From: franklir@helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu (Ryan J Franklin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.storyteller
Subject: Readin', Writin', and Rotes
Date: 7 Aug 1996 05:09:12 GMT
Organization: University of Arizona, Unix Users Group
NNTP-Posting-Host: helium.gas.uug.arizona.edu
NNTP-Posting-User: franklir
Summary: and yet, we could all be wrong
Keywords: wouldn't be the first time

One thing that's bothered me about Mage for a long time is rotes.  I 
mean, you have these people who can alter Reality itself just by flexing 
a little Willpower, totally on-the-fly, and they waste time learning 
_rotes_?  Jesus 20th Level Mage Christ casting Magic Missiles at Tiamat, 
why would this ever happen?  Seems that any Mage worth sending a 
Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes entry to would have better things 
to do than resort to predetermined spells.

But recently, while Jason Corley and I were talking about the importance 
of a coherent paradigm for Mage characters, I realized that there were, 
in fact, some compelling reasons why rotes would be created and maybe 
even used.

1.  Rotes are good educational tools.

Most mages receive some kind of instruction in their art, but most mages 
also have their own peculiar rationale for why magic works.  Instructors 
would find it easier (and students would find it more rewarding) if, 
instead of wasting time trying to figure out how to explain a particular 
aspect or application of a Sphere in terms of the unique and twisted 
paradigm lurking in the newbie's skull, the teacher simply demonstrated 
an effect, taught it as a rote, and left the student to figure out on 
his/her own _why_ it works.  Consequently, mages who had the benefit(?) 
of a formal education would probably recall a few rotes from that time, 
some of which might even be useful.  

2.  Rotes can smooth over differences in individual paradigms, both 
within a Tradition, and between several Traditions.

For example, let's think about two Order of Hermes mages who have a 
preference for showy, stereotypical vulgar effects, particularly the 
ever-popular fireball.

Bob invokes Thrice-Great Hermes to liberate the Essential Fire from the 
base elements of the pavement, the wall, or the Man In Black standing at 
the end of the street, and is rewarded with a nice big ball of flame.

Joe, on the other hand, weaves a Sigil of the Hallowed Salamander between 
the all-powerful Sun and the wretched target, focusing the Flames of 
Helios Itself in a spherical area, with the usual destructive effect.

Same effect, different paradigm, and when Joe and Bob decide to go into 
the cabal business together, they're going to run into a serious problem 
the first time they want to work together and summon a fireball big 
enough to engulf the World Trade Centers (and all the $yndicate goons 
inside), because Joe thinks the Earth, Air, Water, Fire element system is 
utter bullshit, and Bob can't tell the difference between a salamander 
and a cow.  So they write their checks and send away to the Trimestigus 
Correspondence School of Hermetic Magic, and learn the rote "Jimmy's 
Big-Ass Fireball (TM, patent pending)."  This rote doesn't fit either of 
their paradigms very well (where's the sigil?  where's the invocation?), 
but it's closer than the way their _partner_ says it should be done, and 
it works well enough...and anyway, now they're working from a common 
ground that will let them get those 20 successes they need.

And with a lot of tinkering, they might even be able to develop a variant 
of the Big-Ass Fireball that Dr. Wildebeest, pyromaniac Son of Ether, 
could work into his paradigm.

Mages who do a lot of work with other mages, or Chantries that accept 
members of many different Traditions, will tend to develop lots of 
cross-craft rotes like this, if only to keep up with the single-paradigm, 
single-Tradition groups who can work magic together seamlessly.

3.  Some effects fit more easily into an individual paradigm when they 
are developed as rotes.

Say you have an Akashic Brother who wants to talk to his Venerable But 
Very Dead and Stinky Ancestors.  Under ordinary circumstances, this is a 
straight Spirit effect, and he'd simply need to, say, bathe in purified 
water and meditate a while to focus his Spirit mojo.  But that's not 
satisfying, and doesn't seem to pay proper respect to the VBVDaSA in 
question...so our Akashic Bro sits down and works out a complicated 
ritual which involves gifts of precious jade, burning of incense favored 
by the VBVDaSA in life, and a small twist of the VBVDaSA's hair placed in 
his favorite begging bowl.  Not only does he get the bonus for the long 
ritual, he scores brownie points for intimately connecting the magic to 
the effect, and probably even fits into the paradigm of his little 
Ultra-Reformed Californian Buddhist Lite commune well enough that he can 
speak to his VBVDaSA every other week without Paradox (or huge bills on 
the local SoE's Necrophone).  Mages who have a lot of free time, or very 
specific magical needs, will tend to create rotes of this type.

4.  Rotes can develop as a result of having to produce a specific magical 
effect often.

This is fairly self-explanatory--if Vicky Verbena has to extract slivers 
of glass from Professor Shockwave and wash his wounds in lamb's blood mixed 
with sage every week because the good doctor refuses to use a lower 
setting on the Megasonic Amplifying Bazooka, she's probably going to 
develop a routine Life effect to heal his wounds.  (And the Chantry's 
probably going to be eating lamb chops for the rest of the year.)


There are some obvious benefits to using rotes--for one thing, they're 
almost always faster than composing the effect on-the-fly, particularly 
if it's a well-practiced rote.  The cross-paradigm and ritual uses of 
rotes are particularly handy.  But the down side is pretty extreme--while 
_creating_ a rote is a fairly creative act, _using_ them isn't, and Mages 
whose Avatars have a Dynamic or Questing Essence will be set back rather 
severely on the path to Ascension if they rely too heavily upon rotes.  
After all, you aren't really learning anything new about Reality or your 
powers, and well-practiced rotes become almost akin to static effects.  
On the other hand, if your Avatar has a Pattern or particular type of 
Primordial Essence, rotes are pretty satisfying things.


I figure the Traditions would have varying opinions on rotes.  My take on 
it is like this:

The Order of Hermes is, of course, Rote Central.  I mean, they have 
tomes, manuscripts, carved blocks, tablets, painted frescoes, and god 
only knows what else, most of which are the painstakingly anal research 
of other hermetic mages (particularly notes on ritual magic).  They also 
have a strong emphasis on formal training, and the different Houses 
within the Order (and even the individual mages in each House) have 
different views on what the "correct" paradigm is.  Consequently, they 
produce a lot of rotes, practice a lot of rotes, use a lot of rotes, and 
teach a lot of rotes.

The Virtual Adepts are gaining on the OoH, particularly since their style 
of magic is tailor-made for rotes.  Rotes get modified slightly and 
tossed into programmer's toolkits, to be reassembled into newer, more 
elaborate rotes.  VAs compete to see who can write a rote program that 
produces the same effect faster and in less lines than the older, 
obsolete version.  

The Celestial Chorus, with its emphasis on rituals and tradition, would 
have a nice stockpile of rotes, too, and older Choristers would probably 
value those rotes highly.  I could see a younger core of mages who 
dislike rotes for that very reason.  And even though the CC is pretty 
ecumenical (they're all paradigms of the One, anyway, right?), they'd 
still have to hash out some differences within their own flock as well as 
with other Traditions.

Sons of Ether, while having a paradigm that encourages rote creation, 
probably don't use that many, if only because of the Ego Factor.  After 
all, why use Baronet Xenon's Quasi-Dimensional Flux Generator when your 
own Multiphasic Wave Amplifier produces the same effect without those 
nasty eight-level harmonics?  Only particularly useful and well-crafted 
rotes would win the hearts and minds of other SoEs, not to mention their 
pocketbooks.

The Verbena, Dreamspeakers, and Akashic Brothers would have rotes.  DSs 
and ABs would probably focus more on individual rituals, while Verbena 
would concentrate on rotes which allow large covens to work together 
smoothly, but those aren't hard-and-fast restrictions by any stretch of 
the imagination.  Rotes from these Traditions would probably stay within 
the Tradition, and not be particularly focused on.

The Cult of Ecstasy and the Euthanatos are somewhat similar, in that 
rotes aren't really their main gig; the CoX have that emphasis on 
personal experience, and the Euthanatos have that emphasis on personal 
responsibility, and as a result, rotes aren't particularly important to 
them.  Oh, they have them, and use them, for all the reasons I've 
suggested and all the ones I haven't...but of all the Traditions, I see 
these two as being the least likely to hold on to rotes.  Once their 
purpose was fulfilled, the rotes would be discarded and forgotten.

--
but everyone should know the rote "summon margarita"
franklir@gas.uug.arizona.edu