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Message no. 1
From: Shaun E. Gilroy shaung@**********.net
Subject: Psionics 2 (with a little bit of life imitating game
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 13:11:01 -0500
At 12:53 PM 2/16/99 -0500, you wrote:
[snip occult/psionics info]
>>
>So, what you're saying, basically, is that, if people did indeed have these
>"psychic" powers, nowadays, in our modern world, it's because they're of the
>select few that have already started becoming magically active?
>
>If that's not what you're saying, then it is what I'm saying. I would most
>definitely say that psionics falls under the category of being magically
>active. But, that's just me, who knows, maybe FASA will address this in
>Magic in the Shadows (if it ever comes out)

That would be my stance on the issue: "Psionics is just metahumanity's
attempt to rationalize the unexplainable; to explain away the things that
go bump in the night (now that they've started to make noise again :)."

But, serriously, do you think anyone with the mental discipline to produce
kinetic energy by force of will would be hanging out in bars, ambushing
shadowrunners for an extra 5000Y on the credstick or to settle a grudge?

If such a thing were possible, I would say that that personage would be
acting as a buddha-type figure. I expect it would be really hard to work
up such abilities and therefore a consuming past time not for the spiteful,
short-sighted and un-enlightened.

The thing is people usually turn to crime and shadowrunning because its
good, quick money when they can't make a living legally.

If I were so in tune with my physiology, sustenence would no longer be an
issue and I think I would be above such things as money and shadowrunning
--but I don't know that for sure, because I'm not there >:)


>Kyoto the Angel
>AIM: AngelKyoto
>ICQ: 29713335


Shaun Gilroy [shaung@**********.net]
Online Technologies Corp.
Message no. 2
From: Stuart M. Willis hbiki@****.geocities.com
Subject: Psionics 2 (with a little bit of life imitating game
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 21:01:09 +1100
Bruce doth spewth:

>I really enjoyed the bit about the Western mytholgical figures in a
>Mayan calendar slingng totem magic :)

I'm gonna come clean, it wasn't my observation. It was from a
preview-review of Shadowrun Second Edition in Dragon Magazine many years
back.

:-)

[Incidently, the preview was what convinced me to buy SR2 in the first place]

>SR magic should be expanded to allow for other tradtions IMHO. what I
>would like to see are rules for
> designing other traditions or an expansion on same.

Apparently FASA are working on a Aboriginal magick system {1} which
could/should be nice.

In fact, after the release of MitS I plan to write some chaos magick rules
based on the works of Austin Owen Spare (unless, of course, Kenson includes
the ideas of chaos magick into MitS which is a distinct possibility given
his background). Hmm. Finally the phrase 'sigil to the will' will come into
common useage. :-)

I don't think there can be standardised rules for designing other
traditions - because, by nature, the traditions are going to be wholly
different; even if they are working within the one Astral Space, from what
Awakenings implied, Magick is all about belief, and belief/will is going to
manifest itself very differently even within the same space (witness the
hermetic, shamanic, and voudun [sp?] divide].

Best bet is to simply read up lots on a tradition, make modifications to
the existing magic systems based on your knowledge, and experiment until
you get a nice game balance without completly sacrificing the ideology of a
magic system.


IMNSHO [yes, I use it too] a net.book of playtested 'new' magickal
traditions would be a worthy project to do after MitS.

As long as I can do a chapter on the Temple ov Psychick Youth so I can take
the piss...

care,
s.

{1} As in Australian Aboriginals. While Kurri is a preferred term, it is
the name of the Aboriginal people of Sydney [I think?], rather than of
Australia per se.

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