| From: | Max Rible <cheshire@*****.com> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Working Mages (was Re: Gemstones and Spirit...) |
| Date: | Wed, 09 Oct 1996 15:13:01 -0800 |
>For example... Shamans or Mages hiring themselves out to companies (or
>forming these companies on their own) to dig for precious gems and
>minerals... It wouldn't take a shaman long to completely dig up an area of
>all it's precious resources...
I don't believe a spirit would help in digging out all the natural resources
of an area. However, I suspect a spirit would be quite happy to help pick
out individual good examples of what a shaman is looking for to aid in
proper ecological management of an area? Sounds good to me.
>Now, as I said, these seem legal, but could be abusive, so for all those out
>there that may be upset at my giving your players evil ideas... here's
>something of a solution...
>Vengeful nature spirits or elementals out to get the character for pillaging
>the natural resources... or a free spirit, or whatever...
Of course! In fact, the spirit might've been freed by a shaman pulling
the same stunt and getting geeked by ecoterrorists...
>Well, what do you think about that? Questions, comments, and flames
>accepted, but not necesarily welcomed...:):):)
You're beginning to get into something that I'm currently exploring in
Shadowrun. Basically, FASA created some statistics about mages and didn't
do much of a followthrough. If magicians are one in a thousand (and I
extrapolate adepts to be four in a thousand, with the other five in a
thousand going untrained), that means they're about half as common as
doctors. Damn few mages are going to become wage mages working in security
when they could get high-paying jobs doing all sorts of other things
for nuyen. Being magically active is very close to being a ticket to
a High lifestyle; this sort of temptation should exist for PC mages.
(I'd expect about one healing magician to every three or four MD's at a
hospital.)
Let me do a quick copy-paste from my post on this on Shadowland:
Full magicians can get nearly any sort of magical work.
Sorcery Adepts will be very popular for spellcasting jobs, which can
include work in engineering, healing, entertainment, fashion...
Conjuring Adepts will be a bit more limited. A Hermetic Conjuring Adept
could end up summoning elementals for security work and then going off to
twiddle his thumbs; a shamanic Conjuring Adept could do similar work. (Nature
spirits might be very popular to hire for their Guard work for sensitive tasks.)
Enchanting Adepts can make huge amounts of money refining orichalcum.
(Take a look at the numbers; once an Enchanting Adept hits about grade 2 of
initiation-- and what else are they going to spend their karma on?-- they can
churn out the orichalcum.) The orichalcum gets used to reduce the first bonding
cost of items they enchant to 1 karma, supplied by the person who commissions the
item. (Karma is very expensive, so the secondhand magical item trade should be
impressive.)
Fire Adepts and Shamanic Adepts who have access to combat spells could be popular in
mining, demolitions, and firefighting work.
Air Adepts and Shamanic Adepts who have access to detection spells could
be popular in investigatory work. I expect there are accredited truthsayers who
will go to business meetings and cast Detect Lie for pay. (Their professional
reputation depends on never lying about what they discover, and people might
bring multiple ones to the same meeting.) Also, there will probably be boards
of magical inspectors with spells to detect termites inside houses, strain on
bridges, and similar such things that are difficult to ascertain without
extensive analysis.
Water Adepts and Shamanic Adepts who have access to illusion spells would
be most popular in the entertainment industry, but could also find work as
anaesthesiologists. (Rather than risking the effects of chemical anaesthesia,
why not just cause someone to feel no pain or even no sensation? All you have
to do is have a magical Adept sitting there sustaining the spell for the whole
operation.)
Earth Adepts and Shamanic Adepts who have access to manipulation spells
could end up in demolitions, firefighting, and mining like Fire Adepts, but
they'd also be very popular in the engineering disciplines, where they could
churn out a prototype far faster than it could be manufactured.
Astral Adepts could find work as investigators as well, but due to the
fact that they're just an elemental adept who can't cast spells or summon
spirits, they're not as valuable. Still, having someone who can just assense
is worth money.
Physical Adepts often wind up as artists and athletes.
There'll be a strong pull of magical types toward the cities where they can
find work, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see a small town where the
sheriff is a Fire Adept who can sling stun bolts into criminals, or where the
fire department is mostly one Earth Adept who has spells for putting out fires,
holding up buildings that are about to collapse, and so on. (Heck, the sheriff
might even have some water-aspected combat spells to help put out the fires...)
--
%%% Max Rible %%% cheshire@*****.com %%% http://www.amurgsval.org/~cheshire %%%
%%% "Before enlightenment: sharpen claws, catch mice. %%%
%%% After enlightenment: sharpen claws, catch mice." - me %%%
