Altering time is infinitely recursive; the more you do it, the harder it is to do. Thus, each successive Time-based Effect within a single scene must beat the number of successes rolled by the pervious Time-based Effect. If you rolled three successes with a previous Effect, then it takes at least four successes to perform a second Effect; if you rolled six successes with that next Effect, then your need at least seven successes to perform a third Effect, and so on, and so on…

The exceptions to this rule are simple Prophecy and Hindsight Effects (described under Enhanced Perceptions), or the time-distortion Effects that let a mage speed himself up in order to gain further actions. Any other Time-based alteration of the environment – time loops, reboots, triggered Effects, and so on – must beat the successes rolled in previous Time-based effects.

This rule does not apply to multiple characters who use Time-Sphere magick in the same scene, only to a mage who continues to use different feats of time within that scene. That said, the Storyteller may choose to raise the difficulty for Time-based Effects by +1 for each character who’s using the Time Sphere within that scene. “Time-dueling,” then, becomes like a game of jenga, with the Paradox falling on the mage who’s unfortunate enough to botch a roll.

When a player wants to radically alter the flow of time – when she sets up time loops, isolates people from time, and generally does something bigger than using Past & Future Sight, speeding herself up or slowing herself down, then use the Feats of Time Magick chart to find out the numbers of successes she needs to score.

From there, add more successes to cover the length of time involved, as per the Dilating Time entry below. Moving another character three turns through time, for example, would require 10 successes (four for the feat + six to move him three turns)… possibly at +3 to the usual difficulty and three times the usual amount of Paradox if she’s able to move him backwards through time. (See the sidebar The Difficulties of