AKA Packrats, Curators, Junkmen
Archeaomancy
AKA Packrats, Curators, Junkmen
Symbolic Tension: As an object gets used, it loses value. As people use an object, they value it more. It is this shift of value from function to emotion on which you gain power.
Random Magic domain: Value.
Charging structure:
Minor: Acquire a new object or collection of objects that has been given value above it’s function, such as a complete set of collectibles, a set of books a bibliomancer got a minor charge from, or an old watch passed down for two generations.
Special: If you acquire an artifact from an adept that they value because of their magic (a bibliomancer’s books, a plutomancer’s cash, an infomancer’s headphones) you gain an additional charge.
Signifcant: Acquire an object that is/was of high value to someone for reasons other then it’s monetary value. This could be something like a wedding ring, a single book that a bibliomancer got a charge from, a vessel that a dipsomancer got many minor charges from (or one significant), a billionaires first dollar that they keep in a plaque on the wall, a Luchadore’s mask, a Naked Goddess tape.
Special: If you acquire an artifact from an adept that they value because of their magic (a pornomancer’s “movies”, a dipsomancer’s flask, a personamancer’s magic mask) you gain an additional charge.
Major: Acquire an object that is/was of high value to many people, or of historical significance. Examples: The gun that shot Alexander Hamilton, Lizzy Borden’s Ax, a hunting bow that no longer works but has been in a family since the 1400s passed from father to son, the Holy Grail, Shakespeare’s lost works, the original United states constitution, most things in the Smithsonian, most things in that warehouse from Indiana Jones, the original Naked Goddess Tape.
Special: If you acquire a major artifact (which is by it’s definition made out of a historical artifact) you gain TWO major charges, but it is no longer magical until it leaves the possession of the Curator. (This could be nixed, but I like how it fits into the school)
Museum: An Archaeomancer puts his artifacts on display, much like a bibliomancer. They must be arranged, respected, and they store his charges. To store a minor charge, an Archaomancer must have 5 artifacts. To store a significant, 25 artifacts. To store a Major, 100.
A starting Archaomancer has 100 books in his collection, storing five minor charges.
Charging tips: Browsing Garage sales and pawn shops are a good way to get charges. To get a minor from a collection, you must purchase a complete collection of items from one source. If they already sold one or two comic books from that big nickel comic box, too bad. A significant charge is hard to find in a garage sale, but every garage sale usually has at least one lying around. While maintaining a steady job, a Curator can find about 3-10 minor charges and 1-4 significant charges of browsing per week in a large suburban area.
Taboo: Allowing an artifact to be taken or defaced by anyone but the owner of the object. However, if an item is removed from your collection by the original owner, you lose the same amount of charges you got for getting it, plus 1 like charge. A child pulling the eye out of it’s teddy bear only makes it more valuable, but if you don’t have the item it doesn’t do you any good does it? An item degrading as time goes on does not count as it getting defaced, a Curator is not required to meticulously maintain his artifacts, although he must not outright neglect them.
Blast Style: A Curator has no blast.
Spells:
Minor:
Ancestral Insight
Cost: 1 minor
Gain a shift equal to the Archaomancy roll (rounded down to the nearest 10) to a single skill use of your artifact. (poison darts for shooting said darts, mortar and pestle for making poison, etc.) This shift cannot bring the skill above the relevant stat (like normal shifts can).
Value Shift
Cost: 2 minor
Gives someone a negative shift to their next roll with an object equal to the Archaomancy roll, rounded down to the nearest 10, as the object shifts functional value to emotional value. In addition, if they lose the object before they use it, or it gets damaged (even superficial), they must make a helplessness or self stress check of a rank equal to one-tenth the shift, whichever is appropriate.
Sense Value
Cost: 3 minor
You find out one of three things: The most valuable item and the most cherished item they possess, they no longer posses, or they wish to possess.
Example: Handsome Jack the Curator wishes to know what is most valuable to Samson the Personamancer. He can either find out what is the most valuable objects he owns (his extensive wardrobe and his Mask of the Vampire, made from a major charge), he used to own (The crown jewels of Russia and a Mask of the Merchant), or he wishes he owned (The Casket of Tutankhamen and a Mask of the First and Last Man)
Ancestral Recall
Cost: 4 minor
I am able to see a number of events that occurred around an object equal to the sum of the dice roll. The events are shown in the order of most relevant to the item’s value to the least.
Past Glory
Cost: 3 minor
For one hour, make an artifact be in mint condition, functioning as it did at it’s peak, ready to be used. a English Longbow with a broken string would magically be just as good as it was when it was made, a ninth century Chinese clock would suddenly not only work, but be set to the appropriate time, a WWI machine gun would become in perfect working order, with it’s ammo supply being at when it had the most bullets (if that particular gun had 2000 bullets at one point, it has 2000 bullets now).
Significant
Ancestral Aptitude
Cost: 1 significant
For one use gain a skill related to what the most significant previous owner of an artifact associated the artifact with. This does not have to be involve the artifact. If a dipsomancer drank a lot in his car, the car would grant a ‘hold your liquor’ skill instead of a driving skill.
Momento
Cost: 1 significant
An objects value becomes entirely sentimental, at the same time becoming functionally worthless. A gun won’t fire, a car won’t drive, etc. If the object leaves the possession of the person who owns it or gets damaged, they must make a rank-10 helplessness or self check, whichever is appropriate.
Newfound Glory
Cost: 2 significant
For one hour, an artifact becomes better then it ever will be. It gains the power of a modern device with the same function. A computer from the 80’s can run any program, a firelance (oldest known firearm) becomes as good as a modern fully-automatic rifle, a Model T can suddenly go 150 MPH, etc.
Ancestral Calling
Cost: 3 significant
Become the most important person to an artifact. You gain the skills, knowledge, and personality of the person, while losing your own. Lincoln’s stove top hat would turn you into Lincoln, the gun that shot JFK would turn you into the shooter (or JFK himself, GM’s choice really).
This spell lasts for 24 hours, or until the object leaves your possession.
False Visions
Cost: 4 significant charges
Alter or create a memory tied to an object. You create emotional significance to an object, and create a memory tied to the object. For every additional charge you spend, you can create an additional memory. If the object is already significant to the person and your merely changing existing memories, the spell costs 2 less charges, but you probably have to spend more changing multiple memories tied to the object. Contradictory memories tend to generate unnatural stress checks.
Major Charge Effects:
Permanently make an object be the best possible in it’s use, make someone want something more then anything else, Dictate the price of anything in the world for one day.
I feel silly for doing that title thing.
On another note, I really like how thisa school evolved from it’s initial roots, we were trying to figure out which adept school would be appropriate to our voodoo enthusiast Authentic Thamaturge, as he liked historical and culturally significant artifacts. We tried to fit him into cliomancy and bibliomancy, so we gave up and mashed them both together to make this. it used to have a much less awesome paradox, but it’s really nice now.
It certainly is. Nicely done.
Damn difficult to know what in a fleamarket should be worth a minor, significant or no charge at all. How does the packrat know what used to be valued highly and not? By buying and seeing if he gets a charge? And how do you value things like old notebook with kids drawings? And what’s the significance of items the packrat itself puts an emotional value on?
Well going by the 2nd edition book, the adept would have to know the value in question (doing something without knowing the ritual significance of it means you’re not really doing it at all for purposes of magick) So they’d probably end up being the chatty people and flea markets and the like, trying to figure out if they’ve really got a find.
That’s a good point and a good idea at that, M121 A lot of potential for Mac Guffins and red herrings with that.
“It belongs in MY museum!”
Sorry about that…
I suppose the line is vague, but I think it would work like this:
1. The Curator would have to accquire the artifact with knowledge of it’s value to acquire a charge. If he finds out about it’s value later, he still gets no charge if he still has it, but can add it to his collection and use his magick with it.
2. If he thinks an item is charge-worthy, the GM can easily ssay he gets no charge. Nevertheless, he can add it to his collection and use his magick with it.
This is quite good!
An alternate Major charge special line.
If you steal a physical thing from an adept that they got a major charge from (the original manuscript for the Book of Jove from a Bibliomancer, the Hope diamond stolen by a Kleptomancer, an appropriate artifact from another Archaeomancer) Your gain twoi major charges.
What happens if a currator steals a magical artifact, or a mechanomancer’s creation?
Well, a mechanomancer’s creation would probably be default two significant charges, minor for something that is supposed to be destroyed, and the fact an artifact is magic would actually hinder gathering a charge from it, because a charge-item has to be given value above it’s function. For an obsessive mechanomancer, this is ANY of his clockworks, with possible exceptions, again, of things that are meant to be destroyed.
Variant charging idea for NPC curators: collect 10 minor charges. Wait a few years. Keep them safe, don’t use them up, don’t let anybody break your taboo. Your ten minors eventually convert into one sig, which is stored inside an object of great personal significance to you. Same deal for majors – keep ten sigs until they condense into a major charge, at which time they will migrate into some majorly important object in your collection.
With this charging scheme, sig charges are obviously more powerful, and the adepts probably wouldn’t have devised any significant formula spells. But all packrats hate having to perform significant magick. If your dead son’s favourite teddy bear is used to cast a spell, then all the emotion invested in it is gone. You’re using it up in order to power your magic. (I’m tempted to say that in order to use a sig charge, you need to destroy the vessel containing it, but that’s probably not a general feature of the adept school. It’s just one pack-rat’s personal cleansing ritual, a way of punishing herself for using sig magick.)
On the other hand, if you’ve kept your son’s teddy bear, his comic book collection, his pyjamas, your family photo album, the coroner’s report explaining how he died, etc, etc… maybe, if you keep all of those things safe, and if you have enough magick, you could bring him back one day…