Rules

A character can have several different flavors of Resonance, which may interact with one another at the Storyteller’s dis­ cretion. For rules, see the Complimenting and Contradicting Resonance entry in the nearby Synergy sidebar.

For the most part, Resonance and Synergy remain narrative and roleplaying effects. If a room “feels weird,” you don’t need to

puzzle out the number of dots it has in a given Resonance – just say something like, “The skin tightens at the back of your neck. Hairs rise along your arms, and an itch sinks in under your fingernails…” Leave the labels and systems for times when they become absolutely critical, if and when you choose to employ them at all.

Degrees of Resonance and Synergy

Flavors of Resonance

Flavors of Synergy

Resonance

and Synergy Traits

At moments, however, when potent forces come into play – a life-changing crisis, a shattering discovery, a titanic act of magick far beyond the things your characters are used to experiencing – the Storyteller might give a dot in the ap­ propriate sort of Resonance (or Synergy) to the characters involved. Lost a child? Found True Love? Activated the machine you’ve been working on for months or years? Such occasions may provide opportunities for one new dot of an appropriate flavor of Resonance. That said, Storytellers, be careful with your generosity. Resonance and Synergy reflect vital forces in a character’s life, and should be not too easily given… or too easily taken, either.

Because Resonance echoes behavior, certain patterns of activ­ ity can also add or subtract dots in Resonance. A person who uses lots of fire-spells will eventually acquire dots in Fiery Resonance. One who uses his Arts to acquire lots of money may also acquire a Prosperous Resonance… and possibly a Greedy Resonance too. In this case, the Storyteller decides to award Resonance in accor­ dance with the mage’s activities… or, if the player is not acting in accordance with his Resonance, to subtract them.

It is possible to lose Resonance, of course. If Ashpaw starts dressing up, adopting sophisticated manners, and hanging out downtown, then that character begins losing dots in Feral, possibly replacing them with dots in Acculturated instead.

By that same token, Resonance may change in accordance with the character’s actions. An Honorable character who starts being sneaky and treacherous will have those dots in Honorable converted to dots in Sneaky or Treacherous. Generally, this happens in a one-for-one manner, trading one dot out for the other in a gradual transformation. Certain events, however, could cause a radical shift. Acquiring an obsession with a Sinister tome or Corrupting practice could change Resonance more or less instantly. (Consider, as an example, the sudden transformation of Willow Rosenberg into Dark Willow during Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer… a transformation that had been hovering in the background for a while, but which burst through in a big way when Tara was killed.) Again, the Storyteller subtracts or alters Resonance based upon the actions of the character and her player.

Energetic signatures help characters recognize a certain type of Resonance, and may allow them to identify the parties responsible for it. Let’s say that Jinx has a bit of Wild and Careless Resonance; when she uses her magick, it’s almost as though she’s spray-painting Jinx was here on whatever happens to be nearby. People who know Jinx will be able to recognize that signature, and strangers might catch a hint of wild carelessness in the air long after she’s gone. Although she can “cloak” her Resonance with a bit of effort (see below), Jinx literally leaves traces of her energy behind, thanks to Resonance. And as we said above, the stronger your Resonance, the stronger its signature.

As a rule, assume that a character can discern the identity behind a particular Resonance signature by taking a turn or two and using a successful Intelligence + Awareness roll. The difficulty of that roll is 10, -1 for each dot in the Resonance Trait; identifying the person behind a Resonance of 1, for in­ stance, would be difficulty 9, while identifying the mage with Resonance 5 would be difficulty 5. If the identifying character is intimately familiar with that Resonance signature – it’s from a lover, say, or a close friend, mentor, or child – then the difficulty is -2 for each dot in Resonance; that Resonance 1 character would be difficulty 8 to spot, while the person with Resonance 5 is immediately obvious to someone who knows him well.

Obviously, a mage can “cloak” her Resonance, especially for short periods of time. If that wasn’t the case, then no Nephandus could get away with the things they do. Such concealment, however, is easier at low levels than it is at higher ones… which suggests one reason why so many powerful mages eventually leave the material world behind.

Story-wise, a mage can cloak her Resonance simply by asserting a degree of control over the manifestations. In game terms, a Willpower roll, combined with a turn or more spent “willing away the echoes,” can cloak one dot in Resonance for each success on the roll. That roll’s difficulty is the dots of the Resonance in question + 3; to conceal three dots in Resonance, for example, would take at least three successes at difficulty 6. That concealment lasts roughly one hour per success.

Prime Sphere magick carries an especially powerful and “pure” sense of Resonance. A character who uses Prime-intensive magick almost always leaves traces of his signature behind. And so, if a character employs a powerful application (Prime 3 or higher) of the Prime Sphere, or who weaves points of their personal Quintessence into an object or Effect, then the difficulty of identifying or cloaking that character’s Resonance is based upon either the Prime Sphere Rank of the character who left the Resonance, or else the Resonance itself – whichever is higher.

If and when Prime magick and Resonance come into play together, use the following rules: