(AKA Buffs, Fanboys/Fangirls)

Because we believe in people, and grant them power…

There is power in celebrity fame. Not just monetary worth and reputation, but real, true, tangible power. It cackles like static around famous people, growing whenever Avril Lavinge makes an appearance to the thousands of her adoring fans, or whenever someone brings up Richard Gere’s slick one-liners in Chicago. It is often crowding- even overbearing at times-, but you see it for what it is. It is what pulls people from across the world to converge on one point just to see a one-night-only concert by the Backstreet Boys, to queue for days and weeks to buy a ticket at extravagant prices just so that they could get this much closer to their idols. It is what makes people empty life savings, betray their significant others and sell out their family, just to have a cheap shot at the elusive vintage that is fame. And you know how to tap that very power.

You weren’t always like this, of course. You used to be part of that screaming, raving crowd, utterly in love with your idol. You still are, but just that you have transcended them now; they are beneath your notice, the swelling mass of collective subconsciousness. The world is utterly devoid of anything else save for you, and your idol. It is intoxicating, just watching him or her, just being so close that you can almost feel the power cackle and rub off you. While others just crave a mere taste of the bitter-sweet wine, you have taken a few good swigs from the amphoria; and you would kill to get more.

The central paradox behind Tabulaomancy is that by slavishly and mindlessly mimicking the actions of someone, you gain power over the mindless hordes. Surrendering your identity so that you can follow another’s gives you another chance of building your own identity, but it would only ultimately end in tears; the worst part is, you know it, but you would keep doing it anyway, given a second or third or fourth chance.

Some people say that Tabulaomancy is an offshoot of Videomancy, while others say that it is an offshoot of Personomancy. Yet others say it incorporates elements from both and twists it into a horrible intepretation of both schools. It’s not too surprising, then, that Tabulaomancers are often mistakened for adepts from one school or another.

Tabulaomancy Blast Style
Tabulaomancers have no blast. Who needs outright violence when a subtle wave of the hand can be enough to bring an army to your doorstep?

Stats
All Tabulaomancers have to idolise at least one identity: it could be a band (N’Sync), a pop star (Britney Spears) or even a politician (Al Gore), but the most important part is that the idol has to be famous. It won’t do to idolise someone who half the civilised world doesn’t know about, because there won’t be enough juice for you to reap off him. As a general rule of thumb, as long as the person would get at least a passing mention from the newspapers, he can be idolised. The “in irons” rule from Videomancy applies if the Tabulaomancer idolisies more than one identity. All charges are only gained when the full identity is present, i.e. if a fangirl were to be idolising F4 and she only meets one of the band members, she gains nothing from his presence. A Tabulaomancer cannot idolise a band identity and each seperate band member because then the identities would be conflicting. However, if the band member were a recgonised public figure on his or her own (i.e. Emma Burton from the Spice Girls), then the Tabulaomancer can idolise both.
Generate a Minor Charge: Watch a recorded new appearance of your idol from start to the end, non-stop. Someone idolising Leonardo DiCarprio, for instance, could get a minor charge from watching the DVDs of the Titanic, the Titanic (Director’s Cut), the movie screening of the Titanic and the 10th Anniversary Digital Remake of the Titanic, to gain 4 minor charges all in all.
Generate a Significant Charge: Be present at a live performance or appearance of your idol. You have to be at most a hundred metres away from your idol and gain some form of recgonization (such as a smile or an autograph), or you’ll only gain a minor charge from passive viewing. That is to say, if a Tabulaomancer was eating at a resturant and spots his idol walking in, he doesn’t gain any significant charges unless he approaches him for an autograph or something similar. Even if he doesn’t get the autograph, as long as the idol acknowledges the fanboy’s presence by just even looking up at his approach, the Tabulaomancer will get the significant charge.
Generate a Major Charge: Pretend to be your idol for at least a day, fooling everyone and keeping up the act even when out of sight of everyone until 24 hours has passed.
Taboos: Missing a screening or appearance of your idol anywhere within your capability to visit or attend. “Capability” is a very broad term, but as long as you can beg, steal or otherwise obtain means to see your idol, then you’re capable of doing so.
Starting Charges: A fresh fanboy would have 2 to 4 minor charges, depending on who he idolises.
Random Magick Domain: The opinions and perception of the unthinking masses.
Charging Tips: It’s very unlikely that you’ll find out all that you need to find out about your idols if you keep to yourself a whole lot and not go out to meet with other fans; through them, you can find out your idols’ schedules and performances. Or to just have someone to gush over how wonderful your idol is. Fanboys and fangirls should stick together, since there’s nothing stating that they cannot share the same pool from which they gain their charges. It is also generally not a good idea to idolise more than 2 identities, or you’ll end up in irons more often than you think is possible.

Tabulaomancy Minor Formula Spells
Winsome Smile (1 minor charge)
This spell enables you to draw the attention of the target of the spell with a simple but winsome gesture, such as a charming smile or a particularly disarming wink. This can only affect 1 target at any one time, and the gesture you adopt must be one that your idol has, in one time or another, adopted before, either in life or on screen.

Play That Funky Music (1 minor charge)
Ever notice how, whenever an on-screen hero is going through a dramatic sequence, the shadows magically lengthen and a mysterious, omnious music starts playing in the background? Play That Funky Music allows the Tabulaomancer to create minor prestigation effects that are suitable to the current mood, including creating looming silloutes, body outlines in chalk and, of course, background music. All effects must be “minor” and non-lasting.

Instant Song And Dance (2 minor charges)
What some Tabulaomancers like to call “Just Add Water”, Instant Song And Dance grants the fangirl “instant mastery” of any skill; or at least, as much mastery as it is physically possible for her to learn. For one task (lasting no more than 5 minutes, or one skill check, whichever is shorter), the Tabulaomancer can substitute with her Magick: Tabulaomancy skill. All skills, however obscure, can be used here, except for magick skills and avatar channels. The “Just Add Water” variant of this spell involves the symbolically potent action of spitting on one’s hands and rubbing them together, before proceeding on that task.

Flair (3 minor charges)
Every star has an image: be it punk rocker, sex kitten or just plain old girl-next-door, there is an image, and the wise star never quite strays too far from that constructed self. Flair lends the Tabulaomancer that image, that same “wow!” factor to which people react to. In game terms, all your social skills are increased by 30% for the next 3 hours.

I’m A Star… (3 minor charges)
“…a big, bright star”, as the Tabulaomancers would often continue. Casting this spell lends the Tabulaomancer an air of self-importance and authority that would fool all but the most viligant observers, such as personal bodyguards, security officers actively looking out for something suspicious and so on; even then, they have to make a Notice roll at a -20% shift. Your name would be “just on my lips, ma’am, didn’t you act in that show back in spring or summer?”, your face “hard to place, but I’m so sure that I’ve seen you somewhere before”. This may allow you to get into places where you would otherwise be unable to get into, such as trailers or backstages, but will not give you access into, say, a high-security nuclear power plant unless a star somehow has a reason to be there. I’m A Star lasts for an hour, after which it gradually fades in 3 minutes and 3 seconds, until the world sees you back as your normal self.

Tabulaomancy Significant Formula Spells
Of Titanic Porportions (5 significant charges)
The closest a Tabulaomancy blast will get to, the target of this vile spell is slapped around by the cosmos so much so that, for as long as the spell lasts, everything the target does will foul up in an extremely dramatic manner. Guns will explode in an extravagant manner (without dealing any damage), ankles snap into akward and what would be extremely painful positions (except that it isn’t, of course, anything worse than a normal sprain) while trying to run away, cars start smoking and explode the instant the target of the spell is out of range… the possibilities are endless. However, no matter what happens, the target will not die. He may be beaten to within an inch of his life, but no matter what, for as long as the spell lasts, he just cannot die because, hey, the world’s watching. If brought into grave and possibly impossible-to-escape-from positions, at the end of the spell, someone- not necessarily the best person for the job, granted- will rescue the poor sod slapped by this spell and bring him out of danger before the spell actually ends. A casting Of Titanic Porportions usually lasts for a day, or until the target sleeps if he is not brought to extreme ends.

Cogito, Ergo Sum (1 significant charge)
When in the living, breathing presence of your idol and you cast this spell, you gain a +5% to any skill that the idol possesses and uses actively in his professional career, even if you didn’t have the skill before. This is extremely useful when you want to become a professional tenor, an excellent mime or anything your idol is, not to mention very handy when you’re pursuing a major charge.

Pretence (3 significant charges)
When cast, this spell enables you to resemble your idol in all ways, right down to his petty mannerisms and particular inflections in speech. Pretence, however, does not confer upon you any particular knowledge of how you should behave under any circumstance. If you’re mimicking Jackie Chan and then trip and fall (because you’re not really Jackie Chan after all), then you trip and fall.

Life Imitating Art Imitating Life (2 significant charges)
For the next 5 rounds (or 5 minutes, if this spell is cast out of combat), everything the Tabulaomancer has seen her idol do somewhere, she can do the same as if she possessed the skill at the level of the roll. As long as the spell lasts, this skill can change in an instant, but only one such skill can be active at any one time.

Silver Screen Flirtations (2 significant charges)
Haven’t we always wished to be somewhere else rather than this dull and dreary place? For a while, the Tabulaomancer can do so. By walking into an actual television or movie screen showing a live or recorded appearance of the idol, the fangirl can be instantly transported to the place where the shot was taken. The Tabulaomancer would end up somewhere out of the public eye, appearing near the place but in a location where nobody would notice her magickal mode of instant transportation.

Yours Truly (1 significant charge)
By kissing or otherwise marking a photograph of her idol with a personal effect, the fangirl can send the photograph off to any address and wait for 33 days, weeks or hours, depending on the efficency of the courier service and the nature of the item recieved, after which the photograph would find its way back into the hands of the fangirl with a little something extra. This would be something that the idol has touched or even used before, and would mostly be something trival such as a coin handled by the idol, or even a napkin used by the idol. However, in certain rare cases the item may be something extremely personal, such as his underwear or even a used condom; what the fangirl does with this item, however, is entirely up to her discreetion, although quite notably these items would fetch a rather nice price on the fan market…

Tabulaomancy Major Effects
Permenantly become your idol by symbolically toppling him and taking his place in the cosmos… Note that, however, that would also permenantly end the career of a Tabulaomancer as a fanboy, bringing his magic score to a big fat 0. On the other hand, the toppled idol would then become a Tabulaomancer idolising the newly “ascended” idol, and would be even more thirsty for revenge.