Main | Characters | Cities | Fiction | Music | Photos | Quotes | Links | Gaming | What's New

Paradox Flaws
Misc Gaming Mechanics Index
Below are a list of possible Paradox Flaws, organized by Sphere and Level, for your amusement. Some of them are "coincidental" and others are not. Note that the duration of a Flaw can also affect its severity. A Level 2 backlash could manifest as a Level 1 Flaw that lasts for days, or a Level 3 Flaw that only lasts for a minute or two. The "standard" duration for a Flaw is a few hours, this can be lengthened to days or shortened to minutes. Level 4 and 5 Flaws last longer; the standard duration is day, which can be shortened to hours, or lengthened to weeks.

Correspondence
1. The mage can only see behind himself for a few moments.

2. The mage's perception of space is altered for a few hours (objects in this mirror may appear to be closer than they actually are).

3. Objects in the mages possession gravitate to his left. His watch appears on his left hand, his wallet in his left pocket, etc. More significantly, any effect he casts will manifest several yards to the left of where he targeted it.

4. The mage finds that he no longer can control direction. Anything she does will be targeted in a random direction. A spell she casts will have a randomly determined target, and she will walk in a strange sort of Brownian motion, with no control over her destination. The mage must be guided from one place to another.

5. The mage's body is turned inside out, flesh on the inside, organs on the outside, yet she mysteriously stays alive. This state is incredibly painful, and the mage can do nothing but writhe in agony until the effect passes.

Entropy
1. The next feat the mage attempts fails automatically (don't bother to test).

2. Everything the mage sees is tinged with decay; not unlike the vision of wraiths. In addition to being rather depressing, it makes it difficult for mages to judge the mood of people, and must retest any successful social challenges, aura readings, etc...

3. The mage finds that material objects become rotten and brittle under his touch. His equipment may break, or he may fall through holes in the floor.

4. People in the vicinity of the mage will feel ill and out of sorts. Others will suffer a 1 trait penalty on any challenge they have to make. The effect never seems to extend to the mage's enemies.

5. The mage finds himself aging rapidly, at a rate of one year per minute. This continues for hours, yet the mage will not die, becoming a withered husk instead at about the age of 150 or so. The mage then returns slowly to normal, at a rate of 1 year per hour.

Forces
1. The mage's hair stands on end, as if he were subject to static electricity. It goes away after a minute or two.

2. The mage's perception of the world changes, so that he sees everything in black and white.

3. For the next few hours, electrical devices fail to function within about 5 yards of the mage.

4. The mage finds herself floating one inch off the floor. This makes it very difficult to get anywhere, since the mage must pull herself along the walls and furniture.

5. The mage is struck completely blind and deaf. Other forms of perceptual magick are ineffective as well. This can last for days.

Life
1. The mage suffers from a sudden, violent muscle spasm, throwing her off balance.

2. The mage catches a nasty head cold. Between sneezing, watery eyes and headaches, the mage is at a 1 trait penalty to most challenges.

3. The mage finds that nearby plants grow at an alarming rate, especially if he is in direct contact with the plant.

4. One of the mage's limbs ceases to function.

5. The mage suffers from a violent epileptic seizure that lasts for hours. It will take him days to recuperate.

Matter
1. Whatever surface the mage is standing on becomes briefly slippery, causing him to fall.

2. One important piece of equipment (perhaps a Foci) breaks.

3. The mage finds himself unable to physically interact with some common substance (metal, wood, etc.); the material passes right through him. This can be quite embarrassing of the substance is clothes.

4. Any water the mage touches will freeze (large bodies of water only freeze within about a foot of the mage).

5. The mage's body crystallizes. He can only move at a rate of one inch per minute, and magick becomes impossible.

Mind
1. For the next few minutes, the mage speaks exactly what is on her mind, broadcasting her thoughts.

2. The mage receives a lot of psychic static, random impressions from the minds of those around her. There is too much "noise" for the mage to learn anything useful, and the effect is rather distracting.

3. The mage finds that he has become a mental chameleon. He involuntarily adopts the mannerisms and personality of anyone with whom he spends more than a minute.

4. The mage adopts some form of clinical insanity, such as a severe phobia of some nearby object, or paranoid delusions.

5. The mage's mental processes become completely jumbled, and he finds it impossible to form any coherent thought.

Prime
1. The mage briefly "flashes" of magical energy, so that his presence is easily perceived by any magically aware being.

2. One of the rotes the mage is currently maintaining ceases to function.

3. All the Quintessence in a mage's pattern bleeds away.

4. The mage becomes a "magick magnet", and any effect cast in her vicinity will target the mage in addition to its normal target.

5. The mage loses touch with her Avatar, and is unable to perform any sort of magick for days (or weeks).

Spirit
Most spirit paradoxes result in the manifestation of a Paradox spirit, or the spirit magick the mage is currently working goes horribly wrong. Other possibilities include having the mage shunt involuntarily into the Umbra, attracting malignant (non-paradox) spirits, or becoming a spirit herself for a period of time.

Time
1. All the timepieces in the mage's area stop.

2. The mage's perception of time becomes disjointed, so that he sees everything one second into the future. He starts to answer questions before people have finished speaking. Alternately, the mage sees things one second into the past. It becomes more difficult to target people in the present (must re-test any successful tests)

3. The mage suffers from time dilation, and can only act half as often as everyone else. Magick cannot counter this effect.

4. The mage looses his short term memory. He can only remember things that happened more than five minutes ago. He must act based only on his immediate perceptions.

5. The mage vanishes, only to reappear in the future, at some time of the storytellers choosing (though not more than a month or two later).
Main | Characters | Cities | Fiction | Music | Photos | Quotes | Links | Gaming | What's New