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[Ambrosia]

The problems rising from scurrying to build The Computer 2.0 are heavily implied in the other Revised Conventionbooks. That's where it came from; Progenitors Revised Page 26, Syndicate Revised page 30, NWO revised page 38, VE Revised page 26.

It's hard to tell what makes more sense - Iteration X quickly finding its bearings after loss of Autochtonia due to being such a well oiled machine, or the Convention kind of scrambling fanatically to rebuild the thing that gave them all their guidance, and literally the very name of the Convention.

That said, the Technocracy Reloaded...

[Ambrosia]

Remember that, when you become able to abandon an instrument, still using it gives you a -1 difficulty modifier to the casting.
So technically, you still get awarded for using the instrument. You could increase the reward by changing that from -1 difficulty to +1 dice, since -1 diff is easy to obtain through other means, while normally the Arete dice are a hard limit.

[Ambrosia]

Note, someithng omitted from Manifest Avatar in the OP:



So yes..the Avatar *could* untie the mage, technically. Teeechnically....

[Ambrosia]

Well, the M20 Technocracy Reloaded Kickstarter just recently finished, so I think the Victorian Mage one is next in the pipeline. It is currently in the "Manuscript Approval" stage, so once that is done and over, they can get to actually preparing the Kickstarter icons and stretch goals and stuff. Since the Manuscript is pretty much the state of the text Technocracy: Reloaded also was at during its Kickstarter.

Soon (TM)

EDIT:
Also holy $deity, this thread is indeed old. But that's also because I *think* it was a book that way pretty much announced from...

[Ambrosia]

My personal irk with going for an IC understanding of spheres is always...that that's not how IC traditional teachings tend to work.
For Hermetics, they mostly do, yes - but they're also the ones that brought that Sphere Esparanto to the table at the founding of the Traditions exactly to make it easier to talk to each other - because each Tradition thinks so differently.
All the other groups? While they might certainly categorize their magic and the world into things (because really, that's just a human thing we DO), it would not make sense for all the magicka practices, some hundreds...

[Ambrosia]

There are certain Cultists of Ecstasy that use a similiar (Though not quiiite the same) kind of focus/instrument.
Of course with the mythical background of "Changing your perceptions and emotions changes your reality", but pretty much with the same way of going about it - one of the example characters from the CoX book is an extreme athlete. Once they get into the rush of working themselves out and pushing their body, the magick kicks in....

[Ambrosia]

I don't think so - and it's also why I have an issue with the "Do you EVEN know what you are doing?" entry in M20 regarding a Mage having to know every little detail about what they are trying to achieve (i.e. conjuring a complicated machine, classic medicine skill to heal somebody etc. etc.).

I personally think it depends on the type of Mage - a Faith based Mage, as you said, does not need to know details about a blessed sword they are calling for, or a miracle to heal a certain person. A Technocrat that tries to perform a healing with a jury-rigged tissue generator? They...

[Ambrosia]

Okay, first the topic of locking a spell:

You wouldn't need it for a curse, no, since Entropy 4 directly allows you to affect living things with such an effect (See the Entropy 4 description).
The golden rule of locking on an effect is: You need to do it whenever you want to use a sphere on a Pattern (Living thing, matter, forces, a spirit etc.), but the sphere's effects do not directly relate to such a pattern, normally.
The example in M20 is a good one, where if you create an invisibility field on another person, The field would normally stay in the very spot you created...

[Ambrosia]

I can give you a simple example of something a Mage might *think* they are doing, but they actually are not, and it's directly related to what we're talking about

"Create something from nothing".

As in, literally absolutely nothing. It's always the conversion of 'something' into 'something else' even if the Mage doesn't think of it - be it Quintessence, or using a different energy as a source like Spacecat mentioned, or..well, literally pulling a lightning out of your dreams. As I said, you can use Mind 3 to do that, technically, sure! But when you pull the...

[Ambrosia]

Eeeh, not really, IMO. As the casting in Mage is all process-based, I think it would still be Forces, because they are not literally pulling the lightning out of their dream. It still gets created out of nothing from Quintessence with the Prime sphere, even if they are actively *remembering the dream* and *think* they are pulling it out.


Now, that said...that character could *substitute* Prime with Mind
*Then* we have a mechanical difference in how the lightning actually gets created. With a twist, too, because in that case, they literally pull the lightning out of...

[Ambrosia]

Depends on source. The term Oracle in Mage pre-dates any Archspheres. The most common interpretation of the Oracles is that they are Mages that were about to Ascend, unlocking the mystery of it - but then stopped and instead decided to "stay" and guide others towards Ascension. Note: Mages, not necessarily Arch-mages! - Ascension and Arch-Mageism are never directly linked. On the contrary, it is hinted at that *too* obsessive-compulsive chasing of Arch-knowledge can have actually detremental effects. see: Exemplars, who can never ascend anymore.

What their unlocking of Ascension...

[Ambrosia]

I don't see anywhere where it would be disavowed. it will just not be continued/'resurrected' (heh) for the forseeable future.
Just like Demon and Hunter, really.