Traditions
In order to make sure all characters have an easy hook into the plot of the game and the themes we want to run, Mage character applications should pick one of the following backstory aspects. If you do not like any of these aspects, you can collaborate with staff to write your own hook into the story. We will need you to have a direct "in" to be approved. Custom perks will not be available for custom hooks, but existing perks can be applied. For instance, you make up a story that ties you to an NPC mentioned below, you could reasonably take them as an ally as if you took a standard hook.
All Out Of Bubble Gum
This is a war. It's either they burn or we get snuffed out. And we will not be snuffed out.
San Francisco's recent past has been quiet, but the invasion of the Syndicate into Sutro Baths has struck a wake-up call among Awakened such as yourself. Breaktime's over. Your contributions might be as a foot soldier, a spy, or even an architect of improvements to the chantry and its node. Either way, you're here to put the Technocracy down.
If you're a Traditionalist, the Golden Gate Chantry in The Mission is your base of operations, the Clarion Alley node your wellspring. If you're a Disparate, the Holy Virgin Cathedral sees so much spiritual awe and contemplation from the city that one can refuel when Clarion Alley has dried up.
When taking All Out Of Bubble Gum, you can pick one of the following perks:
- Ally (Various Options): A member of the cabal Sanguine Services or Guiding Hands, as appropriate to your character, can be taken as your ally. Player characters who create Mentor characters will have their mentor characters added to this list if they're fleshed out enough (unless the creating player does not consent). You can call on whatever NPC you choose for IC back-up. Typically, Ally characters can only be humans - this perk makes an exception. These NPCs can each be additionally purchased (separately) as dots of Mentor.
- Background Boost: Get 1 additional dot of Cult, Alternate Identity, or Destiny.
- Stat Boost: You have 2 extra dots after character generation and may invest them into Athletics, Brawl, Melee, or Firearms.
Salvage Operations
The drive -- the need -- to learn and understand is universal, but your calling to unearth the unknown sears a singular purpose within your quest for Ascension.
The decades have buried untold tomes, wonders, and maybe even portals beneath San Francisco, sometimes even literally: the SF Underground is a mixture of subway and sewer connections, but also collapsed homes and even sunken ships covered in the landfill that builds the foundation for Embarcadero.
You've been able to pick through the wreckage at your leisure until now. The Technocracy is setting up shop again. The race is on. If you don't act, it's only a matter of time before they find our old safehouses, libraries, totems and talismans. Restore the lost to its former glory, or let it slip between your fingers to the worst possible competition.
When taking Salvage Operation, you can pick one of the following perks:
- СУПЕР СУУУС! (Underground Scholar): Take the Scholar Of Others merit for free, applied to area knowledge of the city of San Francisco. It's not an Occult knowledge base that you have, rather, it's a fluent understanding of the city itself. These insights help you plan your outings and missions. Your cabal's trying to figure out how to get into that progenitor lab? You know about the steam tunnels down the road that could make sneaking in a breeze...
- Influence: Take an extra dot of either Government, Academic, or Occult Influence.
- Stat Boost: You get two additional Ability points to spend on Academics, Awareness, or Occult.
San Francisco Libertine
Your Awakening has imbued you with profound power, and that gives you a responsibility to the rest of humanity.
Maybe you want to work towards helping Sleepers Ascend. Maybe you just want to protect the Sleepers from things they can't protect themselves against. Maybe you're here to make San Francisco less like the shit that cakes needle-strewn Market Street and more like the post cards: a vibrant city with a Magickal touch instead of a fentanyl-flavored hellhole of tech bros, homeless people, and homes millionaires can't afford to live in.
But that's just how the status quo likes it. In the Technocracy's mind, humanity won't ever reach the stars without inspiration, and their inspiration of choice is greed. Raising humanity to a higher state of existence will require a great big ladder, and somebody's gonna have to hold the bottom and be the last one up.
And the opposition isn't just magickal. Plenty of regular people think themselves temporarily embarrassed millionaires, and like things just the way they are. The city will have to be dragged into equality, kicking and screaming.
- Influence: Get 1 additional dot of Influence, applied after character generation, in any category.
- Background Boost: Get 1 additional dot of Cult, Destiny, or Blessing.
- Stat Boost: You have 2 extra dots after character generation and may invest them into Politics, Law, Streetwise, or Empathy.
Themes
Uncovering the Unknown – The Mages of San Francisco are constantly exploring the boundaries of this reality and many others, uncovering the full truth of the universe and the dangers that lie within. Only through discovery can the truth of the Tenth Sphere be revealed.
Recovering the Lost – The Apathy that set into San Francisco has caused many things to become Lost knowledge. Wonders, Nodes, Libraries, and other troves that would prove useful to the Awakened of San Francisco must be recovered.
Protecting the Sleepers – The Sleepers are not yet ready to be Awakened en masse, as doing so would cause dire harm to Reality. Oftentimes this requires the truth to be concealed in various creative ways. Other times, Protecting them sometimes requires a few Sleepers to witness the Truth, becoming Consors and Acolytes to assist in this task and others.
Safety From the Enemies of Awakening – The Awakened of San Francisco are beset on all sides by enemies: witch hunters, most Vampires, Marauders, the Nephandi, the Technocratic Union, and others. The Awakened must come together to repel these threats when they reveal themselves.
Restoring the City – The City of San Francisco was at one time, a hub of Tradition activity, but recent years have caused the area to fall into apathy. New blood is returning to SF after years, and must work together to restore the city to its place among the bastions of Tradition activity.
Is Too Much Protection A Thing? – A Tradition Mage has built a huge Wonder called the Signal Jammer capable of wreaking havoc on the use of Correspondence in the SF area. He claims that it’s to protect everyone from potential attacks like the one attempted by the Technocracy during the founding of the New Horizon Council. Is it doing more harm or good? Does Alex Foster even have control of it?
The Advocate Council
| Akashayana | Vacant |
| Celestial Chorus | Father Mason Jiminez (NPC) |
| Chakravanti | Coda |
| Kha'vadi | Vacant |
| Order of Hermes | Karina |
| Sahajiya | Khoi |
| Society of Ether | Vacant |
| Verbena | Corinna |
| Mercurial Elite | Alex Foster (NPC) |
Chantries, Sanctums, Nodes
- The Party Pad: A Miniature Horizon Council for the Bay Area
- Unknown: Individual private Sanctums
- Sutro Baths: A small Node currently under the control of the Union
NPCs
Timeline
The History of the Council of Nine Traditions in San Francisco: • 1913 – The First Council Chantry is established, the Council electing to purchase a warehouse on the bay itself that had been damaged and abandoned during the 1906 earthquake. It is quickly repaired and made secure.
• 1931 – Agents of the Technocratic Union begin a violent series of battles against the local members of the Traditions during the summer of this year. During the war, a general order is given to the Technocracy to attempt to capture alive any person who may provide location information on the Chantry. The Tradition Mages are successfully able to prevent this information from being discovered.
• 1941 – After a close call almost revealed the identities of several members of the Chantry Council to the Technocracy, a decision is made to shutter the Bay Warehouse Chantry until a more suitable and hidden location can be secured. The local Tradition Mages go into hiding.
• 1965 - Professor Noah Martin, groovy Son of Ether, converts his 3-story home on Cedar Lane (Clarion Alley) into a self-cleaning party pad in a feat of magick, providing the city with the space that eventually became its chantry.
• 1968 - Professor Martin dies gruesomely in his second attempt at converting a space into one of his self-cleaning party pads, requiring the local Mages to come together to destroy a building and make it look like a minor earthquake.
• 1987 – Hostilities between the Technocracy and the local Tradition Mages begin to wind down to a Cold War state of affairs. Unknown to the Tradition Mages at the time, the Technocracy began transferring manpower and resources out of San Francisco.
• 1998 – The War In Heaven blazes, many of the local Tradition Mages travel into Horizon in a futile attempt to help stop the Ascension Warrior. Concordia falls, Horizon burns.
• 2001 – The New Horizon Convocation occurs in Los Angeles, striking major blows against both the Technocracy as well as The Fallen hordes, and the New Horizon Council is founded. The founding of the New Horizon Council pulls further Tradition and Technocracy resources from the San Francisco area.
• 2002 – The remaining members of the local Chantry council are Alex Foster representing the Virtual Adepts / Mercurial Elite, Alice Morozov representing the Society of Ether, and Axel Fredriksen representing The Celestial Chorus. The Technocracy is controlled by Syndicate agent Frank Dumond. There are hardly any direct conflicts between the factions by this year.
• 2005 – Alex Foster's Signal Jammer, propagated by phone and wifi signals which are growing in popularity, has spiraled wildly out of control, steadily growing into the quagmire that persists today.
• Spring 2021 – The population of Mages in the San Francisco area has largely dwindled to less than a tenth of what it once was. The local Council Chantry meets only to confirm the representatives that are still in the area are alive. The local Technocracy agents exist only to funnel money into Frank Dumond’s pockets. The future is uncertain.
• Summer 2021 – The Advocate Council identifies that someone has moved in on a neglected node in Sutro Baths and suspects the Syndicate to be their potential new, uncomfortable neighbors.
• Fall 2021 – After Lauren and Coda intercept an S.O.S. from the presumed-dead Dr. Martin, they learn he is trapped in another realm filling with trash at an alarming rate. He has been stuck there for "weeks", although to the San Francisco chantry, time has dilated to span 50 years. Corinna, Lauren and Khoi coordinate to locate a means to rescue the Etherite. bring him back to the here and now using a Wonder procured from an estate sale.
• January 2021 – Dr. Martin, having gotten over the initial shock of coming back to a world catapulted forward by 50 years, reaches out to the chantry for some orientation among the secret world of the Traditions. After learning some things like the Avatar Storm, Alex Foster reveals that he and his contemporaries had all assumed that the man was dead for decades. (Read the log here).
Staff Info
- Skynet, Wintermute, Batty, HARDAC
