Hi to those of you that have already been added to the game. Here's an OOC thread for y'all to introduce yourselves, talk to each other, ask me any questions, etc.

Good morning everyone!  Super thrilled to be joining you all!

I'm a complete newcomer to Mage, so the lore of the setting is going to be a bit of a learning curve for me, though I'm familiar with the general shape of White Wolf rules from Werewolf and Vampire games.  I preemptively beg your kind indulgence for my inevitable dumb newbie questions.  :)

In reply to Arwen (msg # 2):

Hi! Glad to be playing with you as well. I've been playing this game for the last decade or so, with some breaks in between. Feel free to ask any questions you may have, and don't Panic! You need not beg for we are all at peace here.

I'm in the same boat as Arwen - reasonably familiar with the wider WoD, but first run through Mage.  Really looking forward to it!

Hey! I have played a bit of Mage before, but the campaigns always ended in pretty short order, so I only have a very cursory understanding of the rules and setting.

Updated the House Rules with some important info that will affect starting mana, and possibly XP expenditures. You will all start with shared dots in the Sanctum merit, which will also have a single dot of the Library and Hallow merits as well.

I will leave it up to you guys to decide what you'd like to call your Cabal, and you can figure out where your Sanctum is (pay attention to game setting -- should be in DC metro area, but likely outside of DC proper). It's a Size 3 Sanctum, so it has anywhere between 5-8 rooms in the house. Also feel free to discuss what you'd like the topic of your dot in Library to be.

Also feel free to discuss how you guys came to be a Cabal and any sort of background ties/connections your characters may have had with each other that lead them to becoming a Cabal.

Poke me here or via PM if you've got any questions or need help with anything on your sheet. You should all have access to edit your sheets now, let me know if you don't for some reason.

I'll be playing Mamanu, a Martial Artist in the Adamantine Arrow who focuses Primarily on the Arcana of Life and Time. He's a Perfected adept, and spends a lot of time doing physical training and looking after the physical health of the Cabal. He's not a doctor, but he's adept at Holistic techniques and is a trained personal trainer and health coach.

I don't have any immediate ideas for the Library topic, but I'd love to make ties with the rest of the Cabal so we can sort things out.

I'll be playing Acciaio, a private investigator from the Guardians of the Veil. He focuses on Death and Matter, and spends his time looking into odd goings-on to see if they need to be hidden from the Sleepers, and if they represent some sort of misuse of magic that needs to be dealt with.

Hi, I'll be playing link, a computer wizard.

Question: How does sharing merits work in this game?

It seems we are starting with shared premises.

Mechanical:
Can we spend extra xp on them?
If yes, how do we calculate this?

Example:
A and decide to buy 2 more dots of library that already has one dot

a) Each buys a dot and pays 2xp
b) Buying a second dot costs 4xp (paid by A) and the third one costs 6xp (paid by B)
c) A and B each pay 5xp
d) Each player buys a full merit (A: library, B: Hallow), then shares it

Are two shared 1-dot Hallows cheaper than 1 2-dot Halllow?

Which merits are shareable? Merits? Safe place? Retainer? Library? Allies? Hallow?

@players: If we can spend xp on this - how many are each of you willing to set aside for sharing? Makes sense to plan this before making the sheet and not having xp lefft.

Storywise:
What kind of a place do we go for? Seven gables? Luxury living? Dusty university dorm atmosphere?

Hi there!

Based on your example, it would be closes to Case A. If player A spends 2 xp to invest in Library, and then player B spends 2 xp to invest a dote in Library as well, the total shared Library would be at 3 dots since it started with 1.

Hallows are quite rare, but still a shared merit that follows the rules stated above. That said, you wouldn't just be able to buy another Hallow in the same Sanctum, beyond the 1-dot Hallow already found in the Sanctum. There are ways to create/improve hallows via spells and other ways, which would be necessary in order to invest further XP into the existing Hallow.

"Housing merits" are generally shareable (e.g. Sanctum, Library, Hallow, Alchemical Lab, Scriptorium, etc.) but other Social Merits like Allies, Contacts, Retainers and the like are not.

In reply to Link (msg # 9):


Chiron's more or less done - I've only got about 9xp left, and will probably drop that into skills or rotes.  In terms of living arrangements, he's just going to be happy he's not living in a van down by the river.  He's young, delighted by all of this, and little of his new life doesn't represent a material improvement on his old one, so . . . he's pretty much just happy to be here.

Will it be possible to gain resources and improve the Sanctum through play?  I mean, the tidbits about the Smithsonian hiding old Mysterium treasures is super-tempting.  If we manage to find and raid one of these, could that end up translating into a boost to the Library (or at least a rationale to dump xp into boosting it)?

Yes, you'll be able to acquire resources and improved the Sanctum in play.

Keep in mind, as a member of the Mysterium, you probably don't want members of other Orders raiding an Athaneum...but say, you wanting to find one and "recover" some of the lost lore, and your Cabal-mates helping, then that'd be more acceptable/reasonable and less risk of upsetting higher ups in the Mysterium.

But as a general rule of thumb, there will be opportunities for people to spend XP to improve a variety of things in game and use IC justifications for learning new skills, spells, acquiring imbued items, etc.

Thanks for the clarification on sharing

Looks like I've spent my dots mostly anyway.

Do you want us to modify the character sheet to include
- nimbus?
- magical tools?
- standard equipment?

I'm happy to spend one point into Sanctum security.

Montgomery County might be a good place for us to have a Sanctum.

Sure, that works!