From: kstclair@CSOS.ORST.EDU (Kelly St.Clair)
Newsgroups: alt.games.whitewolf
Subject: Entropy Rotes for Technocracy
Date: 20 Oct 1994 16:11:37 -0700
Organization: Virtual Adepts
NNTP-Posting-Host: csos.orst.edu
Summary: Two NWO rotes
Keywords: MAGE rote

     Entropy is a sphere that tends to be neglected or avoided by 
the Technocracy, with their desire for order and perfection in all
things.  Many of those who do learn Entropy use it only to deflect
randomness and waste from their works, making the processes more
efficient; this is particularly true of Iteration-X, who like to
play with frictionless surfaces, perfect conductors, etc.
     Masters of Entropy are rare in the Technocracy, but they
exist.  Chaos theory, macroeconomics, and psychohistory are all
attempts to understand, predict, and ultimately control the random  
elements of large systems.  In the hands of Conventions like the
New World Order and the Syndicate, Entropy has been used to great
effect in the Pogrom.


Drowning in Paperwork (Entropy ****)

     The NWO uses this rote to literally smother their enemies in
the products of bureacracy.  Any loose paper in the area (and if
there wasn't any, there is now) is blown towards the victim by a
coincidental breeze, where it clings, resisting any attempts short
of countermagic to remove it.  Within moments, the victim is 
covered in newspaper(s), forms, loose files, PostIt notes, bills,
junk mail, etc.  Damage (from suffocation) is the usual successes
x 4.
     After the victim is dead, the paper quietly blows away.  At
the Storyteller's option, there may not even be a body left 
behind...

[This rote was inspired by a scene from the movie BRAZIL, a  
 dystopian comedy with a distinctly British twist on the Techno-
 cracy.]


Unperson  (Entropy *****, Correspondence **) (Mind ****)

     This rote seeks out and erases all official evidence of a 
single subject's existence:  birth certificates, driver's licenses,
bank accounts and credit balances, property deeds, tax and Social
Security records, fingerprints on file, even photographs and video.
Most records simply vanish, while newspapers and the like no longer
mention the subject.  The "idea" of that person has been destroyed.
     Any Resources not in the subject's personal possession are
lost.  They are homeless, bankrupt, and will find it hard to find a
normal job or get medical treatment without the usual documents.  
The subject must either obtain a new identity or find a way to live
outside society.
     The optional Mind component causes memories of the subject to
be erased as well.  No one, not even family or friends, will 
recognize them.  Mages and other Awakened beings can resist this
effect with countermagic. 
     While this is primarily a NWO rote, the Syndicate has used it
on occasion and the Virtual Adepts took it with them when they
defected, applying it to computers.  The NWO usually employs the
rote to destroy lives or cover the tracks of failed operatives, 
while others have found it helpful when a complete change of 
identity is needed.

[Is Mind necessary?  The examples for Entropy 5 seem to overlap with
 it already.]

---------------------------
Kelly St.Clair (Cheshire)  
kstclair@kira.csos.orst.edu