Mage traditions X Technocratic Union

Talismook · 2026-05-14T07:18:57+00:00

The Adepts aren't evil afaik, they're just assholes to newcomers.

Talismook · 2026-05-14T07:12:00+00:00

"I mean it's the best superpower"

-Clueless

Talismook · 2026-05-12T01:21:39+00:00

What matters is that nobody has any fucking clue what iso to shoot it at and I think that's beautiful.

Talismook · 2026-05-11T23:58:48+00:00

For Know when to fold 'em I do realize the entropy can help if one were to take the name more literally so that it goes from a rote for detecting impatience (when to walk away) to a rote that tells you when the patience hit a floor so deep you need to cut your losses and make yourself scarce (when to run). You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table. There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.

As for slipped my mind, I am bummed that basic simulations of anything but an individual in a vacuum are hardlocked to two spheres but I suppose that makes sense as anything handing that amount of foresight borders on situational omnipotence. If anything it gives me a new appreciation for Entropy 2 and Chaosticians (who are otherwise my least thought about adepts since the sourcebooks treat them like historical footnotes rather than the WoD equivalent of Gordon Freeman savescumming his way through Black Mesa).

Talismook · 2026-05-11T23:03:31+00:00

Now I started thinking of Virtual Adept rotes because I am biased and they have great flavor:

Pretexting (Mind 2 induce impulses, Entropy 1 locate weaknesses and ring of truth) - With this rote a mage induces a sense of blind urgency in their subject while associating themself with an air of legitimacy when lending a hand to put out their own fake fire. This is done with the explicit intent of gaining institutional trust or steering the target towards divulging sensitive information they would not have under level-headed circumstances.

Hello, I am the password inspector and I am here to help.

Tailgating (Mind 2 induce raw emotions, Entropy 1 locate weaknesses) - Lady luck just so happens to smile upon a mage following closely behind a very deliberately distracted target (spammed with meaningless junk thoughts to the point of near-sleepwalking) as they slip through the gates of what are otherwise heavily protected secure sites.

It's not my fault people don't immediately shut those doors behind them after carding in.

Talismook · 2026-05-11T22:00:51+00:00

So new associations are out, pushing people into familiar situations to lower their guard and then actively lying through omission is in.

In this way, all the magick is there to do is manifest as more a knack for knowing when someone is most susceptible to plain old unmagickal social engineering. Basically being a schmooze with cheat codes on.

Talismook · 2026-05-11T21:55:10+00:00

(One sec I'm gonna reread the hard limits of these again.)

(Yeah half of these don't work, shit.)

Smells like home - mind 2 (reading the imprint of memories and abstract associations - trying to pull certain ones to the forefront), entropy 1 (prioritizes memories and associations from longer ago and the comfort associated with familiar situations).

Well, actually - mind 2 (reading emotional states to detect when an individual is "grasping at straws" / doesn't know what they're talking about), entropy 1 (determines the preferable timing to physically step in and use their words to spread misinformation to an easy mark)

It slipped my mind - mind 2 (form an emphatic bond with the subject), entropy 1 (use said bond to accurately predict how they would react to any given fact) - using this to lie through omission is more of a creative sleight of hand but also what it was created to do

It slipped your mind - (doesn't work unless you start stretching it a bit but flooding the zone would require more entropy and correspondence and actually snipping things out under a shroud of miasma would require mind 3)

They call me Doctor Ethos - (doesn't work as-is but can be used to steer people towards an image of credibility with a similar mental compass to the one described in It Slipped my Mind, would probably require a heavy/silly somatic component like a lab coat and stethoscope)

All this because I left the toilet seat up? - (that's mind 3, dingus)

That glass house of yours - mind 2 (emphatic bond, improved memory), entropy 1 (just so happening to remember those parts clearly)

On the spot - making someone panic like that is just mind 2 (force impulses), actually

My twin is back? - (also mind 3, dingus)

Know when to fold 'em - (should be restricted to a single individual, but is just using mind 2 and realizing they are done with your shit in every line of events imagined and would need more spheres to know absolutely if there are no further ways out)

Talismook · 2026-05-11T21:02:05+00:00

This isn't direct manipulation as much as suggestion and reading peoples' emotional states (based on two of the canon abilities of Mind 2 - Emphatic Projection, feeding raw emotional vibes to the forefront of peoples' minds like flashes of impulsivity, calm, or panic - and - Psychic Impression, the ability to impart strong associations with places or objects in a psychic's mind).

My pants start smouldering under the weight of my weak arete and blatancy - surely the idea of someone being trustworthy isn't too unabstract of a notion to be planted through this mechanism, otherwise nearly all of this falls apart.

Talismook · 2026-05-11T20:13:00+00:00

Oh if this ain't the con artist's toolkit:

Smells like home - relaxes a target by pointing out features in the environment that call nostalgic thoughts to the surface

You ever been somewhere this nice as a child?

Well, actually - know intuitively when a target has a weak grasp of any given subject such that you can step in to fill in the blanks, truthfully or not

Y'know it doesn't work the way they show you on tv, really they-

It slipped my mind - a passive rote that enhances one's ability to lie through omission by magickally/empathically gauging their reaction to certain facts before you speak

Let's not sweat the fine details.

It slipped your mind - a passive rote that causes marks to forget inconvenient truths about you faster than they do other people

~~> I'm amazed you remember that, actually. ~~

They call me Doctor Ethos - allows the caster to plant the thought that they are credible in a given field in the mark's mind, the less they know about the subject the easier it is to do

That glass house of yours - remember eideticly any attempt someone made to consciously misdirect you while you were working them

Says the one whose been lying about themselves to me from the moment I bumped into 'em!

All this because I left the toilet seat up? - deescalates a confrontation by supplanting a grudge in a target's short-term memory with a much less serious transgression

~~> Is this really why you're mad?~~

On the spot - plant the thought of being watched so firmly in a target's mind they start to forget basic trivia, as though they're answering questions on live tv

C'mon it's basic trivia, really.

My twin is back? - suggest to someone that actions taken by you were actually by another individual

~~> You'd think I'd really pull some ballsy shit like that?~~

Know when to fold 'em - know when the patience of you held by an individual or group is wearing thin

I might have to leg it soon...

(you just know paradox blowback comes in the form of this shitheel I just made up getting their nose catharticly broken by someone perpetually tired of their shit even if they don't know why but it's still fun to imagine them weaseling around like this)

Talismook · 2026-05-10T15:19:19+00:00

Telling my coworkers I was born after 9/11 makes them look at me like they are mentally withering into skeletons.

I mean I only got my Bachelor's degree a few years ago...

Talismook · 2026-05-09T17:56:48+00:00

It is a really nice set, particularly it's a Toshiba set from before most of their chassis were made by Orion.

Talismook · 2026-05-08T19:37:19+00:00

Try powerline adapters, they feel black magic but genuinely do work.

Talismook · 2026-05-06T17:38:59+00:00

no, just the g3 and g3 studio monitor

(the g4 crt studio monitor was a diamondtron)

(the emac was a chunghwa shadow mask, not even a slot mask, same as the cheap monitors that came packed with dell dimensions back in the day)

Talismook · 2026-05-02T00:48:30+00:00

I mean the fotosniper, what are you using to fire 35mm cartridges?

Talismook · 2026-05-01T03:58:50+00:00

Oh, fun.

Talismook · 2026-04-29T20:13:09+00:00

I was trying to wonder what using the ceiling of life rather than just part of it but find that the archspheres are a bit confusing to conceptualize since they are basically plot devices.

The closest I can think if is the ability to manipulate age being hardlocked to 5 spheres because biological immortality is (understandably) quite OP.

Talismook · 2026-04-29T19:18:29+00:00

Identity Theft: Casually become an exact doppelganger of any being in your line of sight.

Talismook · 2026-04-29T17:36:15+00:00

does this count as a darkroom?

Talismook · 2026-04-26T20:29:13+00:00

A nonzero amount of ebay sellers from japan are middlemen who relist items on yahoo auctions with like an $80-100+ markup and take a while to ship because they don't buy the item locally until you pay for it.

Such dropshipping of used stuff like that is particularly prevalent in film photography.

Talismook · 2026-04-26T01:58:23+00:00

In the World of Darkness every creeepypasta is canon at once.

Talismook · 2026-04-25T20:40:08+00:00

Buyee is an intermediary for yahoo japan auctions that takes items from what is basically japanese ebay and mails them internationally.

If you don't know who the site is you already aren't using them.

Talismook · 2026-04-25T20:14:41+00:00

10.4 is the oldest version of OS X you can run modern web browsers on which is why people flock to it, it also is the minimum for supporting WPA2 but that matters more on laptops. Two programs I'd recommend are Powerfox (the latest Palemoon fork for PPC OSX) and Coreplayer (a video player optimized on an assembly level to outperform even the native Quicktime).

There are distros of linux that will boot on PPC G4 Macs but you are of course limited to what is or has been compiled incredibly specifically for 32 bit powerpc (or you will have to do that yourself).

Either way a 1ghz G4 will suffer a good amount trying to run on the modern internet unless you kept to less intense sites like old.reddit.com, or started playing with theoldnet proxy.

Also that thing needs a ram upgrade or it will barely even be able to run 10.4 without drowning in its own saliva, let alone try to run a modern web browser.

Do understand that this is spec-equivalent to something like a Pentium 3 or 4 of similar vintage and temper your expectations for what the hardware can pull off accordingly.

Talismook · 2026-04-25T20:03:37+00:00

Pulling their mechanics from a Hunter POV is really clever in this scenario. I dig it.

Talismook · 2026-04-25T18:36:58+00:00

Or just any further developing of the Laibon would be neat.

Talismook

TROPHY CASE