Create A Mage

Process

To create a character, you'll want to log into the game. You do not need to float your concept by staff first, although you are welcome to do so if you like! If you'd rather not wait, you can just create a character bit, navigate to the character generator (by typing 'CG' after creating an account), and voila! You're ready to go. Follow the on-screen instructions, which walk you through the process. Your progress is automatically saved at each step. At the end, the game will automatically generate a character generation +request.

It'll tell you a +job number, like 643. You'll be able to open that job by typing "+job 643" (replace this with the number it gives you). Staff will process the job to approve your character. When doing so, they might add comments and ask questions or make requests for revisions of your application. To respond by adding comments to that job, use the "+job/add <#>=<comments>" command.

You can also see where you are on the character generation approval waitlist by typing "+waitlist".

What We Do And Don't Allow

Craft Choices

We allow the Nine Traditions and the Disparate Crafts.

Concept Limitations

No Minors. Characters must be 18 or older.

No Barely Legal Tomfoolery. Sex worker characters must be 21 or older. In a perfect world where there aren't weirdos out there we'd let you play the 16 year old hooker with a heart of gold, but this is not a perfect world.

No True Loners. While Loner concepts are compelling, this is a social game and loners will not have fun here. Please make sure to provide some source of motivation for the character to connect with other characters so that you have something to do between staff-run scenes, otherwise you will find yourself frustrated.

No Baked-In Titles. Your character can become the leader of the most important cabal, the primogen, the Prince, a key politician, and so on. Your character can be created with strong potential to become these things. But when it comes to uncommon titles of prestige, be they mundane or supernatural, we do not approve these characters as already being the Head Of Whatever.

No Technocrats. We do not accept Technocrat characters.

No Marauders. We do not accept Marauders. No Nephandi. We do not accept Nephandi.

No Adepts, Masters, Or Greater. You may earn Arete 4+ in play, but you can not come in with an Arete higher than 3.

Stats

You will need to log into the game and follow the on-screen instructions in order to actually assign stats to your character sheet. The character generator walks you through this process and contains explanations, but since you're already here on the wiki, here are some resources:

• You will be asked to pick a Nature and Demeanor.
• You'll then need to set your Attributes, which start on page 273 of M20 Core.
• Then you'll need to set your Abilities.
  • Abilities are defined on page 275 of M20 Core.
  • Although M20 Core offers Secondary Abilities, we have consolidated them. Please check out our Secondary Abilities house rule to make a decision on how to allocate what you may have planned for Secondaries. We do still offer Meditation, Cosmology, and Do as core abilities. The other ones, however, are consolidated.
• You will have 5 points to spend on Backgrounds.
• You will have 5 points to spend on Spheres, plus 1 dot in your Affinity sphere.
  • Descriptions of the Spheres start out on page 512 of M20 Core.
• You will then select Merits And Flaws.
• And then you'll spend 15 Freebies.
  • Freebies are described on page 257 of M20 Core.
• You'll then pick your Specialties.
• And finally you can spend 50 starting XP.
  • You can find the XP chart on page 336 of M20 Core.

Backstory

You'll be prompted to write a backstory for your character. You can do it in bullet points, you can do it in prose, it can be short or long, but it does need to cover the major story beats. In the character generator, use +note/write backstory=<text> to provide your backstory. You can format with %R (carriage return) and %T (tab). If you are writing a lengthy backstory, feel free to part it out (+note write backstory 2=<stuff>, +note/write backstory 3=<stuff>).

In this backstory, you'll be expected to cover the points detailed below.

Please consider that you will be required to pick a Hook. They're backstory aspects that assert your character has a specific purpose and they confer a perk. There are 3 hooks to choose from. If none of them quite fit, we can discuss some wiggle room, but we want all of our characters to have a direct tie into the story world and so you will have to pick something. Here are the TL'DRs of all three:

• All Out Of Bubble Gum: Whether as a spy or a soldier, you're here to fight for the Ascension War.
• Salvage Operations: You're here to recover the lost knowledge and wonders of San Francisco before the Technocracy does.
• San Francisco Libertine: You're here to make San Francisco a better place for the Sleepers who cannot protect themselves from the city's depredations.

Mortal Origins

Origin: Where did your character come from and what was early life like? Family, friends, education and, if any, pivotal moments or people in their life.

Example: Jimmy grew up poor, but in a family full of love. He aspired to be the first in his family to go to college and pulled it off, graduating from MIT, his proudest moment.

Attributes At 1 Need To Be A Part Of Your Character: If you take Appearance 1, be prepared to look awful. If you take Intelligence 1, be prepared for a life that's like a box of chock-lits. You will be expected to commit to attributes at 1, and staff can, at their discretion, reject the build if it doesn't make sense.

Skills At 3 Need A Nod: Some nod to how your character honed these professional skill levels should be in the background. Long standing professions, hobbies, and innate character traits are examples of valid ways to address these bits, and you can always batch multiple stats into one reason.

Example: Jimmy has Science, Technology and Academics 3 and writes into his background: "Jimmy then found work as a software engineer and found a career among tech bros at places like Facespace and Tweeter."

Skills At 4 and 5 Need Some Thought: Skills with a rating of 4 or 5 single out your character as being the cream of the crop to the point where that skill becomes a dominant part of their lifestyle/identity. Please put some distinct attention into what propels your character to be so prodigious and/or invest so much of themselves into the skills you have at 4 and 5.

Example: Jimmy has a 4 in Crafts on his sheet, and writes into his background: "Despite his white-collar lifestyle, Jimmy never forgot his roots. Inspired by the legacy of mechanics and roughnecks that forged him, fixing cars became an eventual passion where he flourished. His well-paid career gave him the funding and time to excel at this hobby, and he became an avid attendant of car shows and a staple of the local custom car scene."

Watch Your Merits And Flaws: Merits and flaws each have the potential to bring impact to your character's regular life. Please look at your merits and flaws. Generally speaking, most of them are worth mentioning in your background. However, if they are 3 (or -3) or further, then this merit/flaw is extremely likely to be significant enough to have an impact on your character worth mentioning in the background. Staff will be looking for how your merits/flaws came to be, followed by what sort of impact they have on your character today.

Example: Jimmy has purchased the Lame flaw, and writes into his background: "But life was not all successes for Jimmy! His passion for cars got him in trouble. He tried his hand at street-racing, and that phase ended horribly with a car accident that nearly ended him. His recovery was miraculous and yet still left him with an acquired disability. While he's still leading a mostly normal life, he's psychologically not yet at peace with what happened."

Becoming

How Did It Happen? Give us an overview of how your character Awakened.

Example: The agony during the car wreck Jimmy went through propelled him into a profound experience that he thought was an out-of-body experience on death's doorstep. He wasn't exactly wrong. As his life flashed before his eyes, everything in that moment was sublime then and just Made Sense.'

What Was Your Magickal Education Like? Your Mage either is or isn't initiated into a Craft. How did that go?

Example: During his long recovery in the hospital, Jimmy kept reflecting on that moment of realization. He kept having profound experiences under anesthesia during his surgeries. Once he got out of the hospital, he avidly ate up Occult works in an attempt to explain it all and learn more. That was when {Whats His Nuts} Bani {Whatever} took notice and took him under his wing. Some years later, his rite of passage into the {Whatever} was {Doing This Cool Thing}.

Timeline

Stop and take a moment to think about your character's past in terms of where they've been and major accomplishments, if the Backstory questionnaire hasn't already gotten that info out of you. We have players submit their character's timelines ("I lived in Paris from 1783 to 1800…") so that players whose characters were in the same places at the same time are introduced OOCly to one another.

You do not need an exhaustive timeline, and just picking a random handful of cities will do (so will saying you are SF born and raised). You do need to make sure these places are mentioned in your backstory (e.g. if your timeline starts in LA and ends in New Orleans, be sure to include something like, "Jimbo moved to New Orleans" in the backstory so it adds up) but you are not obligated to go into exhaustive detail just because there's some city in your timeline.

On-screen instructions will prompt you to build your timeline when you move on from the Backstory room.

Papertrail

You'll be asked to fill out the following information, which will be used by storytellers if someone snoops into you. You can be succinct, it just needs to be filled out. This is your opportunity to set what turns up in the background check ahead of time, if it ever happens.

• Date of Birth: When was your character born?
• Name: What is your character's current, full legal name they go by?
• Birthplace: Are there hospital/church records on your birthplace?
• Marriage: Are there marriage and/or divorce records? When/where/to whom?
• Family: Siblings. Kids. Parents. Any still alive? Who?
• Criminal: Tell us about your criminal record if you have one.
• Death: Does your original mortal identity have an obituary/burial/death record?
• Misc: Do you have any other stuff you want to talk about? Draft cards. Border crossings. Passports. News articles.

Notes

Through the character generator, you will be prompted to fill out some freeform information.

The information in the Notes can be copy-pasted from your Backstory where relevant (and vice-versa), but individualized notes for these aspects are needed so a storyteller (or future you) doesn't have to wade through a backstory to find something.

You may be asked about the following:

• Your Merits And Flaws: While some merits and flaws are self-explanatory like "Touch Of Frost", others are more free-form, like Enemy. We will prompt you to explain these merits/flaws through the +notes code.
• Backgrounds: Some Backgrounds require that you write notes to pair with them. Please refer to the pages about these individual backgrounds by checking out the Backgrounds index.

Avatar

Your Mage has an Avatar which we want you to describe as a part of creating this character. Your description of your Avatar can be augmented over time but you'll need to stick with whatever you establish. In character generation, mages are asked to set an Avatar note. The format can be anything but it needs to cover the following:

• Essence: What is your Avatar's Essence?
• Concept: Describe your Avatar on an overall conceptual level.
• Description: How does your Avatar present itself to your Mage?
• Interactions: How does your Avatar tend to communicate?

Paradigm

Your Mage needs to have a Paradigm which we want you to explain as a part of creating this character. You can evolve your Paradigm but it needs to exist! In character generation, mages are asked to set a Paradigm note. The format can be anything but it needs to cover the following:

• Reality: How does your character describe the nature of reality? Your character's Tradition will influence how your character views the true nature of the universe and how it works. For example: Reality is an expression of spacetime.
• Spheres: The spheres somehow compose reality. What, then, are the spheres? Example: spacetime (reality) is made up of fundamental forces (gravity, electromagnetism and nuclear forces).
• Rules: What rules must these expressions follow within the system of reality that they define? How can these rules be changed? For example: the fundamental forces must follow the laws of physics and quantum mechanics. So, if one manipulates the laws of physics/quantum mechanics reality can change.
• Magick: What tools are needed in order to leverage these rule changes? For example: Using equipment like fusion particle colliders and fusion reactors one may experiment and change the conditions of spacetime.

If the ideas in the M20 book do not inspire you, check out our Paradigm Toolbox page for the ideas that other players and staff have come up with.

Instruments

You need at least seven instruments based on your mage's paradigm and practice. These instruments can by physical items like runes and ritual weapons, or more abstract like dance, horoscopes, sacred geometry.

In order to set these instruments, set a note on yourself named "Instruments" with the notes code. See "+help notes" for instructions. If your Instruments happen to be items you want to use as more than simply a focus (such as a ritual knife you intend to stab people with), please additionally purchase an appropriate item from +eq/list (+help equipment). If you don't find what you want, request it!

For book guidance, see Focus and the Arts in Chapter Ten, (pp. 565-600). For special Do techniques, see p. 428 onward.

Starting Equipment

Your Starting Equipment is based on your Resources score, which you can read more in depth about on our Resources page.

Submitting Your Character

All of the steps describe above are facilitated by the in-game character generator. When you are done with the character generator you will be presented with the option to confirm your application and submit it to staff. This then notifies staff of your application for them to process it and add you to the game.