ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

The Paradox rules in 2nd Edition Mage are amazing. So few changes, yet such a dramatic improvement on the original. I can't help tinkering with a good thing, so here are my additions to the Paradox rules. Mostly, they are suggestions for quickly resolving which of the various types of Paradox strike a mage.

Paradox Backlash occurs when the mage gains at least six points of Paradox at one time or the mage accumulates 11 or more points of Paradox total. Determine the strength of the backlash by rolling the character's Paradox Pool (equal to his total number of Paradox points, including those newly acquired) against difficulty 6. Each success expels one point of Paradox from the mage's pattern and the total number of successes is the strength of the backlash.

Paradox Backlash will manifest in a physical, spiritual or mental form. The Storyteller can choose how the Backlash manifests or roll a die to determine this: 1-5 physical, 6-8 spiritual, 9-10 mental. Depending on the strength of the Backlash and how it manifests, the effects of the backlash may vary.

Level	Physical	Spiritual	Mental
1-5	Flaws	Paradox Minion	Quiet
6-9	Damage	Paradox Preceptor	Quiet/Realm
10+	Explosion	Paradox Lord	Realm

Flaws — Paradox causes physical alterations in a mage or the immediate area. The stronger the backlash, the more severe the alteration. For more details on Flaws, see below.

Damage — The mage receives one Health Level of Aggravated damage per point of strength of the Backlash. The mage may roll to soak this damage (using Stamina), but cannot heal it magickally. A backlash this severe can kill the offending mage, especially if she was already wounded.

Explosion — A massive explosion results, inflicting Health Levels of Aggravated damage equal to the strength of the Backlash, divided evenly amongst everyone within a few yards of the mage. As above, the victims may soak the damage but it cannot be healed magickally.

Spirits — A Paradox spirit appears and plagues the mage. The level of power of the spirit depends on the strength of the backlash, while the nature of the spirit depends on the Sphere of magick the mage was using. Paradox spirits are exceptionally resistant to magick. They may roll their Gnosis/Arete as countermagick automatically. Usually there is some way a mage can appease a Paradox spirit so that it will leave him be. The mage can also try and destroy the spirit using non-magickal means. Failing all else, most Paradox spirits will eventually get bored and wander off to harass some other mage.

Quiet — Quiet can be induced as a backlash. However, the strength of the Quiet does not depend on the strength of the backlash. Instead, it depends on the total points of Paradox the mage had immediately before the backlash. Quiet can be induced by other means, such as the overuse of perceptual magick or psychic trauma (Storyteller's option). Detailed descriptions of Quiet appear in the mage rules.

Realms — Truly horrendous backlashes can remove a mage from reality completely. Some mages view this as an advanced form of Quiet, in which the mage is physically locked in a hallucinatory Realm. Examples of different Paradox realms are again detailed in the rules.

Paradox Flaws

The most common backlash is a Paradox Flaw of some sort. There are two schools of thought about the nature of Paradox Flaws. The loose school feels that a Paradox Flaw can be anything, a manifestation of wild magick. The hard school believes that Paradox should not make reality stranger and that Flaws should manifest in a "coincidental" way. According to the second school, Paradox should make problems for a mage, but in a way that could be accepted as reasonably normal by a Sleeper. Personally, I tend to flip-flop between the two schools, depending on my mood and the circumstances. The more Sleepers that are around, the less likely it is that Paradox will be vulgar.

Note that Paradox need not show up right away. Just because a mage suffered a backlash doesn't mean you have to hit him with it immediately. You can hold it off for a bit and then hit the mage with the Paradox when he is in a sticky situation. Alternately, if a mage suffers a major backlash during an important juncture, where it might disrupt the flow of the story, put it off until later. You can even put off Paradox just to make your players sweat a bit and give yourself time to think of something really clever. In general you shouldn't put Paradox between sessions. It becomes to much of a temptation to forget it completely.

Under the new rules, the player no longer has any control over how a Paradox Flaw manifests. It is all in the hands of the Storyteller. If you have a good set of roleplayers, though, there is nothing to stop you from soliciting suggestions from a player. Better yet, solicit suggestions from the other players. Peers can be so cruel. You can even take those suggestions and add nasty little twists of your own.

The simplest sort of Paradox Flaw is to make the punishment fit the crime. Take whatever magick the mage was working and twist it in some unpleasant way. You can reverse the magick, making it have the opposite effect or rebound it onto the mage (or one of his companions). You can have the magick manifest in strange ways, through a "coincidence gone bad". For example, if a mage is trying to use magick to open a door while sneaking into a building, the coincidence might be the hinges are weak and the entire door falls out of its frame with a loud bang, attracting the attention of the guards. You can also use Sphere effects for ideas for Paradox Flaws. Simply take one of the effects for the Sphere, of the appropriate rating, and inflict it on the hapless mage.

The severity of the flaw depends on the exact strength of the backlash. Flaws can be broken into five different levels. Level 1 Flaws are minor annoyances that last only a few seconds (rare, under these rules). Level 2 Flaws hinder the mage in some slight way and usually last for a while (hours). Level 3 Flaws cause serious problems and also last for a decent period of time (hours or days). The mage can even be slightly injured by such flaws (1 or 2 Health Levels). Level 4 Flaws can be crippling, possibly causing serious harm (3 or 4 Health Levels) forcing the mage to retreat and recuperate. Level 5 Flaws can incapacitate a mage, rendering her completely helpless and keep her that way for days or weeks. This level of flaw can seriously injure a mage (5 or 6 Health Levels), but will never kill her outright.

Paradox can also permanently alter a mage. A Level 3 or 4 Flaw can manifest as a permanent flaw of a minor, annoying sort (equal to Level 1). A Level 5 Flaw can manifest as a permanent flaw of a serious nature (equal to a Level 2 Flaw). If a mage gets hit with serious Paradox during an important part of your story, you may wish to stick them with a weaker but permanent Flaw so that they can continue on.

Below are a list of possible Paradox Flaws, organized by Sphere and level. Some of them are coincidental and others are not. Note that the duration of a Flaw can also affect its severity. A Level 2 backlash could manifest as a level 1 Flaw that lasts for days, or a level 3 Flaw that only lasts for a minute or two. The standard duration for a Flaw is a few hours. This can be lengthened to days or shortened to minutes. Level 4 and 5 Flaws last longer. The standard duration is day, which can be shortened to hours, or lengthened to weeks.

Correspondence

Level 1: The mage can only see behind himself for a few moments.

Level 2: The mage's perception of space is altered for a few hours (objects in this mirror may appear to be closer than they actually are). The mage can still function, but may suffer +1 or +2 to his difficulty rolls for things that depend on his senses.

Level 3: Objects in the mage's possession gravitate to his left. His watch appears on his left hand, his wallet in his left pocket, etc. More significantly, any effect he casts will manifest several yards to the left of where he targeted it.

Level 4: The mage finds that he no longer can control direction. Anything he does will be targeted in a random direction. A spell he casts will have a randomly determined target and he will walk in a strange sort of Brownian motion, with no control over his destination. The mage must be guided from one place to another.

Level 5: The mage's body is turned inside out, flesh on the inside, organs on the outside, yet she mysteriously stays alive. This state is incredibly painful and the mage can do nothing but writhe in agony until the effect passes.

Entropy

Level 1: The next feat the mage attempts fails automatically (don't bother to roll).

Level 2: Everything the mage sees is tinged with decay, not unlike the vision of wraiths. In addition to being rather depressing, it makes it difficult for mages to judge the mood of people and he has +2 to his difficulty for rolls like Empathy, Intimidation, Leader, etc.

Level 3: The mage finds that material objects become rotten and brittle under his touch. His equipment may break or he may fall through holes in the floor.

Level 4: People in the vicinity of the mage will feel ill and out of sorts. Others will suffer a +1 penalty to the difficulty of any roll they have to make. The effect never seems to extend to the mage's enemies.

Level 5: The mage finds himself aging rapidly, at a rate of one year per minute. This continues for hours, yet the mage will not die, becoming a withered husk instead at about the age of 150 or so. The mage then returns slowly to normal, at a rate of 1 year per hour.

Forces

Level 1: The mage's hair stands on end, as if he were subject to static electricity. It goes away after a minute or two.

Level 2: The mage's perception of the world changes, so that he sees everything in black and white.

Level 3: For the next few hours, electrical devices fail to function within about 5 yards of the mage.

Level 4: The mage finds herself floating one inch off the floor. This makes it very difficult to get anywhere, since the mage must pull herself along the walls and furniture.

Level 5: The mage is struck completely blind and deaf. Other forms of perceptual magick are ineffective as well. This can last for days.

Life

Level 1: The mage suffers from a sudden, violent muscle spasm, throwing her off balance.

Level 2: The mage catches a nasty head cold. Between sneezing, watery eyes and headaches, the mage is at +1 difficulty to most rolls.

Level 3: The mage finds that nearby plants grow at an alarming rate, especially if he is in direct contact with the plant.

Level 4: One of the mage's limbs ceases to function.

Level 5: The mage suffers from a violent epileptic seizure that lasts for hours. It will take him days to recuperate.

Matter

Level 1: Whatever surface the mage is standing on becomes briefly slippery, causing him to fall.

Level 2: One important piece of equipment (perhaps a focus) breaks.

Level 3: The mage finds himself unable to physically interact with some common substance (metal, wood, etc.). The material passes right through him. This can be quite embarrassing if the substance is clothing.

Level 4: Any water the mage touches will freeze (large bodies of water only freeze within about a foot of the mage).

Level 5: The mage's body crystallizes. He can only move at a rate of one inch per minute, and magick becomes impossible.

Mind

Level 1: For the next few minutes, the mage speaks exactly what is on her mind, broadcasting her thoughts.

Level 2: The mage receives a lot of psychic static, random impressions from the minds of those around her. There is too much "noise" for the mage to learn anything useful and the effect is rather distracting.

Level 3: The mage finds that he has become a mental chameleon. He involuntarily adopts the mannerisms and personality of anyone with whom he spends more than a minute.

Level 4: The mage adopts some form of clinical insanity, such as a severe phobia of some nearby object or paranoid delusions.

Level 5: The mage's mental processes become completely jumbled and he finds it impossible to form any coherent thought.

Prime

Level 1: The mage briefly pulses with magickal energy so that his presence is easily perceived by any magickally aware being.

Level 2: One of the rotes the mage is currently maintaining ceases to function.

Level 3: All the Quintessence in a mage's pattern bleeds away.

Level 4: The mage becomes a "magick magnet" and any effect cast in her vicinity will target the mage in addition to its normal target.

Level 5: The mage looses touch with her Avatar and is unable to perform any sort of magick for days (or weeks).

Spirit

Most Spirit paradoxes result in the manifestation of a Paradox spirit, or the spirit magick the mage is currently working goes horribly wrong. Other possibilities include having the mage shunt involuntarily into the Umbra, attracting malignant (non-Paradox) spirits or becoming a spirit herself for a period of time.

Time

Level 1: All the timepieces in the mage's area stop.

Level 2: The mage's perception of time becomes disjointed so that he sees everything one second in the future. He starts to answer questions before people have finished speaking. Alternately, the mage sees things one second in the past. It becomes more difficult to target people in the present (+1 or +2 to difficulty).

Level 3: The mage suffers from time dilation and can only act half as often as everyone else. Magick cannot counter this effect.

Level 4: The mage loses his short term memory. He can only remember things that happened more than five minutes ago. He must act based only on his immediate perceptions.

Level 5: The mage vanishes, only to reappear in the future, at some time of the Storyteller's choosing (though not more than a month or two later).

Paradox Rotes

Mages with a greater knowledge of Prime are able to control the Paradox in their pattern to a fine degree with the following rotes.

Induce Backlash (Prime 2)

Many mages choose not to wait for Paradox to strike and deliberately induce a Paradox backlash on themselves, preferably while they are somewhere safe, like their sanctum. The strength of the backlash is still rolled randomly. No matter what the circumstances, this Rote always counts as vulgar, even in the Umbra or in a mage's Sanctum. Thus, the rote always adds at least one point of Paradox to the mage's total pool. Heaven help the mage that botches this effect.

Controlled Backlash (Prime 4 or Prime 2, Entropy 2)

A more advanced version of the above rote, the mage has a greater degree of control over how much Paradox energy is released. For each success beyond the first, the mage can increase or decrease the strength of the backlash by one point. However, the mage still has no control over exactly how the Paradox manifests. This rote is also always vulgar.