Dumb questions time, since I couldn't really find what I wanted to know about the topic in the way of awakening triggers.

I understand Latent Awakening SHOULD be bought at chargen but is it feasible to get it while the campaign is already running? is it more of a story kind of thing or is it bought with purpose?

What kind of triggers would be necessary for causing such an awakening? From what I gather it seems to go everything from 'strong emotions due to *insert*' to 'I had an infusion and now I somehow haf magiks' I would like to attempt to get a character to emerge into the role but I need something that makes enough sense for this to happen.

Does coming into contact with a magical artifact (no prior contact with magical influences) cause it to happen?

How traumatic/stressful must the experience be? I see lots of RP potential here.

Do cybered characters HAVE to take the Way of the Burnout if they awaken?

From a GM's standpoint what would need to be addressed (our GM is not experienced with magic characters, but is allowing adepts) I understand its up to the GM to give you your 1st Power and your tradition?

If there's more please feel free to add on. This stuff is pretty dern new to me too...

The exact trigger is up to the GM &, if the GM chooses, the PC. Ideally something Traumatic or massive to the character causes the forces that had been hidden, maybe even a DNA strand to activate causing the Awakening in the character & finding out he has magic.

Cyber'd character do not NEED to take the Way of the Burnout, but by doing so it can really help some of that essence loss that will screw with them.

things to take into account as a GM: Magician, Adept or Mystic Adept, once chosen, how will the addition of this effect the party make up, how will the character's past color their vision of magic, Most Adept powers are pretty minor in the world overall. But they can really boost a character's possible overall personal power compared to the group.

If you want an easy good first power that can go with the Awakening, suggest the GM give the Astral Perception power. the GM can use the power to orient the character to the magic world, by saying the power activates automatically & suddenly the character is seeing things in the Astral world, mind you this can disorient a person prety easily so ideally it happens in a non-combat situation.

The Burnout's Way is available only if you've lost two Magic points due to augmentation and such. By RAW, just being two points shy on your Essence when you awaken doesn't qualify you for this quality, though I do expect there are GMs out there that'll let this slide.

No, because newly awakened player characters in this manner start with a magic of 1. Regardless of essence (provided they have at least 1).

a savvy player could argue that he has lost 2 magic in potentia, but only if the GM would allow it

If the character in question has had eyes and ears replaced with cyber, how would this work out per se?

Astral Perception does not use the Eyes and Ears, it is a Psychic Sense. *shrug*

Perhaps I took 'perception' a little too literally there

Indeed. Even blind magicians can see the astral.

Which is why ghouls are threatening at all (they're essentially blind)... Well except that predatory sense of scent and keen hearing.

And the fact that they are stupid fast, and often hunt in packs.

Uh, where did you get that from? Ghouls aren't any faster then their non-infected counterpart...
Harvesters on the other hand...

Nahh... Every time we run into Ghouls, I end up losing a character, because the character gets swarmed. The character takes his action, then there are 5 ghouls eating hime. Fortunately, I have only lost 2 characters to Ghouls, but that is how both encounters ended (with the 2nd Encounter resulting in the dead character being possessed by a Shedim and attacking the rest of the group). And ironically, My Character is generally the only one to actually die from ghoul Attacks. *shakes Head*

It is just a running theme, I guess.
I hate Ghouls.

In my old group, the two people who did GM Shadowrun ended up setting the other's character on fire almost every game.

And it wasn't always on purpose.

("What did you expect, Jim? I said that you were going up against hellhounds!")

Indeed...