As much as I like Shadowrun’s magic system for delving into the how and why of what magic is and how it works, it has some problems. Mainly, it tries much too hard to be “one size fits all” at the expense of allowing the existence of traditions that are actually unique from one another, instead of near clones using the same, barely-varying template; it has a few other problems as well. This alternative approach to magic in the Sixth World is designed to change that. All of the Karma Points figures below are in SR4 costs as I’ve only purchased some of the SR5 books.
“Welcome to McMagics, Can I Take Your Order?”
Picking a tradition in Shadowrun reminds me a lot of ordering fast food. “Ok, for $9.99, you get one main dish, three sides dishes and a drink. Pick your items and pay the cashier. Next!” You get some limited choices, but each plate is much like any other. This has always struck me as not only an unimaginative cookie-cutter approach, but also not very…well, magical, either. The solution? Drop the “one size for everyone” mentality and build each tradition separately. Or, more accurately, let each player build how they interpret the paradigm of their tradition to be. How do we do this? Well, instead of bland, standardized packages (you’d think one of the megacorps designed this system – by committee), we go to strictly À la carte pricing; you pay for what you want. And if you want more, you pay more. It’s that simple.
To start, if you want to be a magician (we’ll just touch upon “Full Magicians” here – if you’re looking to build a Mystic Adept or the like, feel free to tweak costs accordingly), you pay 15 KP for the Magician quality. This just grants you the ability to cast spells, conjure spirits, perceive astral space, and project astrally. But, until you learn spells (by paying KP to learn each spell), you won’t be casting any.
As for spirits, until you learn how to conjure spirits (by paying KP to learn to conjure each type of spirit you want to be able to call upon), you won’t be conjuring them, either. So you start out just being able to perceive astral space and astrally project yourself; I’d start looking for a teacher, posthaste, and save up some leftover KP in your build.
Spells and Spirits
Learning spells is relatively straightforward, and requires no departure from the existing rules. You start out knowing no spells unless you pay 5 KP per spell to know its formula and thus be able to cast it.
The rules for spirits require some more substantial reworking, however. As per the SR4 Core Rules, pp. 169 – 170: “A tradition associates each of its spirit types with a category of magic. These associations serve to color how that tradition views a particular type of spirit. They also limit how a bound spirit of that type may serve a magician of that tradition.” I have to say, this seems like one heck of an artificial limitation. If one tradition associates, say, Earth spirits for Health magic but another tradition associates Earth spirits for Manipulation magic, they can each clearly see that Earth spirits have more uses than the one category they’re choosing to limit them to, and so the whole thing just makes no sense.
Even more restrictive is how spirits are conjured. Do you want to have your spirits interact with the material world via Materialization or Possession? Pick one, because you can’t have both! But why not? Because…um…reasons, that’s why! This is just yet another case of the cookie-cutter mentality behind the design of magical traditions.
Instead of this system of artificially-limited spirit usage, you pay 15 KP for each type of spirit (Earth, Air, Fire, Water, etc.) that you want to be able to conjure. When you do summon them, you can use them for whatever you want, though naturally some spirits are, by their natures, better at some things than others; I might very well ask a Fire spirit to toast some ghouls for me, but I’d think twice about asking it to “lay hands upon me” for a healing spell. :-) Under this system, you pay more for access to spirits, but your use of them is unrestricted, and if you want to be able to conjure every type of spirit, instead of just 5 of them, you can – if you feel like paying the KP for it.
As for what form your summoned spirits will take, pay 15 KP for either Materialization or Possession or pay 30 KP and get both; in this case, when you summon a spirit you choose which method it will use to appear in the material world.
Just Keep Initiating Until You Finally Get it Right!
Another idea that has never made much sense to me is initiating multiple times. Allow me to consult a dictionary:
Initiate:
Verb (used with object), initiated, initiating.
1. to begin, set going, or originate.
2. to introduce into the knowledge of some art or subject.
3. to admit or accept with formal rites into an organization or group, secret knowledge, adult society, etc.
If you’ve already been “initiated into the deeper mysteries of magic”, then why the heck should you keep doing it again and again? Were you not paying attention the first time? Maybe magicians should take better notes in class. But again, the fix is simple. Pay 15 KP for initiation, and you gain access to the metaplanes and the ability to learn metamagic techniques; this is a one-time fee. Once you’ve been initiated, you don’t need to do it again.
This also fixes a blatantly “game mechanics feel” that has been a part of the society of the campaign setting, and which I’ve never liked. To wit, it would be completely in-character for magicians in the Sixth World to have the following conversation: “So, how many times have you initiated? Three so far? Ok, that means you know exactly three metamagic techniques – which three did you pick?” The phrase “life is like an RPG” is apparently very true in the Sixth World. A more “organic” look-and-feel would be to use something like the Optional Rules for Learning Metamagic in Street Magic (pp. 52, 133), and that is essentially what I’m advocating here. If you want to learn a metamagic technique, learn it from a teacher or buy access to the formula (and pay 15 KP for each technique).
This also gets rid of some clunky mechanics, and simplifies gameplay. Take the Flexible Signature metamagic technique – every runner magician ought to have this in order to leave behind no magical signatures, that is if they don’t want Lone Star on their trail after every job. As per the canon rules, you have to either constantly limit the Force rating of your spells to no more than your Initiate rating or this ability isn’t all that useful. But really, do you know how to do it or not? You do? Great! Then do it and stop worrying about this “matching the level” nonsense. If you have a metamagic ability, you can apply it to your spells. In any case where there’s a contested roll that would involve your combined Magic + Initiate ratings, just use your Magic rating. What’s that, you say? You like having a high combined Magic + Initiate rating to win spell duels? Well then, start buying a higher Magic rating – it’s (New Rating * 3 KP), just like any other attribute; the maximum Magic rating you can ultimately have is whatever your GM decides it can be.
A Unified Cost Structure
Again, in this revised approach, you only pay for what you want, and if you want more, you pay more. I recommend pricing everything in KP, to keep it simple; Shadowrun’s approach of having more than one “point buy” system in the game is needlessly confusing and just adds to unnecessary bookkeeping.
Qualities / Components to Purchase
• Magician Quality (grants the ability to cast spells, conjure spirits, perceive astral space, and astrally project) (15 KP)
• Summon Spirits via Materialization (15 KP)
• Summon Spirits via Possession (15 KP)
• Learn to Summon a Specific Type of Spirit (15 KP)
• Learn a Spell (5 KP)
• Initiation (15 KP)
• Learn a Metamagic Technique (15 KP)
