Icons that are fictional characters just don’t fit in with how Iconomancy works. So why not give them a school of their own?
I have to give major credit to MessiahDave, since his post on Superman as a icon inspired this. My first reaction was to dismiss it, since I don’t feel Iconomancy should involve fictional characters. Then I realized there was no reason why a variant school couldn’t appear that did fit with fictional icons. So here it is.
Lots of people like Star Wars, or Superman, or some other fantastic heroes. Some people are even obsessed with them. But for a small handful, that obsession gets channeled into an actual school of magic. Just like standard Iconomancy, this draws on people’s belief in an icon. The paradox of this school is that millions believe in something they know doesn’t really exist.
Charges:
Generate a Minor Charge: Perform a 2 hour long ritual of worship, just as with classic Iconomancy. The ritual must contain some items connected to the icon in question, often including movies or action figures.
Generate a Significant Charge: This is the same as a minor charge, but must involve a symbolic element (such as a movie or action figure) that is worth more than $500. Unfortunately for the adept, each such element can only be used to garner a significant charge once. For instance, if an adept focusing on Superman acquires a rare action figure worth over $500, he can use that once to get a significant charge. After that, it can only be used as a prop to get minor charges.
Generate a Major Charge: Nobody has figured this one out yet, but they are working on it.
Taboo: Like a bibliomancer with books, you cannot destroy or allow the destruction of items associated with an icon you are carrying charges from. If you have a Superman charge, then you can’t let someone burn a Superman comic. If your enemy is wearing a Superman T-shirt, you have to be careful that your attacks don’t hurt his shirt…
Random Magick: Generally, this gives the same types of bonuses to skills as classic Iconomancy. One minor charge for a +10% shift to a roll, three minor charges for a reroll. One significant charge for a permanent 2% increase to a skill, with a maximum of 10%.
Example Fantasy Icon:
Luke Skywalker
Lightsaber (1 minor charge) – If the adept hits his enemy with a fake lightsaber, the blast does normal damage for a minor blast, +6 for being large and penetrating. Yes, this is not much different than using a real sword, but a fake lightsaber looks a lot less suspicious when the authorities show up.
Jedi Mind Trick (3 minor charges) – If you make a successful roll that is over the subjects Mind or Soul stat (whichever is higher), the target will obey one simple command from you. This is identical to the third channel of the Pilgrim.
Lightsaber Master (1 significant charge) – If the adept hits an enemy with a fake lightsaber, it does firearms damage.
Actually, for the Lightsaber spell, a slight modification
1) You only need to touch your enemy, giving you a +20% shift (like the fleshwarper blast) to do the sum of the dice in damage
2) If you don’t take the +20% shift, and score a real hit with the lightsaber, you do +9 damage – this combined with the spell damage makes the attack as deadly as one with a real sword. Except, as noted, toy lightsabers get you in much less trouble with the police.
Negative aspects?
I still haven’t figured out a good negative aspect for Luke Skywalker. Possibly a force choke attack, like Vader is so fond of using on underlings. Any suggestions are welcome.
Skywalker Negative aspects:
“I am your father” (1 Sig) – If the target has an embarrassing or shocking family secret, it is revealed in the next few days
Like father, like son (3 Sig) – In the next few days the target has an accident which does gunshot damage to his arm or hand
BTW does the taboo include selling the props?
How about…
An elegant weapon (1 Sig) : For the rest of the scene, as long as you are holding a lightsaber you have a 50% chance of deflecting bullets. Cherries allow you to send the bullet back to the target of your choice.
Fear leads to anger, etc (1 sig) : The next time the target confronts his rage or fear stimulus he gets a failed notch on the appropriate meter.
I like those suggestions. And yes, selling props breaks taboo, unless the adept is replacing something. It has to be an exact replacement, though. You can’t replace an old shirt with a new one, for instance, unless it’s the exact same design. Otherwise you get to keep both shirts.
Icon: Pacman
Nonstop motion: (1 significant charge) target is unable to stop moving, but is unaffected by fatigue for a day. Slowest possible is a brisk walk, fastest possible is as fast as the caster can run. If the target can run faster than this, and does, she gains fatigue normally. Lasts for however long the longest game of pacman took (currently 4 hours, 26 minutes and 34 seconds)
What I eat can’t hurt me: (1 minor charge)
the target is immune to the effect of drugs (including antibiotics) and toxins for one day.
It’s just a game: (2 sigs) target gets emotionally disconnected from what happens around him for 1 hour. No magic, passions or obsessions can be used. No stress-checks apply. When the spell wears off, target takes a rank-3 self check.
If anyone cares I’ve been trying to make the case that money should not be a factor to a school’s charging if your not a plutomancer. So as an alternate to the Sig generate: Meet and have a prolonged dialogue with either the creator of your obsession, or an actor who played the character of your obsession, or a writer/actor/etc. Who expanded the object of your obsession in a dramatic and profound way (i.e. Donald Tyson or Brian Lumley for expanding H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. Or Troy Denning or Aaron Allston for expanding the Star Wars universe and all the characters within)
What if your icon is semi-obscure and ancient? For example, I can certainly imagine someone developing an obsession with Gilgamesh, who doesn’t have a recent movie like his spiritual cousin Beowulf.
Perhaps the significant charge could instead be generated by “spreading the word” about your icon. For instance, putting on a play about Gilgamesh, or getting a significant number people to come to a Superman movie marathon. This also suggests a way to get a major charge – be responsible for getting a major motion picture made, or otherwise spread the word to thousands of people. Maybe that’s why there are so many superhero movies coming out these days…
If F.I. is like standard Iconomancy I don’t think either Gilgamesh or Pac-Man would apply. Gilgamesh’s image isn’t known to enough people (100 million) and Pac-Man isn’t admired. You could probably do Mario or Link though.
There might be some balance issues with Fantasy Iconomancy when compared to the original.
1. Significant Iconamancy charges become harder to get from the same icon as time goes on. There are only a finite number of disturbing facts about each famous person.
2. Iconomancy draws power from people like Charlie Chaplin and Nixon. F.I. draws power from Luke Skywalker and Superman. Guess who is going to get the more powerful spells.
3. The Iconomancer taboo against being famous makes them vulnerable to enemies. Just photoshop a picture of them into a demotivational poster and spread it on the internet.
Canon Iconomancy allows for spells inspired by parts played by dead actors. So if you want to do Luke Skywalker-spells, you’d have to wait until Mark Hamil dies, but if you want to do Superman-spells you can go right ahead since Christopher Reeve (Rêve is dream in french btw) is already dead. If all you want to do is make spells based on characters in movies, you can go right ahead in bog-standard iconomancy. You possibly have to kill an ageing actor or two, but hey, that’s worth a session or two!
I’m digging what you’ve done with this concept!
How about:
Major charge: be a major player in the creation of your icon’s canon. (e.g. Be cast as Luke Skywalker, draw or script a Spiderman series, do significant work on Half-Life 3.)