False Visions

[BoloOfEarth]

If a mage wanted to create false visions for a precog (or retrocog), I'm assuming they would involve Images vs. Clairsentience (with that as a Targeting sense).  However, if said visions have both visual as well as auditory elements, would he need to buy both Images vs. Clairsentience (Sight) and Images vs. Clairsentience (Hearing) with both as Targeting senses?  Or just Images vs. Clairsentience as a whole?

[Steve Long]

This is one of those issues that’s a little tricky to deal with, since it addresses something — Precognition/Retrocognition — that doesn’t exist in the real world. (Many questions about Mental Powers also run into this problem.) So before I answer, I have to stress that the ultimate authority on this really has to be the GM. He has to define what Precognition/Retrocognition are in his campaign, how they work, and so on. And of course, even within a single campaign that question may have multiple answers, and special effects might factor in as well. So keep your common sense, dramatic sense, and game balance sense alert and at the ready.

 

Because Precognition/Retrocognition have to be bought by Sense Group, just like other forms of Clairsentience (see numerous examples in published materials, as well as the implications of the text on 6E1 180), they have to be affected by Sense-Affecting Powers by Sense Group as well. So if a target has Clairsentience (Sight and Hearing Sense Groups), Precognition, creating “false visions” for that power requires the attacker to buy Images (Sight and Hearing Sense Groups) as well, or risk having the Images quickly exposed for that they are due to the fact that the target’s different forms of sensory input aren’t consistent.

 

But again I think I should stress the need to apply common sense and dramatic sense. I can certainly envision a setting/campaign where the GM might want to treat Precognition or Retrocognition as a distinct “Sense Group” automatically covering all the standard Senses — but which can then also be affected by Sense-Affecting Powers bought to affect that single Sense Group.