McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Technomancy

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Lanodantheon:
I was rereading some old threads and one of them mentioned that something people wanted to see more in Urban Fantasy is "Technomancy done right" or "done well".


Question I have is...what does that mean? I'm not as well read as I want to be at the moment. The only real Technomancy I've seen is Willow in Buffy the few times she used it and Technomancers in Shadowrun(a Game I've never really played)


What kind of Technomancy would be cool to see?


What would be good limits for said Technomancy?


What are poor examples of Technomancy?

The Corvidian:
One version of Technomancy that has appeared in media is from BABYLON 5, and it deals with a group of cyborgs who use Sufficently Advanced Technology. They used alot of occult symbology in the use of there tech.

Most of rest that I have seen tends to be in roleplaying games.

Haru:
There might be a problem with terminology, so I'll try to start there. For me, Technomancy is what shadowrun made of it. Mostly, because that's where I got introduced to the idea, but even after thinking about it for a while, it is what I would do with the term. Basically, it means a new form of humans, evolved to a level, where they can communicate with electronics, as though they were living entities. They can enter the internet in their mind, if there is a wifi connection around. They don't need a computer, they are the computer. That is in a nutshell, what the term means to me. This is, what I see Willow do, although through magic rather than innate talent.

And then there's Magitech. The idea behind Magitech is the combination of magic and technology, rather than the often used trope of them not going together, to create fantastic machines. Steam/Arcane-punk often falls into this. Basically it is technical applications of magical principles described in the world. Sundered skies does this pretty good, if I remember correctly.
A more modern idea would be the use of smartphones to cast spells. You want to throw a fireball at a toad demon? There's an app for that. Need a portal to the outer plains? Yes, there is an app for that as well. At the last con I was, a guy talked to me about a Cthullhu Now adaptation (at least I think it was) that did this. Yes, there really is an App for everthing. Laundry, I believe it was called.

Limits should be, where the story needs them to be, otherwise you could discuss the "reality" of fictitious laws of nature all day long, which I don't think should be the point.

LizW65:
The only instance of this I can think of off the top of my head is in Anton Strout's Dead series, in which the character Jane is a technomancer who can tap into computers, electrical systems, and so on and make them do things.  Whether this is a good example or not I've no idea, since I have nothing to compare it with.

The Corvidian:
There is Kelly McCullough's Ravirn series.

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