I'm sure that mages can detect when somebody has potential. Why don't the private schools just have astrally projecting mages scan everybody for about 5 minutes?

Takes an extraordinary number of successes. 3rd ed, 5, if memory serves.

So, what you end up with is "This person will awaken, everyone else, couldn't tell you".. since you can't definitively say "No" under most circumstances. Because you don't necessairily know if you've only got 4 successes, or the all-important 5.

If my numbers are off, shift them down slightly.. it's still very unlikely.

I see.

It's like trying to spot a mite from 10 feet away?

assensing doesn't always work, not even with 5+ successes. no test available always works. that said, the private schools probably do test for magical ability--early and often. they just don't always succeed in detecting it.

I always thought that assenssing was a little too powerful. Makes it too easy to tell right away who's a toxic mage and who isn't. Oh well.

Any mage who has even the smallest amount of power, will probably have masking as a metamagic technique, so that you can't tell what kind of 6th world being he/she is.

It has been stated a few times that magical ability expresses at around puberty. So some budding mages may be late bloomers.

Another reason to not use Assensing is that using it severely limits the number of people who can make money off of spotting future magicians. You hire a mage to detect potential magicians, you have to pay him/her to do it. But in SR there are whole companies that do nothing but test for magical potential (sort of like the College Board corporation and the SATs). You go in, do a bunch of tests, and they can tell you whether you're Awakened in six-to-eight weeks. This process employs alot more people, and lets mundanes break into the otherwise-closed magical services market. And since they rely on a scientific process, rather than magic, they can standardize and (usually) guarantee their results.

I always wondered what sort of reading a masked mage would give off, has to be something doesn't it? do you pick the reading? Otherwise the very fact that you can't be read gives away the fact you a mage. At least to half competent people anyway.

i assume it displays whatever you want it to display.

I imagine it masks your aura as that of a mundane or a person with less magical power.

Cool i suspected as much. Just means that if your a mage and you get angry, better remember to make your aura angry too, otherwise your spotted (Assuming someone is assensing you of caurse)

I believe that Masking only has an effect on the magical bits of your Aura. I don't know that you can use it to alter emotional content (but I don't think it would be necessary either), or other kinds of details.

Granted most of the time it would be irrelevant, just wondering if it would be possible to "catch out" an initiate if the emotion was extreme enough.

Magical potential often Awakens via spontaneous summoning or casting in a dangerous or stressful situation. Therefore, the most reliable way to test for magical potential is to place a candidate into a deathtrap that could easily be defeated with magic.

If they Awaken then they are perfectly safe. If not then there is one less mundane in the world.

Evolve or die, huh?
I'm pretty sure the population wouldnt put up with that for very long, considering how many of them are still weary of magic in general.

the text quoted can be read to fit Fortune's interpretation, unfortunately. it says you can alter the magical parts of your aura, but it only talks about hiding when it comes to dual-naturedness and emotions. i, personally, interpret "hiding" to include all the stuff it talks about in the portion referring to magic, but that's not the only possible interpretation. i believe the devs also view masking this way.

In 2xs,