Note: When a + appears next to a number for the sphere requirements, it is there to imply the effect or rote's efficiency dramatically increases when higher levels are employed.
(Actually, it =really= means it's the demonic call sign for this site's guardian, "Greznokia the Theoretically Appropriate",  to smack you with a broken tuning fork in your most sensitive parts.. Yes: this means in the back of a Volkswagen.)

Virtual Adepts: Hackers, TechnoRebels, and Futurists

Audio/Visual Squad
(AKA "Do You Hear/See What I Hear/See?")
Forces 1+, Life 1, Matter 1, Correspondence 1+, Mind 2/3
Few, when any, Virtual Adepts are able to express their feelings on virtual reality to "non-believers" (also known as "non-Technomancers") and this opened a window of opportunity to an enterprising young engineer, working on a new series of video games. He found that by adding a few minor modifications to a standard virtuality heads-up, he could then "share" his perceptions with a small select group of clients. A firefight later, and he found it had a second use, other than simple education/entertainment; battlefield communication. The Nephandi quickly found themselves outmatched when the roomful of victims (all serial killers, undergoing an intense psychological procedure, dedicated to "curing" them) turned into a killing machine, working in tandem, splitting opponents into smaller and smaller groups, able to pick them off without risking more than a single person. The experiment, a total failure, later proved to be a lesson: never, *ever* turn your back on someone with a blade... Especially if you *know* he's a killer.
:Game system:
This rote is under the rulings of "Sharing Magickal Perceptions" and is coincidental, provided it is used in conjunction with Heads-Up Displays, Com gear, and/or similar apparatus. This allows a predetermined group to use any one member's perceptions, provided at least all member have Mind 1, and one has Mind 2/3, and gives the users the ability to communicate efficiently, quietly, and securely.  This is a modified version of "Hive Mind", from the NWO sourcebook. The range on it is limited to the Correspondence of the users, but allows each member the following benefits:
1.) Targeting Computation. Lowers ranged combat difficulties to 4, and ignore all penalties for "soft cover" <bushes, thin walls, and the periodically-spotted often unecessary/unwanted hostages ;) >. Good for combat in close quarters, such as sewage runoffs, tight hallways, and subway tunnels.
2.) Analyze Substance. Gives the user the ability to discern thinner portions of walls and their general composition, clothing of the opposition (good for choosing the difficult head shot over the nigh-useless torso hits), and whether or not a vehicle's gas tank is full (useful for determining future effects efficiency, or planning your next visit to a gas station). This also allows the user to make the judgment about his weapons, environment, and his equipment. It's more than a little handy to be able to know that a room is flooding with methane gas, or whether someone you're planning on mugging has just coinage or paper bills (sometimes, this little aspect saves him/her their lives, and you some trouble).
3.) Analyze Lifeform. This is basically the organic equivalent to the above effect, but with the modifications knowing whether your opponent is too perfect to be human, whether your houseplants need watering, or if that mule deer ahead of you in traffic normally runs at eighty five miles per hour.
All in all, this is pretty good for troupe games, or solo runs with a fairly low-powered character in the company of higher level NPCs. I find it useful as well for troupe games of any composition, as well..

"You've Got Mail (Bombs)"
(AKA "Unabomber of the Internet")
Forces 3+, Prime 2, Time 4 (useful with Correspondence 1+)
This little rote speaks for itself. After your least favorite user goes online, through whatever medium you have selected, be it a PC, laptop, or ATM, they are now the recipient of a Forces blast, in the form of your choice. Personal favorites of mine include: for ATMs, Forces 3+, giving a nasty shock via power surges or bad wiring; PCs giving their users similarly nasty lag (go for broke on this one: I never leave the mark without a sixty five hour lag. Great for twits in chatrooms!) or drawing attention to their terminal by having a preselected =nasty= jpg flash on their screen (fun if they work for a big corporation who frowns on this kind of thing, esp. if the selected image is pornographic and involves a lemur), or for the home user, it can get oh-so-fun to give them a few thousand volts to the sewage control valves outside their home. The reek alone should teach the unwary/clueless mark they've dallied too long in the field you own.  Be  warned: each faction in the Ascension War currently uses this little ditty, and it's not always user-friendly. This may mean asking your friend to turn on your computer.
:Game system:
This gem of a rote is none-too-popular with the technological elite, the depraved porn-hunters, or the ever oh-so-cool Netheads. This is one of the few ways a comparably less-skilled computer user could wage war on his opponents, acting as a wraith-like figure of electronic Death. After an extended roll of Intelligence+ Computer Hacking (or Repair/Electronics, in the case of phones or ATMs), and the installation of a focal point for the charge, it is now available for use immediately. Typically, it is either a battery (fully charged) or a block of C-4. With a little work, the bomber can find himself a marketable skill: killer for hire. Warning: requires a clue for yourself. Is this *really* necessary?
 

Haymoe's Disease
(AKA "S.T.B.Y.": 'Sucks to be you')
Entropy 3+, Correspondence 1+, Mind 2+, Life 3, Prime 2
This gives your mark a taste of his/her/their own medicine, should they irritate you. It's name is derived from the first time it was used, back in 1988, by a Chaotician named "Mr. Y. Knott", who targeted a seemingly-random passerby. He simply utilized a few prediction-oriented programs, ran a few theories, and cast his lot, turning his poor victim into a drooling vegetable over the course of a few weeks. Since it's inception, few, when any, victims can't withstand it for very long. The hapless sap, later turning out to be the professional car thief who stole a prototype AI-controlled Nissan Sentra, was last seen wandering the Haight Street area of San Francisco, muttering to himself about how "they" were out to get him. Worst part of his problem, as is apparent, is that someone *was* out to get him. The loss of both of his eyes seemed to trouble him less than the loss of his spouse to a runaway power company truck, or his children to a serial killer's blade. "Vengeance is Mine" was tattooed across his forehead, the culprit unidentified to this day.
 

The system for this little psychological warfare rote are simple: over the course of two to four weeks, the selected victim is driven insane by a series of close calls, near-death experiences, and mild injuries/embarassments. These run the gamut from simple, mild embarrassments, to life-altering, mind-numbing madness. Past hits have included: no money when the waitress comes calling; no power to the house they're staying at; motels booked solid, but have one spare room (the haunted one, to be precise); being chased by the police for drug charges, due to mistaken identity; getting knifed by the irate supernatural spouse of their current SO, who due to a misfiled divorce, is not really divorced. Wow. Basically, consider the difficulty according to the sphere level +/- modifiers, with an additional +1 for the Merit : Lucky, +3 for Charmed Existence, and +5 for Guardian Angel, showing the superior level of the individual advantage. Side note: Customize this to your own liking. For my players, what made this rote so damned annoying was, just before the victim got "hit" by a particularly nasty streak of fate and fortune, they heard someone, or saw something which read or sounded like "Hey, Moe!", ala the Three Stooges. Fun so far? It gets as bad as one's twisted imagination, and with the Time 4, Entropy 5, variation, it can go on for several (or even more) generations. Fear the Chaoticians, would-be-hooligans...

Euthanatos: Weavers of Fate, Fortune, Karma and Kismet

Denying the Grave
<AKA: Cheating Death 101>
Life 3+, Spirit 3+, Forces 2+, Mind 3+, Prime 2+
Wandering the battlefields of the outlying towns of Berlin, in the 1940's, Helmut Keller found few things as distasteful as the idea of being slain before his sacred mission in life had been allowed to pass, denying once again the Wheel of Fate's more violent results for another cycle. Thinking quickly upon noting a detachment of armed forces nearby, Helmut dove into a pile of corpses, wishing himself a closer resemblance to a dead person. Concentrating intensly on the speed of his own heart, the flare of his aura, and the Dharmic consequences of attempting to mimic Death, his features bloated, his body distended, and his blood ran cold in his veins. The squad came within five feet of his now-putrid form,  the image of which would be burned into their minds as yet another horror of World War II. The image, however, was the only thing wrong. Helmut himself believed it so sincerely, he actually departed his own body for the duration of the effect. If can fool a Euthanatos, he reasoned, it can fool *anyone*. Continuing his journey, he then realized it accomplished something fairly easy to do, provided one has Do, or similar training. Helmut was inspired by the ideas of mimicking Death, without the risk of falling prey to the Wheel's crushing omniscience; what opportunities, he wondered, would be possible to explore... His adventures became a popular source of both field research and worthwhile entertainment. What a Euthanatos finds as entertainment usually passes for snuff films in some circles.
:Game system:
The slowing of respiration, heartbeat, no visible neural reactions, and a general lowering of body temperature, even diminishing the aura of the user, his Mind pattern showing signs of the degradation of dying for the duration of the effect. It places a mental image of some obvious form of demise (such as a shotgun to the head, poisoning, strangulation, etc.) into the mind's eye of anyone witnessing the user's apparent "death", allowing the Adept to gain access to any number of places, under cover of corpse-dom, such as hospitals, morgues, the back loading area of prisons, basements of nightclubs, or <shudder> the local Giovanni hangouts. Anyone in the Umbra seeing the "victim", notices a smaller version of the "Death" spirits; basically, the manifestation of the "Little Good Death" one would see if one killed a small mammal. Why this one appears, rather than a "coma" spirit, is beyond reasoning for most magi. The Euthanatos offer any number of reasons, the most common being, "Sleep.. and his brother, Death", inferring the state one enters is less a minor form of death, such as the Ajama Journey, but more like a hibernation mode (which, incidentally, is another of this rote's uses). This rote (nor it's author, whomever that/they  may be) gives =no= protection from vermin, early atrophication, or premature burial. Those are the details best left to the individual, who should have the foresight to clear these up. In short, use with caution; one =never= knows where one might end up.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

That "Dead" Look
(AKA: Passing for Dead, Version 2.0)
Life 3, Forces 2, Prime 2
This rote comes from a Euthanatos combat engineer, who found himself surrounded on all sides by the opposition (who, exactly, they were depends on with whom you hear the story from. Chances are, it was from either a war in the the High Mythic Age or some other era in the recent past, judging by certain details),  and needed a quick, effective way to get past their notice, as the job at hand required him to be breathing the next week; self-imposed Good Death, always an option, did not seem appropriate at the time. Thusly, the ingenius willworker covered himself in local foliage, splattered blood and some sort of ash around him, then invoked the favors of those who honor the dead at festivals by wearing their guise. His ruse worked, and his mission (also, suitably unclear, but doubtlessly a bridge's de/conconstruction) was a success, and his rote proved to be popular with various militant factions the world over.
:Game system:
It allows the user to slide beneath notice from a mundane's eyes, assumed to be a corpse, with all due features; stench, cold to the touch, and no vital signs. This will usually allow the user to pass casual inspection, as few non-professionals will examine a corpse, especially a fresh one that looks the part. It also doubles as a party trick. ("Hey, guys, watch =this=!" >blam< "Wow. Looks fatal. Fun.") Well, maybe not everyone's idea of a good party trick, but it is still useful, nonetheless. Same warning as above, too.

MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION
(AKA: I'm dead, but you're =Really= Screwed now, buddy)
Forces 3+, Correspondence 1+, Entropy 3+, Prime 2,  Time 4
This rote, I'd like to add, is a personal favorite, so I won't bother coming up with a small story on it's origins, most cool use, or where it'd be filed in the Dewey Decimal System. Instead, I'll just give it's game effects directly. Trust me: this thing speaks for itself. You'll be coming up with your own stories.
:Game system:
This is one of those "We told you so" rotes, and doesn't do much for the reputation of the tradition as a whole. The rote's basic intent is vengeance, and more specifically, vengeance beyond the grave. Once a Euthanatos reaches the end of his mortal life, they atypically have come to terms with their enemies, friends, and associates. this rote assures all will go as previously planned, even in the event of the death of the caster. Once cast, it places in motion a series of events that bring either catastrophe or fortune to alternately the target/benifactor. It uses the phone lines to modify bank accounts, phone records, and other such electronic mediums to give the appropriate punishment or reward. Free long distance may not seem like much, but if it continues to extend to one's children and grandchildren, it does get a bit sweeter, doesn't it? It could be better by adding a few thousand to one's bank account, eliminate some of that bad credit, or take away a few hundred off of that student loan. Or, on the flip side, it could give them the worst credit rating, then start buying innumerable Beanie Babies on the bad credit, making them appear not only to be financially retarded, but socially speaking, practically a vegetable. It can modify pharmacy records/future orders, giving them new and strange mixes of penicillin and Demerol. It can also have their cell phones start calling various Technocratic Constructs, giving them the magickal equivalent to the obscene phone call, and even sound like them, making them in trouble with =both= sides of the Ascension War (via faxed phone records).  See the big picture here, folks? It's nasty, fun, and good for the long haul, even after death. Trouble is, when the best parts happen is post-mortem. (This should help explain how you got that three pt. Enemy flaw, or how you ended up with a favor owed to you (actually, your previous incarnation) by a prestigious Mentor,  now doesn't it? ;)..)

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