Do Magi suffer penalties (from the Gift) when interacting with supernatural creatures?
I hust ran my troupe through a faerieland version of Asterix and Obelix, where the current opening of the gate dropped 1/2 the troupe on the Gaul's side, and the other half on the Roman side, so they could add vitality to the battle between the two sides that determined, in some way, the soul of the Gaulish nation.
For the purpose of the story, all the faerie actors ignored the Gift penalties of the "guest" auxiliaries.
But is that typical of all supernatural creatures?
In general, supernatural creatures are affected by the Gift just like normal humans, unless noted otherwise.
The core rules state that demons do not appear to be affected by the Gift - probably because they hate and envy all mortals anyway.
Core rules also state that Divine creatures are never bothered by the Gift.
RoP:M introduced the virtue Unaffected by the Gift, which does exactly what it sounds like.
Since there are a number of virtues and flaws that explicitly alter the Gift’s social penalties with denizens of particular Realms, it clearly must affect them. Even if it’s often handwaved.
Story is the key to fae. If the faerie aura is strong and the story involves a large volume of fae, would it make sense for the fae to be antagonistic to the people trying to assist them? Most likely no.
Asterix and Obelix, is a comedy. They were always jovial and generous to strangers. Obelix being mean to anyone is against the story.
The SG could easily say all fae in the scenario have a temporary virtue of Unaffected by the gift, or all the magi have a temporary virtue of gentle gift while in the regio the fae story was located.
Others have answered the specific question asked better than I.
In other interactions with other fae, the fae would generally be affected by the Gift.
And on the other hand there is Supernatural Might, which should be as all inclusive as Parma Magica at blocking supernatural manifestations, such as the Gift.
I have the same degree of confusion with you on this. I agreed with earlier postings that the negative gift penalty would affect, however, now I'm not sure. I wonder if it is explicitly written in a rule book somewhere.
Creatures belonging to one of the four supernatural realms may have different reactions to the Gifted. Some behave like mundane animals, others like mundane humans, while some appear completely unaffected by The Gift. [core:76]
While Might and MR is not mentioned here, the message is very clear that it varies. Can a creature belong to a realm without might? Even if the answer is yes, no dependency on MR is suggested.
The variation was instrumentalised by the introduction of the Unaffected by the Gift virtue. Some have it, some have not. Maybe the vast majority has it, maybe a slim minority. Whatever suits the story.
Nope.
By the books Magic Resistance in general does NOT block the negative effects of the Gift. Parma Magica does, but it is pretty unique in that regard.
If Magic Might protected you from the Gift, why would RoP:M introduce the virtue "Unaffected by the Gift"? Most magical creatures will be affected by The Gift, only some are unaffected.
Also, HoH:MC has all the virtues to increase the positive or negative effects of The Gift with regards to the different realms in the Merinita section - clearly some mage's Gifts affect the realms differently (and I'd like to thank all the characters who are offensive to the infernal, and volunteer to be first target).
"In my sagas the gift is a mortal to mortal or mortal to animal issue. All supernatural beings with Might are not affected by the gift."
I support this message.
I personally REALLY don't like that creatures of Magic are repulsed by the Gift, and entirely ignore that. I do like to keep Faeries generally affected by the Gift, AND by Magic Might, to keep an enmity brewing between these two too-close Realms. But this can totally not work for sagas wanting to tell faerie-stories where the faeries aren't straight antagonists, so I can totally see dropping that as well.
Do what works for you. If it hurts your stories, dump it.
So my opinion on this is that the supernatural is the flip of the mundane on the penalties to the Gift - in that almost all mundanes are affected by it while almost no supernatural (magical, faerie, divine, infernal) is affected. Some can be, for theme reasons, but generally speaking a magic animal is immune to the Gift since your supernatural energies and theirs are basically similar.