Mist Handling and You

[Turael]

What's the difference between Imagination, Faith, Psionics, and Magic?

Imagination is illusion and creation.
Faith is life magic.
Psionics are mental powers.
Magic is elemental.

What's the difference between passive and aggressive magic?

Faith and Imagination are passive. You can use these skills to defend yourself or heal. You can create an illusion, or make a holy whup-ass aura appear around yourself, but you can't directly attack people with them in combat.

Magic and Psionics are aggressive. You CAN attack people with these, read their thoughts, hurl a fireball at them, make psychic bonds appear around their bodies, that sort of thing.

What's the difference between a targeted and untargeted roll?

Targeted is a direct effect on a single character, untargeted is an indirect, and potentially lesser, effect on a single character or a room, performed by affecting their environment or yourself rather than their person. Targeted is zapping a person with a bolt of magic. Untargeted is zapping the roof above them with magic, so that it falls on them. Although the code allows for all abilities to be targeted, only Magic and Psionics need to be, because only they can be used to actively attack someone, so they must be able to take the target's resistance into account. You can use an aggressive effect on a room untargeted, but it won't be as effective as a direct assault, and people with resistances are allowed to have diminished or negated effects from untargeted rolls.

Why should I target a roll?

Targeting a roll allows the system to automatically take your target's resistance stats into account. Think of it as the mist handling system making the saving throw for them.

When should I target a roll?

You should target a roll when you are doing an aggressive, direct feat of magic against another person without their consent, whether it be harmful or just plain unwanted. Helpful or friendly magic does not need to be targeted because it is assumed that the target won't be fighting the effects. Indirect or passive magic that affects an area or object doesn't need to be targeted because it's the object that's being affected, and how the people in range of that object respond or are affected is up to them.

What gives me bonuses and minuses to my mist rolls?

Obviously having stats in the particular school of magic helps, as does a high mist score. The rest we keep secret.

Do I have to roll for everything?

No. If the person in the scene with you says it's okay to assume you did a successful roll, then there's no need.

How do I get mist points back?

A random number of points are refunded daily.

What's a backlash? Does every failed mist handling backlash?

A backlash means that the mists have turned on you in your attempt to use them. The mists are a strange sentient entity with whims and agendas of their own, and sometimes they do not take kindly to being used. Failing a roll is not the same as a backlash, and if you do backlash the system will tell you. A backlash is never pleasant and is usually painful and disfiguring. There are no 'cute and actually helpful' backlashes. There are no 'shrug it off' backlashes. You won't get superpowers, a cute new body, or shiny new toys if you backlash. You will be warped, scarred, and tortured by the mists as they punish you for mistreating them and rip away chunks of your humanity and life essence in retaliation. The reason why your mist score goes up after a backlash is because the mists have claimed part of you, and you're one step closer to losing everything you are and being consumed by them.

My mist score goes up when I backlash, so I should backlash a few times to make mist handling easier, right?

If you're caught deliberately botching rolls OOC to try and raise your mist, the wizards might decide to pop your mist to one. If you look for opportunities IC to backlash, depending on the level you backlashed on, you probably won't live long enough to enjoy your newfound abilities.

I backlashed IC, what now?

Come up with something appropriate. If you backlash a healing, make the injury worse, or warp it, or maybe you take on the injury as well. If you backlash an attack, the attack turns on you. If you're trying to heal a bruise on a puppy, maybe the puppy gets a spontaneous case of rabies. If you're trying to change shape, maybe you manage to change shape but end up with the right parts in all the wrong places. As we've said before, the mists are not to be taken lightly, and the results of a backlash are not cute and fun.

If your backlash has wiped all your sanity, the wizards are instantly notified and your character is, for all intents and purposes, dead and gone. Such are the risks of looking too deep into the abyss.