Rasumi,
Why include Native American Shamanism as a tradition, then? It, too, is a religion. (Did you forget?)
Why include Native American Shamanism as a tradition, then? It, too, is a religion. (Did you forget?)
No, i didn't, but note that shamanism is a religion that has magical practises at its very core.
When every priest is essentially a would-be spellcaster in a belief system, it makes sense to make them a core magical tradition, especially as SR1 was very strongly based upon the conflict between the NAN and the remainder of the USA.
Similarly, it made sense that location sourcebooks for places such as the UK and Germany came up with local colour replacements for shamanism in the form of druidism and witchcraft (once again, believe systems with a very strong connection to magic).
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Furthermore, religion would define the way in which a lot of people interpret the existance and use of magic (just like the Native American shamans interpret magic in terms of their mentor spirits), providing quick tradition definitions for them and a bit of flavour text validates the choice to play a religious mage that doesn't practice hermeticism or the pet religion of SR.
The real question is why it took until SR4 to include some of the most important perception defining forces in the world in an element of Shadowrun that claims that it is based on the beliefs and perceptions of the character using it. It's almost like you despise the fact that SR4 makes an attempt to incorporate more character choice.
The real question is why it took until SR4 to include some of the most important perception defining forces in the world in an element of Shadowrun that claims that it is based on the beliefs and perceptions of the character using it. It's almost like you despise the fact that SR4 makes an attempt to incorporate more character choice.
No, i certainly don't.
In fact, i'm fine with SR4 offering more character choices.
They are not always the choices i've been waiting for all the time, but in general, i don't mind that the religious traditions are there.
Some of them, like Quabalist magic and Christian theurgy, are excellent writeups within the limited space SM offers each tradition.
It's just that i wish there would be more completely secular, scientific traditions besides hermeticism, chaos magic and wuxia and that i would love to see more ideas to flesh out all the presented traditions and would be looking forward to future supplements dealing with those issues.
I agree on the notion brought up here that canon fluff can be confining, but that can be worked around if you manage to portray the different aspects, the conflicting subsets of various traditions.
It would be easily imaginable that one can fill an entire chapter with various research approaches to hermetic magical theory alone.
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Smeg isn't a made up word. Smeg is a shortened form of "smegma", a term referred to dried up semen found beneath the foreskin
Actually, smegma is not made up of dried up semen, but is a secretion by glands under the foreskin, to a lesser extend on the tip of the penis and also within the vagina, which also makes the slang term dick cheese, or its German equivalent Eichelkäse, kinda incorrect.