Why use magic?

[Puciek]

The danger should come from the fact that your character doesn't know that they cannot just turn you into kitty-litter with blink of an eye. And it is hard to keep on being afraid of mages icly when everyone around you tells you how getting hexed is no big deal (really) and treat it with less concern than common cold. And when less characters will be stoic and the fear-of-mages will be visible after wherever they act, fearing them will become a standard behavior which will give a lot of power to the mages without giving them any coded power.

And still boring as all hell. You're expecting 100% of chars to be complete morons, even the ones who are familiar with magic. If you honestly think the game would be better without useful magic, with due respect, you're just wrong.

I know, someone who is terrified by a molding shadow that talks or by something suddenly holding tightly on his throat for no reason, where no remedy helps is a moron, not someone who actually fears for his life. And when talking about those who are "familiar with magic", how did they become familiar with it without being mages? Most of then aren't, what they are familiar with though is all their lifes of church indoctrination about dangers and evilness of magic. In modern days if I suddenly start choking and having trouble breathing for whatever reason I am about to piss my pants because it is terryfing moment, and I am rather well educated men who is fully aware that there is no such thing as witchcraft, who knows that its just a cheerio stuck in my breathing canal that I almost just choked on.
But of course anyone who fears that happening by unknown force after whole life of hearing that almost every wrong doing is by magic is a complete moron. Because that makes sense. Almost as much sense as calling someone "just wrong" because you can't follow context of a post.

[Pixie]

Uhm, that escalated quickly.

[Tremere]

Uhm, that escalated quickly.

Very... it's a trend!

[Kinaed]

Why play a mage:

- They're very fun.
- Magic is interesting, and even veteran mage players don't necessarily know everything that magic can do.
- Magic opens up a new perspective on the same game and abilities that other players don't have.
- There are no downsides to playing a mage except risk of dying, which really, everyone else has too. It's also more highly mitigated with mages starting at 50% rec_level at the outset.
- Magic creates an unusual social dynamic to conquer, and new challenges, like finding and building quality relationships and setting up sacred spaces.
- Magic, particularly demon summoning, has quick rewards that non-mages do not have access to.

[Gerolf]

The danger should come from the fact that your character doesn't know that they cannot just turn you into kitty-litter with blink of an eye. And it is hard to keep on being afraid of mages icly when everyone around you tells you how getting hexed is no big deal (really) and treat it with less concern than common cold. And when less characters will be stoic and the fear-of-mages will be visible after wherever they act, fearing them will become a standard behavior which will give a lot of power to the mages without giving them any coded power.

There are a lot of characters that had to live through some pretty intense stuff recently that has made them pretty jaded. That is ok.

Think of it as fire: Just because you don't know how fire works, once you live through a forest fire you kind of become "Meh" about candles.

[Puciek]

The danger should come from the fact that your character doesn't know that they cannot just turn you into kitty-litter with blink of an eye. And it is hard to keep on being afraid of mages icly when everyone around you tells you how getting hexed is no big deal (really) and treat it with less concern than common cold. And when less characters will be stoic and the fear-of-mages will be visible after wherever they act, fearing them will become a standard behavior which will give a lot of power to the mages without giving them any coded power.

There are a lot of characters that had to live through some pretty intense stuff recently that has made them pretty jaded. That is ok.

Think of it as fire: Just because you don't know how fire works, once you live through a forest fire you kind of become "Meh" about candles.

That is all correct with exception that it isn't "a lot" but some characters who actually went through forest fires. This some I would imagine involves knights who went against hordes of demons, battled many mages and took them down. The inquisitors who go eye to eye with mages every month, smashing open their heads with scepters and constantly dealing with people who had encounters with mages and need churches help and guidance.
But your average townfolk did not do or see that, best he, rarely, was effect of mage spells (the ones he recognised) or saw shadow with average of once every couple months. Hard to call it as a forest fire that makes you fearless to fire.

Oh and lviing through a large fire can actually make you very very very afraid of candles, but that is just nitpicking at an example

[Pixie]

How I picture the shadow-people that crop up, Tim Curry's voice and all: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKM7fmLnypU

[Applesauce]

And still boring as all hell. You're expecting 100% of chars to be complete morons, even the ones who are familiar with magic. If you honestly think the game would be better without useful magic, with due respect, you're just wrong.

No one's voting against "useful" magic, but you've explicitly stated that the only things that fall into that category are deadly spells, and anything short of that is boring.

Mages have been deadly before, and maybe new deadly spells WOULD be awesome, I'm not even saying they wouldn't. But you keep backing into broader phrasing which implies that the only way anyone can ever have fun as a mage is if they murder people.

You say the question you're answering is "Why use magic?" But the only answer you've given is "to kill people." If you honestly think the game is only fun when characters murder other characters, then TI is always going to be a bad time, even though obviously murder occurs from time to time. There are plenty of PVP games out there, even RP-PVP so I'm not saying stick to hack-and-slash. But if you're not playing a PVP game, consider that everyone who is intentionally not playing PVP believes there might be other ways to have fun, mages included.

[Tremere]

But if you're not playing a PVP game, consider that everyone who is intentionally not playing PVP believes there might be other ways to have fun

+1 Truth

[Annalesa]

I play a mage because the astral is pretty, and that's about it.

...I am a simple creature.

I rarely, if ever, actually cast spells, and my first char actually got to circle 4, almost 5, with me never actually having cast a single spell.