Conditional Rationalization, or Avoiding a Wood Shampoo

My usual players are very good at telling stories. Ironically, they
are better at telling Mage stories than I am.

I had originally pushed for the Mage world to be very surreal, like a
planet-wide drug trip, with such a bizarre, whimsical tone that there
were effectively no Sleeper witnesses for most magic. That vision
never worked out in play; at best, we had a bizarre, panicky bad acid
trip that scared the hell out of the players.

My players passed the conch of Story-telling, giving me a chance to
play, and their visions agreed much more closely with each other and
with the mainstream White Wolf stuff. It was basically a superhero
game, with almost no surreal or New Age elements, strongly grounded in
a common-sense Sleeper reality. They told some really excellent
action-adventure stories.

The usual players had a concept that Reality itself, the Tellurian,
almost always functioned as a Sleeper witness. Only in very few
situations could one work vulgar magic without witnesses. Throwing a
fireball at a room full of vampires was no problem -- vampires were
supernatural themselves and used Disciplines all the time. But having
a Umbrood cross the Gauntlet and do tasks in the normal world, even
without any witnesses, was vulgar, because in the absence of other
witnesses, the Tellurian itself was rather like a Sleeper.

After the new book comes out, I'll start a campaign with new players,
who are naive about Mage and who don't have the same preconceptions as
my usual group. One trick I'm planning on using -- first with NPCs,
but the PCs will know about its existence, is the following:

Conditional Rationalization (4 Time, 3 Mind)

Before going out into public, the mage prepares (a) mental images which
can confuse perception of paranormal events, and (b) mental
interpretations that can rationalize reasoning about paranormal events.
These effects are hung outside time, and will be broadcast to any mind
perceiving the mage's vulgar magick. Each use of the rote produces a
limited number of successes that are used up as witnesses are fooled.


Example in use: Ronny Elvis, Cultist of Ecstasy, uses the rote before
going outside to juggle Volkswagen Beetles, outrun the 9:15 from
Sacramento, and turn dumpsters in flaming spears. He rolls twenty
successes. In the parking lot, a crowd of passer-by cannot help but
notice the fact that VW Beetles, which weigh at least a ton, are being
thrown through the air. Conditional Rationalization kicks in, and
everyone in the crowd "recalls" that similar "freak windstorms" were
noticed during the recent Asian earthquakes. Because "freak
windstorms" do not involve hippie dudes, the crowd fails to notice
Ronny Elvis is picking up the cars: they just notice the cars in
motion. The crowd uses up seven successes and Ronny still has
thirteen.

Later, by the railroad tracks, a crowd of porters and travellers
notices Ronny moving beside the tracks, much faster than the train.
However, Conditional Rationalization kicks in and they all hallucinate
a motorcycle. They believe that a crazy man is riding a fast
motorcycle, not running on his own two feet. The crowd uses up seven
successes and Ronny still has six.

Later, Ronny picks up a dumpster and magickally sets it on fire. A
crowd of bemused senior citizens watch. The crowd requires seven
successes, but Ronny only has six. Paradox spirits coincidentally
provide the senior citizens with wooden bludgeons and unusually
vigorous upper-body strength. The onlookers decide that Ronny is
hopped up on meth and PCP, and close in to give that rotten hippie a
"wood shampoo," just like the good old days of the 1969 riots.

The weaker version (available to starting PCs) is called :

Very Fast Rationalization (3 Time, 3 Mind)
Very Fast Rationalization allows the mage to notice Sleeper witnesses
while the magick is still happening, before a coherent mental image has
formed, and uses Mind magick to distort perception on the fly.

.. . .
I don't claim the tricks above are original ... they're just something
I've never had a chance to work into a campaign quite as I had
envisioned. If used commonly, there might be no need for Blatancy.

In past campaigns, I loved Mind 3 illusions, but my players didn't.
They always backed down and let NPCs with illusory armies intimidate
them.

Rip Rock wrote:
> After the new book comes out, I'll start a campaign with new players,
> who are naive about Mage and who don't have the same preconceptions
as
> my usual group.

A Mage: the Awakening game? Then what Spheres, Vulgar Magic, and
Tellurian are you talking about?^^

Or did you mean you'll start a new Mage 2nd/Rev game? In which case,
such Mind effects *could* work, if you're not going with the strict
definition of "Reality itself as witness" you cite above. You kind of
have to wonder, tho, why Magi in general wouldn't have twigged onto
that a long time ago. If they have, then Paradox as we know it changes
considerably...But that's certainly a valid take! Hell, you can just
tell your current players that you're Golden Ruling a different take on
Consensus, surely? The book even *says* you can, in case they
disagree!^__^

Dex,
liking the idea of Magick as a world-wide acid trip...^^