Alternative to Toshi’s adept school based on games.

Ludificomancy (Ludoscopy)

(Ludificomancy: Ludonautica, ludoscopy, Mancymancy, chaoscopy, straggling)
(Ludificomancers: ludonauts, ludoscopy, mancies, stragglers)

The human mind is built on recognising patterns and sorting chaos into order. The fear of the future is one of those areas of chaos that refuses to sort into something familiar. A child looking up into clouds may see a horse in the curly puffiness. But, unlike space, time doesn’t like to be rearranged at whim.

But there were those that wanted to know the uncertainties of tomorrow and the next day. They wanted to see galloping horses in those unseen, random clouds.

Then clever men thought that if we couldn’t see the unpredictability there should be set of tools for them to test, analyse and determine what the answer should be. These tools embody Sympathetic Magic laws, particularly homeopathy or imitation – like attracts like, like affects like.

When certain patterns emerged they had repeatable order. The clever men codified these patterns into defined sets that could assure the people of what will happen to them.

By creating a random environment with the special tools they had, they could mimic the unpredictability of the future. The patterns that emerged from the tools mimicked the unseen patterns that the future held. The results were analysed, tested and interpreted.

Anything that made repeatable patterns could be used as a tool. Birds flying, animal guts, waves on water, smoke from fires, thrown marked stones, and dice.

Many of these tools relied on observation of the environment. Others relied on crafted items, portable and available at any time.

Like all magick over time, these ideas of random interpretation fell way to ideas of an ordered, predestined universe. Future could be seen in the fixed patterns in the stars – God’s fingerprint on the celestial vault. The magick got crushed under the inflexibility of structured philosophy.

The convoluted science of astrology appealed to the rigours of mathematics and repeatable observation – one of the foundations of modern experimental science.

Before the old ideals of divining fell away, others cottoned onto the tools of randomness; they could be used for enjoyment. Different rules for different needs. Instead of seeing the future, these games played on value and chance. Throwing stones became dice, rune stones became cards, watching birds fly became horse racing, little idols on household altars became chess pieces.

The old augers and diviners fell into astrology or fell out of sight and the lure of easy money and enjoyment of the game separated too. Divining became gaming. Gaming became gambling. What was once an honoured, priestly profession became the domain of disrespect and ill repute or a method of friendly challenge and safe battles of wills.

But there where a few that realised what they could do when the numbers rolled in front of their eyes, something primal moved in time to the rhythms of randomness. Some of those watching merely forgot what they saw but others became followed the flow.

The games seemed to be saying something. An ancient wisdom that will not stay lost. The ludonauts are the ones that listened. Slowly they made sense of the unspoken words. They slowly understood the strange secret the games told them.

And the secret… why bother trying to predict the future, you tell the future what to do instead.

The Two Deuces and Three Duds

The Two Deuces
The school of ludificomancy is divided into two distinct classes. Not as dissimilar as eastern and western cryptomancy, but separate nonetheless. Ludificomancers can be Gamers or Gamblers.

Gamers are purely about the love of games, all of them and the immersion into the current of actions and consequences. Gamblers see the exchange of values piggybacked upon fickle randomness. Gamers and Gamblers can interact and play each other but they have different methods for charging up.

Ludos ultimately see their world as abstract conflict: a me-versus-you mentality. All Ludos can only charge if they play an opponent. The opponent can be a computer, a machine, a person, or a deck of cards. The game can be anything too, poker, roulette, slots, board games, chess, strategic war games, role-playing games, trading card games, coin-flipping, etc.

Ludo’s see games of play as mirrors to games of life. As above, so below. By applying lessons and experience in games can the seed the future to what he wants to happen.

And the Three Duds
Ludonauts also share similarities with entropomancers, but when entropomancers surf chaos, ludonauts sail on ships of rules. Gamblers make great one-way partners with plutomancers, except plutomancers don’t like giving as much as getting. Avatars of the Merchant and Ludonauts will pass each other in the street, slowly with eyes squinted in rivalry.

LUDONAUT MAGICK
Certain specialist spells are marked for Gamblers and Gamers only.

Ludificomancer Blast Style:
The blast style for Gamers is different from Gamblers; Gamers pull cheat codes for the universe that interfere with causality, Gamblers take what is of most value to you and give you shit in return.

No Ludo can actually hurt you directly, but make it worse when it does.

Generate a Minor Charge:
The Ludicomancer must play one game intensively for four hours solidly.

Gamers can charge if they win at a shorter game that lasts from one to three hours.

Gamblers can charge up also lose $100 in a bet where chance is involved. Gamblers see loss as payment to the universe, a mock sacrifice to the gods of gaming. Gamblers do not charge up by winning money.

Generate a Significant Charge:
Win at a regional tournament that lasts at least three days. Lose $10 000 on one bet. Invent your own hybrid game and play it regularly.

Generate a Major Charge
Gamers can try to create your own game that becomes an instant best-selling phenomenon and attracts its own fan base. The gamer only gets his charge after ten years of the game being a best seller. These games tend to be old favourite family games like Scrabble, Monopoly, Risk, etc. Computer games get stale too quickly.

Gamblers can lose $1 000 000.00 on one bet, or beat every single professional gambling table once, in one city, in one night.

Any Ludo that plays wins a game against the Devil receives a major charge… If they lose, well…

Taboo: All ludos must be strict and honest. If they cheat or knowingly play a fixed game or bet, they lose all charges. However, all ludos can charge up if they’re playing against the odds.

Obviously Gamblers cannot charge if they still lose money on a fixed game. They cannot juice up charity.

If the Gambler gets into gambling debt and doesn’t pay at least $10 dollars per day, he loses one minor charge per day, even breaking up significant charges. A Gambler cannot charge if he’s in debt.

If a Gamer loses at a game that lasts three hours or less he loses a minor charge.

Random Magick Domain:

Ludo’s are proficient with mixing chance and strategy the only two methods of forcing the future into what you want. Games are sacred but life is mundane, cheat as you need to get through the day.

Gamers see life as an extension of all games and a unique game unto itself, and formulate little house rules that affect their own reality to be. Rules can be twisted, revised and loopholed, but never broken. Well, maybe. If my warrior whips your elf, I pass my finals on your knowledge, cool.

Ludonauts lose now so they can swing the seesaw of luck to their benefit later. Everything is currency no matter how abstracted; everything has a value that can be lost. Want to bet your night with a supermodel for my three hundred dollars? No, how about your cash-card PIN, then?

Ludificomancy Minor Formulae spells:

KNOW WAY, CLUELESS (one minor charge)
By spending a minor charge the ludo will instantly know the current accepted rules of an unknown game he’s going to play.

DOMINOES (two minor charges)
When this minor blast spell is cast, the target’s possible hurt is made worse. The target must be messed up within an hour of casting. Although the ludo can spend an extra charge an increase the time by an extra hour. This can be stacked.

The moment something happens that could cause injury or humiliation and dice are rolled two things may happen. Roll an extra dice and add it to the damage – H2H or Firearms – or if the target succeeds at a dice roll, roll the third die and drop the targets digit die and shift his tens roll to the empty digit slot for the new result.

Example: Pauli the enforcer is Dominoed and rolls a 12, successfully avoiding slipping on ice. The Domino roll is 6. Pauli drops the two from the twelve, shifts the ten from the Ten’s slot to the digit’s slot and adds the 6 as the new Tens roll. Pauli has now a dice roll of 61 and suddenly does slip and hurt himself.

MY INTESTINES ARE GETTING HARUSPICTIVE AGAIN… (Two minor charges)
The Ludo can give out a hunch roll (see UA2 pg. 7)

NO SHIRT, NO SHOES, NO SERVICE (three minor charges)
The ludo must throw away both his shirt and shoes (or sweater and sneakers, etc.) and the player is allowed to roll twice for one check that might come up before midnight.

THE GODS ARE ON MY SIDE (five minor charges)
By reducing his Soul stat by 10% skill he can add +10% shift to any other skill he or someone else possesses. The shift and penalty stays for until the specified roll is made. If the roll is never made, the Ludo has lost 10 points off his Soul stat.

C’MON, BABY NEEDS A FAST BUCK (five minor charges) – Gambler Only
By specifying one item the ludo has on his possession, he can increase its value by multiplying by ten the digit’s result of his Ludificomancy skill roll. The item is suddenly less tarnished and younger, or even becomes a better brand.

DO AS I SAY, NOT DO! (four minor charges)
The ludonaut can instruct computer-generated characters on screen by telling them what to do. As long as the CG characters could do anything plausible within context of the game. What they can also do is “migrate” from one PC’s monitor to another and mess around there and come back.

The “migrating” characters can also speak through other monitors via captions.

IT’S ON MY CHARACTER SHEET (four minor charges) – Gamer Only
The character can simulate the first channel of the fool and find a useful item in an appropriate place (UA2 pg. 175).

Ludificomancy Significant Formula Spells

WANNA SEE WHAT I CAN DO? (1 significant charge)
The spell removes all damage delivered in a single round. The Ludo can cast this spell in the round after the damage has been done unless he’s been killed. The ludo doesn’t get away that easily. He gets 10 wounds the next day and every day after that until the damage debt is paid off.

Gamers call this spell GodClip/Unclip.

WILL GAME FOR FOOD (One Significant charge)
This spell allows the ludo to come up with an engrossing and captivating game using the most inane crap lying around. The game comes up with an easy to play set of three rules. The game can be used for gathering of minor charges.

The game lasts until people get bored. At which point they all realise what a pile of hokum it was. They might still dream about playing it though.

A STRANGE BEDFELLOW IS LADY LUCK (Four significant charges)
For the next dice roll declared by the Ludo, he can decide whether the die roll will succeed or fail will succeed or fail – they still roll the dice but their success or failure has been predetermined. The Ludo can declare actions taken in future estimations of time and environment – such as when you’re driving down St. Lucia street during a Tuesday you will have an accident – and declare the person will fail his driving roll that day.

The spell needs two of four axes. Person, Place, Time, or Action the spell will cause.

The spell waits until it happens.

THE GOOD YEAR POT (Two significant charge)
The gambler gets to opt if he or anyone else wishes to ante up motor skills and memories instead of money. The skills can be called as if they where money and work in 5% increments. If you lose the bet you lose that much off your skill list and the winner gets the pot.

No one has to ante up skills if they have something else of acceptable value. They can opt to sit out the rounds unless an ante is declared.

If someone runs out (0% – 4%) he cannot play until he has something else of value.

The spell lasts until the Gambler ends the spell, one hour’s worth of gaming has passed or everyone leaves the table.

RIFFLE THE TRAFFIC (seven significant charges)
The Gambler gets randomly shuffle a group or cluster of one specific item in a specific place. Either he must be moving towards something or away. The result of his dice roll determines how closer of further away he is from the chosen point. This is an approximation.

If the result is a crit he is there or not there (depending on the case). If the roll fails, the shuffle happens, but his position in distance is the same.

If the Gambler is being chased by car multiply or divide the car lengths by what

His may seem toodles if he’s being chased in a crowded mall, but it can be used to get further to California if travelling on the interstate in Louisiana provided the interstate goes all the way to California.

The Riffle re-arranges everything, but it seems to slide off everyone else’s observations.

FACE THE FACE (one significant charge)
Many mystics know that shapes, numbers and portraits signify Jungian archetypes. These archetypes are so hostile to the naked mind they can unhinge the mind. The Gambler can hold up chess pieces, playing cards, dice, and bills of currency; and through the images or numbers viewer gets a very focused image of the statosphere and the Invisible Clergy. Focused like a laser is focused. The images and numbers look back right through the viewer’s soul.

What happens is the viewer’s Passions are fired off all at once as the Invisible Clergy do the human soul what an electrical shock does to the body..

The viewer gets two failed notches in one random gauge and another in another gauge and wants to scream, fight, and run all at once…

Yes this is the gambler significant blast spell.

Die Roll Stress Gauge
1-2 Violence
3-4 The Unnatural
5-6 Helplessness
7-8 Isolation
9-0 Self

Gamer Spells

BUT, THIS IS WHO I AM (one significant charge)
The Gamer adopt one semi-plausible skill from a game as his own for until it is successfully used. The skill is measured in 15% increments. A knight from a chess set might give a 15% increase to horse-riding, the little car a 15% to Drive, The Get Out Of Jail Card might give him 15% in Wheedle with the Cop. This spell cannot simulate any magic from any game; it could give you 15% Biting if you have a game with dragons in it, but not flaming thrower breath.

UNCLIP (three significant charges)
The gamer becomes intangible, but still visible and can still speak, and may move through solid objects such as walls, doors, bullets,etc.

The gamer must roll his ludificomancy skill every minute. If he rolls a bad cherry, he starts to suffocate. The gamer cannot materialise in solid objects; the spell will cancel as soon as the body is completely free of obstruction.

LOOKING FOR A BAD LUCK SLAP DOWN, BITCH! (five significant charges)
The Gamer can pick a dice roll he or someone else has to make and if that dice roll is successful it is treated as a good cherry, a matched pair, according to what Ten was rolled. Yes. A result of 19 is moved to 11 and a 43 becomes 44. A failed dice roll is still failed, as is a fumble still a fumble. Unfortunately a 01 is shifted to 00. Tough shit. The ludo gets to choose what three dice rolls are affected. The spell waits until that skill is rolled.

Major spells.
Declare outright what shall happen to someone, where, how and in which orifice it will get shoved for the rest of his life like they’re ignorant puppets to your will.

Tell someone they’ll have a great destiny with a long, happy life and then it happens whether they like it or not.

Conjure RPG characters or magick or monsters into the real world.

Enter into computer games and exit at will.

Get to gamble for souls.

Have it so the Ludo accidentally wins every single game from now on without it being considered cheating.

Chat to the Invisible Clergy as if your playing cards were cellular phones.

Get to tell which godwalker is going to ascend, even if that specific person isn’t even channelling yet.

You get the idea…

What you hear about gamers…
Ludo David “Stickler” Cameron has created his own prototype board game called Blue Star. It’s all about making, producing and acting in porn movies. It’s brilliant, has everyone in stitches for hours. Part of the game features making porn star names. He says it has a weird “bug”. Certain letters are popping up in a regular sequence in the female starlet’s creation process. If the pornomancers hear about this, they’ll obviously think it’s Her name coming out again.

What you hear about gamblers…
My grandad used to tell me about stragglers – sailors that would come off foreign ships and only gamble with dice. They would lose all there money and leave. One of them said, they paid for good weather and slow pirates with that money they lost.

The old sailors were called stragglers because they used dice – from the Latin for dice, astragali.

Sometimes I see scary, crazed vagrants throwing dice in alleyways – if they’ve actually given everything up for good fortune, what the hell are they saving it up for?

Are they preparing for something bad?

What do they know about the future we don’t?

What you hear about ludonauts in foreign climes…
Mathematician Howard Driscoll lost fifty thousand pounds in fifteen minutes of trading. It was enough for the authorities to investigate and uncover a criminal conspiracy of traders and CEOs. Apparently, thousands of people, many investing their retirement fund could have lost millions and millions if Driscoll’s trades hadn’t gone so wrong, so quickly.