(oWoD) Notes on Sorcery

[Jeivar]

I'm going to run a Viking Age vampire game and I wanted to maybe include a little bit of magic. A witch in the woods, or a sorcerous aide to a Jarl or something. I've never played Mage and I really have no idea of how World of Darkness magic works. Can someone give me a rough breakdown of how minor magic works and what it can achive? At least enough for me to do my own thing within the oWoD framework?

[Caliphbubba]

I'm going to run a Viking Age vampire game and I wanted to maybe include a little bit of magic. A witch in the woods, or a sorcerous aide to a Jarl or something. I've never played Mage and I really have no idea of how World of Darkness magic works. Can someone give me a rough breakdown of how minor magic works and what it can achive? At least enough for me to do my own thing within the oWoD framework?

To be honest, I would probably just Ad Hoc it. Mage is a fairly complicated system on its own, and really what you are describing is probaly Hedge Magic, rather than True Awakend Magik.

Hedge Magic can be learned by just about anyone. A "witch woman in the woods" or "sorcerous adviser" fit that pretty well in my opinion. True Magik is another thing entirely.

Hedge Magic is rarely useful in combat, and really, that's the only time you'd absolutely NEED to have really hard and fast rules for what it can do. Otherwise I'd just have it work as the plot dictates, bearing in mind that in general Hedge Magic is usually weaker than an equlivalant Discipline, and that it is mostly Ritualistic in nature.

[Semidi]

I'm going to run a Viking Age vampire game and I wanted to maybe include a little bit of magic. A witch in the woods, or a sorcerous aide to a Jarl or something. I've never played Mage and I really have no idea of how World of Darkness magic works. Can someone give me a rough breakdown of how minor magic works and what it can achive? At least enough for me to do my own thing within the oWoD framework?

If the character is a vampire, I'd give them some very minor blood magic like minor levels of Kuldonic Sorcery or a few minor levels of Tremere Thaumaturgy.

[comicshorse]

In Dark Ages there is the Lhiahannan clan whose clan discipline is Ogham which involves the use of Runes to invoke primal forces. They'd seem very appropriate for your kind of game

[Jeebers]

Well, if you want to go all out, Grab Dark Ages Mage. If not, fake it with some Thaumaturgy.