– confused Mage player during a Seeking
Welcome back. I should probably be saying that to myself, seeing as I’ve been away from the column for so long, but life does have its ups and downs, and mine was somewhere between the third and fourth circles of Dante’s E-Z Bake. Things have perked considerably since then, so I find myself before you yet again.
This month’s article will tackle a hefty subject: the Seeking. As all players of Mage know, seekings are spiritual missions of enlightenment, tests and trials to further Awaken a mage to the mysteries of existence. Seekings are a part of most ancient cultures, with an emphasis on finding your place in the world and coming into wisdom and age. For the mages of the World of Darkness, seekings are vital elements of growth, eye-opening events that lead to greater power and wisdom. However, as vital as seekings are, the task of running a seeking can be a real pain. With the release of Mage Revised, the task is made even more daunting by sheer virtue of the fact that there is NO information on these important events provided.
A seeking is, in flowery terms, a direct interaction between the conscious mind of the mage and his subconscious mystic awareness, as embodied by his avatar. Usually in the form of dreams and vision quests, seekings test the mage’s growing enlightenment, pointing out obstacles to be overcome and walls to be broken.
In Mage, seekings serve a two-fold purpose. The first is the pursuit of self-perfection, or overcoming the weaknesses of a mage’s nature. All mages are human and, ultimately, flawed in character and spirit. Seekings provide a mage with personal insights and challenges that must be incorporated and overcome before further enlightenment can be achieved. The second is the pursuit of clarity. The path to Ascension is fraught with peril, and only a road of enlightenment can show the way. Seekings allow the mage to learn deeper and deeper truths about existence, overcoming preconceived notions and, eventually, his own restrictive paradigm.
An often-asked question is, "Why hold a seeking?" There is a case to be made that enlightenment should be acquired during the process of daily living, since that is the place where a mage acquires all his or her experience. However, seekings are necessary for this very reason, allowing a mage to use and ponder the knowledge he has gained without the prejudices of "the real world" affecting him. Seekings are a dynamic reflection of a mage’s inner struggle, and no real world act can truly reflect that.
During a seeking, a mage is tested in three main ways. First, a mage’s personality is challenged. The mage is often put in situations that conflict with her personality, forcing her to develop her strengths and overcome her flaws and weaknesses. Without development of the self, true understanding of the outside world can never come. Second, the mage’s beliefs are often put to the test. All mages hold to some set of beliefs about how reality works, whether they are hermetic or virtual, religious or spiritual, and a seeking seeks to test those beliefs. Mages who cannot look past their paradigm, or who cannot expand it to encompass some hitherto unthought of aspect of reality, do not develop properly. Finally, a mage’s power is tested. Her ability to wield the power of the universe is an important part of being a mage, and one who cannot handle the greater powers of mastery do not get very far.
Sooner or later, a player is going to ask for permission to raise his or her Arete. This causes problems immediately for the ST and the game as a whole. Seekings are personal matters best run one-on-one, and a player who decides, at the beginning of a session, that he just has to raise his rating right then and there can derail a whole session. It also puts the ST in the impossible place of having to craft an important personal event on the fly. To avoid this problem, players and Storytellers need to work together and plan ahead of time to ensure the success of the story.
Players should give their Storytellers at least two weeks warning that they’re almost ready to go through a seeking. This gives the Storyteller time to get his stuff together while the player earns those last few experience points. It also allows he player and the Storyteller to discuss potential goals of the seeking, to brainstorm ideas and work up a basic framework.
Storytellers who want to get an early start on the planning process should note how each character is acting during the session. Note little personality flaws and quirks, the characters’ interpersonal relationships, and their use of magic. Take particular note of how they act within their Nature and Essence. Finally, as a player’s experience total starts to stock up, answer three questions:
1) Do the characters display any constant behaviors or tendencies that can be considered weaknesses?
2) Is the character living up to her Nature?
3) Is the character living up to her Essence?
When the time comes to actually plan the seeking, decide whether you will test the mage’s personality, his faith in his paradigm, or his use of power. In many cases, a seeking will test more than one of these, but the major focus should be on one. This allows you to keep a focus while branching off.
Seekings should be structured with the essence of the mage’s avatar in mind. A dynamic avatar is not going to set up elaborate puzzles that have a specific set answer, so don’t set up the seeking as such. Primordial essences tend toward surreal, cosmic moods that use a lot of old symbolism and mythic threads. Pattern essences tend to work through logic and puzzles, reinforcing old lessons while introducing new ones. Dynamic essences are unpredictable and chaotic, and their seekings reflect this with wild events and odd, Dali-esque visuals meant to expand the senses. Questing essences focus on a foreseeable goal and test just how the mage reaches that goal.
Seekings can focus on all kinds of goals. They can lead to overcoming a personality weakness or resolving an inner conflict. Many seekings expand the consciousness of the mage, bringing her one step closer to a major universal truth. Seekings can help to develop, or even overcome, a mage’s paradigm. Seekings can also focus on reality, aiding the mage in telling reality apart from his own powers.
The actual goals of a seeking should be set early on, but two rules come into play here. First and foremost, the players should not know what the goal actually is. While little hints can pop up here and there, and false ones can be scattered like water, the final goals you have set out should only be evident at the end of the session. Second, be flexible; a player may come up with an even better answer than you envisioned, and should be rewarded thusly. Finally, remember that the player is laying down a lot of experience on this, so the mood should be one of learning, not competition.
This brings us to another issue that’s always been prickly with Mage players: the failure of a seeking and the spending of experience points. Many mages fail their seekings, unable to overcome some need for revenge or an inability to grasp some universal concept. In these cases, what happens to the experience points a player has spent months saving up? Some Storytellers have ruled that the experience points buy the seeking itself, and the failure to complete the seeking results in a loss of the experience points. Others give the experience back to the player out of a sense of fairness. My own take on this is somewhere in between: the players receive back half the experience points to save, while the other half MUST be spent immediately to improve the character’s skills or buy off flaws. My reasoning is simple; even if one does not achieve true enlightenment on a seeking, most mages will still come away with a few small lessons. At the very least, they’ll know what their weaknesses are.
Plan to run a one-on-one session for the seeking. Tell the player in question to show up early for the next game, if possible, or tell everyone else top show up late. If you can swing it, it might even be preferable to run it between sessions so as to minimize the disruption.
Seekings most commonly take three forms. Dreamscapes are seekings that take place while the mage is asleep, and they are the most common form. Dreamscapes rely heavily on symbolism and mythic threads most of the time, allowing for surrealism and oddity that warps the sensibilities and brings the mage to a new plateau. Mindscapes are meditative seekings, and are fairly common for pattern essences. They rely heavily on inward focus and personal drama. Finally, there are Walkabouts, rare seekings that take place in everyday life. Walkabouts are usually reserved for shamans and spiritualists, and occasionally take place in the Umbra.
When Storytelling the Seeking, start with what the mage knows and slowly warp it. A mage in a dreamscape may start in her living room, only to open the door onto a field of battle. The descriptions should be vivid, even more vivid than usual, and symbolism should stand out. Walk the mage through the seeking slowly, letting her think about each and every event and course of action. Seeking should never be rushed; considering the experience point layout the player has saved up for, she deserves your best. Each seeking should culminate in a defining moment, that single second of insight and decision that decides whether the mage succeeds or fails. Play up this moment, especially if the player succeeds.
The seeking is simply another facet of your story, and possibly the most important one for many Mage players. It is a story element not entered into lightly by either side, but ultimately rewarding.
NEXT MONTH: The revised version of Mage provides players with something they’ve been clamoring for: resonance mechanics. However, in my opinion, they fall well short of adequate, a seemingly a half-hearted attempt. I’ll look at resonance and suggest an alternative system for it.