Void between "Bad" and "Good" magic traditions Options

[Dumori]

My BOD is 4, thank you very much, although not incredibly high, it is not so low either (it just so happens I don't wear armor nor I have Mystical Armor adept power).

I think a newt would have body 1 sorry now newt for you. Maybe a cat?

[Ascalaphus]

was too lazy to read the whole thread, so I apologize if this has been mentioned before.

While all magicians have the potential to do great harm, and many magic traditions may be seen to encourage things that society finds repulsive (i.e. raising the dead) the rules say that all Blood magicians are certifiably insane. If you have a completely insane and sufficiently powerful voodoo/black magic magician you can bet he'll have a bounty on his head too.

Some quotes from street magic: pg 138, Playing the Twisted sidebar "While many shadowrunners might qualify as borderline sociopaths and psychotics, roleplaying a truly demented individual with Awakened power at his fingertips... "

pg 137, under Twisted Agendas "Given the madness that characterizes twisted magicians, (twisted seeming to include blood magic, toxic magic, and some others) the twisted paths are not normally available to player characters."


See you seem to be assuming that it is something about the things that blood magic lets you do that makes them put a bounty out. But in fact, I believe, it's more about the fact that all blood magicians (and toxic magicians) are completely insane and basically always a huge danger to the public.

As for that guy who mentioned a blood mage paramedic and a radiation mage nuclear physicist, I don't think that's possible based on the book saying that they'd be nuts. Or at least, if they were doing those jobs, they would be doing them in an evil way (i.e. paramedic secretly killing all of their patients, physicist allowing significant amounts of radiation to leak out and/or plotting a meltdown.)

You don't have to be nut's to be a bloodmage just use blood magic. These metamagics and tradtions have effects on metahumans other life and the astral. Thats cannon the DF is after them for research and likely to put a hole in Aztechs plans to bring around the horrors faster. Seeing as IIRC the list they publish is almost exculively bloodmages linked to Azetech.

He might be on to something there actually. Our Western technology-oriented perspective is to separate abilities from personality. Just because the doctor can create a frankenstein doesn't mean he's evil. But magic isn't as impersonal as technology, and perhaps you just can't get some powers without being a bad kind of person.

[Shinobi Killfist]

Maybe that is why it is in the magical threats section under the dark paths. It explicitly says in street magic that blood magic is a twisted path, and it says you have to be warped to take a twisted path.

To quote SM pg 136, "Among the Awakened community, the term twisted is used
to refer to those magicians and adepts who have crossed the fine
line between magical insight and madness. Some Awakened are
driven over the edge by fate, consumed by a personal crisis (loss,
murder, desire for revenge). Others tap into powers that fuel (or
feed off ) latent sociopathic and even psychotic traits or simply
crack under the strain of dealing with forces beyond human understanding.
All have lost their grip on reality and found that
madness can lead to insight, becoming uniquely powerful."

What falls under these paths, oh wait blood magic.

This isn't just picking up a metamagic, if you pick up the metamagic you are a twisted insane, evil SOB.

[Nifft]

I think a newt would have body 1 sorry now newt for you. Maybe a cat?

Perhaps he was turned into a Dire Newt.

(Or a very confused Gila Monster.)

[jakephillips]

Might as well say that you can be a normal insect shaman just trying to defend the building you live in by having the members of your building staff possessed by ant spirits. I am doing it for the right reason there are gangs in my area so if I have my spririts inhabit some of the people in my building to protect them from the gangs.
No bounty on insect spirits because I think everyone things that they should be sprayed with RAID.

[Neraph]

My BOD is 4, thank you very much, although not incredibly high, it is not so low either (it just so happens I don't wear armor nor I have Mystical Armor adept power).

That's just a Decrease (Body) away from newt-dom.

[Manunancy]

This isn't just picking up a metamagic, if you pick up the metamagic you are a twisted insane, evil SOB.

For many users, I'd rather say that picking that metmaguc is the first step on the road to become one. How far and fast you travel on it doesn't change where it ends. Sort of like drugs - while you can get away with using them once in a while, heavy use will ruin you, though some peoples whistand it better (or not as bad) than others.