Rules Index | GM Screen

Occult Rules / Running an Occult Game / Occult Locations / Mindscapes / Mindscape Traits

Transparency

Source Occult Adventures pg. 236
A mindscape’s creator typically knows when she is within her own mindscape, but other creatures might not, depending on the type of mindscape.

Overt: Overt mindscapes are obvious to anyone drawn into them. This might be because the individual deliberately hosts and invites others, or because targets know they’re being psychically attacked and caught in the mindscape, and therefore understand what has happened to them. When a creature knows it is in a mindscape, it can exit more easily (using the mindscape door spell), but this knowledge makes the immersive mindscape no less real to it. It can still be affected by the mindscape, and can still take damage or gain conditions from a harmful mindscape (see Feedback below). Binary mindscapes are always overt.

Veiled: The veiled immersive mindscape is the most insidious type. Its triggering mechanisms are designed to fool the target, trapping the creature in such a fashion that it doesn’t realize its reality is a product of its or another’s mind. The creator’s memories provide the basis for the mindscape, and any place or phenomenon she hasn’t experienced might be hard to replicate convincingly using only her imagination.

Psychic mindscape traps and spells often include a seamless transition from the real world to the mindscape in order to maintain the veil. For example, a chest trapped with a veiled immersive mindscape might trigger a visual and tactile continuation of the current situation, making the thief believe she still kneels before the container in the chamber where she found it. If the effect is done well and is powerful enough, the thief might live out several hours, days, or weeks of her life trapped in her own mind, while her body remains slumped before the chest, slowly dying from lack of food and water.

Archives of Nethys

Rules Index | GM Screen

Transparency