Creating a mage:
Normally, you'd choose a tradition, but not this time. You're all in the Order of Hermes. Different traditions are different approaches to magic. For example, the Cult of Ecstasy tends to reach its magic through drugs, sex, or other ecstatic experiences. More germane to your circumstances is the Order of Hermes. Hermetics approach magic as a thing to be studied and understood, and mastered through sheer willpower. The commonly used terminology of the spheres is theirs, as is the name for the raw stuff of creation, quintessence. Fortunately for the purpose of providing more opportunity to customize your mage, the Order of Hermes is composed of several Houses, each with its own emphasis and slightly different approach. Some houses of note:
House Flambeau - They blow things up, and are the most aggressive combatants in the Ascension War on the traditionalist side.
House Solificati - Alchemists, they seek mystical perfection through both the metaphorical attempt to turn base metal into gold, and through the purification of their own bodies.
House Quaestor - The lawyers and judges of Hermetic law.
House Thig - Mystical technologists, their methodology is very similar to the Order of Reason's, but their rationale is very different.
Additionally, if you know anything about the setting, you should be aware that I'm changing it. The standard Traditions are each their own House, absorbed into the Order of Hermes at various points in history. Basically, either look it up on a fan site, or just tell me what your mage believes about magic, and I'll tell you what you are. Or, actually, what you are aiming to be, since you're all apprentices and not actually members of any house yet. Your tutor is of House Criamon, whose goals are never clear but value enigmas for their role in bringing mystical revelation.
To really make much use of that information, you're going to need to know this. I do apologize, but an awful lot of people find Mage to be a very hard game to wrap their heads around, and I'll admit it can be a bit difficult to explain. Ignore the history on that page, as I'm changing it, and anything it says about the avatar, as I'm throwing that right out.
Okay. To make a character. You need to pick a name, identity, physical description, all the standard character things. I'll want those. They go at the top here. Next you have to prioritize your attributes and your abilities. Pick a primary, secondary, and tertiary, category of each. You get, in addition to the one free dot in each attribute, seven dots to add to your primary category, five to add to your secondary, and three to your tertiary. In abilities you don't get a free dot, but the dots to distribute are 13/9/5. None of those can start higher than three.
Next come the backgrounds. I'm limiting your choices here. Since you're all formal aprentices, you've all got access to at least three points of Library, and possibly as many as five, if you don't take much else. Since you normally have seven points to distribute in backgrounds, you can spread the other four points across a combination of Resources, your personal wealth, Contacts, your sources of information, and Allies, people you know who want to help you out. None of those can go higher than a two. For Contacts and Allies, one point gets you a source of information or an ally of somewhat limited value. For two points you can either get one of slightly more value, or two of limited value. For contacts, tell me what sort of information you can get and how. For allies, tell me something about this person, such as why they help you, how you know them, what they're good for, and who they are.
Next come spheres. You get one point in forces, and five other dots to spread as you like. However, here's the complication. No sphere value can be higher than your arete score, and arete starts by default at one. You can spend freebie points to raise arete up to three, but we haven't gotten there yet. Sort of hold this in mind, and move back and forth once I've explained everything.
Freebie points are last. You get fifteen of them. It'll cost you 5 points for 1 dot of an attribute, 2 for an ability, 7 for an extra dot of a sphere, 1 for a background, 4 for a dot of arete, 1 for an extra dot of willpower (which automatically starts at 5), and 1 point to get 4 points of quintessence. And you can also take flaws and merits to tweak your character a little. There's a big list of them. Find them online, or ask me to email the list if you want them.
Now, what the hell do some of those terms mean? Arete is the degree to which you've come close to a perfect understanding of magic. It maxes out at 10, and you can't start any higher than 3. It's a cap on how powerful your magic can be, and how likely your magic is to work. In game terms, the way other characters would talk about it, it's how well your soul understands the world, and so how powerfully and directly your soul can exert its will upon the world. The spheres divide up what magic can do. Correspondence deals with things over a distance, like scrying or teleportation. Entropy deals with both chance and decay. Prime deals with magic itself. If you want to draw quintessence out of the world, you'll need it, or if you want to do much analysis of magic itself. The rest should be self-explanatory. One dot gets you a basic understanding of the sphere, and an awareness of the things it touches. For example, with time one, you will never need a watch, and with entropy one you can see the likelihood of hitting your bet in a game of craps, as well as be deeply aware of the death of that potted plant over there. Life one would also cover that second one. There is some overlap, so many things can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Two dots lets you make minor changes, or have a deeper awareness. Three dots lets you make a moderate change. Four dots gets you a major change, or a permanent lesser change. Five dots lets you alter reality. Beyond that things get tricky. You probably won't ever get there, but after five dots, life on Earth gets tricky for reasons to be explained soon. First, one more term, quintessence. This is the raw stuff of magic. Quintessence is measurable power, that you can use for your own purposes. It comes in two forms, quintessence, sort of an abstract power, or tass, quintessence tied up in some physical thing, such as vampiric blood, which must be destroyed to free the quintessence. Having some of either variety makes magic easier or gives it more power.
Magic comes in two varieties: coincidental and vulgar. When you see vulgar magic, you know it, and when you see coincidental magic, you don't, unless you're looking with magic. Coincidental magic is easy, usually. You want to roll snake eyes? Not a problem, since dice can easily do that without magical intervention. You want to change the roll of the dice after they've stopped moving? Not so easy, since people will know something happened. You want to throw a fireball? You can do it, but people will know it wasn't natural. There are ways around that limitation, but you have to be careful. Try shooting the car behind your target and making it blow up with magic. Happens all the time in movies; people are likely to believe that it is at least possible. Coincidental magic isn't taxing, and carries no game penalties. Vulgar magic wears you out, since you have to fight against consensual reality, and will carry some penalties. These penalties come in a few different forms. First off, in game, the Order of Reason watches out for this sort of thing. They'll try and do something about it, and that might prove fatal for you. Second, there are metaphysical repercussions. You might get sick, you might get hurt, or spirits might take you away to a realm of punishment. Who knows? Basically, if you're too vulgar, I get free rein to screw you over.
One more thing. Every mage goes through a mystical experience in which he awakens to the magic inherent in the world. Usually this is triggered by a traumatic experience in which the future mage uses his nascent abilities to resolve something. However, it could also be some kind of religious experience. This awakening will shape how you view your magic, and how you are likely to try to use it for a while. I want to know what your awakening was like, and what it did to you. What happened, what did you do, and how did you rationalize it? No one suddenly thinks "Oh yeah, magic is real and I can do it" and comes to an instant understanding of the spheres and metaphysical reality. You will have a better grasp than your original one, because of your study under the Order, but I want to know where you started from. After you give me all that, I'll tell you how the Order found you and what they've had you doing so far.
And there we go. Let me know if anything isn't clear, or if I left anything off. It might be fun to play yourselves, but feel free to ignore that suggestion if you don't like it.
