CrossDox

This is just a guideline to how I, Cross' Player, handle paradox with Cross. You are welcome to join me or laugh at me.

When do you earn Paradox?

Follow the Mage Chart guide on coincidental, vulgar, vulgar with witnesses, and botches. It is exactly what I do. Sometimes, if I am doing -exceptionally- vulgar things, I will double the amount or increase it by some other variable that I see fair. (Example: Iron Avatar rote, or erasing someone from existence, etc.)

When do you get back lashed?

Within a round or two of EVERY instance that you gain paradox. If you earn paradox, it hits you next turn. That is my rule. I don't two rounds unless its -dramatic-, in combat, I take paradox damage/backlash on the following round every time to avoid conflict with PCs.

NOTE: You -can- spend 1 willpower to delay all paradox to the end of a scene. This includes paradox earned in the round you spent the WP, and all further paradox gained that scene without any more expenditures of WP.

Do not be a douchebag. This should mean that it hits before you can take actions to bleed it away. I am one of the only players on the game that has the power to actually erase paradox myself, and when I spend WP I always roleplay it as 'combat' as being the scene. Once the threat is over, that moment of relaxation when you know you've won and its safe is when the focus holding back the paradox is weakened, and it drop kicks me in the face. This is dramatic, fun, and fair. If you roleplay as spending WP then running home to your familiar and shoving it into that instead of letting it hit you, shame on you you twink.

How does getting back lashed work?

Two part process. You take damage, and you gain paradox flaws. Every time you get hit by a backlash, you get each. How each works is described below.

Damage

If the paradox is below ten, +roll paradox vs 6. Take the result in soakable bashing.

If the paradox is 11-15, +roll (paradox + -10) vs 6. Take the result in LETHAL. (I know it says it can't be soaked, but it follows with 'as usual'. If you can soak lethal, soak this)

If the paradox is 16-20, +roll (paradox + -10) vs 6. Same as above.

If the paradox is 21+, +roll (paradox + -10) vs 6. This specifies aggravated damage, and again states unsoakable. If you have a way to soak agg, I disagree. I've never reached this high.

So! Take the damage result. No matter what you soak, you LOSE the amount of successes on the damage roll in paradox. This means that when you get to around 11 paradox, that is VERY hard to get rid of. You only roll 1 dice! The other 10 sticks around and makes your life a living hell. Why is it a living hell you ask? Flaws. Flaws are the terrible, terrible crippling nemesis of Paradox. The damage sucks, but the flaws are what will end you.

Flaws

The book is EXTREMELY inconsistent with the 'Trivial, Minor, Moderate, Severe, and Drastic' flaws description, as compared to what is on the Paradox Chart. Because the chart talks in hard numbers, I am taking that for determining what effects happen where, and taking some liberties with the below description. Because I am a player that likes to limit myself, I am always harder then the book says I need to be on myself, to err on the side of caution.

Every time you roll damage, you gain a flaw. The flaw corresponds to how much paradox you have at the time of rolling.

Minor Flaws (1-10 paradox)

- Anywhere from a 1-3 difficulty penalty that will last for a number of rounds equal to your paradox. If its over 5, I'd consider making it a number of minutes equal to your paradox.

- It can be a headache that makes it hard to think, shaky hands, uncontrollably shivering, chattering teeth that makes talking difficult, etc, etc. Not truly debilitating, but can add up.

Moderate Flaws (11-15 paradox)

- Like minor flaws, but 4-6 points in difficulties and can last for days or -weeks-.

- Include bizarre things, like exuding waves of alternating hot then cold, unable to speak, struck dumb at random times, etc, etc.

Severe Flaws (16-20 paradox)

- Incapacitating flaws. Difficulty increases so high as to make certain acts impossible. Losing your face and all senses, for examples. Rendered into a coma.

- These are strange, noticeable, and perhaps even dangerous to others. A forces Mage might find his skin burning with fire that doesn't harm him, but sets thing on fire.

Drastic Flaws (21+ paradox)

- You really shouldn't go here. You can permanently lose abilities and attributes, many tasks become impossible, changes can be permanent and character-altering. By the virtue of getting his thigh you are well into risk3 territory.

When do you lose Paradox?:

Every time you roll paradox for damage and flaws, you lose any successes on that roll from your paradox pool, regardless of whether you soak or not. Otherwise, the only way described in the book is 'with time', but it doesn't give a hard number I can find.

I lose paradox at a rate of one per week, (Who am I kidding, I get rid of it with prime5) but a good rule of thumb is that it slowly soothes out at a rate of one per week.

Example:

Example1

Cross is ambushed by unknown assailants. His dragon-skin rote activates, giving him 4 paradox. WP spent to avoid it. Many more effects were flung during the scene, leaving Cross with a total of 15 paradox. Combat ends, and Cross is now subject to the first smack of the paradox.

Cross rolls Paradox+-10 vs 6 (5 vs 6) and gets 1 success. Cross soaks the 1 lethal. He loses 1 paradox, leaving him with 14.

Cross earns a Moderate Flaw lasting him a lengthy period of time, giving a 4-6 penalty. I selected the dragon scales as having fallen out, but leaving him with the open painful pits where they had been, all over his body. +5 to all physical difficulties as every motion is excruciating agony. I went with a duration of 1 day per paradox, so just over 2 weeks.