1 - Torrance Drakesmith

Welcome to your first post, but read the main thread first!
Apart from the prompt, consider a brief mention of: How did you spend summer break? What were you most looking forward to at school this year? What are you dreading?

I may have done a reverse image search to find the source of that pic.

Time to warm up your dice! You will be late for school unless you make a succesful Ability roll of your choice. Narratively justify in your next post whichever one you choose to roll. Alternatively you may use a relevant Sphere power, which for this particular situation will automatically succeed as coincidental magic, but magic was used nonetheless ;)

I like the fact you had randomly rolled Time, which is all about things going faster. Will you be considering to put some dots in Time? Magick is in the air, and I'm just hinting at that slightly. Btw I assumed it's an old car since you only have Resources 1.

Now head over to the main thread!

MUltiple successes on the Stealth means Torrance is able to follow so far. For eavesdropping, I'll need a Perception+Alertness.

We will see what he sees(and hears).

Successes on the eavesdropping means Torrance does hear some key words. But you've run out of successes on the Stealth! How will Torrance get out of this?

Almost no info.

Lots of info actually :) You rolled 3 successes on the eavesdropping.
1 success - you know that Marston is involved in covering something up
2 successes - you know Strom is disagreeing with Marston's approach
3 successes - you learn the term 'awakening' for the first time
4 successes - ?

Anyway, Torrance gets away without suspicion, from the latest roll result!

Should I move this message to the group forum?

No successes unfortunately, at least not from an internet search.

I figured you were playing Torrance so far as the silent observer type who stands aloof but gets the insight, so I'm happy to send the right kinds of information your way. Here's another hint: eg, he's the only one so far with the idea that something from the past is affecting the present.

As mentioned, this is your individual scene within the main thread, where you have to see the counsellor. The overall conversation in the waiting room was and is still ongoing, and when you leave this session the other six are still outside talking. (I’m running this simultaneously across all threads so we don’t hold up the main thread too much.)

Time for a Manipulation+Subterfuge roll, at difficulty 7, and you'll need 3 successes, representing the wisdom of the adults in the room. Sanctity gives you a 2 die bonus. This is if Torrance chooses to offer an account, since he hasn't told his version.
On the other hand, if you're thinking to continue to evade, let me know and I'll ask for a resisted roll instead, ie Torrance vs Veritas to see who has more successes.

If he doesnt detect another mage:

I think this is close enough to the advised uses of Mind, but slightly softer touch.
Arete+Mind to get a little boost?

If he does detect another mage:

Sorry that our delay meant you moved on a bit before I could explain how subtle casting works. Quick rules explanation: Casting magic can be coincidental or vulgar. Coincidental means the way in which it is cast appears as normal actions to any bystander or observer (pulling a rabbit out of a hat can be explained). Vulgar means it is unmistakably magical (a fireball from a lighter is hard to explain). Secondly, casting magic requires a focus, which differs from mage to mage. One might use gestures, another might use a prop like a wand or an instrument or a handphone, or another might speak words or chant or sing, etc. Higher level mages can circumvent this. In Mage, magic doesn't just happen at the speed of thought (otherwise for game-purposes, no one would ever know when magic is about to happen until it actually happens and the world of Mage would be even more dangerous if reality changed but no one could ever detect it).

So back to this situation. Let's say Torrance wants to use magic to figure out whether Veritas and/or Nixon are magic-wielders. You will need to describe what he's doing to cast this magic, eg is he doing a jedi handwave in front of them? If so, since they are seeing him do this strange gesture, this would be considered vulgar, ie they know he's doing something strange. Coincidental vs vulgar magic have different difficulty ratings.

Next, rules regarding magic die rolls. Your Arete level determines how many dots you allocate to any Sphere, and also determines how many magic dice you roll. Everyone starts with Arete 1 at chargen, and I advised everyone to spend 4 of their freebie points to raise Arete to 2. (So that you can roll two dice rather than one, and I'm planning for further leveling up in future to Arete 3.)

Whenever you cast a spell, with Arete 2, you can roll up to 2 dice. You don't add Arete+Mind for example to roll 4 dice. The Sphere ratings determine what kinds of effects can be accomplished, and they are combined in various ways to achieve them, eg Mind 2 Forces 2 allows a mage to think something and manifest that to blow something up. Mind 2 Time 2 could help a mage 'think faster'. Feel free to ask which combinations produce what effects. You still only roll 2 dice though if your Arete is 2. (And for growth, you can't get to Mind 3 or Time 3 etc until your Arete becomes 3).

Hope the lengthy explanation helps. So back to the two posts above, I'll definitely post a resolution to the Manipulation + Subterfuge roll I asked for, but I'll also let you reconsider how you might want to use magic in this situation first.

Yeah he is casting coincidental magic.

I get that. I am asking how Torrance can cast coincidental magic in front of witnesses. What is he doing, while using his focus, to seem as if he is doing something that can be perceived by witnesses as completely normal and ordinary, but that he is actually performing magic? The situation is that he is being invited to sit down and speak with a counsellor. If for example he's waving his jedi fingers at them, they would know that he's trying to do something funny, and that wouldn't be coincidental magic at all.

If you have a chance, look at the magic chapter of the rulebook, chapter 10. I can help explain some of the rules there.

Benefit of doubt, I'll use your most beneficial roll the 10 and 5 from the first post, to determine the success of your Mind 2 use, which is to sense thoughts. You rolled potentially 1 success, so at best you get to read one target. You can't hide this attempt (that's why I asked earlier whether you wanted to use magic this way) since you're using it to 'attack' others.
In game terms, something is preventing you from reading that one target. Also, I need you to make a Willpower roll. You have 5 Willpower, so roll 5 dice.

Willpower

As mentioned earlier, Manipulation + Subterfuge worked, so Torrance gets away with whatever half-truths he tells. The magic use was met with something, and that Torrance would have been countered by something else, except that counter failed. I unhid one of my hidden rolls to show you what I rolled (the fail!). So Torrance 'survives', but this scene is done.
And absolutely, the rulebook is all over the place, pretty hard to find the info, and some bits contradict each other too! I think I shall have to copy paste some relevant bits in the common thread when those rules pop up, might help everyone.

Totally! I do like that Torrance will 'make mistakes' as he goes along. And through that discover who to trust and who to be wary of. As player, I guess you could infer he just brushed again magic greater than his own, even though he doesn't understand it. I deliberately gave you very little description on what Torrance understood or not. He'll have to learn it bit by bit.

Here are all the most recent Torrance-related posts so far, if you're being overwhelmed by the noise. Although the 'noise' does contain many other clues. :)
The layout of the Redevelopment Wing ('Burned Wing') was described in the first two pages of the main thread, when the group was sitting in the waiting room, and Torrance goes to the toilet. As far as Torrance knows, there is the reception, offices, counselling rooms, archive room, maintenance, toilet, and a staircase to the basement.
A very brief description of the Burned Wing is in Worldbuilding, with the campus map. A small history in earlier posts mentions it suffering a fire years ago and the story behind it, and then it was subsequently rebuilt, and still being upgraded today at various intervals.

To answer your last question, nothing is stopping Torrance from breaking in. I've been providing as many details as I can so you can visualise and describe the manner in which to break in should Torrance choose to. Let me know what other information you need, and I'll tell you whether you need a roll for it or whether it's common knowledge.
Perhaps you need to visualise this part of the game, in rpg terms, like 'breaking into a castle as a dungeoncrawl', or 'breaking into a corporate office to steal secrets', if that helps (how to open the drawbridge, how to defeat the orcs, how to dismantle the traps, how to find the treasure, etc, or how to evade the security guards, how to disable the security cameras, how to programme the elevator to the top floor, how to crack the safe, how to escape with a safe exit, etc).
So if you want to start, for example, by sabotaging the doors, which is something you posted and rolled for, we can proceed with that. Or if you've decided on some other starting course of action.
I am still hinting that this is not a solo game. It is unlikely that Torrance has all the necessary skills to do this on his own, if this is what you're asking. In one of the earlier posts, a number of the others did say that they want to explore the Burned Wing.
Also, remember timeline-wise I'm not necessarily hinting that the break-in must happen today. It could be that there's a future occasion that warrants the break-in. But this is what I mean by the sandbox options of this game, there's no railroad that forces everyone to follow a linear plot.
Hope this helps!

Adding another suggestion, hopefully helpful. Don't overthink this. We can just proceed with idea you already had and posted and rolled for, which is Torrance will now sabotage the main door. And then let's see where this takes us. I'm good with that, shall we?