Creating Magical Effects

Steps

When you decide to work magic (or whatever your mage calls it), you need to go through a simple process to determine the results. Follow these steps:

• Determine the Effect: Figure out what you want to do, whether it’s hurling a ball of flame, causing people around you to fail to notice your presence or making dice fall as you dictate.
• Decide Upon Your Method: Each mage’s paradigm- his means of looking at magic-influences the casting of an Effect. If you’re a Hermetic mage, you probably use Enochian chants, the names of powerful angels and spirits, geometric sigils or glyphs. If you’re a Virtual Adept, you might reprogram a computer to project energy or re-code the surrounding universe itself. Figure out how your mage justifies the Effect in order to determine what focus and what Ability you use with the spell. Mages don’t just crank out spells. They work, chant, pray and invoke to make the magic happen.
• Check Your Knowledge: Do you know how to accomplish what you want to do? Look at your character’s Spheres and determine what knowledge will help complete the feat. If you have the appropriate rote, you’re fine. If not, you may not be able to work the Effect. If you use the optional rule for fast-casting, you can try to cast the rote even if you don’t know it. If you use the optional rule for dynamic magic, you can try to build an Effect that does what you want, even if there is no rote for it. However, if you don’t have the necessary Sphere requirements, you can’t perform the magic. The base assumption is that you cannot perform a given spell unless your Spheres and rotes explicitly list the ability to do so.