10-11-2017, 09:11 AM | #21 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: rotes in M:tA
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There's a White Wolf devoted wiki that I find useful and look at a good deal. But if it allows asking questions, I haven't spotted that functionality.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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10-12-2017, 12:00 AM | #22 |
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Sacramento metro, California
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Re: rotes in M:tA
I haven't seen a question format in the White Wolf wiki and in some areas, the coverage is spotty.
While I enjoy Mage, trying to get into all the metaphysics can ruin my enjoyment of the game. At some point, I like having a mystery that I can resolve if I need it. The various convention books for the Technocracy, especially the Revised edition books, go into a lot more of how the Technocracy thinks than the main books, which are primarily from the perspective of the Traditions. The Syndicate book is particularly interesting.
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Currently Running: Without Number family games which use a lot of GURPS material for details when the players start asking(online, sporadically) Waiting For: Schedule Sanity to Play Car Wars and my Fnordcon special alt Car Wars cards! |
10-12-2017, 12:21 AM | #23 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: rotes in M:tA
On that we're just going to have to disagree. Of course I'm not going to talk about the metaphysics with my players; I'm more concerned to give them guidelines on how to cast spells. But I can better mystify them with the weird stuff the technos are doing if I know how that stuff actually works at a level of basic world assumptions.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
10-12-2017, 02:10 AM | #24 | |
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: near London, UK
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Re: rotes in M:tA
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Of course as a human organisation they're intrinsically broken and reserve some of the neat stuff for themselves rather than giving it to everybody. ("They're not ready yet.")
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10-12-2017, 07:29 AM | #25 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: rotes in M:tA
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While I quite agree about the Technocracy's aspirational goals, they do have people whose mission is to track down mages (and monsters and the like). Some of those beings CAN set fire to things by staring at them. So there needs to be a "scientific" explanation for how they do it. And ideally that explanation needs to support the need for a mission of putting a stop to that sort of thing, and the possibility of doing so by scientific means—not by "thinking about reality differently to make reality deviance impossible." So what is that explanation? Well, for the Sons of Ether, "mad scientists experimenting irresponsibly with poorly documented phenomena." For spirit-based mages, "making contact with alien beings from other dimensions with different natural laws." But for a lot of mages, "human beings with abnormal brains" seems like a plausible handwave, something in between X-Men and Alphas. All that stuff about "spells" is partly the product of prescientific theorizing about things that aren't yet understood, and partly fetishistic behavior to allay the anxiety of having a brain that does unaccountable things—and of course there is no element of either in the careful procedures and documentation of SCIENCE. So I think what I'm trying to do is come up with a model of Technocratic beliefs about the universe, as a basis for describing Technocratic activities and policies, so that I can script or roleplay Technocratic characters without turning them into anything as unsubtle as out and out consciously villainous villains.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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10-14-2017, 11:52 AM | #26 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: rotes in M:tA
So if you have a Talisman with a stored rote, and you use it to cast that rote, how does that interface with your casting your own spells?
The Talisman has its own Arete, separate from yours. Does that mean that you can will it to operate, and have it roll versus its Arete, and then you can cast a spell, and use your Arete, and there's no splitting dice pools? Or do you use whichever is the smaller dice pool? Can you use your Willpower to get the Talisman a guaranteed success? If you can, is that all the Willpower you can spend that turn, or can you also buy a guaranteed success for your own spell?
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
05-06-2018, 06:57 AM | #27 | |
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: NW Indiana
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Re: rotes in M:tA
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Another alternative is Correspondence 2 and Forces 2. This way would also be non-paradoxical as long as observation is the only thing happening. In this case, the "Window" is there, but the use of Forces hides the window on the other side so no one can see it. Could even block sound from coming out if you wanted, but then you'd have to have Grandma come through the window a smidge to talk, or simply do another "Forces 2" roll to be adjust it so sound came out. Modern days, everyone has a cellphone on them... Correspondence 2 and Forces 2 for the phone to ring (yes, even if it doesn't have power) and then the "Sound" from the conversation comes out the phone - non-paradoxical. |
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mage the ascension |
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