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[Ramnesis]

None that I am aware of.

It is indeed unfortunate phrasing in a game book. In general we are quite good at telling the difference between absolute and relative need. If a college student said he needed to find someone to teach him X, we would certainly understand he was capable of learning it other ways. If I said I needed a car to get to Oregon... well there's a series of video games based around a time when people walked there.

In a game book, though, we expect more definite and absolute statements, so much so that we have a hard time letting go of them. It doesn't...

[Ramnesis]

Assuming we are talking about this:



I don't think we can read that as a hard rule. Three sentences later the text says that mages can learn from different sects, it just takes longer. Clearly "need" is not meant as an absolute in this context. Further, the Library Background specifically says it helps characters research Spheres, which opens up the possibility that Mages don't need a mentor at all.

That interpretation has the added bonus of being consistent with previous editions (if I recall correctly) and of actually making sense. The...

[Ramnesis]

I think it depends on what we think is happening with Countermagic. If someone is trying to unweave a spell with the same deftness as it is being cast, that should require a Sphere at the same level or higher. If someone is just using their rudimentary Forces ability to yank bluntly at the pattern of a forming Forces spell, that likely requires fewer dots than the spell is cast with. I suspect that even for experienced Mages the latter is more often the approach if only because it is faster.

The odd part to me is that the first dot in a sphere is usually sensory, not manipulative,...

[Ramnesis]

It is important to differentiate between explanations and the things they explain; between the 'why' and the 'what.' It is the 'what' that is likely outside the reach of the Consensus.

Now I certainly agree that human nature is hard to define except in the broad strokes, yet we can still say quite a bit about it. People are going to form bonds and attachments, have a sense of right and wrong, have a sense of fair play, claim ownership, claim belonging, have an inner life, feel pride and shame and compassion and injury, form opinions and customs and beliefs, seek to communicate, etc....

[Ramnesis]

As I'm fond of pointing out. Mage posits that physical reality is mutable, it never actually makes the claim that moral reality is as well. Indeed, Mages don't act like this is true. They don't try to cast spells to change morality within the local area. They don't act like they are currently in the wrong but will be in the right if they change enough minds.

As for the soft sciences, they tend to be studies of human systems. Changing them at any kind of important level requires changing human nature. While its never directly stated, there's a tacit assumption that the Consensus...

[Ramnesis]

The Technocracy's goals are greatly held back by the inherent conflict of just about all their goals. They want absolute control that somehow still preserves free will. They want to change what it means to be human in the name of defending humanity. They want to manipulate people at every level while somehow still allowing meaningful variance and individuality. The Syndicate's methods are only one in a long list of paradoxes that make up the Technocracy's vision. All of them fail on some fundamental level and will continue to fail unless the world is somehow dramatically reshaped. That's...

[Ramnesis]

In fairness [Redacted] is correct and [Redacted] is far more authoritarian. [Redacted] may make the same claim, but they are just projecting.



The flip side of this is that Mage factions tend to get painted as being for whatever the readers think the group they represent is for, baggage and all. No one blinks an eye at magical healthcare and faith healing in Dungeons and Dragons. In Mage, the factions that practice strange medicine tend to get lumped in with quacks and con artists even though the Mages can make it work and are trying to make it work for everyone. In...

[Ramnesis]

I just thought of one way the Chakravanti could be involved: They could have started as allies to one or more of the Conventions. We're already positing that several Conventions were trying to stabilize the ways through India and Tibet. The Chakravanti could have lent their aid to that effort but cut ties as the [Explorators] methods grew nastier. Or perhaps they even stayed to counsel restraint, but left when it became apparent that wasn't going to happen.