Mage without Sleepers.

[CharPixie]

So I'm starting a Mage the Awakening game soon, based in a dark fairy tale world that's rich in magic.

My biggest issue is Sleepers. There aren't any Sleepers; so the how chain of paradox doesn't work anymore. Does anyone have any suggestions how to deal with this? I'm looking at increasing the base paradox of Vulgar magic, to keep that dualism of Subtle/Vulgar going, but this will be my first time as Storyteller, so I'd love to get some advice.

Does anyone have any suggestions how deal with No Sleepers? Or better yet, experience running a No Sleeper game?

[Timeras]

If you want an ingame reason why vulgar effects cause paradox despite the absence of sleepers, I suggest an agreement (convention) among the mages. Generations ago they decided that a certain stability is required in the world.
So reality is stabilized by the conscious effort of all mages instead of the sleepers' belief.

[subject42]

If it's really high fantasy, you could assume that the universe is an imminent divine being that only tolerates so much chicanery before it gets annoyed. Paradox would just be an immune system.

[Kansaschaser]

There were rotes that I've seen that help "enforce" reality. You could say that some archmages decided that the unraveling of reality would be a bad thing, so they got together to cast a rote that helped enforce the laws of reality, even if there is an absence of sleepers.

You could even say that reality is enforced more strongly at some places versus others. Like banks, schools, and police stations have reality enforced to the point where magic is almost impossible to cast without something bad happening. That way you could also say that there are some areas of the world where it's okay to be vulgar, like at an Art Studio where the paintings come to life, a Mad Scientist's Lab that is always in Black & White, or a Dance Club where the laser light show and music always induce a drug-like euphoria.

[Person_Man]

I used to play the older Mage the Ascension a lot, and have never played Awakening.

But at least under the old regime, Paradox was based on deviation from consensus reality. In a world with no Sleepers, consensus reality would still be the result of what the majority of people believe. One or more of the Factions must be dominant. And that dominance creates the default consensus. In ancient times it was the Order of Hermes, in medieval it was the Celestial Choir, and in modern times it's the Technocracy.

So even if everyone in the world knows that they can change reality with their avatar, if they do so in a vulgar way that differs from the dominant consensus, they'd still trigger Paradox.