Being the bunch of cynical degenerates you are, I know most of you, like myself, have at least one “disposable� email account (yahoo, gmail, etc). You probably use it for such dubious purposes as internet anonymity while posting on message boards about fictional parallel universes where magic may or may not meet machine(s). I’m also certain that you probably receive no shortage of stupid forwards about this or that other ritual you need to complete least the dahlia lama visit you in your sleep and steal all your money while orchestrating a fatal car crash for your grandmother and helping your dog run away (damn that dahlia lama). I myself just received such an email, although I’ll admit I might have missed some of the details while my eyes skimmed the text on their way down to the delete key.

Anyway it got me thinking (as most things do) about Shadowrun. I was thinking, in a world where magic and technology actually exist (not like our world) could someone, say a free spirit who wants karma or a magical group, actually create a cursed email to coerce people into doing something? A spirit with accident power would seem fitting, but how would that work? What about ritual magic? Obviously you can’t transmit magic through the Matrix, right? Or can you? Muahahaha…

I’m sure if any group could figure out a way to make it work, the rules monkeys around here can. Any ideas?

Method

...well I use Gmail but as my primary email since MS Outlook sucks boulders the size of diesel locomotives (& I mean the really big ones like Union Pacific uses). I have all bothersome "non pertinent to my life" stuff routed into my spam folder which I clean out on a daily basis. Outlook? Spam Filter? huh? Oh I see, it colourises them like how Ted Turner used to do to cool B & W movies, but they still clutter up the main inbox.

It's not out of anonymity I chose Gmail, it's out of wanting an email system that works.

The difficulty with that scenario is that the matrix cannot transmit magic. It's one of those cardinal rules of setting, like no teleporting.

However, it might work for a real chain letter.

No, because everytime someone sends a such a mail, runners are hired to kill everyone involved.

Not by email. But I Do think a standard snail mail chain letter would function for the Karma scheme you outline.

If magic can't travel through the matrix, why do Technomancers function? If anyone could do it, one of them could.

The e-mail could always contain an embedded black IC or psychotropic IC (or both). Kinda like the e-mail the Chuck got in the show, except instead of goverment secrets, you get brain lesions.

A thought - do free sprites exist, like free spirits? One of them could do e-mail, and while they couldn't actually 'curse' you, they could certainly mess with all your electronics.

There are certain 'entities' in the Matrix that might be fit to fill that roll.