LostKnightsRPG.org

This is a catchall thread for Mage: TTA, though it will likely be primarily focused on CharGen. I'll open up a full forum if we end up needing it, but until then I'd like to keep all the TTA stuff in the same forum.

Initial Setting

You will all be starting in New York, NY, USA. Modern characters should have lives connected to the region, at least enough that they can have a couple month stay in the city. 90's characters are called in specifically for a special "mentorship" program, so they can be from wherever.
From my notes on the city:
In the Shadow of the Technocracy, Melting Pot - New York City, USA [NWO, Syndicate, Ecstasy, Mercurial Elite, Hermetics, Blend] - supernatural plays out as embedded in business and banal day2day life, a bit "dirty"
From my notes on the game setting:
Post-apocalyptic Banality - resource flood rather than scarcity, the new resource scarcity is wonder/meaning
Sins of the Past - The past is a constant shadow over the present, it looms but seems meaningless when you look directly at it. Whether a legacy of violence, ancient curses, poor choices, or merely the detritus of a past that has yet to die, history touches every element
New vs Old - Upstarts take power from their elders, and a new zeitgeist supplants old world views. Even enemies become allies as elders cling to each other to resist change, and neophytes band together to replace antiquated paradigms.
Warriors vs. Civilians - Those that bleed for a cause are forever changed, and while society demands them in times of conflict, in times of peace they are an uncomfortable and awkward reminder of fragility and former tragedy. Society "respects" them while making them into an "other" with no role to fill.
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Some house rules of note
-Pick a "high concept" (e.g. scholarly hermetic master of entropy, mystick barrista, etc.) to go with your character. This isn't because we are using fate aspects, but because it helps everyone "grok" your character and the reasons other people will hate you... er, how people will connect with you.
-All characters use standard character creation (except as noted here) rules to create their base characters. 90's characters get an additional 350 (50 atts / 100 skills / 200 arete & spheres) xp and 10 background dots (social and acquirable backgrounds only, not avatar, arcane, etc.) to spend on advancing their characters.
-All modern characters get arete 2 for free, all 90's characters get arete 4 for free... YAY! (though their starting sphere dots are still limited to 3 before xp). All modern characters have an arete cap =2, all 90's characters have an arete cap =6. 90's characters should probably cap somewhere between 4-6, depending on concept. This shouldn't be too much of a hindrance, however, because...
-... We are using the NWOD convention of arete+sphere for general casting, att+skill+sphere for rotes, and the sphere boundaries for various effects are a bit more "fuzzy" than in some interpretations of the game. This means, however, that we will probably be a little less forgiving and flexible with the abuses of ritual magic, and will standardize a few effects to prevent abuse (e.g. mage armor, extra action caps, etc.). More details will be explained later.
-All characters are expected to have most of their attributes at 2, unless the character's story has a certain attribute disability as a focal point (e.g. facial deformation/appearance, genetic health issues/stamina, etc.) which will also make it harder to raise the attribute with xp. 90's characters can spend xp to reach 2's in their attributes normally, as long as the finished product has them. Modern characters get no starting xp though, so... sucks to be the product of a kinder, gentler era?
-We will be tracking "mystick xp" with which characters can buy spheres, rotes, etc. in addition to standard xp.
-Modern characters recieve a free combat related flaw (e.g. pacifist, soft-hearted, combat paralysis, nightmares, etc.). YAY!
-After you craft your Avatars, we get a significant amount of control over them.
-Hidden aspects of your character may influence your success on rolls, likelihood of interacting with certain characters, and other areas of gameplay. This will be handled in a systematic, but obfuscated, fashion. This is stated up front to prepare people for surprises, while ensuring them that any loss of control will be handled fairly and in a way that will contribute to the overall storytelling experience.
-Magickal Resonance actually will mater somewhat.
-Characters should be <25ish if they are from the modern era, while 90's characters should be, at a minimum, >25.
-Characters are free to have attached npc's (e.g. spirit mentors, pet cat familiars, tricertop detectives on the payroll, etc.); these will be primarily played by the other players however, to enhance the interactions and provide a wider range of personalities for the games npc's.
-I'm missing something... I know I'm missing something. It will go here when I figure out what "it" is.

Character Lineup
Adam - 90's: Rat King, Hollow One, Subterranean Hoarder of Secrets, Spirit/Correspondence/Mind | Modern: Faith Sinclair, Celestial Chorus, True Faith Healer, Life/Prime
Alex - 90's: Dr. Quinn O'Farrell MD-PHD, Euthanatos, Ex-surgeon turned Therapist, Entropy/Life/Mind | Modern: Derrik Littlebear, Cult of Ecstasy, Parkour thrillseeker, Time/Life
Angela - 90's: Andre Wilkinson, Order of Hermes (Flambe?), Wandering Ascension-War Veteran, Forces/Prime | Modern: Levina Sauvaun, Dreamspeaker, Pragmatic Mambo, Spirit/Entropy
Jeremy - 90's: Vishal Singh, Euthanatos, Retired Gurkha, Entropy | Modern: Blake Johnson, Cult of Ecstasy, Street Magic Youtuber, sphere?
Josh - 90's: Nicholas Ketch, Celestial Chorus, Grizzled Mystic Hunter, Spirit/Correspondence| Modern: Eugene (Gene) Simms, Sons of Aether (Probationary), Nerdy Idealistic Evolutionist, Life/Prime/Matter/Forces
Nikki - 90's: [name][tradition][high concept] | Modern: [name][tradition][high concept]
Steven - 90's: Dr. Odysseus Jasper Green (Doc Green), Society of Ether, Eccentric Parapalegic Engineer, Prime/Matter/Time | Modern: Ezekiel "Zeke" Chen, Orphan, Multiracial Linguistic Prodigy, Entropy/Mind/Data
Zach - 90's: Dr. George Faller, Order of Hermes (House: TBD), Scholarly Master of the Occult, Spirit/Life/Matter? | Modern: Nikki "Kai 0mega" Abrams, Virtual Adept (Faction: Cypherpunk or Reality Coder), Reformed Black Hat Freedom of Information Fighter, Data/Mind

Levina Sauvaun - Verbena/Dream speaker
High Concept: Pragmatic Mambo Verbena
Vodoun Mambo, 26 years old (Life; Spirit/Forces)

Lived on the southern outskirts of the French Quarter of New Orleans most of her life. Descendant of Marie Laveau (much like having an 'ancestor' who was an 'Indian princess' but for Voodoo)

Les’ has been a practicing mambo and Verbena since her grandmother died 6 years ago. Prior to that she had acquired an associate’s degree in finance from Loyola, barely scraped by, and was doing the books for one of the less reputable travel agencies in NOLA. She had a bit of an ‘awakening’ experience when her grandmother’s spirit, post-funeral, bitch slapped her into understanding that she was meant for better things than running tourists through two-bit scams. Her boyfriend was thrilled she had decided to put her less reputable path behind her, though Voodoo wouldn’t have been his first choice. He is a fire fighter in the French quarter and Lay Minister at the Archdiocese of New Orleans.

Levina’s mother has a shop just far enough away from the tourist section of New Orleans that she mostly caters to actual practitioners (inherited through the family).

Levina does not charm snakes for tourists.

She does not intend to put up with any of your crap.

Whomever you happen to be.

With the carryings on by the morons down in the Quarter, Levina is staying with her auntie and uncle in Brooklyn. She needed to complete her training as a mambo (surprisingly more structured than just the Verbena side of things), and her grandmother’s spirit advised that her auntie would be the best choice for this, so everything coincided. She also found that a powerful practitioner in the area was actually a Bokor (evil Voodoo) and using her actual Mage skills, put that shit down. So she has won some allies in the area.

Her grandmother was probably scheming to accomplish this, and was definitely pleased.

Andre Wilkinson – Order of Hermes
Bartender/Antiquarian, 48 years old (Forces; Prime/Mind)
High Concept: Wandering Order of Hermes

She has seen the war of ascension completed, but no winner truly crowned. As she watches the victors and vanquished in this new era of petty grievances unfurl, she morns both the fallen and the waste of her time.

Andre has been struggling to find a place in this new world, with little success. She has been travelling for several years, seeing the ever evolving aftermath of the ascension war, maintaining ties with old friends and allies, occasionally even with old enemies, and looking for a new place to build her Chantry.

Andre has been moving with weakened resolve for some time. Though pushing forward, she lacks the drive she once had to take the world in her fist and change it. Worse, she knows it.

In her travels she has sought to connect with those supernatural and learned natural denizens of the world she has come across, hoping to find tomes and books of power to improve her knowledge and rekindle her waning ambition.

Regardless of the success or failure of her continuing endeavor, the brief respite of walking the Appalachian Trail for the last several weeks has been a balm to her weary heart. She can now turn eastward toward New York City.

Dr. Odysseus Jasper Green (Doc Green)
Sons of Ether (Society of Ether); Inventor (age 53)
High Concept: Eccentric Parapalegic Engineer
Matter, Forces (minors in Entropy, Time, Prime)

Greviously injured a toward the end of the Ascension War, Doc Green retreated from the circles of the Traditions for a while to convalesce and, in some ways, to reinvent himself. He returned to find the War over by unanimous consent. Left wondering what he'd sacrificed his health, mobility, and (most critically) time for, he lapsed into a period of manic creation. He built personal assistance devices, some powered by his own weird Science and some more mundane, and was able to patent most of them. These, a few military contracts, and some shadier dealings, have made Doc Green quite wealthy. Much of this wealth he plows back into his inventions and facilities without much thought into long-term savings.

Ezekiel "Zeke" Chen
Orphan; Student (Age 19)
High Concept: Multiracial Linguistic Prodigy
Life, Correspondence/Data?, Mind (minors in Prime, Spirit, Entropy)

Zeke was born into a middle-class Brooklyn home to a Jewish mother and a Chinese father. He spent much of his youth participating in both cultures but never really feeling that he firmly belonged in either. What became clear from a young age, though, was his facility for languages. His Chinese grandparents spoke little or no English and he was often in their care after school while his parents worked. He learned to speak with them as easily as he learned to speak with other students as school (note: Mandarin Chinese). Given his exposure, many might not have considered this surprising. When he also rapidly acquired fluent Hebrew from the lessons he took at the local synagogue, his parents started to take notice. He has since also learned Spanish, German, Russian, Yiddish, Italian, and scraps of several Arabic dialects, having taken lessons only for Spanish and German in school. He's also expressed interest in, but has not found an instructor or other quality sources for, learning Irish Gaelic and Polish as well as the multitude of South Asian languages. He's now a first year student at Columbia majoring in Biology (on a pre-med track, because of course he's being pushed toward being a doctor rather than exploiting his obvious talent), with a concentration/minor in Linguistics.

His magic was discovered accidentally. His older sister became quite ill, having developed a brain tumor. Sitting by her bedside, scribbling on a notepad, Zeke stumbled upon a combination of languages and characters that invoked an effect. His sister's recovery was rapid, even miraculous. Somehow, Zeke knew he was responsible. Unwanted attention started to be directed his way, and he began to withdraw from his friends and family, not wanting these mysterious men-in-black types to go after them as well. Eventually, now, he's even stopped attending classes and returning to his dorm. He is, effectively, on the run.

Dr. George Faller
Order of Hermes (House: TBD)
Concept: Scholarly Master of the Occult
Spheres: Spirit, Life, Matter
Description: George is in his mid 40s and stands at about 6 feet tall with brown mid length hair and reading glasses. He often wears sports coats and jeans with loafers. George prefers to keep a well groomed goatee.

George was a professor in another life, before the world changed. His family was killed as part of a vampiric plot to turn him. He awakened during this plot, but it was too late to do anything about his failed life and career. During his attempt to flee the vampires and his old life he met his mentor, Amelia Hughes, and she helped induct him into the Order of Hermes. She would lead his training in Edinburgh and advise him in his growth as a mage.

After the ambiguous conclusion of the ascension war, George moved to New York City seeking a new life. He opened a book and antiquities store. Most of his stuff has a rare and occult quality to it. He helps mages, and the occasional odd supernatural, to find their footing and doesn’t try to involve himself in the greater politics of the world. His primary goal in life is to research the various natures of the supernatural creatures in the world and push the boundaries of the spiritual understanding of magic.

Nikki "Kai 0mega" Abrams
Virtual Adept (Faction: Cypherpunk or Reality Coder)
Concept: Reformed Black Hat Freedom of Information Fighter
Spheres: Data/Correspondence, Mind
Description: Kai stands 5 feet tall with dark blue hair styled with a close shaved undercut. She often wears a leather jacket with patches for old punk rock bands sewn onto them. She often lugs around her gear in an old Alienware backpack she stole from a thrift shop when she was still a sleeper.

Kai’s life has always been about fighting the technocracy’s hold on her world, even when she didn’t know it. Her dad died as a part of an ‘urban renewal’ project, run by the syndicate. In her grief she turned to computers and eventually computer crime. This eventually led her to being tested by the virtual adepts. She played decoy to a group of cyberpunks and cypherpunks pulling a raid on a Syndicate controlled company HQ. To throw her a bone the group pulling the job helped her find information about her dad and step dad. How many of the tragedies in her life have been fall out from Technocratic operations and projects. They opened her eyes and she barely got away with her knowledge, though not all of it intact.

The Virtual Adept raid had been a success, but her real life had been burned in the process. The Elites involved in the raid decided to pick her up before the technocracy did. It was an easy choice, let her become a tool or operative for the technocracy or a valuable asset to the Adepts. She was warned before the police raid that would have picked her up. She left home that night 3 years ago and hasn’t looked back.

Vishal Singh
High Concept: Retired Gurkha
Euthanatos
Entropy, maybe Life and Time

Vishal had always wanted to be a soldier. After becoming a Gurkha, he saw action in Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo. It was exciting, but even those wars paled in comparison to the Ascension wars. It was glorious, then it ended, and so ended the excitement. Even conventional warfare became boring after that. All IED’s, Drones and long pointless occupations. So, he comes to New York to help train the next generation of mages. Maybe they can do better.

Blake Johnson
High Concept: Street Magic Youtuber
Cult of Ecstasy
Not sure on the sphere yet

1 Million subs and rising. I think the fame is more addictive than the drugs.

Derrik Littlebear [Modern]
High Concept: Parkour thrillseeker
Cult of Ecstasy
Time/Life/Forces

One of the last members of his tribe, he was raised to have a reverence for the "old ways". However it never clicked with him the way that this did. Sure staring up at the stars reveals the universe... blah blah everything's connected... blah blah blah. Chugging energy drinks then jumping over speeding cars, that's being alive and you never feel more connected than when someone puts their survival in your hands or better yours in theirs. Maybe in this town with more people than most states he can find something new.

Dr. Quinn O'Farrell MD-PHD [90's]
High Concept: Ex-surgeon turned Therapist
Euthantos
Entropy/Life/Mind/Prime

A life spent saving those who needed to give up and watching those who could have lived give up too early. Not any more. Come to me all who suffer, are hurt, or are broken, if you have more time I will heal you, if not then i'll help you move on.

Awakening into a war that seemed unending was a shock Quinn wasn't prepared for. At the beginning it was easier to pretend it was like other conflicts, trying to be as neutral as possible can only work for so long though. This line of reasoning kept him from trying to make to close a friendship with any other mage. After all both sides were serving their purposes in life but neither side was attempting to come to the correct conclusion. The beginning of his part in the war was the most depressing part of his life. It was one thing for normal people to go around doing nothing but stupidity with their lives but the awakened were supposed to be smarter and more in tune with their purposes than this. Day after day stitching people up.

When he befriended Ms. Koko it changed both his perspective on Magic and the way that the human mind can work. While her application of excess in both life and psychoactive medications was different than his measured response in all regards he could see the pharmacological usefulness of what she was doing. This shifted his perspective of the other traditions. As far as he could tell she was psychologically broken and wasting her life away but she was able to share her perspective of happiness and progress, not being bound to the material but to other people and experiences. It had never occurred to him that the clubs he had driven by numerous times could be other mages bringing happiness and passion into a city he only saw as withering and dying. This helped rekindle his passion for helping people rather than just trying to cure people.

Nicholas Ketch 

Order of Celestial Chorus 

High Concept- Grizzled Mystic Hunter

Spheres: Primarily Spirit and Correspondence with secondary knowledge of Prime, Matter, Mind, and Empathy

Nick Ketch is a tired, grumpy man. Plagued with nightmares of his past mistakes he still seeks redemption deep down. He seeks this forgiveness by continuing to help those who are in a trouble of the supernatural variety. He does this despite constant pain, a limp and one hell of a chip on his shoulder. It's okay though, the alcohol helps with the the minor stuff. 

He is a veteran of a war that cost him nearly everything. Most of his friends are no longer around, dead or worse, and he managed to burn more than a few bridges in his personal quest to do what he felt was right during that war. Despite his flaws and rough demeanor, he is probably a good man, although he won't admit that. He also still holds favor and status in various circles despite rubbing many powerful folks the wrong way. In a way his stubborn, grumpy personality is endearing if you can get past the roughest bits.

Nick travels a lot, moving around finding odd jobs and acting as a street level exorcist/hunter of all things 'evil'. There is a lot of grey in what he does and it isn't always a monster of the super natural kind that he ends up hunting. He has a soft spot for those that cannot fend for themselves. The innocents, as it were, who get caught up in a much darker world. There is a charm about his predictability when it comes to lending a hand to those who ask.

His practice is a combination of detective work and ritual magic calling on forces and powers that be to intact vengeance, heal wounds, or conjure entities. He is a master of spirit and spatial magic and is well versed in both the pagan and religious lores of the world. He also has a decent sized arsenal of tools and weapons designed to fight the supernatural. As a rule of thumb if it 'bleeds' he can kill it. 

Long ago desensitized to realities horrors he moves from job to job with a blaise and disregard that can sometimes be intimidating. He can kill a murderous nightmare creature in close quarters with the same outward demeanor you see when he is drinking a beer. Very little gets to him any more, but when something does only a fool would get in his way.

Eugene (Gene) Simms
Sons of Aether (Probationary)

High Concept- Nerdy Idealistic Evolutionist 

Spheres: (Primary) Life, (Secondary) Prime, Matter Forces 

Everything started pretty normal for Eugene. He was part of a lower middle class family with a mom, dad and older sister. They were happy and his childhood was about what you might expect for a white suburban household. Then the monsters came. 

Eugene never knew this but his sister got in with a bad crowd. Turns out they were real bad and liked to play with things they didn't understand. A few blood deals, and a ritual later, everyone involved plus their next of kin got harvested for some twisted game. Eugene survived, but barely. A nights worth of repressed memories later and life moved on, sort of. 

That night changed Eugene in several fundamental ways. One, he awakened. Two his desire to be stronger, better, and faster twisted into something unnatural. He had always had a thing for superheroes and b movies but now he was fifty shades of trek wars deep into a science fiction romance for the ages.

All his mind and body yearn to be something better than human. It’s a boon for him that he is actually decent at science. Eugene longs for the day he can take his mind out of his scrawny human shell and place it inside something fantastic. 

So biology and its related sciences became his vehicle, the pathway to achieve one badass vision. To become better one must transcend their humanity, and anything is possible through science... Right? 

Gonna put people on Mars, why not help them evolve to fit the environment better? Who needs a space suit when you can live with low gravity, constant sands storms and no atmosphere to speak of. What if a persons could photosynthesize energy from radiation? 

Same with living in the ocean, or exploring deep space. These things are doable not thorough hard technology, but the evolution of biology. A human’s physical and mental containers are a palate to play with and perfect. If at the end of it all they don't look like people, well, that's okay. 

So began his quest to rebuild humanity into something greater. Eugene truly believes in his vision and feels blessed that he is able to manipulate his experiments in ways that transcend modern scientific understanding. In his mind that just makes him a prodigy. 

Over all he isn't a bad person. He's considerate of others feelings and understands that some people may not want to undergo massive trans-human metamorphosis into a blatantly superior organism. This doesn't stop him from trying to sway them, he just respects that ultimately not everyone will join him.

He is really into nerd culture. Enjoys games, movies, and science fiction of course. He attends conventions and cons when able. Eugene never feels more at home though than when he is in a lab. When interacting with others he tends to speak in a way that is hard for people to follow, which is comes across as more off putting than pretentious. It speaks to his character that he makes friends pretty readily, especially with other nerds. 

Faith Sinclair (age 24)
Celestial Chorus
High Concept: True Faith Healer
Life, Prime

Faith lost her parents at a young age. She was raised in a series of foster and group homes. The only constant in her life was the Church. When she was in high school, she started to the the Voice of God. The Holy Spirit was guiding her to heal and to help ease the suffering of his flock. Faith soon found that she was able to heal wounds with only a touch. Wanting to learn more about healing she went to college and became a nurse. Faith now works in a hospital working with the charity patients.

Rat King (age unknown)
Hallow One
High Concept: Subterranean Hoarder of Secrets
Spirit, Correspondence, Mind

The Rat King is one of the oldest mages in New York. He is interested in all secrets no matter how small. He employs a small army of spirits, rats, vampires, and sleeper spies to gather information for him.
When the Rat King was younger, he infiltrated the New York vampires as a Nosferatu. After several decades of calling himself a vampire, the Nosferatu gave the Rat King Primogenship of the clan. The previous Primogen was ousted after a plot the he was involved in was uncovered.