Fashion-based magic. Another minor school.
What makes you who you are?
A combination of heredity and environment, we’re told. Well, you can’t control your heredity, but you can change your environment.
Change your illusion and the world reacts to you differently. Control the way the world reacts to you and you shape yourself.
Generate a minor charge: Spend four hours designing, creating, purchasing or arranging clothes for yourself. You must end up with at least a single article of clothing for yourself.
Sartorimancers cannot generate significant or major charges.
Taboo: You must always be in proper fashion. Wearing clothes that are soiled, flawed, inappropriate, unattractive or out of style causes you to lose all charges. Even a single rip, stain or stitch out of place will spoil your magic.
Symbolic Tension: You’re still yourself, whatever you wear. However, what you wear changes how others react to you, which can change who you are.
Random Magic: Appearance and confidence.
Charging Tips: You’re pretty certain to break taboo at least once a week, but charges come pretty easily. Depending on your income and your free time, you can earn 1-3 charges per day.
Starting Charges: A sartorimancer starts with 3 charges.
Minor Formulas
Spotlight on Me
1 minor charge
Gain +20% to any appearance-based skill, or get the skill “Noticeable” at 20%.
Shapeshifter
1 minor charge
By dressing in a different way, change an appearance-based skill into another appearance-based skill. You could change your “Sexy” skill to “Looks Dangerous” or “Forgettable” or “Wholesome-looking.” Lasts until you change clothes. Be careful not to violate your taboo. For an extra charge, you can help a target pick clothes and change their appearance-based skill instead.
Impenetrable Glamor
2 minor charges
This confidence-boosting formula can be used instantly in response to need. Use your Sartorimancy instead of your Mind for a single Stress check.
Love Me, Love Me, Love Me
3 minor charges
A single victim is instantly drawn to you. The victim wants you to like them, and will take measures to win your favor. Lasts ten minutes. If the victim is already hostile to you, or you try to make them do something extreme, the formula fails unless you roll above the victim’s Mind score.
The Big Snub
5 minor charges
A direct attack on a victim’s self-image. The subject must make an immediate Rank-6 Self check. The subject also gets -20% to all Soul-based skills, including Avatar and Adept skills, for as long as you’re within line of sight.
Another simple, easy-to-play, not-too-powerful skill for a scaled-down game. These are so much fun to write, let me tell you. Sartorimancers are really good socially, but even the lightest combat (or a splash of wine on the jacket) is extremely likely to break their taboo.
I think Impenetrable Glamour should be beefed up a little, perhaps to allow a re-roll on Sartorimancy on a failed mind roll?
And what the /(¤/”¤#¤ does the name mean?
I like it, Hilton magic!
Thanks, Mattias!
On the name:
“Sartor” is the Latin word for “tailor.”
“Sartorial” is a rarely-used English word for “related to Fashion.”
Taboo: Spend money on new clothes or make new ones. They lose charges if they wear anything older than a month after purchase or creation.
After all ripped jeans keep coming back into fashion and just look at grunge.
I see the sartorimancers wearing rags but looking cool nonetheless.
C.