On the AML, posters debated the notion that someone trying to trump out can be restrained by a rope or punched in the face to disrupt the process.
This is canon in Eternal City. Brand was chained to a wall for a reason.
Trump has geometry. IMC I use four dimensions but it could be played with even more complications.
Merlin stops Jasra from trumping away at one point by tossing Frakir and tangling the lady between her neck and a tree limb. Frakir might have psyche presence but that alone would not prevent someone from trumping out. An ordinary lasso would be more effective than jumping someone in a tackle. A tackle might be slipped easier than a competently tossed rope.
trump dimensions are:
frame - you are looking through a frame. It has edges. There are things you will not see of your cousin's surroundings and foreground, but you will see what is behind the cousin you are talking to. Trump Artists can resize the frame.
plane - the frame exists in a plane that can move and tilt. It can be looking from below, or from above, from close up or further out. Trump artists can control this theoretical location once the trump is connected.
axis - you 'bridge' locations through the axis of the trump which is perpendicular to the plane. It can be perilous to bridge if you are not pulled through or there is insufficient energy present to assist you through. Observers see a person pass through the axis when they trump out, and it can be described as pushing through the 'seam' of the plane. Like a rainbow zipper opening and closing around a fixed point of your grip with your cousin. Yes, your hand is the first thing to disappear as you grip your cousin's hand.
The correct geometry for having someone trump out with you is for them to enter the axis first since you and your cousin are anchoring the axis. (You don't collapse a bridge with someone hanging on your coat-tails.) Trumping out with someone only touching your shoulder risks the person so lightly anchored to you.
In our campaign, the basic gesture is simplified: once you have grasped the destination cousin's hand, your co-traveler steps in front of you and grasps your arm, stepping into the trump never letting go of your arm and so using the joined (present/destination) bodies like a railing on a bridge to cross.This is even more true for passing troops to a cousin.
Children usually cross a trump connection smothered in parent's arms.
contrastream axis - flowing in every direction perpendicular to the axis bridge is time, energy, force, shadow and other things that are not kind to children and other living things. Errors in trumping are immediately subject to these forces and sometimes the person never reappears, diverted from exiting the bridge by the contrastream. This is seldom an issue for amberites and chaosi but mortals do fear it with reason.
The custom of "pull me through" is so important beyond politeness. One can imagine a time in the very distant past when trump artists were not so facile and stepping through a trump might risk severe contrastream dangers.
I like this a lot, as usual, and have spent some time thinking of more advanced trump methods as well. For example, I have pondered the notion of highly advanced trump artists being able to use trump memory to trump within themselves, essentially changing the geometry of the phenomenon. Perhaps such people would be able to trump out of manacles. Hmm. There are, of course, no canon examples of this. It's just something I've theorized might be an expansion of the system in the direction of Advanced/Exalted trump artistry.
Posted December 11, 2006 10:27 AM