A large part of the gameplay of Tatha is the introduction of external forces into a given scenario. The 12 Knowledge Archetypes help with the pedestrian and physical interactions but they don’t help with the beyond. Through nanotech, genetics, esper enhancements and training, human kind and other species able to travel across worlds have developed extra sensory powers. It turns out present day humans already have a little bit of this: the ’sixth’ sense. Over time it was found to contain far more nuances and techniques – another 6 whole disciplines hidden within the ’sixth’ sense. Each one of these disciplines is codified into an Archetype, containing the knowledge and experience with that realm of sense. Many of these are requirements for ‘magic’ as the ability to see and understand the powers beyond is the first step to mastering them.
The Sense Archetypes
- Magician - (Magician) – see truth (of form and of function), auras, power levels, powers
- Witch - (Empress) – see links (things affecting, things binding), telepathy
- Oracle, Mother – (High Priestess) – see beyond, past, and distant
- Thief - (Wheel of Fortune) – see possibility, chance
- Hacker - (Tower) – see weakness, death eyes, cracks in fabrics
- Explorer - (Hanged Man) – see further
Awareness
Much like the 3 computed scores from the Knowledge Archetypes, the senses also have a computed score. Called the ‘sixsense‘, named after both its original name – a long lasting meme through history, and the fact that there are 6 disciplines for its mastery. The Sixsense is used in the plane that many games use ‘awareness’ and ‘initiative’ rolls – it represents the cumulative sensitivity to things that happen beyond the body.
Sixsense = Magician + Witch + Seer + Explorer + Thief + Hacker
The Sensesphere
To understand the senses one must understand the Sensesphere (or Ayatana). The Ayatana is all of the sense objects found within one’s Local Reality (the unique world observed by the character). It is all things ‘observable’ within a local sense. The default size of this sphere for gameplay purposes is 100m, meaning anything outside of this is not fully observed within the local space (making out a shape on the horizon is only partially observing it – it could be something very different when it gets close). This becomes the default distance for all abilities that aren’t denoted as “Far”.
The Senseband
The mind can only process a given bandwidth of information. What this means is that one can focus a little on a lot (awareness) or a lot on a little (pick a single sense – like smelling for something – you might close your eyes and focus on just the olfactory). As such, even though the sixsense are omnipresent it helps to focus them mapped onto another sense as a way of narrowing the scope – which the bodymind has an easier time assimilating. These focus tradeoffs come in the form of quality of information versus distance.
Distance and the Body Five
There are 3 basic ranges within the Ayatana:
- Full: the entire range of the Ayatana with no notable restrictions – things within the ‘full’ range are using only a sixsense and so they’re more abstract feelings. This includes all unobscured (by active concealment or other similar) things, regardless of obstructions (walls, floors, etc). A turn of concentration will give vague hints of anything within this range.
- Distal: the senses as mapped onto a distal sense (Sight, Hearing, Smell) – as per the quality of that sense in the given body. This allows full cognition up to the maximum Ayatana range for any unobstructed senses (Even a dog may not smell someone underneath you in the sewer). When focusing the senseband on a distal sense, one can make out most of a things’ characteristics by spending a turn examining (on a single object) or a vague hint (as per the Full range) automatically as long as it is within the senses’ ‘field of view’.
- Contact: the senses as mapped onto a contact sense (Touch, Taste) as well as the usage of all senses in turn on an object of contact proximity. One automatically receives any of the characteristic info that would be discerned by spending a turn using a distal sense, and by spending a turn or more one may examine a single object to its fullest – attempting to find things normally hidden from view.
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Next up – each of the 6 Sense Archetypes and their Ranks