Shadowrun and Old-School Magicians..

[Raithe]

With the upswing in Deus Ex material of late, I've been poking around at the old Shadowrun material.. and I got struck by a totally random question..

 

I mean, the last decade now the Stage/Street magician, the grand illusionist and such have all been quite the hit in popular culture.

But what on earth do you think actually happens to that profession/life calling when the world suddenly discovers real magic in Shadowrun?

 

Does it fade away under the harsh lights and the Awakened spark of real levitation, magical pyrotechnics and the like?

Does sleight of hand and cunning technical ability with non-magical illusions linger on?

 

I mean, can you imagine the likes Pen & Teller or David Copperfield having to compete against people who can become invisible, throw flames around a stage, levitate objects around and stage and actually read the thoughts of the audience?

 

You have these groups of old-school Magicians.. the Magic Circle and such-like... Passing tricks and traditions down to promising kids.. with influence and contacts all over the place. Can you imagine how well they might have survived into the awakened world? Would people forget about simple sleight of hand tricks and technical illusion?

 

Heh, or the bunch of runners caught up against someone they think is an actual mage so they take what precautions they can..but never realise he's just an incredibly talented sleight of hand artist..

[Walsingham]

Maybe it's additive. So you have magic magicians augmented with the abilities of the street magician and hypnotist. Surely just more powerful?

[Raithe]

Maybe it's additive. So you have magic magicians augmented with the abilities of the street magician and hypnotist. Surely just more powerful?

 

That's always possible I suppose.. Although with the amount of prep and tech-wizadry a good stage magician needs I can't see it working too well on the fly.. but it could be funky as an idea for some set-up location..

 

I guess with the small amount of actual Awakened talents in the SR world it might not matter overmuch.. but it was a random area that struck me.

 

SR make pains to talk about music, trideo, and sports in the world.. I just couldn't recall anything about the slight of hand / stage magic being mentioned as such.. Something to kick around at random times when I'm in the right mood to think about it I guess.

 

Or maybe I've been watching too much of The Cape recently and thinking how a few smoke pellets combined with triggered Invisibility spells could look..