actions, multiplying the damage on each one. Because each volley is defended against together, don't use this charm against opponents with excellent defence, as they'll be able to defend far more cheaply than the cost of this charm. Instead, use it to punish and swiftly kill enemies with poor defence.

Phantom Arrow Technique isn't particularly useful as a substitute for normal arrows (unless you're quite short, or don't have the right type for a particular target), but it's excellent for defeating defences that target normal arrows, such as Arrow Consuming Flame Defence for Dragon Blooded.

Sample Combo: Perfected Scourging Sunlight Accuracy Without Distance + Firey Arrow Attack + Rain of Feathered Death + Seven Shadow Evasion, 15XP. For (3+Essence) motes + 1wp per attack, perfectly does base damage + extra successes + 3xEssence damage, and may perfectly dodge any attack for 6 motes.

Brawl

Often considered the weakest Dawn ability, as it lacks a dice adder or any kind of defence, Brawl still has some significant advantages, and is capable of its own brand of mayhem. It's an excellent ability for those want to help out rather than be the frontline warrior (being the king of the "I hold him, you hit him" style of combat), or as a sneaky backup to Melee, Archery or Thrown. Archers will of course be kicking rather than punching.

Brawl is also recommended for social characters, since someone in a clinch has little choice about listening to you.

Firstly, get a weapon, whether it's a fighting gauntlet, a Smashfist, or whatever you find lying around. This lets you do lethal damage easily, and defend, whether by simply using Melee defence charms with the weapon (recommended), or by being able to parry lethal using Brawl without a stunt (if you insist).

Secondly, it's essential to have a good soak when using Brawl, as you simply can't defend any other way while clinching, and many of the better Brawl offence charms are Simple, meaning you won't be able to use actions to defend. Flow Like Blood is recommended.

Clinching is best done by picking an opponent whose defences aren't great, and then taking multiple clinch actions against them. You only need one to hit, and they're clinched - it doesn't matter whether it's a good hit or not, so unless you're dealing with persistent defences, wear them down in order to get a grip on them. Many enemies will be paranoid about being clinched, and may go to excessive measures to avoid it; so even if you're not successful, you can be a terrible drain on their resources. Just be careful - when in a clinch, you have no defences other than soak, and well, we've discussed relying on soak, haven't we? It's best to team up with a friend, and have them kill whoever you're clinching before THEIR friends can attack you. Voila, out of clinch and ready to defend.

Brawl's charms are split into two main trees - the general use tree, and the hurling people tree. A clinching character will want Dragon Coil Technique, and thus needs the first tree. A character meaning to rely on striking will want the second tree, as it allows unparryable attacks, while grabbing some useful charms from the first tree for comboing. Expect to make combos with Brawl, as its charms are highly synergistic.

Ferocious Jab is a must for all Brawlers, allowing extremely punishing hits against opponents with poor defences, and being extremely cheap besides! A must for a striking Brawl combo.

Fist of Iron Technique is useless, but required to progress through the tree. Move on.

Ox-Stunning Blow is an exceptionally good way to cut down an opponent relying on Soak to size. Pick a vulnerable target and hit them as hard as you can with this, and they'll be wearing huge penalties for several turns. Expect your friends to execute them during this time.

Thunderclap Rush automatically wins initiative against one opponent; it's best saved for combos designed to screw over opponents who REALLY don't like losing initiative - great for ambushing Martial Artists, fellow Celestials and others who rely on power-up time before a fight.

Hammer on Iron Technique is a bit expensive, and only worth doing when Flow Like Blood is up, as it cannot be combo'd with dodge charms.

Dragon Coil Technique is a great help in clinches - get the opponent in the clinch first, then activate it on subsequent turns.

Crashing Wave Throw is the key to the striking strategy - because it cannot be parried, target a foe with poor dodge or no perfect defences, preferably standing near a wall, and hammer them. A combo with Ferocious Jab and Heaven Thunder Hammer will maul most targets, especially if you can smash them *through* something.

Sample Combo: Gleeful Dawn Demolition Shot Crashing Wave Throw + Heaven Thunder Hammer + Ferocious Jab + Seven Shadow Evasion, 11xp. For 6 motes, make an unparryable attack, doubling successes for damage, and hurling foe Str + Successes + Total Raw Damage yards. Foe takes damage equal to yards of flight remaining if they hit an object.

Martial Arts - the Odd Man Out

"So" you say, looking at the charms available to you "What's up with Martial Arts?"

Well, MA is quite different. For a start, for mortals, there's no real difference between Martial Arts and Brawl, other than choice of weapons. They do exactly the same things. So why is there two abilities where one would do? Why are they separate charms?

The answer is - they're not really Solar charms at all. Martial Arts styles are shared amongst the Exalted. I could learn Snake Style if I felt like it. You could learn Air Dragon Style.

What does this mean? Well, for Dragon Blooded, it generally means Celestial Martial Arts charms are much better than our normal charms - that's why we get the Immaculates to fight you, since those crazy Sidereals cooked up a bunch of Celestial styles for them. For you, however, with your glorious combat charms, it generally means that Martial Arts charms just aren't as good as your normal charms.

If you wanted me to tell you how to use Martial Arts to be just as good as the Dawn with Melee and the Night with Archery, well, sorry Swan, but I'm not going to. An investment in Martial Arts just isn't as worthwhile as one in one of the other Dawn abilities. I without hesitation recommend against it for beginning players.

Still, it has its uses. For a start, Martial Arts often provides a lot of eclectic benefits that can be used well with other combat modes. For instance, Snake Style subtracts dice equal to your essence from opponents' attacks against you. There's no reason why you couldn't be using that while fighting with Melee, for instance (use one of Snake's form weapons, as clarified by the Player's Guide to be seven section staves and hook swords, and you can switch abilities seamlessly). Martial Arts also has by far the most charms for any one ability, and thus some insanely wicked combos can be constructed across styles (if you buy enough supplements to have a nice library of styles). Finally, if your GM is hostile or eccentric about custom charms, Martial Arts might be the only way to get a certain effect, since there's a published Martial Arts charm for just about everything. Indeed, without custom charms, then the most powerful charms available are the Sidereal Martial Arts.

In general, the best advice for Solars using Martial Arts is to not forget to build a bedrock of might with normal Solar charms, and then pick Martial Arts charms that exploit it. Armour Penetrating Fang Strike + Essence Venom Strike is nasty, sure, but any Sidereal can do that. Add Leaping Tiger Attack to the mix and you have something special.

The main problem with Martial Arts, however, is you need supplements. Snake Style badly needs the fixes from the Player's Guide. Then you need more books to get more styles (Violet Bier of Sorrows from the Sidereal book is particularly wicked in Solar hands). As you start, learn combat with another ability, and then you should be able to select a Martial Arts strategy that will work for you later when you understand the implications, and are resigned to paying for a few useless pre-form charms for every style you pick up.

Melee

Solar Melee. Well.

More Wyld Hunts than even I care to admit have ended badly when the newly-exalted child picks up, oh, I dunno, a shovel, declares "I am the Invincible Spear Princess", and proceeds to kill everyone. It's terribly humiliating when your own nephew is decapitated by a prancing thirteen year old with a garden implement.

Solar Archery is the supreme offensive ability, but overall, Melee is peerless. You have no idea how jealous the Cathak are of your charms. I've already covered the sheer excellence of the thing at defence, so let's talk a bit about using it to kill people.

For a start, Melee is where the biggest base damages are. Reaver Daikave. Grand Daiklave. Yet if you want, you have weapons of greater finesse at your disposal, such as the Direlance, or, well, virtually anything other than a bow or a chakram. Even if a weapon is nominally for another ability, you can almost always use it with Melee. The flexibility of choice is enormous.

That being said, I recommend the Reaver Daiklave, for its value on the accuracy and damage front, and because it leaves an off-hand free for Brawl or Thrown. You're Solars, you don't need the extra Speed or Defence, really. Cleave our mutual foes up and feed them to the Panic Monkeys.

Your strategy is really quite simple. Have stacked reflexive defences, dodge and parry, and then attack as many times as you have dice for. When your opponent is vulnerable, assault them with an offence charm or combo and destroy them.

Let's look at the charms.

The Excellent Strike tree is the core offence tree. Excellent Strike itself is a very basic dice-adder. It's too expensive and inefficient for sustained use, but it's a key part of combos.

Hungry Tiger Technique is an excellent charm, exactly like Ferocious Jab for Brawl. It doubles your successes for the purpose of damage, and hence can wickedly punish those with poor defences, and will never add less than 1 damage. If you're doing nothing else with the essence, put Hungry Tiger on each attack and stunt the motes back.

Fire & Stones Strike is an exceptionally good charm, especially for anyone relying on doing minimum damage. Because it converts damage dice to automatic successes, spending one mote on each attack guarantees a health level damage with any successful attack, allowing virtually any foe to be swiftly whittled down.

Of the multi-attack charms, only Iron Whirlwind is really any good. One Weapon Two Blows is too easily defended against, while Peony Blossom is too expensive. Only buy this tree if using the Player's Guide fixes (Peony Blossom 3m/attack, OWTB reduced to 2 motes).
The Retrieve the Fallen Weapon tree has some great charms buried behind some fairly useless ones. Retrieve the Fallen Weapon and Call the Blade simply aren't worthwhile - disarms are extremely difficult in Exalted, and if you don't have your weapon in reach, grab an improvised weapon, and defend with that while running over to pick up your primary weapon. Summon the Loyal Steel is very useful, however. Glorious Solar Saber is only really useful when facing an enemy who can break weapons (like an Earth Immaculate). Iron Raptor Technique and Sandstorm Wind Attack are not particularly useful - better to use Cascade of Cutting Terror with a javelin in the off hand. However, Blazing Solar Bolt and Corona of Radiance are excellent for fighting against the dead.

For offence, the Golden Essence Block tree offers access to counterattacks, with both Solar Counterattack and Ready in Eight Directions Stance. Solar Counterattack is great either in combo, or against enemies you're fairly certain you don't need to use a charm to defend against - it's an easy way to drain an enemy's defensive resources, especially if their attack makes them vulnerable. Ready in Eight Directions Stance's key weakness is its duration - it can't be put in combo - but it's a bargain at five motes, and can greatly discourage attacks against you. It's perfect for when you're ambushed - Full Dodge and Fivefold Bulwark the first turn, then Full Dodge and RI8DS each turn after that.

Counterattacks are almost always better than extra action charms, because they are similarly priced or cheaper, and as Reflexive charms, let you do whatever you like with your dice action. Iron Whirlwind won't give you more than about 5 attacks, but Ready In Eight Directions Stance lets you attack as many times as you like with your dice action, and then counterattack every single attack - you could easily get 10 attacks or more from such a strategy. Neither charm needs to be declared until you are actually attacked, so you'll never waste Solar Counterattack, and will always get at least one counter from Ready In Eight Directions. Using Ready In Eight Directions to dramatically counter and kill a lesser foe may also discourage later attackers, which could be extremely useful if you're relying on Full Dodge or Shadow Over Water rather than Flow Like Blood.

The downside to counterattacks is that your enemy chooses when you can use them. You may want to invest in Presence and taunt the enemy.

Sample Combo: Crushingly Overpowered Smite Excellent Strike + Hungry Tiger Technique + Fire & Stones Strike + Thunderbolt Attack Prana + Heavenly Guardian Defence, 13xp. Assuming Strength 3, for 19 motes + 1wp attack with +10 dice, successes doubled for damage, 3 damage dice auto succeed, total HL damage doubled.

Thrown

Much like archery, the key to this one is getting a high base damage. Increasing Strength Exercise and orichalcum Hearthstone Bracers highly recommended. Javelins are cheap, disposable, and provide some accuracy and 3L damage - try grabbing Flawless Handiwork Method from Craft in order to knock out piles of exceptional javelins easily.

When talking the charms, there is one that must be picked out over all. Cascade of Cutting Terror is an absolutely superlative charm. It has only one prerequisite, doubles your total Thrown pool (easily allowing 30 dice attacks), is undodgeable and supplemental. This is sheer murder against anyone lacking a perfect defence. It will fairly consistently butcher Fire Immaculates and anyone else relying on dodging, and will penetrate just about any parry pool. It's almost unfair. The doubled pool doesn't even count as being added dice, meaning you can still combo it with Precision of the Striking Raptor. This is the charm you'll use the most - just make sure your opponent can't pull out a perfect parry, and go to town.

Joint Wounding Attack isn't as reliable as Ox-Stunning Blow, but it's very useful, as its penalty is inflicted in addition to damage, making it perfect to combo with Cascade of Cutting Terror.

Falling Icicle Strike is overpriced, and only useful once a combat; however, it could be decisive, as it is MURDEROUS when in combo with Cascade of Cutting Terror.

Most of the other charms do have tactical uses for lone assassins or in combination with clever stunts, but in general, none of them pose a convincing argument for their use compared to Cascade of Cutting Terror. Bolster your base damage as much as you can and exploit that charm.

Sample Combo: Agonising Javelin-Barred Prison Cascade of Cutting Terror + Joint Wounding Attack + Seven Shadow Evasion, 11XP. For 8 Motes per attack, double thrown pool, undodgeable, adding -1 cumulative penalty per HL inflicted.

Combined Strategies

Melee/Thrown

With a one-handed weapon in your good hand, and a javelin in your off hand, you can maintain Melee's trademark iron-clad defence while retaining access to all the power of Cascade of Cutting Terror. Try attacking foes before their initiative with say one or two Melee attacks - this will force most non-Celestial foes to abort to a defence. At this point, unleash Cascade of Cutting Terror on them, as they will be unable to defend against it, since aborting to dodge does them no good against the undodgeable attack, and aborting to parry would have supplied them only one parry, which would have defended against the Melee attack. This strategy also works wonders against those using hopping defences (such as the Dragon Blooded's Hopping Firecracker Technique), defences that allow the user to leap away after a successful dodge, since they will discover to their extreme discomfort that they are WELL within the range of Cascade of Cutting Terror.

Melee/Thrown/Brawl

This stack of abilities is obviously somewhat more expensive to invest in, but leaves you perfectly comfortable in a clinch, and able, after using Melee attacks to probe the enemy's defences, choose either Crashing Wave Throw or Cascade of Cutting Terror to attack with, depending on the favoured defence mode of the enemy.

Archery/Brawl

Archery weapons require two hands, and thus preclude Melee. However, they don't particularly restrict the use of your feet. Since powerbows have a low Rate, try shooting close by enemies twice, and then kicking them another two times - or vice versa. Use one mode to strip defences away from a non-Celestial target, and then deliver powerful charm-enhanced blows (I recommend targeting the nether regions. Most of your foes don't deserve to breed, particularly the erstwhile spawn of my siblings).

Archery/Martial Arts

Similarly to Archery/Brawl, but with the added benefit of being able to assume and gain the benefits of defensive Form charms like Snake or Ebon Shadow, this is actually an excellent use of Martial Arts, particularly useful to archers who by hanging up the back can go a little lighter on soak. However, if you suspect your game may at any point use the Player's Guide rules (Power Combat/Form Weapons), avoid this strategy, since it's likely you'll be unable to use your chosen Form with a bow.

A Quick Note on Dice Adders and Extra Action Charms

Many people consider raw number of dice to be a decisive advantage in combat. It most certainly is not. While having large pools is extremely useful, having excellent charm technology that makes good use of those pools is more important - for example the size of a Solar's parry and dodge pools is less important than his ability to use both reflexively against all attacks.

Furthermore, the Solar dice advantage is not great. Lunars can add less dice, but usually have bloated pools owing to their warforms that are much larger even without dice adders. Sidereals can add extremely few dice, but can alter the probability of gaining a success. Dragon Blooded can add only a few less dice than Solars, and often more cheaply.

Do not be fooled into thinking Excellent Strike, Wise Arrow and Precision of the Striking Raptor are decisive advantages; they are not. They are inefficient, and unless your base damage is considerable, may not result in much damage at all. They are useful to brute-force past large defences, and in combo with charms that amplify their effects (such as Hungry Tiger Technique). Otherwise, however, it is usually better to attack a more vulnerable target with another offence charm that will have greater effect, such as Fire and Stones Strike or Cascade of Cutting Terror.

Similarly, Extra Action charms provide more dice than simply taking multiple action penalties to act multiple times, but consider whether those dice are necessary, for they come at two prices. The first is their mote and willpower cost, which might be better spent elsewhere. The other is their locking you into a specific type of action - almost always multiple attacks in the same ability - preventing you from mixing combat styles in the turn, or mixing in non-combat actions. Once again, a high base damage is more likely to make this worthwhile.

How much essence and willpower should I spend?

This is more than a little contextual. Minor skirmish with scouts just ahead of the Wyld Hunt? Go cheap. Desperate final battle with your Deathlord nemesis? Spend at every good opportunity.

In general, it's silly to die with motes left unspent, but being out of motes is a common cause of death.

If you have a Hearthstone, you can safely spend more, assuming you'll have any time at all between battles (and if you don't have time, why, it's going to be the same Scene, so rely on your persistent charms!). Likewise if the time between battles will be peaceful enough to rest, or include social scenes where you can safely stunt back essence.

If you're trying to remain roughly mote-neutral, you should be able to spend 4 motes a turn, and stunt it back with two +2 stunts. If you're under an unfriendly stunting regieme, or if you feel bland or uninspired, cut that back somewhat.

Let's look at Invincible Sword Princess, early in her career. She has Essence 3, Willpower 6, and virtues totalling 9. She has a Reaver Daiklave and an orichalcum reinforced buff jacket, for a total commitment of 8 motes. She has 15 personal essence, and 36 peripheral, cut to 28 after commitment, for a total of 43 motes.

If she's in a battle where she needs to conceal her Solar nature, she'll only have Personal essence at her disposal. After activating Flow Like Blood and Fivefold Bulwark Stance, she's committed 10 of those 15 motes, and is down 2wp. She has a total budget of 5 motes, but feels confident that she won't need to use Heavenly Guardian Defence, so she can spend and regain that fairly freely. In the first two turns of combat, she spends 3 motes using Fire & Stones Strike for 1 mote on each of three attacks, and does two +2 stunts, gaining 1 wp and 2 motes between them. She keeps this pattern up for two more turns, but takes essence from her stunts at 4 motes per turn, showing a slight profit. Finally, with 5 motes back in the bank, she makes 4 Fire & Stones attacks each turn, and stays roughly mote-neutral with stunts. After the battle, she just needs to regain the ten committed motes with some light rest and her Hearthstone.

In open pitched battle against the Wyld Hunt, she has no such concerns. In addition to Fivefold Bulwark and Flow Like Blood, she commits nine motes to Increasing Strength Exercise for a total of nineteen motes, leaving her with 24 motes. She decides she needs to reserve twelve motes spare for emergency Heavenly Guardian Defence, but is happy to fluctuate between 12-24 motes through stunting and offence charms. After holding her action in the first turn in order to act last, she knows she won't need a charm for defence in the first turn. She attacks a Dynast who foolishly used a Simple charm in front of her, spending 3 motes on Fire & Stones Strike on each of four attacks, easily killing him. She takes 2 wp for her two +2 stunts for the turn. The next two turns she uses no essence, and regains 8 motes instead. Happy with that, she spends motes when the opportunity comes from then on, usually no more than 6 or less than 2, gaining four essence from stunts per turn. When the Hunt is substantially broken, an Air Immaculate seeks to flee, and goes within sprinting distance of Invincible Sword Princess. Seeing an opportunity, and feeling fairly safe, she dips into her 12 mote reserve, and fires off a Leaping Tiger Attack + Hungry Tiger Technique + Fire & Stones Strike combo.

For a situation between a quiet "No-one here but us mortals, officer" brawl and a pitched battle, try letting your essence gradually degrade. Spend, say, 6 motes every turn, regaining four motes with stunts. You'll have a good reserve for defences or opportunities for combos, but will still be getting good use out of your offence charms. If you like to use a combo every turn, you'll probably need to make sure you regain 1wp per turn, and will likely be using much more essence, so expect this to be a sharper decline, suitable for faster battles.

In general, spend when you feel safe. Try not to spend too much willpower, and if you do, stunt it back as a priority - essence is much easier to regain between battles. Spend some essence up front to free up space for stunt essence, but otherwise look for good opportunities rather than brute-forcing the situation with big essence spends.

Самый правдивый гороскоп

2009-11-23T01:43:00.003+07:00

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12-сферная система для Mage: the Ascension (репост от 02.03.2005)

2009-11-23T01:41:00.003+07:00

автор - Alistair J.R. Young

(Extracts from:) THE TWELVE SPHERES

Credits
=======

Apart from the products of my own deranged mind, parts and suggestions
for this document came from a variety of sources, principally:

Fate Sphere. Changeling 2nd.

Modifications to the Prime, Constantine Thomas
Entropy, and Fate Spheres.

Modifications to Forces, Life,
and Matter Spheres.

Other modifications to Spheres. Anders Sandberg

Largish chunks of text have been included from the descriptions of the
Spheres in Mage 2nd, as given the various changes and clarifications
made in this revision it would have been almost impossible to handle
it with references or diffs; and, besides, it's pretty useless unless
you already have Mage. If this doesn't count as 'fair use', I'm sure
someone from White Wolf will tell me so.

The Spheres
===========

1. Avatar
2. Correspondence
3. Entropy
4. Fate
5. Forces
6. Life
7. Matter
8. Mind
9. Prime
10. Spirit
11. Time
12. Umbra

Avatar
- ------

Specialties: Soulbonds, Awakening, Spirits, Binding, Gilgul

1 Sense Avatar
2 Speak with Avatar
Touch Avatar
3 Create Epiphany
Brief Awakening
Soul Link
4 Call Avatar
Bind Avatar
5 Force Awakening
Reweave Avatar
Unbind Avatar
Unmake Avatar
6 Cleanse Avatar
Fragment Avatar
Unite Avatar

(Note: for this Sphere to be particularly useful, it is assumed that
everything which is sentient has an avatar - humans, werewolves and
vampires (although theirs are different/altered), spirits, etc.)

* Sense Avatar:
-------------

At this level the mage is able to sense the presence of the Avatars of
others around him and whether they are sleeping or Awakened; the
strength of these Avatars, and the level at which they shape reality
(Avatar rating and Arete, approx.). He is also able to sense the
symbolic form of the Avatar (the form in which it manifests itself to
its mage) - studying this can give clues to the Avatar's Essence, the
mage's Nature, and for example, whether the mage is Marauder or
widderslainte.

** Speak With Avatar:
------------------

The mage can speak freely with his Avatar, or with the Avatars of
other mages.

Touch Avatar:
-------------

When used in conjunctional effects, this level of the Sphere allows
the mage to weave other effects around his Avatar - for example, wards
protecting him/it from the possibility of Gilgul or the Rebirth.

*** Create Epiphany:
----------------

This effect allows the mage temporarily to impose his state of greater
enlightenment onto another mage of lesser achievement.

Mages should take careful note that those who come to depend on this
effect are wandering away from their path to Ascension. They will find
themselves increasingly less able to attain greater understanding for
themselves.

(System: Using it, it is possible for him to temporarily increase the
Arete of another mage by /3 (but *never* above his own
Arete). Habitual users of this will find themselves increasingly
failing in their Seekings (ST control).)

Brief Awakening:
----------------

This, in theory, allows the mage to Awaken the Avatar of anyone. In
practice, however, this only permits Awakenings of very limited
duration - most Sleepers are quite heavy Sleepers, and so cease to be
Awakened in fairly short order. In practice only long-term and very
convinced Acolytes have any hope of achieving permanent Awakening by
this method.

Note, however, that even a temporary Awakening will have a profound -
and permanent - effect on a Sleeper's psyche; although she quickly
loses her ability to work True Magic, she will never see the world in
the same way ever again...

Most Sleepers simply snap under the stress of this artificial
epiphany; caution is advised to avoid producing insane mages. In
general, a degree of mental flexibility and open-mindedness help cope
successfully with this.

Soul Link:
----------

This effect enables the mage to create and to break links between
Avatars, similar to those covered by the "Twin Souls" or "Avatar
Companion" phenomena.

It is possible that use of it could prevent the Avatars of Marauders
from communicating with each other, and so break up the strange
coordination seen in so many Marauder attacks.

**** Call Avatar:
------------
Bind Avatar:
------------

This level enables the mage to summon and bind the Avatar of another
mage in a similar manner to a spirit. Or, just as usefully, bind an
Avatar-fragment created by the level 6 Sphere.

Note that a mage cannot perform magic when her Avatar is not with her;
however, the externalised Avatar can use its power itself. Avatars
that are bound into objects can be used in the manner of
fetishes. Other than the lack of magery, the mage suffers no ill
effects unless the binding of the Avatar to the mage is actually
broken.

***** Force Awakening:
----------------

The effects of this are very similar to those of Avatar 3, Brief
Awakening, save that the resultant Awakening is permanent. Similar
caution is required to avoid the production of insane mages - without
some sort of framework, the mind of the Awakenee is likely to snap
under the pressure.

The less focused a person's belief in her paradigm is, the more
successes are required to Awaken her, and the greater the deleterious
effects on her mental stability. Also, the vast majority of mages who
are forced Awake will not be able to handle it, even if they would
have been able had they been allowed to Awaken at their own rate.

Reweave Avatar:
---------------

With sufficient successes, the mage can alter the Essence, Nature,
etc. of another's avatar, create Spheres Inept, awaken Past Lives, and
so forth.

(The Nephandic rebirth is Qlippothic Avatar 5. Rumours that the NWO
use similar effects to reshape their captives in Mecha into the
Pattern essence are totally without foundation. Really.)

Unbind Avatar:
--------------

This enables a mage to snap the binding between a mage and his Avatar,
allowing the Avatar to continue on its journey. This is, essentially,
the most minor Gilgul.

Unmake Avatar:
--------------

This level of the Avatar sphere is necessary to enable a mage to
perform Gilgul. Some also argue that this is necessary in order to
completely destroy a spirit...

****** Cleanse Avatar:
---------------

This allows a mage to cleanse an Avatar of distortions it has picked
up in its incarnations - Spheres Inept, strong Past Lives, Echoes, and
so forth.

Perhaps, even, with enough successes it would be possible to undo the
Nephandic Rebirth, and cleanse the Avatar of a widderslainte or
barabbi. (Of course, in the case of a barabbi they would still be the
same person who became Nephandus in the first place, but some
Euthanatos might consider it an appropriate prelude to the Good
Death.)

Fragment Avatar:
----------------

Now the mage can divide her Avatar (or another's) into two, creating a
smaller Avatar that is Awakened and has some use of her magical
ability (but not her memories). The one created has the same Essence
and Nature as the 'parent' mage.

(System: The shard created can have Arete and Avatar ratings up to
half those of the parent mage, rounding down. The Arete and Avatar
given to the shard are deducted immediately from those of the parent
mage, with all normal effects of losing either.)

This can be useful - remember, a mind or AI created with the Mind
sphere has no soul and certainly cannot be Awakened. This allows a
mage to get around this problem - at the cost of weakening his own
Avatar.

Of course, the shard-Avatar can be bound into more or less anything,
just as a spirit can. But even an ensouled and Awake boulder is still
a boulder, and unlikely to do much.

If the shard is bound into a cloak of ephemera it becomes a
free-roaming spirit that can be manipulated with Spirit as well as
Avatar magics. The effect of this is identical to the relation between
spirits and their broods - by doing it, you create a Gaffling, or even
a Jaggling, of _you_.

(Mages with power enough to spare to create their own Incarna are
probably indistinguishable from Umbrood anyway. Mages who think they
can create Celestines have lost it totally.)

Unite Avatar:
-------------

This effect is the precise opposite of Fragment Avatar - it allows the
mage to merge two Avatars together, one of which may be her own.

(System: The Avatar rating of the gestalt is that of the two Avatars
involved added together; the Arete is the higher of the two +
1. Unless the Avatars involved are such as the shattered shards of an
Avatar left by the Embrace or a shard previously removed from another,
the mergence will have some of the nastier side-effects of vampiric
diablerie - namely, the whole will contain elements of both previous
parts. [This is mainly for when it is used on the Avatars of living
mages - highest willpower controls the gestalt, the other exists as a
subpersonality, 'voice in his head', whatever and may challenge for
control when the main is low on willpower; if the willpowers are
close, you have a split personality.])

Some factions of the Celestial Chorus say that this effect is a
wonderful thing, and the means eventually to reunite the scattered
Avatars of mages once again into the Pure Ones, and finally into the
One.

Most others say that this effect is considerably less wonderful than
that, and quite possibly evil in nature (despite its not being
Qlippothic) - no more than the magely equivalent of Diablerie.

Nonetheless, most agree that it can be useful for reconstructing the
shattered Avatars of those who have undergone Gilgul or the vampiric
Embrace... or even creating a single strong avatar from the
chipped-off shards of those of a number of mages.

Mages who think they can merge an Incarna or Celestine into themselves
in this way have, again, lost it totally. A harsh lesson in who gets
to be dominant soon follows.

Correspondence
- --------------

Specialties: Conjuration, Scrying, Warding, Teleportation, Opening

1 Immediate Spatial Perceptions
2 Correspondence Perceptions
Touch Space
3 Shift Through Space
Seal Gate
Co-locality Perception
4 Conjoin Localities
Co-locate Self
5 Mutate Localities
Co-location
6 Alter Dimensionality
Wide-Area Effects

* Immediate Spatial Perceptions:
------------------------------

At this stage, the mage gains a keen understanding of how objects and
space relate. She can intuitively sense distances between objects,
find true north (or any other direction) and sense things in her
immediate vicinity without using the normal five senses. This new
sense also allows her to detect spatial instabilities, warps, and
wormholes.

** Correspondence Perceptions:
---------------------------

The mage may now extend her senses beyond her immediate vicinity to
distant or hidden locations. Any of the senses can expand this
way. However, most mages feel that such magical perceptions thin the
barriers between the two points in space, creating a weakness in the
Tapestry (like those a rank one effect can spot).

Touch Space:
------------

Luckily, the mage may also re-work the fabric of space, reinforcing
the Tapestry and creating a barrier to hinder scrying or the opening
of actual rifts. This works like countermagic, deducting successes for
each success.

In conjunction with Pattern 2 (rank 2 of any pattern Sphere), the mage
may also grasp small items - house cat-sized or smaller - and pull
them through the Tapestry, conjuring them from "nowhere".

*** Shift Through Space:
--------------------

The mage now gains the strength to make a small rent in the Tapestry,
so small that only the mage herself - and whatever she holds or
carries - may slip through before it seals.

Working with the other Spheres, a mage may also grasp items governed
by the Pattern magics and slide them through space, performing
levitation and telekinesis.

Seal Gate:
----------

She may also seal such rents or prevent them from opening, though the
greater the rift, the more difficult the feat.

Co-locality Perception:
-----------------------

At this level, a mage also learns to sense multiple locations at once,
perceiving the various scenes as several ghostly landscapes
overlapping one another.

**** Conjoin Localities:
-------------------

The Adept may now create larger rents in the Tapestry to transport
other beings and large objects and forces. With enough successes
(10+), she may even force the rent wide enough to make a permanent
gateway.

Co-locate Self:
---------------

The mage may now manifest physically in multiple locations at once,
though she should also use Mind 1 if she wants to think effectively in
all of them, and Life 2 if she wants her multiple selves to perform
separate actions.

***** Mutate Localities:
------------------

A Master of Correspondence learns how to distort space. She can affect
distances and sizes around her, stretching them and thinking them to
fit her needs. In scientific terms, the mass of objects cannot be
changed, but their volumes and dimensions are like potter's clay.

This power is limited by the topology of the affected object - a
doughnut could be distorted into a cup by this, for example, but it
would remain an object containing a single hole.

Co-location:
------------

She may also stack locations on top of one another in a bizarre
landscape of multiple forms or connect a variety of items together. At
this point, the Master's perceptions are so wildly expanded that her
mundane perceptions may be enhanced beyond the normal human maximum.

****** Alter Dimensionality:
---------------------

This enables the mage to play with the dimensional characteristics of
a given area of space - an ordinary room with three spatial dimensions
could be made four- or five- dimensional, or compressed down to two
dimensions. Dimensions can also be compressed, expanded, or twisted to
suit the mage. Wonderful for mazes, or those who want to create rooms
that don't just *look* like an Escher painting.

Using conjunctional effects with Matter and Life, objects can be
affected - spheres made into hyperspheres or collapsed into circles,
people made two-dimensional, etc...)

Wide-Area Effects:
------------------

By skilful use of co-locative magic, the mage now becomes able to
spread an effect over more than one target; for example, a Avatar
3/Correspondence 6 effect could be used to temporarily Awaken a large
crowd, or even an entire city with sufficient successes.

Entropy
- -------

Specialties: Order, Chaos, Destruction

1 Sense Strengths & Weaknesses
Sense Order & Disorder
2 Control Randomness in Closed Systems
3 Diffuse Energy/Contain Energy
Decay Matter/Preserve Matter
Control Randomness in Open Systems
4 Wither Life/Preserve Life
Control Randomness in Organisational Systems
5 Decay Thought/Preserve Thought
Reverse Entropy
6 Control Randomness in Abstract Systems
Chaos Theory

* Sense Strengths & Weaknesses:
-----------------------------

Disciples of Entropy learn to examine each thing and discern its
strengths and weaknesses, examining what it is and what it does.

Sense Order & Disorder:
-----------------------

Sense Order and Disorder allos the mage to sense the amount of
disorder in a system, and to see which parts of the system are the
most ordered and which are the most disordered.

Given this knowledge, the mage can sense if a lock has some defect, or
if a gun will misfire. Chance, however, is a fickle thing. These
insights are not perfect, just advanced.

The ability to judge certainties and likelihoods is quite
useful. Pressure points and opportunities become obvious to one who
knows their patterns. This may not have any dramatic effects, but once
you understand an enemy's strengths and weaknesses, it doesn't take
Sun Tzu to determine a combat strategy or Lucretia Borgia to figure
out a subterfuge.

General: Control Randomness
- ---------------------------

Now that the the workings of chance have been studied, the dominoes of
probability may be pushed. Disciples learn control over probability by
studying where it concentrates. Phenomena as diverse as card
shuffling, dice rolling, market fluctuations, traffic jams, lost mail
and roulette wheels teach the mage to identify order in chaos, chaos
in order and the paths of probability.

This gives the mage amazing, yet subtle control over hundreds of small
events. He can control whom a waiter will serve first, who picks the
shortest straw, who wins a coin toss or finds the one bullet in a
chamber, etc. He can determine the outcome of any event which would
normally be random. Once he discerns which apparently random events
are in fact predetermined, he can then manipulate other eventualities
to his own ends.

(In my metaphysics, some events are guided by destiny, but most are
left to random chance. The more an event is destined - for example,
the fate of a mage with a high Destiny - the less affectable it and
the objects involved in it are by Entropy.)

(System: add the Destiny of the involved party to the difficulty?)

There's a limit to this control; the greater the probability he tries
to affect, the more difficult the act becomes. Determining a coin-toss
is simple magic. Determining the toss of the same coin 100 times in
succession becomes correspondingly more difficult. Hexing a pack of
cards to deal a royal flush is in the realm of possibility, but
ordering a shuffled deck such that each comes out as if it had never
been shuffled is a miracle probably not worth the bother.

At first, the mage may only control randomness in Closed Systems:

** Control Randomness in Closed Systems:
-------------------------------------

A Closed System is one in which there is a definite, finite
probability of an event occurring, as a result of the isolation of the
system from external influences. Tossing a coin creates one of the
most basic Closed Systems - there is a one in two chance that the coin
will land heads or tails. Other examples include the shuffling of a
pack of cards, and a game of Russian Roulette - in the latter, there
is a one in six chance that the firing chamber of the revolver will
contain the bullet (which the Mage can affect).

If disorder was increased in a system where two dice were rolled
thousands of times, it is possible that no consecutive roll will be
the same. Similarly, if a pack of playing cards (arranged in order of
suit and number) was taken and shuffled once, it would appear as if it
had been shuffled hundreds of times. If disorder was decreased in the
systems described above, rolling the two dice would always resulted in
the same number, even if rolled several thousand times. In the pack of
cards example, the deck could be shuffled a thousand times but there
would still be only one or two cards displaced if the disorder was
decreased.

*** Diffuse Energy / Contain Energy:
--------------------------------
Decay Matter / Preserve Matter:
-------------------------------

Inanimate objects and tangible forces, as Patterns of order, are the
most subject to the forces of Entropy. Machines are especially
susceptible to this phenomena. Clocks wind down, engines break,
warranties expire and all things eventually fray and decay.

A Disciple of Entropy can "fix" this deterioration, causing new
television sets to blow a fuse while old junker cars mysteriously
still run years after they should have fallen apart. Rocks may also be
caused to erode and teapots to chip and shatter, but as Entropy is a
slow and gradual process, the only things which can be affected
instantly are those, such as machines, which have thousands of
intricate moving parts.

Control Randomness in Open Systems:
-----------------------------------

This ability works in the same manner as the second rank 'Control
Randomness', save that at this rank the mage is able to affect Open
Systems:

An Open System is one where probability is being continually affected
by variable outside influences - however, the mage cannot affect the
chance of a specific event occurring. Instead, he can flood a system
with chaos (or reduce its effect in a system), making it generally
more or less random in its operation. The mage has little control over
exactly how this randomness will manifest itself. For example, a mage
being chased over an unstable wooden bridge can use Entropy to affect
the Open System that is the chance of the bridge collapsing. By
manipulating the probabilities of this happening, the mage can cause
the bridge to collapse just when the people chasing him are about
halfway across.

Increasing disorder in an open system (such as the operation of a
machine) could result in computer crashes, circuit breakers tripping
for no reason (while others fail to trip when they should causing
power surges), corruption of computer data, and so on.

Decreasing disorder in a machine would make it work more efficiently
and more predictably -- circuit breakers trip when they should,
back-doors into computer systems become inaccessible, phone exchanges
route their calls to the correct destinations, and so on.

**** Wither Life / Preserve Life:
----------------------------

The Effects of Entropy, order and probability are far more complex
when dealing with living organisms, due to living beings' complex and
self-corrective nature. If a robot overtaxes itself and stresses its
workings, it runs down until someone repairs it. A man who overtaxes
himself will heal given time and care, and may even grow stronger.

Adepts of Entropy study how life forms begin, mature, wither, and
die. They also observe the hundreds of factors which affect the course
of life, from the effects of heredity to the stresses of evolution and
growth. The Adept learns how to influence the random factors of life,
giving her immense power either to destroy it or affect its
development.

These Arts affect probability, not Life Patterns themselves.

Control Randomness in Organisational Systems:
---------------------------------------------

This ability works in the same manner as the second rank 'Control
Randomness', save that at this rank the mage is able to affect
Organisational Systems:

An Organisation is a peculiar system in that it combines elements of
both Closed and Open Systems. An 'Organisation' is here defined as a
collection of individual components that interact in a complex manner
- - thus bureaucracies, society and even the human body are
Organisations. They are meta-organisms, comprising many individual
entities (sometimes millions). In all Organisations, there is a rigid
framework in which it operates - the hierarchy of employees, the daily
routine, etc. - which makes it a Closed System. However, anything can
happen within that framework as the organisation interacts with the
outside world - employees can arrive late or call in sick, rival
companies can put in a take-over bid, a new contract can be signed,
wars can start and so on - which makes it akin to an Open System. As
such, Organisations are more difficult to magically affect, but once a
mage has a foothold, the rewards and the possibilities are endless.

Increasing disorder in (for example) a busy restaurant could result in
tables never being served by waiters, cooks calling in sick on busy
days, health inspectors arriving, customers complaining, waiters
tripping up while carrying food etc. Decreasing disorder may result in
tables always being served as soon as they are taken by customers,
employees calling in on time, and everything generally running like
clockwork.

***** Decay Thought / Preserve Thought:
---------------------------------

Masters of Entropy expand their control over reality by studying the
ways in which ideas change over time. The effects of the natural order
of things on objects are fairly clear and indisputable, but the fact
that chaos affects intelligent thought seems farfetched. Yet
everything which is organised is subject to the laws which govern
order and chaos, be it the structure of a molecule of an organised
body of knowledge.

Where the Masters of Mind rudely subject the minds of others to their
own will, however, masters of Entropy merely point out things that
will strike a person a particular way and let his thoughts follow the
natural progression to other possibilities.

Masters of Entropy who specialise in chaos can shatter a person's
worldview simply by making a few weird comments (or can at least
confuse him), while those specialising in order can present logical
arguments which can advance a person's conscious or subconscious
thoughts to some higher (or at least different) set of ideas.

Reverse Entropy:
----------------

This rank also permits the mage to reverse entropy - effectively
'rewinding' an event through time [although time still passes in the
normal way.] With this, the mage could cause the ink in inky water to
return into a drop of ink, a cloud of smoke to diffuse back into the
smoke grenade, and so forth. It causes disorder to evolve back into
order, contrary to the normal state of existence.)

****** Control Randomness in Abstract Systems:
---------------------------------------

This rank of Entropy is similar to ranks 2, 3, and 4 in that it allows
the mage to affect the order and disorder in systems; however it
allows the mage to affect any system, even those which are normally
outside of change. Now the mage can affect the organisation of such
things as abstract ideas, time, space, and magic itself.

Chaos Theory:
-------------

This rank of gives the mage control over systems containing /billions/
of variables - a good example of this is the infamous Butterfly
Effect. In Chaos Theory, the final outcome of an event can be
radically changed by the slightest alteration of its starting
conditions. At this level, the mage is actually aware of precisely
what must be done to guide the system into the desired outcome. This
allows him, for example, to control the weather or affect events in
the future by modifying their starting conditions.

Fate
- ----

Specialities: Fate, Blessings, Curses

1 Sense Fate & Fortune
Detect Link
2 Augury
Concealment
Examine Web
3 Affect Predictable Patterns
Affect Links
4 Affect Life
Speed/Slow Destiny
5 Affect Thought
Geas/Ban
6 ???

* Sense Fate & Fortune:
---------------------

The Disciple of Fate begins to sense the current of Destiny, and can
discern what is significant and what is not, and what is true or
untrue.

Given this knowledge, the mage can pick a lucky horse, choose the
original between two identical items, or see who is doomed in an
upcoming battle. Fate, however, is fickle. These insights, as those of
Entropy, are not perfect.

Detect Link:
------------

Detect Link enables the mage to find the connections between
things. For example, a cuddly toy is connected to a particular child,
or a packet of drugs is connected to both a local dealer (the
supplier) and a street rat (the buyer). Note that this does not allow
the mage to determine *how* the things are connected; it only allows
him to sense the connection itself.

Successes Effect
1 Sense connection to mage only.
2 Sense connection to those mage knows.
3 Sense connection to object.
4 Sense connection to total stranger.
5 Sense connection to concept.

** Augury:
-------

Augury allows you to sense an object or person's destiny more
specifically than the general sense. Unlike Time 2, this is not
specific sight of the possible future, merely a symbolic indication of
the direction the force of destiny is pushing in.

Concealment:
------------

Concealment allows the mage to ward someone against either the
detection of their destiny - or even if they have one at all -, or the
connections that they have with others. It is common for powerful
mages to use this to avoid being linked with their plots. (If a mage
uses it on himself, links between him and an object are concealed not
only when he is analysed with Fate 1/2 but also when the object is.)

Examine Web:
------------

Examine Web allows the mage to examine the web of connections about a
target in a more specific way - this could allow the mage, for
example, to discover the possible outcomes of an event, or the
possible influences on an individual... Of course, the mage may easily
miss connections by being too specific, or be overwhelmed by useless
information if he isn't specific enough.

*** Affect Predictable Patterns:
----------------------------

A Disciple of Fate may curse or bless an object (a Matter or Forces
pattern), or lay a Destiny upon it. Using a conjunctional effect with
Matter 2, or Forces 2/4, the mage may imbue a physical object,
affecting the course of its destiny and of those who come in contact
with it. A blessed locket may take a bullet intended for its wearer,
though he may later die a glorious death in battle. Time 2 allows more
of a say in such events, but even then, they may not be certain.

Affect Links:
-------------

Affect Links permits the mage to forge or break the connections
between things, such as those he detected with the first rank. These
links are those of sympathy and contagion which may be used with
Correspondence, in addition to being traceable with Fate 1 and 2.

**** Affect Life:
------------

With this, an Adept of Fate can weave a potent spell over a living
being's Destiny, blessing or cursing him and his line. Other Spheres
may be woven into such a charm, creating hereditary magical gifts or
flamboyant curses. These Arts affect fate, not Life Patterns
themselves.

Speed / Slow Destiny:
---------------------

This rank allows the mage to direct the forces of destiny toward or
away from the target. While the actual flow of time does not alter,
destined events in the target's future may be brought to occur sooner
or later than they otherwise would have.

The caster has no or little control over the outcome, unless he has
previously used another Fate effect to alter the target's
destiny. Even if this is the case, that may not necessarily be the
destiny that is brought to pass or prevented, if the target has
another stronger destiny.

***** Affect Thought:
---------------

Masters of Fate may affect thoughts as Disciples can objects and
Adepts living beings. This supreme magic directs the force of Wyrd
into a mental concept, creating a "happy thought" or "cursed idea",
which brings Fate or Fortune to bear on those who concentrate upon it,
possibly extinguishing or exalting the thought. This may lead to
paradigm shifts, new faiths, or insanity.

Geas / Ban:
-----------

By the use of conjunctional effects to provide suitable consequences,
the Master of Fate may afflict a being with a Geas (a compulsion to
undertake some task) or Ban (a forbidding from doing something).

****** ???

Forces
- ------

(Oh, gods, the Forces sphere. After much trouble and strife, I have
for the moment withdrawn from the unequal struggle of finding a
paradigm-invariant way of dividing forces into two blocks, in favour
of just describing them as 'higher' and 'lower' forces. Pick your own
definitions - the magnitude division from Mage 2nd, the lesser/major
forces division from Mage 1st, divide concrete from abstract forces,
or whatever...

It might well vary between paradigms anyway?)

Specialties: Elements (any or all), Technology, Physics, Weather

1 Perceive Forces
2 Control Lower Forces
3 Spawn Lower Forces
Transmute Lower Forces
4 Control Higher Forces
5 Solidify Forces
Spawn Higher Forces
Transmute Higher Forces
6 Create Forces
Quicken Forces
Wide-Area Forces

* Perceive Forces:
----------------

The mage discerns the movements of energy. By identifying their
Patterns, she can perceive all types of energy flows, sensing
wavelengths far beyond the limited range of visible light and sonic
frequencies upon which normal mortals rely. The mage may see anything
from infrared light to x-rays to gravity waves. Even in the absence of
such positive forces, some mages have learned how to perceive colours
in darkness, sense stillness and hear volumes from silence.

** Control Lower Forces:
---------------------

*** Spawn Lower Forces:
-------------------
Transmute Lower Forces:
-----------------------

**** Control Higher Forces:
----------------------

***** Solidify Forces:
----------------

The Master of Forces can imbue patterns with of force with
characteristics normally associated with Matter patterns. One
characteristic of Forces is that, while powerful and destructive, the
are also easily diverted and destroyed. A Master can 'solidify' a
pattern of forces, making it stable and lasting. Such forces can
power perpetual motion machines without resorting to a mage
continuously regenerating the Pattern, or be used to fashion barriers,
weapons, and tools.

Some forces are naturally solidified, such as gravity.

Spawn Higher Forces:
--------------------
Transmute Higher Forces:
------------------------

****** Create Forces:
--------------

The Archmaster of Forces may create entirely new varieties of forces
(e.g. sound that travels in a vacuum, fire that freezes, magnetism
that works on plastic, etc.)

Quicken Forces:
---------------

The Archmaster may also imbue Forces patterns with some of the
characteristics normally associated with Life patterns. Alternately,
the master may set up a trickle of Quintessence (requiring Prime 2)
into a Forces pattern. Such 'quickened' patterns have some of the
characteristics of living things.

Some forces are naturally quickened, such as fire.

With a conjunctional Mind effect, such 'entities' can be programmed to
move, react, assimilate other patterns and even reproduce themselves.
It is even possible for a spirit (usually one aspected to forces) to
inhabit such a 'body.'

Wide-Area Forces:
-----------------

The mage learns to act as a catalyst for larger forces, rather than
influencing them directly. This allows him to create or influence
phenomena for miles around - while Forces 3 may conjure a hurricane,
Forces 6 can conjure a storm front across a continent.

Life
- ----

Specialties: Shapeshifting, Disease, Healing, Improvement, Cloning,
Creation

1 Sense Life
2 Alter Simple Patterns
Influence Self
3 Alter Self
Influence Life
Transform Simple Patterns
Create Simple Patterns
4 Alter Complex Patterns
Transform Self
5 Transform Complex Patterns
Create Complex Patterns
Perfect Metamorphosis
6 ???
Perfectly Metamorphose Other

* Sense Life:
-----------

The mage begins his study by identifying Patterns of Life. By reading
these Patterns, he can learn a lot about a life form - its age, its
sex, and every aspect of its health. With this awareness, the mage can
also sense different forms of life nearby.

** Alter Simple Patterns:
----------------------

Life manipulation begins with the simplest living Patterns. A mystic
can alter the structure of basic life forms now, from microscopic
viruses and bacteria to creatures as complex as insects and shellfish
(as a good rule of thumb, any invertebrate is considered a simple Life
Pattern). All plant life, from algae to sequoia trees, possess Life
Patterns simple enough for the mage to manipulate.

The mage can only influence these simple Patterns at this level; he
can heal simple creatures or kill them, cause crabs to sprout extra
legs, trees to bear fruit or bees to release the pheromones which
signal a swarm. Whatever he does, the creatures themselves remain what
they always were - he can mutate them, but not transform them.

Influence Self:
---------------

The mage also begins to understand the most complex Patterns of Life,
beginning with the one most familiar to him, his own. At this stage,
he may only affect the normal processes of his own pattern (such as
healing, but by no means limited to that) - slowing or hastening them,
adjusting them relative to each other (altering hormone levels or
nerve impulses, for example), or even initiating them or stopping them
entirely, or make instant corrections or disruptions to his pattern,
to heal or to harm.

*** Alter Self:
-----------

At this rank, the mage can alter his own Pattern, making subtle
improvements and variations as he did with simple Patterns at Life
2. He cannot substantially change what he is, but can change his
gender or appearance or physically modify his body to grow claws, fur,
gills, etc.

Influence Life:
---------------

The mystic begins to understand other more complex organisms now, and
may influence the patterns of other beings as he did himself at the
previous rank.

Transform Simple Patterns:
--------------------------
Create Simple Patterns:
-----------------------

Simple Patterns are now his to command; he may turn them inside-out,
change one into another or even create them entirely from other
Patterns, through conjunctional effects involving Forces, Matter, or
Prime. The mage can change wildfire into wildflowers, glass grapes
into living fruit or the Platonic ideal butterfly into its living
counterpart.

Unfortunately, any life form he creates has no mind beyond what it
held before. However, for simple life forms, especially plants, this
fault is virtually irrelevant. Even creatures such as crabs or insects
can be imbued with some instinctive reflexes that serve for
intelligence in the absence of a true mind.

**** Alter Complex Patterns:
-----------------------

A mage who reaches this rank can change the structure of any complex
Life Patterns, including those of other sentient beings. As with Life
2, the creatures subjected to this magic still retain their original
form, but radical variations on that basic form are still possible.

Transform Self:
---------------

A Life Adept can alter her form to resemble another living being of
approximately the same size and mass. She may become a deer, but not a
mouse. Special abilities - water breathing, flight, etc. - do not
carry over at this level without additional Life effects, and moving
around in the new form will take getting used to.

More naturalistic Traditions compensate for this shortcoming by
working instinct into the basic form. A mystic risks losing her mind
entirely this way, however. Some have found themselves trapped in the
shape of panthers or dolphins, and have only freed themselves when
they encountered something which reminded them of what they truly
were.

***** Transform Complex Patterns:
---------------------------

A Master of Life can transform others as she transformed herself at
the previous rank. At this level, she can attain any form she desires
and alter others the same way.

This carries its own problems. A higher being transformed into a lower
one tends to trade intelligence for survival instincts, while a lower
life form changed into a higher one has similar problems. Getting such
creatures to stand on two legs, let alone speak, requires a long
period of instruction or a conjunctional effect with Mind 3.

Perfect Metamorphosis:
----------------------

The perfect metamorphosis a Master achieves has no such problems. A
mage who shapeshifts at this level carries her mind and Arts with
her. Whatever she becomes, that form is as natural as the one she was
born into.

Create Complex Patterns:
------------------------

At this level, the mage also gains a most unique power, which some
might hold as divine: He can weave a new Pattern to create any life
form, even a human body, using conjunctional magic to translate it
from energy, matter, or pure Quintessence with the appropriate rank of
Forces, Matter or Prime. Unfortunately, the life form created has no
mind or soul beyond the base material or the Resonance it carries.

Consequently, many mages prefer to create a new being out of Prime
Force, certain that it possesses no mind or soul beyond what the
mystic gives it. This might seem pointless, but mages have found
various uses for such soulless shells. Some create new forms of life
merely to study how new "improvements" might effect their living
bodies, while others imbue these soulless lifeforms with preprogrammed
reactions that mimic instinctual intelligence.

Empty husks make ideal resting places for spirits and astral forms as
well. Most spirits can manifest in an empty body (or even possess
occupied bodies) and interact with the physical world. A mage who
helps an Umbrood across this way can demand favours and expect to get
them.

Masters of both the Life and Mind Spheres can untether their psyches
and create new bodies for their own astral forms to fill, while those
adept at Avatar have devised a form of life insurance which involves
reincarnating in new bodies when the old ones die. Such mages often
leave a long trail of different identities behind them, attaining a
degree of immortality.

****** ???

Perfectly Metamorphose Other:
-----------------------------

The mage may now apply the perfect metamorphosis available to the
Masters of Life to other individuals.

Matter
- ------

Specialties: Transmutation, Shaping, Conjuration, Complex Patterns

1 Matter Perceptions
2 Alter Form
3 Basic Transmutation
4 Complex Transmutation / Quilted Forms
5 Alter Properties
Pattern Dissociation
6 Quicken Matter

* Matter Perceptions:
-------------------

The Disciple of Matter begins by recognising the various Patterns of
Matter, including the underlying structures that give objects their
shapes and physical properties. With these perceptions, she can detect
things hidden from normal senses. In addition to sensing the
composition and properties of Matter, the Disciple can discern
structures hidden within structures; material no longer forms a
barrier to her senses.

** Alter Form:
-----------

At the second rank of Matter, the mage can overpower the rigid
Patterns of reality. By selectively altering different aspects of an
object's Pattern, he can change its shape however he desires -
compressing it to increase its density and decrease its volume while
retaining the same weight, inflating it so as to decrease its density
and increase the volume, or temporarily changing the state so that
solids become liquids or liquids become gas. Permanent changes in
state require Rank 5. Note that changing the state with Matter in no
way affects the actual temperature of the material.

A mage who understands this rank may sculpt matter into any shape she
pleases, limited only by the physical properties of the materials she
uses. Broken items may also be repaired seamlessly, if she has the
mundane knowledge to do so.

Note that when articles are created from the ether, those which
contain highly energetic elements will require conjunctional
effects. Radioactive elements and other highly energy-containing
compounds such as explosives will require a conjunctional Forces
effect to supply that aspect of the pattern (for example, creating
matched plutonium spheres for an atom bomb will require Forces
_6_. Similarly, producing a black hole (a great recycler of patterns)
will require Entropy. Simply producing organic materials, OTOH, does
not require Life.)

*** Basic Transmutation:
--------------------

The mage may transmute one substance into another, without changing
its shape, temperature, or basic state - milk into cream, mahogany
into oak, water to acid, or lead into gold. The more radical the
transmutation, the more successes the spell requires. It's easier to
change water into wine (one success) than into sulphuric acid (three),
and more complicated to turn stones into bread (three successes) than
sourdough into rye (one).

With an understanding of Prime and the other Pattern magics, a mage
may use conjunctional effects to transform items governed by Forces,
Life or Prime into basic Patterns of Matter, including changing living
beings into stone or spinning moonlight into thread. With Prime 2, she
may harness the ether to create (or uncreate with Prime 4) any
/simple, basic/ thing composed of /one common homogenous substance/. A
quartz boulder shaped vaguely like a woman is possible, but a dainty
china shepherdess is not. With difficulty, a stick of plastique could
be conjured (but not the detonator). A bowlful of oatmeal or even
blueberry pancakes could be made to appear, but not a baroque wedding
cake. The more rare and/or complex a given substance, the more
difficult it is to create from pure ether. It's easier to create glass
than diamonds and simpler to make flour than bread. Elaborate
creations must wait until rank 4.

Making things hotter or colder than they were originally, or to change
one substance into another with a higher or lower potential energy,
requires a conjunctional effect with Forces, though Matter alone can
change ice into ice cream or boiling water into hot soup. Transmuting
solids into liquids or liquids into gas requires either Matter 2 or
the use of Forces 3/Prime 2 (or some mundane means) to boil or freeze
the affected substance.

**** Complex Transmutation / Quilted Forms:
--------------------------------------

Adepts of Matter may now perform radical changes to physical materials
and craft complex and intricate items involving several common
substances or one or two rare ones. Any sort of regular matter may be
changed into any other - though as with rank 2, the more radical the
transformation, the more difficult the feat.

With conjunctional effects, the Patterns of Life, Forces or Prime
itself may be transmuted into Matter, allowing mages to turn pumpkins
into gilded coaches, lightning bolts into swords, or the
Quintessential ether into master keys. Complex organic creations are
also possible, including silk ballgowns, roast chickens and Persian
rugs.

***** Alter Properties:
-----------------

At this pinnacle of understanding, Masters of Matter may create new
substances which do not exist in nature by taking existing materials
and altering their physical properties, such as boiling and melting
points, density, ductility, transparency, viscosity, refractive index,
etc.

All the substances of legends and comic books are possible with this
level of magic. Masters build castles with paper-thin walls and wear
clothes of indestructible armour that feel softer than silk and weigh
less than a feather.

Pattern Dissociation:
---------------------

A sorcerer may even make one object immaterial to some other
substance, creating bullets which can phase through armour and robots
which may walk through walls, leaving the walls intact. This may even
be extended to energies and living creatures using conjunctional
effects.

****** Quicken Matter:
---------------

The Archmaster may also imbue Matter patterns with some of the
characteristics normally associated with Life patterns. Alternately,
the Archmaster may set up a trickle of Quintessence (requiring Prime
2) into a Forces pattern. Such 'quickened' patterns have some of the
characteristics of living things. This enables the mage to produce
pseudoalive, self-repairing, self-sustaining, or self-reshaping
materials such as 'living metal' or 'bioplastic'.

Mind
- ----

Specialties: Communication, Illusion, Self-Empowerment, Astral Travel

1 Sense Thoughts, Emotions & Resonance
Empower Self
Conditionals
2 Read Surface Thoughts
Affect Resonance
Mental Impulse
Mental Shield
3 Mental Link
Walk Among Dreams
4 Control Surface Mind
Astral Travel
5 Control Deep Mind
Create Intelligence
The Country of the Mind
6 Forge Psyche
Untether

* Sense Thoughts, Emotions & Resonance:
-------------------------------------

The mage begins to sense the thoughts and emotions in the air around
her. She cannot yet read these thoughts, but can sense their strength
and intensity, and somewhat of their general nature. This is not a
true look at the soul (that requires Spirit 1 and/or Avatar 1), but at
the shell of emotional radiance that surrounds it.

The mage may also read the psychic impressions left on objects. At
this stage, she cannot read any actual thoughts or images, but can
sense "goof" or "bad vibes" from an object or place. This includes the
Resonance attached to Tass or the aura of a Quintessential wellspring
at a Node or Juncture. Without Prime 1, she can't tell how strong such
energies may be, but she'll be able to understand the best uses for
such Quintessence.

Empower Self:
-------------

At this level, the mage learns to master his own mind. As the mage
explores the powers of his mind, he learns to develop eidetic
memory. amazing computational speed, a type of multi-tasking brain
function, mind-over-body control of their autonomic responses, and
many other such things.

The Mind initiate also learns to influence her dreams and shield
herself from the inevitable mental barrage of others' thoughts and
emotions. With work, she can hide her aura and shield her thoughts
from casual observation - though determined and perceptive mages and
other beings may still be able to read them.

Conditionals:
-------------

The mage may create conditional, or contingency, effects in his
spells. For example, a suspended animation spell could have a Sleeping
Beauty clause, ending it at the kiss of a prince, or a fire spell
could be set to trigger when a door was opened. This requires the
appropriate Spheres to sense the triggering condition. Other magical
effects could also be worked into the program as subroutines, to use
the Virtual Adept terminology.

By setting certain things in place - "This wall will turn to fire when
someone leans on it, a [Correspondence 1/Life 1]/Mind 1/[Matter
3/Forces 3] effect (the first set of square brackets are the sensory
half, Mind 1 for the conditional, and the second set produce the
result)" - entire artificial systems of magic ("Words of Power" and so
forth) can be created with "clap on/clap off" functions, making
reliable static magic that anyone with the appropriate keys and access
to the weavings can access. To keep such stored magic from being
stolen by enemies, many mages have used Matter and/or Life to tie
these to heirlooms and/or bloodlines, leaving their descendants a
legacy of magical abilities. Eventually, of course, the magic is used
up or the heirlooms are lost, so nothing lasts forever. Such
"contingent" effects can be detected with the first rank of Mind or
Entropy, though it takes Mind 2 to truly fathom the effect's nature,
and the full set of Spheres used to completely understand the effect's
effects.

(System: setting up a conditional effect requires at least three magic
rolls - for the sensory effect(s) that will trigger the conditional,
one for the conditional itself, and for the effects that will be
triggered by the conditional.)

** Read Surface Thoughts:
----------------------

The mage learns not only how to recognise thoughts, but how to read
them. Two mages of this same rank can also form a primitive mental
link by dropping their shields and reading each other's surface minds.

Affect Resonance:
-----------------

She can read memories "attached" to objects by others' minds (basic
psychometry) and scan surface thoughts from unshielded minds. The
greater the emotional content, the louder the "volume" and the easier
it is to read such impressions. She can leave those same psychic
impressions on objects or places intentionally, too, "creating"
resonance.

Mental Impulse:
---------------

The mage can also send such thoughts and emotions out ("looking
daggers" or "blowing kisses") until they find their target. Complex
thoughts cannot be sent this way, but single words, images, or
emotional impulses can be easily beamed into an unshielded being's
subconscious mind. Such suggestions are much more insidious, and can
often be more effective, than direct communication.

Mental Shield:
--------------

The mage may also create more elaborate shields in her mind and
disguise the colour of her aura, or erect a complex mental "window
dressing" to fool other mentalists into underestimating or ignoring
her. She can also control her dreams to some extent, though many
aspects still lie beyond her influence.

*** Mental Link:
------------

The mage can now establish a clear link between her own mind and the
minds of others. She can use this link for telepathic communications -
or invasions.

The ability to project thoughts and images into another's mind allows
a mystic to project false perceptions. At this rank, the mage has full
command of perceptual illusions. Some teach means of projecting
psychic disturbances into a subject's mind. These psychic assault take
many forms, but their end goal is to turn the victim into a mental
vegetable.

Walk Among Dreams:
------------------

The mage may now contact the minds of other dreamers in her sleep and
begin to explore the Dream Realms. While waking, she may also use her
abilities to enter the dreaming consciousness of others, though such
trips are risky. Some Sleepers have particularly rich dream lives, and
even a mage who enters one may be at the dreamer's mercy. A number of
spiritual entities also lair in dreams, and may be very territorial.

**** Control Surface Mind:
---------------------

A Mind Adept can actually take over another person's mind and occupy
his body for her own ends. His thoughts, should she will it, are not
his own, but hers. Once this invasion has begun, she may control her
victim directly, cure or cause insanity, change his memories or set up
posthypnotic suggestions. The mage can overlay her subject's aura with
another of a completely different colour and pattern. The victim may
slowly recover as the deep mind reasserts the true memories, but the
subject's Demeanour is usually irrevocably altered.

Astral Travel:
--------------

The Adept can also leave her dreams behind and make excursions into
the astral reaches.

***** Control Deep Mind:
------------------

A Master of Mind rules not only his own mind, but other minds as well,
both mortal and spirit. Through this power, he may invade not only the
surface mind, but the underlying deep mind as well, completely
rewriting the personality until the thoughts which compose the psyche
bear no resemblance to anything that existed before, utterly changing
the person's nature. The only integral part of the being which the
mage may not touch is the Avatar and its memories of past lives, for
to perform this requires also the Sphere of Avatar.

The mage may also divorce a psyche from the body, switch minds between
subjects and merge, copy or transfer the entire sum of a person's
memories and knowledge from one body to another. His powers allow him
to increase a subject's intelligence and wits to genius levels (5
dots) and may begin to increase his own beyond that.

Create Intelligence:
--------------------

The greatest power of a Master of Mind, however, is the ability to
create conscious thought. A master may create another thinking,
rational mind where none existed before, expanding its intelligence
and knowledge however she likes.

However, at this rank the mind created is only an /intelligence/, not
a /sentience/. It has a full measure of reason and logic (both
deductive and inductive), but lacks innate creativity, emotional
response (as part of this, it cannot possess a personality - only a
*simulation* of a personality, at best), and self-awareness. It cannot
grow beyond its initial constraints.

The Country of the Mind:
------------------------

to be written, based on Greg Bear's _Queen of Angels_...

****** Forge Psyche:
-------------

The Archmaster of Mind may finally create true sentience. He may
create a sentient mind, with creativity, emotions, a personality,
self-awareness, and the ability to grow and change like any other
sentient being.

Computers and other inanimate objects - as well as the empty shells
created by Masters of Life - may be given true sentience without
granting them a soul (that would require the Avatar sphere). When such
creatures are destroyed, however, their psyches tend to die with them
as well.

Untether:
---------

Complete astral existence is possible for the Archmaster of Mind. He
may still return to the body - his, another's, or any manufactured one
- - but need not. By using a conjunctional Spirit 4 effect, he may cloak
his astral form in ephemera, and take on a new existence as a spirit.

This astral travel may even allow a skilled mage to pass through the
Vulgate entirely and reach the Epiphamies.

Prime
- -----

Specialties: Channeling, Perceptions, Filling Patterns, Draining
Patterns, Ley-Lines

1 Aetheric Senses
Affect Own Quintessence
Use Tass
2 Weave Odyllic Force
Fuel Pattern
3 Affect Free Quintessence
Crystallise Tass
Minor Artificery (Weave Charm)
Linking
4 Affect Bound Quintessence
Enchant Item
Grand Artificery (Create Talisman)
Unweaving
5 Alter Flow
Infuse Relic
Make Perpetual
6 Multiple Streams

(Note: I use a modified terminology. Rather than 'Raw' and 'Free'
Quintessence, I define it as either 'Bound', or 'Free'. Bound
Quintessence is tied up in Patterns and the forms of things (or space,
or time, or whatever). Free Quintessence is that which isn't in
Patterns - it flows through living beings, along ley-lines, exists as
the background foam from which mages draw the energies for Pattern
magic, pools at Nodes and crystallises as Tass.)

* Aetheric Senses:

Новый проект

2009-08-08T05:16:00.003+08:00

Запустил новый блог - Новости MMORPG на русском. Буду выкладывать туда информацию по WoW, AoC, WHO и SWtOR. Возможно, потом еще и Aion с Mortal-ом добавлю, если проекты заинтересуют.

Ковенант для Vampire: the Requiem - Анархи (репост от 28.02.2005)

2009-07-09T04:27:00.001+08:00

В XIX веке, смертным пришла в голову замечательная идея, которой не замедлили воспользоваться вампиры. В то время как многочисленные террористические организации изготавливали бомбы для царя, некоторые неонаты осознали, что для Принцев/Князей эти бомбы также подходят. И, если взрывчатки достаточно, никакой Resilence не спасет. Они начали свою кампанию террора против власти старейшин. Искра попала на благодатную почву, в связи с давними традициями деспотизма местных Князей.

Новоиспеченные "революционеры" восприняли с Запада некоторые картианские идеалы, а также идеи анархизма. Анархия - труднодостижимая для людей, для вампиров возможна с гораздо меньшими усилиями, в связи с их невысокой численностью. Анархи проповедовали, что каждый вампир должен думать за себя сам, сам определять долю личной ответственности за соблюдение Традиций, и сам решать, какие из них соблюдать. Естественно, если действия его ставят под угрозу других Собратьев, любой из этих Собратьев имеет полно право применить физическое насилие или уничтожить данного вампира.

Ковенант является основным идеалогическим противовесом Инвиктусу, хотя и не слишком многочисленен. Обычно организован в виде ячеек, во главе каждой из которых стоит духовный лидер(Вожак). Лидер ищет недовольных властью неонатов, и после долгих проверок, предлагает присоединиться к ячейке. Ячейки, особенно в городах, находящихся под властью Инвиктуса, глубоко законспирированы. Ячейки занимаются шантажом и убийствами ведущих представителей других ковенантов, порчей их собственности и подрывом их влияния с целью ослабления позиций данного ковенанта в городе.

В конце 20-го века, роль идеалогии заметно уменьшилась. Ковенант разделился на фракции Истинных (которые сохранили старую идеалогию) и Новых. Ячейки Новых, как правило, представляют собой котерии жестоких беспринципных неонатов (обычно, выходцев из криминальных кругов), не уважающих Старейшин и Традиции. Целью этих ячеек являются захваты доменов, освобождение от любого контроля со стороны ревнителей традиций, анархия, понимаемая как полная безнаказанность действий. Их методы жестоки и включают в себя уничтожение собственности и гулей вампира-противника, применение тяжелого вооружения, минирование автомашин и т.д. Частично, эти Новые Анархи занимают нишу Велиалова Выводка (Belial's Brood), но без сатанизма. Котерии Новых, в отличие от Истинных, зачастую находятся в противоборстве и друг с другом.

Exalted: Глава первая, сцена первая / окончание

2009-07-09T04:21:00.003+08:00

Слова Кеноша вывели Саймона из того состояния, когда картинки былого пляшут перед глазами как сумасшедшие скоморохи. Дважды грань между жизнью и смертью подступа-ла вплотную, дважды он уже видел, как тонка нить его жизни, но неведомая сила провела его дорогами мертвых, чтобы открыть его истинную сущность.

- Да, под хорошую еду... И неплохую выпивку. Старое Солнце, на самом деле ты рано меня похоронил. Судьба опять меня уберегла от смерти, - улыбнулся Саймон,- меня серьезно ранили, но не больше. А потом, когда опасность ушла, я предпочел ненадолго потерятся и зализать раны.

Саймон Лау почти не покривил душой, но говорить о произошедшем в таверне было, по меньшей мере, неблагоразумно.

- А потом снова выполз из своей норы и как всегда пошел искать себе приключений на... ну ты знаешь, на что я обычно ищу приключения, - на лице Саймона отразилась улыбка, хотя Старое Солнце и так знал, ЧТО у Саймона за приключения. - Потом встретил капитана Кеноша и других ребят и осел на месте, хотя назвать нашу работу оседлой можно только с большой натяжкой... Слушай, а ты где был все это время и что это за хмурый парень с тобой, у которого длиннее, чем у меня - Саймон захохотал от собственной шутки, - клинок!!!

- Ох, где только я не был, - хмыкнул Старое Солнце.

- После твоего исчезновения мне что-то остобрыдла эта бесконечная война, и я решил по-смотреть, как идут дела в окружающем мире. За последние восемь месяцев я успел сделать небольшую карьеру, как заклинатель духов, обрести пару новых имен среди местных, поцапаться по мелочи с бандой фаэри и обрести новый дом. Ну, а потом ко мне пришел Райен, чтобы попросить помощи в его делах. Сейчас мы направляемся в Черную Скалу, так как из моих источников выяснилось, что там мы можем найти ответы на кое-какие вопросы, не дающие покоя Райену и, как следствие, мне.

- А чем вы, собственно, занимаетесь? - спросил Старое Солнце после того, как завершил свое повествование и промочил горло, - я-то к чему клоню: ваша помощь была бы очень кстати в Черной Скале. Особенно твоя, - Старое Солнце подпихнул товарища в бок, - если ты только не подрастерял умение махать разным заточенным железом.

- Капитан? - Саймон вопросительно поглядел на начальника.

- Размениваем кровь на серебро. Мы наёмники, – ответил Кенош. - А что такого забавного намечается в Чёрной Скале?

Старое Солнце смерил Кеноша взглядом:

- Друзья Саймона - мои друзья... Хорошо, капитан Кенош. Я расскажу тебе и твоей команде о том, что намечается в Черной Скале. На городок позарился один древний призрак, и со дня на день там распахнут пасть Врата Смерти. Мы с Райеном приняли это близко к сердцу и хотим предотвратить появление новой Земли Теней. А теперь я спрошу еще раз: хотите ли вы нам помочь? Если для вас это неподъемно или слишком опасно - я настаивать не буду. Но нам потребуется каждый человек, которому не все равно.

Кенош обезоруживающе улыбнулся в ответ, но глаза его оставались холодными.

-Ещё раз - мы размениваем кровь, или что там у призраков заместо неё, на серебро. Хотя тут, похоже, впору требовать не серебро, а нефрит. Про древних призраков и Врата Смерти давай-ка поподробнее, а то я котов в мешке не покупаю. Заодно поясни, кто вы сами-то таковы, чтобы надеяться дать мёртвым по ушам, потому как безнадёжности в твоём голо-се вроде не слышится.

Оторвавшись от еды, Радек заметил:

- Кенош, звучит эта проблема достаточно угрожающе, чтобы городские власти неплохо заплатили нам... Тем более что я даже бесплатно хочу помочь предотвратить появление Тени. Старое Солнце, расскажи нам больше.

- Что ж, изволь... ...- Старое Солнце успел нагрести себе полную тарелку разнообразной еды и теперь чередовал разговор с насыщением.

- Я - заклинатель духов. На караван, с которым шел Райен, напали призраки. С караваном шла Драконокровная волшебница, однако она, по всей видимости, переоценила себя и была убита в числе прочих. Райену удалось спастись каким-то чудом. Скорее всего, есть и другие выжившие, но про них мне ничего не известно. Поскольку в том сражении был убит и отец Райена, он принял все произошедшее близко к сердцу и пришел ко мне попросить помощи в получении ответа на простой вопрос: какого хрена? С помощью своего ис-кусства я вызвал призрака одного из павших воинов, охранявших караван. Выяснилось, что этот воин после смерти стал рабом какого-то древнего призрака, которому не сидится у себя в мире мертвых, и он решил тряхнуть стариной и снова поправить в мире живых. Для этого этот недоделанный правитель решил ни много, ни мало, как сотворить свою небольшую Землю Тени, для каковой цели выбрал Черную Скалу. Поскольку я живу в этих местах уже с полгода, и за это время до меня не доходило никаких слухов о существовании в этих местах Земли Тени, я делаю вывод, что упомянутая Земля должна быть сформирована. Позволю себе напомнить уважаемым слушателям, что Земля Тени образуется либо в результате массовой резни, как-то: массовых казней, битвы и тому подобных явлений, либо в результате долговременных действий, несущих на себе отпечаток насилия и смерти, как-то: ритуальных убийств или обрядов, посвященных мертвым. Поскольку в этих местах НЕ происходило никаких достойных упоминания масштабных сражений, я делаю вывод, что в данном случае мы имеем второй вариант, а именно: долговременный проект по установлению влияния в мире живых. Благодарю за внимание, господа, я закончил.

Старое Солнце умолк, затем посмотрел на птичью кость, которой он жестикулировал в процессе своей речи, и смущенно хмыкнул:

- Ну вот, опять меня понесло. Извините, господа, привычка.

- Чудно, чудно. - за время рассказа, Кенош успел наесться и теперь неторопливо набивал длинную трубку. - Значится, неизвестно кто, неизвестно где, неизвестно когда, проводит обряды, которые должны открыть дорогу призракам, а число этим призракам, мать их за ногу, тоже неизвестно? - капитан хмыкнул, поднял взгляд на Старое Солнце и неторопливо продолжил, время от времени делая небольшие паузы для затяжек. - Растолкуй мне три вещи. Первая. Пока что, ты для меня, по большому-то счёту, никто и звать никак. Почему я должен верить тебе на слово? Саймон, - он на секунду скосился в сторону последнего, - если желаешь, можешь объяснить это за своего нашедшегося друга. Вторая. Почему власти Чёрной Скалы должны поверить тебе на слово? Если ж у тебя есть чем свои слова до-казать, то выкладывай это, не стесняйся. Третья. Переть на ораву призраков, совладавших с Драконокровной волшебницей - это тебе не шутка. Можешь обещать, что мы там не положим весь отряд? Навряд ли в Чёрной Скале наскребут достаточно денег, чтобы такое оплатить. В общем, ежели у тебя есть задумки, как остановить появление Земли Тени, то поделись ими, пока я не решил, что вам с Райеном просто жить надоело. Кенош умолк на пару секунд, затем добавил: -Ах да, чуть не забыл за долгими речами. Ты у нас, положим, заклинатель духов, но вот кто твой приятель? Только не надо заливать, что простой воин - может я и молод, но, поверь, достаточно соображаю в оружии, чтоб прикинуть, по силам смертному замахнуться такой дурой, как у него, или нет.

Старое Солнце смерил взглядом Кеноша:

- Ну хорошо, капитан Кенош. Я разжую тебе этот кусок, но глотать ты его будешь сам. Первое: назови мне хотя бы одну причину, по которой я должен врать первым попавшимся людям, тем более, что среди них есть друг моего детства. Второе: лично я, скорее всего, ничего не буду доказывать властям черной Скалы. Им это будет доказывать их же колдун, с которым я намерен переговорить в первую очередь. Если же эти доказаткельства нужны тебе, то я предлагаю дождаться ночи... Если ты только не боишься ОДНОГО призрака, - из-под шляпы донесся саркастический смешок, - Третье: мне казалось, что я все объяснил доходчиво. Земли Теней сейчас пока не существует. Следовательно, мне придется иметь дело не с призраками, а с людьми. А с этой угрозой, я думаю, твои наемники справиться могут. И, наконец, что касается Райена. Как я уже сказал, я - заклинатель духов, а не торговец сплетнями. Происхождение Райена мне глубоко посарайно, тем более, что я ему до-веряю. Если же ты настаиваешь на ответе, то позволь мне задать тебе встречный вопрос: зачем ты таскаешь с собой лук, который по моим скромным прикидкам ОБЫЧНЫЙ чело-век натянуть не в состоянии точно так же, как орудовать райеновским угробием?.. Если ты - ОБЫЧНЫЙ человек? Или же, если тебя задевает вопрос о твоей персоне, задай себе вопрос: зачем я таскаю за спиной два весла, - Старое Солнце огладил одну из рукоятей, тор-чащих у него из-за спины, - которые мне скорее мешают, чем помогают?

- Причины, по которой ты можешь нам врать, я могу называть до следующего утра. Самая простая и скучная: ты заранее проведал о нашем приближении и хочешь заманить нас для участия в деле, на которое мы не пойдём, если выложить всё как есть. Или, скажем, ты за-таил какую-то обиду на Саймона, перед тем, как вы расстались - даром, что он пропал не самым мирным образом и, вроде как, должен был сгинуть в бою, да только не сгинул, что ты теперь мечтаешь исправить. Это я так, для примера. Раз у тебя есть более наглядные доказательства, я, пожалуй, придержу свои суждения, пока не увижу всё своими глазами. Раз мы всё равно идём в Чёрную Скалу, то тебе даже не придётся терять время ради этого. Что ж до появления Земли Теней - что-то мне подсказывает, что если б ты сам знал, кто и как будет её создавать, то не преминул бы похвастаться этим. Если б в нашей помощи тогда вообще была бы нужда.

Кенош прервался, чтобы глубоко затянуться.

- Касаемо происхождения Райена - твоё доверие, мил человек, мне его никак не рекомендует. Я и с тобой-то ещё разговариваю всё больше потому, что ты старый друг Саймона. А что до моего лука и того, кто, кому и какие вопросы должен задавать. Ты знаешь, мне так думается, что у тебя больше резону быть откровенным. Это ведь ты спрашивал, хотим ли мы вам помочь, а не наоборот. Заметь, "помочь", а не "наняться на защиту Чёрной Скалы". А возможность выдоить дополнительную плату из тамошних хозяев пока - пока, мне кажется смутной. Что до того, всё равно мне, или нет... Не хотелось бы увидеть Землю Те-ней в Чёрной Скале, или как местных пускают под нож ради её создания. Но, прямо говоря, если город ею и накроется, сон я от этого навряд ли потеряю. Так что ежели ты вправду хочешь, чтобы мы вам помогли, то хватит уже темнить.

-Та-а-ак, вон какое понеслось, - Саймон допил свое пиво и посмотрел куда-то в пустоту. Вместе со спокойным лицом и слегка сдвинутыми бровями знак это был крайне неприятный.

- Тебе, капитан, хочу сказать, что несмотря на то, что я тебя крайне уважаю как человека и как товарища, понесло тебя чер-те куда. Лично я Старому Солнцу верю, откуда бы он ни взял эту информацию. Я ценю твое желание уберечь отряд, но каждый из нас уже не ребенок и за себя постоять сможет, - Саймон сделал глубокий глоток - А Земля тени - не такое уж приятное место, чтобы допускать её создание, и ты как никто должен это понимать. Скорее всего, на этом мы сможем неплохо заработать, но в этой ситуации для меня не это главное.

Саймон перевел дыхание и замолчал.

- А по-поводу оружия могу сказать, что все здесь хороши. Оглядись. А с учетом материала, из которого ЭТО сделано... подумай немного и ответ сам придет к тебе.

Саймон слегка улыбнулся, представляя совместное путешествие Солнечных и Драконорожденного.

- А ты, Старое Солнце, всегда был оптимистом. Информации на письмо не хватит, а ты уже в бой кинулся. Я полагаю, что перед тем, как действовать, надо еще немного разню-хать. Конечно, лучше всего это делать на месте.

На этот раз Саймон оперся на локти и уставился на капитана, ожидая ответа.

- Насчёт разнюхать - это, конечно, неплохо бы. Кому-то из нас стоит за это взяться, пока остальные будут гонять разбойников. А насчёт того, что наговорил твой друг...

Кенош указал черенком трубки на Старое Солнце:

- Он, я так соображаю, собрался призрака поднимать? Вот послушаем, что мертвяк ска-жет, а там уж будем думать. Сворачивать, однако, я никуда не намерен. Помогать Чёрной Скале за так - тоже. Наёмникам это не идёт. Так что, - тут капитан обернулся к Радеку, - прикинь заранее, как будешь расписывать властям, всё то, что с ними мечтают проделать гости оттуда.

С этими словами, Кенош направил указательный палец свободной руки вниз.

- А касаемо этого, как его, Райена - я, знаешь, тоже не слепой и могу допереть, из чего сделано его оружие, равно как и кто обычно таскает подобное. Поэтому и спрашиваю. - Кенош улыбнулся и снова ткнул трубкой в направлении Старого Солнца. - Меня, вообще волнует недостаток "мелких" деталей , навроде этой, в его истории. Впрочем, заполнять его предлагаю по пути. Капитан принялся выколачивать погасшую трубку.

- Мы сюда, всё ж, не рассиживаться пришли, дорога зовёт. Радек, тебе заниматься закупкой припасов.

Exalted: Глава первая, сцена первая / продолжение.

2009-07-09T04:15:00.003+08:00

По лицу Саймона Лау, в более узких кругах известного, как "Карающий луч", проскользнула легкая улыбка:

- И ты здесь, вот уж действительно судьба... Давненько не виделись, Старое Солнце! Какими судьбами в этих краях?

- Саймон! - Старое Солнце в несколько шагов преодолел расстояние между ними и Саймоном и обхватил его руками за плечи, - Это ТЫ мне сейчас будешь рассказывать, где ты валандался больше года! Тебя ведь считали мертвым! Вашу группу разбили до последнего человека... Хотя какая разница! ХОЗЯИН! - от рева Отшельника содрогнулись стекла, - тащи сюда все, что есть! Сегодня мой друг воскрес из мертвых, и мы намерены отпраздновать это! Двигай к нам за стол, - обратился он к Саймону, - и тех, кто с тобой, тоже тащи. Сегодня - наш праздник!

-Капитан,- обратился к спутнику еле освободившийся из объятий старого знакомого Саймон,- позволь представить тебе этого достойного человека. Его имя- Старое Солнце, тот еще прохвост, надо сказать,- Саймон хлопнул по плечу приятеля. - Но человек неплохой. А это капитан Кенош. Пойдемте за стол, негоже разговаривать в дверях...

- Будем знакомы. - Кенош кивнул зелёноволосому и последовал приглашению пройти за стол.

- Старое Солнце? Хм, красивое имя. - заметил он, отодвигая табуретку и садясь.

- Саймон, боюсь что я ничего не слыхал про твоего старого друга, ни от тебя, ни вообще, но это ж можно исправить в два счёта, правда?

И Кенош широко улыбнулся.

Райен мрачно посмотрел на подходящих. То, что Старое Солнце нашел кого-то из, судя по всему, близких знакомых - это было еще ничего и даже отчасти радовало. Но вместе с одним близким знакомым к столу вполне могло направится еще несколько, а это привыкшему к уединению Райену не нравилось, как не нравилось и предполагаемое застолье. Поэтому, бросив на подходящих еще один взгляд, юноша принялся за еду, только-только поставленную перед ним прислугой, рассчитывая съесть ее побыстрее и смыться куда-нибудь.

Опасения Райена оправдались: к столу подошел третий член отряда.

- Приветствую! Друзья моего друга - мои друзья! - Радек сел на свободный стул - Я уверен, что эта встреча - добрый знак, и она принесет пользу всем нам. Кстати, мое имя - Радек.

Райен промолчал, сделав вид, что эта жизнерадостная тирада его совсем не касается, и продолжал есть.

- Райен! - Старое Солнце обернулся к столу, - позволь представить тебе Саймона Лау - моего друга детства и отрочества, воскресшего из мертвых. Если тебе когда-нибудь потребуется прикрытие для твоей спины в бою, или человек, способный провести тебя через восточную тайгу без единой царапины и с обеспечением четырехразового питания каждый день - лучшего спутника невозможно найти отсюда и до Халтана. Саймон, это Райен, мой соратник и в какой-то степени ученик. Изумительно обращается с двуручником и на редкость трезво мыслит.

- Ага, привет. - Райен проглотил еще одну ложку похлебки и кивнул Саймону, невозмутимо и в некоторой степени безразлично. Энтузиазм Старого Солнца явно не затрагивал его. В его речи слышался характерный имперский акцент да и профилем он весьма на тамошних аристократов походил - для тех, кто конечно, этих аристократов видел хоть раз. Имперского же покроя была его одежда, - добротная, хотя и простая. От внимательного взгляда не могла укрыться и нефритовая кираса.

Протягивать руку Райен не стал, - в Империи подобный знак приветствия считался донельзя пренебрежительным, и поэтому юноша просто произнес

- Рад за тебя и за него. Редко кому так везет. - И вернулся к еде, сочтя необходимые расшаркивания друг другу законченным.

Симпатичные пухленькие официантки засуетились между кухней и столом, подгоняемые громогласными рыками хозяина. Прошло несколько минут, и столик оказался заставлен снедью. Которая, кстати, несмотря на худобу хозяина, оказалась вполне сытной и удобоваримой.

Быстро прикончив свой заказанный ранее обед, Райен привычным движением вскинул меч за плечо.

- Я к святилищу - бросил он Старому Солнцу и двинулся к выходу - Хорошего праздника всем.

-О, неплохо, - после знакомства с местной едой, улыбка Кеноша стала ещё шире. Нагребя себе полную тарелку, он на секунду отвёл взгляд от Старого Солнца и его подозрительного спутника, чтобы обратиться к Саймону:

- Ну же, не молчи как рыба, а то что это за встреча старых друзей, без воспоминаний о былом? Под хорошую еду завсегда приятно послушать хорошую историю.

Exalted: Lexicon

2009-07-09T04:00:00.003+08:00

Словарик терминов мира Exalted

Anathema – Анафема

Anima - анима

Blessed Isle, the – Благословенный остров

Creation - Творение

Cult of Illuminated, the – Культ Просвещенных

Deathlords – Повелители Смерти

Demesne - Источник

Dragon-Blooded - Драконокровные

Essence - Эссенция

Exalted - Избранный

- Abyssal – Избранный Бездной

- Lunar – Лунный, Лунар

- Sidereal - Звездный

- Solar – Солнечный, Солар

- Terrestrial - Земной

Fair Folk – Благой Народ, Дети Хаоса

First Age – Первая Эпоха

Great Contagion, the – Великий Мор

Heartstone - Сердцекамень

Immaculate Order, the - Орден Безупречности

Manse - Обитель

Mote - искра

Old Realm – Старая Империя

Realm, the - Империя

Scarlet Empress, the – Алая Императрица

Scavenger Lands, the – Бросовые Земли

Second Breath – Второе Дыхание, Возвышение

Sorcery - Колдовство

Threshold - Пограничье

Unconquered Sun – Непобедимое Солнце

Underworld – Загробный Мир

Wyld - Хаос

Wyld Hunt – Дикая Охота

Фокусы в Mage: the Ascension (репост от 12.02.2005)

2009-06-17T00:29:00.005+08:00

Мне долгое время не давал покоя следующий недостаток системы MtA - она никак не поощряет строительство Парадигмы на сложных фокусах. С системной точки зрения, например, маг, которому нужно пройти трехдневное очищение для применения сферы Spirit, ничем не отличается от того, кому достаточно лишь пробормотать несколько слов на енохианском или сделать пару жестов. В результате, персонажи со сложными фокусами оказываются в проигрыше, так как их магические способности гораздо реже применимы, нежели у их собратьев с более общими фокусами - и это ограничение ничем не компенсируется. чтобы ликвидировать этот недостаток, предлагается настоящая система.

Я предлагаю оценивать фокус по каждой сфере, взятой магом, в Свободных Очках (freebie points). Так, маг, выбравший сложные фокусы, получает больше freebie, чем стандартные 15, маг же, выбравший предельно общие - может получить меньше стандартного количества freebie. Это также поможет решить проблему с категорической нехваткой очков на Дополнения (Backgrounds) при использовании Guide to Traditions.

Итак, после того, как игрок выбрал фокусы для Сфер своего персонажа, Расказчик начисляет Свободные Очки за фокус каждой из Сфер по следующей таблице:

Таблица Модификатор: Фокус

+1: рефлексивное действие, телепатический импульс, наличие определенного резонанса, простое эмоциональное состояние (гнев, любопытство)
0: наличие некоего предмета (материальный фокус), действие, требующее броска дайсов, которое можно осуществить в тот же турн, что и эффект магии (например, успешная атака), простое внешнее состояние (например, взгляд в глаза)
-1: материальный фокус, использование которого несет в себе значительные негативные последствия (например, наркотики) или действие, требующее броска, которое должно быть осуществленно в предыдущий турн, до эффекта магии, либо в тот же, но с пенальти за множественные действия
-2: материальный фокус, мобильность которого сильно ограничена(например, каменный алтарь) или действие, требующее для своего осуществления нескольких турнов или сложного состояния (например, сон мага)

В случае, когда один и тот же фокус можно применить по-разному (например, применение До может быть как ударом, так и медитацией), засчитывается только самое простое для мага применение (удар при помощи До дает изменение цены 0, медитация - изменение цены -2, следовательно, фокус До изменяет цену сферы на 0)

Рассмотрим примеры фокусов по списку Sample Foci из коребука:

Art: создание предмета искусства - длительный процесс, -2
Blood: 0
Books: 0
Bones: 0
Cauldrons: большой, сложный в транспортировке котел, -2
Chalices: 0
Circles: ритуальный магический круг, -2
Computers: -1
Crystals: 0; -1, если обязательна концентрация
Dancing: -2
Devices: 0
Do: 0
Drugs: -1
Elements: 0
Ether Goggles: 0
Feather: 0
Fire: 0
Formula: -1, если требуется вывести формулу
Herbs: 0
Holy Symbol: 0
Incense: 0; -1, если обязательна концентрация
Language: +1
Music: 0, если достаточно воспроизведения музыки; -1, если маг обязан каждый раз создавать музыку заново
Network: 0
Ordeal: -1
Pure Water: 0
Purification: -2
Ritual Sacrifice: 0 или -1, в зависимости от сложности процесса жертвоприношения; -2, если требуются живые жертвы
Runes: 0
Scientific Meters and Probes: 0
Sex: -2
Song: 0, если достаточно воспроизведения, -1, если маг обязан каждый раз петь заново
Tarot cards and Ouija boards: 0
Toys: 0
Vehicles: -2
Wands: 0
Weapon: 0

Forged by Dragon's Fire (repost от 10.02.2005)

2009-06-17T00:26:00.003+08:00

Прочитал Forged by Dragon Fire

Мда... Такое впечатление, что решили издать какой-то фанатский нетбук...

Авторы не стесняются сплошь и рядом нарушать правила MtA: Revised, придерживаются неканонического взгляда на Парадокс, пропагандируют глупейшие стереотипы, от которых отказались в ревайзеде...

Вердикт: банить беспощадно! Некоторые вещи разрешать, но пересчитать цену Wonder-а по правилам из Storytellers Companion.

Добавление: единственное применение, которое я могу найти этой книге - генерить стильного охотника на вервольфов, чтобы Сихир-овским волкам противопоставлять. А что? Маг с фетишами, грандклейвом (с привязанным к нему бэйном), в перчатках из шкуры вервольфа (дающими регенерацию и поднимающими силу). Впрочем, непобедимого борца с верволками можно и по Guide to Traditions сгенерить, если есть такое странное желание...

Моя игра по Exalted на rpg.gameforums.ru. Глава первая, сцена первая.

2009-06-17T00:08:00.004+08:00

Осеннее солнце поднималось к зениту, ярко озаряя поля, урожай с которых был уже почти полностью убран и соломенные крыши домов. Деревенька была невелика, но через нее проходила дорога на Черную Скалу – это позволяло крестьянам не бедствовать, снабжая путешественников съестным и недорогим местным пивом. Центром деревенской жизни был сложенный из крепких бревен, двухэтажный, с черепичной крышей, постоялый двор. По всему было видно, что его владелец мог по праву считаться одним из зажиточнейших людей деревни. Однако, несмотря на то, что постоялый двор был слишком велик для такой небольшой деревушки, весь отряд разместиться там все же не мог. Поэтому, отряд встал лагерем на опушке ближайшей рощи, а капитан Кенош, в сопровождении офицеров своего отряда, отправился на постоялый двор. Трактир, располагавшийся на нижнем этаже постоялого двора, выглядел прекрасным местом для того, чтобы пополнить припасы, а также узнать последние местные новости.

С головой, отягощенной этими мыслями, Кенош распахнул дверь и, уверенным шагом, вошел внутрь. В это время, трактир был практически пуст. Немногие посетители из местных, постарались выглядеть максимально незаметными – огромный лук Кеноша и длина меча Саймона внушали крестьянам опасливое уважение.

Взгляд Кеноша сразу же обнаружил тех, кто, в отличие от крестьян, мог представлять опасность. За столиком в углу трактира сидели двое – плечистый юноша в дорожном плаще и некто, с густой гривой темно-зеленых волос, скрывающих лицо, полностью закутанный в драный балахон. Голову второго украшала широкополая коническая шляпа. К столу, около правой руки юноши, были прислонен угрожающего размера двуручный меч, лезвие его было черным с зеленым отливом. Непонятно было, как человек, даже столь сильный, каким выглядел юноша, способен управляться с этакой махиной. От этих двоих пахло опасностью.

Пока Кенош разглядывал странную парочку, перед ним возник хозяин заведения, чья долговязая худая, словно жердь, фигура, столь нетипичная для трактирщика, выглядела не очень лестной рекомендацией местной кухне.

- Чем могу услужить господам? – угодливо вопросил трактирщик.

- Тащи пожрать, да только лучшего, из того,что у тебя есть. И выпить: мне - чаю, остальные сами закажут чего им надо. Кенош бросил трактирщику небольшую связку монет, которая, по его соображениям, должна была стоить раза в полтора дороже, чем обильный обед для четверых в подобном трактире, проследовал к одному из пустых столов, стоящему на почтительном удалении от странной парочки и сел так, чтобы держать их на виду. Неожиданные встречи с людьми, прячущими лицо под волосами такого цвета, какого у обычных людей не бывает и таскающими при себе мечи такого веса, какой обычному человеку не поднять, ему не очень нравились, или даже очень не нравились, но нарываться на неприятности он, пока что, не собирался. Ну а если неприятности нарвутся на него, то лучше будет встретить их на сытый желудок...

Сидящий в углу плечистый юноша скользнул по вошедшим ровным взглядом и вернул внимание своему собеседнику. Стоящая перед ним чашка с чаем казалась несколько неподходящей остальному образу, но реакция окружающих его не волновала совсем.

- Что мы будем делать, придя в город? Какие-нибудь идеи? - произнес он негромко, сделав глоток.

- Первым делом завалимся к тамошнему колдуну, я думаю, - донеслось из-под шляпы его спутника, - А потом к начальству. Не думаю, чтобы там сидели настолько уж недалекие люди.

- И что мы им скажем? "Извините, вот мы знаем про некоего Повелителя Смерти, который зарится на ваш город, точнее позарится, когда он станет Землей Тени, но когда и как это произойдет, мы понятия не имеем"? - хмыкнул юноша, сам, не веря в такой исход.

- Я же говорю: сперва мы заявимся к городскому магу, - говорящий ухватил кружку, стоящую перед ним, и сделал приличный глоток, - и поговорим с ним, как коллеги. А уж потом, по выяснении обстоятельств, пойдем к начальству. Возможно, даже вместе с этим магом. Что мы там будем говорить - зависит от того, что мы узнаем. Возможно, в городе уже пропадали люди, и мы просто предложим свою помощь. А возможно придется ораторствовать и взывать к чувству гражданской ответственности - из-под шляпы, закрывавшей лицо человека, раздался смешок, - вот к чему я никогда не испытывал ни малейшей склонности, так это к убалтыванию официальных лиц. Так что я рассчитываю на тебя

- Я пас - ухмылка Райена стала шире, он покачал головой. - Говорение - не по моей части.

Особенно с всякими там... в общем, не люблю я это. - Однако сможешь давить авторитетом. Он у тебя в самый раз для такого дела, подходящий, - Отшельник кивнул на двуручник, - а он поможет.

"Интересная парочка,- проследив взгляд капитана подумал Саймон. - Уж не их ли мы ищем..."? Хотя... Они едут в город, чтобы обсудить проблему прихода Земли Тени. Может статься, что нам окажется по пути. Только вот этот меч. В любом случае, сперва стоит присмотреться.

Саймон принял позу, позволяющую слышать разговор незнакомцев и видеть Кеноша одновременно, но тут в его мозгу появилось странное ощущение дежавю. Один из чужаков показался ему странно знакомым...

Зеленоволосый тем временем в очередной раз поднес ко рту кружку, и в этот момент его взгляд упал на вошедших. Рука с кружкой дрогнула.

- С-саймон?.. - Отшельник медленно поднялся с места, поставив кружку на стол, - Саймон Лау?

Моя игра по Exalted на rpg.gameforums.ru. Пролог.

2009-06-16T23:58:00.003+08:00

Своды нависали над пространством комнаты, тускло освещенном желтоватыми шариками чародейских огней. Сюда не проникал свет солнца, и ни одно окно не прорезало стены комнаты, густо расписанные чародейскими символами и грубыми рисунками, изображавшими смерть и мучения.

Девушка испуганно закричала. Лицо колдуна, скрытое капюшоном багряного балахона исказилось в раздраженной гримасе. Почему от них всегда так много шума? Он кивнул своим подручным, и их грубые, поросшие рыжей шерстью лапы растянули обнаженную жертву над алтарем. Колдун помедлил, выбирая нож из своего набора. Возможно этот, издающий слабые стоны клинок из темного металла, блики лезвия которого отражали искаженные смертным ужасом нечеловеческие лица, подойдет наилучшим образом? Колдун резко выдохнул и провел черным клинком по горлу своей пленницы. Кровь стекала, собираясь в наклонный желоб, рассекавший алтарь. Желоб спускался все ниже и заканчивался у ног статуи, высеченной из сочащегося влагой черного камня.

- Повелитель! – провозгласил колдун, - снизойди до раба твоего! Коснись этого мира своим присутствием! О, Повелитель, я готов служить тебе и земля эта готова принять тебя, как господина. Снизойди в своей славе!

Глаза колдуна расширились в ужасе, когда он увидел дрожащее марево, возникшее над статуей. Оно проползало по каменным мускулам могучего гиганта, превосходящего ростом любого из смертных, пробегало над торчащими не то рогами, не то бивнями, меняя очертания, придавая им поистине чуждый, ужасающий вид. Но марево проходило над очертаниями статуи, и те тут же приходили в первоначальный вид, как только дрожание воздухи переставало касаться их. Колдун не смог сдержать проклятий, когда марево угасло. Еще одна бездарно потраченная жертва! А он был так близок к успеху. Он сделал знак своим слугам убрать бездыханное тело с алтаря. Слуги потащили тело в отведенные им помещения. Их ничуть не заботила неудача их господина, их примитивные разумы способны были лишь радоваться пище. Сгорбившись над толстой книгой в металлическом переплете и призвав один из магических огней поближе, колдун пытался понять, что пошло не так в тщательно разработанном ритуале.

Наконец, он оторвался от книги и резко выпрямился. Светящийся шарик испуганно отлетел в сторону. Улыбка змеилась по тонким губам колдуна.

- Нужно больше жертв, - прошипел он, - много-много жертв.

К счастью, поблизости их в избытке и столь совершенный, как у него разум способен без труда найти способ заполучить их.