Originally Posted by From the Mage Book
If Paradox is the backlash of the universe twisting to change the mage as the mage changes reality, then Resonance is the constant subtle current that surrounds the mage as an agent of change. As has been stated many times, magic stems from desire — the mage's desire to reshape the world to his whims. Although magic allows the mage to bend the world in that fashion, it also means that his desires affect the world constantly, always changing things just a little bit and influencing the outcome of the mage's Effects. All mages have some form of common Resonance. The most neophyte mages usually only manifest a little Resonance — a single point in a single type of Resonance — but as the mage becomes more powerful, does more magic and delves into deeper passions, Resonance becomes more pronounced. Eventually, Resonance not only overcomes all of the mage's workings, but it affects her normal life. As a mage becomes more potent, her mystical will affects the world around her more strongly. Eventually her Resonance cloaks her in an aura of power that is noticeable and almost tangible. Humans often notice something odd, unusual or potent about mages; for the mage with high Resonance, this feeling is much more pronounced.
When a mage works his Effects, his Resonance causes the Effect to reflect his intent and emotion. The personal, unique nature of each mage
causes each form of Resonance to be special, though. Mages who are experienced in sensing Prime threads — or who just have good supernatural
instincts — can often tell a mage's specific form of Resonance. They can even recognize who built an Effect or tell a little about the individual.
Conversely, mages may try to dampen their own Resonance to make their Effects more subtle. Resonance tends to flavor Effects in proportion to the Effects' own intensity — a large, flashy vulgar Effect will have more Resonance than a subtle, coincidental Effect. This Resonance manifests in the Effect itself, causing it to look or feel strange according to the mage's Resonance Traits. It may also cause the Effect to generate a subtly eerie feeling that causes mages to take note, animals to become uneasy and humans to get a creepy feeling.
Of course, the amount to which a Storyteller injects Resonance into the game is up to the feel of the story itself. Some Storytellers may feel
more comfortable ignoring the more severe effects of Resonance. Others may find the suggested rules here helpful in interjecting Resonance effects
into the game and making magic and its consequences more clearly noticeable.
Resonance Affecting Magic
When a mage creates an Effect, the mage's Resonance characteristics often show how the mage's emotions get involved in her magic. It's not as
if the Resonance actually changes the Effect; rather, the Resonance is an indicator of how the mage's Effects always manifest. The Resonance is a
natural way to describe the mage's particular style of magic. An angry, violent mage tends to create very fiery and dynamic Effects, while a
particular and studious mage will do magic that's systematic and precise.
The simplest way to let Resonance affect magic is just to take the mage's highest Resonance Trait and find some way to influence the Effect
accordingly. That sort of emotion comes through in all of the mage's Effects. The more powerful the Resonance, the more it impacts the Effects and
causes them to take strange properties — weird lights or sounds, strange ways of manifesting, bizarre hallucinations, spectacular appearance or any
other number of odd changes. A mage with a single dot of Dynamic Resonance, for instance, may have Effects that are a little whimsical or that
sometimes do chaotic and unpredictable things, while five dots of Dynamic Resonance would add whirling, spinning alterations, bizarre
manifestations and strange, completely unplanned changes to the magical results.
If you want to go all-out in your game, you can try to put a Resonant spin on an Effect for each of the mage's Traits. Thus a mage with some
Dynamic Resonance and some Static Resonance will get some competing dynamics in his Effects. With competing Static and Dynamic Resonance,
a mage might get an Effect that has strange lights and sounds, yet makes them in repeating patterns or systematic fashions. Of course, Resonance needs not affect a mage's Effects all the time. It can be quite cumbersome to come up with an alteration for every magical Effect that every mage does! Instead, it may be easier to come up with a few "signature signs" for each mage. Look at the Resonance Traits that the mage has, and come up with a couple of key ways in which the mage might color her magic. For instance, if your mage has the Entropic Resonance Trait of Dissonant, you might decide that a harsh musical chord often accompanies the mage's vulgar Effects.
How Resonance Traits affect magic can be left in the hands of the Storyteller or the players, depending on the nature of the game. Some Storytellers may prefer to influence the magic in ways that the mage can't predict, while others may want to let the players express their mages' personalities through the use of Resonance.
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