Technomancy

[Hadeshorn]

So, I've been thinking about something.

How about making a focused practioner or minor talent that does technomancy stuff, sort of like Bob's Radio/Baby Monitor and stuff?  Someone who is actually able to mix magic and tech, rather than have them befuddle each other.  Obviously this would be very limited, no turning laptops into portals to the Nevernever or anything like that.  More basic items and such.

[UmbraLux]

Why limited to basic stuff?  Consider someone like this:

Aspects:  Talking to the Spirit of the Machine; People are Harder to Understand than Electronics; Watson is My Friend at IBM;
Powers:  Sponsored Magic (Spirit of the Machine)

Give the Spirit of the Machine an agenda and you have the beginnings of a technomancer. 

[JayTee]

An unwary Technomancer could end up mistakenly creating a hyper-inteliginet, globally distributed (through the internet) AI/Spirit hybrid hellbent on conquering the Nevernever and/or humanity through the use of equally advanced robot/constructs.

If that isn't a great story hook, then I don't know WHAT is!

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Not a bad idea for a campaign that isn't afraid of house rules but it directly contradicts canon at the moment.  A few more books and Butters and Bob may change all that but for now characters and NPCs using it wouldn't be portable to campaigns sticking close to canon.

[sinker]

It always confuses me when people look at this concept and say that there's no way. In my experience a technomancer is not a mage that can use tech. Usually a technomancer takes technology and reworks it to do something magical (like Butters' radio once had a different use). If it has a new magical use, and not it's old technological use then what does the fact that it was originally tech matter? Seems to me that a technomancer could simply be a crafter that uses tech as a base.

[Sanctaphrax]

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,27718.0.html

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,18301.msg825285.html#msg825285

[The Mighty Buzzard]

It always confuses me when people look at this concept and say that there's no way. In my experience a technomancer is not a mage that can use tech. Usually a technomancer takes technology and reworks it to do something magical (like Butters' radio once had a different use). If it has a new magical use, and not it's old technological use then what does the fact that it was originally tech matter? Seems to me that a technomancer could simply be a crafter that uses tech as a base.

Otherwise working tech continuing to work is what I meant.  Using the radio was likely appropriate because everyone believes that radios are for hearing people through.  Makes it a good thaumaturgical component but it's not likely to ever work as a normal radio again.

[Rubycon]

When we see at the evolution of wizards, they already changed when you look at their hexing. While medevial wizard hexed crops and fields modern wizard hex technology. From what we know (and what was discussed in the threads showed by sanctaphrax) it is a siede effect of their "faith" in magic. So, evolution spinned forward, at some point in time wizards will not hex technology but something entirely different.
So a character could be the first of this kind of "New Wizard". I personally had the concept of a scientist being sponsored by an outsider becoming a technomancer. As this scientist has no clue of outsiders, magic or anything else related to this, he just grabbed the oppurtunity and now pay the consequences. I'm planning to use him as a major npc in a later part of my campaign (just started).

[Hadeshorn]

Yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of taking tech items and putting a magical spin on them that allows them to do magical things similar to their base use, ie. the spirit radio/baby monitor.

Some ideas off the top of my head:

Lightning rod that absorbs and redirects ambient electricty
Metal detector that creates magnetic or seismic waves
Flashlight that actually blinds people or works to counter invisibility or reveals spirits

In a way, it would be some hybrid of sponsored magic/faith.  There are lots of mention that a wizards faith in his magic is key.  Suppose you had someone akin to the people in the new "Sorcerer's Apprentice" who believe that magic is really an extension of physics, that by using more of their brain they can manipulate the world around them.  They create fire by causing molecules to accelerate, so on and so forth.

[sinker]

Using the radio was likely appropriate because everyone believes that radios are for hearing people through.  Makes it a good thaumaturgical component but it's not likely to ever work as a normal radio again.

That's just my point though. I have never seen in any other setting a "Technomancer" that didn't overwrite (so to speak) the original purpose of the tech to create something magical. If this is our common definition of technomancer then there's no reason why one wouldn't work.

Lightning rod that absorbs and redirects ambient electricty
Metal detector that creates magnetic or seismic waves
Flashlight that actually blinds people or works to counter invisibility or reveals spirits

Every one of these could work within cannon. They're just enchanted items with a sciencey spin.

[The Mighty Buzzard]

That's just my point though. I have never seen in any other setting a "Technomancer" that didn't overwrite (so to speak) the original purpose of the tech to create something magical. If this is our common definition of technomancer then there's no reason why one wouldn't work.

To be clear, you're talking about effectively using tech things as thaumaturgic props (like with the pointing bit of a locater spell) with no concern that it would almost certainly fry every formerly functional bit of electronics?  Sounds fine by me.

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Yeah, I was thinking more along the lines of taking tech items and putting a magical spin on them that allows them to do magical things similar to their base use, ie. the spirit radio/baby monitor.

Some ideas off the top of my head:

Lightning rod that absorbs and redirects ambient electricty
Metal detector that creates magnetic or seismic waves
Flashlight that actually blinds people or works to counter invisibility or reveals spirits

In a way, it would be some hybrid of sponsored magic/faith.  There are lots of mention that a wizards faith in his magic is key.  Suppose you had someone akin to the people in the new "Sorcerer's Apprentice" who believe that magic is really an extension of physics, that by using more of their brain they can manipulate the world around them.  They create fire by causing molecules to accelerate, so on and so forth.

That's not really a hybrid of anything, that's just normal old thaumaturgy.  Using something in a spell because of the idea it represents in the wizard's mind isn't about faith, unless they believe it is, it's just a mental post-it so the wizard doesn't have to keep everything visualized in their mind.

And yeah, I could see some of the more modernly educated wizards believing they understand chemistry and physics enough to base their magic on them rather than the traditional elements of their region.  They're probably wrong but believing you understand something is more important than actually understanding it in magic.  Harry himself says it's all about moving energy around and that's basically all physics and chemistry are.

You'd probably have to spend some time thinking on it and hashing it out with your GM though.  Budding M theorists might want to use one all-inclusive element, for instance, but that would render them quite screwed on refinement tiering.

[Silverblaze]

Smacks of Skynet or Hank Pym creating Ultron.

Not a bad thing, just what it reminds me of.

I like the idea of a technomancer.

If you want it to be a darker power or one without morality.  It could want to replace organic life with synthetic.  It just doesn't need to tell you that.

EDITS: typos

[Pbartender]

So, I've been thinking about something.

How about making a focused practioner or minor talent that does technomancy stuff, sort of like Bob's Radio/Baby Monitor and stuff?  Someone who is actually able to mix magic and tech, rather than have them befuddle each other.  Obviously this would be very limited, no turning laptops into portals to the Nevernever or anything like that.  More basic items and such.

Not quite exactly what you're looking for, but it might give you some ideas...  http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,28519.0.html