Abandoned Scribbles: Shadowrun

This page is for the collection of Shadowrun related unfinished ideas, rough drafts, and stuff that I am unlikely to ever polish up but might be useful to someone.

Temporary Circles can add to the Lodge’s rating to determine Binding and Ritual Sorcery Force Limits. Genius Loci

Just use knowledges for acclimation.

Master Circle. This type of circle is permanent in nature and it is anchored both in the astral realm to the magician’s magical lodge and in the phsyical realm by carving or inlaying the circle into the ground or ogham carvings into a tree or a totem pole celebrating the spirit types a shaman might summon. The Circle can be quickly modified in a temporary fashion for many different pursuits by something as simple as a few chalk symbols, incense, or material that embodies the true name of the spirit being summoned or bound. For Master Ritual Circles it works the same by cutting the prep time by providing the basic structure of the tradition’s ritual sorcery style allowing for flourishes to tailor the circle to the specific ritual. Master Ritual Circles and Master Spirit Circles. Can be created by an artificer. The master circle’s force lessens the cost and time as if it lowered the Force of the ritual or Binding by it’s Force for time, effort, and for the requirements of the Lodge’s rating. So, a force 6 ritual with a Force 4 master circle would require reagents and time equal to a Force 2 ritual. Should the circle be disrupted than any spirits or rituals powered by it are disrupted and if it should be disenchanted than the spirit and rituals are ended immediately.

Geomancers can learn an Enhancement that allows them to automatically acclimate to any aspected BC equal or less to their Grade. It has no effect when the aspected BC is greater than their Grade.

Cleansing initiates can learn an enhancement that allows them to automatically cleanse mana for their personal use. This eliminates magical penalties from aspected mana equal to their Grade including the risk of taking damage from extremely high mana areas and lessens the impact of fluctuating mana. Compatible with Geomancy enhancements.

Discovering or inventing a true name of a spirit which encompasses the spirit’s abilities and Force and suborning that true name to the magician’s will or negotiating that change. By incorporating part of the magician’s true name into the spirit’s true name the magician can gain power of the spirit and the spirit gains the magician’s acclimations and alignments to various types of Background Count through this bond.

A magician can know by heart and can visualize the spirit circle and the formula which encompasses that spirit and the necessary modifications to bind the spirit to the magicain enough to bring it to mind without the need of a physical representation of the circle. A magician starts with a number of memorized named Spirits equal to their Arcana. The magician can learn by heart additional Spirit Formulas by spending one Karma each. Otherwise to Summon a spirit requires either a library and the creation of a spirit circle or the magician can attempt to summon a local spirit in the area by Calling Out to it or can attempt to learn/invent/discover the genius loci or spirit of the area. Druids are very fond of mastering the genius loci of their home and other areas they are fond of. Genius Loci can be found wherever mana levels are high.

 

Constructs. Use artificing. Automata and devices made for a single purpose, vessels for spirits or homunculi or zombies for dead vessels. Use focus rules and apply focus multiplier based on complexity.

Examples: mana scale, mana channeler, mana collector, mana neutralizer. Force x 2 is dice pool.

Manaware using living critter organs and astral shadow genetic sculpting. Much like the guy who made cyberware common because of his cell structure a person was found that does the same for astral shadows allowing his essence to not reject modifications.

Dream magic. Ritual sorcery and spell. Needs attunement. Enter the dreamspace of another via a material or sympathetic or symbolic link. Works like mindprobe. Use arcana and willpower to defend. Can use spotter as well.

Mask another. Ritual. Attunement. Preparation or construct.

Familiar ritual. Uses attunement.

Ally spirit conjuration. Uses attunement. Cast ritual with formula then conjure spirit.

Quality for adepts familiar and weapon mastery

Cleansing ritual using geomancy. Geomasonry cleansing through constructs.

Constructs use artificing. They are items that manipulate mana. Directing flow.

Divining ritual using attunement.

Invoking conjuration great form ceremonial magic. Start with a ritual. Use ritual rules for time.

Psychometry detection spell with geomancy and attunement. Force limited by assensing skill.

Flux ritual attunement.

Reflecting advanced metamagic.

Runner havens p43 to 45 blood magic oaths.

Hunch preparation using divination.

Threat spell picks up on threats by spying 3 seconds or a combat turn into the future.

Scry ritual let character see a likely future.

Psychometry spell. Forensic Prometheus’s brother Ritual goes deeper.

Bonding attunement qualities. 28 days of close contact. Item is broken or dies karma is lost.

5 pts base, 5 pts large or swarm, 5 pts sapient, 5 pts per power of paracritter. Sense link with animals. BFF with people gives empathy power. Attunement can come accidentally. In that case half cost if player agrees.

Layer threads of mana and self (karma).

If item is broken or if familar dies or comes to hate each other karma is lost.

Item karma is object rating.

Lookup reckless spellcasting for touch spells using an attuned weapon.

An attuned weapon can bypass immunity to natural weapons for spirits. Adepts can channel killing hands into the weapon.

Blood magic. Mundane critter equal to 3 reagents, critters and people at essence or magic whichever is higher.

Self wound. Each box is 3 reagents worth. Healing spells cannot heal this.

 

Exotic ingredients for rum and gun

All require an arcane smithy and are handmade by a weaponsmith or armorer with the additional new knowledge arcane smithing.

Each item has an arcane rating from 1 with a limit of 6 for modern metahuman craftsmanship. Artifacts or items crafted by ancient and powerful beings or from them such as using a bone from a great dragon may bypass this limit up to 12.

The rating provides bonus points to be spent enhancing the base item in a way that is in keeping with the theme of the source of the arcane rating whether it be animal, plant, or mineral.

If the item is tailored for you for you alone an extra point is added. If you make it yourself for yourself a total of 2 pts are added to be spent.

1 pt increases a tertiary rating of an item by 1.
2 pts increase a secondary rating by 1
3 pts increase a primary by 1.

The skill of the craftsman and the ambient mana trapped in the materials used determine the rating. The actual material provides flavor and possible storytelling options such as cold weather gear made from a Siberian wolf shapeshifter may provide bonuses in certain social interactions and a big problem in others.

The rating of an arcane weapon counts as a limit if the item is being used to bypass a beasties weapon immunity.

Weapons that are dragon quenched or made from dragon parts count as a weapon focus with a rating of 0 when dealing with beasties immune to normal weapons.

Dragon parts for weapons such as talons, bones, horns, and fangs. Without any enchantment the ambient magic locked within when forged or shaped by an arcane smith provide a +1 to accuracy and +1 to armor piercing to the base melee or arrowhead weapon due to the predatory nature of dragons.

When used as the base for a weapon focus the focus acts as if it’s rating was one point higher for everything but karma cost for, forging or bonding. If the dragon uses their own body part to make a focus it’s rating is 2 higher.

Dragon’s blood can be used to quench weapons and imbue the weapon with some of the innate magic of the dragon. Most weapons require 1 to 3 gallons of blood. Good success provides a free karma point discount on enchantments while an extraordinary success drops it by 2 and with gm approval increases one key stat of the item by 1 such as dragon scale armor having an additional point of fire resistance.

Dragon armor. Using tanned dragon leather or forging scales into scales or plates provide additional protection and bonus resistance.

Magical leathers

Dragon, wyvern, etc

 

 

My main idea with handling positive Background Count areas or domains is to utilize a variation of the Contact system. Just like Contacts the pc will need to pay the BC some attention, effort, and maintain their acclimation occasionally or risk their acclimation declining.

Each character starts off with a Tradition and is aligned to mana that is aspected toward that Tradition for free. Many Traditions are similar enough to each other to allow for automatic acclimation according to the Street Grimoire. Rather than assuming that acclimation since I am formalizing a system for acclimation I will make it so that a character has to earn that acclimation as different characters could have been exposed to different Traditions and variants or sects of those Traditions and it makes for an even field for all magicians.

To maintain balance between non-magicians and magicians I will be creating a new type of group pseudo-contact called Networks. Each character will at character generation have Professional or Hobbyist Networks they gain from their character history and magicians can purchase Backgrounds which provide acclimations to different types of aspected mana as well. A Hobbyist Network could be a fantasy Urban Brawl League that gets together on the Matrix and at O’Malley’s pub on 73rd. A veteran of the armed forces may take a Professional Network to the unit that they served in and a university graduate could take their department as a Professional Network.

At character generation each mundane character picks three Skills or Knowledges that are usually their highest rated abilities. These picks form the core Background of the PC. Magicians may choose between having a Network or on Acclimations to different aspected mana. The rating of the Skill or Knowledge provides the Connections and Loyalty of the Network. Arcana provides the Rating for a Magical Background.

At character generation the PC magician may spend the free Karma gained by Charisma for Contacts on gaining what I will call Familiarizations. The PC also starts with free Karma equal to their Arcana Rating to spend. The reasoning behind this is that BC takes time to develop and it is totally reasonable that a character will have developed some acquaintances while spending so much time acclimating to a given BC. If the PC went to MIT&T and is acclimated to mana aspected towards Knowledge than it is reasonable for the magician to use the Familiarization like a Contact. In the case of the magician above the PC might think that the professor who taught his magical poisons class might be able to help answer some questions but since the professor has no loyalty or genuine friendship with the PC and may not even remember the PC at all it would definitely have to be worth the professor’s time. This mechanic can actually help the PC and GM have a plausible way to develop new Contacts in game in a reasonable fashion. Of course the PC has no way of knowing if the pseudo-contact is trustworthy in a capacity different from how they might know each other. The bartender at the old university pub might remember the kid and might even do the kid a solid if asked for free but if someone came sniffing around the bartender has no compunction about sharing especially if money is put on the table.

Each acclimation has a type and a degree of acclimation

buy multiple types and they add together. A minor acclimation would be a neighborhood, a cathedral, a university, an Ares facility, and a rural county or a specific forest.

A major acclimation would be a specific downtown, a specific suburb, all ares facilities, all universities, all catholic holy grounds and a rural area covering hundreds or more square miles, forests in a nation.

A grand acclimation would be all downtowns in a nation, a specific city, all suburbs in a nation, all megacorp facilities, all places of learning, all holy grounds of any christianity all rural areas in a nation all forests on earth (use the terrains in Survival).

Elemental, emotion, toxic have pollution and radiation. Danger in acclimation can lead to alignment. Type of magic. Tradition. . Local, regional. Type of environment see survival.

Religion.

Use arcana mechanic for acclimation. Familiar bc is easier.

Each spirit type has an aspected domain.

Each terrain has an aspected domain.

Battle mana aspected by combat or competition.
Charisma mana aspected by social interactions.
Individual or Tradition.
Emotions.
Knowledge

Spirituality
Metaplanar Source such as fire, earth, water, air, faerie, beasts, etc.
Megacorp, Nation, Culture, Urbanity, City, Neighborhood, A Corp, AA Corp, AAA Corp.

minor, major, grand.

Your spirits benefit from your alignment or acclimation.

Don’t forget to look at old BC/primer for some good house rules.

Foci are only penalized by lack of mana. They automatically acclimate to any positive mana BC.

Conjury overhaul
Long term binding uses a radical instead of karma.
Fettering as a more powerful version of domination and binding contract. Instead of Karma use radical reagents equal to Force. Giving up a Magic in a contract is a gift while in a domination the Magic is used to surpress and conquer the spirit.

Handle like Contacts. Tradition is native/aligned. By summoning/binding a spirit it gains the magician’s acclimations. Quality: Dual Tradition. Arcana x 2. Foci only having penalty on negative.

By emotion and by activity. Sucks to be a magical musician if the background count kills your magic. A soldier magician is going to be used to war and the bc caused by it. Look up metaplane types for types of activities.

temporary and typical. Go through the aspects of bc.

buy multiple types and they add together. A minor acclimation would be a neighborhood, a cathedral, a university, an Ares facility, and a rural county or a specific forest.

A major acclimation would be a specific downtown, a specific suburb, all ares facilities, all universities, all catholic holy grounds and a rural area covering hundreds or more square miles, forests in a nation.

A grand acclimation would be all downtowns in a nation, a specific city, all suburbs in a nation, all megacorp facilities, all places of learning, all holy grounds of any christianity all rural areas in a nation all forests on earth (use the terrains in Survival).

Home Ground Magician: (10 Karma positive Quality)

The magician is aligned to the magic and mana in her area. She knows the astral denizens and they know her. Other magicians know that this is her turf and no better than to try and harvest reagents there without her permission. Whenever the magician tries to harvest reagents in her neighborhood they gather 1 + their Grade more reagents than normal. Most any test involving magical knowledges and skills involving her neighborhood she gets a situational bonus of 1 + her Grade including social tests involving the awakened in her territory.

Elementalist: (20 Karma positive Quality)

The character is aligned to the natural and metaplanar mana of one of the four elements fire, earth, air, and water. For the purposes of tests involving this element the character gains 1 + Grade bonus situational dice and the character can use their Counterspelling against any magic aligned to that element such as a preparation or a critter power. A water elementalist would have an advantage on Navigation tests piloting his boat, Fishing tests at the local pond, casting or counterspelling water barrier and dehydrate spells, resisting knockdown from a water cannon, summoning water spirits like a Naiad, an ettiquette test with a spirit of the Loa when in the water metaplane of Guinee, and an animal handling test with a Kelpie. Elementalists often gain Mentor Spirits who embody an aspect of their element either early on in their careers or as they start plumbing the depths of the spirit world and the nature of their own spirit. This Quality should be the dominant trait of the character. It is very common for Elementalists to have Distinctive Style and may be prejudiced against other elements and their denizens. It is also common for Elementalists to have a type of shamanistic mask when performing powerful magics like their hair or eyes turning fiery red or their hair and clothes behaving as if underwater or floating a few inches off of the ground.

Most initiate Elementalists eventually start creating or learning exotic metamagics and techniques that grant special abilities or adapt the character to survive better that alignment.

Dual Tradition: (4 or 6 Karma positive Quality)

 The character is aligned with a second Tradition’s magic and mana. They can learn from that Tradition’s formulas and cast Rituals with them as if they were a member of that Tradition. The PC may swap out a spirit type with one in the same category in their second Tradition if they want. This is a 4 point Quality if the two Traditions are closely related or a 6 point Quality if very different.

 This Quality if slightly common among magicians of rare Traditions who undergo formal training outside of their Tradition. If one of the traditions are common it can make it far easier to access magical goods for sanctifying your Magical Lodge’s Sanctum and spells to learn from.

Limit of Magical Lodge Rating is increased by the Study’s Rating.

Libraries can act as their rating as the equivalent of legwork when pertaining to arcane topics with the rating being the equivalent of a Contact’s Connection rating as long as the PC’s Arcana is equal or higher than the Library’s rating.

Libraries can contain the works of the magician himself.

Library rating of 1 costs 1000 nuyen which contains the necessary books to perform research, spell, ritual, and preparation design, info on an half dozen spirits with true names for summoning, and basic formulas in the region’s dominant Tradition for minor artificing tasks that can be retooled for different traditions and telesmas. Has the formulas for spells, rituals, and preparations that the magician knows himself.

Library rating of 2 costs 4000 nuyen which contains a few specialist books on different arcane topics, information on dozens of spirits for summoning and basic information on many known free spirits, and formulas for major artificing tasks for many different traditions. Has common formulas which are those found in core rulebook.

Library rating of 3 costs 9000 nuyen and is wealth of knowledge on many arcane topics from the metaplanes, atlantis, dragon physiology, extensive catalogs of spirit types and categories found all over the world and from many traditions including a few genius loci spirits in the region, and formulas for grand artificing tasks from many different traditions and telesma types. Has rare formulas found in Street Grimoire that don’t require metamagic.

Library of 4 includes metamagical rituals and other formulas produced in books released.

Library rating of 4 costs 16,000 nuyen, rating 5 costs 25,000 and rating 6 costs 36,000. Rating ^2 x 1000 nuyen.

Laboratory rating costs: Rating ^2 x 10,000 +15k for 5th gen nuyen. Raises limit for Alchemy and allows preparations to be stabilized within the lab for days equal to the Lab’s rating.

Cauldron is a major Focus that allows the alchemist to make a preparation or magical compound as normal but it creates an additional identical preparation equal to its Rating. So, a force 1 cauldron would create a batch of 2 preparations.

Library has a number of spell, preparation, and ritual formulas equal to its rating squared. These formulas can act as templates for the creation of new spell formulas by the magician. The better the Library the easier it is for a scholar to create something new.

A Sanctum is a place charged with the energies of the magician. A religious magician might have an altar with icons, religious symbols, statues of gods or saints or mandalas on the walls, ceiling, and floors while a magician musician might have sheet music and musical instruments in the room with a framed gold record award from a favorite musician with the room acoustically designed and insulated to block outside sounds like a music studio.

Arcane rating is provided by arcane art, objects, fetishes, samples of paranormal animals, parageological ores, relics from ancient cultures, and other trappings of the magician’s tradition, paradigm, or magical group. Arcane materials can be purchased at a Talismonger shop or crafted by the magician. Some Native American shamans might carve totem poles while a chaos magician geomancer might make a variation of a Jackson Pollock painting while assensing the Lodge’s mana that encompasses the power and flavor of the Lodge’s astral realm, feng shui, and their personal magical paradigm.

A single dram of flawless reagent can be dedicated to the Sanctum and increase its rating by 1. A single dram of Orichalcum can be dedicated to the Sanctum and increase its rating by 3.

A refined reagent can speed up the process of the Magical Lodge reaching its limit by spending a day and a dram. This can be done up to the limit of the Lodge. The normal process takes one month per rating of the Lodge. A radical reagent and a day of work will bring the Lodge up to its Limit. Reagents spent this way cannot be recovered if the Lodge is moved.

Sanctum rating costs half library rating either in magical work or in purchases from a Talismonger.
Library effective rating limit is Arcana for the purposes of R&D and for the Magical Lodge’s rating. A vast library full of lore doesn’t help an apprentice find basic information any better than a small library with the basics and since the apprentice doesn’t incorporate those advanced concepts into their magical paradigm yet the higher rating library doesn’t have any greater effect on the mana in the Lodge. Besides a magician with a low Arcana would have a hard time comprehending the dense magical theory of a specialist grimoire likely to be found in an advanced Library.

Forge increases Lodge limit by the Force of the Artifact for artificing. Same as a Laboratory for an Alchemist for Alchemy. A cauldron helps make batches of potions.

Study has a library which uses magical lodge materials and gives access to spirit names to cover most permutations of possible spirits. Rating of Library increases magical lodge limit. The books and/or other materials in the study help to anchor the mana’s aspect. Library adds to Arcana test limits as well when the magician has time and access to the study.

Laboratory ratings. A preparation can be set on standby for as many days as the Laboratory rating without losing potency. Once taken from the lab the preparation begins degrading.

3 or more periphery anchors depending on shape of the boundary. 1 week per anchor of studying the mana flow and bending it to your will. First make a periphery formula which encompasses the uniqueness of the area. Magician must own the land directly or as part of a group. Boundary is explicitly delineated in both realms by things like a fence or a wall or even just a sidewalk. Most commonly 4 anchors are used for square or rectangular lots. This creates a positive background count aligned to the magician or the magician’s group or tradition equal to the magician’s Arcana and a barrier equal to their arcana. If a geomancer the initiate can add their grade. Or only allow geomancers to make this.

BC at a Lodge is 1 + Grade aligned toward a Tradition if primarily purchased or it can be individualized to the magician or magical group by having the magician/s craft their Lodge materials.

Magic Circle Formulas: # equal to Arcana + Rituals all come with a Formula

Study: Library room for learning spells, preparations, rituals, and designing or retooling esoteric formulas.

Sanctum: The magician’s most sacred place for magic. Religious magicians often have a centerpiece of an altar.

Laboratory: Alchemical Lab equipment and many strange and unique material components. Cauldron Major Artifact allows Batches of Potions up to its Force.

Forge: Area for the magical artisan to craft artifacts, enchantments, telesma, and foci. Anvil is a Major Artifact that helps with crafting and artificing.

Hearth Heart: The center of a Lodge usually in the Sanctum; the hearthstone anchors the mana and can take many forms from a painting, a sculpture, a magical network of circles, an altar, a mandala, a tree, or top of a hill.

Periphery: 4 tokens at the cardinal directions anchor the outer boundary of the Lodge to the hearth stone.

Spell Circle: Keyed to a spell category.

Ritual Circle: Keyed to a specific Ritual.

Theurgic Circle: Keyed to a specific named spirit or designed to draw out the local genius loci.

Temp

how long doesit take to create.

The Wards created by the components of a Magical Lodge can be built to take advantage of advanced metamagics following the Wards rules without requiring any extra rolls or time as the character is intimately tuned to his own Lodge.

Spirits may still be trapped in a summoning or binding circle should the magician pass out from drain. That is part of the point of having a circle as an uncontrolled spirit who maybe isn’t happy to have been summoned can be dangerous to a solitary passed out magician.

Different types of circles. For sorcery a combat circle provides aid to casting combat spells and a barrier to protect the rest of the magician’s lodge from possible backlash. Initiates with metamagics like geomancy and cleansing can use spell circles to cast their magic without the interfering of toxic or antipathic mana. The best of the best special forces teams often have magicians in a heavily defended location that is equipped with many optical lines allowing the magician to use a headset/binoculars to view far distant locations while maintaining line of sight by natural means. Mobile magicians might use a plane or a thunderbird equipped with optical sensors and high grade natural magnification so the mage can target opponents that can’t see them and can’t retaliate. Since mana slowly grows weaker the further from the surface of the earth a spell circle can alleviate some of the penalties.

Each Ritual can have a circle designed for that ritual that can be made permanent and thus save on reagent use. A Summoning circle can be generic or designed for the specific spirit or specific type of spirit. An Alchemy cauldron can allow for easier and larger production of preparations.

Circles double the strength of any astral signatures created by them. A circle can be damaged. Say a magician uses a silver paint pen to quickly inscribe a circle to aid his magic on a rooftop prior to a dangerous meet another magician can use arcana to study that circle and decipher their tradition, style, and maybe even mentors and teachers. A magician starts with as many circles as their Arcana. Different circle formulas can be created or purchased just like spells but have less effectiveness if not of the pc’s tradition. Purchased formulas can be retooled for the character’s style and are more effective if personalized.

First start off with Sanctums and temporary sanctums. Then circles. then the rest.

Most magicians have a Sanctum to the point were the term Magical Lodge for many magicians simply means their Sanctum which is where they learn new spells and research formulas. Some magicians even call it their study. Conjurers who bind spirits often will create a Binding Circle to contain the spirit during the Binding process and ritual sorcerers benefit from crafting a Ritual Circle or circles if performing group rituals. Other Magical Lodge components are usually only found in the home base of Magical Groups, Dragons, Master Enchanters, and the very successful and private practitioner. Those rules are presented here mainly to aid the GM in providing a guide for the defenses of those magical elite likely to be targeted by runners.

One of the first big research discoveries in magic after the Awakening was discovering the properties of the lodge and its components the periphery, circles, forge, and sanctum. Those early pioneers of magic discovered that in the special places they created to practice their faith, magic, or psionic research and study would slowly develop magical properties that aided or allowed them to learn spells, perform rituals, and bind spirits more effectively while also protecting them.

Eventually early magicians came to an understanding that their magical tools and consistent use of their magic in an area would come to ground the mana to that area and aspect it towards themselves and those who were of a like mind in philosophy and arcana. The next step was to learn how to enhance and speed up that grounding process through the use of refined reagents which could be unwoven by the magical practitioner from their physical source into the very foundation of Gaia allowing for vastly more powerful sacred spaces and magics.

The shamans involved in the Great Ghost Dance found that the grade of the magical reagents used to empower their magical lodges could be used to specialize and improve components of their magical lodges.

The next big discovery was published by Dr. Janis Jamberes about how to use reagents away from the magical lodge to create temporary circles allowing magicians to perform complex and time consuming magics away from their Sanctum. Unfortunately the ebb and flow of mana is powerfully disturbed by sunrise and sunset and without the magical environment of the Lodge caused by the magical tools, laboratory, knick knacks, books, drawings and other paraphernalia laden with a tradition’s astral signature to anchor the mana woven into Gaia’s aura it hasn’t been possible to extend the temporary magical lodge’s duration.

Clever magicians have taken advantage of this property when doing research in polar locales.

Magical Lodges can take many forms and have many sizes. Most wealthy landowning magicians create a periphery of their home and anchor the outer defenses at their hearth which radiate out from that center to minor anchors at the perimeter. This is usually the weakest part of the Magical Lodge as a whole and represents the periphery or outer most part of the Magical Lodge. The anchor at their hearth can be disrupted by accident or unscrupulous intent and thus drop the barrier at the edge of the magician’s property. This is usually self repairable and back to normal following the next sunrise or sunset unless the anchor was destroyed which could be anything from a magical painting hanging above the fireplace to a sculpture to a design carved or etched into the wall.

The next key part of the Magical Lodge is the sanctum which is the special place a magician uses to perform most of the magical research and practice. It is common for many lower income or solitary magicians to have only a sanctum component to their Magical Lodge. For enchanters this is almost always their enchanting laboratory while others might have a special room they only enter for specific reasons or sacred reasons and others use their personal room though this is harder to do as the daily mundane actions in a personal room doesn’t have the same cache as a study might for instance.

Other components that can be part of a Magical Lodge are the Spirit Circle and the Ritual Circle and they could be inside the sanctum or they could be outside the house in a circle of strange mushrooms in the backyard. They don’t have to take the form of an actual circle though that is by far the most common type. As it is easier to boost a Circle to an higher Force than it is the other components these are often highest rated in Force within a Magical Lodge.

The last component is the Forge. This is usually only found in the Magical Lodges of elite enchanters or magical groups and is a special place for the creation of powerful telesma and foci.

A Magical Lodge is a critical part of a modern magician’s life as it is where the magician learns new spells, preparations, and rituals and where they perform their most complex magical procedures such as refine reagents, bind spirits, cast rituals, and create magical items. It protects them from astral intrusion which is particularly important for magicians who spend a lot of time astrally projecting.

Any PC or significant NPC should have a writeup describing their Magical Lodge or the Magical Lodge or their magical group. A Magical Lodge of significance is also tied to the Lifestyle of the character as someone renting a room with some barely capable hackers isn’t going to invest much time, effort, and money in a complex magical lodge.

A magician who focuses almost entirely on spellcasting can get away without a Lodge and might just use a contact or colleague’s Lodge for when they need to learn a spell but other types of magicians aren’t so lucky.

A periphery with a Force of 2 and a Sanctum with a Force of 3 and a Ritual Circle with a Force of 6 would have three different barriers for a trespasser to violate if the Ritual Circle was the target and was in the same room as the Sanctum.

These rules can make a PC’s home seem much more interesting and can be really useful for handling runs against Magical Groups, Dragons, or powerful solitary Magicians out in the country enjoying life in their dark tower.

Game Mechanics:

When creating a Magical Lodge there are various components of the Lodge that can be built using refined or better reagents and arcane elements which are the tools and accoutrements of a magician.

As most Magical Lodges for runners are limited to Sanctums and Circles I will start with those components and then elaborate on the more esoteric parts of Magical Lodges that runners are likely to encounter when taking jobs against powerful magicians, magical groups, magical research labs, and dragons.

A separate test for each point of force until failure with focus.

The forge is basically an artificing minor focus that can’t be moved. Provides bonus dice to focus creation when the focus is equal or less to the rating of the forge.

The hearth force is a limit on the force of the periphery which also has a limit equal to the grade of the magician or leader of a magical group.

The hearth anchor is an enchanted item equivalent to a minor focus with a force that provides the maximum rating of the periphery.

Periphery can be no larger than an acre, must be owned by the magician or magical group, and must have clearly demarcated perimeter in which at least 4 perimeter markers have been placed. Some perimeters markers could be trees, runestones placed in a stone wall, glyphs painted on a sidewalk, fenceposts made from mana rich wood, totem poles. It should be something evoking their magical tradition and can be obvious or subtle.

Each of the four markers is charged with a refined reagent and the hearth anchor is charged with a radical reagent.

Tokens are raw reagents aligned to the hearth anchor.

Should the perimeter markers be defaced or damaged the barrier drops by 1 each until all markers are down which drops the barrier until the next sunrise or sunset. As long as the anchor survives the markers will regenerate and the mana barrier will recover at a rate of 1 a day.

The purpuse of the periphery is more to keep mana in and to provide early warning than to prevent outside intrusion.

The entire magical lodge has a background count aspected towards the magician or magical group or tradition equal to its rating.

The barriers can be enhanced by shielding metamagics and hidden from view with masking metamagic. The maximum barrier strength that can be masked at a periphery is equal to the grade of the initiate who made it and equal to the magic rating plus grade for the others. The barrier can only be noticed with an observe in detail assensing action otherwise you notice it when you smack into it activating the alarm.

Tokens can be made allowing entrance of others through the periphery. Members of the magical group who have previously aligned themselves to the hearth anchor and their ally spirits can grant entrance at the perimeter to others.

Many lodges have a bell that rings once when someone enters and rings heavily when the perimeter is attacked. One refined reagent.

Use a reagent to speed up growth or to increase the Limit of the Magical Lodge. First takes Limit from half MR to full MR and each after increases Limit by 2 up to twice MR. To speed up growth each reagent increases force by 2.

Orichalcum can be used as an ingredient of the Periphery’s anchor or added to silver to make an engraved in stone Ritual circle or bound into a part of a Sanctum’s door or made into a set off runes decorating a Forge’s anvil. Orichalcum eliminates any Limit to that part of the Lodge’s Force.

Periphery grows by 1 each year and takes a Radical Reagent to increase limit past half the magician’s magic rating

Sanctum grows by 1 each week and takes a refined reagent to increase limit past half the magician’s magic rating

A Circle grows by 1 per day and takes a refined reagent to increase limit past the magician’s magic rating

A Forge grows by 1 each month and takes a Radical reagent to increase limit past half the magician’s magic rating.

Change Crux to Sanctum and Sanctum to Periphery

for a sanctum drop painted rocks at the compass points on the edge of their property and anchor it on their literal or metaphorical hearth with a family portrait.

Positive Grade of reagent effects one magical test each month with negative effecting all magical tests.

Positive background count aspected to magician’s tradition equal to Sanctum’s Force.

f x 25 raw/f x 10

f refined or one radical.

Pay cost of temporary

Once a month a Forge can provide a benefit to an artificing test.

Grade of reagent the

Size of lodge, layering a magical lodge like having a house be a lodge of 3 and a binding circle of 8.

don’t need a reagent to ground to create a lodge.

temporary makes area such as a room or a magic circle.

Arcana plus artisan x 10 nuyen an hour for creating magical lodge materials.

Without lodge materials half magic rating using just a refined reagent in a day.  The lodge matures at a rate of increasing by 1 per week up to magic rating and 1 per month over magic rating with 250 nuyen of created materials or 500 nuuen of purchased. Additional refined reagents can be used to increase the limit by 2 by spending a day. Maximum limit magic x2. When moving spent reagents can’t be recovered.

 Sanctum Magic + Arcana x 2 meters maximum size.
Magic Circles are activated till sunrise or sunset with a refined reagent. They are stronger than the Sanctum they are placed in.

Magical Lodges:

By purchasing or creating Magical Lodge Elements, spending a day per Force of the Lodge or Sanctum, and tapping into a Refined Reagent to anchor and provide permanence a Mage or Shaman can create a Magical Lodge equal to their Magic Rating. Additional Reagents can be applied along with an additional day to increase the total Force of the Magical Lodge up to the Mage’s Arcana + Magic Attribute. This type of Lodge can be moved to another location though it requires a day and a new Refined Reagent to be used again to anchor it with the original reagent is lost.

Instead of using a Refined reagent the Mage may use a Radical Reagent and create a Lodge with a Force equal to her Arcana + Magic Attribute in a single 8 hour shift and in that case doesn’t even need to purchase any Magical Lodge Elements at all beyond a few nuyen worth of chalk or magic markers. This type of Lodge seems very spartan to most mundanes and the Lodge can’t be moved to another location effectively as there is nothing portable imbued with enough magic to make it worthwhile unless the mage over time decides to pick up enough elements such as books and knick knacks that the GM rules that they become part of the Lodge and in that case the Lodge could be moved but would require a day and a Refined Reagent.

Unstable Magical Lodges or Sanctums can be created by simply using a room for magic and having a lot of magical materials in the area but the presence of other people especially other Mages will damage an impermanent Lodge. Every month spent with extensive solo use of a room will create and improve a room into a temporary Lodge up to half the character’s Magic Attribute. Discovery of this occurrence is what led to research on creating more permanent and resistant Magical Lodges. This is the reason that many early practitioners would not allow the uninitiated into their private sanctums besides those practitioners that required privacy for religious reasons.

Temporary Magical Lodges:

Temporary Magical Lodges are necessary for many uses of Ritual Sorcery whenever a Ritual is done away from one’s home Lodge such as when building Wards for a business or friend. As the Mage is paying for the Ritual via a Temporary Lodge it makes no sense to double dip charge during the Ritual so Ritual Sorcery Step 5 can be skipped.

Temporary Magical Lodges are disrupted at sunrise or sunset.

A raw reagent allows the Mage to create a temporary Lodge equal to his Arcana Rating in a number of hours equal to the Force of the Lodge and lasts a number of hours equal to the Mage’s Magic Rating. During the creation of the Lodge the Mage can use additional Raw reagents to increase Force by 1 per reagent used up to the reagent maximum.

A refined reagent allows the Mage to create a temporary Lodge equal to his Arcana Rating in a number of minutes equal to the Force of the Lodge and lasts for a number of hours equal to the Mage’s Magic Rating. During that time the Mage can use additional Refined reagents to increase the Lodge’s Force by 2 or add an additional 2 hours of longevity with a maximum Force up to her Magic + Arcana.

A Radical reagent allows the Mage to create a temporary Lodge equal to his Magic + Arcana + Grade in a number of minutes equal to the Force of the Lodge that lasts until sunrise or sunset.

Ritual Sorcery Modification:

With the requirement that Rituals must be performed in a Magical Lodge and that many Rituals would need to be done away from home which would require the expenditure of reagents in order to create a temporary Ritual Circle at least it doesn’t make sense from a story and from a game balance perspective to force the magician to double dip on reagents.

Handling a Magical Lodge can be a big part of a magician’s story and the costs involved more than pays for any reagents that might be used at home and making a temporary lodge away from home is kind of a pain in time, effort, and nuyen.

Thus, completely ignore Step 5 for casting Rituals.

Binding Spirits Modification:

A Magical Lodge or a Temporary Magical Lodge is necessary to bind a spirit. If away from home than most magicians make a temporary Spirit Circle which will imprison the spirit until negotiations are concluded and the spirit is bound or escapes.

In order to bind the Spirit to the magician’s will the magician has refined reagents equal to the Force of the Spirit which are gifted and woven into the spirit by the magician with each reagent aligned to the pair separately taking base time of an hour each.

A radical reagent can be used instead cutting the time to bind the spirit to a base time of just one hour since just one reagent is being gifted. Double the number of services gained by the conjurer because of the potency of the gift regardless of its Force.

If the Force of the Spirit is greater than the Force of the Magical Lodge it is in than it can accept the reagents it has been offered and then leave without accepting the offer. This makes binding spirits that you didn’t summon very dangerous or expensive depending on your point of view.

 

Charms are minor magical items crafted by an artificer that provide a bonus dice to specific an active non combat non magic and non matrix skill equal to its Force between each sunrise or sunset and can be used by mundanes by bonding to it and spending Karma equal to its Force. The bonus dice cannot be greater than the Skill Rating. In other words the magic enhances what is already there. The crafter must have the skill equal to the Force as well. They can be turned off as a complex action so as not to tip off magical security but automatically turn back on at sunrise or sunset and cannot be turned back on before then. Maximum force of all charms bonded equal to character’s essence.

 

Potions and scrolls. An alchemist can make a batch of potions by spending an hour x force instead of minutes x force. Potions Longevity is in days instead of hours. Requires Fixation metamagic and a number of refined reagents equal to Force. Makes a number of potions equal to Force of Magical lodge or a batch of 1 if out on the town with a microlab. Requires alchemical lab or microlab.

A batch can be triggered at once with a simple action.

 

Scrolls fixate a preparation until the scroll is read by an awakened being of any type that is at least temporarily dual natured that can either comprehend the writing silently or say the sounds out loud. This takes a combat turn or 6 seconds per force. Longevity is permanent but otherwise behaves like a normal preparation. Takes hours instead of minutes and requires Fixation and a magical lodge.

Charms fx1.

Alchemy. Have two versions. More based on skill than magic rating. Make up for lack of skill with reagents. Charms. Potions. Wands. Longevity instead of Potency. Efficacy for net hits. Complexity is the force + trigger. Must have Alchemy skill equal to Complexity or use a reagent per point of difference. Use Arcana or Artisan for Drain. May make a batch of preparations which increases complexity. May take hours instead of minutes to increase Longevity and lower Complexity. Background Count.

Superior and Prime Reagents for Telesma creation.st.

May add half Artisan rating as bonus dice or whole Artisan rating if crafting from scratch. Because a lot of Artificers are amateur craftsman and make their foci from scratch the finished item is rarely as finely crafted as quality items made by mainstream manufacturers. This can cause many mundanes to dismiss very valuable foci as junk. The quality of the Telesma’s craftsmanship can make a difference in price for some customers while many see the more handmade focus as a status symbol and a sign the item is powerful.

The first roll is for a day, next takes a week, next takes a month, next takes a year, and the next takes a decade for crafting the Telesma.

Arcana + Drain Attribute threshold 3 limit magic. Size provides bonus dice for larger items as it is easier to weave mana into larger items. Net hits provide the rating of the Telesma which can be used toward Force or lowering the OR of the Telesma. No reagents need to be spent in this process though it is unlikely for the artificer to create a powerful telesma.

 

For Foci a refined reagent provides a bonus die, a Radical Reagent provides 1 hit per Reagent and pays 1 Karma to seal the focus that the artificer doesn’t have to pay. A dram of Orichalcum pays all Karma and provides 4 hits and anyone who binds to the focus pays half normal Karma to do so. 2 drams would cut karma bond cost by half again to a quarter as well as providing another 4 hits.

 

So with 5 net hits a telesma is made that could be made into a force 5 focus or a weaker focus and have its OR lowered. So, a Force 3 focus would lower its OR by 2 with a rating 5 telesma.

 

The Telesma has to be opened up and charged with mana of the crafter’s tradition in this process very similar to how a magical lodge is created.

 

To craft a Telesma has a threshold equal to Focus Multiplier with additional hits lowering the Telesma’s OR. Make sure to balance difficulty of creating higher force foci.

An artisan can make an artisan test and if crafting from scratch taking a day per force and add net hits as bonus dice to Arcana + Drain test against a threshold equal to Force. Edge can be spent on this. Any net hits above the threshold lowers the OR of the Telesma by 1 to a min of 0. If the mage fails to get the necessary hits than the Telesma’s mana is warped in some way so it can’t be used to make a major focus and can only be used as a minor focus with a max force equal to the net hits.

 

Orichalcum dram is equivalent to 30 Karma. If used in Focus Creation it lowers the Telesma’s OR by the creator’s Arcana or Artisan Rating depending on how and what form the Telesma takes. When using Orichalcum it pays the full Karma cost of sealing the Focus. The cost to bond with an Orichalcum crafted Focus is half normal.

 

telesma crafting lowers Object Resistance. Spend reagents p 307

 

 

A lot of the terms when performing Alchemy are very confusing and it seems to me that Potency should be replaced by Longevity as a term because that is really what it is. Potency as a term brings to mind the power of the Preparation not how long it is going to last.

 

Game Mechanics:

Telesma has a Rating which can be spent on either the Force of the Focus or lowering the OR of the Telesma. They also have a Karma Pool that can be used to pay for the Karma cost to seal the focus.

Initiates who know the Shielding metamagic can learn how to create a new Grand Focus called a Defense Focus.

Reagents:

 

 

An Initiate of Cleansing can use various reagents to enhance their ability to counter the effects of Background Count. Geomancers with Cleansing are particularly capable at dealing with Background Count.

The difference in time between a several hour ritual or weeks of effort crafting a powerful focus and an handful of seconds or a minute in combat is the difference between slowly unweaving the mana from the reagent into the magical procedure and ripping it out and flinging it at targets.

Using Artificing to create living magical chimera.

Using Reagents with Binding:

Raw: To Bind a spirit a mage may spend Force x 25 in raw reagents which is a case of violating the maximum reagents used rule.

Refined: Force x 2 refined reagents is spent which also increases the Limit of the Binding Test by 2 and this also ignores the maximum reagents used rule. Using Force x 3 refined reagents instead ends up removing the Limit of the Binding Test and provides bonus dice to the Binding Test equal to the Binder’s Arcana.

Radical: A radical reagent ‘Pushes the Limit’ and provides bonus dice equal to the Binder’s Arcana. If the Binder later decides to perform the Summon Great Form Ritual than the Ritual has no Limit and provides bonus dice equal to the Binder’s Arcana.

 

Qi Sculpt and a radical reagent allows an Adept to permanently change 1 power point worth of Powers to something different.

Using Reagents with Cleansing Matrix: Metamagic Complex Action described on SG 155:

Raw: Each Raw Reagent increases the Astral Limit for the Cleansing Complex Action and lowers Drain Value by 1.

Refined: Allows Cleansing to work with negative Background Count. Extends duration from Combat Turns to minutes. Halves the Drain Value. Increases Limit by 2 if positive Background Count.

Radical: Several options if the Initiate also knows Geomancy: (If not works just like ‘Pushing the Limit as described above)

Acclimation: Make an Assensing + Magic + Grade [Astral] (4) Test and if successful the Initiate has acclimated to the positive Background Count of the neighborhood like the Home Ground Quality but the number acclimated to is equal to their Grade rather than 2 as described in the Quality. No Drain if successful and if not successful suffer BC in Stun damage if BC is equal or less to Magic Rating and physical damage if BC is greater than Magic Rating.

Purification: Make a Counterspelling + Magic + Grade [Astral] opposed by (BC) Test with a Drain Value equal to the natural BC and if successful the Initiate has aspected the mana in the immediate vicinity towards her Tradition. Precisely how large of an area should depend on the grade of the Initiate and GM decision. This is can be done in areas with positive Background Count.

Amplification: Make a Spellcasting + Magic + Grade [Astral] (BC) Test for a negative Background Count area to fill it with more mana increasing the BC in the area by the Initiate’s Grade if successful. No Drain if successful and if not successful suffer BC in Stun damage if BC is equal or less to Magic Rating and physical damage if BC is greater than Magic Rating.

 

New Alchemical Triggers:

Break: (+2 Drain) When the Lynchpin is broken the magic of the Preparation rather than being discarded is released. This Trigger is used for Area of Effect spells. Using this trigger actively requires a ready weapon simple action and a throw weapon simple action using Throwing Weapons and the grenade rules.

Burn: (+1 Drain) This Lynchpin is some type of flammable item that is covered in runes, chinese taoist calligraphy, enochian, or other magical symbols and languages. This trigger is activated when the lynchpin is lit on fire. Once any part of the lynchpin is touched by fire the magic is released and the item flashburns releasing its magic on the nearest living thing to the burnt scroll. Requires a simple ready item action and a simple action to light the lynchpin with a lighter if the Preparation is on hand. The Preparation can also be placed at a distance and activated with a flame spell or a fire arrow.

Lynchpin Art:

An artist can use an appropriate Artisan skill to craft a superior container for the preparation’s magic. Intuition + Artisan [Astral] (3) Test taking an hour. This adds 1 + net hits to the Preparation’s Longevity (Potency).

Tailoring a Focus: (work in progress)

An Artificer can tailor a focus for a customer by spending a Radical Reagent and extra time to weave the mana in the Telesma so it can be aligned to the customer.

A Talismonger can go further in this process with an Arcana + Logic [3] Test to discover the best type of reagent for the client’s needs. This can lead to an adventure for either the client or the Talismonger. Achieving the Threshold and finding the correct type of reagent lowers the Karma cost of the Focus as if the Force was lessened by one when the client only attempts to bond with the Focus. Each additional two hits over the threshold lowers the Karma cost by another one.

The required type of the reagent used depends on the type of Focus. A Refined reagent is used for a minor focus, a Radical reagent for a major focus, and a Flawless reagent for a grand focus. The quality of reagent must always be a Prime quality in order to provide any benefit.

The Artificer after spending a reagent to bond the Telesma to the customer must Assense that person deeply for an hour while in their Enchanting Lab and then spend as many days aligning the Telesma up to the amount of Karma saved. The reagent is incorporated somehow into the telesma. A bit of meteoric iron could be used during forging a blade or a bit of saintly bone put in a holy blade’s hilt for example.

As it is unlikely to have the same type of reagent be used for different people the Enchanter must retool or create a focus formula that utilizes the required reagent and successfully add that reagent into the telesma using an Artisan + Intuition [3] Test.

The GM should provide bonuses to the Artificer if they know or are related to their customer. For every point of Loyalty if they are a contact they get a net hit on the Test.

Assensing + Intuition [Astral] (3) Test with success lessening the Karma cost of bonding to the Focus for that customer by 1 and each additional hit lowering the cost by 1. This could theoretically lessen the Karma to bond to a Focus to 0 and is compatible with Karmic savings gained by using Orichalcum to empower a telesma.

Edge and additional Reagents cannot be used on this Test. A glitch increases the Karma cost by 1 to bond with it and a critical glitch means that the Telesma rejects the customer and anyone else who attempts to bond with it must spend additional Karma equal to its Force.

Should someone other than the customer bond to the focus they would gain nothing from this tailoring process as a rule though a child or a spouse or a blood brother might inherit the Focus and get a little help in bonding because of that kinship.

The vast majority of Artificers demand payment up front for Tailoring a Focus.

 

Example of a minor focus: The Talismonger was selling the centuries old exorcist bible for a fortune. It was a Banishing Focus for Fire Elementals and an antique. It was a Force 8 Focus, OR of 5 (made of vellum) and worth 20,000¥ as an antique. 59,200¥ seemed high but where else was she going to get something this powerful on this short notice for the run?

Example of a major forcus: A finely crafted damascene handmade rapier crafted by Wayland Smitheries are on high demand for telesma among the elite adepts of gay Paris and Barcelona. It is a Force 4 Focus, OR of 7 (carbon nanotubes and damascus steel) and worth about 10,000¥. 66,800¥ is worth it for the discerning individual wanting to send the right message.

Example of a Grand Focus: The rarest and most powerful focus available to magicians was just completed for a client who had suddenly passed away and Kincaid was very pleased as that meant it was on the market. A Power Focus the holy grail of the Prime Runner Magician in the form of an exquisitely carved staff adorned with inset crystals from a cave in Wales and ogham, sperethiel, and nordic runes wrapping around in alternate bands like a Rosetta Stone up and down the staff with fanciful awakened creatures woven between them. The artisanship was truly amazing. It is rare to find Grand Foci that doesn’t have incredible detail as most artificers on this level are master craftsmen as well. The staff, gems, and the carvings are worth about 10,000¥ as art and it is a Force 3 Power Focus with an OR of 3. 345,400¥ was the asking price which was far less than the last Power Focus Kincaid had seen that had incorporated Orichalcum. This was far more reasonable and he’d been saving half his income for five years of running for this moment.

Astral Manuevers:

Ghost Lightning Strike allows the Adept to take advantage of the blinding speed of her astral form and strike a distant opponent with a close combat attack as long as they are within Magic Rating x 2 Meters. The Adept uses her normal physical realm Initiative and it is a complex action that works just like a Melee Attack in the physical realm as far as Initiative is concerned. This strike can use Killing Hands or a Weapon Focus and the target must be an astral form or dual natured form to have any effect. This strike uses the Astral Combat Skill.

Story involving an Eastern Dragon and an Orphan.

Bardic metamagic and objet d’art Alchemy and Spellbinding Art Metamagical Ritual.

Story about a virtuoso using music magic.

Game Mechanics

Requires centering and attunement metamagics.

The Initiate add his grade to all live Performance tests.

The initiate adds his performance skill to any spells cast that go with the flow of the music. A screamer song encouraging violence against the ‘man’ would provide an Influence spell a bonus’s towards getting a razorboy to strike out at the closest cop. The spell takes much longer to cast as it takes at least a couple minutes to build .

Cleansing: with Geomancy the Initiate can attempt to remove or lessen ephemeral background count from an area or item. It can be used to temporarily weaken mana in a locale to cause a mana ebb which often has unforeseen consequences to other locales. A geomancer would alter and dampen emotional resonance in the astral plane while a geomason would apply sacred geometry or feng shui to make changes in the physical world that effect mana flow in the physical world which over time because of the interplay of mana from the physical to the astral and vice versa will begin to effect the other realm. Items can also be purged of their resonance to prevent the use of psychometry.

Steward of the land:

 

Patronage:

Home ground:

Ley site:

Auric Reconfiguration: an initiate with masking can alter the aura of another entity or item. This can be used to confuse rituals using material or sympathetic links. With the metamagic flexible signature the initiate can alter enough of the auric field of the target to make it more difficult to assense the target accurately.

Apotropaic Aegis: protects target from curses and hexes as well as provides a resistance against spirit powers.

Advanced metamagical Rituals:

Recovery of the lost Name: ritual that restores lost essence to a target by reforging their Name that was shredded by however their loss happened. If the cause of the loss is still present then the cyberwear may be rejected by the body and soul allowing the being to be whole. 10 karma per point must be spent or one point of edge burned for a complete recovery.

Summon Ally Spirit:

Create Domain: A geomancer or geomason with the centering and ceremonial metamagics can enhance the local mana flow to create a power site with a rating of one. This ritual often disrupts regional mana flow and ley lines which can lead to problems. The creators can aspect the power site toward the ritual’s leader, their magical group, or tradition.

Karmic Transfer: Allows the transfer of Karma from one willing source to another.

Karmic Infusion: Allows a character to temporarily bond with a focus without expenditure of Karma. Only works once with each specific item.

Patronage Prerequisite: Geomancy/Geomasonry initiate can, through an aspected mana line, have an extra aura about them that can in uence those living and working in the area the mana line goes traverses. Size is initiate grade in square kilometers, with a maximum of the mana line’s power. Add dice equal to the power of the mana line to Charisma-based tests when within this domain. e aspected mana line must be one that they geomancer has imprinted with his own style of magic (p. 56, Street Magic). GEOMANCY RITUALS ese are rituals only available only to those who initiate in geomancy. ey have the same cost to learn as spells. ese rituals have a range of line of in uence (see below) and must be performed while the caster is present on a mana line. Line of Influence (LOI) e line of in uence is a nite area around a mana line based on the power of the mana line and the size of the domain. e area equals Force of the line x 100 meters. A geomancer can target anyone within this area. Geopathic Connection Prerequisite: Geomancy/Geomason, Home Advantage Type: M • Range: LOI • Damage: P • Duration: I • DV: (F ÷ 2) + 2 Using this ritual, the geomancer can control the mundane land within the domain of the aspected mana line. Geopathic connection allows the ritual caster to cause mishaps to a subject; however the ritual caster must have sight of the subject either personally, through a spotter or using ley sight. Geopathic Connection allows the ritual caster to temporarily use the Accident power (p. 208, Running Wild). e gamemaster should base the nature of the accident on the circumstances and environment. e maximum number of successes the ritual can achieve is Force of the aspected mana line + 1. Ley Sight Prerequisite: Geomancy/Geomasonry Type: M • Range: LOI • Damage: NA • Duration: S • DV: (F ÷ 2) + 1 e caster, through this ritual, is able to see or hear from any point within the aspected domain of the mana line with the exception of areas blocked by mana barriers. Augmented vision or hearing doesn’t apply. Maximum number of successes the ritual can achieve is force of the aspected mana line + 1

Aegis of the Protector: The result of an Attunement Metamagical Ritual of the same name  that is usually performed connecting a VIP to a Bodyguard. The attuned individuals are a sympathetic link to each other granting a general empathic sense for a feeling of the degree of well being and a compass for a rough directional and distance sense with unlimited range though things can get hazy because of the curvature of the earth. Both the attuned and the target must be touching during the ritual which lasts a month and a day.

 

Rutra an ork form of kickboxing focused on deadly strikes taking advantage of the greater strength of an Ork.

 

The Way of the Twisted (Quality): Awakened.

The Way of the Corrupted (Quality): Non-Awakened who feed on misery, fear, hate and pain. The Corrupted go beyond mere sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies by actually growing stronger when they commit atrocities. They GAIN Karma on “cold hearted bastard runs” and lose Karma on “good feelings runs”. Whenever their personal goals can be achieved while also increasing the suffering of others they grow stronger and will take the path. The Corrupted tend to think shallowly and in the short term even if or when their is a Grand Goal in sight which can be their downfall.

The Way of the Toxic (Quality): Animals and Humans can become Toxic Creatures without Magic. The pollution experienced by those who follow the Way of the Toxic (maybe break it down to different types like Avenger?) have their physical body become warped and polluted which damages the mind but that alone would not make them so dangerous for it is the pollution of the Essence of the human, animal, critter or spirit and the corresponding warping of their Astral Shadow that provides them with new abilities or heightens their old abilities.

The Way of the Insect (Quality): Animals can now become hosts. Devil Rats now serve the Hive.

The Way of the Shedim (Quality): Awakened and non-Awakened.

The Way of Faust (Quality):

Story Hooks: Master Shedim have been making Faustian bargains or Spirit Pacts with magicians and influential power brokers throughout the world.

Children of the Shedim.

New spirits born of earth and the home metaplane of the shedim. They don’t suffer evanesence but die when their host body dies.

The master shedim mates with another master shedim in astral form and for 1 karma creates an egg sac that is attached to a dying vessel. The egg sac matures absorbing as much of the essence of the dying vessel as possible over a period of at least a day and when the host dies the child shedim explodes from the astral sac into the fading astral and physical form of the host taking complete control and reanimating the host body.

The child with a good merge cannot be detected by any known means.

A bad merge means the body is not fully brought back to life and is slowly falling apart like the servitors of the archangel gabriel in the prophecy.

 

Learning additional metamagics. 15 karma and a month training. Cost 5 times normal for common metamagics with an availability of 12. Rarer metamagics will be harder to find.

Spiritual neursurgery
Inventing metamagics. Arcana plus logic.

Charging mysads for education. If you do charge as the price is provided just to show value give the mysad a contact worth the cost. 1000 nuyen provides 1 contact point.

Make up magical martial art.

Dueling
Blade to blade in the meat world.
Blade to blade in the astral.
Magical martial arts
Cyber martial arts
Astral war spell if both know spell
+1 to force with attunement or net hit with attunement
If both don’t know then ritual cast by another.
Creates a visible materialized battle ground with both mages having defenses and attacking forces visualized based on the tradition, style, and skill set of the awakened combatants.
Grade adds net hit to all tests.

Ork mage martial art. Look at or zet

Astral dodge has the astral form evade an astral attack by quickly fleeing the physical body so it misses the character even if it hits the area in the astral realm that corresponds to the characters physical location. Astral flying kick. Astral subdue.

Spirit heart strike. All spirits have a center or heart or focus that is their true name that a skilled assensor can find and strike. After getting 4 or more hits with an assensing test (each extra hit adds an extra die to all spirit heart strikes against that particular spirit. If the character knows the spirits true name each extra success is a net hit) the character makes a called shot against the heart and if he gets more net hita against the spirit than its force and does at 1 hit of damage the spirit is disrupted or banished for 28 days.

Make a new Specialization for Arcana: Talismongering, Geomasonry.

Spell design rules.

Elementalist techniques.

Duels Arcane. Assensing +Intuition for Initiative. Astral Manifestation of the wills and imagination of the duelists. Attack with Cha + Astral Combat/spellcasting/alchemy/summoning. Defend Logic + Counterspelling/Banishment/Dispelling. Soak: Willpower + . Mystic Armor + Grade. Either Stun or Physical (scorching).

Plant magic.

Cerri or’zet for battle siblings

erath home

grumoge fight

hez ork courage

jrikjrik tower

rek school

egrand protector

ereth’cerri: home turf ghetto

glok shadowrunner

rek school

vut drek

zakhan enemy

Skraacha: scorcher connotes living every day with passion, amazing deeds and extreme measures, uncompromising even in death.

Wejoto: Against the Way.

rutra martial sport from ork kickboxing

Technomancer Adepts: Use Resonance to get Power Points that can be used to increase mental attributes and skills and knowledges. Echo Points?

Geomancy (allows pc to operate in tainted or polluted astral space by creating a magical matrix or weave to purify mana for magical activities.

Flux Ritual requiring Masking that causes fluctuations in aura temporarily disrupting links to the magician. Requires Attunement to use on another.

Mask Ally Ritual: Allows the initiate to alter another person’s Aura. Requires Attunement.

Check SOTA 2064 Cybermancy

Storytelling, Weather, dreams

Astral Side Step maneuver.

Sensing Quality: requires Geomancy and allows the Initiate to have enhanced perception of the flow of mana extending Magic Rating in Kilometers.

Severing Ritual: Allows the initiate to cut astral links. Requires Masking.

Corruption Quality (allows NPC to transform spirits to toxic spirits) requiring Geomancy. Allows Leeching which poisons surrounding life in order to alleviate Drain. Taint Ritual allows the Corrupted to increase the Aspected Rating of an area as long as that Aspect is Toxic.

Psychometry Spell: Allows an Initiate to assense past sensory data of an object, person, or place with Force being the limit.

Psychometry Ritual: Peering through Time’s Veil. Visions check SOTA 2063

Because we who occupy the physical world do not live here alone, the Draco Foundation is directed to establish the Astral Space Preservation Society. The goals of the ASPS are as follows: to monitor potential abuses of astral space and its denizens; to protect the rights of denizens of astral space; to establish a set of parameters that will facilitate a working relationship between spirits and metahumanity; and finally, to create a sanctuary in astral space for beings in search of a safe retreat. The ASPS will be administered by the Dunkelzahn Institute of Magical Research (DIMR) in cooperation with any and all free spirits interested in joining this project.

The ASPS was organized by Daviar and the Draco Foundation. Unlike other organizations created by the Draco Foundation, the ASPS is sponsored mainly by the great dragon Hestaby. While nominally under the administration of the DIMR, the ASPS is a much more independant entity…if such can be said of any group taking a great dragon’s cred.

It needs be said, that some of the goals, such as a sanctuary in astral space for safe retreat, of the ASPS would be very valuable when the Horrors come again.

As of 2064, the society is headed by a Balinese anima called Ibu Air, and are widely believed to have created one or more astral sanctuaries; although the exact location is unknown.

Rites

Add ritual sorcery dice to spellcasting and counterspelling by taking extra time.

Counterspelling rite is a simple action that must be sustained each round. The max boost is equal to ritual sorcery and starts with +1 die and increases by 1 each round.

May cast weak versions of rituals.

Ritual spellcasting.

Combine ritual sorcery to cast a spellcasting spell.

Force x rounds add half of RS rating dice to soaking drain.

F x minutes add RS to soaking drain.

Using the mage’s skill to slowly weave together mana into the spell construct the mage is able to avoid exerting themselves as much as they would when casting a normal spell.

Adept power obsessive focus. Add rating to extended task subtract rating from all other tests during duration until finished. Is exhausted for twice as long as spent hyped up and has a oenalty dice equal to twice rating.

Rating provides fully detailed formula and complete breakdown and recipe of a number of rituals, foci, preparations, and scrolls/spells for the magician to use as if they knew the formulas by heart but they require the materials to be on hand.

Most magicians even those who specialize in ritual sorcery only know by heart a few Rituals. As Rituals tend to be done in the Sanctum with the Study providing easy access there is little point for sedentary magicians to learn them by heart.

Making physical representations or Grimoires that have been encoded with magical lore is a common beginning task for apprentice artificers as foci creation is far too dangerous and expensive for apprentices to cut their teeth on.

Scrolls hold the necessary info to cast a spell up to the Force of the scroll and take force minutes to cast.

Grimoires have the info to cast a ritual and provide the limit of the force of the ritual equal to twice its rating. Has number of rituals equal to its rating. Or preparations. Using a grimoire takes twice as long to use.

Scroll x1. Grimoires major. Forge, cauldron. Peripheral anchors minor.

Black Forest Boar troll martial art.

Genius loci true spirit of the land. Druids sg.

Backgrounds. One professional and one knowledge. Take a skill or knowledge and use its rating to purchase a background appropriate for that ability or hobby. A desert wars veteran an ex mercenary of ferdinands fighting frenchmen would be able to leverage that with other veterans. A second gen runner might have jackpoint. For magicians that background would inform your acclimations.

Cleansing initiates using reagents in a bc. In a negative bc a refined reagent increases the local bc by grade for Arcana combat turns. A radical increases bc by grade for Arcana minutes.

Obfuscating shielding. Adds grade dice to anyone protected by counterspelling dice against Detection spells and attempts at assensing or astral perception. Requires Shielding and Masking.

Masking signature. Subtracts grade dice on any attempt at astral tracking or ritual sorcery using a link. Requires flexible signature and masking.
technique: A Cleansing initiate can learn to adapt to any positive bc and filter out the mana distortions caused by too much mana. They ignore positive bc up to their grade.

Disenchanting. Disrupting a focus. Lasts x combat turns.

Delayed decay in a magical lodge or aligned bc.

Preparation or ritual sorcery.

Refined for potions.

Golems hearth and lodge spirits.

Charms are how artificer learn the basics before they move on to much more expensive items where failure can be quite costly.

Charms are one minor items that contain short sustained enchantments that can be used at intervals. A charm has its Force which can be allocated to Effect and Duration. Each point in duration lasts a minute. Charms can’t be controlled by a mundane and are automatically on until they use up the stored mana. A counterspelling charm automatically comes on when the person is targeted by a spell.

Calling on local spirit. Each spirit has a terrain they are aligned to. Spirits working for a conjurer gain their acclimations and alignments. They can have acclimations equal to their Force. Local spirits are aligned to the local mana.

Summoning has 2 types. Calling a spirit who is already there and summoning from a distance.

Binding does not use a spirit you have already summoned. Binding uses a spirit’s true name and a magical lodge/spirit circle. The magus must make a spirit formula and make a call out to the spirit with either magical muscle or a mutually beneficial agreement. A hermetic mage might view they are creating their spirit out of the ether while a theurgist might be summoning an angel or saint from the many books listing their multitudes.

For those providing an exchange it is customary to provide force in refined reagents to the spirit which is used to forge a bond between the magus and the spirit. It takes an hour to bind the spirit per reagent used. The spirit retains its autonomy and can use its own perspectives and intelligence to follow through on any services asked for by the magician.

For those seeking to dominate a spirit a radical reagent is used to bind and override the spirit’s will. The spirit is much more of an automaton and its higher functions are numb and dulled in the process taking a -2 penalty to all attributes. If the binding magus wills it the spirit can be sharp but rages at the injustice and will attempt to free itself upon any boring or long task that isn’t difficult or demanding to its attention.

So must create formula or purchase. Look at spell costs with higher prices depending on tradition. Could be a painting or an exquisite origami or a dance. The true name can be read or understood in many ways.

Arcana + Drain threshold Force extended action. Days. Many conjurers have long lists of spirits they can call. A character starts with Arcana x 2 true names at chargen. Each true name has a spirit type and any optional powers and a force.

Than Drain + binding for a deal. Not an opposed test. Threshold is Force -2. Each additional hit is an extra service. Edge cannot be used but using higher quality reagents can help as the spirit is more appreciative and tries harder to help when given better quality reagents. Conversely lower quality reagents are harder to use and the spirit can be less than impressed.

The drain is equal to the spirit’s Force.

Dominating would be Drain + Binding. This is an opposed test. Force x 2 + 1 for each previous domination binding for that spirit and this summoner. Drain is 2x total hits. Every net hit is a service.

By having names, personalities and attributes spirits can be a fascinating part of a game. When the street sam starts talking about urban brawl with the materialized earth elemental you know the game is richer for having spirits be more than just gear or a drone.

Drain is used because a hermetic making a deal is going to frame the contract in a very Logic tit for tat way while a charisma tradition is going to use charm and personality to get their way and an Intuitive shaman is going to let their instincts guide them.

Banishing is just a deadly task even if you specialize in it. Only by learning exorcism metamagic would it be useful if still deadly.

I don’t really like the use of the summoner’s magic or the banisher’s magic as a component. Force of personality is what should be manipulating the spirit.

So, Charisma replacing Magic for the Banisher and Willpower for the Binder.

Drain is only suffered if you lose or the Force is higher than your Magic. Drain is never physical for any conjury.

Noticing powers.

An hour for minor, day for major, week for grand per rating to craft a telesma.

A reagent physically incorporated into the telesma provides two points. A reagent channeled into a telesma provides 1.

Artisan 3 test adds 1 plus another per 2 hits. 5 total hits adds 2 to telesma rating.

Calculate cost of reagents and karma.

Price labor per day of artificer. Price per reagent. 500 nuyen day rounded down.

Minor telesma use refined regents. Major use radical and grand use flawless  reagents. Flawless is the next step after radical 3 flawless reagents are used to make orichalcum.

The Telesma rating minor, major, and Grand. Each rating can apply to force, paying karma, and lessening Object Rating.

Using charms increase a social skill. Use of that social skill for a minute or more leaves an astral signature of focus force like they had cast a spell.

Totem pole altar hearth.neutrally called crux

Force x type of reagent for telesma.

Telesma pool. 1 pt per force for minor. 2 for manor. 3. For grand. OR 1. 1 karma pays for 1 rating.

Thematically relevant reagents.

Binding type of gift reagent.

Tracking material link astral message. Dual natured. Search power and links.

The moment a ritual begins is when a material link is solidified. Otherwise since many material links only last a few hours you wouldn’t be able to get a ritual cast before the link was lost.

Material link quality and longevity.

Astral tracking article.

Clearer rules on astral tracking via astral links and duration of material link. Have persistent and weak links.

A separate test for each point of force until failure with focus.

The forge is basically an artificing minor focus that can’t be moved. Provides bonus dice to focus creation when the focus is equal or less to the rating of the forge.

The hearth force is a limit on the force of the periphery which also has a limit equal to the grade of the magician or leader of a magical group.

The hearth anchor is an enchanted item equivalent to a minor focus with a force that provides the maximum rating of the periphery.

Periphery can be no larger than an acre, must be owned by the magician or magical group, and must have clearly demarcated perimeter in which at least 4 perimeter markers have been placed. Some perimeters markers could be trees, runestones placed in a stone wall, glyphs painted on a sidewalk, fenceposts made from mana rich wood, totem poles. It should be something evoking their magical tradition and can be obvious or subtle.

Each of the four markers is charged with a refined reagent and the hearth anchor is charged with a radical reagent.

Tokens are raw reagents aligned to the hearth anchor.

Should the perimeter markers be defaced or damaged the barrier drops by 1 each until all markers are down which drops the barrier until the next sunrise or sunset. As long as the anchor survives the markers will regenerate and the mana barrier will recover at a rate of 1 a day.

The purpuse of the periphery is more to keep mana in and to provide early warning than to prevent outside intrusion.

The entire magical lodge has a background count aspected towards the magician or magical group or tradition equal to its rating.

The barriers can be enhanced by shielding metamagics and hidden from view with masking metamagic. The maximum barrier strength that can be masked at a periphery is equal to the grade of the initiate who made it and equal to the magic rating plus grade for the others. The barrier can only be noticed with an observe in detail assensing action otherwise you notice it when you smack into it activating the alarm.

Tokens can be made allowing entrance of others through the periphery. Members of the magical group who have previously aligned themselves to the hearth anchor and their ally spirits can grant entrance at the perimeter to others.

Many lodges have a bell that rings once when someone enters and rings heavily when the perimeter is attacked. One refined reagent.

Each reagent must be bonded to the telesma separately. A large reagent can become the base form of the reagent or can be mixed in like a dram of orichalcum in with the steel for a sword. Or a nonreagent but material from an awakened source can be the base.

Quickened spells can be placed in a Telesma instead of using it for a focus making it a cheaper and easier sustaining focus for initiates with quickening.

First step in telesma make an assensing test then an artisan test to incorporate any reagents into the telesma then can tailor and then finalize telesma with arcana test.
The rating of the telesma can go towards force or Object Rating or for the karma required to Quickened a  spell. So a rating 5 telesma could use a force 3 focus and lower OR by 2.
Ritual that enables mundanes to bond with charms.
Harvesting finds just one raw reagent at 3 threshold or 5 threshold. Getting 2 additional hits bumps up quality. Better the quality gain access to specials for certain tasks like telesma creation.

Training base time. 1 month

For skills and skill groups time is halved if key attribute is double or more the new rating.
Time is doubled if the new rating of the skill is double the key attribute.

Time is doubled without instruction.

Time is doubled with terminal ratings.

For spells and rituals time is halved with formula.

If Instruction dice pool is double new rating time is halved again.

With high lifestyle or better time is halved from access to dni matrix learning aids, cool glove tech to eliminate fatigue while working out allowing for much longer workout periods, wearable fitness tech, diet, medical smart drugs, advanced steroids, vitamins, and a conducive environment to learning.

Below a low lifestyle training time is double.

For attribute training the instructor must have their attribute equal or better to the new rating of the student.

Intensive training means that only that thing can be trained in at that time.
Normally two things can be trained in during downtime.

Intensive: specialization, skill groups, and terminal ratings.

Karma discount for knowledges, skills and skill groups.

Success lowers ‘current rating’ by 1 per hit past threshold with a minimum of 1 Karma. If matched threshold Karma reduced by 1 Karma.

apply their Counterspelling dice to defend against Critter Powers, Spirit Powers, and Alchemical Preparations during that Combat Turn.
Magical Lodges can be raised to Magic Rating x2 with each day and reagent a separate magical action from the initial.