{"id":"mage/power/rote/vulgarity-and-stacked-paradox","type":"power","system":"rote","line":"mage","name":"Vulgarity and “Stacked” Paradox","sources":[{"source":"HDYDT","page":109}],"entries":["Time has its own momentum; some metaphysicians even postulate that it has a sense of consciousness. Disrupting the timeflow, therefore, is almost always vulgar magick, and moving it backwards is always vulgar, even in Sanctums or solitude. Yes, a {@sphere Time|M20}-mage can perceive temporal flows without disrupting the timestream; once she chooses to mess with it, however, then {@sphere Time|M20} itself reacts accordingly.","As noted in the {@sphere Time|M20} Sphere entry, Paradox stacks up when a character goes backwards in time. Each successive increment of time compounds the Paradox involved:","• Turns: A character who rewinds time by turns adds one “layer” of Paradox per turn; if you go back three turns, then you incur three times the usual Paradox.","• Intervals: A mage who travels back according to the {@rote Time-Sphere Timelines|HDYDT} chart gets two layers of Paradox for each interval on that chart; if you go back 50 years (or four intervals), then you get eight times the usual amount of Paradox.","Yes, that’s a catastrophic amount of Paradox. This is why so few mages even attempt such feats, even fewer succeed, and none perform them without great cost.","In many cases, a Paradox backlash linked to time-travel strands the mage in an alternate future or past… a trap from which she might not ever escape. Other backlashes could involve reverse aging (as Merlin is said to have aged); time-freezes; visits from Old Man Wrinkle or similar Paradox entities, as described in Mage 20, Appendix I; or the absolute erasure of the time-traveler from reality. A Storyteller for time-hopping mages is advised to keep a Back to the Future-type scenario handy for the inevitable screw-up, to get creative with the potential repercussions of {@sphere Time|M20}-based Paradox, and to occasionally just say, “No, that didn’t work… or at least it didn’t work as far as you can TELL…”"],"tags":["hdydt","feat"],"_qa":{"flags":[],"parser":"headed_entries","confidence":0.9,"extracted":"2026-10-12","job":"hdydt-feats"},"level":null,"_links":{"self":"/api/v1/records/mage/power/rote/vulgarity-and-stacked-paradox","html":"/records/mage/power/rote/vulgarity-and-stacked-paradox","parent":null,"children":"/api/v1/records/mage/power/rote/vulgarity-and-stacked-paradox/children","sources":[{"abbr":"HDYDT","page":109,"folio":109,"title":"How Do You DO That?"}]},"_db":{"title":"Vulgarity and “Stacked” Paradox","props":[],"parent_id":null,"level":null,"category":null,"summary":"Time has its own momentum; some metaphysicians even postulate that it has a sense of consciousness. Disrupting the timeflow, therefore, is almost always vulgar magick, and moving it backwards is always vulgar, even in","tags":["feat","hdydt"],"children":[]}}