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All Rules in Running an Occult Game

Esoteric Planes

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Occult Locations

Source Occult Adventures pg. 226
When it comes to occult adventures, locations themselves can be living things, serving as active participants in paranormal stories.

Loci Spirits

Source Occult Adventures pg. 226
Loci spirits form when excess psychic energy becomes saturated with powerful positive emotional resonances. Loci spirits typically arise in places with connections to previous miracles, benevolent guardian spirits, or good-aligned deities. Loci spirits infuse a specific area; their psychic energy heightens the positive emotions experienced there to create a feeling of peace and protection. A loci spirit also manifests a unique ceremonial power linked specifically to the emotional energy that birthed the spirit. Except in rare circumstances, a given area can house at most one loci spirit.

Ley Lines

Source Occult Adventures pg. 232
Researchers into the occult theorize that all the worlds of the Material Plane and the planes beyond are alive. While the exact measure of life and consciousness the universe exhibits is debated, attempts to quantify this cosmic biology point toward the phenomenon of ley lines as proof. Ley lines are conduits of magical energy that traverse all known corners of creation, serving the same function as the veins and arteries of living creatures. These conduits, connecting geographical and cosmological features both great and small, grant knowledge and power to those who tap into them.

Mindscapes

Source Occult Adventures pg. 234
Mindscapes are temporary constructs of the mind that come into being on the Astral Plane and fade away again, in much the same way a sleeping person’s imagined landscape forms and dissolves while he is dreaming. The primary difference between a mindscape and a dream is one of intent; a creature often deliberately and precisely constructs a mindscape, while a dreamer typically does not. A mindscape can come into existence as a result of creatures engaging in a psychic duel, as well as through certain spells, magic items, rituals, and other occult phenomena. In theory, a mindscape can take on any form or appearance—and can possess any conceivable trait—in much the same way the various planes do. In practice, mindscapes often either appear mostly normal, or feature only one or two traits that stray from reality, and creatures’ psychic avatars manifesting within the mindscape might not be able to tell they’re no longer in the real world.

Two types of mindscape exist: binary mindscapes and immersive mindscapes. Binary mindscapes occur during psychic duels, when a creature with psychic powers draws another into a mental battle. Only two participants can occupy a binary mindscape. This cerebral combat arena does not totally engulf the participants’ senses; a creature engaged in a psychic duel within a binary mindscape can still perceive the real world, but is largely consumed in her psychic battle. In this case, the mindscape is a powerful image in the mind’s eye, perceived on an abstract level and capable of affecting the subject in the real world, detaching her from events in the real world but leaving her still capable of perceiving them.

Immersive mindscapes are far more tangible and realistic. In an immersive mindscape, a creature’s every sense perceives its imaginary surroundings completely, in effect replacing the body’s actual sensory perceptions.

While a creature’s consciousness is within a mindscape, that creature’s body in the real world can take no actions and loses its Dexterity bonus to AC, but it isn’t considered helpless, as the unconscious parts of the creature’s mind still provide resistance to the creature’s destruction. While in an immersive mindscape, the mind gets no information about what the body sees, hears, smells, or touches. Thus, if the body takes damage from an attack in the real world, the mind remains unaware of it. A binary mindscape, however, allows a creature to monitor its own condition in the real world.

Mental Masks

Creatures drawn into mindscapes don’t have to appear as themselves, and can instead assume alternate forms called mental masks. They can do so only if they know they’re in a mindscape or believe they’re in a dream (the creator of a mindscape almost always does). A mental mask allows a creature to hide its true identity, masking its true features from its enemies. Non-psychic creatures can’t assume a mental mask; they must appear in immersive mindscapes in their true forms.