ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

In the past, many World of Darkness chronicles were focused solely upon one of the various White Wolf games, and as such, found no real need for crossover rules. If a group played Vampire: the Masquerade, for example, the inclusion of a lupine in a story would be handled by the rules as given, with stats and abilities of the lupine given in terms of V:tM. This worked, in general, especially if the lupine, mage or whatever was not a very important part of the ongoing chronicle. This method allowed these "other" beings to remain quite a mystery to the players (and the Storyteller!), enhancing them by ensuring the vampires weren't able to understand the truly fundamental differences between them. As more information about the other games became available, however, it was no longer possible to simply overlook these fundamental distinctions, at least if one wished to truly incorporate them into a meaningful and serious chronicle.

Most Storytellers now own at least a couple different World of Darkness games. This has resulted in a much better understanding of the differences between the denizens of darkness and has given us a wealth of new ideas and story concepts to play around with. It has allowed a much more fascinating and vibrant chronicle overall. This is good and should be done. By using the Mage rules for mages and the Vampire rules for vampires, these beings' special traits and abilities can be best explored. For how can the true power of the Sphere of Entropy be understood from a vampire's or Garou's point of view? It cannot be justly explained in terms of a Discipline or Gift, and to do so would be to deny the mage that which is so basic to them.

For the most part, a cohesive and balanced World of Darkness chronicle incorporating many different kinds of supernatural beings should be run without having to resort to too many crossover rules. When a mage works magick, it is no problem to use those rules. When a vampire is faced with fire, refer to the section on Roetschreck. If a wraith attempts to "skinride", use those rules dealing with the appropriate Arcanos. Most of a story need not refer to any crossover rules, as it is only on infrequent occasion that the different supernaturals should have much interaction anyway.

The time will eventually come when a few vampire characters encounter a Hermetic mage out for a midnight stroll. Or it will finally come to pass that the curious Nosferatu neonate can no longer resist the temptation to reopen the plugged up tunnel deep within the warren, only to discover in the steaming green, slime covered caverns beyond a band of gibbering and insanely gyrating half-dog, half-mutated human creatures. It is at times like these when crossover rules are called for.

To accommodate the WoD enthusiasts that we are, the powers that be released the "official crossover rules" in the appendix of The Chaos Factor. Though there may be some confusion and difficulty and even imbalances that must be addressed, what was handed down to us from White Wolf's offices was at least a firm beginning to finally bring some consistency (at least in a mechanical sense) to the various games.

The Problems

Yes, there are problems. Instead of screaming "White Wolf hates mages!", it is far more constructive to instead find out just what can be done to work out the kinks and end up with a very workable system. Here are the problems with the official crossover rules and those aside from the rules.

1. According to the table under Power Levels (pg. 132), a mage can never be ranked higher than 5, while vampires and werewolves can. This means that a good deal of the time, a mage will easily lose in a direct conflict of powers with another supernatural.
2. The very idea that by simply "outranking" another's powers one can completely overcome them is ludicrous. Sure, it makes the mechanics simple, but sometimes speed of play is not a worthwhile achievement when so much fairness and balance is lost.
3. In reference to what it takes for a mage to affect vampires and wraiths, not only is the word "affect" misleading and vague, but the very explanation itself only serves to confuse and frustrate mage players.
4. Magick appears to have been "de-powered" to the point where it becomes nearly impossible to do anything to a foe who can simply resist with Willpower, easily obtaining enough successes to cancel out most effects.
5. References made concerning coincidental magickal attacks and how they may be "dodged" appears to further impinge upon supposedly powerful mages.
6. Mage players at times try to circumvent their characters' limitations by having coincidences actually be more beneficial than the effect the character is capable of producing, thereby making obsolete the very Spheres themselves.

I'd like to state for the record that as Storyteller, I have been perceived by my mage player as being very biased against mages, so what I have stated above does not stem from a sympathy for mages over the other WoD creatures, but simply from my own experiences running a number of different encounters with all the assorted beings and trying out many different systems for creating balance.

Solutions

What follows are my solutions. They are intended to rectify the problems and allow a smooth and atmospherically-appropriate game to be run in which any of the various supernatural beings can interact and retain the "official" relationships as stated in the basic rulebooks. In other words, mages would be very dangerous in the eyes of the vampires, as would be the lupines. Vampires would still be dangerous to mages, but their sheer numbers relative to the mages would be counterbalanced by the fact that vampires play real-world games, while mages play games with the real world.

When to Use Crossover Rules

In most instances, no special rules are needed to resolve a situation. Simply use whatever rules were written for that specific being or situation. The only times that crossover rules are needed is when there is a conflict that is covered differently by separate rule systems. This should be obvious.

Conflicts usually arise because one supernatural is trying to use a special power against another. A Garou calls upon the spirits to Jam Technology so as to screw up the laptop that the Virtual Adept is attempting to use. A Verbena performs a ritual intended to blind a vampire across town. A Ventrue elder tries to Command the Wearied Mind of the slavering man-wolf that has just entered his haven. These are perfect examples of direct conflicts calling for crossover rules.

Other conflicts are not so direct or obvious. A Toreador poseur is humiliated at a public art exhibit when his anonymous works are ridiculed by the critics and attempts to draw a Cloak of Shadows about himself so as to fade into the background and leave the place, while a lone mage at the back of the hall watches the gathering in the reflection of a large mirror, his magick allowing him to see the True Nature of those in the hall so that he can locate a vile fomor he has been seeking. Does the vampire's Obfuscation hide him from the magickal scrying of the mage?

Ranking Supernatural Powers

In any instance of such conflict, whether direct or indirect, the first thing to do is rank the respective powers involved. This Rank is based on the overall ability of the supernatural to command and understand what they are actually doing. The following should be used.

Vampires

Use the highest level achieved in the Discipline being employed. If a vampire possesses Dominate 4, but was only employing Command the Wearied Mind, then the Rank would be 4, not one.

Garou

Use the actual rank of the Garou. This is done because the Garou themselves do not actually perform the Gifts, but simply call upon the spirits to do so for them. Their rank approximates not only their social standing, but their understanding of the spirit world and the Gifts of Gaia.

Mage

Use the mage's Arete rating. This is a departure from the official ruling, but is a much more balanced method of determining Rank. While the mage's specific understanding of the Sphere being employed is important, it is the mage's overall understanding of magick that allows him to truly grasp the relationship between perception and reality. It also allows mages to rise above a limitation of Rank 5, giving them a realistic standing relative to other beings.

Wraith

Use the highest level achieved of the Arcanos employed.

Now, what to do with Rank? I have replaced the simple automatic defeat method published with the following, much more fair, procedure.

1. Compare the Ranks of the two powers in conflict. The difference is the Rank Differential.
2. This Rank Differential is applied as a difficulty modifier to the appropriate rolls of both characters, where the higher ranked power would result in a decreased difficulty for that character and the lower ranked would find the difficulty increased by the same Rank Differential.
3. Both characters make their normal rolls for their respective powers.
4. Successes achieved are used to cancel each other out. Should one party still have at least one success, then that party wins the contest. This "win" may, of course, not mean complete success, that determination left up to the normal ruling for the power and the Storyteller.
5. A Botch by either party should increase the successes of the other contestant by 1. If both botch, there is a draw.

When a conflict occurs, as in the obfuscated vampire scenario above, where a power should still have some effect on others beside the other supernatural (the mundane folks gathered in the art gallery), the result of the roll prior to cancelling out successes from the conflicting power should apply to those not in conflict. In the above situation, the vampire might have been discovered by the mage while still remaining obfuscated to the ordinary observers present.

One last note: Use the above rules for contests only if no other rule is already given. The Wraith Screen, for example, gives a number of rules for conflicting powers. Use these before resorting to the above, as they are more specific and take into account much more.

Resisting Supernatural Powers

Countermagick and Defensive Magick: These concepts become very confusing and are often the source of most conflicts between players and Storytellers.

Countermagick refers to any use of a supernatural ability that is capable of nullifying or reducing the effectiveness of another's power. The means by which mages counter each others' effects by either "undoing" their opponent's effect or by completely disrupting it with Quintessence is unique to them. Most other supernaturals don't have that kind of overall understanding of reality to be able to purposely interfere so directly. The obfuscated vampire scenario is a perfect example of Countermagick. Aside from that, most any direct conflict between supernaturals would fall under this heading. Countermagick is resolved as a normal conflict, unless both powers are of the same kind (Arcanos versus Arcanos) and there is already a pre-existing rule that would apply.

Defensive magick is simply a term for any attempt to defend one's self from an effect or the realization of an effect. Sounding an airhorn while a mage is concentrating on producing an effect is a perfect example. Just as useful is the use of other magick or supernatural abilities to somehow defend against the actual effect. The example used above with the obfuscated vampire and the scrying mage fits under this heading, as do most direct conflicts between supernaturals. Not all defensive magick must be in the form of an actual conflict, though. A mage might "summon" a speeding car in order to slam into a vampire. Because the damage to be done comes from a car, the vampire may very simply try to avoid the vehicle by dodging it. This may not seem like defensive magick, but it essentially is.

In order to resist any kind of supernatural power one must first have the means to do it. It is not the case, however, that the one resisting be aware of his resistance, a point which the scenario above well illustrates.

Awareness & Ability

As already mentioned, one need not be aware that their own supernatural power is in conflict with that of another being. This usually occurs, as above, when one individual is attempting to perceive something and has a chance to accidentally detect another supernatural, but this is not always the case. What is important is that mutual awareness not be a prerequisite in every case, although a special exception is made with mental powers which is discussed below.

One must possess the ability to use Countermagick or defensive magick, of course, to do so. It does a mage no good trying to find an obfuscated vampire if he only possesses knowledge of Entropy and Time. Exactly what Disciplines, Spheres, Arcanos and Gifts would coincide is up to the Storyteller, but a consistent framework must be adhered to. Without such, the game devolves into arguments over fairness and bias. The booklet included with the Wraith Screen gives some excellent guidelines for how all these things would compare and I recommend it as a starting point at the very least. Another strong recommendation is to decide exactly what Spheres of magick a particular thing would fall under. This area is a source of great debate and has caused far too much needless bickering. I have settled upon the guidelines that follow.

Turning Vampires into Lawnchairs

Or, What Spheres Do I Need to Hurt Someone?

To settle this once and for all requires certain decisions to be made that will not change as the game continues. By adopting the following, it is very simple to determine what affects who and eliminates any further problems that might arise.

1. The Spheres of magick are not subjective from a Storyteller's point of view. This is the most crucial thing to understand. Let the players and their characters perceive the Spheres to be any damned thing they want, especially if it improves the game's atmosphere. Who cares if the Celestial Chorister believes there is only one Sphere? From a story perspective, that works just fine, actually. However, for a Storyteller to try and allow Spheres to actually be capable of completely different things in a mechanics sense is plain stupid.

Not only does it require continual judgement calls every time a certain effect is desired, but it will necessarily result in the final determination of what can and cannot be done becoming a matter of consensus between players and Storyteller, drastically slowing down the game and frequently disrupting the story. By having the Storyteller determine an absolute limit for each Sphere, the Storyteller need only glance down at the player's sheet to figure out whether or not a certain effect can be done. The player can go on thinking that his character summoned the spirit of a demon to sever the chandelier chain, while the Storyteller actually refers to the character's level in Matter or Entropy. The demon spirit is for the character and the story. The Spheres on paper are for the rules.

2. Determine exactly what is the essential makeup of mortals, wraiths, Garou and vampires. Then, don't deviate. I use the rules in the Wraith Screen, with only minor clarifications. They are:

Mortal

Everything is considered Life Sphere, except perhaps hair and nails (Matter)

Mage

Normal human

Garou

Normal human (or wolf, or whatever)

Vampire

Composed entirely of matter, but infused with and given undead status by their accursed vitae (Life Sphere).

Wraith

When materialized, they are normal humans. When in the Shadowlands, they are composed of corpus, which is Prime infused with Entropy.

Special

Every being is also possessed (not composed) of a Spirit and a Mind. See below for how to treat these things.

This means a mage may do whatever they are capable of doing, so long as they possess the requisite knowledge of the Sphere necessary to affect a particular being or a certain part of that being.

Example: If a mage wishes to fuse a vampire's arms and legs together so that he is more like an eel, such magick would not require any knowledge of Life Sphere. The only knowledge necessary would be Matter, since nothing was done to that part of the vampire comprised of Life.

Now, while the above effect might surely hinder the undead fiend, it would no way directly result in injury to the vampire. Sure, he may not be able to move around much, but since his vitae — that stuff that ensures that he is a vampire and not a rotting corpse — is considered Life (it has Quintessence flowing through it), it is not affected in any way by the Matter effect. The vampire is no closer to Final Death simply due to the effect.

On the other hand, if the mage used Life magick instead, and began to cause the vitae to spontaneously mutate, it might very well harm the vampire horribly, perhaps even destroying him. This would require no understanding of Matter, though it would probably necessitate the mage be aware of his target (the vitae itself) in some manner. More crafty, the mage could "poison" the blood of a vampire's intended victim.

If a mage wishes to trip, bind, confuse or burn a vampire, the knowledge of the appropriate Spheres would have to be used. Entropy, for example, is capable of destroying both Matter and Life at different levels and would be a very effective weapon against nearly anything.

A wraith in the Underworld possesses a corporeal body (Corpus) that is composed of patterned Quintessence and infused (corrupted by?) a high degree of entropic forces. One could apply knowledge of either Prime or Entropy to harm such a being, although a wraith can easily regain Corpus, while entropic damage would be far more severe...

Two Special Cases: Spirit & Mind

Every being in the World of Darkness is considered to be possessed of both a spirit and a mind, however one conceives of them. Both are highly important and can be the target of a mage's manipulations.

Spirit

Addressing the first (and some say more important) aspect of the self, spirits do not exist in the physical world, for to speak of spirit one speaks of "actualization", or the state just this side of physical existence. The Metaphysics of Magick in the Mage rulebook discusses this, and should be the guideline here. This would imply that if something is already in existence in the physical world, it is no longer simply actualized, but truly exists and therefore is no longer a thing of spirit, but of some physical pattern.

A Nexus Crawler, for instance, is a spirit and to affect via magick would require the use of Spirit. Should that Crawler materialize, however, it has now crossed over into physical existence. At this point, one could harm it magickally using whatever Spheres are normally used on animals, objects, etc. The Sphere of Spirit though, would no longer have any use, at least not until it dematerialized and once again became a spirit. Should a mage wish to truly destroy a Nexus Crawler forever, he would have to not only destroy it physically, but more importantly attack it in a spiritual sense.

In effect, if a being has a physical manifestation, then that being does not simultaneously exist as a spirit. In the case of a Fetish, the weapon (or object) does not exist in the Umbra, but the spirit that is bound into the Fetish does. This is an important distinction.

Mind

Perhaps the most troublesome of all Spheres, considering most everyone the characters encounter in a game has a mind. Animals, spirits, people, most supernatural beings, etc. are potential targets of a mage wielding the Sphere of Mind. Everyone, including mundane humans, can be expected to have some kind of defense against such direct (though perhaps imperceptible) use of magick.

The following should provide a consistent and fair system that truly supports the assumptions of the World of Darkness.

1. If a mental power is being used against an Awakened being without an appropriate defensive power of its own (nearly all vampires), then the defender may make a Willpower roll to resist so long as the victim is aware of the attack. The number of successes scored by the victim are used to cancel out the number of successes achieved by the attacker. The difficulty for the Willpower roll is equal to the Rank of the power + 5.
   
   Note: This is not a typical contest as outlined above where respective Ranks are compared to determine an applicable differential for difficulties as Willpower is not considered to be a supernatural power and therefore has no Rank. Merits or Flaws may apply if the Storyteller deems it appropriate.
2. If a mental power is being used against an ordinary, unAwakened mortal, the same rules apply but the target must spend a point of Willpower. Some Merits (Iron Will, for example) might allow the mortal to be treated as an Awakened being for purposes of such resistance.
3. If a mental power is used against a being, Awakened or otherwise, that possesses an innate ability of their own that would allow some better defense against such attacks, then that other ability should be used. This is a classic contest between two supernatural powers and should be treated as outlined above using respective Ranks of the powers being employed by each contestant.

For example, the player of a certain mage (Mind 2, Arete 4, Willpower 6) would have two choices if he wished to defend himself against the domineering commands of the Ventrue ancilla (Domination 4). The vampire wishes to command the mage to "grovel". If the mage wished, he could simply make a Willpower roll with a difficulty of 9, giving him a pool of 6 dice. The odds are he will get only one success. At the same time, the vampire would have a difficulty of 6 with an unknown pool size.

The mage could instead resist magickally. This would create a Rank Differential of (Arete vs. Domination) zero. The mage would have a difficulty of 5 (coincidental, Fast Cast penalty) and a pool of 3 dice, while the vampire's difficulty would not change. The odds would again be that the mage gets two successes, though in this case his potential to get more is reduced due to the decreased dice pool.

The above case is based on a relatively weak mage and a relatively powerful vampire. If the mage's Arete were any higher, or his Willpower any lower, then it would be increasingly beneficial to rely upon his magickal arts to defend himself instead of his human Willpower.

In nearly all cases, the target of a mental attack or probe must be aware of it in order to defend himself. A mage possessing Mind magick is automatically aware of any such intrusion but for most others it is often difficult to recognize unless it is overly blatant (Command the Wearied Mind, for example). Subliminal commands, telepathic reading and similar invasions are very hard to detect and defend against. A Perception and Intuition roll could be justified, but most of the time the attack would simply slip by the target's guard.

Damage — Normal vs. Aggravated

Not to rehash what has already been printed in each rulebook in addition to published crossover rules, but a few final words must be said about damage. First of all, use the general guidelines in each rulebook for what is and isn't Aggravated damage. These guidelines should be sufficient. Second, use good judgement. If a mage uses Matter and Life to sever a vampire's head (both required due to the complete disruption of the flow of Quintessence through the vampire's pattern), that is Aggravated damage.

In fact, a good rule of thumb is that any severing of a body part results in Aggravated damage, as would any injury that was of similar severity. One should be cautioned, however, not to simply make the damage Aggravated because one imagines how a particular cause of injury might hurt a normal person. Remember, vampires and such are not normal, and a tractor trailer running one over might do little more than slow him down for a few moments. Keep these kinds of distinctions in mind. Even when a player specifically states that his mage intends to cut the vampire in half with magick, this should only occur if the damage as figured on the normal chart would result in the destruction of the target. If this is not the case, then the actual result would fall short. Perhaps his spinal cord and some muscles are still intact, allowing the bloodsucker to live, although he will need some serious recovery time!

In general, magickal damage is not Aggravated unless the effect is conjunctional and the mage possesses knowledge of all Spheres necessary to affect the target, or if a mage spends some Quintessence to add "punch", not to lower the difficulty.

Coincidental "Cheating"

This section does not technically fall under the crossover category, although it is a problem that, at times, can very easily enable a mage to unbalance the game by seeing just what he can slip past the Storyteller, exploiting the built-in flexibility of the magick rules.

Sometimes, mage players try to "cheat" with coincidental magick. They do this by claiming to wish for a certain effect, and then giving a coincidental explanation that actually is far more beneficial to their character than the announced effect. This is a tricky area, but it happens and can be troublesome.

For example, if a player's character was stranded in the Texas desert and wanted to use Matter and Prime to create carbon monoxide, that player might try to explain it coincidentally by saying a car happened to come by. However, what the player really wanted was a way to hitch a ride out of the desert! Here the player gave a coincidence (a car) that was actually what he wanted all along.

Now, some may counter this and say "But magick is flexible and not all Spheres will act the same way for each mage." Hogwash. Using the "flexible" argument is simply poor reasoning. In this game, as in any, there must be constants by which all things can be measured. The Spheres and their ranks are those constants, not whatever creative coincidence the player can think up. Yes, there should be flexibility, but it should be limited to appearances and creative application of a Sphere's given effects. Coincidence does not exist as a means of circumventing one's weaknesses.

As a general rule, I have the player simply tell me the intended effect and then, if there is to be a coincidence, give me the general form of that coincidence (for example, "a bullet"). Then I describe the actual effect as perceived, taking into account the degree of success achieved. Using the bullet example, one success might mean a stray bullet from a drive-by shooting (in a city) or from a hunter (wilderness), while four successes might mean a number of police officers firing at the target.

In other words, don't allow the player to detail the coincidence, but simply have them outline the basic form which it will take. The rest is up to you as final arbiter. This way, balance rests fully in the hands of the Storyteller.

Mages are never quite sure exactly what they'll get when they take a few threads of the great Tapestry and reweave them. All they know is that by tying previously unrelated threads together in a certain way they will probably get something desirable. Whatever coincidental "baggage" comes along with that bullet is anybody's guess. Often, mages are just as surprised at the final outcome of their effect as others, though they can't complain so long as the actual intended effect does take place.

Conclusion

I regret the length to which I went here to present my crossover rules, but unfortunately the tangle of misunderstandings and vagaries that have already been floating about have necessitated such depth. In the end, what I have espoused here is a quick and simple system once all the discussion and examples are removed. It allows for a fair balance of power between the supernaturals and explains some of the trickier aspects that arise when they come into conflict.

In the end, the game should be fun. Unfortunately, when a troupe consists of characters of different types, there will ultimately arise dissension over who is being favored and who is being screwed over — not by the Storyteller, but by the rules themselves. Fairness must therefore be maintained and I believe that what I have presented here makes an impressive step in that direction.