Weekly XP is awarded as follows: 1 XP for finishing a scene (scenes are only considered complete if marked as such.), 1 XP if your character learned something significant, 1 XP for quality Role-Playing, 1 XP for portraying Focus, and 1 XP for standing out in a scene involving NPCs (May be awarded multiple times per week)
At the end of a Story, XP is Awarded at ST discretion, but will take into account success, danger, character growth/wisdom, and interesting drama, as well as how long the story has gone.
In addition to Story and Weekly XP, players who assist the Storyteller, such as by writing summaries of scenes, may receive additional XP for this work, to be given to a character of their choice.
Characters start with 15 Freebie points, however, it is possible to start with as many as 30. You may receieve 15 additional Freebies for a backstory that includes plot hooks for the ST, at the ST's discretion.
Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition p. 279
Some abilties have traditionally had to be bought multiple times for each specialty. With this rule, instead you buy them with a single specialty at character creation (even if you only have a single dot) and may buy additional specialties for 4 XP each at rank 4.
Several abilities have been removed. Martial Arts has been merged into Brawl and Esoterica into Occult. Their slots have been filled by Larceny and Finance. Additionally, Hypertech is no longer a Skill.
Sources of Magick p. 19
Nodes are created as per the rules in Sources of Magick, which add Resonance, Merits and Flaws, and other relevant traits. If you want to create a Node and don't have access to Sources of Magick, contact your Storyteller.
Prism of Focus p. 10
Focus is reworked via Prism of Focus. It now consists of three Tenets describing statements the mage believes along with Practices that include ratings. Effects must mention which Practice is being used and to use a Practice for an effect the Spheres involved must be less than or equal to the Practice rating. See Prism of Focus for more details.
Fallen Tower: Las Vegas p. 122
We use a simplified version of the Resonance rules from Fallen Tower. Resonance is a set of adjectives describing the characters magick rated from 1-5. Magick that aligns with the Resonance subtracts it from difficulty, that opposes it adds it to difficulty. Mages start with one dot in a Resonance trait. Characters with Awareness may roll Perception + Awareness at difficulty 9 - highest resonance trait to sense a character's resonance as a reflexive action. Additional rolls and successes may reveal additional traits, and the collection of traits and ratings of a character is often considered identifying. Resonance dots may be added or removed for 3 XP or Freebies.
Prism of Focus p. 32
Characters begin with 6 rote points, and rotes cost their total number of sphere dots in points to learn. Learning from a mentor or grimoire halves this. The primary benefit is that rotes roll Attribute + Ability based on Practice instead of Arete. Rote points may be purchased at 4 per Freebie or 3 per XP.
Prism of Focus p. 31
Reality Zones are as in Prism of Focus: they have ratings in several Practices, ranging from -5 to 5. Positive ratings make Spheres lower than that using the Practice automatically coincidental. Negative ratings instead make high rankings of Spheres vulgar, ie, Hypertech -1 would cause Rank 5 Hypertech effects to be vulgar, -2 would include Rank 4, etc.
At this time, Data and Dimensional Science will be handled as different difficulty/target number charts for Correspondence and Spirit. Primal Utility is sufficiently different to be taken as a wholly distinct Sphere. In the future, this may change, in which case characters will be allowed to respec in small ways to accomodate a rules change.
This game uses the divided success rule.
When in doubt, assume that magick the mage is certain was their action is vulgar. Also assume that things are possible, though anything unusual requires the presence of a Storyteller to adjudicate.
Following some rules mentioned in earlier editions, creation with quintessence stream (like a node): Charms are Prime 3, Artifacts, Talismans, and Living Charms are Prime 4, Living Artifacts and Living Talismans at Prime 5...but with the right flavor of Tass, those can be dropped by one.
Chantry Creation follows The Operative's Dossier with two changes: the first is that Chantry rank is considered to be the number of points in the chantry, divided by ten, rounded up. So 1-10 points is a Rank 1 chantry. The other change is that the caps on traits for Chantry are removed except for integrated effects, which are capped by functional Arete equal to rank.
For difficulties above 9 and below 3, we use a threshold system. For above 9, it's as written: any difficulty modifier above 9 converts to additional required successes at difficulty 9. So difficulty 8 with a +3 modifier becomes difficulty 9 and requires 2 more successes than it otherwise would. Similarly, difficulty modifiers below 3 reduce the number of successes required. So a difficulty 4 roll that requires 3 successes with a -3 modifier becomes a difficulty 3 roll with only a single success needed. Difficulty 3 with one success needed is the minimum possible difficulty.
Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition p. 550
For this game, Paradox largely follows Revised Edition rules for how much Paradox accrues at a time. Backlashes tend to occur when a mage accumulates 5 or more paradox in a single scene, though not necessarily in the moment that the Paradox is aquired. It can also occur randomly if the character is carrying at least 5 points of Paradox. In any case, an ST must always adjudicate Paradox backlashes, so when enough Paradox is gained to risk a backlash, post "@storyteller backlash" and await an ST response.
Mage: the Ascension Revised Edition p. 150
An individual mage can never accumulate more successes on an effect than Arete x Willpower. To go beyond that they must work with others.