How Would The PC Learn Magic? (The Hermetic Kind)

[I Suck at This Game]

Yo SR:HK board, mind answering a lore/fluff question?

How would our main character learn magic? From what I gather mages are the book smart thinky magic users, while shamans are the more go with your gut, heart of the cards type.

So a shaman awakens, a spirit finds him, or he finds a spirit or what ever, then BOOM he starts picking up on the whole, fireball and haste shtick. But what about mages? Do they go to mage school? Do they go into an apprenticeship? What about our character? Where would a slum dwelling roach like the PC learn all of this bookish hermetic stuff?

[Alex]

Really don't think there much room in the narrative for that kind of education, but don't need to be learn'd to cast those "mage" spells. Can learn them from guidance from spirits or have them bestowed upon you by you're Idol.

[superfightingrobot]

In Shadowrun lore, PCs either awaken to magic or they don't. It's nothing you can learn if you don't have the talent/inclination for it. That's why in the tabletop character creation you have the option of allocating one of your priorities to having Magic.

[Alex]

True but i think hes asking less how can i become magical and more if i'm magical how can i learn to throw a fireball.

[superfightingrobot]

From the SR5 Core Rulebook, 2nd printing:

New spells, rituals, or alchemical preparations (p. 316) can be learned by studying spell formulae or finding some mentor (either a spirit or another Awakened individual) to teach you. Some magicians may be lucky enough to have a library of collected scrolls and grimoires passed down from previous generations. They also could have an Awakened family member teach them a new spell. For the rest of the Awakened, there are online communities such as SpellSource and Magiknet that hold collections of formulae submitted from various traditions. These networks are generally supported by one or more corporations, meaning that in order to use it, you’ll need have a legal SIN and a license to practice magic. Established magicians sometimes work in the grey area of teaching unlicensed magicians, picking up a little extra nuyen by passing on
knowledge to someone not quite as experienced.

[I Suck at This Game]

Originally posted by Alex:

True but i think hes asking less how can i become magical and more if i'm magical how can i learn to throw a fireball.

This for the most part. I've read that mages view magic in a more book-ish science-y way. So where would our PC, who grew up on the streets, learn to be a mage. Like she/he awakened, they feel the magic mojo, but where would they learn to actually use that magic?

[Antiquated_Agent]

The PC could've learned a bit of theory early on and built upon it or developed there own system later on.

[superfightingrobot]

Originally posted by I Suck At This Game:

Originally posted by Alex:

True but i think hes asking less how can i become magical and more if i'm magical how can i learn to throw a fireball.

This for the most part. I've read that mages view magic in a more book-ish science-y way. So where would our PC, who grew up on the streets, learn to be a mage. Like she/he awakened, they feel the magic mojo, but where would they learn to actually use that magic?

I already answered with the information directly from the core rulebok in post #4.

[I Suck at This Game]

Originally posted by superfightingrobot:

Originally posted by I Suck At This Game:

This for the most part. I've read that mages view magic in a more book-ish science-y way. So where would our PC, who grew up on the streets, learn to be a mage. Like she/he awakened, they feel the magic mojo, but where would they learn to actually use that magic?

I already answered with the information directly from the core rulebok in post #4.

Yup! I gotcha!

[Honzou]

I thought that in Shadowrun there were many "schools" of "hermetic" magic where among them there was one or two that allowed hermetic magic to be casted similar to how Shamans do it...

[Sohei]

There are also gangs of petty mages that share basic training in magic with their members. Dragonfall has one example of such a gang.

[shinros]

You guys have to remeber PC and Duncan has lived with raymond for quite some time before they went on their "adventure". Plenty of time to study etc if you had the talent for it.

[Drewmo]

Honzou is sort of right. In Shadowrun lore, Magic is not something that just anyone can learn to do. You have to be born with the talent, then you can, through instruction, guidance, or intuition and practice, improve that talent. There are many, many, MANY spellcasting tradition in the tabletop RPG, from voodoo to qabbalism to Christian theurgy, and many of them are placed into the broader "hermetic" or "shamanic" categories.

For my own part, I am playing a mage right now, and I like to imagine that he practices the tradition of chaos magic. Basically the jeet-kun-do of spellcasting, that teaches you should borrow from many traditions, pick up what works, discard what doesn't, and that magic is meant to be felt and practiced more than studied and understood.

[Geeked]

just looking at the video game, you get magic missile at first - so thats like a basic energy burst an initiate would be able to figure out by themselves. Beyond that, you buy spells from vendors - how that abstract plays out is up to interpretation i guess? Perhaps the vendor flashes it to the players mind once the money is spent - or its a scroll or gem or some focus - something the mage can learn from - that can't be put on the Matrix like a cake recipe.

in that - I imagine that a mage with no training could spend many, many years perfecting spells. So then, a safe way of trading magic for Nuyen is then developed - and a legacy of trade begins - time you could spend learning vs Nuyen for quick knowledge. Plus hippie types like Yoda could pass on knowledge for free of course.

anyone have any thoughts on what corporate mages learn? be funny if there were company policy on endorsed spells.

[Drewmo]

In the Shadowrun universe, mages learn their spells from spell formula that are tied to their spellcasting tradition, though this is understandably handwaved in the computer games. These can be recorded on scrolls, passed down via a mentor, or read off of a PDA. There wouldn't be anything stopping people from getting them from the matrix, but society has reached the extremes of a free market economy, so it's only barely conceivable that something so valuable would be distributed freely, and with the control corporations can exercise over the matrix, they would be quickly removed if they ever were widely circulated. On top of that, mages are often biased towards a specific medium or style of instruction based on their tradition. Shamans prefer to learn spells from mentor spirits, while Buddhist magicians invariably learn everything from a mentor, at least according to the "Street Grimoire" supplement for the game's latest edition.

As far as corporate mages, that is also going to be influenced by their tradition, though shamanic traditions are uncommon in the megacorps (with the exception of the Shinto tradition in the Japanacorps). Magicians are also a bit rarer than the video games would indicate. A lot of corporate mages aren't really lifers. Many of them came to the corp later in life, or were extracted from another corp. They often work like consultants in their area of expertise, meaning that they are recruited for the expertise they already possess, so they probably learn their spells the same way that everyone else does. That being said, once they do join up they would likely be given access to a large library of arcane knowledge, which would be one of the incentives to sign a corporate contract in the first place.

[////]

basically, mages are shamans who haven't found their totems yet.

as i understand, not every magically active person in this world is straight forward magic caster... that's why you can unlock magic skills even way later in game. you can even unlock totem later, role-play as if you was "called" at some point.