![]() ![]() When skillfully guided by a player, Garrett’s magic consists in his ability to “keep silent,” one of the four powers of the sphinx extolled by French occultist Eliphas Levi in The Dogma and Ritual of High Magic. He is a Master of hiding and the hidden: literally, the occult. It’s not surprising that Garret’s cowl and long flowing robes are equal parts monastic garb and magician’s robe. In addition to this talismanic magic, Garret plunders magical artifacts and even engages in complex acts of counter-magic as he disrupts the extra-dimensional ritual of the Trickster in the Maw of Chaos or activates the glyphs in Deadly Shadows. As the Petit Albert explains, “The hand of glory is used by villains thieves to enter houses at night without hindrance.” An extra objective available at higher difficulty level in the prison level of Dark Project involves retrieving Garret’s favorite “Hand of Glory.” The Hand is an infamous black magical artifact described in the Petit Albert grimoire as the severed hand of a hanged corpse taken from the gallows and used by cat burglars to evade detection by otherworldy means. Yet, Garrett’s abilities and actions are not constrained to hiding in shadows or backstabbing he is a quintessential opportunist who does whatever he needs to get the job done. The classification of Thief and the associated image of a dimunitive, cowled figure hiding in the shadows derives in part from the thief character class that originates in Dungeons and Dragons as well as the fantasy characters that inspired it, including rogues like Fritz Leiber’s Grey Mouser. ![]() Garret’s training in the monastic order of the Keepers involves abilities to become invisible that border on the supernatural, as well as the acquisition of arcane knowledge, including glyphs of power. Thanks!ĭespite the title of the game Thief, Garrett is more a magician than a rogue, or rather his thievery is a form of magic when successfully enacted by the player. But, if you are one of the creators of these charts, or you have an idea as to how they could be contacted, please post a comment and let me know. There are a few forum threads that link to these charts, so I will continue to investigate through those channels, as well as doing more web research. But I don’t have contact information for either Angelus Michaels/Angelica M. They are great illustrations of rigorously representing the logic of a complex magic system. The mysterious figure Dianna has been introduced, evoking echoes of Agent Dale Cooper’s tape recorder, followed by the abbreviation “A.V.” Are these the initials of a username or alias? A Latin abbreviation? An allusion to the WoD universe? I’m not sure.Īt any rate, I would love to use these flowcharts in my book. A.V.” The chart is visually crisper and easier to read, but the trail of its origins is murkier. Flowchart remastered and remade by Dianna. The credit on this version reads “Original Flowchart by Angelica M. The plot thickens with a second, remastered version of the chart. Searches for Angelus Michaels and Morningstar Studios are equally fruitless, despite the intriguing Luciferian reference in Morningstar. These are not the droids I’m looking for). While they are right at home in this trail of clues, they have nothing to do with the Mage chart. (The Raelians are a religion based on belief in UFO’s. ![]() Liber Noctus appears to have been a fan site for World of Darkness, but its host domain (geniocracy) now directs to a Raelian website. and copies found elsewhere are taken without permission. ![]() A credit on the first chart reads, “This chart was created by Angelus Michaels of Morningstar Studios. True to the mysterious universe of World of Darkness, these authors have disappeared in a labyrinth of dead links and untraceable aliases. The only problem is, I can’t find contact information for the charts’ creators. I would love to reproduce these charts in my book. The two images below are excellent examples of flowcharts that clearly communicate the complex, sophisticated, and flexible logic of spellcasting in the tabletop role-playing game Mage: The Awakening (part of White Wolf’s World of Darkness universe). Does the player need ingredients to cast a spell? Do they perform gestures or recite incantations? Will the spell draw energy from a mana pool? What happens if the player overspends mana? The answers to all of these questions can often be most effectively represented in a flow chart, which displays visually the branching logic, feedback loops, and input-output relationships of a complex system. Developing a magic system requires the designer to be able to express precisely the sequence of processes that a player must perform to cast a spell. One of the topics at the heart of my forthcoming book, Game Magic, is the underlying logical flow of a magic system. ![]()
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