[UA] UA2 adept/avatar madness writeups

[Eslington ~]

First off, of course: You'll have a Safe And Happy New Year.

Second, one thing I liked about PoMoMa and Statosphere was the writeups for
madness and behavioural traits associated with different schools and
avatars. Since we've had more schools and archetypes introduced in UA2, I
thought it'd be a nice project for fans to work on.

I've gone with a pretty easy one, Videomancy, which is probably a bit wordy.
Consider it a first draft I suppose.
Comments, suggestions and critiques welcome.

Oh, and there's a new formula spell at the end.

Enjoy!

-Eslington
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Videomancy


If you follow more than a few TV show or sporting events, then your
day-to-day life is probably influenced by television schedules.

"Should I go to the bar with my friends tonight?" you may ask yourself "Or
should I stay in, watch Friends and go out tomorrow?"

A videomancer operates on a different level.

"Should I buy a car so I can get home early for the Simpsons reruns or quit
my job?"

Popular TV shows are scheduled with people's day-to-day lives in mind, and
some videomancers can live with minimal disruptions to their lives,
especially those who learned the school from a tutor and chose their fetish
programs with care. For others, the TV guide becomes their day planner and a
network's choice to fill in some late night dead time with a rerun can turn
their lives upside down. These videomancers often have difficulty holding
down even temp jobs for more than a few months, and it puts a major strain
on personal relationships, especially with those unaware of the adept's
Taboo. ("Dad's funeral? But Mom, Happy Days is on!")

Add to this the tendency of some adepts to ritualistically analyse
recordings of their fetish program ("If you play this scene backwards, it
kind of sounds like Picard is telling me to meet him in Florida next week!")
and keep their eye on TV as a whole and you have a group of mages who don't
have much time for real life.

Many videomancers who spontaneously discover the school are those who prefer
television to reality. Truth may be stranger than fiction, as Mark Twain
wrote but as A-Ha once sang: "The Sun Always Shines on TV".

Most Videomancers have a hard time relating to people and are withdrawn from
society to some extent, mostly due to a basic lack of social skills but
partially due to a fundamental disappointment in real people, who speak with
stammers and pauses rather than swiftly delivered dialogue and never quite
have that fresh from the make-up artist look.

Some are outright disdainful of social contact, viewing television as the
true replacement of society. Just as one may ask why people write letters
when we have e-mail, videomancers may ask why people hang out with their
buddies when they can pick and choose characters to keep them company.

Videomancers tend to have their worldview somewhat warped by the programs
they fetishise or watch extensively, though this problem is mainly found in
those who found inspiration in fictional programming. Comedy fans always see
the humour in grim situations, soap opera fans always expect their dull
little lives to be turned upside down and sci-fi fans come to
scientific-sounding explanations as fact without question. Videomancers can
come to subconsciously expect clean resolutions to problems, that they will
find true love eventually (Hopefully without their life jumping the shark)
and that small children and dogs are unkillable. Violation of these unspoken
rules tends to provoke minor to moderate stress checks for the vidiot. Those
who came to the school after withdrawing from the harshness of the world
often use random magic to blunt the edges of the world, the really far gone
cases finding it necessary to smooth over very mundane difficulties.

Vidiots who focus on non-fictional programs (documentaries, reality shows
and news, the latter being the genre of choice for trained Videomancers)
tend to develop a fascination with the interconnectedness of all things and
how it relates to their fetish programs. They tend to become very
knowledgeable about the subject of these shows, though often in a somewhat
disinterested way. (A Videomancer would be less interested in the
association of a major political figure with large multinational companies
than with the fact that his fetishised news program did not make light of
it.)

Factual fetishists also tend to develop an voyeuristic interest in observing
events and people associated with their fetish program, even when they are
not involved in anything most people would consider interesting.

A well known police documentary enthusiast vidiot once got himself arrested
and brought in for a petty theft, purely so he could use the spell In Soviet
Russia (See below) to watch cops sit around, eat donuts and yak it up in
their break room.

(The adept was well known because of the startling amount of info the
resting policement let slip, which he was able to sell to those in the local
occult underground, at least until The Sleepers got to him.)

Many videomancers come to see themselves as the main character in each of
the situations they find themselves in, believing that their corner of the
world revolves around them, which tends to make them very obnoxious.

These adepts usually develop a keen desire to fit into a role and tend to
become intensely interested in archetypes and avatars once the concept has
been introduced to them. Some vidiots try to walk the path of the avatar but
find that the conflicting taboos are too difficult to work around. (It's
very hard to be a good mother if you have to choose between changing your
daughter and watching your soaps.)

Others come to see themselves as nonexistent in the world, living only as
observers and sometimes commentators. While choosing not to get involved in
a chaotic situation is usually wise, it also breeds stagnation within some
who spend decades watching their neighbours grow up, get jobs and move out
while they remain mostly the same. In more active vidiots, there is
sometimetimes a tendency to hang around dangerous events to see what happens
when they should be running away.

---

New Minor Formula Spell

---

In Soviet Russia

(AKA: Big Brother, Reality Show, Crystal Ball)

Cost: 4 Minor Charges

Effect: This spell must cast on a TV the adept is watching and targeted on a
TV the videomancer has seen before, both of which must also be turned on and
tuned in to a television network. So closed circuit monitors, even those
based on wireless signals, are unviable, as are TVs viewing recorded
programs on tape, DVD or Tivo. Mobile phones and PCs with television
receivers also work, but must be using those functions at the time the spell
is cast.

If the conditions are not met, the spell fails but the adept does not lose
the charges.

The adept (and the adept alone) can now see and hear out of the targeted
television as if the screen were his eye and the speakers his ears. This
lasts for a number of minutes equal to the adept's Videomancy skill. (Others
watching the adept's TV see only whatever is showing at the time.)

If the Targeted TV is turned off or stops displaying a show from a TV
network (For instance, if the TV is turned off) the duration continues
counting down but observation can resume when the TV is turned back on or
re-tuned.

This spell is useful for espionage, since numerous otherwise private
locations have televisions in them. However it comes with a minor flaw.

Anyone watching the TV while the spell is in effect makes a soul roll. If
this roll succeeds and exceeds the videomancy roll made to cast the spell,
they will be able to see the adept looking out the screen at them every few
minutes. The adept usually appears partially hidden, either as a face in the
crowd, peering out from behind a doorframe or as a portrait on the wall
whose eyes follow the viewer around the scene. (GMs may wish to impose a
notice check for shows with large crowds, such as talk shows.)

Noticing a figure watching you from inside a television program provokes a
Rank 4 Unnatural check and for this reason, some vidiots are keen on using
this spell purely to spook their enemies.

The vidiot caster isn't automatically aware that their targets have detected
them, though most realise something is up if the target fails to conceal
their surprise.
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