Where's the option that says: "We know *nothing* about them yet, other than they are grown-up Otaku and *possibly* work in a similar way, so how can you possibly tell?"

Oh, right. "mustardball" it is.

i voted "mustardball" because i've got very mixed feelings. i like otaku, but i really don't like the term "technomancers". i also dislike the rumor that's cropped up about technomancers being able to access the Matrix solely with the power of their brains. brains that are transformed to mimic computers are believable; brains that are transformed to mimic walkie-talkies are not.

Well keep in mind that Otaku are written with the exact same flavor text, and they still require *some* equipment to function. I don't think it's too much a strech to suggest that they still need the wireless comm device; they just don't need whatever the 2070 equivalent of the MPCP, persona programs, operational utilities, etc.

These terms they are coming up with are so childish and cliche I'm going to go vomit my mustardballs into the toilet.

Is SR pulling pages from Mage all of a sudden? What the heck?

Somehow it seems less cliché for a plain old-fashioned hardware-using decker to use the term than a quasi-mystical entity capable of accessing the neo-internet without a computer.

~J

wrhfbs dz lk, ;, ... Sorry, my brain just melted.


The saddest part is that by SR logic, and SR dev logic, that is a perfectly feasible explanation for such dreck.

Technomancer... new Lumiere PC coming to a SR game near you!

even if you assume that otaku brains have somehow gained the ability to detect light, you still have the problem of getting them to emit light, Charon. that means turning a brain into a lightbulb. i hope you see some of the problems inherent in that.

Silence, heathen!

You and your... facts... and... logic sicken me!

I mean, sure, so they can interpret RF (from microwave to whatever else) that reaches their brains (You think they get more tumors than normal people then?), but mfb makes a major point: How do they emit the RF back to the receivers?

you'll never get me to renounce my communist ways!

n/m.

Bad example.

Even otaku now need an ASIST converter to access the Matrix. It makes sense that they would also need a Commlink (or whatever) to access the Wireless Matrix. Neural activity isn't an electrical-only impulse, anyway... it's a combination of chemical receptors and electrochemical reactions.

Yet another nail in that coffin.

No adult otaku!
Make em be kids, and to access matrix 2 they need a data jack with a wifi card plugged into it.

I say they should need as much hardware as otaku do. If that is the case then they will be fine.

If they don’t need some form of transmitter (just like the otaku needed a data jack, a custom data jack with a raz override in fact) then it will be bad, I can cope however with long nerve chains acting as an antenna, transmitting and receiving RF signals.

If they use a magic attribute and are shown to be truly magical (as in they interact with the mana sphere) it will be all bad as that will be the end of the tech/magic dichotomy. Using the magic attribute purely as a mechanical device for them would not be a bad thing, just confusing.

Edward

They are Otaku. What's not to hate? Time to break out the Herring Cannon!

Well I suppose that as the Otaku grow up the concept of them grows up too. Maybe they even become a viable type, dare we say class, of PC? *shrug* If the Otaku manage to overcome the "fade" that opens up the possibilities of redefining how they work. So they can be redesigned as PCs instead of the NPCs they originally were.

Maybe i'm connecting too many dots, i haven't seen anyone pick up on the one item that really struck me. Am i out to lunch, or does that article seem to imply indirectly that now that the Otaku grew up some of them are going to have their driver's license?

I know they talked about blurring the decker/rigger line. This fluff bit seems to further confirm that. But an Otaku as a rigger somehow didn't occur to me before. It further fuels the question what differentiates between "hackers" that are matrix centric, drone centric, security system/device centric, and vehicle centric. Just Skills and possibily Attributes? Or will there be 'ware (even for otaku) that will help them specialize?

Technomancers = living Program Carriers.

Seriously, I'm sure they'll need a commlink but be able to get by without the full PDA/deck/thingy that traditional hackers need.

Also, Technomancer "riggers" are a sweet idea. *yoink!*

Otaku are shitty. If they are the predecessor of Techomancers then, by default, Technomancers will be shitty as well.

This is indisputable, absolute truth. Further, if you disagree even in the slightest, you are admiting sexual impotence as a massive, overweight greaseball.

And if you -designed- Technomancers, then a special room will be reserved for you in the nineth level of hell. Cocytus. Reserved for traitors, the like of Judas, Cassius, Brutus, and crackwhore game designers.

-RM

Stop holding it in. Let it out. Tell us how you feel.

Holy jeez. I don't even engage in that kind of vitriolic rambling.

I voted mustardball because, sometimes, a man's just gotta stand up for what he believes in.

As for the otaku technomancer thing... It all makes sense to me! The simple answer is, all otaku surge! That's right, they surge back into lightning bugs or cuddle fish or something, but only their heads. So they can emit light through chemical reactions naturally! Eh, it all makes sense now, doesn't it? Otaku, SURGE and 'hackers' all rolled into one, perfect mustardball.

‘We are dreamers, shapers, singers, and makers. We study the mysteries of laser and circuit, crystal and scanner, holographic demons and invocations of equations. These are the tools we employ and we know many things.'


Oh, wait - wrong forum - thats a Technomage.

Sorry...




I myself could care less - Never used them - I've considered using them as a plot hook/npc thing. *shrug*

Just like Surge - Don't use it, don't care that it's in the rules.

charon. microwaves and radio waves--the signal used by cellphones--are light. in order to connect to a wirless network, you need something that emits that type of light.

Like your eyes!

These kind of changes happen in only 5 years????

10 maybe 15 yes.

Let's lump all the technomancers in with all Deus's flunkies.

They can be the first against the wall when the revolution comes!!!

If i have my commlink installed in my ass invitro can i be an Otaku?

or will i still be a wannabe?

Whooppeeee!!!!!


I knew it!!!


Mama always told me i was headed for mediocrity!!!

exactly. it very much would take a sci-fi genius (or idiot) to justify throwing those signals far enough to be useful. the fact that radio waves are light is handy because it's easy to visualize (literally) the problems inherent in making someone's brain glow brightly enough to be easily detected at a distance. the brain is able to throw signals (sorta) over distances that are only discernable if you're using a microscope, which means they don't draw much power. you're talking about throwing signals from a completely different part of the spectrum for miles. not only does your lightbulb need to glow brightly enough to be seen from space, it has to glow in a color that it's not physically capable of glowing in.

If nerve impulses are measured in meters per second then the coordination of the legs running on broken ground would not be possible. You have to be talking at least hundreds of meters per second to get the instructions from the brain to the foot in time to avoid twisting your ankle far more often than my experience shows to be the case.

This however is still far les than the speed of light.

Edward

SR is placed in a world with Magic. How does a magician manipulate reality? - Where is his 'ware to transmit his will to his surroundings?

I, as well, am interested to see how they implement this world covering Matrix, and how they choose to interpret interaction with it.

But in a universe where you already accept the manipulation of invisible magical flows, I find it rather amusing to hear the vehement opposition of a similar technique to manipulate computers.

What if, and this is just speculation, you compare the magical permeation of the world, with the electronic and radiowaves permeating the world.

Both are invisible powers that pass through and around us all. Both can be used to achieve mystical effects, the electronic part we can easily identify with, and we tell ourselves that we all know something about the science of it. Meanwhile, a hermetic mage will claim that he knows the "science" behind magic. To the hermetic, science is applicable to both electronics and magic. - This is where he differs from the naysayers in this forum. You believe that you KNOW the rules of reality and fail to make the crossover into the SR universe.

If magic is percieved as a wavefront of energy, as it is also described to be, then its a short leap to accept that some Awakened people "accidentially" gets attuned to the wrong wavelength and find that they are in touch with the worlds electronics instead of the magical ditto.

These people will not show as magical, because they are attuned to a different wavelength, possibly provoked by the pervasive nature of electronic background noise that permeates the world.

There you have a rational explanation that fits within the SR universe.