Blatancy
Secondary Ability
Through theatrical flair, audience appraisal, and raw audacity, you’re good at getting away with blatant acts of magick. Typically, this involves using tried-and-true dodges: “We’re shooting a movie,” “It’s all an illusion,” “Haven’t you ever seen a flash-mob before?” – that sort of thing. As you might expect, such claims typically require props to lend credibility to your claims (a “camera crew,” stage magic gear, a pack of willing conspirators, etc.). If and when you have the goods to back up your dodge, however, you can pull reality over people’s eyes more often than you would be able to do otherwise.
A potentially problematic Talent, this Trait comes with several caveats. As mentioned above, a mage who wants to use it must be able to back up her claims with evidence. Despite common preconceptions, most people aren’t stupid, and – especially in the age of YouTube, cell phones, and wireless Internet access – the ability to look up “famous stage magicians” and “reality TV shows filming in my area” is literally within the grasp of the average bystander. Blatancy works best when you play to your location’s dominant belief system, have the props (physical and social) to back up your claims, and get the hell out of Dodge before folks start asking too many questions.
In story terms, this Trait gives your character an edge if she employs a credible explanation while doing something that should not be possible but looks as though it could be. It does not work when that character does things for which no reasonable explanation exists. You could, for example, explain a suddenly healed wound with, “Look! It was just make-up” or “Head wounds just bleed a lot;” you could not, however, conjure a dragon and then shout, “Cool special effects, huh?” In order to employ this Talent at all, you must have something that passes for a rational explanation by the standards of your audience and then avoid pushing the envelope too far.
In game terms, a successful Manipulation + Blatancy roll – combined with a reasonable explanation for the magickal deed in question – may allow a player to turn a normally vulgar magickal Effect into a coincidental one.
These days, this sort of thing is a lot easier for Technocrats, Ecstatics, martial artists, trusted clergy, and stage magicians than it is for garden-variety mages. And in regions with mystical cultures, it’s far more likely that a trusted local will get away with Blatancy than it is to assume that some newcomer with fancy words will accomplish the same thing. Folks in traditional cultures are not morons either. If some stupid white man shows up and starts thinking he can play Cargo Cult with the natives, he’s gonna get his ass kicked.
That said, a charismatic speaker who knows her audience can get away with amazing amounts of nonsense. People truly will fall for ridiculous ideas if and when the speaker plays to their fears, hopes, prejudice, and faith. In real life, folks accept blatant absurdities as truth all the time. A clever player/ character can manipulate the locals if and when she puts some imagination and sweat equity behind this Trait. Smart roleplaying, combined with advance preparation, ought to pay off under most circumstances.
As a general guide to the potential difficulty or success required with a Blatancy roll, you may use the Blatancy Effects chart. On that chart, Difficulty offers a base difficulty for the roll, Successes Needed suggests a minimum number of successes before the roll succeeds. Effect gives a guideline for the size or scope of the magickal act in question; larger or more obvious acts of magick would demand a higher difficulty and/ or more successes rolled. Finally, Explanation offers the type of rationale a character might give; the lamer the explanation, the higher the difficulty and the more successes you’d need to get away with using it. Generally, you’d use either Effect or Explanation to determine the roll’s difficulty; if you’re compounding them – say, a Blatant Effect with a Lame Explanation – add +1 or more to the difficulty. That said, the chart provides a guideline only. The Storyteller may also ignore the chart if he feels it does not suit the chronicle or circumstances.
Ultimately, the Storyteller is the final arbiter regarding the effects of a Blatancy attempt. If the explanation sucks, if the props do not support the claim, if the people are clearly being played for fools, then the roll will not succeed, period.
For details about reality and belief, see the Reality Zones section of Chapter Ten, (pp. 611-617). And for guidelines about the limits of coincidence, check out Coincidental Magick vs. Vulgar Magick, also in Chapter Ten, (pp. 530-532).
• Novice: “No, seriously – we’re filming a video.”
•• Practiced: “That just looked easy. It took me years to figure out how to do that trick.”
••• Skillful: “All the necessary permits and explanations are posted on our website.”
•••• Expert: “We did this trick on Mythbusters.”
••••• Master: “Nothing to see here – move along.”
Possessed By
Celebrities, Media Magicians, Pundits, Deejays, SPX Techs, Filmmakers, Stunt Artists, Martial Artists, Black Suits, Show Promoters
Suggested Specialties
Religious Appeal, Political Paranoia, Stage Magic, Film Crew, Appeals to Vanity, Cool Gadgets, Geek Culture, Sheer Balls, Legal Authority, Science!, We’re On a Mission From God