Complications

"Now that you have a taste of what you can be, I should mention the system we have here. There are greater powers out there that are invested in the sustainability of mortal humans, powerful entities from demon lords to celestial monarchs and mysterious deities. They don't like magic intervention upsetting the balance they have achieved and can have messed with fate itself to impose limitations and consequences for subverting "The natural order" That aside, it's none the less in our best interest to keep a distance. Some humans are in on it, some humans strain against it. The Treaties of the Masquerade, or simply The Masquerade, is a near universally agreed upon principle that all supernatural entities are beholden to. When they were established humanity was infected with a contagious curseplague that rooted itself in the mind to amplify the effects of cognitive bias and expectations. On average, it would require extraordinary circumstance for a human to perceive the supernatural. A dragon flying over their head could be perceived as a plane spewing napalm, if they see anything at all and it gets reported as a gas line explosion or terrorist bombing. Sometimes things bleed through and you get things like bigfoot, and sometimes spiritual beings aren't as effected, already being in the spirit world, so some people might see ghosts on occasion, or they mistake a vampire or elf as a ghost because their brain is trying to delete the information as it comes in and it misses some spots. Some humans are less affected than others, and human agencies exist that are aware of the Masquerade and contribute to upholding on their end, recognizing the need to maintain this balance and prevent the world from sliding into chaos. Witches are one thing, but if destabilized too far it could kick off the War in the Heavens all over again as demons and celestials fight for primacy. Last time that happened, the Dinosaurs didn't make the cut. The humans have proven themselves a capable threat lately, feels like just yesterday the upstarts nuked the Library of New Alexandria..."

It is worth reiterating and in highlight: "The Masquerade" is only an issue among mortals- On Earth, among normal society.

So. Basic principles of upholding the Masquerade:
The overwhelming majority of witches and magical society live separately without even having to think about it, and you can too.

• The Veil on human minds can only be stretched so far and you never know when someone resistant to it is watching, so when among mortals avoid obvious magic. It can also attract attention from supernatural entities, or government and private agencies that might have something to say about it in one way or another.
• Using magic to help out an individual human in need can be fine, but don't push it. Doing too much to upset the way of things strains the masquerade, whether or not it's obviously magic at face value. You aren't a special saint who's the first person to think about ending world hunger. You'll have to run a charity case like everyone else.
• You can sell magic items, particularly consumables, to humans so long as you keep it to niche markets and market it as some natural remedy "They" don't want you to know about, so long as the effects are excusable by good luck, placebo, or modern medicine, unless the individual is in on the Masquerade and invested in keeping that secret.
• If you need to relax or want to stretch some magical muscles, I recommend joining a Faction, I can hook you up later, most have their methods of avoiding the Masquerade and allies can be very helpful. Monsters exist, some are human, or other witches with skewed moral framework... Others are very, very literal.
• Or don't bother with the human world at all! Who says you need to even stay on Earth? Party with Lunabellans on the moon, or fly yourself to Pluto and establish an interplanetary portal network, explore new dimensions and maybe even some divine realms!

"Now.... Lets see if we can spot any complications with your true form." Complications raise your POWER CAP to a max of +30, OR grant additional Starting Points within your Power Cap separately.
Complications make your life more difficult. Every Complication taken grants POWER shown in the corner.

World Shifts

Altering Reality
When taking World Shifts, you're altering the nature of the particular version of Witch Awakening's reality that you enter into. The others may exist independently, but this one will be your home dimension.
World Shifts of course wont be seen in-universe as complications shown by Penelope, rather, they will be points of fact that Penelope points out similar to how she pointed out the information about the Masquerade and other setting details. (Only affecting the mundane world would be too inconsequential)

Brutality (+1/+2/+4)

The world is shifted towards brutality to a chosen tier:

• Tier 1: Violence is more widespread, people are quicker to react aggressively to get their way, being more forceful in pursuit of their interests and less understanding of slights.
• Tier 2: Killing becomes more common place. Enemies are considerably more likely to kill you outright before or after other interests, such as drawing it out for fun, witches value life less due to their ways to cheat death, so witches often kill other witches.
• Tier 3: Death is ubiquitous, ever present. Most people know several people who have been killed and it's very common practice to confirm kills of witches, ensuring their method of cheating death is voided.

Masquerade (+1/+2/+4)

The Masquerade is laced with Covenant and Curse-like effects.

• Tier 1: Revealing magic to strangers is auto-punished via pain response. Using magic to run key parts of a business among mortals is auto-punished by erasure of products or facilities. Can apply Rank 1 curses.
• Tier 2: Revealing to associates is auto-punished, strangers causes extra pain. Magic in business now includes parts of the production line or marketing. Can apply Rank 3 curses.
• Tier 3: Revealing to close relationships is now auto-punished. Associates with extra pain, strangers may leave you unconscious after intense pain. Magic in business includes basic conveniences in running your shop. Can apply Rank 5 curses.

True Names (+1/+3/+8)

True Names become more important for any magical being. Your True Name is instinctually known to you once you Awaken. You can be coerced into providing your true name.

• Tier 1: If someone knows another's True Name, both feel more drawn to one another, making it easy to always notice them in a crowd, and subtly be guided to them if looking.
• Tier 2: Speaking someone's True Name can affect them similar to the Suggestion perk, and they're more susceptible to persuasion against usual interest.
• Tier 3: Speaking a True Name can let you affect the named target with magic regardless of distance. If warded, they feel when the ward is no longer blocking them.

Monsters (+1/+2/+4)

Monsters become more common and widespread, increasing rates. This does not mean that the monsters are terrorizing the place, and many might not even kill, but they cause problems in general. The Veil still hides them from humans and the humans from most monsters, usually.

• Tier 1: Almost every city has at least a handful of active monsters, towns may have 1-3. Monsters that target humans are Uncommon.
• Tier 2: Cities may have dozens of active monsters while towns deal with up to a handful. Monsters targeting humans are somewhat uncommon.
• Tier 3: Cities can be infested with various monsters while towns have to deal with a few every week or 1/day. Monsters targeting humans are common.

Population (+1/+2/+3)

The population of witches is decreased, increasing the burden on individual witches to maintain supernatural balances while increasing individual attention.

• Tier 1: -50%. The size of all factions is cut in half, except the ORC and Alphazon who only have half the witch asses.
• Tier 2: There are only a few dozen witches with ranks 4+ in any given magic, throughout all realms of the living. Total pop of witches is less than a country.
• Tier 3: There is now only a single witch with rank 5 in any given magic specialization. You yourself can only choose one, the rest are capped, and if you choose a companion with r5 in your chosen special, their rank is reduced to 4. Total witch population measured in hundreds.

*BONK* (+1/+2/+3)

The world is shifted towards a degree of lewdity, you can determine for yourself if this affects just Witchdom, or the mundane world as well.

• Tier 1: Eroticism is more common. Public ads use more innuendo or nudity. PDA is a little more handsy. Hookup culture somehow even more common. Seen as a normal topic for chats.
• Tier 2: Ads might be straight up explicit. PDA might include foreplay. Hide-the-pickle is often a casual pastime among friends.
• Tier 3: Almost all ads are explicit. Hide-the-pickle is as common as a handshake or hug and an expected norm or you're seen as a strange prude for not engaging with it. Pass once? Maybe an off day. Repeatedly? Okay something is suspicious.

God Games (+1/+2/+5)

Normally divine entities only really interact with Witchdom when sought out, or you make yourself a problem.

• Tier 1: Gods will sometimes be drawn to acts within their "domains", within areas they have influence over, and act according to their personality as such up to short of directly influencing things.
• Tier 2: They can directly influence the world in areas relevant to them provided there is some kind of initial cause, such as killing a sacred animal, or spitting on an icon, harming a follower, etc.
• Tier 3: The Gods are entirely free to influence the world to the same capacity as a Witch could, the only caveat being they can't directly act against individuals who haven't offended them in some way, and even then only at highest power within a Witch's scope (Up to R6). For full power, they'd have to be in their domain, or the subject submits to the god.

Practical Magic (+2/+4/+8)

Normally you are free to interpret how Magic is actually cast and what that looks like. Now, magic will gain thematic ties.

• Tier 1: Using magic will always cause a visible "Magic Circle" effect to appear. These circles can be identify the effects in use and be re-invoked to ID things later.
• Tier 2: Magic will always also require a gesture and a vocal chant save for rare exceptions. The more powerful the effect compared to your rank, the longer the chant. A Rank 5 Witch could use Rank 1 spells with only a basic relevant gesture, like pointing.
• Tier 3: Magic will require mediums of invocation specifically relevant to the Affinities involved in the magic. To use Firecalling would require a match, charcoal, or a holy symbol of a fire deity. Materials will usually be consumed in proportion to rank, but Holy Symbols aren't consumed.

World Drivers

(These options change the fundamental nature of the setting.)

Blood of Olympus

The world is fundamentally shifted on a deeper level, in order to better reflect the mythologies of old- namely replicating Greek Mythology, "Witches" are instead... gods, and the greek gods are real, power scaled around Rank 3, with Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades effectively being Rank 8 while Dionysus, Hephaestus, or Apollo (Ignoring Culicarius being an "inspiration for" the story of Apollo) would be more like Rank 6. Meaning the player character can effectively count themselves as a high tier god equal among the pantheon though not sufficient to usurp it. Demigods would be figures with few abilities relevant to a godparent, though those individual features might punch up towards Rank 5.
There is no limitation like Pop5 on magic ownership, but Ranks 5+ should generally be reserved for gods of a relevant domain. The Masquerade still works, the world is very similar to the Percy Jackson series, blending it with Witchlore seen in this cyoa though roughly translating "witch" themes to "god" themes. Other mythological pantheons may exist similarly powerscaled & translated to this CYOA, but preexisting gods ("Thor") may bend rules to have special effects unique to them.

Soul of Cultivation

The world is fundamentally shifted- in order to reflect the general concept of a Cultivation IP. The world is more martial and spiritual. The "Ranks" demonstrated in Witchdom are even more tangible as part of a broader cultivation ladder. "Witches" are "Cultivators" who work through various methods to raise their ranking, growing their potential. In addition to a Class's growth method, you might find there are more stages of "Soft caps" where you need to seek means to "Breakthrough" until the next cap. There is no longer an innate rank of "potential", all witches (cultivators) are just at their various rankings and could breakthrough to grow further up to the same hard-cap as the Player. Your full build represents your maximum potential within the scope of the CYOA, even without Storymode you'll slowly progress through the rankings with highest rank stuff going first then everything else staggering in behind it as your highest ranked stuff levels up. You may imagine general physical "attributes" scaling with your highest ranked magic, so your body grows with your max rank, and all have built in resistances to lower ranks.

Game Modes

Choosing a Mode
You can only choose one game mode, or none to play the default way. Each supports a different type of player, and what you might want out of it.

Story Arc

Your Starting Power is reduced to 10 points, which cannot be increased with complications. Instead, your Power Cap is increased to 150, and Complications can increase your Power Cap by up to +60.

• You cannot start with a magic at more than Rank 3 or perks worth more than 6p before discounts, but they unlock at milestones.
• 50 Power, you can increase magics to rank 4 and gain perks up to 12p.
• At 100 Power, you can increase magics to rank 5, with no perk cost cap.
  This means that in your build you'd incorporate Quests and mention the passage of time with the quests to include your growth, and what you buy along the way, as you rise in power over time.

Early Bird

Incompatible with Story Arc.
Rather than start less and end more, you get it all overwith from the get go.
Your Power Cap matches your Starting Power, but your Starting Power is increased to 75. This means that what you start with is what you get, only acquiring companions and relics via quests later on. Simplifies things greatly, removing growth methods. You can still benefit from complications increasing starting power, so up to +30p, but not even wishes will grant you any additional power points once you start.
You can store power for later use if you so wish to do so, to simulate natural growth at your own rate, though you can do that after buying too.

Simple Mode
See comments or search "SIMPLE Witch Awakening" for another take on a Game Mode!

Skill Tree

You abandon your Power all together. You instead rely on SLOTS: Mode- Arc.
You begin with one folk magic slot & 1 folk slot for a perk. You also gain 3 folk slots based on class: Academics use these for Magic. Sorceresses use these for Perks. Warlocks use these for Relics.
After you've completed 4 quests, your starting magic & perk slot increase to Noble. After 4 more, they become Heroic. After 3 more, they become Epic. Your 3 class slots lag behind by 1 tier, becoming Heroic when you gain Epic for your starters. You gain an extra slot every time you complete a quest equal to that quest's tier.
Skill Tree mode users can spend 3 slots of a lower tier for 1 of a higher tier, or break 1 higher tier slot into 2 lower tier slots.

Constellation

You abandon your Power all together. You instead rely on SLOTS: Mode- Early.
You start out with a static amount of slots, for one-and-done players that want the simplest experience and with an up-front build.
Nothing else to consider, no mathing out Power, just a bundle of slots to use. You have:

• 4 Epic slots,
• 6 Heroic slots,
• 10 Noble slots, &
• 15 Folk slots.
  You also have 3 Heroic slots based on your Type: Academics use these for Magic. Sorceresses use these for Perks. Warlocks use these for Relics. It's up to you whether you have all this power now, or grow into it with in-context training or unlock them as you go at your own pace.

Slot Mode Rules
Slot modes ignore the requirement of 3->4->5 for acquiring magics. A slot is a slot and stands on its own, and is meant to be simplified.

Slots mode is quite simplified.

• FOLK slots can be used to obtain anything in the cyoa marked with the blue slot token.
• NOBLE slots are a green token.
• HEROIC slots use a gold token.
• EPIC level slots use a purple token.
• White tokens are for variable options granting or requiring slots of a custom value based on the Power granted or required of the option in question, can use multiple slots per individual segments of a variable option, like each 4p class of Summer School.
  Folk = 1-4p. Noble = 5-8p. Heroic = 9-12p. Epic = 13-20.
  You also use this to break down slot gains from sources that may have given you power later on.

Complications are marked with a dot of the type that complication grants. You can combine 2 slots of the same color gained from complications for 1 slot of the next tier of slot. 2f->1n, 2n->1h.

Options with a cost of 0 or less that would normally be free as a result of your class, can be treated as a white token "Free" slot.

In either slot modes, doing quests grants you a slot equal to the tier of the quest, which can be used only on Relics or Companions, or things that say they can be bought with RP.