u/ESchwenke

https://youtu.be/vBP\_mdB2RUE?is=trzBkqNiOHW7x\_Xx

How do people here feel about the classification of United States Power Metal? Is it fully distinct from Power Metal? Is it a subcategory of Power Metal along with European Power Metal with both referring more to styles made popular in the two regions rather than the origin of specific bands? If the latter, what are the traits of PM as a whole that both styles have in common, but are unique to PM compared to Traditional Heavy Metal? Should USPM just be called THM?

Since there were a few people that were interested in me sharing (or at least open to it) the project I've been working on to get suggestions on how to handle some things for character creation, I'll give this a go.

Resonance

Resonance is the lingering metaphysical residue left on people, places, or things after phenomenal acts or events occur. It' is not a phenomenon unique to Mages and True Magick, but True Magick is able to create it with greater ease than are other means. each instance of Resonance has a Type and an Aspect. The Aspects are Dynamic, Static, and Entropic. The Types are Convictional, Elemental, Temperamental, and Narrative. There is also Connective Resonance that is a Type without Aspects, but it works in a different way from the others. Each is tied to one of the Umbrae.

Convictional Resonance is generated by acting in accordance with strongly held beliefs. If you are familiar with Prism of Focus, each of the Tenets from that book could generate Convictional Resonance, however the possibilities would not be limited to those. Convictional Resonance is tied to the High Umbra.

Elemental and Temperamental work very much like their counterparts in Book of Mirrors. They are Tied to the Middle and Low Umbrae, respectively.

Narrative Resonance is generated by embodying archetypes, virtues, or sins/vices, or by enacting mythic tropes. It is tied to the Dreaming

Connective Resonance creates lines of Sympathy and Contagion between people, places, and things. It is tied to a lost Otherworld that the Al-i-Batin call Mount Qaf, but others called the Crossroads. The Al-i-Batin saw that the Technocratic promotion of Data threatened it, so they attempted to protect it through a flawed ritual that just obscured much of it from the memory of Mages. This was not enough to protect it, and the Digital Web has been reformatting it regardless.

Avatars and Essences

A Sleeper Awakens into a Mage when they have accrued permanent Resonance of traits that fall within five of the six Aspect-Type combination. that its Avatar Essence is concerned with.

Dynamic Essences are concerned with the traits that are Dynamic-Convictional, Dynamic-Elemental, Dynamic-Temperamental, Dynamic-Narrative, Static-Temperamental, and Entropic-Temperamental

Pattern Essences are Concerned with Static-Convictional, Static-Temperamental, Static-Elemental, Static-Narrative, Dynamic-Convictional, and Entropic-Convictional.

Primordial Essences are concerned with Entropic-Convictional, Entropic-Temperamental, Entropic-Elemental, Entropic-Narrative, Dynamic-Elemental, and Static-Elemental.

Questing Essence Avatars hope to repair the Dreaming by pushing their Mages to generate Narrative Resonance while not favoring any aspect of the Metaphysic Trinity. They must be concerned with six traits instead of five. Three of those are Dynamic-Narrative, Static-Narrative, and Entropic-Narrative. The other three can be of any combination of Aspects with Convictional, Temperamental, and Elemental types, so long as there are no repeats of Aspect or Type between those three.

While normally a Mage can only have one trait for each combination of Aspect and Type, they can have two or three traits in the combinations that their Essence is concerned with.

Resonance Levels

When Resonance is generated, those affected gain a number of temporary Resonance levels. These decrease over time; the more levels, the longer it takes to decrease by one. If affected by the same Resonance again before the temporary levels sufficiently decrease, the Resonance can be reinforced. With enough reinforcement, the permanent level will rise. Raising a Mage's permanent levels is required to raise Arete. Raising a location's permanent levels is required to create Nodes and Reality Zones.

Quiet

If a Mage has temporary levels in excess of their permanent levels in a trait, they may be adversely affected. This is Quiet, and the effect is dependent on the trait and excess temporary levels.

Contagious Resonance

A Mage experiencing Quiet can lower temporary levels more quickly (this is not necessarily a voluntary process) by shedding them to those they have bonds with. Elemental is often shed through blood relation (possibly sexual partners). Temperamental is often shed to those with strong emotional bonds (these are not necessarily positive). Convictional is often shed to those within the same organizational structure (such as Tradition, Craft, or Convention). Narrative tends to shed to those tied together formally through contract, or ceremony.

Resonance gained through shedding does not decrease until all levels that would be shed to them have done so.

Other uses of Resonance

In addition to Arete, Resonance levels can be responsible for various Merits, Flaws, and Backgrounds.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

That should be enough to give people an idea for what I need help with.

1. How much Permanent Resonance should be required for each level of Arete? I'm currently thinking that Arete 1 requires 5 traits at level 1, Arete 2 requires 2 traits at 2, Arete 3 requires 3 traits at 3, etc.

2. How much should levels cost at character creation?

3. How should the number and identities of people with sympathetic connections to the Mage be determined at creation? I'm thinking that people/groups that show up in Background, Merits, and Flaws should be used, but beyond those do they just get free bonds until each Aspect/Type combination has one? What if they want more? Should they cost anything? Should they give points?

I've got this project I've been working on for a few years that I'm hoping I'll be able to flesh out enough by running a game soon in the event that my work schedule will be changing to accommodate. There are some aspects that I might need some ideas or opinions on before I can say I'm ready for players to make characters though and I'm wondering how people here would feel about me sharing parts of it to ask for suggestions. That said, in many ways it's almost a reboot/overhaul of Mage that, while I feel would flesh out aspects of the game that are undercooked, or in some ways revert some of the setting to how it was described in earlier editions, some may feel it's a betrayal of core themes of the game.

To be more specific, this project places Resonance front and center. Avatars Awaken when a Sleeper acquires sufficient amounts of Resonance of various types. Avatars push Mages to generate Resonance in accordance with their Essences. Increasing Personal Resonance is the key to increasing Arete (making it increase independently from XP). Increasing locational Resonance can create Nodes and Reality Zones. Gaining too much at a time can cause Quiet, but this can be mitigated by excess Resonance being siphoned off by people with which the Mage has sympathetic ties. Also, Resonance is not only created by Mages, but True Magick is able to create Resonance more effectively than are other means.

There's a lot more to this, but how do people feel about me talking about it here?

My family is pretty new to Dominion. Two of my kids got excited about it after playing with some new friends and their base set, got me excited when they told me about it (I had played Intrigue 1E once years ago), and I proceeded to play the Steam version until I could beat the Medium AI (which was surprisingly difficult). We had been trying to get my wife and other kid to try the app so they could see if they liked it but have been unsuccessful so far. We're still holding out hope.

Since then, my wife and two of the kids (including the one who hasn't played yet) went on a trip for over a month (they're still gone) and the other one and I needed stuff to do together so I thought I'd get Dominion. I had thought I saw that Intrigue was standalone (and remembered as such from my first time playing years ago) and could be playable by 5-6 players, which would mean we could potentially play with the whole family if they got on board, plus I wanted more potential for variety when playing with our friends. So, I ordered Intrigue 2E. It came. I opened it. I ordered the Base Cards set with just base Treasures, Curses, and Victory cards. It also has Potions, Platinum, and Colonies.

My son and I have played a few games of Intrigue now (once with Platinum and Colonies) and are looking forward to using it in combination with our friends' set this weekend when we go over to their place for board games. The thing is, I'm already thinking about the next set we get, but also worried about the complexity of Intrigue being a barrier to entry for the family members that haven't played yet. My present son and I agree that we really need to get them to play with our friends' set to introduce them to it, but from my perspective I'm already thinking of other expansions to enhance the game experience. I'm still hesitant to get a set that's redundant with our friends', but I'm also hesitant to get a set that amps up the complexity too much just yet. That said, what are your suggestions for a second set? Thanks in advance.

Hi. I used to listen to quite a bit of Power Metal years ago when I used Pandora, but got away from it for various reasons. In the mean time I've been listening almost exclusively to Dio to possibly the degree of an Autistic special interest. Lately I've been trying to branch out more in my listening, as well trying to pursue vocal training. I used to sing back in my school days and I've been missing it, but I want to see about learning how to sing rock and metal. I'm a Baritone/Tenor 1, so I don't have the register for a lot of the clean-sung metal out there, but I know USPM is more accepting of lower vocals than EuPM tends to be. So, anyone have suggestions for me?

I've been enamored of Metroidvanias as a meta-structure for decades, but ever since I had a bad time with Hollow Knight years ago, I've been reluctant to really get into them more. I'm just not into precision platforming, or brutally difficult combat, or timing challenges. What I would enjoy is something that focused on using the acquired upgrades for non-dexterity-based puzzles. Are there any like that that people consider to be good?