The more I get into WoD, the more I'm Jesse to my friend's Walt
Granted, Entropy 4 can just give someone a disease, so Jesse is overcomplicating the matter and I really don't think this oculd be anything but Vulgar Magic, but....
I’d argue you need correspondence to cast it to a place you can’t see, but that’s just how I run it, every table is different.
Having run both MTAs and MTAw, I prefer not having so many spheres to achieve a relatively simple goal. Like in this case, you are looking to use three spheres at reasonably high ratings to just remove a guard. In MTAw you could use any one Arcana at 3 or 4 to accomplish the same task.
Time 4: The guard is transported a day into the future.
Forces 2: Render your group invisible and soundless.
Life 4: The guard is turned into a rat or whatever.
Mind 2: The guard forgets the group was there, or any higher rank to just mind control the guard in various ways (MTAs can also do this with the single sphere)
Prime 4: The guard is forced to look into the Supernal and his eyes are burned out in the process. Dick move.
Space 4: The guard is teleported away.
Spirit 4: Chuck the guard across the gauntlet.
And if you just want to kill or incapacitate the guard any single Arcana can do that at 3 (bashing) or 4 (lethal) all by itself.
I really like Awakening but it's hard to find players for it.
I had a group for about six months once, and it was pretty good. Except one player just never learned the rules, and refused to read clues. Like they found a clue on site that was like 10 sentences and she was like "I'm not reading all that".
It takes a level of buy-in from players that is hard to get. I couldn't run it at my table for years due to having a few players for whom the magic system and general focus on esotericism were RPG kryptonite. The main thing I have noticed is that the game changes pretty dramatically at Gnosis 3, so I establish at the start that the entire cabal has to go from 2->3 at the same time.
I had to stop due to some IRL stuff, but I am hoping to start a new campaign soon or I might try running Mummy: The Curse since I find it really interesting.
TBF, this is clearly an intern-level slinger gettin' sweaty and blithely careening toward oblivion at record speed. I give 'em two sessions tops before they're rolling up a new character. 🤣
Ehat is mta?
World of Darkness is a setting that includes Mage: The Ascension which OP is referencing. (MTAs)
The same publisher released a later gameline now referred to as Chronicles of Darkness which includes Mage: The Awakening (MTAw) with a similar dynamic magic system.
I was in a band called Vulgar Magic. We were dreadful but charming.
I don't pressume I could listen to your songs anywhere?
Nah, that's the drawback of bands invented for a joke: no music to listen to 🤷
Cuts down on practice time, though..
Had a similar argument someone wanting to use heat metal to make and impromptu fireball using metal powder, I don't think any one agreed with the guy that it wasn't pushing things a bit too hard
If you can change water into air:
Step 1 has prereqs beyond the capacity of this noob mage, and Step 2'd more likely result in them tipping into the bottomless well within. 😅
Use the Catapult spell to throw one of the following: A javelin at a target 3d8 bludgeoning plus, if you can try to get the DM to let you roll a d20 to see if the pointy end stuck in for an extra d6 piercing. At level 3, upcast this and launch a greatsword instead for an extra 2d6 and likely destroying the sword.
If the DM is being a stickler: Get someone in the group to roll 2 levels of Artificer(potentially you as the wizard) get the alchemy jug infusion at level 2. Every day, provided the gang doesn't find out it can make a lot of wine or beer, you can make two vials of acid. Sell one per day to recoup cost of empty vials. Catapult vial at target, 3d8 bludgeoning and 2d6 acid on hit.
Hey, now. I feel attacked. 🤣🤌🏼
I love the magic system in Genesys, with just basic spells (attack, heal, augment, curse, etc), some varying effects with suggested flavor (e.g. "Ice" adds ensnare to an attack, but mechanically it doesn't matter if it is vines, goop, whatever), and how much that effect increases spell difficulty. It lets the players go into a brainstorming session trying to come up with a spell to get out of a very specific situation, and having the game support almost anything.
E.g. this create water idea could be an attack spell with the poisonous quality (making it a hard check), which requires the target to make a hard resilience check or take a bunch of extra damage and strain, which for a skilled mage against a non-boss creature (e.g. an overly ambitious bandit) is well within one-shot range. If they pass the check, they would still take damage from the attack, but would be able to cough up most of the water before it got too serious.
This system sounds very cool also, and I have recently heard of Mage in another thread. I would like to play a system that gives players the ability to come up with spells that the GM doesn't know ahead of time (I seriously dislike long lists of predefined spells), but also has a little more of that hard magic-science set of rules to satisfy my inner Sanderson fanboy. I have built in some external scaffolding around the magic in my Genesys setting that does this, and it has been a ton of fun so far.
My main gripe is that I wish I had more time to play RPGs (more than a couple sessions a month) so I could try out more systems.