(••• Life, •• Forces, or both; possibly with •• Entropy and/ or •• Prime added)

The refined technologies of martial skill allow fragile human beings to defy the apparent laws of physics and biology. Thanks

to the indisputable gifts of such accomplishment, a man or woman can punch holes in walls, shatter planks or stones, and cripple or kill a foe with one well-executed blow. There’s no magick involved, of course – merely the proven applications of science. And so, although such arts will not allow a person to fly around like some Hong Kong action hero, they do permit a sufficiently trained person to deal out unspeakable amounts of damage with hands and feet alone.

Outside the ranks of skilled martial artists, Technocrats (and other mages too) can employ cybernetic enhancements, anatomical knowledge, and sheer attitude in a quest to lay their opponents out in bloody heaps across the floor. And unless the act becomes so outrageous that it defies belief, such attacks remain impressive… yet coincidental.

System

An agent’s kicks, punches, and strikes inflict damage as per the Damage or Duration chart, with one automatic success from the Forces Sphere. Most often, this Effect uses martial arts as an instrument and a practice, although other options have been noted above. Forces adds to the kinetic impact of a blow, and Life targets the opponent’s Pattern. A coincidental blow does not inflict aggravated damage, but a truly theatrical (and typically vulgar) blow might.

As options, the martial artist might also add Entropy to spot weak points and thus reduce armor, Durability, or soak rolls by one level per success, or add Prime to charge his fists with chi energy and thus inflict aggravated damage. The first option is not vulgar, but the second one is.

The Information Age opens many doors, especially when you know how to knock right. Originally created by either the Virtual Adepts or New World Order (both groups claim the bragging rights), this trick allows a person with access to the correct information – usually through a cybernetic uplink, BCI, or some other interface like the datacrawl described in the Prelude and Appendix II – to pull up pertinent data about people, places, and things.

A mental right-click grants access to the source of information, typically through the Internet, a home-based data collection, or

both. The data appears like a readout in the mage’s mind’s eye, offering surface data about whatever the mage happens to be looking at when he focuses his mental cursor over it and activates the right-click. That data generally covers only the most basic information, although a truly skilled operator (that is, someone with a high Arete/ Enlightenment Trait and a lot of successes) can uncover surprising amounts of information about the subject in question.

System

Mind 3 scans the surface thoughts of sentient subjects, while a connected Mind 1 multitasking Effect lets the mage process the information without distraction. Data 3 – an essential element of this rote! – grants remote access to computerized information; without it, the mage is simply a telepath.

Meanwhile, the other optional Spheres allow the mage to trace energies with ultraviolet or infrared scanning abilities (Forces 1); spot the state of health in living things and detect their body heat signatures (Life 1); scan the physical properties of an object (Matter 1); employ X-ray vision on structures or organisms (Life 1/ Matter 1); note flows of Quintessence energy (Prime 1); or employ a combination of the above. Each additional type of vision beyond the first one, however, adds +1 difficulty to the character’s perception rolls, due to the overlapping visual fields. A simple data scan works normally, but adding heat-signature vision, X-ray vision, and infrared visual capabilities to that data scan adds +3 to the viewer’s difficulty as well.

For targets who have social media pages, Twitter feeds, and so forth, the mage can read their latest updates, pull up pictures they have posted, et cetera. From a purely psychological perspective, this can provide a devastating edge for a technomancer who wants to play nasty. Someone who checks into Foursquare can be tracked with the Right-Click once the mage has had a chance to right-click on her at least once. Until and unless she stops feeding her location into the global database, the technomancer can access her current location.

In order to employ this rote, the character must focus his magick through some data-based technological instrument (cell phone, cybernetic implant, VDAS, etc.) that can access a larger database. Thanks to the definition of this Effect, however, it does not allow the character to scan something that’s not in a computerized database. That’s not because the Spheres can’t see a given phenomenon but because you can’t access information if there’s no information to access.

At the Storyteller’s option, a technomancer who has access to a database of extraphysical entities – that is, spirits – can use Spirit 1 to right-click that information too. Certain members of the Order of Hermes have been building Umbrood databases for just this purpose, and the Void Engineers have extensive files on the things their group has encountered. As mentioned below, however, such files might not necessarily be accurate…

Unless the right-click interface has been configured to cross dimensions with Dimensional Science 2, this rote cannot be employed from the Otherworlds. This restriction does not apply, however, if the characters are in the Digital Web.

Because no one can see it except for the person using the interface, a Right-Click is coincidental. The level of information access is based upon the number of successes rolled:

Six + If there’s data available, the character can access it.

Really large amounts of data might take several turns to scan… perhaps even an hour or more for subjects with overwhelming amounts of information.

Note that the information accessed by a right-click might not necessarily be accurate. Even the NWO has flawed data, so the Storyteller should feel free to feed false information to a player who employs this rote.

Mass media programs its audience to accept certain messages as intrinsic truths about life. People have become so indoctrinated by the concept of a “hero’s journey” that the Masses often see themselves as players in some vast heroic saga. Other so-called hypernarratives – tropes and stories so familiar that they’ve become part of the cultural lexicon – include the romantic comedy, the sitcom, the slasher movie, the buddy movie, the chick flick, and the wacky-hijinks caper. (Faerie tales appeal to the hypernarratives as well, but Technocrats avoid playing on those tropes if they can help it…)

By employing certain phrases (“Let the girl go – I’m the one you want!”), archetypes (Gay Best Friend), or tropes (Enemies Become Allies), a skillful agent can induce another character to follow the script and live out that role. Essentially, the agent calls upon media-instilled social programming and then gives it a push with Enlightened Psychodynamics (the Mind Sphere). Unless the target consciously understands that he’s being fed his lines, he falls into the role and fulfills the hypernarrative’s demands.

System

The Mind Sphere influences the target to follow the script. A successful Manipulation + Art or Expression roll triggers the desired behavior. Generally, this Effect lasts for one scene, although the player can extend its effects by spending successes on Duration and then play a particular role (lover, villain, sidekick, etc.) for a while.

Thanks to pervasive media culture, this Effect is coincidental unless the target comes from one of the very few cultures that are not familiar with mass-media tropes. But familiarity, as the saying goes, also breeds contempt: a failed or botched roll – or successful resistance from a savvy target – can

deflate the hypernarrative because the target has recognized the cliché (“SERIOUSLY?!? Did you really just SAY that?”) and refuses to go along with it.

By adding an Entropy element – generally established by invoking the hypernarrative and calculating the odds of probability – the agent can influence events that support the hypernarrative. Guns might run out of ammunition, cars could explode, beautiful strangers or random cats wind up distracting the target, and other pop-media coincidences manifest at just the right time to fulfill the hypernarrative. In this case, a successful Enlightenment roll tilts the probabilities of coincidence (see the Axis of Coincidence sidebar, pp. 533-534) in favor of a media-inspired event. The agent cannot control that event – that’s the Storyteller’s job; still, things will favor an appropriately dramatic (or comedic) twist of fate… not that Technocrats believe in such things!

For a staggering selection of hypernarrative devices, check out the TV Tropes Wiki at http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki. php/Main/HomePage.

Sometimes, you need to haul out the Big Guns. And so, although the following Procedures are refined and standardized techniques among the Technocratic Union’s ranks, they lack the pristine subtlety of Adjustments and may risk the Paradox Effect under many circumstances.

Even when she chooses to be vulgar, though, a Technocrat still needs to use practices and instruments in order to make such things come to pass. As noted elsewhere, a Technocrat believes so strongly in the principles behind her Procedures that she cannot perform them without the proper tools and techniques. A Progenitor (to use an example out of a very old Mage chronicle) cannot simply wave her hyper-scalpel and cut someone who’s several yards away; she MUST have a valid scientific reason for the things she can do. Unlike those mystic Reality Deviants, she doesn’t make the Consensus dance to her whims but rather employs advanced principles of technology to make things work her Will.

When it’s time to clean up a mess – bloodstains, bodies, bullet holes, and other evidence of regrettable havoc – a Technocratic Sanitization Squad comes in with special devices and supplies. Within a short time, the Sanitization Squad reconstructs the damage, destroys evidence, and recycles waste products into useful energies (through Forces or Prime), leaving nothing behind to disturb the Masses’ calm.

System

Processing a scene of mayhem takes time… and thus, in game terms, it usually requires an extended roll. Each Enlightenment roll made when conducting a Sanitize Evidence operation reflects one hour of uninterrupted work, and each success renders 10 pounds of matter into pure energy. Extreme carnage demands extreme measures. And so, when a large area needs to be sanitized, several trained Technocrats employ this Procedure at once, dividing up the task between them.

Even using impressive machinery, this Procedure is vulgar, so it’s essential to keep the scene clear of innocent bystanders and nosy cops. For that reason, this sort of operation also includes teammates who employ the Secure the Scene Procedure to keep the area clear of prying eyes and note important bits of evidence that need to be catalogued and then purged before the Masses learn too much. Due to the unstable nature of converting matter into energy, a botch with this Procedure immediately invokes the Paradox Effect, usually with a catastrophic explosion or meltdown of the gear.