OK, I had this rather annoying thought running around in my mind for a while, & finally pinned it down (slippery little bugger). My thought is;

If a mage is creating (for whatever reason) a wand for magic use, does it fall under the category of Foci, fetish or geas?

Any of the above.

Yes, it could technically be any of those, depending on how it was to be used, how it was created, etc.

I won't go into fetish vs. foci right now, because it's been a while and I don't want to mislead you.

As far as geas though, the wand would merely be the physical part of the whole geas pie. The geas might read "has to have this want in hand with direct skin contact in order to cast X".

a foci is a magic item that gives a bonus to something (like a spell, a group of spells, summoning of a kind of spirit and so on).

a fetish is a magic item that puts a limit on your spell use. its simpler to learn a spell that require a fetish, but if you do not have the right fetish in contact with your person you cant cast any spells limited by said fetish. it also gives +2 dice on train tests for any spells it limits.

a "wand" as a geas would most likely be that unless you have it in your possession (or maybe waving it about as part of the casting) your magic attribute is reduced (the most used use of a geas).

A wand could be the telesma for a focus or a fetish.

A fetish that satisfies a geas is called a talisman; there are rules for them in Street Magic.

Also an important side note is that it can also be for show.

Misdirection associated with having people believe that it has something to do with your power can be useful in some cases, for purely social engeneering reasons.

Remeber, just because you're a mage dosen't mean everything has to be magical.

It could also come in handy in that 'social encounter' later on, especially if it can accomodate batteries ...

... or be used with the Orgasm Spell, of course ...

or both!

"Whatcha doin' 'hawk?"
"Getting out my magic wand."
"'hawk, that's a bar of thermite."
"Same difference."

So, now I'm confused.

If I take the talisman geas, do I have to use a magical item for it? I had originally read it as simply something specific, but rereading it suggests that a talisman isn't defined simply by the characteristics, but also must have a magical portion?

Would you allow a player to start with these talismans, if they'd taken the geas? Or would you require a talismonger contact, or something similar, before it could be part of their starting gear? I'd say that you can simply buy foci, w/o them, so it's okay to have a talisman, but...

You don't make people recover from their chargen implant surgery at the beginning of the game, do you? So why would this be any different? Equipment/Qualities/Skills acquired at chargen are assumed to be fully-functional, and usable without further ado.

A talisman is like a 100 nuyen. If a player started with the talisman geas, I as a GM would expect them to buy one at chargen, and I would certainly allow it - no talismonger contact needed, though they're always helpful later on.

Yes, I'd definitely allow a character to take something like that at chargen, especially if they had a geas that required it. At chargen, it's just another piece of gear, really.

And yes, it starts bonded and ready to use, because anything else would equate to penalizing the player for making character choices. The equivalent would be allowing a sammy to buy an assault rifle, but not letting him have any ammo for it unless he had an arms dealer contact.

Woah Nellie!

You let your sammies start with ammo?!?

Ph33r my elven magican, Parry Hotter. 7 Cha, 6 Magic, and a wand with a phoenix feather that's also a rank 5 weapon focus!

p'shaw...Stacked Spellcasting (All Spells) Focus...the gryffindor sword is the weapon focus...

I CAN'T HEAR YOU LALALALALA!!!!!!

LOL

Moon-Hawk, are we having problems today with Harry Potter infecting your cyberpunk?

I just like hatin' on Harry Potter.

Back to the topic (sort of): I would say that a focus could be a talisman, and a fetish could be a talisman. I see no real abuse there. What about a fetish being a focus? Possible?

My gut response would be no, but I can't really back that up, because I have allowed Tibetan Prayer beads before to function as fetishes and foci...each bead had its own function, but they were all strung on one necklace...

Can anyone find a canon verdict?

responding to eidolon: That's kind of what I was thinking, too. If someone wants to put all their eggs in one basket and have a focus-fetish as their talisman geas, that just makes their talisman that much harder to replace, and makes the focus pretty much impossible to upgrade.

Yup. That's why I'd still have separate ones as a player.

I had a straight up ninjadept once that had a ring for one geas, a necklace for another, and his sword was a combo talisman/weapon focus.

geas: must use wand for spell casting, which is why casting w/o one is such a big deal. They have to buy off the neg quality

OK, so a wand would fall under any of all three. Thanks.

My wands have a laser sight to help with the targeting.

So, a lasersight on a wand provides a bonus to indirect combat spells? Awesome!
How bout a smartlink?

I never thought I'd have to bust this one out twice in one thread, but:

Woah Nellie!

It would be like Opera Glasses on crack.

nah, just make it behave like a hidden arm slide.

then get a comlink with sim module and trodes (either in the wizards hat or as nanopaste).

Heh, that was my thought. I need to plan for this weeks game still so those opera glasses are totally going to be on an NPC soon.