[X] My Assistant

[HunterHerne]

Yeah, but it's hard to find a desert in Seattle.

I hear the ocean/harbour can make do in a moment, too. Natural Wireless inhibitor and all.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

To me it's no different from having aspected magicians or aspected background count.

My main annoyance is that they're defined as rare and desirable commodities by corporations. It's like having a prince or princess in a fantasy RPG. You end up a with choice of treating them like a special snowflake or, for some unexplained reason, not treating them like a special snowflake.

Which is really no different than Mages, as far as desireability goes. Mages and Technomancers are the same brand of Special Snowflake. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[CanRay]

Thanks TJ, back to my corner I go...

[LurkerOutThere]

If anyone noticed the "optional rules" in Unwired for technomancers, I like to think that in the canon that's what Technos can do (better Attack protection, difficult to analyze, immune to scanning/nuke/defusing/crashing, unbreakable encryption, and superior trace) making it perfectly reasonable to be both rare and extremely sought after. Of course I also recognize putting that in game is grossly overpowered (unless the TM quality is boosted up to 20 BP or more)

If you use thos optional rules then all the griping people due do about technomances vs hackers will be true.

I for my part really like Technomancers, but I really liked Otaku. The one thing that tehcnomancers lack now is their tie in to the metaplot now that the big AI's are gone. Mages are to dragons as Otaku are to AI's worked for me on a couple levels.

Edit Addendum: Also if you can slave things to the biological node then you really should be able to hack the biological node is my opinion.

[KCKitsune]

Technomancers don't do magic, period.

Some of their abilities look like magic from an OT point of view, but inside the universe these clearly are non-magical and the technobabble about "bioelectric fields" et al. is a perfectly good explanation.

However, it seems to work rather well without electronics, if two technomancers are within reach of each other. Sounds like limited telepathy to me.

To me, a Technomancer's powers are psionic based. A TM's powers work no matter where they are. You're a technomancer in space... no problem. Take a mage and put him in orbit (and not near another mana field)... bad Juju... VERY bad Juju.

[Sengir]

However, it seems to work rather well without electronics, if two technomancers are within reach of each other.

Of course, TMs generate an electromagnetic field just like any device able of sending a wireless signal. That's not exactly magic.
Psionics on the other hand are mages, hence their powers don't work in space.

(Although I dislike this whole "bioelectric field" thing, too, IMO technos should require a datajack or similar like their ancestors).

[Miri]

(Although I dislike this whole "bioelectric field" thing, too, IMO technos should require a datajack or similar like their ancestors).

Skinlinks and the Skinlink Echo.

[KCKitsune]

Psionics on the other hand are mages, hence their powers don't work in space.

No, that was FASA being fracking stupid.

A technomancer's abilities are Psionic in nature.

There is NO way that a human mind could normally do what a technomancer can do. Once you add in Echos... their abilities are Psionic because they work in space.

[Tanegar]

Check Street Magic, p. 45 (in the blue-cover FanPro printing; not sure what page in the orange-cover Catalyst printing). "Psionics" is explicitly a magical tradition, albeit one whose practitioners deny the existence of magic.

[KCKitsune]

Check Street Magic, p. 45 (in the blue-cover FanPro printing; not sure what page in the orange-cover Catalyst printing). "Psionics" is explicitly a magical tradition, albeit one whose practitioners deny the existence of magic.

Oh, Tanegar, I know that FASA put that into Awakening, New Magic in 2057, but it is still stupid.

[Krojar]

I believe one of the JackPoint users point out that one theory is that TMs have always existed and that previous instances of psionics who could speak to each other telepathically were actually TMs. It is only with the WMI that their powers have an outlet.

[Tanegar]

Oh, Tanegar, I know that FASA put that into Awakening, New Magic in 2057, but it is still stupid.

Why? I find it quite an elegant solution. Rather than clutter up the system with a completely new mechanism, they just said, "Psychics are mages who choose not to believe in magic." You can still play a "psychic," and in-universe only those well-versed in magical theory will be able to argue the point with you.

[Sengir]

A technomancer's abilities are Psionic in nature.

Repeat after me:
Electro. Magnetic. Field.

There is nothing psionic or otherwise magic about a TM's abilities, unless you consider a radio or wifi connection magical, too. Yes, a human emitting an EM field which can be consciously manipulated requires some suspension of disbelief, and echoes like Skinlink are downright impossible -- in other words, TMs are no different from nanites, bioelectricity-powered cyberlimbs, or the non-echo skinlink which permeates clothing.

[KCKitsune]

Why? I find it quite an elegant solution. Rather than clutter up the system with a completely new mechanism, they just said, "Psychics are mages who choose not to believe in magic." You can still play a "psychic," and in-universe only those well-versed in magical theory will be able to argue the point with you.

Still kind of stupid. They could have solved the problem by saying that Psionics doesn't exist. It would have left them wiggle room if they wanted to add it in later.

Repeat after me:
Electro. Magnetic. Field.

There is nothing psionic or otherwise magic about a TM's abilities, unless you consider a radio or wifi connection magical, too. Yes, a human emitting an EM field which can be consciously manipulated requires some suspension of disbelief, and echoes like Skinlink are downright impossible -- in other words, TMs are no different from nanites, bioelectricity-powered cyberlimbs, or the non-echo skinlink which permeates clothing.

OK Sengir, answer me these three questions:

1. How does a technomancer extend his EM field as far as he does?
2. How can a technomancer affect the Matrix without any software?
3. How does a Technomancer's Echos work?

A Mage's powers work by magic powered by the Mana field. A technomancer's abilities work no matter where they are.

So Sengir, what handwavium does a TM use to Do His Thing™?

My answer is Psionics. Your answer?

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Still kind of stupid. They could have solved the problem by saying that Psionics doesn't exist. It would have left them wiggle room if they wanted to add it in later.



OK Sengir, answer me these three questions:

1. How does a technomancer extend his EM field as far as he does?
2. How can a technomancer affect the Matrix without any software?
3. How does a Technomancer's Echos work?

A Mage's powers work by magic powered by the Mana field. A technomancer's abilities work no matter where they are.

So Sengir, what handwavium does a TM use to Do His Thing™?

My answer is Psionics. Your answer?

CyberKinesis... Easiest Answer there is.
Or the word that they used previously... VirtuaKinesis...

No Need for Magic OR Psionics (which is Magic by SR Definition, Fanmade stuff notwithstanding).

[Sengir]

OK Sengir, answer me these three questions:

1. How does a technomancer extend his EM field as far as he does?
2. How can a technomancer affect the Matrix without any software?
3. How does a Technomancer's Echos work?

1. Because it has sufficient field strength, duh
2. Input-Process-Output. Only that in case of TMs, they do the processing with their brain and not on a computer.
3. They get better at what they do, or, as already stated, use the same handwavium SR uses elsewhere


This is just pointless to discuss. Canon explicitly states that TMs emit an EM field. The field can be measured, jammed, and otherwise interacted with just as an everyday commlink's field. Without an X-ray or assensing, there is no way to distinguish a TM from a person with an implanted link. All their special abilities and echos are explained as neural changes or stuff with their bio-electric field. Nothing, anywhere, at any time, supports the your hypothesis.

[suoq]

My answer is Psionics. Your answer?

Technomancery.

Why would it have to be be anything we have a name for today? Sure, maybe stuff works in ways analogous to a Tesla Coil or a Theremin. Or maybe it works off of some sort of electromagnetic field discovery that we haven't made yet and due to the separation of the Shadowrun world and our own, we never will.

[Nyost Akasuke]

I consider it to be a magical effect (in essence), various situations and ambient mana levels sparking a change in genetic astral shadows. Since Augmentation seems to imply (or speculate) that these genetic astral shadows and metagenes cause UGE, Goblinzation, and (possibly?) SURGE, I find it more likely that Technomancers, while definitely not being magical themselves, are spawned from mana/astral-based phenomenon. After all, if these astral shadows of DNA are significant enough to turn an average human into a purty Ork or weird Fish-Man, I don't see why they also couldn't influence the Technomancer's physical design to adapt to the Matrix.