Wonderland - Jags

Deeper Mysteries - Overview
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magic does not result in Unsanity, these texts are usually held as
secret, heretical, and are highly ‘encoded.’ Still, they can teach
techniques for gaining mastery should your magical training lead
you into dangerous ground.
l The Internet. The Internet is so full of disinformation, conspiracy
theory, fabrications, and mistakes that it’s hard to get anything
useful out of it—but it could. Studying a book or a web page
won’t work for everyone and most of the techniques are more
like meditative rituals you do that may have an instructive
effect—but it’s not a science.
l Teachers. Everyone wants a guru or a leader to guide them
through their ordeal. Most are worse than charlatans. A few might
actually teach techniques.
l Special Studies. Some people in academia or the mental health
profession have been studying the schizophrenic phenomena for
some time. While most physicians do not believe in Unsanity,
some have noted techniques used to lessen the effects. Some
good can come out of these (although being in the hands of
the Mental Health System is usually far more dangerous than
beneficial).
l Self Taught. Well, you can “just get it.” People who take a
systematic or considered approach to dealing with their problems
may well come away with some valuable insights and techniques.
Mastery vs. Twists
Mastery is one way of gaining empowerment through Infection. So are
Twists (not to mention learning magic—but that’s a whole ‘nother story).
How do these things interact in the game?
Here’s how we see it:
l Being Twisted usually “just happens to you.” You have a deep
descent and BANG, you’re Twisted. You might get run through
a weird machine on Chessboard Five and come out mutated. You
might interact with the Queen of Hearts and come back different—
whatever—Twisted happens when it happens and it can happen
almost immediately.
l Insights (special abilities based on manipulation of Wonderland)
can be trained and learned as above. They can also just be “realized”
after a certain amount of mastery.
l Mastery comes in steps and usually starts midway through the
“beginning” with the characters learning to control their Reflections
and cause Descent when it’s convenient. It then grows as they
become better and better at either causing (or more dramatically)
preventing Disassociation.
l Depending on how the game arc is going, the players may become
powerful operatives on Chessboard Zero (since they have mastered
Disassociation and can now do ‘the impossible’ so long as the
audience isn’t too big) or they may be important figures on the lower
levels (as the game takes up importance down below).