OK, recently I've found my thoughts drifting to old subjects (since I'm going to have to wait until March of 2010 to pick up any new SR books), and a few old thoughts occured to me;

1) Just what IS the "source" of magical energy? The spirit planes being so closely aligned with the material world after the Awakening? The spirits themselves? That as-yet-defined 'quirk' that all the magically-active possess?

2) Speaking of the 'quirk', has it been identified? I'm sure it was mentioned in one of the old SR1 or SR2 books, but I can't quite recall.....

3) What does it feel like when one casts a spell? Is there a subliminal tingling sensation that cascades over one's nerves? Is there an adrenalin-like surge through one's body?

If anything else occurs to me, I'll post it. Thanks in advance to those who respond (and keep a civil mind).....

I always thought it was life and/or life force of living things. One of the reasons that those who use magic can't go into orbit.

Don't tell anyone this, but the Aztecs had it right with the "Fifth Sun" bit. See, back in the dawn ages the Passions, literal gods that burned with mana created a shield that blocked the natural mana coming from the sun, leading to the downcycle. Eventually the barrier is destroyed, and the 'Awakening' begins again, and new Passions form, and at the height of the mana cycle one of the Passions re-forms the barrier again...


It depends on the soul. Magicians need to have the right soul to use Magic, and nobody accepts that yet.


You literally go temporarily insane; your perspective of the world changes so that the idea of a fireball coming from your fingertips appears to be a rational and logical act, an extension of you existing, no different than breathing.


Znee znee znee!

no no no! you are WRONG sir...
<rocks back and forth in the corner sobbing>
"horrors don't exist! horrors don't exist!"

That implies that all you need to do is simply kill ALL the Horrors and ALL the Passions and everyone will have magic forever and ever and ever.

And why no magic in space then? If it comes from the SUN, wouldn't you be able to use it if you got close enough to the sun without worrying about the warp? Wouldn't that imply you could eventually, with study, create a metamagic that generated a small amount of mana within your own soul that increased with practice until after a few cycles you were utterly immune to the downcycle?

Edit: Scratch that, it makes sense. The mana is pure, rather than filtered into a usable form the way it would be around life. I suppose there might end up being a void tradition that can use magic freely in space or something.

I always liked to think of it in real-world terms: prior to the 20th century, it was assumed that we knew everything about nature and that all new discoveries would simply be refined perspectives on already known concepts; then we discovered microwaves and x-rays, and our entire understanding of how things worked changed. I look at the world of Shadowrun as a world in the wake of a similar event, only with magic being the new area of discovery.

But then again, I'm kind of a science geek, and I've never accepted the idea of things working "just because".

According to The Disc-world books, magic feels like a tingling in your scalp, and the more powerful the magic the higher you get off of it, and the harder the crash.

I like the idea of magic being.. you know, magical, and not a science. Thats why I play a shaman who has NO IDEA how it works, it just does, and he's happy with it. Because he can fry peoples minds.

He's got issues.

Something akin to the above, I like knowing how magic workds--in so far as how characters perceive it--as it allows me a better grip on how I can play with that perception.

My current character--a mystic adept--understands magic as "just another kind of computer code." I even wrote a tidbit of backstory and spent a few BP on it. So in learning how to use this language of reality he altered some things about himself ("tweaked a few constants") and wrote a few scripts (to sling about when needed).

I tried to do this kind of magical understanding once before in a game, and every time I asked the GM how his world worked (as he'd taken a game system and added on to it, adding in magic) I kept getting back the crunch, not the fluff. He, of course, was a terrible GM for doing a game over Yahoo! Voice Chat, as he didn't pay attention to the main window* and had several bad habits (one of which was not officially starting a session until his twin** "I can't believe they're not fuck buddies"*** showed up**** at 10:30pm and everyone having a bedtime of midnight). I finally got pissed off and blocked him after trying to get a simple question answered, which took 6 hours and had the following excuses for not replying (not even a "brb" message):

"I felt sick and went to go puke."
"It's a chronic medical condition."
"My room mate needed to be driven to the hospital."
"I have narcolepsy."

I should point out I've spent 8 hours in the same room with the man and he does not have narcolepsy nor a chronic medical condition which causes him to rush out of the room and puke in the nearest trashcan.

*Which is like running a table game where you're in another room and can't hear what people are saying unless they're passing you notes.

**The two are cast from the same mold, I swear. They look identical.

***"We can't start without Darren, he needs to be here for this session," he whines. (So why is he in the game if he can't show up on time? Ever?) "Or Hex. Gotta wait for Hex. And if Foxie ever comes back from being dead***** we can run that other game again."

****If at all.

*****We don't know what happened to Foxie. One week--right after becoming an integral part of the plot--he never showed up and hasn't even been observed to have signed into YIM since.

A Wizard did it.

With...magic? *head explodes*

All living things create a field of energy, we'll call it mana, just to have a name. And some people have the ability to focus and manipulate this energy so that it affects the material world. This energy, it surounds and fills us. Between you and I, between the tree and the rock. Luminous being are we, not this crude stuff. When you move into space you move away from the great field of life and there is less to manipulase. In vaccuume al you have is your own mana, your own life fore or ,dareI say it, soul and you can't pull on that easily or there will be nothing left of you.

As for what it feels like, well everyone seems to have a different deffinition. Soem say it's like being a hose and feeling the water flow through you.

Magic feels like peeing.

Does this mean if Harlequin has not cast a spell for a long time, he makes funny faces and bellows 'Oh YEAH."?

Metachlorian.

Stupid Lucas. Will we ever live this down?


Anyways,It's all about tapping into the gestalat of energy fields, whilst manipulating that energy for an effect that you'd like to happen.

Magic Functions entirely on belief..

Believe hard enough and your belief causes reality to warp itself to your will. Those that can make magic work are just particularly good at convincing reality to go along with that plan (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Pure wild mana in space, and we are a big skimmer ! We skim mana so it's usable !

Of course, you have to believe harder than the other guy's disbelief. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Don't forget to avoid the Nephandi.

"A butterfly flaps its wings..."

2 dimensional beings can't see into 3; 3rd dimensional beings can't interact with 4th. Similarly, some people just have a "knack," which allows them to learn how to influence the world in previously unscientifically provable ways, that "normal" people just can't "get."



True story. Metaphysics is a cool subject.

I think the nature of magic and belief in SR can best be summed up by the following line from "Bull Durham":

I took metaphysics in college and while interesting I found it incredibly difficult to play the devil's advocate.

Especially when we proved the existence of god. Or rather, the author of the text book proved the existence of god, the professor had been teaching the same book for a dozen plus years, so I was pretty much out of luck when it came to supporting a counter argument.

Want to summarize that argument for those of in the audience who have a vague belief in invisible superman of no particular denomination but regularly need to deal with a(n) (ana)baptist and would like to have more ammunition?

Assuming it is secular, of course. Message it to me so we don't get too off track.

Edit. For stupidity

It comes down to showing that an object exists either because it itself exists or because something greater than itself exists (ex. a candle flame exists because it exists (keeps itself alight), but still relies on the existence of the candle). This is true for all objects, eventually dependent on the existence of the universe, which it itself must depend on something for existence (because anything that is self dependent without needing something greater must be permanent forever, and the universe has a beginning and an end) and that "something" has to be god.

Otherwise it's "turtles all the way down."

Note: it does not differentiate God from any one of the numerous other gods, just that such an entity would qualify as being "a god." Also, I use "god" (lowercase) in any context where I am not specifically referring to the Christian God (uppercase).