Wrapping My Puny Insect Mind Around The Limitations Or Lack There Of Demiurgy

[Minuteman37]

Statistics: Illusion (Broadcast*, +50%; Cosmic, Can heal as well as harm, +50%; Cosmic, Lingering effect, +100%; Mental, +100%; Stigmata, +100%) [125].

So I don't get it, how exactly am I a Matrix/Mage: Ascension style reality warper? In a mechanical sense how do I dodge bullets, cure sickness, make doors appear where they weren't, flood the hotel room on the 27th floor or pull a tommy gun out of my trench coat moments after being patted down by the security?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Minuteman37

Statistics: Illusion (Broadcast*, +50%; Cosmic, Can heal as well as harm, +50%; Cosmic, Lingering effect, +100%; Mental, +100%; Stigmata, +100%) [125].

So I don't get it, how exactly am I a Matrix/Mage: Ascension style reality warper? In a mechanical sense how do I dodge bullets, cure sickness, make doors appear where they weren't, flood the hotel room on the 27th floor or pull a tommy gun out of my trench coat moments after being patted down by the security?

In a game mechanical sense you can create "illusions" that can do physical damage, or fix it. You can appear to be where you are not. I don't think you could make a door or remove an infectious disease, but you could certainly make a tommygun appear that can do real damage, drown people in illusory floods, and cure hit point damage.

[Anaraxes]

The word "Illusion" is an illusion. If everyone believes that something happens, and is really affected, for enough values of "real" and "affect" (and "effect"), then the distinction between reality and illusion is moot. It's as if you're really sitting around a table just imagining stuff that happens, where none of it is really real, and it's all a shared illusion you make up.

Whoa, dude. That's like, so deep and meta. See? It's exactly like the Matrix movies.

[Culture20]

At best, a mind-trap with biofeedback. Worthy of Xavier or Martian Manhunter. But if you’re up against a battalian of robots without minds to affect, your powers will be useless.

[whswhs]

The previous commenters have it basically right. The writeup is

Statistics: Illusion (Broadcast*, +50%; Cosmic, Can heal as well as harm, +50%; Cosmic, Lingering effect, +100%; Mental, +100%; Stigmata, +100%) [125].

The Illusion lets you make it appear, for example, that you have blasted your enemies with fire. The Mental means that the illusion takes place within the mind of the target, who will feel the burning sensation; it doesn't depend on sending out light or sound waves or radiant heat or the like. The Broadcast means that you can affect multiple targets. The Stigmata means that it inflicts actual damage (in the form of physiological shock and perhaps reactions such as reddening or blistering) proportionate to your margin of victory. The Cosmic: Lingering Effect means that you will leave actual physical traces consistent with your really having hurled fire at your foes: real burns on their skin, possessions with fire damage, perhaps a smell of smoke and ash.

Of course, you need a huge margin of victory to inflict as much damage as, say, a flamethrower. But the real difference, in our standard physically realistic terms, is that you have to have a conscious being to inflict the illusion on. On the other hand, in a universe with the metaphysics of Mage, it's probably true that "to be is to be perceived": You only have a physical universe in the first place because the consensus of observers says there is one.

[David Johnston2]

<shrug> If the universe is animistic the wrong illusion could blow a hole in a wall.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by whswhs

On the other hand, in a universe with the metaphysics of Mage, it's probably true that "to be is to be perceived": You only have a physical universe in the first place because the consensus of observers says there is one.

I would require another layer of Cosmic for this. Perhaps (Cosmic, Subjective Physics, +200%).

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

<shrug> If the universe is animistic the wrong illusion could blow a hole in a wall.

That could be true too, though I dont think a subjective reality is the same as an animistic one,

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I would require another layer of Cosmic for this. Perhaps (Cosmic, Subjective Physics, +200%).

I don't think so. Remember that with Stigmata you have a Quick Contest against the average Will of the perceivers.

Of course it gets kind of tricky if you're all by yourself and a computer-controlled tank is about to roll over you. Perhaps you can use your Illusion to attack the tank. But what's your "margin of victory"? Do you just use your margin of success, since there's no conscious mind there to resist? Do you roll against the Will of the person who sent the tank after you, or who will later inspect the damage to the tank? Or are you unable to do anything at all, since there is no other conscious mind to observe? The last is probably fairest in terms of the game mechanics.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I don't think so. Remember that with Stigmata you have a Quick Contest against the average Will of the perceivers.

Of course it gets kind of tricky if you're all by yourself and a computer-controlled tank is about to roll over you. Perhaps you can use your Illusion to attack the tank. But what's your "margin of victory"? Do you just use your margin of success, since there's no conscious mind there to resist? Do you roll against the Will of the person who sent the tank after you, or who will later inspect the damage to the tank? Or are you unable to do anything at all, since there is no other conscious mind to observe? The last is probably fairest in terms of the game mechanics.

Hence the additional Cosmic.
In the case you describe I would assign a default "Universal Will" or a Paradox threshold. Say 12 in most cases but areas where reality is more static you g higher and lower in a more Wyld or Chaos aspected area.
At least if I was going for the subjective reality described in the original Mage.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Refplace

That could be true too, though I dont think a subjective reality is the same as an animistic one,

I wasn't suggesting it was. Just pointing a circumstance under which your illusions could stretch the bounds of what they can do.