Game Traits for Child-Mages

Classification: Union // Open Ref shared/rule/system/game-traits-for-child-mages

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Pre-adolescent characters begin with 10 freebie points, not 15, due to lack of life-experience.
Pre-teen kids get no more than six dots in Physical Attributes, with no more than two of them in Strength.
Pre-teen mages start with a base Arete of 2, not 1. (Maximum of 3 still applies.)
Child-mages may begin with any Affinity Sphere, but get the usual six Sphere dots.
Pre-teens must take the Flaws: Short and Child. (See Chapter One for details.)
Young mages will probably have the Backgrounds: Allies, Destiny, and Mentor, plus an Avatar Background no lower than 3. These Traits are not “free,” but must be paid for normally.
New-Avatar innocents also begin play with between one and three points in the Merit: True Faith. Again, this Trait must be purchased (it’s not free), and may be worn away by the challenges of growing up in the World of Darkness.

Computer Systems: Game Rules for InfoTech (BoS p. 117)

• Pre-adolescent characters begin with 10 freebie points, not 15, due to lack of life-experience.

• Pre-teen kids get no more than six dots in Physical Attributes, with no more than two of them in Strength.

• Pre-teen mages start with a base Arete of 2, not 1. (Maximum of 3 still applies.)

• Child-mages may begin with any Affinity Sphere, but get the usual six Sphere dots.

• Pre-teens must take the Flaws: Short and Child. (See Chapter One for details.)

• Young mages will probably have the Backgrounds: Allies, Destiny, and Mentor, plus an Avatar Background no lower than 3. These Traits are not “free,” but must be paid for normally.

• New-Avatar innocents also begin play with between one and three points in the Merit: True Faith. Again, this Trait must be purchased (it’s not free), and may be worn away by the challenges of growing up in the World of Darkness.

Depending on which mage you ask, a computer could be anything from a sentient entity bound into a material container, to a Technocratic shackle upon the imaginations of humanity, to the last great hope of human transcendence. None of that stuff has any bearing on the following rule-systems, and technological specifics really aren’t important in game terms anyhow. Computer technology and its applications have changed radically within the last 25 years, and any specifics we note here right now would be essentially obsolete by the time this book winds up in your hands.

Practically speaking, however, computers are hypercompetent information storage, management, and assimilation systems. That part of the deal hasn’t changed much since the abacus – merely the systems’ methods, forms, and capacities have changed.

From a practical perspective, a character who’s working with computers is organizing and manipulating information. And because reality is, in a sense, information, that computer user invokes a tiny bit of magick every time he taps the interface. That happens whether the Spheres and Arete are involved or not. You can change the reality of your day, perhaps your life, perhaps the lives of people across the world, all with a simple email. That’s the power of the Information Age.

Computer System Types (BoS p. 118)

To access that power, a character needs to know how to work the system. Twenty years ago, that skill belonged to a handful of people worldwide. Today, it’s an essential part of daily life for at least a quarter of that same world’s population, and it indirectly influences almost everybody else. The hardware and software change, as do the skills involved, but the in-game Traits remain the same: a Mental Trait (Perception, Wits, or most commonly Intelligence) + Computer (or, in certain cases, Technology). Any character with that combination of Traits can use information technologies to some degree. What she can do with those Traits depends upon her skills, the system, and the task at hand.

Back in the 1990s, all a would-be hacker or cracker needed was a little computer savvy, the proper hard- and software, and a lot of time on his hands. Times change, though, and today’s computer specialists have batteries of skills that help them do their jobs. And so, in game terms, your character should possess appropriate Traits before he goes mucking about in IT systems. Although most folks know how to use basic computer skills these days, the true elite master a wide range of helpful abilities. For the various rolls and modifiers involved in those computerized tasks, see the Computer System Types sidebar

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