Build guide
Virtual Adept (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)
The Virtual Adepts left the Technocracy with the tools and none of the deference. Their paradigm holds that reality is information, that information can be read and rewritten, and that anything you can model you can edit. Correspondence is their specialty Sphere, which is why their magic reads as networking: distance is a routing problem rather than a physical one. In play an Adept is the cabal's infiltrator and information broker. Correspondence rank 1 maps a building before anyone goes in, and rank 3 puts you inside it. The paradigm also gives excellent coincidental cover in a modern chronicle, since an unlocking door, a looped camera, and a leaked file are all things Sleepers already believe hackers do. The Tradition's arrogance is a feature: Adepts argue with the Order of Hermes about everything.
The starting sheet
Every number this build starts with. Take it as your own and change anything, nothing here is locked.
Character identity
- Concept
- Techno-magic and systems thinking.
- Tradition
- Virtual Adepts
Attributes
- Strength
- 1
- Dexterity
- 3
- Stamina
- 2
- Charisma
- 3
- Manipulation
- 3
- Appearance
- 2
- Perception
- 2
- Intelligence
- 4
- Wits
- 4
Abilities
- Alertness
- 2
- Subterfuge
- 3
- Drive
- 2
- Firearms
- 1
- Research
- 3
- Technology
- 3
- Academics
- 2
- Computer
- 3
- Enigmas
- 3
- Investigation
- 2
- Science
- 3
Spheres
- Correspondence
- 3
- Entropy
- 1
- Forces
- 2
Recommended choices
Priorities
- Define how your magic looks through a tech lens.
- Build Correspondence and Forces for your signature effects.
- Keep your tech paradigm broad enough to cover multiple Spheres.
Play tips
- Frame magic as hacking, coding, or reprogramming reality.
- Use coincidental effects: 'the traffic camera happened to glitch' is safer than 'I stopped the camera with my mind.'
- Technology gives you plausible deniability. Use it to keep Paradox low.