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Selected Option:. Hardcover, Premium Color Book. Hardcover, Standard Color Book. Average Rating 58 ratings. Also available for Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition: Technocracy Reloaded Welcome to the Future As the third decade of the 21st century dawns, the Technocratic Union stands on the cutting edge of a future imperiled.
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Yui F. A customer. I've never written a review of an RPG product I've purchsed before, but fact that this book is so all over the place has compelled me to act. The Good: Book of Secrets opens up with a re-print of some character Archetype [ I found it an invaluable book for creating characters for Mage the Ascension.
So much about Mage is making unique characters, and this gives you plenty of tools to make a Mage character your way. See All Ratings and Reviews. Browse Categories. Storytellers Vault.
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See all titles Need help? Common Questions FAQ. Submit Suggestion. Contact us. My Library. Affiliate System. Gift Certificates. Create Content for your Favorite Games. About Us. Privacy Policy. Skillful: Hostage negotiator. Novice: You can pass along basic concepts. Expert: Noted diplomat. Practiced: A topics finer points are easy for Master: Jimmy Carter. A very Sink or Swim useful Talent for mentors, professors and, of course, instructors for any given course of study, this Ability helps your character Intrigue share his expertise with other characters.
Machiavellis ghost smiles upon you. In the vicious whirl- In game terms, you can use Instruction to train other char- pools of backstabbing power, youre a force to be reckoned acters in any Skill or Knowledge that your character possesses. A combination of instincts, audacity, knowledge, guile, At the Storytellers discretion, Talents might be teachable too, and ruthlessness gives you insights and edges that most folks assuming that the student already has at least one dot in the Trait lack.
You may serve a greater purpose, work toward hidden. Whatever notice when somethings not quite right, and recognize patterns your ultimate purpose, youre a player, not a pawn, in your and connections that your conscious mind might otherwise personal Game of Thrones.
Combat vets, street survivors, primal folks, and Novice: Ned Stark. In situations Skillful: Varys the Spider. Also known as Instinct, this Talent represents a primal sort Possessed By: Gamblers, Veterans, Survivors, Street People, of perception that runs beneath your conscious mind. Though its not mind-reading per se, your Intu- tern Recognition, Traps, Mood-Reading, Flashes of Insight, ition helps you spot cues about peoples moods and intentions, Animal Instincts, Nose for Trouble.
Obfuscatory miscourse is keycode. Disin- A skilled imitator, you can mimic voices or sounds; the fotech relegates the bleaters to Sidelinedia.
Coprosperity sails higher your rating, the greater your ability. The human larynx on neochop, and so you bait the beespeakers and decompart- is quite flexible, capable of a wide vocal range.
A touch of mentalize linguiblocks. What the hell are you saying, anyway? At the lower levels, you can Essentially, this Talent helps you spin and juggle buzzwords, imitate accents or the voices of specific people, while higher either existing or original.
Beyond the roleplaying fun you can levels help you fake an impressive range of sonic phenomena. Academy flicks. Ideally, this Talent should be roleplayed out. Relegating Master: Your ability to mimic almost anyone it to a simple roll of dice is no fun at all. Youspeak is allspeak. Negotiation An acute perception for what people want makes you a Master: That whirring sound you hear is master wheeler-dealer. Combined with social savvy and the Orwells grave. Bastards, Trolls Novice: You mediate disputes at home.
Your quick eyes spot things other people miss. Darting your Expert: Regardless of the dispute, you often gaze across a place or situation, you can catch a quick appraisal get your way.
Generally Master: You could forge lasting peace between combined with Perception, this Talent helps your character old enemies, and leave them happy to have scope out potential targets, threats, clues, faces, escape routes, followed your lead. He might not always know just what it Possessed By: Lawyers, Executives, Relationship Counsel- is he sees, and he has to actually think about scanning an area ors, Arbitration Specialists, Politicians, Union Reps, Activists, in order to use this Ability.
Given time for a fast glance or two, Tycoons, Diplomats, Sports or Entertainment Agents, Syndi- however, hell probably snag enough material to work with once cate Reps hes got the chance to process what hes seen. Skillful: Quick appraisals are your specialty. Newspeak Expert: Few details escape your gaze. Language is your playground. In a brave new age, you coin brave new words. Because language is the gatekeeper of Master: Sherlock Holmes wishes he were you.
Whered you find that? Youre pretty good at spotting Each dot in Blind Fighting reduces, by -1 per dot, your penalty goodies in the oddest places. A skilled scavenger, you can for performing actions while visually blinded.
It does not, of discover all kinds of unlikely stuff. Granted, said stuff has to course, give you a bonus for fighting in the dark, although be there first but then, if youre a mage, this Talent provides it certainly gives you an edge if your opponents are blind as a wonderful excuse for coincidental magick.
Even without well. This Skill does not give you the ability to see in darkness, magick, though, the toss-out nature of consumer culture often nor does it add to Correspondence Effects; it does, however, puts the odds in your favor.
Novice: You and Macklemore hit thrift shops together. For the Flaw related to visual impairment, see Impedi- ment, pp. Practiced: You are Macklemore. Novice: You can move through a darkened Skillful: You scrounge most of what you need room without running into things.
Practiced: Through sound, you can figure out Expert: Given enough time and trash, you where things and people are. Skillful: Your opponents are as obvious to you Master: Money-wise, you live off little or noth- in the dark as they would be if you could see.
And although youve got an eye for fashion, this Talents not so much about what you wear Climbing as how you wear it. Style helps you make good impressions based The phrase sheer surface means less to you than it means on clothes, bearing, behavior, and appearance and while its to most folks.
You can scale walls, trees, mountains, and other most obvious on pretty people, it can have striking effects on surfaces so long as youve got something to hold onto. Although those who otherwise look plain. Practiced: Sharp dresser. Novice: You spend time at the local gyms climbing wall. Skillful: Professional model. Practiced: Given gear or strong handholds, Expert: Lady Gaga. Master: Queer Eye for the Mage Guy. No problem. That said, Buildings, No Gear, Mountaineering.
Looking like someone else is your specialty. This might Practiced: Folks tend to look for you where involve impersonating an existing person, concealing your you are not.
Even without Life or Mind magick, your expertise Expert: Even the pros have a hard time tracking can fool casual observers and, at the higher levels, fool almost you down. For more details, see Im- Master: Where are you, you wascally wabbit? Disguise means remove Escapology appearances, and so the core of this Skill involves changing the Through a combination of tricks, misdirection, muscular way you come across not simply gluing on a moustache, but control and really flexible joints, you can shuck most forms of appearing to become an entirely different person.
Ropes, chains, holds, and death-traps slow Novice: Is that you? This Skill Practiced: You can pass a brief inspec- does not confer any supernatural ability, although you can use tion. For the misnamed talent of being double-jointed, see Expert: You fool most of the people most of the Merit: Hyperflexible, p.
Novice: You can slip out of poorly-tied ropes Master: Given time and materials, you can or simple holds. With enough cover to Wiseass Submissives, Superheroes work with crowds, underbrush, rooms filled with boxes, etc. Theyre dead. This Skill In itself, this Skill is not magickal its all about knowing works with any weapon, and can explain why that gun in how to use your surroundings to your advantage. Certain your hand just appeared from nowhere.
With the Storytellers magickal Effects, however, can bend light and sound the approval, you can add the dots in this Skill to your Initiative Forces Sphere , shift probability Entropy , influence bystand- roll when either you or your opponent is trying to get in the ers Mind , or spot perfect moments Time that take your very first shot. It does not, however, add to that roll after mundane skill to the next level, often without so much as the initial turn.
Novice: The pointy end goes into the other Practiced: Decent reflexes and a steady hand. Skillful: Holy crap, youre fast! Practiced: Kikuchiyo or Elizabeth Swann. Expert: Fill your hands, you sonofabitch! Skillful: Katsushiro Okamoto or Elena Mon- tero. Master: Han didnt shoot first you did. Expert: Inigo or the Dread Pirate Roberts. Youre so distracting, prophecy, you often have folks believing that you do. Scanning convincing, or downright puzzling that people are inclined to anything from cards to entrails to scripture verses, you can believe you at least until theyve had a chance to think about convincingly predict future events, read a person, or other- what youre saying.
Deployed by a pundit, debater, salesman wise get someone to believe in your incredible prescience. This makes an excellent instrument for Mind-, Entropy- or Novice: Street-corner hustler. Time-based magicks, although its believability and thus, its ability to be considered coincidental will depend upon both Practiced: Used-car salesman.
A true believer will easily Skillful: Political pundit. Master: Master of puppets. Instead of Spies, Thieves, Con Artists, Sales Reps, Cult Leaders using symbolic or religious trappings, such Analysis involves psy- chological cues, deductive reasoning, body language, and other Suggested Specialties: Politics, Religion, Obfuscation, methods to read a persons inner landscape, predict potential Hustling, Salesmanship, Turnabout, Confusion, Panhandling, behaviors, or estimate the probabilities of future events.
In the modern world, this sort of thing The Art of the Blade, Fencing reflects expertise with an tends to be coincidental, so long as the Specialist can point out array of European sword-and-dagger-fighting techniques, while cues or clues that might lead to a rational conclusion.
Kenjutsu reflects Japanese samurai swordsmanship. Other cultural forms of bladed martial arts, such as Chinese wushu Novice: You know your way around a single weapon techniques, can be considered as fencing for the divination method well enough to convince purposes of dice pools and maneuvers; just change the name people of what they want to hear. Practiced: Youre pretty convincing with your At its lowest levels, such knowledge is purely sporting; chosen method, and you understand one or an accomplished fencer or kendoka, though, can be deadly two other methods as well.
As with most martial arts, Skillful: You can rattle off credible readings a dedicated study of swordsmanship includes philosophy, with a handful of different methods, and can meditation, vigorous exercise, and a refinement of mind, be frighteningly precise with your specialty. In game terms, this Skill lets a character use an of divination or analysis , you can assure most array of specialized combat maneuvers; see Expanded Combat people that you know what youre talking about.
Knowing how guns work is a bit more complicated. This Skill reflects a practical knowledge of weapon Gambling manufacture, modification, design and repair. The various Games of nerve and chance are your specialties. Even levels cover expanding categories of firearms expertise. Given without the aid of Entropy Arts which can add a devastating time, tools, and enough dots in this Skill, you can fix guns, edge to this Skill , youre good at gauging odds, bluffing rivals, craft firearms and unique ammo from scratch, and even use spotting cheats, hedging bets, faking people out, and employing Matter and Forces Effects to alter or supercharge mundane the mind-games and slight-of-hand essential to card games, firearms in surprising ways.
Its worth noting that modern mass-produced firearms Novice: Poker-night shark. Attempts to modify or repair older-model mass-produced Practiced: Vegas tourist. Shoddy weapons, Like Art, Crafts, and other broad-set Abilities, Hunting of course, will be harder to repair or modify; for more details, covers a field of related expertise.
Each type of expertise demands see Inventing, Modifying, and Improving Technology in a given specialty. Unlike the Survival Skill, this secondary Mage 20, pp.
Ability deals specifically with predatory skill-sets. You could use Novice: Basic gun repair and minor modifica- its specialties to follow a target without being spotted Shad- tions. These firearms and ammunition. To be skilled with those disciplines, simply cation experience with conventional firearms. Assuming your Storytellers consent, Expert: Dazzling mastery of most gun and the well-skilled craftsman option Mage 20, p.
Novice: Weekend warrior. Master: Mack Bolan comes to you for advice. Practiced: Rural native. Your training, however, allows you to employ Otherworldly Prey, Environments woodlands, mountains, serious gear: machine-guns, rocket-launchers, Stinger missiles, jungles, cities, etc. Because such weapons tend to be finicky, you know how to field-repair Hypnotism them as well.
Perhaps you even have your own YouTube channel, Using mundane psychological techniques as opposed to for thrilling the armchair-testosterone set. Now that is what I Mind-based magicks , you can place someone in a trance and am talking about And, as always, have nice day! Though its not Novice: Basic training.
Practiced: Field experience. Mesmerism typically demands a setting that encourages Skillful: Heavy-weapons specialist. Drawing the subject into a receptive state of mind, the Cyborgs, HIT Marks, Black Suits hypnotist gets him to lower his defenses and let her in. If the subject resists, the hypnotist will probably need to resort to Suggested Specialties: Shoulder-Mounted Missiles, Ma- Mind magicks rather than simple mesmerism. The number of successes reflects the depth of the spotting, stalking, killing, gutting, skinning, and packing it trance, with one to three successes indicating a mild trance out yourself.
Some folks think youre a testosterone sadist, and and four or more successes revealing a fairly deep one. For they might even be right. As far as you see it, though, youre each success rolled, the hypnotist adds one additional die to keeping an essential skill alive. Especially among mages who her second roll; three successes, for example, would add three spend time in the wilderness or Otherworlds, this Skill means more dice to that second rolls dice pool.
This process, in turn, takes roughly one minute of in-game time per task Expert: MacGyver. It would, for instance, take four minutes to instill Master: Tony Friggin Stark. Extended influence, Suggested Specialties: Scraps, Repairs, Found Objects, on the other hand, can be surprisingly efficacious.
Field Modifications, Howd You do That? Hypnotism is a psychological art, not an exact science. Its effects are unpredictable not even experts can fully Microgravity Operations control another persons mind without hardcore Mind-magick.
Things get weird when you leave Earths gravity. Although Ultimately, the Storyteller decides how much influence our theres no such thing as true zero-G, the radically altered mesmerist exerts upon her subject. That said, a skilled hypnotist gravitational forces found in strange Realms, spacecraft or can do some pretty impressive things with a willing subject Etherspace demand specialized training and experience. Without the Microgravity Operations Skill, a character in such Novice: You can do some basic parlor tricks.
Skillful: A devotee of the art, you can uncover or inspire surprising results. A rare skill-set outside the ranks of Technocratic Void En- gineers, Microgravity Operations teaches you how to move and Expert: Its scary just how much you can do act in altered gravity. Each dot in this Skill allows your character when you set someone elses mind to it. Lets say that the guy Master: Dr.
Caligari was a fraud. You are not. Without such training, a person bounces and floats with Tempters and Corrupters very little control of personal physics; with this Skill, that same Suggested Specialties: Uncovering Secrets, Unlocking person knows how to use that environment to his advantage.
Practiced: Youre good so long as you have Jury-Rigging something to hang on to. With a bit of luck and a lot of skill, you can rig a gadget, Skillful: It feels weird, but youve started to make temporary repairs, or cobble together something vaguely get the hang of things. Naturally, youll need the appropriate Traits as well stuff like Hypertech, Computers, Expert: You move almost as well in micro-G Energy Weapons, and so forth.
You cant rig something you dont as you do on Earth. A brilliant technician, though, can make gear jump Master: Youve spent so much time in space through hoops long enough to get through an immediate crisis. Combat, Extra-Vehicular Maneuvers Whether or not a Jury-Rigged device is vulgar magick depends on just how outlandish it seems.
An armored suit made out of Misdirection forged steel and weapon-parts? A flying car composed of Look! Over there! Okay, youre usually more subtle than Frisbees and dog treats? Um, no. Still, youre good at distracting folks from what youre ac- For game-system details about this sort of thing, tually trying to do.
An essential skill for magicians, pickpockets, see Inventing, Modifying, and Improving Technology in seducers, and other people who prefer to redirect attention, Mage 20, pp. Essentially, you throw a fake- Suggested Specialties: Research, Politics, Celebrities, out, your opponent responds, and you clock him. Similar Contact Info, Favors, Tickets, Dirt, the Underworld applications of this Skill let you set up distractions and then do something else when your targets back is turned in Pilot game terms, reducing the difficulty of your next roll if you Most folks, when confronted with the complex control succeed with a Misdirection attempt.
Naturally, this sort panels of conventional aircraft, dont have the slightest idea of trick stops working if you rely upon it too often. Each where to start. You do. Dude theyre on the higher your rating, the more sophisticated the craft. Time to try a different tactic Novice: Small prop planes.
Novice: My God whats that? Practiced: Private jets. Practiced: Nothing up my sleeves Skillful: Commercial aircraft.
Skillful: What about that guy over there? Expert: Military war machines. Expert: You mean this hand? Master: Damn near anything. Also known Youre good at making contacts and working them for all as Psychoanalysis, this Trait takes time and trust to deploy theyre worth. While these networks wont actually act on your you cant cure phobias during a firefight! Simple tasks have lower difficul- 3.
Each success counts toward at least a temporary resolution Networking demands time, access, and attention. Although of an illness or neurosis. Simple quirks are easy to fix five to cell phones and laptops can link you to your contacts in most 10 successes , while severe mental illness can be much harder tech-enabled locations, you still need to spend time reaching 20 successes or more. Occasionally, theyll ask you On the shadow-side, the same techniques can be used to for favors too you get nothing for nothing, after all!
The nice instill mental quirks and illnesses false memories, induced thing, though, about extensive networks is that the people in phobias, that sort of thing.
This application assumes that the them have a greater ability to help one another when need be. The Satanic ritual some friends. Corrupters, seducers, and con- Skillful: You know who to talk to and how to version specialists study psychoanalysis for that very reason.
Whether youre trying to help or harm someone, Mind Expert: With two hours and a phone, you magick obviously helps with this sort of thing. Again, see work wonders.
Practiced: High-school guidance counselor. Skillful: Professional therapist. Expert: Acclaimed authority. Master: Miracle-worker. Security Locks are for morons. In our high-tech era, anything worth keeping is guarded by advanced security systems. As a specialist in such systems, you can analyze, install, access, and when necessary subvert or disable them. A common vocation among Technocratic operatives and their enemies, this Skill handles networks that turn a sneak-thiefs world upside-down.
In game terms, this Ability lets you set up, maintain, and infiltrate elaborate security installations: video cameras, laser-triggers, pressure-sensitive plates, and so on.
Obviously, such tasks demand time and focus, plus the occasional bit of magick or Enlightened procedure. Given the intricate technol- ogy involved in security networks, other Abilities in Mage 20, Chapter Six Computer, Hypertech, Technology, and so forth often come into play as well; the Security Skill could tell you where to place the cameras, but it wont help you hack their monitoring network! For rule systems related to security networks, see the Computer Systems presented in Chapter Two, pp.
Novice: Youve skimmed some manuals. Practiced: Trained on one side of the law. Skillful: Trained on both sides of the law. Expert: Youve designed or defeated extensive networks. Master: Catwoman.
Speed-Reading Through a combination of concentration and skill, you can scan and retain large amounts of information in very short periods of time. Speed reading utilizes a number of tricks that help you process things you read quickly.
Although complex. For most mages, knowledge is the ultimate weapon. And so, more than any other denizens of the World of Darkness, Although this is a valuable talent for Technocrats, Hermetic mages favor Knowledge Traits as a primary skill-set, and then mages, Virtual Adepts, and other folks who need to absorb huge employ those Abilities as essential elements of their mundane chunks of data, its a hazardous trick to employ when youre read- lives and magickal focus.
Both advanced science and ritual magick, after all, depend upon precise reading in As mentioned both in Mage 20 and in Chapter Fives M20 order to get the proper results. Speed-reading techniques depend FAQ, many Knowledge Abilities from older editions of Mage upon mnemonic shortcuts, and shortcuts and magick tend have been subsumed into the Knowledge Traits: Academics, to make poor bedfellows. For simplicitys sake, many of The moral behind this principle: Dont try summoning Elder Gods the Knowledges detailed below could be considered Expert with a ritual you skimmed in your hurry to get through the book!
Knowledges, as per Mage 20, p. That said, the entries below can be used to inspire ideas and inform specialties among Novice: Twilight in an hour. Practiced: Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone in two or three hours. Conspiracy Theory Skillful: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows in They are not merely the projections of a delusional two or three hours. You know damn well that secret power-players manipu- Expert: A Game of Thrones in two or three late the world, and youre on to their schemes.
In the World hours. Swimming Student: Glenn Beck fan. You dont sink you swim. Under normal circumstances, Scholar: Glenn Beck. Professor: Art Bell. Each turn demands a separate roll, though, and you can pet-Masters, Media Ops, UFOlogists, Government Agents, do this for only one turn per point of Stamina you possess.
Underground, the Catholic Church, Zionist Cabals, Real- Expert: Youd probably pass a professional ity Deviants the vampiric Masquerade, werebeast packs, lifeguard test. Ascension War factions, etc. Alliances, rivalries, histories, influential Competition, Open Seas, Lifesaving, Survival players, status and weaknesses theyre your bread and butter.
The higher your rating, the more you know. Low-level mages or Technocrats so-called secrets to make certain folks uneasy. Master: They just call you M.
Scholar: Anything thats common knowledge Cultural Savvy in the ranks, you know. Youre a walking travel guide, even in places youve never Professor: Classified access is yours to com- visited before.
A combination of prior knowledge and innate mand. Master: You know enough rumors, data, secrets and dirt to make lots of people nervous; given Unlike the Etiquette Skill, this Knowledge is less about how much you know, you should be nervous making friends than it is about figuring out how cultures too! With it, you can grasp foreign manners, catch subtle cues, unravel complex social roles, and draw Possessed By: Managers, Masters, Diplomats, Infiltrators, conclusions about the importance of gender, politics, Turncoats, Funding Committee Members, Oversight Special- ethnicity, and perhaps most importantly the cultural ists, Inquisitors, Informants, Troublemakers, Spiders in that expectations of the people in question.
In a chronicle that Particular Web employs reality zones, this can be a subtle but important Suggested Specialties: Deals, Dirt, Projects, Protocols, weapon in the global Ascension War. Password forgotten? Click here. Advanced Search. M20 The Book of Secrets. From Onyx Path Publishing. Selected Option:.
Hardcover, Premium Color Book. Hardcover, Standard Color Book. Average Rating 58 ratings. Also available for Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition: Technocracy Reloaded Welcome to the Future As the third decade of the 21st century dawns, the Technocratic Union stands on the cutting edge of a future imperiled. Can You Save It? Customers Who Bought this Title also Purchased. Reviews 3. Please log in to add or reply to comments. Yui F. A customer. I've never written a review of an RPG product I've purchsed before, but fact that this book is so all over the place has compelled me to act.
The Good: Book of Secrets opens up with a re-print of some character Archetype [ I found it an invaluable book for creating characters for Mage the Ascension. So much about Mage is making unique characters, and this gives you plenty of tools to make a Mage character your way. See All Ratings and Reviews. Browse Categories. Rule System. Apocalypse World Engine.
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