 A Sprinkle of Magic |
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 Dec 18 2003, 01:32 AM
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#1
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Running Target  Group: Members Posts: 1,129 Joined: 11-June 03 From: Tir Tairngire Member No.: 4,712  |
I'm at work and can't remember the exact (more or less) percentage of metas that can use magic in the SR universe, but doesn't it seem like there's not enough considering how many images they show of mage/shamany types? Magic seems HUGE in Shadowrun, yet I know that the percentages are something like 1:100 or 1:1,000... can't remember which one.
This got me thinking, should this really be how I keep running the game? Should I curb the amount of greenlights to magickers in my games? (i.e. "Okay, you all get to draw straws, shortest straw gets the option of playing a magic user") My group loves magic and its not uncommon to have a full group of anywhere from 5-7 PC's and the overwhelming majority of them can nuke or summon. What say thee DSers? |
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Dec 18 2003, 01:46 AM
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#2
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Chrome to the Core Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,152 Joined: 14-October 03 From: ::1 Member No.: 5,715 |
1%, so 1 out of every 100 people can (on average) use magic to one extent or another.
Edit: That's canon. If in game terms... 50%. :D |
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Dec 18 2003, 02:39 PM
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#3
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Target Group: Members Posts: 28 Joined: 14-March 02 Member No.: 2,374 |
That's the percentage of magic in the population as a whole (1:100). You're not looking at the general population, you're concerned with the segment of population who make effective criminals. It is entirely possible that the % of active magic use is much higher in that smaller population sample. Look at it this way, half of the people in the world have below average intelligence, if you looked at a group of people in graduate level physics, most likely 100% of them are higher than average intelligence, most probably at the higher end of intelligence. In Shadowrun terms, most of the SINless are going to be addicts, squatters, or pool cleaners at "Fantasy Suite" hotels. The ones who excel are going to be the ones with above average skills or abilities. If you want to attempt to limit the number of magically active characters in your game, make the build point costs higher for them (or a better way would be to give non-magically active characters more skill or attribute points). You could also start having 50% or so of your runs take place in enviroments where magic will be more of a hinderance. The heavily polluted areas of Redmond have a background count of 2 - 3 (looking at the definitions in MITS), most corporate enclaves will have a background count of 1. Higher background counts mean less effective mages, meaning that non-magical characters will have an edge. |
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Dec 18 2003, 03:15 PM
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#4
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,428 Joined: 9-June 02 Member No.: 2,860 |
Shadowrunners are not necessarily representative of the population at large. People with certain abilities will gravitate toward running, like mages, because they can excel as runners. (People without certain abilities may try to be runners, but that's why Darwin Awards are around). Consider: how many shadowrunners are there in a city? Even a normal Shadowrunner is probably a 1-in-a-thousand individual, if not rarer. For all the hundreds of wage slaves, working class stiffs, and common criminals there's just 1 shadowrunner. (Hmm...Are you sure you should even let all your characters be runners? ;) ) Think of a "special forces" team: are you going to see a representative selection of the average population in there, or are you going to see smarter-than-average, tougher-than-average, more-athletic-than-average people? And when you, an officer, are putting together the team, would you want to put people in there that have talents to get missions accomplished? In SR, you'd see mages being deliberately funneled into special forces groups, and probably the better combat mages at that. This would not only create a much higher concentration of mages in the special forces units than in, say, the typical corporate office, but it would probably be higher than in normal military units, too. You might want to approach the question this way: what would a mage do for a living? Nevermind that he's a 1-in-a-thousand kinda guy. If he's a talented mage, he's probably not going to become a janitor, or waiter, or taxi cab driver. His choice of jobs that focus on his talents are rather limited, and one of them is shadowrunner. Personally, I have no problem with an all-mage shadowrunning team. Shadowrunners are unusual people to begin with. If you don't want too many mages in your game for other reasons, just tell the players so - "I'd like a little variety in this game. Only one mage this time. You may now battle to death to find out who gets to play the mage. Or draw straws. I'm not picky." |
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Dec 18 2003, 05:09 PM
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#5
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 518 Joined: 24-February 03 From: Tucson Member No.: 4,153 |
The magic population is going to feel higher in the shadows because most of the magic population are going to end up either in the shadows or working for the corps. Hence the reason you can't swing a dead cat without hitting someone magically active. :D
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Dec 18 2003, 06:18 PM
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#6
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 291 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 806 |
I'd say that to make up enough people to all those civilian professions as well as the other side of the fence, 2% of average population is awakened in some way, at least IMHO.
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Dec 18 2003, 06:20 PM
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#7
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Immortal Elf Group: Validating Posts: 7,999 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,890 |
Magic in the Shadows makes it abundantly clear that approximately 1% of the population is fully Awakened with adepts, aspected magicians, and those who never realize their potential/go insane are in the minority of that percent.
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Dec 18 2003, 07:22 PM
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#8
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 139 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Cleveland-Akron Sprawl Member No.: 1,200 |
While I have no problem with the "Shadowrunners are unusual" thing, I have a big problem with thinking that a mage or any other awakened character would be more likely to be a Shadowrunner than anything else. Anyone can be heavily cybered or trained to shoot various firearms. Anyone can get a datajack implanted and train to be a decker or rigger. Only 1% of the global population even has a chance of doing anything with magic.
Think of the top 1% of everyone who graduates high school or takes the SAT (or whatever non-US equivalents there may be). How many of those people go into crime? They're smart enough and dedicated enough to excel in criminal activities, but they can do so much better (financially, socially, and with regard to their safety) by sticking to legal pursuits. Even if they don't agree with society's aims or structures, they're far more prone to work within the system to change it than to work outside the system or drop out of it altogether. If I were awakened and I had a choice between the life of a criminal and the life of a magical consultant or researcher, I'd choose the latter in a heartbeat! So much more money is available, you don't have to deal with unsavory bits of society, and you can have a SIN that grants you instant access to all of the creature comforts you could want. It wouldn't even be a close choice for me. |
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Dec 18 2003, 07:49 PM
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#9
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 379 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Earth Member No.: 1,274 |
Ah yes, but remember the whole megacorp angle here in 2060+ You're not so much an employee but an assett of the corp - IE: slave. Most awakened can't be themselves and thus true to their calling in that environment. True, the corps give their mages a hell of a lot more leeway and privileges than a bod-standard wage-slave, but they also guard those investgment swith additional paranoia.
Oooo can't have the guy go to another corp - waste him. Hmmm, so just where are those ritual samples they took stored?And my oh my, don't those average mundanes feel threatened by the all-powerful mage looking into their minds for the bosses upstairs. Co-operation perhaps, but everyone walking on eggshells and leaving the oddball out in the cold. Have a serious read of the social penalties that roleplaying can bring forth for awakened characters. I know they stuck a whole section on it in the Grimoire and I'm pretty sure they updated it in MitS too. Of course, the players may just be trying to form their own magical group on the cheap. But do their traditions all blend nicely? I've tried it with two other players way back when and we soon discovered that we couldn't keep a group pattern between two of us let alone 3+! As for the percentage of awakened in the world, I always though it was that 1% had the potential and out of those only about 1% again were fully active magicians.So that would make the general ratio something like one in ten thousand. Of course, shadowrunners are an exception to an average person. Just as has been mentioned already, treat them as a rarity of the population who have decided to follow that path. Its the same with magical groups - few magicians sgree on anything at all let alone enough following a group concept. But they do exist and as the whjole game is centred around shadowrunners, I don't see why you should limit a player's choice in their character unless it would be detrimental to your game. Just keep in mind that as a GM you run the game for your players and without them you have no group to run for. Therefore you have to go with what they like or find a new group that suits your particular GMing style/campaign. However, if you're having difficulty with the number of mages in the group bring out all of those social interaction penalties. What about being hounded by that magic-hating policlub? A lot more crazies have guns and bombs than a fireball can deal with. After a few of those the drain is going to hurt. Occassionally stick them in runs which highlight their lack of cyberware or technical expertise or better yet, how do they cope with the anoying deckers who keep lifting their funds? Can't send fireballs into the matrix and they'll never track a master datathief down vis astral either. The matrix isn't renown for leaving physical links behind. Better yet is the old adage used by all combat-trained sec forces and professional runner teams - geek the mage first! |
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Dec 18 2003, 07:54 PM
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#10
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Immortal Elf Group: Validating Posts: 7,999 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,890 |
Once again, Magic in the Shadows makes it abundantly clear that full magicians make up the majority of the 1% of the population that's Awakened; that means there's easily 30,000 magicians in Seattle alone. MitS p. 28, last paragraph. This section -- in fact, the same paragraph -- also goes into more detail about just why a mage wouldn't want to work for a corporation; namely, corporations tend to play their own magicians against one another to try and keep them under control. In any case, they are not really a minority of the population... at least not compared to other types of careers. There's far more magicians than there are doctors or lawyers, for instance. |
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Dec 18 2003, 07:56 PM
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#11
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,428 Joined: 9-June 02 Member No.: 2,860 |
If I implied that, I did not mean to do so. I think mages have a higher probability of ending up as shadowrunners than some other professions (like taxi drivers or ditch diggers), but I also think the vast majority of mages will be in more legal professions, like wage mages, military mages, etc. |
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Dec 18 2003, 08:43 PM
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#12
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Shooting Target Group: Members Posts: 1,632 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Portland Oregon, USA Member No.: 1,304 |
The number one and two most useful places for a mage to work in the 2060's would be medicine and law enforcement.
They can always find the bad guy. Then they can KO him from their medicine lodge on the roof of HQ and dispatch a squad car to pick him up. They can follow the getaway car astrally, so the damage from a high speed chase is avoided. Just back off and let him drive, because he can't lose the astral mage. Once they stop, the mage pops back to his body and tells everyone where he is. They can cure cancer (on a good day). They can, in a matter of minutes, bring a trauma victim back from the edge of death and send them halfway down the road to recovery. They can take the employee that you sent to get a datajack installed, and have him fully healed and back to work the next day. These are the workaday jobs that mages would be most heavily recruited for, because their uses are obvious and many. And every hospital and police force in the world will want at least one. Most will want all they can get. |
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Dec 18 2003, 09:13 PM
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#13
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 606 Joined: 17-December 03 Member No.: 5,909 |
While I agree with the statement that most people cannot use magic their is one thing you have to consider. A world population in the billions!! With an average of 3 billion poeple alive in 2060 their may very well be more than that their would be about 30 million magically active people. Since people only hire the best for work as shadowrunners its safe to say that a good deal of shadowrunners would in fact be magically active. |
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Dec 18 2003, 10:23 PM
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#14
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Why oh why didn't I take the blue pill. Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 6,545 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Gloomy Boise Idaho Member No.: 2,006 |
If you want to limit magic, just tell your players. One mage, one shaman, and one adept only in the group. Don't put any artificial limits on skills or give mundanes anything for free. Just say this is what you can have, now who wants to be the mage.
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Dec 18 2003, 10:25 PM
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#15
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,129 Joined: 11-June 03 From: Tir Tairngire Member No.: 4,712 |
Hmm, I thought I remember reading that a considerable percentage of the population died though in the prehistory section of the SR corebook...? Not that it really changes all that much, but I don't think the population has continued to increase from today's numbers if I remember correctly.
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Dec 18 2003, 11:30 PM
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#16
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Immoral Elf Group: Members Posts: 15,247 Joined: 29-March 02 From: Grimy Pete's Bar & Laundromat Member No.: 2,486 |
I actually think Research would probably be the biggest employer of magically active people. As to the field of medicine, there are a great deal of restrictions and legal ramifications put upon the use of Healing Magic in the Sixth World. This would tend to disuade a lot of awakened from pursuing this career path. |
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