Psychomagy

(Nickname: Nutcases)

by Allen Smith (easmith@beatrice.rutgers.edu)

This school of magick is based on the exploration of the mind - particularly one's own mind, but at higher levels (Significant charge expenditure, or Blast effects) the minds of others as well. Its background ranges from yogic, chaos magick (the real-world group), and Ordo Tempo Orientalis & Golden Dawn mental self-manipulation techniques to modern psychological research. The central paradox of this school is that you're trying to unleash the potentials of your mind - but keep control of it at the same time. Some users of this school call it "dancing on the edge of madness."

[Note: I am copying most of the Formulaic Spells (and both of the Blasts) of this school from rulebook schools to make sure that its effects are balanced. Page references, unless otherwise specified, are to the main rulebook.]

Psychomagy Blast Style: The Blast for Psychomagy is the same as Plutomancy - forcing the target to do something to hurt themselves.

Stats:

1. Taking a significantly mind-altering substance (LSD or other hallucinogens). Less significantly mind-altering ones (such as marijuana or MDMA (Ecstasy)) can be used instead occasionally, but psychological tolerance builds to them - no more than one charge a day or so can be built up this way. (Opiates, stimulants, etcetera sans hallucinogenic qualities don't work; you are unable to explore your mind sufficiently through such. This technique is, as the UA book puts it, opening up the hood of your mind and tinkering with it... and psychomages do have sufficient experience to do this.) This style of gaining charges is derived from past ritual/psychiatric drug usage, ranging from the use of soma and peyote in religions to experimentation in the 1960's and thereafter with hallucinogens in psychiatric treatment.
2. Deliberately experiencing something (outside of your Forbidden Madness; see below) that would make you make a Mind check if it weren't for Hardening. As usual, you cannot do something to yourself via this form of magick to satisfy this requirement. If you use a given means too frequently (if you're picking up Minor Charges via a given way more than once every week or so), it may stop working - you've burnt it out.

Generate a Significant Charge:

1. Deliberately experiencing something (outside of your Forbidden Madness) that forces you to make a Mind check versus Madness. This counts whether you succeed or fail, so long as you do not go Insane.
2. Successfully removing Madness checks through psychotherapy, except for Madness checks from one's Forbidden Madness, or Hardened checks for Unnatural (this style is, after all, itself Unnatural). Psychological Triage does not count for this - you haven't given yourself time enough to contemplate the events and truly find out how they affect your mind; for the same reason, this method cannot be used more than once a week. Psychotherapy must be roleplayed to the GM's satisfaction (or at least attempted to be roleplayed to the GM's satisfaction - keep in mind that the player and GM may have very different ideas as to what's realistic for the character, and the character is, after all, the player's, not the GM's) in order to be effective.

Generate a Major Charge: Having a Hardening of 10 in an area (other than one's Forbidden Madness area, obviously), no Failed checks in that area, and deliberately going through a Madness-inducing event with a stress level of 10 in that area that you've never experienced before. This is most commonly done via the Unnatural, although events more mind-warping than (for instance) seeing the dead rise (an Unnatural level 9 event) are hard to come by. (Awakening Nonentities is also sometimes a problem with becoming capable of gaining Major Charges.)

Taboo:

1. You lose all charges while Insane, and cannot pick up any until you are cured.
2. You must pick one of the 4 types of Madness (other than Unnatural). This type becomes your Forbidden Madness. This means:
   • Anytime you make a knowing choice and as a result have to make a Mind check versus this type of Madness (or would have to do so if you weren't Hardened), you lose all your charges whether you succeed or fail. (Note knowing choice. For example, if your Forbidden Madness is Violence, you lose all your charges if you kill someone, but not if you get mugged (unless you knew there was a mugger down that alley, of course). As another example, if your Forbidden Madness is Self, you lose all your charges if you decide to break a promise, but not if circumstances beyond your control prevent you from fulfilling it.)
   • If you are going through psychotherapy in order to remove Failed or Hardened checks, and chose to remove another type of Madness before this one (either Failed or Hardened checks, except for Hardened Unnatural checks), you lose all your charges (and cannot gain more through this episode of psychotherapy).
   • If you are going through psychotherapy and refuse to lose a Hardened check in this type of Madness (and don't lose any other non-Unnatural Hardened checks instead - losing non-Unnatural others instead comes under the above), you lose all your charges and cannot gain any more until you have removed the Hardened check.
   • If you have 10 Hardened checks in your Forbidden Madness, you lose all your charges and cannot gain any more till all the checks are removed.
   • This school's abilities cannot be used to directly induce your Forbidden Madness in others. The Forbidden Madness can be induced through indirect effects, such as I Believe The Lies - but you cannot use a spell like Inner Torment to induce a Forbidden Madness without exterior causes. (This limit is because directly inducing Madness in someone else via this style involves feeling the sort of Madness in question oneself.)
   Forbidden Madnesses vary depend on the style practiced:
   • Violence is typically chosen by New-Age meditation types - almost always pacifists. Buddhist or Hindu Monks sometimes chose this also.
   • Helplessness is typically chosen by martial artists; perfection in their style of martial arts is what they are seeking. (Such artists generally use an inner-oriented style; these vary in their level of combat orientation, from Tai Chi (in its normal form - Tai Chi is derived from a more combat-useful form) to Aikido. They are usually practitioners of fighting skills not necessitating obsession, such as Judo.)
   • Isolation is chosen by most who get into this via interests in conventional psychotherapy, psychology, etcetera - they are people mages.
   • Self is chosen by the purists of this school, and is also the most typical one for those coming into this style on their own - without the guidance of a mentor, those who don't strictly avoid self-doubt generally go insane before they get anywhere with this style.
3. Except in avoiding Forbidden Madness or acquiring Hardening, this school's abilities cannot be used to avoid Madness checks. They may be used to make sure that you succeed in such Madness checks, however.
4. Any temporary alterations on your own mind disappear if you lose all your charges by the violation of these taboos. [I suggest that the same be true for Epideromancy, BTW.]

Random Magick Domain: Anything to do with altering one's own mind. Examples include everything from lucid dreaming to enhancing memory and attention. Enabling psionic/magickal senses also falls into this category, such as Aura Sight. [Suggestions for further details on Psychomage access to Aura Sight are encouraged, since this would appear to be a very logical area for them.]

Starting charges: Psychomages start with 4 Minor Charges. They also start with ways to gain 2 Minor Charges a day - a reliable source of hallucinogens, some repeatable Madness-inducing experiences (which the person is Hardened to), or a combination of these (including a reliable source of minor hallucinogens like Marijuana and MDMA).

Psychomagy Minor Formula Spells

Moment of Truth

Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: Get a hunch, usable only on a Mind-based or Soul-based roll (the hunch doesn't take effect until such a roll comes up). Any Cherries from this will typically be Brainstorm. [This is an altered version of Dipsomancy's Moment of Truth (pg 88).]

Relentless Will

Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: See Epideromancy (pg 94).

The Mind is My Servant

Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: Same as Epideromancy's The Flesh is My Servant (pg 94), except usable on Mind or Soul instead.

Resist Mental Manipulation

Cost: 1 or 5 minor charges
Effect: You can resist any variety of mental manipulation involving only minor events (anything using only minor charges, done by a minor Unnatural creature, and minor Unnatural phenomena) by spending one charge. Resisting significant events (anything using significant charges, done by a significant Unnatural creature such as an Entropic, or significant Unnatural phenomena) requires 5 minor charges. (It is unknown whether spending a significant charge can defeat a major alteration (anything using a major charge, done by a major Unnatural creature, or major Unnatural phenomena). Psychomagy has unfortunately not been around long enough to test this by, for instance, resisting a Cliomancer's attempt to change perceived history using a Major Charge.) This spell cannot be used to avoid Unnatural phenomena caused by your own magick.

Resistance can be done on a subconscious level even if the character's conscious mind is unaware of the alteration, since the character's subconscious will be aware of it (so the player can chose to spend a charge); the conscious mind will become aware if the mental manipulation is resisted by this spell, including awareness of exactly what the manipulation was trying to do. Resisting mental manipulation involving a possessing being will evict that being. (This effect tends to result in Psychomages being more interested in finding rituals than they otherwise would be - they're largely immune to Trojan Horse rituals as long as they keep a minor charge around.) If someone (or something) is influencing your dreams, then resisting this will also remove that person (or being) from your dreams. Pornomancer blasts count as mental manipulation; if the charges (5, since a significant charge was spent) are spent after the fact, then this spell enables healing of such damage as normal. (Unethical (or at least enemy) Cliomancers, Pornomancers, Phobomancers, and other Adepts heavily using mental manipulation greatly dislike this spell...)

Tap the Mind's Potential

Cost: 3 minor charges
Effect: You may substitute your Psychomagy skill for any single Mind-based or Soul-based skill roll, so long as you already have the skill at at least 15. This only includes skills usable in a half-hour or less, and must be done in a relaxed situation. (Unless you have "taking exams" as a Fear Passion, taking an exam (or at least a half-hour of it...) is a 'relaxed' situation for the purposes of this spell. Combat is never a relaxed situation, even practice combat. The difference is the amount of epinepherine (adrenaline) you have flowing through you; only someone with a combat skill as their Obsession Skill (or possibly someone with Hardening 10 for Violence and Helplessness) would be sufficiently relaxed in combat.) It does allow flip-flopping rolls. [This is a lesser/limited version of Cliomancy's Instant Zen Master (pg 85) and Dipsomancy's God Looks Out for Drunks (pg 89).]

Minor Blast: Mercenary Will

Cost: 4 minor charges
Effect: See Plutomancy (pg 99).

Psychomagy Significant Formula Spells

Number Nine

Cost: 2 significant charges
Effect: See Pornomancy (pg 101). 1 significant charge is "refunded" if you say "yes" and this forces the person to make a roll versus Madness (whether or not the roll is successful). (Since this is "feeding" on the Madness of someone else - making use of the feedback effects, similarly to why (in UA) Isolation causes problems because of the lack of feedback - this can include if the person's Madness is of your Forbidden type. The feedback necessitates a high degree of emotional interaction, which is why it only works if you say "yes".)

Fulfill the Mind's Potential

Cost: 2 significant charges
Effect: As per On A Roll (Entropomancy; pg 93), but only usable for Mind, Soul, Mind skills, and Soul skills. However, for skills other than Psychomagy, you are at a +15% instead of a +10%.

Inner Torment

Cost: 3 significant charges
Effect: See Pornomancy (pg 102). Note the limits placed on this spell by the taboo.

I Believe the Lies

Cost: 3 significant charges
Effect: See Cliomancy (pg 86).

Forget It

Cost: 4 significant charges
Effect: See Cliomancy (pg 86).

Significant Blast: Bankrupt Will

Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: See Plutomancy (pg 99).

Psychomagy Major Effects

Large-scale mind alterations on groups of people (the equivalent of mass I Believe the Lies, Forget It, Inner Torment, or others as the GM allows). Gain significant insights into how to become an Avatar, Godwalker, or even Archetype. Permanently control (via mental alterations) a spiritual/mental entity (up to Significant level) like a Demon or Entropic.

Other Information:

Cherries:

Automatic success in the caster's next Madness check (except for the Forbidden Madness area) is one Cherry common in this style (this effectively includes Hard as a subset, but with the Forbidden Madness area excluded). Others include Brainstorm, Potent, Solid, and Wild Card.

Sour Cherries:

Weak and Mojo Suckages are the most common Sour Cherries - you misunderstood something about your own mind.

Relations Between Users:

This school is one that often is more cooperative than many others, since the users aren't normally competing with each other (it's pretty rare for there to be so little drugs in an area that all of them can't get as much as they need, for instance). One motivation for cooperation is for psychotherapy - nobody's as understanding of the mental needs of a psychomagus as another psychomagus (as long as that other psychomagus hasn't gone too far in Hardening of Isolation or Self, that is). A past example of this cooperation was in the development of the Minor-level Blast; other Psychomage Minor-level effects affect only oneself - the Blast was developed as a means of self-defense after psychomages figured out exactly how violent and dangerous a place the Occult Underground could be.

Another reason for this cooperation is the number of Psychomages with a Forbidden Madness of Self. They can, after all, be depended upon to keep their word and be consistent with their past behavior. Psychomages with other Forbidden Madnesses tend to be somewhat less trusted.

The major exception to this cooperation is when one user's preferred type of Madness-inducing events is the Forbidden Madness of another (such as an enforcer type with Violence as the preferred means and a pacifistic type with Violence as the Forbidden Madness).

Other Formulaic Spells:

Alter Madness

Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: This spell allows you to alter the form a freak-out takes, either for the next turn or for the duration of a freak-out (your choice, at the end of the next turn). For instance, if you frenzy and attack someone, and they turn out to be too tough, you can use this to run away instead. [Idea partially by Tim Rudloff <trudloff@onr.com>.]

Mental Recheck

Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: As per Entropomancy's Fortune's Fool (pg 91), but only on Mind, Soul, Mind-based skill, and Soul-based skill (not including Psychomagy) rolls.

Remove Astral Parasite

Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: This spell removes an Astral Parasite or other minor-level astrally/mentally-intrusive entity. (This isn't covered by Resist Mental Manipulation because that spell only kicks out possessing entities.) [Idea partially by Tim Rudloff <trudloff@onr.com>.]

Skill Mastery

Cost: 3 minor charges
Effect: You get a +15% on any Mind-based or Soul-based skill, other than Psychomagy itself. The skill in question can be used only in a relaxed situation (see Tap the Mind's Potential for the definition of this) and you must have at least a 15 in the skill to begin with. This spell lasts for 24 hours if the resulting skill level is equal to or below your Psychomagy skill level, or 30 minutes if the resulting skill level is above your Psychomagy skill level.

Landscape of the Mind

Cost: 1 significant or minor charge
Effect: This spell allows the exploration of a willing subject's mind, with both the subject and the casting psychomage projected into the mind and able to affect it. This projection is mainly designed to enable the speeded removal of Failed (and non-Unnatural Hardened) Madness checks, which will result in the gaining of charges for a Psychomage subject as per psychotherapy. However, the procedure cannot remove any checks in the casting Psychomage's Forbidden Madness, cannot remove any Hardened Unnatural checks, and cannot be used at all on someone who is Insane in the caster's Forbidden Madness - the caster would be too affected by the Forbidden Madness to continue. This spell can also be used to reverse the effects of spells such as I Believe The Lies and Forget It, or of encounters with Entropics and the like.

While in most respects the revelations made possible by this spell are of the subject, some will also be made of the caster. One way in which this happens is in the caster's image inside the Landscape - it is revelatory of the physical self-image of the caster. The caster and the subject can also effectively see each other's Aura at will; the Aura is especially clear for emotional information.

Alterations to the person's mental environment, other than those causable in real life in a similar set of circumstances, can be done either by the subject or the casting psychomage, with a roll versus Mind for the subject or Soul for the psychomage; this roll may be flip-flopped if it is under the higher of the subject's and the caster's Psychomagy skill. The GM may increase or decrease the difficulty of an attempt, depending on how much of a change it is and the appropriateness of the attempt for the storyline. Matched successes or OACOWA in such attempts (or on any use of the Psychomagy skill), if the subject has any removable Madness checks as per the above, will result in the equivalent of a Brainstorm Cherry; specifically, the subject or psychomage gets an idea on how to reduce the subject's removable Madness checks. OACOWA can also result in alterations desired by but not specified by the subject or caster. Any attempt to use this ability to negatively affect the other individual will backfire on the person attempting such - the subject's mind will turn against the attacker.

This spell is dangerous for both the caster and subject; if the exploration and attempted cure is botched, it can make things worse for the subject and/or infect the caster with the subject's Madness that they were trying to cure. If either die in the subject's mind, he or she will become Insane in the primary area of Madness that the caster was attempting to treat; if the subject was already Insane in this area, and dies in his or her mind, then the subject becomes Insane in an additional area. The death in the subject's mind of either the subject or the caster will end the spell. BOHICAs on rolls to affect the person's mental environment are another usual cause for picking up Madness checks.

Normally, this spell ends when either the intended goal is met (the removal of Madness checks) or a time limit, set by the subject and caster prior to initiating the spell, is met. However, depending on events within the subject's mind, it may last longer than the "timeout" period - this is up to the GM, as is when sufficient successes are achieved to remove the undesired Madness checks. (A rough estimate of the likelihood of success can be gotten from the normal Madness Recovery rules, treating the caster's Soul as their psychotherapy skill and flipping rolls under the higher of the subject's and the caster's Psychomagy skills.) It will not last long enough to cause physical damage to the subject or caster due to their state, however; extended trips will require life-support equipment.

This spell requires a considerable amount of preparation time (both in and out of game; players must warn the GM beforehand if they intend to use this spell, given the setup time it can take). It is an outgrowth of the use of hallucinogens in psychiatric work, and as such requires that both the subject and caster take the same hallucinogen (of the level of LSD or above, which will generate the appropriate minor charge(s)) and meditate with the proper 'set and surround' - the proper environment, conducive to either letting someone else into one's mind or the relaxed exploration of another's mind. If this spell is interrupted, the consequences are likely to be nasty - whatever negative associations the subject (even if the caster is the one perceiving the interruption) has to the form of the interruption will come to the surface.

This spell takes a significant charge if used on a non-Psychomage. If the subject is a Psychomage and can spend a minor charge to cast this spell themselves, it takes only a minor charge; this is another factor increasing the mutual cooperation of Psychomages. [This spell is partially taken from Pat Cadigan's Mindplayers and Greg Bear's Queen of Angels. It is more similar to the first in that the images inside the subject's mind are almost always significant to the subject; it is more similar to the latter in that the country/landscape formed is a coherent one, and almost always centers around a city.]

Remove Astral Parasite on Other

Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: This spell removes an Astral Parasite or other minor-level astrally/mentally-intrusive entity on someone else. [Idea partially by Tim Rudloff <trudloff@onr.com>.]

I'm The Man

Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: See Plutomancy (pg 99).

Flash of Insight

Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: This spell enables a flash of insight - a sudden realization of something you hadn't figured out. The degree of significance of this information is about equivalent to that from the Brainstorm cherry. The GM should tell you something that you've missed figuring out, but could given the facts at hand; this should not be something that will majorly impact the plotline, but this spell is a perfect way to give PCs clues as to which option to investigate (namely, one that the GM has prepared) - it can help move the plotline ahead. (Anyone who is familiar with TORG may treat this as equivalent to an Idea card.) [Idea by Tim Rudloff <trudloff@onr.com>.]

My Mind Works

Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: As per Entropomancy's I Win (pg 92), but only on Mind, Soul, Mind-based skill, and Soul-based skill (not including Psychomagy itself) rolls.

Preternatural Mind

Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: As per Epideromancy's Preternatural Fitness (pg 95), but to Mind or Soul instead. [If the GM views this as too powerful, I advise taking a look at Epideromancy and seeing if that school may be too powerful for the GM's campaign. Note that the maximum damage from gaining a Significant Charge for Epideromancy is 21 points; the average damage is 9.3 points; and there's only a 1% chance of getting 20 or more points of damage (i.e., going below 60% of Body for someone with Body 50) when going for a Significant Charge.]

Drain Possessor

Cost: 2 significant charges
Effect: This spell acts as Soul Sipping (see Dipsomancy, pg 89) on an immaterial entity that has attempted to possess you. It also prevents the entity from harming you or leaving. However, any drained skill must be Mind or Soul-based. Cherries from this are almost always Brainstorm; you learn something about the possessor in the process of draining them. (If this spell is available, any Demon or other immaterial entity that knows someone is a psychomage will be very reluctant to possess them. Such possessions are most likely to happen through either an ignorant Demon/etcetera (which is not likely to have high Mind and Soul skills) or spells like Cage for the Dead (which work best with a demon with a low Soul, and thus low Soul skills). If, despite this limit, the GM feels that it is too powerful, one suggestion from Tim Rudloff <trudloff@onr.com> is to increase the number of charges necessary.)

Scrambled Mind

Cost: 2 or 5 significant charges
Effect: As per Defeat Yourself (Pornomancy, pg 102), except only works on a Mind, Soul, Mind-based skill, or Soul-based skill roll. If 5 significant charges are spent, it can work on major-level magick.

Astral Projection

Cost: 3 significant charges
Effect: The psychomage's spirit leaves the body and can travel instantly anywhere in the world. The spirit can find anyone it knows well and can visit any place it has visited before. With trial and error, it can move through the world to view places it has never seen before. However, living beings are only visible through their auras. It cannot communicate or otherwise physically interact with the physical world, but can use magick on it. The psychomage has no awareness of his body while traveling in spirit. [By Rick Neal <grendel@pangea.ca>.]

Mastery of the Mind

Cost: 5 significant charges
Effect: As per Epideromancy's Mastery of the Flesh (pg 95), but works on Mind or Soul instead. [As with Preternatural Mind, if the GM views this as too powerful, I advise taking a look at whether Epideromancy is too powerful for the GM's campaign.]