Cloaking (Arcane)

Prototype Technocrat X Backgrounds

Arcane is a background that makes a mage who possesses it extremely difficult for mortals (and rarely other Awakened beings) to detect or remember. The mage may drop this effect at any time. This trait is rarely possessed by others, such as vampires and mummies. The Technocratic equivalent is Cloaking.

Dots in Arcane remove dice from the dice pool from characters trying to detect the mage. At level 8 and above, the mage instead deducts successes from the detector's successes instead of dice from their dice pool.

Many Technocrats "hide in plain sight," using psychological tricks, minor disguises and so forth. Other agents (notably NWO spies, Iteration X Cyborgs and Syndicate field ops) employ "cloaking devices" that literally scramble light, sound and brainwave activity in a small radius around the agent. Some ops, however, simply have a "talent for disappearing"; while they cannot actually become invisible, they're notoriously hard to keep track of. Secret Agent John Courage is one such agent, but he's not alone.

The Cloaking background can be considered as either a talent for misdirection, an implant or a mysterious (and unsettling) ability to defy certain laws of physics. to the Union, this talent is an enigma...one it would dearly love to solve. Until that day, however, it puts the talent to good use and makes a special point of keeping track of agents who display it...as much as one can keep track of these people, at least.
●○○○○ You blend in with the crowd.
●●○○○ You're easy to forget.
●●●○○ You're difficult to follow.
●●●●○ There are scant photos, papers, or records of you, and people can't even agree on what you look like.
●●●●● In other people's minds, you don't even exist.