From: pfstrack@email.unc.edu (Paul Strack)
Newsgroups: alt.games.whitewolf,rec.games.frp.storyteller
Subject: Danger Sense Rotes
Date: 2 Oct 1995 00:47:51 GMT
Organization: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
NNTP-Posting-Host: login0.isis.unc.edu

Mages, being the paranoid sorts that they are, often utilize Rotes to give
themselves an advanced warning of dangers.  Being the flexible and diverse
lot that they are, different mages have different approaches.  The
Cultists, Akashics and Euthanatos have developed some of the most effective 
versions.


Premonitions of Danger (Time 2)

   The Time mage keeps alert by continually looking briefly forward into
the time stream (usually a few seconds is enough) and keeping an eye out
for bad things about to happen.  Cultists in particular use their vice to
raise themselves into a higher state of awareness to make this possible. 
Unfortunately, to the young disciple of time, this can be a little
distracting (the mage suffers +1 to the difficulty of all rolls that he
makes).  There are two ways around this.  A conjunctional Mind 1 effect
allows the mage to compartmentalize part of his mind to do nothing but
watch for danger, leaving the rest of his mind free.  Alternately, by the
time the mage reaches Adept status (Time 4), he is so comfortable with
temporal perception that this minor Rote no longer distracts him. 



Smell the Traitors Heart (Mind 3)

   The Akashics developed this Rote to alert themselves to hostile minds,
and avoid ambushes.  The mages keeps a light telepathic contact with all
the minds in her immediate area.  If a sentient being in the Akashic's
sensory range becomes hostile, the Akashics empathic senses will be
alerted, and the mage can defend herself.  The Akashic need not even see
the ambusher to "scent" the hostile intent.  However, this Rote does
nothing to protect the mage from inanimate threats or accidents. 



Watching the Death Winds (Entropy 2)

   The Euthanatos have perfected one of the most effective Rotes for 
detecting danger.  The mage watches the currents and eddies of Entropic 
energy surrounding him, watching for whorls that indicate the advent of 
danger and death.  The Rote is extremely effective, but unfortunately a 
little vague.  The Euthanatos can rarely identify the exact source of the 
threat, and can on occasion mistake threats to others as threats to 
themselves.

   [Except as noted above, all three Rotes operate the same way.  The
number of successes the mage gets is the number of turns of "warning" she
has to prepare herself for the oncoming danger.  Preferably, this roll 
should be made secretly, so the mage is never certain how effective the 
Rote was.]



Stifle the Warning Claxon (Mind 3 Entropy 3)

   Knowing well that mages use their power to warn themselves of danger, 
the Euthanatos developed this Rote to counter this.  The Euthanatos uses 
Mind to project feelings of calm and safetly, while clouding the mental 
senses of the target(s).  Simultaneous, she uses her advanced knowledge 
of Entropy to "cloud the fates", flattening the whorls in the winds of 
death that give one warning.

   [The mages successes subtract from the successes of any ability that 
detects the presence of danger, including the above Rotes, Auspex, 
Fatalism, and so forth.]


-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Paul Strack            |  Madness takes its toll.
pfstrack@email.unc.edu |  Please have exact change.