a while back i had a player want to play a technology based mage. with the way magic works in shadowrun a mage can't easily cast spells on technological items. at the time we couldn't really figure out a way to give him a way to be unique and actually have a prayer of affecting technology. but during my late night musings i think i may have found a halfway decent way of lowering those nasty TN's as part of a shaman/ascetic's abilities.

for every -1 TN to affect technology the caster can take +1 TN to affect all other targets or +1 drain for any spell cast on a non-techno target. up to a max of -6 TN for techno spread in any manner over the 2 choices. the choice is made at character generation and is permament.
can summon only spirits of man perhaps?

comments? suggestions? ideas to expand on what i put forth?

Eh, it seems kinda wishy-washy to me. How about this for a shamanistic totem:

Computer
Appearance and trappings: Shamanistic mask makes the mage's body appear to be covered in wires and computer chips. Computer shamans are big technophiles; foci tend to look like technological gadgets and the like.

Benefits: Reverse the numbers on the Object Resistence chart in the BBB. That is, computers and other highly processed objects have a OR of 4 or less, while natural objects have an OR of 10+. +2 die to summon spirits of man.

Drawbacks: -2 die for Health spells and all spirits other than spirits of Man.

How's that?

edit [put in wrong thread]

a computer totem. heh, bad religion, eat your heart out. all i need to do is click on you...

Had a few other thoughts on this while I was asleep. How's this for a more complicated computer totem:

Computer (Mk 2)
Appearance and trappings: Shamanistic mask makes the mage's body appear to be covered in wires and computer chips. Computer shamans are big technophiles; foci tend to look like technological gadgets and the like.

Benefits: Reverse the numbers on the Object Resistence chart in the BBB. That is, computers and other highly processed objects have a OR of 4 or less, while natural objects have an OR of 10+. Similarly, any spell that targets Essence now targets (6-Essence). For example, Heal, originally Target 10-Essence, for a Computer shaman is Target 4+Essence. This is considered a totem advantage.
+1 dice to detection spells. +2 die to summon spirits of man.

Drawbacks: Any spell that targets Body receives a TN penalty equal to the subject's total Essence, rounded down (note: this can actually be an advantage against cyberzombies). -2 die for Health spells and all spirits other than spirits of Man.


If you want a Hermatic school instead, just make the benefits and drawbacks the same, except the mage gets a bonus to earth elementals and a penalty to all other types of elementals. Sound good?

Um, isn't an Otaku a computer shaman, of sorts?

JaronK

I was thinking more along the lines of stealing the Virtual Adept from MtA.

His magic doesn't need to effect machines, but instead he MUST have a focus and they are all machines that work/dont work.

His centering skills could be computer/electronics, and he could have a really nice Power Focus in the form of a computer or other diagnostic tool.

His spirits could easily be "spirits of man" or even make up a new one just for him. A "Spirit of the Machine" could materialize as anthing from a tiny clockwork robot to ED-209 from robocop. Of course it's home domain would be "labratories" and such... and hte summoning of it would involve BUILDING it.

you mean something like this guy, Raife?

Looks like the Techno-Mage from Rifts™...

Something like that mfb, but that is a mage-adept thingy, and I was thinking more like a pure mage. But yeah, that's the general jist of it.