Fluid Realities
A downloadable game
Fluid Realities is a minimalist game about the secret war between modern mages in a 90's gothic-punk world.
This is an homage to the classic Mage: The Ascension using the rules of John Harper's Lasers & Feelings.
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Development log
- Added character sheetAug 25, 2023
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Hi!
We had a game yesterday evening and it was great, thanks!
As the GM I only encountered two difficulties with the rule:
- the rule to increase paradox is not clear? do you need to take some rest just after a backlash? or could you have a bunch of backlashes on different actions and then take some rest?
- we quickly encountered some corner cases for the distinction between coincidental and vulgar magick, for instance is divination coincidental if nobody else sees anything? is talking with elemental spirits coincidental with your mage is the only one hearing them?
Hey! I'm so glad you played and enjoyed it!
Paradox is cumulative. The character is not required to rest to reduce it, it is just something that can be done. Each backlash and each entire day without performing magic recovers 1 point towards the Paradox threshold. If you want to take a risk, the character can have several consecutive backlashes before deciding to take a day off to recover.
Any magic that a sleeping observer would not notice or view as a mundane event is coincidental. Magical perceptions are good examples of coincidental magic.
If the character talks to inconspicuous spirits, a sleeper might only see it as a lunatic talking to himself. However, if the character causes a spirit to act physically, such as commanding a wind spirit to lift him or a storm spirit to suddenly change the weather, then we could consider it vulgar magic even if the spirit itself is not seen.
It is worth remembering that several "coincidences" happening successively in a short period of time begin to seem too unlikely. Ultimately, the GM is the arbiter over each event.
Thanks for the question and good gaming to you!
This looks incredible. This also reminds me of The Invisibles by Grant Morrison.
One small typo: In the explanation for Audacity under the Rolling the Dice section you spelled it "Vulgar magik" without a "c" but elsewhere it looks like you spelled "magick" with a "c."
I'm glad you liked it. Thanks for letting me know. I'll try to fix it in the not too distant future.
Looks fantastic but i have a question : A mage looks for imrpving himself, his skills, his status, his wealth,... How do manage that in your games ?
Good question, ShamZam!
Normally L&F hacks are not designed for long campaigns, they work much better for short adventures or one shots. If I were going to handle a campaign, I imagine I would be dealing with evolution within fiction rather than adding subsystems to the game.
"Power" for Fluid Realities mages is related to their influence over Reality. If you manage to change the consensus of what is or is not real for people, the paradox starts to affect you less or not at all. This can take interesting paths...
Another, more direct and faster narrative way of dealing with improvement is the advantage rule. If the mage is in an advantageous situation, roll an additional 1d20 on the check. Therefore, seeking ways to always "have an advantage" is a common goal. How each mage seeks this varies with their paradigm.
For example, an urban shaman can make pacts with powerful spirits. A hellbender can call in favors from archdemons. A hermetic sorcerer can discover lost grimoires from Atlantis. And so on. Each quest for power can yield entire adventures.
Regarding the status of mages, this is resolved through their actions in game. As the cabal takes down enemies and spreads its influence, its reputation grows exponentially (and new, more powerful enemies emerge).
Thanks for your question. Hope this helps. ^^
It does enlight me. Thx !
This game looks phenomenal. It does everything I find so intriguing about Mage, while being so much more accessible and honestly, more fun to read. And how did you manage to pack so much into just a couple pages and still fill the thing with personality and splash art?
Thank you, Sabrina! I'm glad you liked it.
It was really a challenge to synthesize Mage into such basic concepts. It's tempting to try to address metaphysical ideas and subsystems, spheres and organizations... In the end, L&F's design was the guide. Reading John Harper's microgames taught me a lot about how to synthesize ideas and I ended up using some elements that I had already used in another hack, Symphony of the Devil. Cutting text and rewriting sometimes gives my heart ache.
As for the look, I opted to make the font a little smaller to free up space for the illustrations. I left out some things like an adventure generator to make room for the layout. I love the look of the 90s World of Darkness books and I wanted to convey a little bit of the feeling I had when leafing through them for the first time. Difficult to do this in such a small space, but I hope I came close.
Anyway, thanks for your comment, Sabrina. I believe my answer shows how being synthetic is a challenge for me. ^^
Looks dope! It reminds me of Wights (polish Strzygi) which are made also on L&F and evokes owod atmosphere. If you are interested, you can find it here: https://skavenloft.itch.io/strzygi (most of supplements are in polish, but corebook is available in english)
Sounds interesting. I'll search! ^^
I wanna play Unknown Armies with this. ;)
Oh, good idea!
Awesome!
Thanks, Ricardo!