Wage mages?, What do they do? Options

[jacklind]

Hi

I thinking about making at character that either is or once were working as a wage mage in a Corp of some sort. But what could a mage work with or as in a Corp? Of course there security, but besides that, what use could a mage be in a Corp????

Hope you can help. :D

[Trax]

Mage doctor perhaps.

[FrankTrollman]

Warding areas.
Astrally Perceiving Clients/Coworkers/Visitors.
Alchemically Investigating Materials.
Making Ambergel (Ant Shamans only).
Using Movement on major transports (A container ship can make the run from Los Angeles to Hamburg in 41 days, or with the help of a Force 6 Spirit it can do it in a week).
Guarding volatile substances. No accidents means no insurance premiums.
Greatform Spirits can create water, change the weather, and in a number of other ways completely transform agriculture (initiates only).
Greatform Fire Elementals can share Immunity to Fire with allies, allowing humans to work in absurdly dangeorus conditions (initiates only).

A number of spells have industrial applications:

Catalogue is an invaluable double-check on the RFIDs that dominate inventory systems.

Health spells can improve worker productivity.

Control Manipulations and Phantasms can make Simsense Recordings awesome.

Barrier Spells can be created inside a vaccuum, which allows you to sculpt Dikote-style crystal constructs into any shape you want.

Invisibility can make an object transparent to light generated by objects with low object resistance, but still stop light generated by objects with high object resistance - can you say "Laser Etching?"

Move Earth can allow a solid object to be opened up, and then put back exactly how it was.

-Frank

[RunnerPaul]

The Analyze Device spell can be handy in the R&D department

Clarvoyance and Telekinesis/Magic Fingers could be handy for remote operation of equipment in hazardous environments, though it's probably a waste of resources to send a mage to do a rigger's drone's job on a regular basis. However, for emergency response, it's hard to compete with a mage's response time. Plus there's the fact that you're not risking the loss of an expensive drone.

And of course, why give whatever counts as Shadowrun's Era's version of a powerpoint presentation to the board of directors, when you can have the wagemage do it all with an entertainment illusion. (Ok, this last one is just silly.)

[Grinder]

[RunnerPaul]

[jacklind]

Excellent! You obviously have more imagination then I do when I comes to putting Mages to work :)

Thanks a lot for all your replies :)

[Drinnik]

Doesn't Sam mention in the Secrets of Power Trilogy that he sees alot of mages "asleep" and later realises that Wage Mages spend alot of their time in the Astral?

[Glyph]

Note that clairvoyance can't be used in conjunction with magic fingers if it is used to see something out of a mage's line of sight (it can be used to get a "close up" view, however).

Beyond security and the utilitarian usefulness of many spells and spirits, remember that magical research is a major thing for the megacorporations. Magical theorists and spell designers are probably as sought after and jealously guarded as any other type of researcher.

[RunnerPaul]

Substitute Astral Projection and directing an elemental to materialize and manipulate the component in question then. Or if the facility in question already has magesight fiberoptics installed for security purposes, they can also be used to provide LOS for your magic fingers spell.

[Deamon_Knight]

Seems odd that any wage mage would spend much time on astral patrol when you loose Magic/Essence and it takes time to recover, a few hours on patrol and you mage is weak as a kitten. Just summon an elemental!

[SL James]

That's why it only makes sense when there are enough mages to work in teams so that the corp can stick one mage up to a bed and IV drip like Lone Star's astral patrol cops.

[Grinder]

[The Stainless St...]

Nobody has yet mentioned Thought Police.

Analyze Truth: "Have you ever stolen from this company, or divulged any company secrets? Do you have any knowledge of any employees who have done either?"

Alter Memory: "Now that the project is concluded, we have determined that all records are to be sealed except by need-to-know basis. That includes your personal memory files."

Not to mention Mind-Probe/Memory wipe on captured employees/agents from rival corps.

And how great would Divination be for an investing firm? Or an R&D department?

[PlatonicPimp]

Lets not forget that mages can be perfectly capable at mundane tasks as well.

"Thank you, Mr. abracadra. Now that you've toasted the shadowrunners, you may be back to sweeping hall b-14."

[Demon_Bob]

[PlatonicPimp]

My point is that they can be used for data entry, running copies, or most likely, managerial duties when not Mageing it up.

[Prospero]

I had an NPC wagemage in one of my campaigns that was a buddy of one of the PCs. When I had to detail what he did (he was pretty low on the corp totem pole for a mage), I usually had him (besides the usual stints on actual security patrols) summoning elementals and binding them to locations for guard duty (one summoning and binding could easily take an entire shift), patrolling in the astral, going to meetings with other company mages to coordinate magical security issues, writing up reports about stuff in his area, casting spells into spell-locks for higher-ups who had them. I think once, as fluff, I even tossed out that he had been astrally patrolling company sports events to prevent magical cheating.

[Eyeless Blond]

[Edward]

Mages are portrayed as being rare and in demand, if this is the case then they would not be wasted on sweeping Flores. I suspect a lot of what a security mage dose is writing reports and sitting around, just like any security person today, with the occasional trip to set wards. Research mages are probably divided between an alchemist’s laboratory and a computer terminal just as are most research scientists today (only with more meta plainer quests). some wage mages make there living setting wards and very little else. Mages that work in medicine probably have working conditions very close to doctors,

And there are unions in shadow run. Or at least employ councils that provide feedback to management and are genuinely listened to, on issues that don’t cost much but look good, after all a workforce that thinks you care is a happy workforce and a happy workforce is a productive workforce. And the psychotropic drugs tend to lead to public backlash when discovered.

Edward

[Sicarius]

I would think there would almost certainly be unions. Heavily corrupt and purchased with Corporate cred. Would make it easier to control the workers, if the people who are "on their side" are upholding the system. Although I imagine some corps might be sticklers for the old fashioned ways. (I wonder what a group of Azzie Strike breakers would look like?)

[Oracle]

Aztechnology's workers really love their work for the most popular corporation in the world. Aztechnology uses its influence to create a better future for all mankind. No other corporation invests such vast ammounts of money in enviromental protection and health care programs. No other corporation is so strongly dedicated to the high quality of its affordable products.

[hyzmarca]

Actually, collective bargaining would benefit corps more than it would benefit workers.
Without a union a corporation would have to negoiate terms of employment with every employee individually. This would consume quite a bit of resources. With unions, a corporation can negoiate one lowest common denominator that everone is willing to take. Generally, during such negoiations the megacorp can offer benefits that seem great to the workers but cost the corporation next to nothing, making it seem to the workers that they accomplished something when in reality they did not.

[Sicarius]

[Oracle]

What I wanted to say is the following: Aztechnology's public face is completely different from the image it has got in parts of the shadows. The Azzies have the best PR department in the corporate world. That's why the big 'A' survived all those blood magic and horror scandals absolutely unharmed. There will simply be no strikes, because Aztechnology's employees work for the best employer in the world.

And that deal with the bridge sounds interesting:

[ Spoiler ]

Pitiyly I got a small problem with transferring the necessary funds. My american bank asks for a fee payed in US$ cash. Could you possibly send me that small sum to get our business accomplished? I will pay it back of course when I'm paying for the Bridge.