Understanding Focused Mage Sight

[Taldorblackfire]

Hey Everyone,

So, I have decided I really want to get a full grasp of Focused Mage Sight and what players are capable of doing when they are utilizing it to analyze spells/supernatural phenomena/mundane things.

I am going to throw out some scenarios and lay out my understanding/interpretation of what I expect mechanical/plot information is derived from scrutinizing and revelation.

First Scenario:
An Acanthus Mage happens upon an unconscious man in a back alley that seems to have no physical injuries and has no pulse. He suspects this person may have been poisoned or perhaps overdosed on something, but either way he decides to rule out any magical cause for this man's current state and uses Focused Mage Sight to determine what he can see.

Now, the man is actually under the effect of the Suppress Life spell used by another Mage looking to gain information inside the man's house and has placed him in the street alley to hide him for the time being. The opacity is 2 since it is a Death Ruling Spell and it was an Improvised Spell.

The Acanthus rolls and gets a couple of successes with his Scrutiny and decides to use the Revelation mechanic to see what information he was able to determine from the analysis of the man lying in the street alley.

Since he lowered the Opacity to 1 he does not get any deep information, but he does get some Surface Information which details the following:
- Awakened Magic was indeed used on this man
- He determines it is from the Death Arcana and gets the smell of Embalming fluid (the Signature Nimbus of the caster)
- He determines that this effect has been in place for about 30 minutes

The Acanthus Mage decides that this is sufficient and is familiar with the Signature Nimbus of the caster recognizing it with a fellow order member and decides to send his pal a message letting him know about leaving stuff in street alleys to remind his friend to not forgot the guy.

I feel like the Acanthus Mage would not know it is the Death Arcana, but maybe Focused Mage Sight can divine a lot of information regardless of what Paths are used.

Second Scenario:
A Mastigos Mage runs across a very odd woman in a bar that he feels entranced to approach, but he is actually very shy despite having the ability to instantly perceive how people feel about him. However, she feels different and his PMS is driving him nuts every time he glances at her so he decides maybe to focus a little harder on what is so special about this woman at the bar.

So, the woman is actually a host for Abyssal Spiders, as some might have guessed, and I have rated this Mystery at an opacity 3 since it is like Psychic Domination but since it is not Supernal it is actually multiplied by 1.5 as indicated in the book.

The Mastigos Mage rolls and gets a couple of successes with his Scrutiny and decides to use the Revelation mechanic to see what information he was able to determine from the analysis of the woman at the bar.

He was able to lower the Opacity to 2, so he does not get any deep information, but he does get some Surface Information which details the following:
-This mystery is not a result of Awakened Magic.
-This effect has been going on for at least a couple of days.

This seems appropriate and fits well with what I would expect for most any type of general Focused Mage Sight inquiry regardless of the Path belonging to the Mage.

Third Scenario:
An Obrimos Mage finds a dagger that supposedly belonged to a notorious assassin that has killed many people, but he is skeptical whether the item is actually the real deal so he decides to use his Focused Mage Sight to glean some information regarding the dagger.

This dagger is in fact the weapon used by the notorious assassin. The Opacity is 0 since there is no magic involved or anything supernatural, it just happens to be a finely crafted dagger used by a famous assassin.

The Obrimos Mage rolls and gets a couple of successes with his Scrutiny roll and decides to use the Revelation mechanic to see what information he was able to determine from the analysis of the dagger.

Since the Mystery had no Opacity he gains Surface Information and Deep Information which details the following:
- This Mystery is not related to Awakened Magic
- This Mystery is 3 years old (when it was first crafted)
- This Mystery does not happen to be revolving around anything in the Supernal or the Abyss.
- This blade was finely crafted and seems to have been used quite frequently with much force.

Sorry for the long post, but let me know if I am understanding the use of Focused Mage Sight correctly!

Thanks

[Mrmdubois]

Scenario 1: Unless the Acanthus is using Death Mage Sight he doesn't learn anything.

Scenario 2: Seems fine.

Scenario 3: It's not actually a Mystery in the sense that FMS would work on it so the Obrimos would learn nothing.

[Falcon777]

Thing is, Taldor, from what I understand of active mage sight a mage can determine if a supernatural mystery at least partially falls under his path arcana via active mage sight since active mage sight reveals the existence (if not the substance) of supernatural phenomena relating to the arcana of his path. This is one of the reasons for having a cabal. You can save yourself mana and time by having multiple people activate mage sight while observing something supernatural. Mana, since each person won't have to spend mana to activate their secondary arcana sight and time since the wrong kind of focused mage sight reveals nothing.

[Rayn Faustus]

The one exception to the first scenario responses above is the material contained in the preview of Signs of Sorcery (http://theonyxpath.com/i-can-see-for...the-awakening/). With the rules they included there an Acanthus who succeeded on a Revelation would learn that the Mystery in question pertained to the Death Arcanum.

[Mrmdubois]

The one exception to the first scenario responses above is the material contained in the preview of Signs of Sorcery (http://theonyxpath.com/i-can-see-for...the-awakening/). With the rules they included there an Acanthus who succeeded on a Revelation would learn that the Mystery in question pertained to the Death Arcanum.

They would only learn that the effect doesn't fall under their Path Arcana, they could check with Death if they have it. This doesn't require Revelation, it's just a process of elimination by finding what's getting traction.

[Rayn Faustus]

From the document I linked: "If a mage does not have the appropriate Arcana active in her Mage Sight, she may still attempt to Reveal the Mystery. If she succeeds, however, the only Surface Information she receives is which Arcanum's purview the Mystery falls under."

[Mrmdubois]

From the document I linked: "If a mage does not have the appropriate Arcana active in her Mage Sight, she may still attempt to Reveal the Mystery. If she succeeds, however, the only Surface Information she receives is which Arcanum's purview the Mystery falls under."

Second paragraph under System in Focused Mage Sight section says otherwise. Probably your example trumps mine as Revelation modifies that general rule.

[Rayn Faustus]

Yeah it wouldn't have been possible based on just the core material, but they seem to want to open things up a bit with the rules in Signs.

[totalgit]

Not quite got my head around the new Mage sight mechanics myself so this also helped me. All this talk of mysteries is taking a bit of getting used to, i need to keep reminding myself that anything odd/supernatural is basically a mystery so thanks. But just a quickie..

Hey Everyone,

Now, the man is actually under the effect of the Suppress Life spell used by another Mage looking to gain information inside the man's house and has placed him in the street alley to hide him for the time being. The opacity is 2 since it is a Death Ruling Spell and it was an Improvised Spell.

Suppress life does not actually make people drop down and act dead, (errata document mentions it but it isnt in the post errata pdf though) its a veiling spell, all it does it make somebody appear dead, which if they happen to be walking about really wont matter unless your trying to get into a zombie club or something. I know it doesnt make a difference in the example but

Also how do you get the opacity of cast spells? Is it just the level of arcana used? You mentioned it was a improvised spell so does ritual casting increase opacity?

[Axelgear]

Something that gets my attention: How would the Mage even know there's something magical going on? Does Mage Sight reveal the presence of magical phenomena regardless of type? Or does it have to be within the purview of the arcana they're looking with?

It gets trickier with the presence of the Signature Nimbus on the target. Are they and the spell the same Mystery or a different one?

[EW-Matias]

Periphereal Mage sight alerts you there's something magical going on, no matter your Path or Arcana.

[Tessie]

Passive Mage Sight already reveals the presence of all active magical effects regardless of source or type. Active Mage Sight reveals what it is that pings the Passive version if you activate it with the right Arcanum.

[Mrmdubois]

Unless it's Veiling, in which case PMS doesn't ping, but AMS of an appropriate arcana would provoke a CoW. Suppress Life being a Veiling effect a Mage wouldn't have a PMS alert to anything magical happening.

totalgit There are guidelines for setting opacity in the book.

[wyrdhamster]

Passive Mage Sight already reveals the presence of all active magical effects regardless of source or type.

Active in front of you - if you meet Thyrsus that is having Honing the Form casted from few days ago on whole week ( meaning he will have still few days worth of it, always turn on ) you will not feel his effect. He would need to cast in the same scene as you are nearby to your Passive Mage Sight to *ping*.

[Mrmdubois]

Active in front of you - if you meet Thyrsus that is having Honing the Form casted from few days ago on whole week ( meaning he will have still few days worth of it, always turn on ) you will not feel his effect. He would need to cast in the same scene as you are nearby to your Passive Mage Sight to *ping*.

I don't think that's right, source?