Rotes & Procedures

With Time 4 alone, the mage could freeze a single moment of time – a falling glass, gunshot, car crash, etc. – for several turns, as described above. If an outside party (that is, someone other than the mage who cast the spell) interacts with the subject of that “moment,” then it ends immediately. Once the Effect’s Duration expires, the participants in that moment continue on whatever path they’d been headed when they were frozen. If the mage acts to change their trajectories – hauling one car’s steering wheel hard to the right, for example – then they follow the new path of action.

The base number of successes required to successfully perform that action depends upon the size of the action frozen, as determined by the Feats of Time Magick chart; suspending a falling teacup would be a Simple feat (one success), while freezing an impending trainwreck would be Mighty (five to 10 successes) or even Outlandish (more than 10 successes). From there, check the Optional Dividing Successes Rule chart (Mage 20, Chapter Ten) and then add more successes to set the Duration of the freeze. Suspending time for one day, for example, would require two successes above the base, while suspending it for six months would require five successes above the base. (Freezing the Outlandish trainwreck for six months, then, would require 15 successes.) In the meantime, any outside force that acts upon the frozen situation immediately breaks the spell; if someone touches that teacup, for example, then the cup falls to the floor. The caster, of course, can dispel the magick at any point; if she wishes to end that suspension, then it ends.