Eerily bland social climbers, with perfect homes, who can’t stand the thought of seeming strange.

Suburbanomancy

Nickname: Mundanes, Homebodies

Despite the name, Suburbanomancers are not much like Urbanomancers. They don’t get their power from cities, or even really suburbs. They don’t much care for the difference between man-made and natural land, and they can pick up and move out at any time without any real penalty. They do, however, get their power from a place, and they’re very powerful on their own turf. A suburbanomancer’s turf is much smaller, though – her own home, and, to a lesser extent, her neighbors.

A suburbanomancer draws power from acceptance and status. She or he creates a home to perfection, and then draws power from the attention it gathers. By gathering the attention and approval of others, the suburbanomancer routes power into his or her position within a community. Being part of a neighborhood, living in a perfect home with a perfect reputation, the suburbanomancer gathers up the sleepy power of domestic bliss.

A suburbanomancer is devoted to excellence. He may study feng shui, gardening, or furniture-making, or may simply have a pleasant, comfortable home with a ncie fireplace and a big kitchen. She may be a big-shot executive, buying attention with the latest car, satellite dish, and swimming pool. But, whatever he or she may be, the suburbanomancer strives to earn the esteem of others.

On the darker side, a suburbanomancer needs to get the most attention and status. Most people enjoy a nice compliment or a pleasant home – the energy goes into them and disperses uselessly. A suburbanomancer who can pull that attention away from others can keep it for himself, gaining power himself.

Despite this need to excel, the suburbanomancer is often eerily normal. The Suburbanomancer strives to be the same as everyone else, but better. They are hospitable with their things, but hogs for attention. They are amazing hosts and terrible guests, community leaders everyone respects but nobody quite likes, annoying busybodies neighbors who are nice to you moments before it’s too late. A suburbanomancer is pleasantly, ruthlessly bland.

A good number of Suburbanomancers also wind up as Avatars. Since they strive to live up to the ideals of their community, and achieve consistent excellence, they seem to flock to some Archetypes. The Mother, the Demagogue, The Good Host and the Merchant are all a little more common among homebodies.

Suburbanomancers stay away from the rest of the Occult Underground like it’s a plague. Most Avatars, and all other Adepts, are sources of potential embarassment. They’re weird, messy and undesirable. A typical suburbanomancer will do everything they can to keep the rest of the underground away from their homes. Given the power that a mundane holds over their home, they can do a lot to keep others out.

Besides, why would a suburbanomancer need to deal with those weird cult types? She’s perfectly happy at home.

Gain a Minor charge: Impress someone with your home or its contents. Get a compliment from a guest on your herb garden, or have a teenager ask about your sportscar. Invite someone over for dinner and get compliments on the meal. You must receive direct approval of some kind, and it must be your primary residence (whether owned or rented) or something on it.

Alternately, prevent someone else from getting a compliment for their home or its contents. Mention to a fellow guest, who was about to make a compliment, that the wood panelling is fake. Invite people to change plans and go out to a movie instead of a well-planned barbecue. Oversalt a delicious buffet when no one is looking.

Gain a Significant charge: Make an alteration to your home or property worth at least $5000. Paying by installments, credit, or other financing still counts. Having a child (by adoption or birth) definitely counts – those guys are expensive. Alternately, prevent someone else from doing so – block an adoption, get the homeowner’s committee to turn down someone’s new deck, or burn down someone’s house before they can remodel their kitchen.

Gain a Major charge: Become known to at least a million people for the high quality of your home. You can only gain one major charge for the same home ever.

Taboo: If you are ever accused of being strange, outlandish or unusual, whether seriously or in jest, kindly or in anger, you lose all charges. Other insults won’t matter – you could be called a controlling shrew or a mean-spirited bastard all day, but if someone jokingly says, “It’s okay – we’re all a little nuts here,” then taboo has been violated. You have to hear the comment, though.

Symbolic Tension: The suburbomancer is freakishly devoted to normalcy. He or she relies upon a community with which he competes.

Random Magic: Social status and the home.

Blast: Homebodies can only use a blast against someone on the property of their personal home. The victim experiences the blast as nausea, headaches, cramps, heart palpitations and a desperate feeling of claustrophobia. This is also extremely debilitating – the victim suffers a penalty to all non-Soul-based actons equal to damage taken. This penalty lasts until the subject leaves the property of the Suburbanomancer (even for a moment), but damage remains until it heals normally. A doctor would see any damage as being the result of natural causes.

Charging Tips: Invite one or two people over at a time and put a lot of effort into pleasing them. Save up for large purchases, or just run it up on the credit card. Try to avoid outsiders or those who might disapprove – getting charges is easy for a suburbanomancer, it’s keeping them that’s a problem. Build up your juice right before you think you’ll need it. A lower middle class suburbanomancer can probably gain 10 minor charges a week and one significant a year. An upper middle class homebody can probably rack up 15 minor charges a week and a significant charge a month. A wealthy one can build up maybe 20 minor and 1 significant a week. However, day to day life gives a one in ten chance that all charges will be lost every week – all it takes is a single snide comment and you’re toast.

Minor Formulas

Making Ends Meet
1 minor charge
Sometimes a suburbanomancer overspends. It’s part of the lifestyle, really. That’s okay. With this formula, everything will continue operating without payment for a full week. All utilities will remain on (or get switched on), no one will attempt eviction, the car won’t get repossessed. This can continue indefinitely – many suburbanomancers have forclosures on their mortgage that don’t get served for decades.

This Place Says A Lot About You
2 minor charges
While you’re in someone’s home, you can find out about them. Ask a question about their personality, their home, or its contents, and look around the place. Your eye will stop on one item that answers the question. This is a great way to find something hidden, dig up hints on dirty secrets, or just get a feeling for someone.

Here’s Your Hat what’s Your Hurry
3 minor charges
This is the Suburbanomancy minor blast.

Sanctuary
3 minor charges
A healing spell. You can help someone else heal quickly by feeding them, doting on them, and taking care of them for at least twelve hours in your home. The subject must fall asleep in a bed (or couch, or whatever) you’ve prepared them. They’ll wake up healed, getting back damage equal to the ten’s place of your Suburbanomancy roll. Diseases, poisons and other ailments receive some mild benefit as well.

Make Yourself Comfortable
4 minor charges
Lulls a single subject into a very comfortable trance. While in this blissful state, the subject will lounge about, follow basic directions, and believe any reasonable thing they’re told. This lasts until something happens which surprises the subject or requires concentration, or until the subject sleeps. This power works best if the subject has eaten something you gave them within the past hour. If they haven’t eaten anything, the subject can make a Mind check to resist this formula – if they get a higher successful roll than you do, they’re immune to this formula for the rest of the day.

Significant Formulas

Don’t Break Anything!
1 significant charge
Only usable inside your home or property. Pick something – yourself, another person or an object. That object only takes the sum of the digits of damage from any attack that would do more than that, and won’t break, shatter or even scratch accidentally from any damage less than that. A knife or a gun would do damage like a punch, while a punch wouldn’t even scuff paint or muss up hair. Lasts five minutes.

Community Standards
1 significant charge
Only usable while inside your home. Anyone who lives within a mile of you, whom you have met personally, takes opposition
to a subject of your choice. They’ll dislike that person on sight, harass them, call the police, and so on. If the subject seems to be doing something strange – fighting, sneaking around, glowing from their eyes – then your neighbors will openly attack them instead, even if this goes deeply against their natures.

Paint Over It
1 significant charges
Everyone who is present forgets a single event of your choice and won’t remember it until they are reminded of it by an external force. Any reminder will override this, however. Those who didn’t remember the event to be begin with are, of course, unaffected.

Can’t We At Least Pretend To Get Along?
2 significant charges
Keeps everything civil – nobody will make a scene. The laws of civility reign supreme while this power is in sway. No one in your presence can commit a violent act, steal, or cause direct physical harm to another person. This includes most magic. Social interaction (including magic that resembles social interaction) is just fine, as long as it isn’t openly aggressive – sniping and manipulation is fine, but nobody can scream. You can still do whatever you like, but if you lash out, the formula ends. Otherwise, it lasts an hour.

Darken My Doorstep No More
2 significant charges
This is the Suburbanomancy significant blast.

Major Effects
Animate a piece of furniture permanently. Win an election. Cause someone to become a social pariah for the rest of their life. Bankrupt someone. Cause oil to bubble up in your back lawn.