FSN: Clock Tower
New: Game runs Bi-weekly.
"Social-Link" Scenes Policy: Social Link scenes (PM minisessions where individual players perform actions between main sessions), are available on request. They're generally reserved for handling scenes that only include one or two players in order to prevent session disruption and maintain OOC secrecy. I reserve the right to refuse such a scene if I feel it isn't appropriate to the game.
The Mage Association is the foremost magical institute in the world, serving as a knowledge repository and support net for magisters worldwide. In addition to being a collection of regional supervisors and teaching enclaves, the heart of the organization rest in London, in the facility known as 'the Clock Tower'. Hidden from mundane scrutiny, this facility functions as the nerve center for the group's administrative body, a reliquary for mystical wonders - and an academy for the teaching and development of mages, young and old.
You are students at the Clock Tower - initiates into the Mage Association and its politics. Study hard, have fun, and survive.
Oops, did I type the last one?
Game run by BM, in case there was any confusion.
Game is capped at six people; certain people have come to me in private, but I don't know who all is committed to this. This will be decided as events warrant.
Suggestions regarding starting points and other chargen concerns go in the Discussion page.
Characters
Mildred Wattenberg
Alicia Winters
Jessica Thompson
Lucinda McRae
Beatrice Winslow
Septimus Cibo
NPCs
The Dean: Bishie head of the school. Very calm and polite.
Professor Hyatt Winslow: The party's Mentor. A cultured, somewhat playful Master. Is cousin of Beatrice, whose Mentor faked her death so that she could study magic without fear of discovery.
Professor Bostock: Bombastic demon-hunter turned Professor. Has a no-nonsense view on the supernatural.
Yomi Kurosaka: Japanese mage looking to study under Professor Tosaska, but stuck with Bostock. Is frightened after being threatened by Jack the Ripper.
Ambrose Wattenburg-Terwilliger: A mage who was trying to set a trap in the First test. Was killed and ghouled by Beatrice, and later killed by Cibo at Hyatt (actually Winnifred's) behest. Deceased.
Winnifred: A shapeshifter who tricked Cibo into killing Ambrose's ghoul; he saved her from capture by playing along with her ruses, first as a nurse and second as a schoolgirl he was sleeping with. Currently at large.
Jack the Ripper: A serial killer famous for his string of brutal murders in 1888 London, where he was attributed with killing several prostitutes in Whitechapel district. His identity was never discovered. Over a hundred years later, he has apparently returned, and is sending more Jack Letters to Clock Tower students.
Sessions
XP
XP is equal to CP for the purposes of spending. It will be given out at the end of arcs, depending on how upgrades scale. RP awards are given out per session, equalling 1 XP; there may also be adjustments due to scaling. Please ask me if you want to raise attributes for now; Circuit and Disciplines may be raised at leisure.
Session 1: 2 XP for Prologue, RP award: Beatrice Winslow (Silence)
Session 2: Part one of First Arc, RP Award, Beatrice Winslow (Silence)
The Clock Tower
The Mage Association's headquarters lies underneath the British Museum, in a series of underground structures and catacombs. This houses the homes of the Council leaders, as well as the university facilities and the dorms for professors and students.
Students who enroll at Clock tower spend most of their time studying in the main underground complex, a collection of ornately-designed hallways and laboratories dedicated to magical study. Obviously, this is not common knowledge to anyone who is not a magician (how much the British government knows is a topic of debate amongst students), so students are ostensibly affiliated with one of the local London Universities, traditionally the University of London. Students are able to participate in sporting events through their affiliated school, or study standard degrees in addition to their study of magic, if they're so inclined.
Clock Tower is run by a Council of Archmagi, who are the local leaders for England's Mage Association and the defacto head of the worldwide organization. Few of them actually teach, leaving that to lesser masters while they spend their time on their personal projects and factionalism. Professors are usually seasoned mages, who are responsible for a certain class or discipline within magic.
Students who come to Clock Tower have already been apprenticed in their youth, and have been sponsored by their master or another mage to join the tower. Some students are apprenticed to mages residing in the tower, who shepherd their study as they attend classes; others are free agents who come recommended by a distant member. Some students distinguished themselves due to events in their youth, particularly supernatural occurrences they were involved in; solving a prickly supernatural problem is an instant recommendation. There are even rare students on exchange from the Church who train to join the Burial Agency – rivals of the Mage Association, these goodwill exchanges are viewed with quiet wariness at best and magical surveillance at worst.
Clock Tower is not just a school, but a repository for magical artifacts and lore – including some top-secret materials. These are kept in secure museums for careful observation, with the most dangerous placed in heavily-defended or secret vaults. The most well-known of this is White Vault, a giant sealed chamber guarded by powerful wards located in the lower reaches. Magical guardians protect restricted areas, and most are polite enough to warn students before trying to eat them – that is, the ones who students are expected to see are. When you're inside, you're fair prey for the really scary stuff.
Most players are students in their first year attendance to the Clock Tower. Think about why they've come to study, who mentored them, how they were admitted, and what they seek to do with their magical knowledge.
Otherwise, have fun! And don't go in the White Vault.
Character Creation
CP costs:
Attributes: Current Rating + 1
Specialites: Current Rating + 1
Willpower: [Current Rating + 1] X3. You get one dot free because
Magic Circuit: [Current Rating + 1] X4. You get one dot for free because.
Magic Knowledge: [Current Rating + 1] X3
Merits: As noted in descriptions
Attribute costs per level
1: 1 CP
2: 3 CP
3: 6 CP
4: 10 CP
5: 15 CP
Willpower costs per level
1: Free
2: 9 CP
3: 18 CP
Circuits costs per level
1: Free
2: 12 CP
3: 24 CP
4: 40 CP
5: 60 CP
Discipline costs per level
1: 3 CP
2: 9 CP
3: 18 CP
Clock Tower Character Creation
Rules Guidelines
Basic Rolls
Stat Check: [Relevant Primary Attribute] + [Relevant Specialty]
Basic Attack Roll: Physical + [Relevant Spec]
Basic Defense Roll: Endurance + [Relevant Spec]
Damage Rolls: Roll your extra successes on the attack roll + a number based on your method of attack (decided by GM for now; Rule of Wrist is that magical damage is defined by the spell level, physical is defined by weapon type).
Defense Roll: Endurance for physical damage (most damage), Integrity for mental effects and mind-affecting substances, and Perception for illusions or social combat.
Magic Rolls
All Magic rolls are [Relevant Primary] + [Knowledge Rating]. The Relevant Primaries are set for the magic itself, and can only be substituted at GM discretion.
Augmentation: Physical
Projection: Physical
Elementalism: Intelligence
Mentalism: Intelligence
Puppetry: Intelligence
Necromancy: Charisma
Spiritualism: Charisma
Energy Control: Magic Circuit. May use Intelligence in some cases.
Special
Sorcery: Magic Circuit, with Relevant Primary in certain cases. Most Sorcery cannot be opposed with anything less than S-class magic and roll is moot.
Feeding: Relevant Attribute + Magic Circuit
Regain Mana normally: Generally abstracted, but it's pretty slow; you need to either rest or absorb it from someone using spells.