A mystic character is a mortal who has taken a step or two into the secrets of the World of Darkness. Through trial and error or sheer determination, he has learned a handful of those secrets himself. Standing in the shallows, the thaumaturge can choose to plunge into the darkness or cling to shore. Unfortunately, he may discover that one cannot wade in very deep without attracting sharks. This section presents rules for creating mystic characters, whether you’re a player who wants to portray one or a Storyteller who needs an important addition to her supporting cast.
Although the beliefs of mortals don’t grant them the ability to write their names in the sky in giant fiery letters, or to turn back the clock on a spoiled jug of milk, beliefs do affect the world on some level.
The human spirit is gifted with the remarkable ability to refute the existence of supernatural events that the spirit finds threatening or unfathomable.
Consult the table below and apply the most severe applicable modifier (if any) as a penalty to rolls for rituals to perform thaumaturgy.
| Dice Modifier | Witnesses |
|---|---|
| 0 | All witnesses believe in the power of the thaumaturge’s tradition. |
| -1 | Presence of one or more witnesses who don’t believe in magic or don’t believe in the mystic’s tradition. |
| -2 | More than 20 witnesses who don’t believe in magic or don’t believe in the magician’s tradition. |
| -3 | The ritual is performed in front of unbelieving witnesses (of any number) who strive to think in a highly rational manner, such as college students in a classroom or techs in a laboratory. |
| -3 | More than 100 witnesses who don’t believe in magic or don’t believe in the thaumaturge’s tradition. |
| -5 | The ritual is being televised and broadcast over a large area. |
| -5 | The ritual is performed in front of scientists or debunkers who actively look for any signs of trickery or deceit. |
Cooperative magic is handled like any other action in which characters combine efforts (see “Teamwork”). The mystics involved must all possess the Merit needed to perform the ritual. If the particular ritual requires a performer to possess a certain number of dots, all participants must have at least that many.
One caster is designated as the leader, with the others as helpers. At the end of each turn of casting, a ritual roll is made for each of the helpers as if casting the spell themselves. Successes are added as bonus dice to the leader’s ritual roll.
A dramatic failure on the part of any participant causes the entire ritual to fail and all participants to suffer the affects of a dramatic failure. Although all members of the group need not be members of the same magical tradition, the leader suffers a dice-pool penalty equal to the number of additional magical traditions involved in the ritual. If two ceremonial magicians and a hedge witch work together to perform a scrying ritual, the leader suffers a –1 penalty because there’s a member of one additional magical tradition involved.