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Abbandon
If Technomancers are just a new type of magic shouldnt they get to have "code foci" or something?? It would help them compile or thread or resist drain or whatever else they can do. Whatever is the focus in real life should also show up on the matrix with them? They could also have weapon foci that could be used in the matrix ???

What would make cool foci for technomancers?
Samantha
They are not MAGIC. We don't know WHAT they are, so no, they shouldn't have Foci.
Abbandon
Its a new plane of magic but they ARE magic. They can summon crap, cast spells, and suffer drain.
Jack Kain
Technomancers need SOMETHING!, to spend there cash on that increases there skill set.'

The only cash option for a technomancer right now is drones.
Samantha
They may seem to be Magic, but the writers have NOT SAID THEY ARE.

If anything they are psions, able to use their unnatural brains to effect electromagnetic waves.

And the whole Sprite thing is just using their funky new mind to code things. They actually have to write the code, not just mumble some crap and summon a spirit.
Cadmus
if you don't understand it. then its magic smile.gif

has been through out history. MWHAAHAHa....granted the oooo's and ahhh's on such subjects tend to be followed with BURN THE WITCH, and assorted other things that should be on your things not to hear by angery mobs list.

Synner
I don't really feel like revisiting this yet again. So I'll offer a potentially relevant Arthur C. Clarke quote instead: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Rotbart van Dainig
Yeah, but he just got the motto of the Technocracy backwards:
"Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology." nyahnyah.gif
Abbandon
OK!!!!!! IF techno's are magic should they have foci?? What form could they take??
Rotbart van Dainig
Mullets looking like rats, eating their brain?
Cadmus
a Ram chip from an outdated unit maybe?

I forget the book but in the banter between posters theirs a converstionb etween a person and a decker the decker talks about this chip he's had since his first deck and he puts it into all his new decks he gets/builds granted it does smaller and smaller jobs do to its lack of power as tech gets higher. but he always slaps it in. He said the deck simply did not feel right with out it inside some place. so the other poster mentioned it sounded like he had a fetish like mages do.

think that would work mate?

Konsaki
Foci in the shape of a commlink...
Ravor
Well although I loathe the idea of Technomancers being 'Magic' if I were going to introduce 'Technomancer Foci' I think I'd rule that their Foci had no physical form and was merely code constructs.

Still, I'd bet dollars to donuts that some sort of Technomancer toys will appear in Unwired. cyber.gif
Cheops
I was planning on introducing stuff like foci for TMs in my game but no one is playing one currently. Basically they were going to be resonance objects and wells that the TM had access to. They weren't physical objects but instead VR manifestations of the Resonance. If anyone has played Exalted then demenses/manses would be a good example of what I was thinking.
mfb
see? see? this is why i don't like TMs.
odinson
TM should not have foci. They should not have anything that even closely resembles foci. TM should not be treated as mages. If TMs need something to spend money on then you are giving them too much.
Lagomorph
Rather than foci, justlet them trade money for karma/bp. Same difference.
Konsaki
QUOTE (Lagomorph)
Rather than foci, justlet them trade money for karma/bp. Same difference.

I would go for that in a heartbeat.
bait
Magic doesn't work on the matrix or matrix objects, so no technomancers aren't magical characters.

If you really dig into the technomancers there powerful enough already, with actions that can't be detected or dealt with by non-technomancers.
Cheops
The main reason I'm considering doing stuff like that is because I like to explore stuff about TMs and the Resonance beyond just game stats. It gives another aspect to them that wasn't there before. Now you go back to the days of the Otaku where you have different tribes battling over Deep Resonance wells. Ever since a TM in my group first tried to do a data search for the target by going to the Resonance Realm of Data Bases I've been interested in expanding on the nature of TMs and the Resonance.

It's not about power or money or making them like mages. It's about making them less like Hackers with a funky ability. Hopefully Emergence will make that happen.
Buster
QUOTE (Cheops)
It's not about power or money or making them like mages. It's about making them less like Hackers with a funky ability. Hopefully Emergence will make that happen.

I totally agree with that. As written, technomancers are exactly the same as deckers, they just pay for their abilities with karma instead of nuyen. I'm hoping Emergence has enough fluff and crunch to make them interesting.
Jaid
emergence really is not about what technomancers can do at all. in fact, the closest thing to rules text is about 2 lines that say something to the effect of "if you feel like you need stats for X, use the rules for Y"

so no, emergence does not have any new special rules for technomancers. it's not about technomancers at all, really, it's about how society deals with the fact that technomancers exist. (hint: pitchforks and torches)

if you want new rules for technomancers, you're gonna have to wait for unwired... don't hold your breath, it's not even scheduled until next year.

in the meanwhile, if you absolutely *must* do something like what a focus is for mages, i think you're gonna have to whip up some kind of echo that grants special abilities, rather than the somewhat bland and not very cool thematically echoes in the core book.
Buster
That makes sense, some new unique echoes would be nice and it would be more thematically in line with the whole resonance thing.

Eidetic memory should be a freebie for technomancers. Aspergers always have some sort of eidetic memory anyways, and technomancers are supposed to be super-rainman types....well, except for their super high charismas of course.

And that reminds me of another rant: every borderline autistic technogeek I've ever met is barely even aware that he has to shower every day and make eye contact with people he's talking to, let alone possesses enough charisma to command a suicide cult. I'm hoping they errata the charisma requirement for sprites and replace it with logic.

Idea for new Echo:
Biomemory : The technomancer can use his own nervous system to store raw data and no longer needs to rely on offline storage to collect files and paydata. This also gives him the ability of Eidetic Sense for all his senses as the adept power.
Ravor
Well I guess it depends on how you see Technomancers, personally I don't see them as being "super-rainman types" or "borderline autistic technogeek".
Buster
I guess I'm still thinking of the 2nd edition otaku. I loved those little autistic street kids that could bring corporations to their knees with only their brainpower.
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