Using Magic on Mage: Ascension as Technocrat

Perhaps you've heard how Mage: Ascension magic system is unholy mess. How it punishes you like crazy. How you'll accrue so much Paradox, you'll quickly died due to backlash.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

Alright, I exaggerate. The problem with those is, the players, don't think like what the game expect: [i]You shouldn't looks like doing magic at all.[/i] Now, this is obviously not easy, because of one reason: Paradigm.

As players, [i]your[/i] Paradigm - perception how magic is used - is, well, like a mage. You snap finger, and fireballs happen. You chant some spells, and you teleport. And so on, and so on.

And this is something Mage: Ascension [i]don't[/i] want you to do. Oh, you can do that [i]anyway[/i]. But you'll be hit by Paradox, and then die. Probably.

Fortunately, you are not those filthy Superstitionist! No, you are Technocrat. You don't do Magic, you do Enlightened Science. This means - and it's pretty important - [i]you should translate your magic to mundane equivalent[/i].

So those fireballs? Nah, you use flamethrower. Special flamethrower, see. Those teleportation? Of course not that's not magic - that's simply applying quantum entanglement at macro-scale physic. Or alternatively, you bribed everyone to clear the road as you raced with your swanky limousine.

Now the obvious question is: why can't you do that if you are not Technocrat? Actually, Technomage in general can follow this rather closely. Non-technomage, however, pretty much must settle on [i]disguising their magic as mundane reason[/i]. Hence why you get all those fireball = gas leak + ignition.