About working Enlightened Science

First of all, whatever you do, it is not magick it’s science. I know that has been pointed out repeatedly in the source material, but it can’t be said often enough.
Considering that fact, the question is, where to draw the line?

All mages need to focus their workings through one Focus or the other. Technocratic Scientists however use exclusively scientific methods to work their art. That means, anything that can be attributed to one scientific method or the other is acceptable, even if it is vulgar magick. So, if you transform yourself using Life 4, you would have to focus that through the metagenetic enzymatic recombination agent you introduced into your system.
A sleeper witness would still make the act vulgar with witnesses, but to you, the Mage, it is perfectly viable. Doing the same thing by calling the spirit of Luanna the Everchanging to possess you and transform your body into someone else’s makes the act impossible for you as Technocrat to conceive. Any act you cannot justify to yourself – yes that includes normally coincidental ones – is automatically out.
Something as simple as making someone trip on the pavement with Entropy 2 cannot be done by the means of looking at him with the evil eye or something. Achieving the same with cool observation and by calculating the probability for tripping right then because it’s so damn likely to happen is allright though.
You see, it’s all a question of style.

Notably, effects don’t have to be powered by Apparati which actually do whatever you want to achieve. In the end, a Fluctuation Matrix is nothing more than just a plastic case with some display and a few blinking lights, in itself it does nothing, just like a prop in a sci-fi series. It’s the Technocrat’s belief that makes the Correspondence effect happen, just like any other magick works.
On the other hand, you can’t just make something happen because you just issue a stream of technobabble, something has to be there you can base your theory on, or in other words, you just need a prop that looks like the real thing. However, as pointed out above, the Apparatus doesn’t really have to actually work, it just has to seem like it could work. The major edge the Technocracy has because of that is, that most of their magick appears coincidental because it’s powered by gadgets and scientifically sounding theory. Sure, no Sleeper could do it, but that’s just because they don’t know how it works, because they don’t have the training that’s necessary to put the scientific principles behind it to use. Still they are inclined to believe things that come across like that, after all they have been trained to for a long time.
That is what makes most Technocratic magick coincidental.

Still, the Technocrats are not fools. Due to their role in the Ascension war they know that the supernatural exists out there. They know that Vampires and Werewolves exist, and the Void Engineers sure know about what is out there. The major difference between just accepting the supernatural as it is and the way of the Technocracy is, that the Technocracy will always try to explain supernatural phenomena in scientific terms: Umbrood are alien creatures, Vampires are humans with s strange disease that makes them extremely long-lived and forces them into a diet solely composed of blood, Werewolves are mutant creatures, and Mages are using methods which they themselves wouldn’t understand as science but which could eventually be explained in scientific terms. To them, all those momentarily inexplicable things will one day be explained by science, given enough time to research them thoroughly, or they will be disproved as charlatanery until they plainly stop working.

So whatever you try to do as a player by using the Spheres of Magick, always remember:It is Science, not Magick you’re using.

Vulgarity of Enlightened Science

As stated above, Enlightened Science can pass off things as coincidental which would be vulgar if a mystic did them. Many of the guidelines that govern what is vulgar and what is coincidental remain in effect where Enlightened Science is concerned, but there are some notable exceptions:

• Forces and Prime Effects augmenting mundane explosives, firearms and other weapons to do more damage or damage supernatural creatures are always coincidental
• Life effects augmenting physical attributes are coincidental if they are based on equipment like exoskeletons and powersuits
• Matter effects involving elaborate technological setups such as furnaces, forges and other factory and lab equipment are coincidental if worked over a reasonable amount of time. (anybody remember the scene with the transparent aluminium in Star Trek IV?)
• Entropy effects of the third rank are coincidental if they are based on the unerring precision of machinery.
• Entropy and Life effects of the fourth rank are coincidental if they involve complex laboratories and are enacted over a reasonable amount of time.

Despite such advantages, Technocratic Scientists face some difficulty when they try to make things happen on a large scale in a short time. Due to the strict Technocratic Paradigm, various effects - if the Storyteller even allows them - are automatically 'Vulgar with Witnesses', where the sceptic Technocrat would be the witness. The working of such effects (if they leave the caster unscathed) will result in censure by superiours and might as well be impossible for a Technocrat to even conceive.(A very strong Avatar and/or the Demented Eidolon flaw may be used as justification why a certain vulgar effect could even be done in the first place.) Such things include:

• Effects that come from nowhere.
• Effects based on nonscientific (mystical) theories and occult paradigm.
• Effects based on 'impossible' science. (such as using kitchen leftovers to fuel a spaceship)

Enlightened Science and Apparati

Every application of Enlightened Science needs an Apparatus to work.
Contrary to their mystical cousins, the members of the Technocracy cannot shed the need for foci when progressing in rank and ability. Even the Masters of the Technocratic Union use technical gadgets and scientific theories to base their effects on. However restricted they are, though, the Technocrats have become quite creative in their utilization of such implements. The members of the Union focus their Procedures through many technological and scientific devices and theories ranging from hardware tools to academic skills. Technocrats rarely use unique foci as Traditionalists do, since their Procedures rely on standard equipment and proven theory rather than unique and specialized mystical tools. Therefore, a Technocrat does not need to have one specific focus for each Sphere. Subject to personal Paradigm, an Enlightened Scientist can use any technological device or scientific theory that suits an effect as a focus.

They do however gain a special bonus of -1 to all casting difficulties if using a so called Primary Apparatus.

This Primary Apparatus can be anything which suits the character's Paradigm and style, and one should be chosen for each Sphere the character is proficient in. A Primary Apparatus does not have to be unique - and rarely is - but it should reflect the personal style of the character and the Convention he or she belongs to.