Illusion Strength     Some illusions are not intended to be deceptively realistic. For example, AIs in Alacrian cities will often present themselves as obviously artificial, often glowing or lacking detailed facial features; they are holograms intended to look like holograms. On the other hand, military illusions conjured as distractions can be incredibly lifelike, and some are resistant even to devices designed to detect illusions. The level of deceptive realism in an illusion is quantified in points of illusion strength. This value varies with the capability of the illusion source. Some Abilities or devices can reduce an illusion's strength; this reduction may directly weaken the illusion, or it may be effective only for a single observer. Effects which directly weaken an illusion are resolved before any observer-relative reductions.

    Whenever illusion strength is reduced (such as when a new countermeasure device is activated), an observer may receive a new blind INT roll if they have not yet rolled a die of that size against the illusion.

Disproving Illusions    You might come up with clever ideas to determine if something is an illusion: "Does that bear cast a shadow if I shine my lamp at it? Does it leave footprints when it walks? Is its fur blowing in the wind?" Unfortunately, all of these aspects can be mimicked by sufficiently advanced illusions, and the act of spotting such flaws is already entailed in your blind roll on INT. If you failed that roll (or if the illusion is too strong to roll at all), all you may find out from your GM is "the bear appears completely real."

    Fortunately, there is hope! There are certain ways to disprove an illusion. Disproven illusions are known to be illusions, regardless of illusion strength or any failed INT rolls.

    Echolocation and thermal vision have no special effect on illusions. Anything that is able to create an artificial image of normal light is also advanced enough to include infrared light and reflect sound.

    Illusions of dragons are automatically disproven; real draconic aspects are too uniquely bizarre to be convincingly represented by current illusion tech and Abilities.

    Illusions cannot generate sounds louder than a normal audible range of long.Range, Size, & Cost    In addition to strength and complexity, most sources of illusions specify a maximum range; for example, if a device specifies short range for its illusions, no part of an illusion may exceed short range from the device. If for whatever reason the illusion exceeds this range, it disappears. A savvy illusionist might remember their device's maximum range and program the illusion to "disappear" in a more natural way - for example, animating an illusory person to hide behind a tree instead of running out of range.

    As long as the illusion remains within range, it is generally unaffected by the motion of its emitting device. For example, if you are generating a stationary illusion with a device you are carrying, that illusion will remain stationary even if you walk around with the device.

    Illusion devices and Abilities will list their own maximum image sizes. As long as whatever you wish to portray fits into such an area, one illusion may contain multiple items (for example, a stack of many crates or a table with many chairs). However, a single illusion cannot contain more than one character, vehicle, or similarly complex object.

    The charge or insight cost of creating and maintaining illusions is given in the device or Ability details. Complex illusions can move and change in whatever way is reasonable for what they are representing, without repeating the initial creation cost. But completely changing the nature of the illusion (including the object being represented, or the type of preset animation for a 2-complexity illusion) requires a new illusion to be created.

    The primary purpose of a deceptive illusion is simply to cause other characters to believe something is really there; there might be further specifications in the Illusions & Combat rules below, or according to Spy's Holography (Stealth) or another specific ruleset, but there are no universal rules to resolve the effects of illusions in general. For example, you might create an illusion of a large bear in order to deter bandits. Even if your illusion strength is sufficient that all the bandits believe it is a real bear, there is no special rule that obligates them to flee. The bear would have only the effects one would expect if a real bear was present; perhaps the bandits believe they are outmatched and take terror points accordingly, and perhaps they do indeed choose to run away. On the other hand, perhaps they merely draw the weapons they tend to prefer for bear-slaying.

    An illusion that successfully appears real to all observers does not prohibit those observers from suspecting it is an illusion. If the bandits in the above example had heard that you are a legendary illusionist, for example, they might suspect that your bear is fake, even if they have not yet proven it. All other game rules (such as the above example of terror points) must be resolved as if the bear were real; after all, it might be. At the GM's discretion, images too absurd to be reasonable (perhaps an Alacrian hovertank coming to the aid of a novice adventuring party) might have reduced effects on those who suspect illusion, such as half the normal terror points.

    Similarly, if you adventuring in an old outpost of Dira - ruins well-known for their deceptive military illusions - there is nothing stopping you from constantly poking the floor ahead of you with a big stick, lest there be a high-strength illusion of a false floor concealing a very real pit trap. Still, unless you are testing a very specific instance of a possible illusion, the GM might rule that your party's progress is slowed by constant testing, or even require search rules to be applied to test large portions of a room.

    An illusion can also serve to provide light, or to obstruct light and sound, even in relation to characters who know it's an illusion. Many such applications are described by the rules below for combat use, or for the illusion portion of long hide rules. Ilusions always block light and sound from both sides of their surface, preventing them from being made "one-way."

Impersonation    In order for your illusion to convincingly impersonate a specific character, you must obviously be familiar with their appearance, voice, and mannerisms. Tech-based illusions normally require a scan of the person with specialized devices. In any case, even if you are able to create such an illusion, its effective strength is reduced by 2 in relation to anyone familiar with the character being impersonated, or by 6 if they are a close friend or loved one.

Illusions & Combat    Beyond the normal expected results of conjuring a convincing image of something, illusions can be employed for specific results in combat. The following applications have unique rules, and their usefulness has been discovered by many Alacrian tacticians and adventuring inventors throughout history. Any attempt to use illusions in a creative way in combat will likely fall under one of these rules, as determined by your GM.

    These applications are not intended to be deceptively realistic or even necessarily resemble real objects. As such, they are not affected by any Ability or device that reduces illusion strength, unless such a reduction source can completely dispel the illusion. None are effective against characters with darkeye or clairvoyance of sufficient range. Remember that illusion strength has no maximum, but illusion complexity cannot be raised above 3. Defensive Illusion    You can conjure images around yourself to distract attackers or interfere with their aim. All enemies receive Hindrance in their melee and ranged offense rolls against you; the amount of Hindrance is equal to your illusion complexity. Incompetent melee attacks against you automatically fail. The illusions also interfere with your own ranged offense rolls, adding 1 Hindrance. If your illusion range is sufficient, you can use this Ability on another character instead of yourself, but no more than one. A character can only benefit from one such illusion at a time, but all Hindrance stacks (e.g. for an enemy attacking multiple illusion-defended characters using Rapid Fire Attack).

    If the illusion complexity is 1 or 2, it must be created anew (with the accompanying full costs) every turn. If it is 1, it also ceases working if the defended character makes any roll on SPD.

Offensive Illusion    If you can create illusions with a complexity of 3, you can conjure images around a single enemy to interfere with their vision. If the enemy is knocked down, grappling, or using cover, you may do so with a lower complexity, but it must be created anew every turn. In any case, the enemy must roll a d12 on DEX. If they fail, they function as blinded until the end of your next turn. A character can be targeted with this effect multiple times, but adds 1 Easing in the rolls for all but the first time in the round, as multiple illusionists tend to obscure each other's efforts.