[X] My Assistant

[Habzial]

In regards to the original topic:

A successful sorcery perception test means, in that single instance, a mundane correctly determined that sorcery had been used based on what s/he could perceive. It does not require that a mundane must be capable of sensing magic or even recognizing magic on a regular basis. Think about perception tests from the opposite point of view. A failed visual perception test, for example, doesn't mean someone is blind. It just means at the time they could notice something visually they failed to do so.

Now, if you're hung up on delving into how a mundane noticed, I can think of two appropriate ways...



The first has already been said: intense concentration. The signs of this could be veins popping out on the forehead, the arteries in the eyes standing out, breaking into a sweat, audibly straining (a quiet, sustained groan for example), physically shaking, gritted teeth, and so on.

Remember, although a mage is not physically doing anything to cast a spell, the act of doing so is very taxing on the body. Outside of decking/rigging, there is no activity a mundane can perform with their mind that causes stun damage. It stands to reason that magic use is the most taxing mental activity possible without mechanical aid. Add to that the fact that a spell only takes 2 or 3 seconds to cast. It's not unreasonable to believe that a mundane could perceive magic use under these conditions.

Your character sees a woman turn deep red and, almost simultaneously, a security guard falls over. She doesn't seem surprised. Your character passes his sorcery perception test. All that success means is that your character correctly determines, based on the course of events and/or woman's behavior afterwards, that the woman has cast a spell. If your character failed the perception test, s/he might simply be confused about what just happened

Perception is not about your senses working properly. Perception is the proper interpretation of the data fed to you by your senses.



Now, if you don't like that, there's an alternate approach that might work.

First, remember that all mundanes are capable of perceiving things which occur on the astral. They are vastly inferior to awakened beings, but that doesn't change the fact they can do so. The Wuxing tower, for example, focuses mana flow so effectively that it's visible to mundanes. (Unfortunately I can't recall which book brings that up.) Likewise, there are numerous examples of mundanes' sixth sense being triggered which have already been listed.

Next, consider that things which occur astrally are not directional. You couldn't sneak up from behind a mage's astral form because it doesn't really have sides. Projecting mages are aware of whatever they're capable of being aware of, based solely on astral perception. A mage may "see" another mage's astral form as a troll in medieval armor, but what they are really perceiving is how the person in range sees themselves inside.

So what does this lead to? All mundanes could be treated as having a sixth sense, based on some of the scraps of information provided about the SR universe. They wouldn't see, hear, smell, feel, or taste a spell being cast. Instead, they would sense what happened on a mental level. That's why psychic abilities are called the "sixth sense;" because they are a source of information in addition to the other five senses. Unfortunately, books tend to try to describe magic-based perception in terms of other senses, to help people figure out how to RP it. It tends to lead to people leaping to the conclusion that mages just have better senses than other people instead of an additional sense.

Let's call this sixth sense "psychic perception," just to avoid confusion with existing terms in the book. Treat psychic perception as a completely different sense from the RL five senses. It works like a radiation detector and you are instinctively able to interpret information from it. This will make RPing sorcery perception a great deal easier. Awakened characters have way, way better psychic perception than anyone else and can actively control it. Mundanes have terrible, involuntary psychic perception. Under certain circumstances (or just blind luck), it goes off and they correctly interpret what it tells them.

If you have trouble imagining how it works, treat it as augmenting any of the other senses. Maybe a mundane would interpret the signals from it and imagine seeing the magic. Maybe they'd interpret it by hearing the voice of someone from their childhood shouting what happened and who did it. Maybe they'd just feel a cold chill that gets worse when they look at the caster. The point is, they'd get the information (during a successful test), then their brain would present it to them in a way that they come to the correct conclusion.



I hope that helps.

[TheOOB]

Heres a question, if someone casts influence on you, and you fail the resistance check but succeed the check to notice they are using magic, what happens?

[Habzial]

That's a tough question. If I was the GM, I'd rule that you forget you noticed (at least until breaking the spell), because influence forcefully redirects your train of thought as part of how it functions. Still, there's a lot of room for interpretation.

[TheOOB]

Perhaps you reconize it was magic, but you don't care at the moment. Perhaps later when you're wondering why you did something so stupid, you relize they cast a spell on you right about the time you did something you wouldn't normally do.

Put 2-and-2 together and you get a good vendetta.

[Habzial]

Yeah, exactly. It's just like any other information you might lose track of... because you suddenly "decide" to patrol somewhere else, despite being in the middle of questioning a trespasser.