We have a compulsive gambler magic user in our group who is looking at picking up the Divination metamagic, and it occurred to me, that with a sufficiently high skill and some karma pool, he could make football (or any other sport) picks with a good degree of accuracy unless I deliberately try to screw him over.

Has anybody else ran into this? If so, what did you do? Should I let him try to break Vegas and wait for the hitmen to show up, or should I curb it before it gets too big?

Just say that the bookies have invested heavily in some sort of strong barrier around the stadiums, so as to stop that fromhappening as well as keep astrally projected mages from getting a free viewing as well as limiting malicious use of spirits from tampering with the games.

As a refinement on Nikoli's good idea, I'd suggest that the sports leagues maintain the astral barriers and such, since they have the resources for such a major endeavour. As for the bookies, well... just like today, it might be possible to cheat and make some money on illegal sports gambling. In fact, this might even be an interesting quirk for the character. However, if the amounts ever become significant, you could simply have the bookies notice that this one person keeps winning over and over again. This awakened person consistently beats the odds and takes an awful lot of money in... maybe an investigation of some kind is in order? Heck, the bookies might even hire some 'runners to do it.

Remember the old street expression: "Never ever relax. Your run might be over but somewhere in the shadows, someone else is starting theirs--and their target might be you."

Do wards affect Divination?

And you can damn well bet Vegas has some nasty mind-readers walking around the floor to keep people from cheating.

Wards affect Clairvoyance/clairaudience, but I got the impression that divination was something different.

Could always hand-waive it and say that the sheer emotion involved with sports events divination is never accurate and this is widely known among those that research such things (same for lotto)

According to the rules for divining, you need to assense the subject of the diviniation or have a material link. So I'd let someone predict the outcome of a future football game if they had assensed everyone who plays in the game (both teams), the field it's played on, the coin that's tossed to determine kick off, and the referees.

And any birds that might squeeze one off on the field, the fans that will be at the game (as their screams, breathing, and will could affect the outcome)

If you really want to fix a gambling contest go for a UCAS state lottery. Wait untill the jackpot is around 200 million nyuen and then use divination to determine the numbers. If divination isn't reliable enough, get into the studio and telekeneticly manipulate the balls as the numbers are drawn. IT won't be easy, they'll have mundo magical security, but it wouldn't be impossible for skilled and experienced runners.

It would be interesting if the bookies kidnapped said mage and forced him to use his power to help them figure out the odds for every game.


The Eggman

MITS P. 74

Of course, diving wouldn't require assensing every player to predct the outcome. It would only require assensing one player for a simple win/lose answer. It If youwanted a points spread, then you'd probably have to do every plaer and crossreferance the results.

<Catches tossed Jersey>

"Wow! Thanks Mean Joe!"

easy run.... nab all the towels from the shower room after one of the games, then preserve the ritual links (and the smell unfortunately) for later use. Can make all sorts of fun with ritual spells if you can time it right.