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[Ambrosia]

There is a few important distinctions in my approach and yours, both IC and OOC at the table.

Your case:
Round 1) Mage casts fireball, powerful enemy survives
Round 2) Mage tries to dodge like crazy because the enemy just went stabhappy on them.
Round 3) Mage casts another fireball, splitting action because he still needs to dodge like mad. Enemy luckily dies.
Round 4) Mage finally can calm down and gather the necessary concentration to cast a fireball back at Round 1 for...some....reason..? Let's say, perhaps to prevent harm that happened to another character...

[Ambrosia]

In another thread I actually pointed out how, if the ST is willing, you can push that kind of thing to an insane conclusion;

Your mage goes "I am going to toss a fireball at this guy now, and in the next few seconds I am going to toss more back in time to this moment"
Then, in absolute theory, you toss your fireball at the enemy and two more also come flying along, the guy burns to a crisp, and then you begin the task of tossing two more back to that point in time.

Of course this comes with a boatload of (lowercase) time-paradoxes, like "What if your...

[Ambrosia]

Also, how well your Mage is at postcongition depends on how the mage does it. Is it an Ecstatic relying on visions that might be hazy, or more symbolic than actually literal? That's a good way to spice up the postcongition process with small puzzles and things to make sense of, as an ST, instead of a literal picture.

Is it an Etherite, using an Ether-disruption-calculator to reconstruct the motions of the Ether in the room in the past? They might get a sort of Daredevilish echo-location view of the room of the past - good enough to conclude what happened, but possibly not good enough...

[Ambrosia]

<EDIT: Nevermind, I overderped my difficulty table>

[Ambrosia]

Hah I guess the best way to actually ask this question is: "If you could have some low level spheres in real-life, which ones would you absolutely love to have?". And immediately the question becomes super-relatable and usable in an RP context.

And non-surprisingly, they tend to be the spheres that concern things people tend to interact with on a daily basis. In my opinion, they can be rather easily ranked:

------------

Let's see. Life. Definitely Life, because life equals health, it equals healing, it equals sensing other beings around and it...

[Ambrosia]

I think it's accurate to say that you won't immediately understand the language, no. Not at all.
But you are probably able to quickly deduct how its grammatical structure and syntax works, differentiate between articles, object and names, and be able to learn a language much, much quicker, especially if it is written down,

[Ambrosia]

There is no trap in mage when it comes to the picking and progression of the spheres and relevant skills - only more and more exponentially growing possibilities. It's not like D&D where you betterchart out your character progression for Max Optimization beforehand.

That said, for investigatory purposes, the Mage spheres actually play out their strengths rrrrrrright from the start - the first level of every Sphere is all about perception of the sphere.
See genetic material left over at the crime scene? Life 1. Subtle tracks left in soil? Matter 1. Hidden compartments, otherwise...

[Ambrosia]

I find it very curious that the paradigm of your character is causing so much trouble.

Granted, it *is* the part about mage that requires the most creativity and, in a way, self-restraint by the players, and is one of the things that really differentiates Mage from other RPGs - the players having to come up with their *own* rules of how their character in-game does their magic, what limits in worldview and belief their characters have, and what the requirements for them to do their magic are.

That said...M20 does a MUCH better job at describing paradigm, tools and practice...

[Ambrosia]

...then you really, *really* need to watch the new Lost In Space series.
The behavior of one of the characters ( I presume everybody who has seen the old series or movie knows who... Still, Not spoilering ahead ) is really well done and like a handbook of subtle Nephandic influence.
If you are ever struggling how to get one of those Nephandi going as an ST, take notes. In between bouts of wanting to headbutt the character into the ground ;P
It also shows the biggest power of a subtle Nephandus - mere words and suggestions, at the right place, the right time, combined with an...

[Ambrosia]

Personally I would argue that the Permadox shouldn't happen if the person with the enhancements does not leave the technomagickal reality zone. The same way how giving yourself inhuman enhancements in a mystic reality zone shouldn't. The reason it is paradoxial is, after all, based on consensus.

However, if you ever leave it, permadox strikes. I''d personally consider it turning into normal paradox while being in an according reality zone again though. Which also means it can be purged or go away over time (though it should not instantly vanish). However, as soon as you leave the...

[Ambrosia]

A good guideline is usually "If nobody would notice anything anywhere on Earth, and thus does not use a too obvious mystical or technological focus, it's probably coincidental in any Sanctum."
Example: If his Mind 1 procedure is him simply focusing in a sort of Mantra or Meditation for a moment, the Mage staring at him in the Sanctum would not notice anything off. He would notice, maybe, that the Black Suit is doing SOMETHING, but Vulgar Without Witnesses would not kick in, because there is nothing noticable wrong about somebody just murmuring to themselves for a moment, no matter...

[Ambrosia]

Hmhmh.

You know, Bluecho....
I think I can suddenly summarize the core reason why it's so hard to express Syndicate Paradigm and Magick compared to all others, and why one tends to run into a strange metaphysical wall when applying the usual approach to Magick. Let's see if you agree.

The Magick Sphere system and the way one builds effects is by default Process-Based, both in the practices as well as the Sphere-requirements.
M20's 'Axis of Coincidence' writeup on page 533 sums it up well, and even as an example of using a taxi.
But I think that, now...

[Ambrosia]

I can see a Syndicate member doing that - that's not a problem.
My problem is that, if a relatively rudimentary (if enlightened) belief of the power of Value is enough to make this work...then every Syndicate member should have Matter 3, Life 3 and at least Prime 2 from the get-go, coming from their basic Paradigm by itself.

Essentially the issue is, that whenever Syndicate Magic comes up the usual answer is essentially a repetition of their basic Paradigm, instead of actual intricate manifestations of said Paradigm according to specific sphere levels. Yes, every Syndicate...

[Ambrosia]

I think the example of a Syndicate member using money for Mind procedures is excellent, and it makes perfect sense to use it as a focus for that.

What I myself am actually struggling with is the idea of using Money for aformentioned Matter/Prime effects under the Syndicate paradigm.
As was explained before, the Syndicate member essentially uses money as a focus for an investment that, using some already existing supply chain or another, produces the item he wants. Okay, alright.

But.

My simple question is: "How does this make the action any different...

[Ambrosia]

Another reason is, of course, that quite simply you won't really find much in terms of Blood in the Umbral worlds. Sure, there might be some realms with oh so blood-filled creatures, but most parts of the Umbra quite simply lack any nourishment for the vampires, while coming with quite a pile of beings that can do a vampire serious harm.

It is, ultimately, a hazardous environment for the vampiric beings, with little reason to actually dwell there aside of maybe to hide some preciousesessss.

[Ambrosia]

It's usually even the other way around, ICly. The Traditions and Technocracy aren't trying to paint the Nephandi as evil - they probably resort to labeling infernalists and moral-less Mages as Nephandi to make hunting them down less red-tapey....

[Ambrosia]

I replied to your statement in the sense of it being possible to technologically reach those distant places as of right now, but not being feasable. It wasn't about the far future.
In the far, far future things will surely be different. Also, as an aside, the '112 year trip' pretty much assumes the closest systems we can reach, which is probably not the most feasable set of places for any colonization due to the nature of the bodies found there. The trips would, very probably, take much longer.

As I stated in a different post, I think our technology isn't even predictable a...

[Ambrosia]

An important difference is, that in DAV20 at least the tentacles only do bashing damage, and there is no mentioning of constriction which equalizes their power quite a lot.
They are still super useful, especially as a distraction, and re-spawning them as essentially a mook-blocker, but the default V20 rules definitely make them quite overpowered for a 3-dot.


The overpoweredness you mention in V20 (and Revised too, methinks) basically gave birth to the Lasombra Hentai Death Machine combat build by BenjCano (Sorry if you're not the original creator, Benj!)...

[Ambrosia]

Yup. M20 is the first corebook to make them equal choices, though as a generally viable protagonistic option, It started with...Guide To The Technocracy, I think? Which, unless i'm mistaken, was the last book to appear before Revised Core.
They *would* probably have gotten into Revised core as an equal choice if Brucato stil had his hands on the development by Revised core, but alas.
Then again, the grimdark of Revised made the Traditions the most logical choice as the protagonists....

[Ambrosia]

Yeah, but you'll equally find people on these forums that go 'The Technocracy are the good guys'
So it's even a matter of opinion from the outside point of view. I think the overall consensus (heh) is though that none of the factions are completely wrong or completely right. Just the amount of wrong and right shifts from Mage player to Mage player....