[RPG] About the Cosmology of Mage the Ascension

As a "mathy" person, Entropy is my favorite Sphere. Entropy, at its core, is the manipulation of probability. By increasing or decreasing the likelihood of an event occurring, the mage can twist reality into getting what they want. And because you're just changing chance, from the outside, you're just incredibly lucky, and so most effects will be coincidental. (To a point. Repeated uses strain credibility and could be considered vulgar.)

A simple example would be a card trick. Pick a card, then replace it in the deck and shuffle it a few times. What are the odds that the card you picked is now on the top of the deck? With Entropy, the mage can manipulate those odds so that it's the top card every single time.

When designing multi-sphere effects using Entropy, use the idea of manipulating the uncertainty factor in a certain direction. Examples:

Entropy/Forces: Reroute the flow of electricity in a building to overload the circuit path most likely to fail. (Entropy 1, Forces 2) (Can be coincidental if done in conjunction with the mage jiggering around in the circuit box.)

Entropy/Prime: Sense the weak spot in an object's Pattern -- the place most vulnerable to attack or exploitation. (Entropy 1, Prime 1)

Entropy/Life: The electrical impulses that generate a heartbeat are described as a chaotic system. By increasing or reducing the amount of chaos/entropy in that system, the mage can create arrhythmias leading to cardiac arrest and death. (Entropy 3, Life 3) (Had a Cultist assassin who loved this one. Depending on the health of the target, it can even be a coincidental effect: "Poor guy's heart finally gave out. It was just a matter of time.")

What's missing here is an application of paradigm. Every mage believes with absolute clarity and certainty that the world works in accordance with the laws of magick as described by their tradition (or, in the case of orphans, the stuff that the School of Hard Knocks has taught them) — that application of will is how spells are cast and magick gets done. Your technique #3 is closest to the best — if the character believes that the world truly works via the Technocratic rules he's been taught, then he should also believe that all the wand-waving and circle drawing in the world won't cause an object to move. Science, right?

At the risk of pulling out of the fiction, what may be necessary here is going to the rulebook. The Spheres aren't just a representation of what the character believes is possible; they're also a game mechanic meant to balance character ability. Remind him that he agreed to take part in a game with other players and that you've all decided to play by the rules — which means that although there are certain places where Spheres can fudge, like the use of Forces by Verbena to control the weather, the Sphere descriptions largely proscribe what characters can do.

But your question at the end concerns how to handle the social impact of this problem, which is a little trickier. My advice would be to encourage him when he abides by the tenets of his paradigm, acting in accordance with Hermetic theory, and pull back when he turns to traditional science. Let him see that it's okay to push against the edges of the Spheres so long as it works to support, rather than hinder, the themes of the game.