Basic House Rules (Optional Sidebars, Core Edition)

Minimum Abilities, pp 276: Enforced. If a PC has a Sphere tied to an Ability, they must possess that Ability at the level of said Sphere to use it to full potential (Barring Archmastery, which I do not intend to explore here)

Professional Skills & Expert Knowledges, pp 277: Ignored in favor of the Well-Skilled Craftsman option. Secondary abilities are plenty.

The Well Skilled Craftsman, pp 279: 'Extra' specialties for Abilities cost 4 xp each and provide the same bonuses as the standard 4 dot specialty. In crossover play, however, refer only to the initial specialty (which should be marked clearly with an asterisk). Mages in NYC generate a minor reality zone effect that makes it very hard to operate at peak efficiency around those who aren't stuck in Post-Event space-time.

Body Control, pp 285: Enforced, may be taken as a Well-Skilled specialty, but suffers the same reality distortion restrictions in crossover play, and will be subject to paradigmatic restrictions.

Differential Backgrounds, pp 302: Enforced when dealing with social ties and specific Library themes/topics. Quick example: you can have Contacts in the police force and the mob, but you will pay for them separately and track them separately. This potentially makes social backgrounds very powerful for Mages, so in crossover, the median dot total will apply. When in doubt, round up.

Resonance, pp 333 & 561-562: Encouraged but not strictly enforced, may provide minor bonuses or hindrances (+/- dice or diff in certain situations) and at 3+ can be used for non-mechanical dramatic flair: a cold attitude leading to an actual temperature drop, or some such. However, Paradox and even successful feats of impressive magick may create the Echoes flaw in its place, and the higher relative Resonance is the heavier that boot drops.

Raising & Buying Backgrounds With Experience Points, pp 336: Enforced. Unless justification can be provided by a significant event (preferably several, or something akin to a Seeking) Backgrounds with far reaching potential consequences, deep investment requirements and mystical origins will not be subject to purchase with XP. Allies (mundane ones),Contacts (ditto), Enhancements, Library, Sanctum, and Spies (still mortals) may be purchased per the Core without dramatic investment, but in character justification is heavily encouraged. This does not mean that things like Avatar and Legend cannot be improved. Only that it will require dramatic action and difficulties to overcome.

Complementary Rolls, pp 389: Enforced. If a player is willing to do setup actions for a future action, and they bluebook it or do it in-scene (or even in combat, with the obvious risks this implies) they may take the difficulty modifiers for the ultimate act, with the proviso that this may be subject to change in Reality Zones with different rules, or under the effect of magick (setting up a system of algorhithms to calculate the best time to drop a file for sharing to ensure it goes viral is usually easy, for instance, but if you try this in a Zone where probability is fucky, there's no point. Likewise, if causal relationships start getting weird, doing something before something else might not help. Try not to think about this too much.)

Free Botches, pp 393: Botches always matter with magick. No exceptions. You are toying with the most powerful forces in creation. However, mundane botches may be ignored once per session in an ST-run scene if the group agrees (unanimously).

Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, pp 407: Enforced. Going out beyond the firelight in the primordial darkness has risks. But you will probably have to sooner or later. Try to come back whole. Mages are better at defending against these revelations than mortals.... Usually. Sanity Sinks, per pp 242, DO apply. Marauders and Nephandi cut the Awakened mind more deeply than other horrors.

Cinematic Damage, pp 412: Enforced for the Awakened, Proles and Consors. Something about Post-Event space has made them all more... Permanent. Soak is diff 8 for Lethal without armor, but it is possible. This holds even in crossover scenes, reflecting a peculiarity of being more (or less) real than other venue splats.

General Action Rolls, pp 414: May be used if the scene warrants it, to focus more on description and interaction between the ideals and practices of different PCs and NPCs. You know, dramatic cliffside duels, astonishing feats of acrobatics, thrilling heroics, that sort of thing. However, crossover kills this dead unless you can convince the other venue STs to allow it case by case. Just don't expect this to work, and don't ask Mage STs to plead your case unless they're the ones running the scene.

Weapon Length, pp 420: Crossover makes this an enormous headache, but it does apply (and you are obligated to explain it to other players outside the M20 venue if they benefit from it and their venue doesn't use it. Do not forget to do this, because the STs will and the other players may not even know the rule exists. Try and sneak by on this, like other exploits, and we will need to talk).

Drunken Style, pp 424: Applies, but, like weapon length, the onus is on you to explain it in crossover, and other venue STs may veto it. Do not abuse things for petty mechanical advantages. It is the fastest track to banville.

The Peaceful Way, pp 428: Enforced, considered adjunct to Complementary Rolls (they do not stack, do not ask).

Dodging the Blast, pp 438: Enforced, same principle as Cinematic Damage rules., with the caveat that it does not apply in crossover unless the ST agrees (this will extend the benefits to all PCs and relevant NPCs, as Post-Event reality briefly takes over. Expect Paradox).

Minimum Driving Skill, pp 439: Enforced, but can be circumvented with magick and hypertech.

The Data Sphere, pp 467: Enforced. However, the choice to replace Correspondence with Data is largely permanent, and reflects a massive paradigmatic deviance between any individual Awakened not operating from the same framework. Working together on Data or Correspondence effects for these Awakened is on par with trying to reconcile Convention and Tradition approaches, and as such simply does not work unless you can find incredible justification.

Umbrood Magick, pp 490: Enforced. These beings are as rare as they are terrifying, and fortunately, generally stay out of the mortal world.

Wild Talent and Death-Strikes, pp 527-528: Enforced. Wild Talent can come at any moment of truly dire and desperate crisis, but unless the character goes into Quiet, it is a once in a lifetime event. Death-Strikes, likewise, are in effect. A dying Awakened or Enlightened sapient can channel the last reactions of their Pattern and Avatar/Eidolon into terrible power, akin to turning the self into a fission reactor. If this is done in a heroic manner, a sacrifice of all potential futures you could have for others, the effect can be truly legendary. But there is a high chance that there will be unintended consequences, even if this is done with the finest intentions. Much like splitting the atom. And of course, you can only do it once. A death-strike effect cannot prevent the death of the agent that invokes it.

Powers of True Faith, pp 645: Not enforced. Mages believe things, and believe them hard, and sometimes that works just like True Faith would, if not more incredibly, but the Awakened must define their own miracles. Theologically speaking, this may be either the Demiurge's displeasure with being challenged, the punishment for pride in imposing your will on reality, or, perhaps strangest of all, proof of divine trust (a parent driving a child to and fro is one thing, but giving them keys to the car to do as they will is a step towards growing up).

Advantages, pp 658, and Gods & Monsters: Allowed, but make it good if you try for these at creation.

Basic House Rules (Casting Magick Optionals)

Dividing Successes: Enforced, see pp 504 for guidelines, feel free to ask for adjudication if there is a dispute.

Time-Release Damage: Enforced, but very nasty. Expect Paradox to be unpleasant here, and note that damage-over-time effects can be countered with sustained and ritual efforts, or altered by Reality Zone shifts, unlike, say, blasting someone off the planet with a bolt of lightning just once before they know to expect it.

Dividing Successes In Advance: Enforced, but this does restrict fastcasting by establishing a minimum threshold for execution.

Automatic Successes: Only in General Action Roll scenes. Magick is not a dog that comes when you call it, even if you know every iota of its essence. Especially in Post-Event space.

The Domino Effect: Enforced. For every two truly weird coincidental effects in a scene, diffs go up by +1 for further coincidentals that are similarly bizarre. A truly impressive vulgar feat MAY reset the clock, so to speak, but it is ST discretion whether seeing someone throw a fireball after speaking the names of the angels makes them more accepting of you 'luckily' being in the right place for a fire hydrant to blast it off course and diminish its heat. Short version, play it subtle if you can.

Revised Paradox, pp 550: Ignore this in general, you will suffer enough from Paradox as is, and trying to keep track of witnesses is going to be obnoxious bordering on impossible. However, breaking Shade can have consequences, especially when Marauders traumatized by the Ascension War are being used as tyke bombs by a Nephandic invasion force and every blow against Shade can potentially make more 'recruits'. To say nothing of the other things that go bump in the night who'd love to know where you live.

Significant Instruments, pp 588: Enforced, but remember, know your audience, know your limits, and be very careful what you invite as your surrogate explanation for vulgarity.

Management & Human Resources, pp 595: May be reconsidered later, but for now not used

On The Spirit World

In the venue as it stands, the Avatar Storm has not happened. It is quite easy for Mages to enter the Umbra, but not particularly wise for them to do so. The Garou still own the place per the allegiance of the extant spirit courts (however flimsy it may be) while the BSDs are comfy and numerous outside city limits (for now) and frankly not even pre-Event Technocrats had the seething spirit world of a city of 8 million entirely in check.

Shallowings are common in the city that never sleeps, perhaps due to the abundance of energy passing through it (whether electrical or more esoteric makes little difference) but like the Everglades and the Amazon, you have to know your shit to go wading or swimming, and the wildlife is not your friend by default. Perhaps more tellingly and dangerously, little if anything happens here that is not noticed by things that remember Mages as dangerous slavers and treacherous thieves.

Clever Kha'vadi and some more unusual Craft Mages can capitalize on their less overtly hostile relations with the locals, but it is still a risk to deal with things so far removed from mortal thought and yet so capable of emotion.