What do wagemages do? Options

[emo samurai]

I heard that they can quicken spells, which would be quite valuable. But why would they do that if they could use it to initiate instead? I'm not sure "Because the company tells me to" is good enough; that's a shitload of life force and opportunity you're giving up.

So what would they do in a corporate setting?

[Herald of Verjig...]

Summon watchers, spirits and/or elementals to patrol for unwanted visitors. Establish massive wards on secure zones. Unleash the invisible genetically modified dogs that bark bees at invading shadowrunners. Make a few anchored spells and recharge them if the event triggers.

Really, they can do a lot for a corp without even getting LoS to an intruder.

[emo samurai]

Yeah, that, and detect enemy spells to draw out shadowrunners.

What about non-security uses?

[mfb]

i'd say that 99% of a wagemage's job is making and maintaining wards. wards are damn handy, and they're pretty man-hour intensive.

[Slithery D]

True dat. The only real uses for a magical economy seem to be enchanting toys to make magicians more powerful and security against other mages. All other uses are either illegal (mind probe) or can generally more efficiently be performed by technology. FrankTrollman's idea of having an earth elemental to provide Movement and Guard on pretty much every long haul truck, with air spirits to do the same for aircraft, seems the best to me - it would really pay to hire even an average mage to summon a force 3 and knock lots of time off transit and reduce your accident rate. But it's such a good idea that it's weird anyone wouldn't do it, and having magic so in your face part of the economy in such a niche field seems strange since it's not mentioned in the fluff.

Lessee - water spirits could provide rain with Weather Control, but probably not more cheaply than irrigation. Clean Element might be able to clean pollution better than tech methods, but between needing 4-5 successes and overcoming background count... Shape Element could replace bulldozers...no, not going to happen.

[Kagetenshi]

Most mages don't initiate.

If any of them have initiated academically, there's always magical research.

~J

[Slithery D]

[Wounded Ronin]

Since the mage, being in control of astral security, is probably in effect responsible to no one unless something bad happens at the site, he probably hangs out astrally oogling the women who go to the restroom to take a crap.

[mfb]

[Slithery D]

Agreed, and I'd meant to mention something like that - I just meant that the best "magic only" products aren't really suitable for all mages to use to make a living.

[Tiger Eyes]

Magical research-like, oh, say...
*meta-genetic research (awakened genetics are a booming business);
*awakened biologicals (botany, biology) like experimenting on plants, growing fun strains of algae, awakened fruit flies, etc, etc;
*architecture (read runner havens Hong Kong section to hear about the highly paid wage-mages who do interior design);
*academics such as researching old stuff (archeology);
*human resources (now for the aura-reading portion of your prehire testing) and even 'crowd control' (business, psycology)
*researching magical dragon lines (again, read the HK section of Runner Havens)/astral shallows/useful metaplanes, etc, etc;
*medical personel, including the ever-popular corporate shrink.
*and the always fun spell-design guy

Actually, I figure that less than 10% of mages/shaman work in the 'security' field for corps.

[mintcar]

There's a mage in every dispatch of Lone Star detectives. Mages are invaluable in forensics in a world were magic can be used to commit crime. There's a lot of spells that can make finding regular criminals easier too.

[knasser]

1. Summon Spirits.
2. Bind Spirits
3. Repeat.

Seriously, from setting spirits to guard important corporate execs to arranging patrols of secure compounds and guarding watchers, a wagemage could be employed forever just handling spirits.

And given the rarity of magicians on staff, I'd think having a guardian spirit would be a significant honour for a corporate exec. Beats a key to your own washroom, anyday.

[RainOfSteel]

[Pendaric]

Perment hermetic circles, spirit foci and *cough*ritual conjuring*cough*
Allows average stated mages to summon elementals that challege the super charged magical criminal that is the average shadow running magician.

[Shrike30]

I'd think a huge chunk of the existing wagemage population works in research or in manatech manufacturing. A lot of employees aren't down with getting stuck in security (where you can get your brain burned) just because they were born magical.

[knasser]

[emo samurai]

But then again, what about magical research? I'm sure they'd want as many researchers as possible. To do magical research, you need metaplanar access.

[Backgammon]

I also think Security Mages must be, by far, the least attractive job for a mage and the least profitable for a corp.

Using magic for research in all areas, not just magical theory, would be extremely useful and have a much higher payout that selling wards.

[Thanee]

I'd guess that it is split somewhat evenly between security (simply because it's necessary) and research purposes.

Depends a lot on what the corp in question does, of course.

Bye
Thanee

[Apathy]

I'd see company-sponsored initiation to be similar to current-day company-sponsored graduate degrees. The company would support the process fianancially, as long as you could show a direct benifit to the company in terms of your improved skillset, and you'd have to do it on your own time. And, like RL graduate degrees, most mages probably wouldn't bother with them until they'd gotten a few years experience under their belt (i.e. spending their karma on upping their skills and expanding their spell list).

[Slithery D]

[knasser]

[Halabis]

[knasser]