I thought that only hermetic mages could call watchers. Is that from a previous edition? 'Cause it says "Any magician able to use Conjuring to summon spirits can summon watchers." (MITS 100) Am I missing something?

All characters capable of Conjuring can summon Watcher spirits and it was the same in 2nd Edition.

Thanks. I guess I don't know where I got that notion. Sorry.

Maybe from Watcher Conjuring Materials? They do mention that Psionics can also summon them and that Mental Forms might be a related species of spirit.

Considering that Watchers came out of a MIT&T lab, I'd guess the materials to be rather hermetic in appearance. A quartz crystal impregnated with dust from a shattered glass prism set into a glazed clay disc and a blank sheet of paper or something.

Maybe the original materials did, but it would still vary from tradition to tradition. They just developed the "formula" for doing it... and like any formula, the method of using it is different for each magician even though they can all use the exact same formula.

Well, they have existed for only 6 or 7 years in game time, but I guess you're right. Some Amerindians replaced the crystal with an eagle eye and use salmon eggs as the inhibitor instead of prism dust, and they often forgo the glaze and just paint the discs afterwards as the conduit. And sure, the wujen use mercury suspended in a jade on a porcelain disc... And the voodoo use snake eyes, venomous outside with water snake pupils and attach them to store bought paper plates with nutria hair...

I think Spit and dog poo should work fine.

LOL, that was good.

Summoner: "This shit costs a thousand nuyen?!'

Talismonger: "Yes, and it's awakened boogie droppings, not shit."

Summoner: "And this?"

Talismonger: "Er, well that's spit."

Summoner: "For a thousand smackers it better be dragon spit!"

Talismonger: "No, dragon spit is for fire elementals..."

"But we have some nice Dragon Poo for summoning Earth elementals"

Bah. All you really need is 4cc's of mouse blood and an egg. It has to be a fresh egg, though.

The watcher conjuring materials are only for the longer term summons right? You can conjure a watcher with nothing if you only need it for a couple of hours right?

Correct. I believe each unit of Watcher Conjuring Materials insures one week's duration. Even that's not a requirement; you can use a point of Good Karma in place of (or in addition to) each unit.

The method is a bit odd. If you want the longer duration, you need to use enough materials/karma to match the units of time you succeeded on your conjuring test. It takes one unit to change a force 9 watcher from a one hour life to a one week, but 7 to change the lifespan of a force 1 watcher from seven hours to seven weeks.

I wouldn't want to piss off anyone capable of Conjuring a Force 9 Watcher!

But, as was said earlier, they do not require materials to summon. The materials are there as an option (along with, or instead of spending Karma) to keep the Watcher around longer.

Bugs me hermetics can summon a spirit as one complex action. That's why the little buggers work for anyone who can conjure, they ignore the rules of each and every tradition.

Yes, to summon an elemental, but watcher spirits only take one action. That was my point, watchers don't follow any of the rules for listed traditions, but psionics come closest (voodoo as second).

Shamanic characters can summon Spirits that can cross Domain lines by using Invoking too.

Watchers are described as being different to normal Spirits, and are simple to summon for anyone with a minimum skill in Conjuring. I don't see this as being unbalancing in the slightest.

Why should Hermetics have the opportunity to have double the normal amount (12 or even more) of Spirits on hand while the Shaman has only one?