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Old 11-09-2016, 08:45 AM   #1
vicky_molokh
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Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
Default [RPM] [MTA] Path of Chance and the Sphere of Entropy: looking for UNCONVENTIONAL uses

Greetings, all!

On one hand, I like freeform magic systems. On the other, I used to have great difficulty with probability-and-destiny-affecting spells/effects, and still find them somewhat difficult to employ to the best effect. With other areas of magic, such as mind magic, life magic, energy/forces magic or crossroads/space/correspondence magic, coming up with unconventional/unusual ideas seems easier for me. So I'm tapping into the forum hive mind in search of more unconventional, non-obvious, original ideas of spells and effects of this category. Not the the dime-a-dozen "afflict with Cursed" or the usual "reroll for this skill", but things that lie below the surface and/or push the envelope of the Path (in case of Ritual Path Magic) or Sphere (in case of Mage the Ascension).

Here are some ideas of my own that I hope will make a reasonably viable start of the brainstorm:
  • Since it seems that Detect Chance / Entropy Sight allow measuring the levels of order/predictability and randomness/chaos in everything, I figured that it can be a good thing to identify whether events, things etc. are the way they are through coincidence (chaos) or have been made so with a reason (order), thus discerning true clues from red herrings and conspiracies from natural social occurrences; with mind-related magic, perhaps it would also be possible to add detection of intent behind events and things, making it possible to detect which clues have been left accidentally, and which ones on purpose (e.g. to mislead the investigation or to deliberately give a message).
  • Another idea is to use Entropy's ability to detect weakness in ideas when combined with Mind; casting this on the plan the party comes up with seems like a nice way of detecting (and later fixing) the flaws in such a plan, or Chance's randomness-detection abilities to see which parts of a plan are likely to get hit by Murphy's Law and which aren't.
  • Measuring the amount of disorder in a thing (possibly with an addition of math/sci skills and/or some mind-boosting magic) seems like a roundabout way of measuring its temperature if one lacks the Path/Sphere of Energy/Forces. I'm not knowledgeable enough about cryptology IRL, but perhaps detection of order and disorder can somehow be used for decryption and for detection of steganography? And for something resembling the quantum computer benefit against crypto? Going further, it seems to me divinating the original message from its irreversibly entropified form (e.g. CRC numbers, MD5, a radio signal subject to lots of interference/jamming etc.) falls under this Entropy (but it's not clear whether the Path of Chance can cover it too), but I'm not sure where.

What other effect ideas would fit right in among these ones?
Thanks in advance!
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