SiderealAstrologyForDummies
Contents
Sidereal Astrology for Dummies
A Reference for the Rest of Us
The Basics
Given the amount of confusion that I've witnessed about how SiderealAstrology is supposed to function, I thought I'd have a go at doing a simple overview so that nonRules Lovers could use it to Have Fun, Profit, and Meet Members of the Appropriate Gender. This is not intended to be a full recapitulation of the rules, you'll still need to have the book to hand.
At its core, stripped of all its In-Character coolness, Astrology comes down to making a PrayerRoll. Simplified, this means is you make a Charisma + Performance roll, Difficulty 5, + 2 if you do not have a petition.
If you succeed at your PrayerRoll, you can spend a point of temporary Willpower and make an EffectRoll to see how many Effect Points you get. This roll is your Essence + College, Difficulty 1. So, if you have The Captain 2 and Essence 3, you'd roll five dice to try and invoke an effect from the college / constellation of The Captain. The number of Successes you roll is the number of Effect Points you get to play with. Note, you cannot try to roll on only Essence, you need at least one dot in the College you're invoking.
What to Do?
There are two broad catagories of things you can do with SiderealAstrology. Respendent Destiny (which further subdivides into temporary identities and powers) and laying out your Mojo (which the book subdivides into Ascendant (plusses) and Descendant (minuses) Effects).
Resplendent Destiny
For a Resplendent Destiny, you'll have to start by spending two Effect Points (technically to cover Scope, but just think of it as a tax) then divide the rest into two pools. Given that the five dice used as an example above will tend to yield two Successes, you can see why all the extra bits used to increase the number of Effect Points are so necessary.
- Duration - Effect Points spent on duration will determine how long the Resplendent Destiny is available, use the table on page 219. These points are spent and unavailable for Powers.
- Powers - You use these to buy the powers listed for each constellation as if the Effect Points were Essence (they're not, I'm using an analogy here) and the Powers were charms that are made available by having a Resplendent Destiny (more analogy).
The Resplendent Destiny will last for as long as the duration that you bought or until you're out of Effect Points, whichever comes first.
It's easy to see how to use the powers, they're in the same general catagory as Charms and Spells, but one of the main uses of a Resplendent Destiny is as a temporary identiy that you can turn on and off at will. The mechanics for it are on page 216, but the gist of it is that you can turn your Resplendent Destiny On (One temporary Willpower and a simple action) and people will remember you as the type of person that is stereotypical of the Constellation that you took the Respelendent Destiny from. Your (probably assumed) name will be remembered as well as your actions, Arcane Fate is put aside for as long as the Resplendent Destiny lasts (regardless of whether you're "wearing" it or not). The downside is that you have to choose an identity and stick with it, always acting in character while you have it On.
Getting Your Mojo Going
Resplendent Destinies are useful, but the Ascendent and Descendent effects are where the fun is!
- Look at the chart on page 210, it lists four Ascendent Effects and Four Descendent Effects, pick one. For example, if you want to make someone a poor leader, you might hit them with a Sloped Floor Curse tied to The Captain (the constellation you made your Effect Roll in).
- Spend Effect Points for Scope.
- Spend Effect Points for Duration.
- Spend Effect Points for Power (probably ought to have been called Frequency, but what the hey).
- Go touch your target.
Tres simple, no? Well, probably not, but it's not all that hard either. Scope, Duration, and Power are laid out in nice chart form on page 219 but call Effect Points 'Successes'. I've been calling them Effect Points to keep it clear as to which roll I was referring too.
Try making a few simple effects for fun, just assume you have a certain number of Effect Points to work with and see what you can come up with for diferring constellations. This will give you a feel for how things work as well as showing why no-one uses just the simple PrayerRoll and EffectRoll. Also, try doing a few PrayerRoll and EffectRoll sessions for your character, just to see how good an idea getting extra dice is. Remeber, most or all these rolls can be stunted, be the target of charms, be aided by artificial specialties, and the target of a channeled Virtue! Done right, you can end up with so many Effect Points that you'll have to throw some away.
Once you have a handle on that, go back and read the Astrology section of Sidereals again. There are a handful of special cases, how Paradox works, what the Spiders like, etc that you need to know in order to get real good at Astrology.
I have made a printable flowchart to help work out Astrology. There's both a printable version and one that allows you to fill in boxes and does all the rolling and maths for you. You can find it on my website. - Voidstate
