ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

Authors note: I've always been dissatisfied with the way Do was presented in the various Mage books. The emphasis is always on the martial asspects of Do, as if it were nothing more than a good way to beat people up. Other pople have done some excellent write-ups on different styles of Do, and while I found them very useful they still didn't satisfy me. I've always thought of Do as being much more all-encompassing. So, following is my first attempt to write this up into some single cohesive system.

Do is not what you think.
— James Canfield, Do Master

Introduction

Do is not about hurting people. Do is about how you move, how you breathe, how you think. It is the ability to act in the most correct way in any given situation. It is the ability to see the beauty in everything, and to find those things which detract from that beauty and correct them. Do is simply the Way. It is the process by which a person can act, react, think and exist in the best way. A Doist never goes out of his way to do anything. If he is doing something in a particular place at a particular time, it is because that is the way it is supposed to be. It is training your body to exist in the most harmonious form. It is training your mind to be constantly aware of everything and nothing at the same time. Do affects every part of the Doist's life but it does so in such a way that most people never notice it.

Do can be used to cause great damage to just about anything or anyone. It can also be used for flower arranging, painting, sculpture, music performance or composition, dance, animal training and many, many other things. To the true master, there is no part of his life that is not influenced by his knowledge of Do. If this were pointed out to him, he would either be very surprised that an outsider would see things that way, or he would be very blasé about it. A true master essentially forgets Do. It has become such a way of life for him that it ceases to influence his thoughts. He no longer thinks about what he does, he simply does it and allows the Do to flow through him to insure the correctness of his actions.

Physical Aspects of Do

Do affects the practitioner in many ways, many of which the Doist is unaware. As they progress through the ranks their movement style changes so they are expending the least possible amount of energy to gain the maximum effect. They walk in an almost gliding style, lifting their feet as short a distance from the floor as possible. Their arms swing only very slightly and their eyes seem unfocused as they try to take in everything around them rather than concentrating on specific details. Their breathing rate becomes slower and deeper. They move their eyes rather than their entire head. A Doist will avoid cracks in the sidewalk, or roots along a trail, without being aware they are doing so. A Master of Do can run through the forest in the middle of the night and never disturb a single branch. They almost never trip, bang their shins or drop a glass.

Doists often have regular, if peculiar, workout schedules. Their exercises are usually uniquely suited to them in order to fully develop every part of their body equally. They tend to be very short sessions, seldom lasting longer than 30 minutes, and are exhausting for just about anyone other than another Doist.

The home of a Do practitioner looks very strange, at first glance, to the uninitiated. There are usually very few pieces of furniture and little to interrupt walkways. Windows and large airy rooms are common, as are plants. Mirrors are frequently placed throughout the home to give unimpeded line of sight through the dwelling. After only a short time in a Doist's home people feel very comfortable and often wonder why things felt strange at first. Color schemes are a matter of individual taste, they are usually colors that would seem to be of great contrast at first but upon longer examination are found to be very complementary.

Mental Aspects of Do

Doists don't think the same way most people do. They make jumps in their thought processes that are hard to follow and are, in hindsight, absolutely correct. They go for the most direct route possible to a given destination. A Doist will often find the correct answer to a logic problem, but do so in a way that no one has ever thought of before.

Do affects the way the brain interprets various sensory input. A Doist can often tell when someone is faking an injury or an accent. They can tell when food is done cooking simply from the smell and are the ones who have the pitcher of water ready as soon as someone empties their glass.

Do — The Metaskill

Because Do can be used in so many different ways it does not follow the normal rules for skill purchase or advancement. A beginning character may only purchase a maximum of two dots in Do. Advancement is 1.5 times the normal cost per dot. For each dot a character has in Do he may use his Do score in place of his normal skill. This applies to all Skills and Abilities and some Knowledges, e.g. Cosmology, Herbal Lore etc. Do may be applied to any Skill or Ability ranging from Athletics to Flower Arranging, Brawl to Calligraphy and everything in between. However, he must have at least one dot in the skill to be replaced. For example, a character with three dots in Do may choose to use his Do skill instead of his skill levels in any three other skills. He may choose Brawl, Melee and Dance for the skills to be replaced, but he must have one dot in each of those three skills already. This may seem like a tremendous bonus to Doists, but there is one major drawback. Because Do is a basic understanding of the way the world works around the practitioner his Do skill may never exceed his Arete. Further limits may be applied at the Storyteller's discretion, such as not allowinbg the character's Do score to exceed the score in the character's primary Sphere (this is not necessarily the Tradition's primary Sphere, just the character's e.g. a member of the Akashic Brotherhood's Scales of the Dragon might have Correspondence as his primary Sphere, not Mind.) Advancement in Do is not a simple mater. It often involves a great deal of time spent is study and meditation, as well as a lot of practical application. It also means that a Master of Do is probably exceedingly powerful in other areas as well.

The primary practitioners of Do are the Akashic Brotherhood, and they are typically the only ones who are able to teach it to others. Within the Brotherhood, each sect has different skills they emphasize in their teachings. The Scales of the Dragon usually use Do with Melee, Tracking, Stealth, Blind Fighting, Athletics and other very physical skills. The Orange Robes typically use Cosmology, Awareness, Meditation and related skills. The Blue Skins employ things like Scrounge, Streetwise.

The one skill they all teach, almost always as the first skill to be replaced, is Brawl.

Do — The Martial Art

"Master, if Do is applicable to our entire lives, why is so much emphasis placed upon the strictly martial aspects?"
"It's called the Ascension 'War' for a reason."
— Steven "Shadow Hunter" Nakatomi, Do Master

Do as a martial art is very different from most other forms. While some teachings carry over from one practitioner to the next, each individual has his own particular style of combat. The basics of Do are taught to all students and they then modify each technique to best suit their own abilities. A large, muscular practitioner is not going to fight in the same manner as a smaller, more slender one. Though they both might use the same type of attacks, one might rely on sheer, brute strength to damage their opponent while the other goes for very carefully placed strikes to their opponent's nerve clusters. Each is equally effective but very different styles are called for.

Basic Maneuvers

Hand Strike: Difficulty 6. A simple attack, including any attack made with the fist, heel of the palm, forearm, elbow or shoulder. Damage is 3 + the number of successes on the attack roll.

Foot Strike: Difficulty 7. Includes kicks, attacks with the knee or shin. Damage: 4 + the number of successes on the attack roll.

Hand and Foot Strikes may be combined with a jumping attack. Difficulty and damage are both +1.

Throw: Difficulty 7. Damage 3 + successes. Varies from the complex leveraged shoulder/hip throws to simple body slam; any attacks designed to move an opponent away from the Doist. Distance thrown is equal to 2 feet per success on the attack roll. Opponent must spend one round getting to their feet.

Block: Difficulty 6. Varies, can be a simple arm-to-arm block or a redirection of the attack vectors. Each success subtracts one die from the opponent's damage roll.

Hold: Difficulty 7. Varies, can be anything from pinning an opponent to the ground or against a vertical surface to specific nerve holds that paralyze an opponent or a very specialized nerve pinch. If opponent does not make a successful Dodge they are considered immobilized for as long as the Doist maintains the hold.

Counter: Difficulty 8. Counters involve redirecting an opponent's attack away from the Doist and at the same time repositioning the Doist and his opponent in such a way as to make the Doist's next attack more likely to succeed. An opposed test is made, if the Doist gets one net success the attack is considered to have failed and the Doist automatically gains initiative over his opponent in the next round, each net success over 1 gives the Doist an extra die on his next attack.

Advancing in Do

As the Doist progresses, her attacks become much more fluid and less conscious. At Rank 1, the Doist is constantly aware of what she is doing and where the next blow is going to land. She has learned how to best use Do for herself but does not yet truly understand. At Rank 3 she becomes less conscious of what she is actually doing, a Rank 3 Doist may use a Block or Counter as well as a Hand or Foot Strike with her full Dice Pool in the same round. At Rank 4 the Doist starts to become fully aware of herself and her place in the world. She may use two Blocks or Counters in the same round. When Rank 5 is reached true Mastery of the self is achieved. At this point the Doist is, at best, vaguely conscious of what she is doing. She simply sets herself a task for the battle (kill a specific opponent, protect the people trying to get away, etc.) and lets the Do use her as is proper to accomplish that task. A Rank 5 Doist may use any two maneuvers in a single round. Note that the multiple attacks/defenses may also be used with a weapon provided that the Doist has taken Melee as a skill and the weapon is physically capable of the actions attempted.

Those who achieve Rank 6, Grand Master, in Do are truly awesome to see in action. They are unaware of what action they are going to take until it has already been performed, they seem to never be watching any of their opponents yet are always ready to defend against an attack launched from any side. Their own attacks are unnoticed except when their opponent suddenly falls. Very few Doists ever achieve this rank and it should be considered only slightly less difficult to accomplish than achieving Rank 6 in a Sphere. At this point a Doist can perform up to four Do maneuvers in a single round. Further progression has never been recognized.

Teaching Do

Do Instruction is a separate skill from both Do and Instruction. Because Do itself is such an abstract idea instruction in it requires very specific methods of teaching and the ability to modify that teaching to match each individual student. A teacher with one dot in Do Instruction can teach students who already have one dot in Do, Rank three allows the teacher to begin instruction with those who show an affinity for Do, e.g. neophytes to the Akashic Brotherhood, particularly skilled martial artists, Magi with an Arete of 4 or greater. Rank 5 allows the teacher to instruct anyone, Sleepers, Technomancers and even some Marauders.

Do is seldom taught to anyone outside the Akashic Brotherhood but there are always exceptions. Dreamspeakers show a particular aptitude for learning Do, as do some Cultists of Ecstasy. Orphans are occasionally instructed in order to help them realize their full potential. The one group that will never be taught are the Euthanatos. Any Brother found teaching Do to them faces immediate expulsion from the Brotherhood and possible Gilgul.

On very rare occasions a Doist may instruct other supernatural creatures in the arts of Do. Garou are the fewest, by far. Their rage interferes with the smooth flowing nature of Do. Thus far only a handful of Stargazers have mastered themselves enough to learn even the basics. Wraiths are seldom taught after their death and even fewer have learned it in life (if you have truly learned Do, you have come to accept your death as natural). No brother has ever been around a Changeling long enough to teach them anything, at least as far as the Brotherhood knows.

Vampires are a very special case.

Vampires have the patience and willpower necessary to devote considerable amounts of time to Do. While their initial reasons for doing so are usually so they can gain an upper hand in physical confrontations, Do has a much greater effect on them as they progress. As the Vampire comes to accept himself for what he truly is, he finds his thirst for blood tapering off. The normal expenditure of 1 blood point per day drops to 1/2 days at Rank 2, 1/4 days at Rank 3, 1/8 days at Rank 4, and 1/16 days at Rank 5. It is theorized among some magi that Rank 6 would eliminate the Vampire's need for fresh blood entirely. However, since no Vampire is known to have progressed beyond Rank 3, this theory remains pure speculation. It should be noted that very, very few Vampires are ever given the opportunity to learn Do. Most Akashic Brother find the idea of feeding on a human and thereby weakening them so they do not have the opportunity realize their full potential particularly objectionable.

Do & Magick

Magick is often used to enhance a Doist's skills. One of the first things Akashic Brothers are taught is a variation on the Virtual Adpets' Multi-Tasking rote. This allows them to meditate while performing katas to strengthen the body and can also be applied to using a magickal effect while launching a physical attack at the same time.

It is not unusual for Akashic Brothers to also use Forces to increase the amount of kinetic energy behind an attack, use a Static Discharge style effect to stun an opponent, and Fists of Flame is required learning for those who expect to be in conflict with Vampires.

The Akashic Brotherhood is one of the very few groups to have ever turned one of the Technocracy's weapons against them so effectively. The advent of motion pictures and the subsequent release of innumerable martial arts movies has given the Brotherhood a substantial base of Mythic Threads from which to operate. Incredible feats of jumping, tumbling and dodging are accepted as impressive, but not unnatural. They can use Life magick to accept incredible amounts of damage and explain it away with 'rigorous training'. A Brother dressed all in black can drop a smoke bomb and use Correspondence to Co-Locate himself away and have it seen as merely 'one of those ninja tricks'.