So, I don't see any way to send private messages on itch, so I'll just paste what I have:
Paradox alternatives
The Price
- Magick always has a price. You can change Reality, but you have to pay for it, sooner or later. The more you strain Reality, the bigger the price.
- At level 1, the price is personal and temorary - pain, injury, immediate loss of resources or opportunity, other kinds of damage - in accordance with your paradigm
- At level 2, the price is interpersonal. It may mean that a spirit of retribution appears, that you have to appease or repay your deities, spirit guides, demonic patrons etc., or that the hurt, curse or retribution comes for your whole Cabal or others close to you
- At level 3, you are temporarily (or so you hope) separated from Reality and/or your Magick. Depending on the situation and your paradigm, you may be thrown out of Reality, enclosed in a private false reality, something may take over your body and power and interact with the world as you watch, or you might be molded into something that perceives Reality in a twisted way and acts accordingly.
- Unlike with Paradox, once a Cost is forced upon you, your Threshold is reset to your maximum. However, not using your Magick for a day does absolutely nothing.
- A Supernatural Mark might be a way to make a permanent concession to the forces of Reality to stave off the payment
Attention
- There are powers that be that made Reality the lie, shithole and prison it is today. Archons, Demiurge, Technocratic Overlords, whatever they are, they take notice when you cross the line.
- In this reinterpretation, the mechanics stay mostly the same, but the Paradox effects are hostile action by the Ones Above and/or their agents and might require less soul-searching and more desperate hiding and fighting for survival.
- The Supernatural Mark is replaced by a Mark of Change. In desperation, you change yourself in some way that throws the opposition off your scent. It prevents an effect in the scene and lowers your Threshold by -2, but you have to immediately let go of some part of yourself connected to the Magickal act that caused the Attention to manifest - a desire, a character trait, a connection, an ability, a body part…
Unmaking
- Using vulgar Magick is always destructive for the ordered Tapestry of Reality. It frays the edges, confuses the patterns, unmakes the very stuff of Cosmos. Overreach with your powers, and you make the Tapestry unravel.
- The effects of Paradox affect not only you, but others in your vicinity, too. They manifest as reality-defying, chaotic incursions that damage everyone present, impossible beings haunting or hunting you and other people they encounter, and at the 3rd level Reality either tearing apart or twisting in bizarre ways, requiring quite a bit of work to be repaired.
Incursions
- Something lurks beyond the Reality. Whether it is the Abyss inhabited by Acamoth and Gulmoth, a realm of pure power and potential that defies human understanding and survival, unspeakable Lovecraftian horrors, the unconscious mind of Humanity, a crawling chaos of Nephandic Qlippoth or something else, it is something that cannot coexist with Reality and imposes itself upon it whenever given the chance. And the best chance it gets is when a careless Mage weakens Reality with their Magick to the point that it can slip in through the cracks. Perhaps the Magick itself is somehow connected with that other reality, perhaps not.
Beliefs - expanded alternative to Paradigm
Four questions that will flesh out your character's beliefs, personality, Magickal style and Path. 1 sentence answers are enough, although 2-3 sentences are also okay.
How does the world work?
What makes it possible to do the things you and other Mages do? What is the hidden truth about Reality that is being Lied about?
How should the world change?
What is it that you're fighting the War for? What is the Reality you wish to see?
What are you?
What makes you able - and worthy - of changing Reality and deciding what it should be? Why are you determined to wage the War?
What can you become?
What is the goal at the end of your personal Path? What is the ideal you yourself strive towards? What is Ascension, for you?
Avatar and Ascension
When creating your character, describe your Avatar - a being inside you (or a facet of your soul or psyche) that guides and pushes you forwards on your Path. Does it appear wearing your face, as a saint or legendary being, as a ghost from your past, a voice in your head or on the wind, or something else entirely? What does it want you to become, and how do you get on with each other?
Once per session, when you roll an Epiphany, you can declare that its insight stirs something within you - makes you question things, makes you want to explore something within yourself, makes you determined to progress on your spiritual journey. Then, either in a slower moment during the session or between sessions, you and your GM will play out a Seeking - a symbolic journey and test that your Avatar subjects you to, connected to the Epiphany. If you fail, you may change your Beliefs to reflect how that failure influenced you. If you succeed, you *must* change something in your Beliefs to reflect what you've learned and how you've grown. Once a session, you can claim an Advantage on a roll where you would normally have none, if you can show how your previous Seekings have prepared you for this kind of situation or course of action.