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[BrilliantRain]

Also, you should check out the master of strategy. Sun Tzu's Art of War, which can be found translated for free on the internet. You might also check the Exalted version, the Thousand Correct Actions of the Upright Soldier.

[BrilliantRain]

While it isn't period, I feel like MASH might be useful for watching how people deal with standing around doing nothing while knowing that they might be called into a life or death situation at any moment. Also how non-professional people deal with being conscripted into battle.

A lot of psychological stuff really. If war never changes, then the issues that they're dealing with on the show should be just as relevant to Creation as Korea....

[BrilliantRain]

Well, yes, sure. But Alter Conductivity is the closest canon effect in the book, so it seems reasonable to use it as a benchmark for what Matter rating you need to have to be able to perform the hypothetical Turn Brick into a Microprocessor spell. Such a spell presumably turns a brick (or whatever you have handy) into the equivalent of a computer with availability equal to the spell's Potency, or, if the ST preferred to use the extended craft rules, maybe it just counts as Potency successes on a roll to build a computer. Something like that.

But what other requirements might...

[BrilliantRain]

But there's no inherent protection that I missed, right? Like, if a character would normally recognize a hostile Seer as Jim from I.T., they will, unless Jim has a spell or merit protecting their identity in some way (like the Jim identity being an Alternate that isn't their real name or a Mind spell that prevents anyone from recognizing you).

[BrilliantRain]

The anime El-Hazard had cats that wrapped around you and basically worked like those demons that become skin tight armor....

[BrilliantRain]

So, then you would NOT recommend for a starting character to "waste" their merit dots on a Sanctum?...

[BrilliantRain]

Really? I did not get that impression at all from the Forces entry in the book. It seemed like it was more about gross control over lots of energy, not fine detailed control over small amounts of energy.

Though, many of the arcana do seem like the effects are lacking in spells that allow fine control over their purview. If I wanted to use an effect to do something that needed a lot of precision or specialized knowledge, would that be best modeled as a Reach Effect, a specific level of Potency, an additional Attribute+Skill roll, an Exceptional Success result, or could it be any/all...

[BrilliantRain]

I think you said the same thing I did, more or less.

Ok, I'll be more specific.

Mad Alice is a starting mage with Gnosis 1 and Sanctum 1. Normally she can have one spell actively controlled before she needs to reach. However, in her sanctum, she can control two spells at once without reaching. However, if she casts two spells in her sanctum, leaves, and then tries to cast another spell, she has to reach as much as she would have to normally as if she didn't have the sanctum.

And it's that last part that confuses me. Why bother with a sanctum if it doesn't...

[BrilliantRain]

And eat lots of paradox if you want to cast anything else? That doesn't seem really helpful....

[BrilliantRain]

Sanctum grants extra spell control while you're in the space, but the bonus goes away when you're not in the Sanctum. Is that correct? If so, why bother with a Sanctum? When am I ever going to need to cast a bunch of spells with long durations while staying at home for the entire duration?

[BrilliantRain]

Mad Alice and Lewis Carol are cabal mates in a Wonderland themed Free Council cabal and they've been making trouble for a Seer of the Throne who goes by the name Lord Robert. After some detective work on everyone's part, they've each gotten a good look and/or pictures of each other. Given the availability of people lookup programs and stuff, is there anything any of them can do to protect their "real" identities at this point, or do mages need to be more proactive about differentiating their magical and civilian identities, using veiling magic and such?

Or is there something...

[BrilliantRain]

Just to be clear, which edition are you playing?

Edit: Nevermind, I see you said Supernal, so 3e.

Yeah, the main benefit of Survival charms is boosting your animal companions. If you just wanna be the person who can shrug off anything go mainly for Resistance, because the only Survival charm you'll really need is Hardship Surviving Mendicant Spirit.

[BrilliantRain]

If I wanted to build a super-efficient computer and a super-efficient electric car, and I have Forces 3 and Matter 3, what effects could I do to help get really good battery life, insane processing speeds, really efficent motors, etc.?

[BrilliantRain]

If a Master of Mind and Life uses their spells to create a fully functional adult human from nothing, they start suffering soul loss as per the condition, yes?

If you create a fully sentient Goetia using Mind 5 and and then create a mindless human body using Life 5 (or some other suitable form with Matter 4 or Prime 5) and allow the Goetia to poesses it indefinitely, it does NOT suffer from the soulless condition, because it's not human? Would giving such a being a soul be beneficial? Are such spirits inherently problematic in ways that humans aren't?

[BrilliantRain]

If I have a Mystery that is fairly obviously Space related (there's a God Machine created pocket realm in my game) what sorts of results should I give if the players try to use other Arcana to Reveal or Scrutinize it? It feels a bit against the grain to say "No, this is a Space Mystery, you gotta use that" but, on the other hand, if they can get all the info from using whatever their highest arcana is, it seems a bit pointless to specify arcana like the rules say.

On the gripping hand, starting mages are gonna basically have no dice if they're NOT using their highest arcana,...

[BrilliantRain]

Honestly, I can't help but think of the Hounds of Tindalos here. Seeing something indescribable that can, in turn, now see you and is now moving towards you and maybe it wants to help you, or eat you, or maybe you wouldn't like its help, but you
Just.
don't.
know.

If the Mage hasn't dropped their mage sight by that point, they deserve to be eaten. Or something.

Granted, as described in the original story, the titular Hounds sound more like Abyssal entities, but some of the Anachronisms could be similar.

[BrilliantRain]

Sometjing I realized recently was that Crafting gets you what you want and Workings always get you something. You can fail to craft something and you might not like the result of your working, but trying to craft a Daiklave will never get you a Dire Chain and once you start manipulating reality something is gonna happen.

As for whether Crafting is too complicated, here's my advice. If you want to make artifacts, there are guides out there to tell you which charms you need, but if you just wanna be a chef or carpenter or something, all you really need is Craftsman Needs No Tools....

[BrilliantRain]

So, according to their theory a Boar is using Hawking Radiation via black holes to teleport all over the world and wreck stuff.

....Yeah, that sounds like Isidoros.

[BrilliantRain]

Are you including the Scarlet Empress in that? I mean, I know she's not really in the setting anymore and I'd have to guess that she's probably the best candidate for it if anyone is....

[BrilliantRain]

Could someone seem sufficiently weak and harmless via an application of Guile or a Manipulation+Socialize roll to catch a person completely off guard and thus count as an Ambush? Or would that require a charm? Or is it better modeled as a Larceny or Stealth roll?