Living in the Digital Age

You know how much resides on modern technology. Without it, we’d still be living in the Iron Age. And, as it brought us out of this lack of civilization, so it can plunge us back into it. You can control it, make it work when you want to, and break it when you don’t. Your power increases with every new advance; just make sure you stay on top of it.

Technology is a mark of sophistication, the new separation between the haves and the have-nots. With each new invention, technology becomes powerful in more and different ways. The Internet was a major breakthrough in power for you—you now have so much information and international power at your fingertips. You’ve always had a knack for technology, and have increased that knack with information. Some say this is an outgrowth from Mechanomancy, but you know the truth—this is a powerful school, on it’s own, and in and of itself. The central paradox of Technomancy is that while technology can make things so much easier, it can also make them that much harder.

Technomancy Blast Style

The victim is zapped by electric shocks from all sources nearby. A point of damage is added for each nearby object powered by electricity and connected to a power supply. Nearby is defined differently for minor and significant blasts, so see them in their appropriate sections for more information.

Stats
Generate a Minor Charge: Use technology to make something easier. For the purpose of this, technology is anything that requires power from electricity in some way, shape, or form. So using a gun to kill someone wouldn’t help, but using a taser to kill someone might, if it qualifies under the next rule: if you could do it just as easily or more easily without the technology, it doesn’t count. So the taser only helps if it is better for killing this guy than a gun, for some reason. Basically, it would have to do more damage than a gun or any non-technological weapon would in this situation (unless your main goal in the fight isn’t to do damage/kill him, but instead to do something else, in which case you’ll have to figure out which is more effective). Note that it doesn’t matter how much damage is actually dealt, it’s the expected damage. So if the taser only does one damage, but it could do a maximum of 40, whereas a gun can do a maximum of only 30, then you get the charge. Using a computer to type a report only works if you can’t handwrite it, or if there is a noticeable benefit to typing. As always, the GM’s discretion rules whether you get the charge or not. Also, whether “It’s better than a gun because I have it with me and don’t have a gun with me” gives you a charge is up to the GM.
Alternatively, obtain a new piece of technology. It can’t be another copy of something you already have, and it can’t be poorer than something you already have. In other words, that new computer only works if it’s faster or more functional than the old one. A new blender that doesn’t blend as well as your old one only works if it has more functions. Again, the GM rules if there’s a question.
Generate a Significant Charge: Use technology to do something you couldn’t do without it. In this category, time is often an issue. If what you want to do is simply “Get from Florida to New York,” and you fly, it might not generate a charge because you could do that by walking. However, if you have a reason you need to “Get from Florida to New York in less than however many hours,” you can generate a significant charge by flying there. Similar rules often apply in conjunction with the Internet or TV news. If it’s important you find something out soon after it happens, you can grab a sig by finding it out electronically. On the other hand, if it’s not something you act on immediately, not finding out until someone brought the news on a pony wouldn’t be impossible, so you don’t get the charge (although you still get a minor).
Alternatively, obtain a new piece of technology which is well known on the day it is released (so getting a PS2 on the day it was released would have worked, as would getting a Pentium 4 on the day they come out).
Alternatively, invent or alter a piece of technology in a way that makes it better (easier to use or more functional in some way). Writing a program works just as well as mucking around inside of your computer and overclocking it.
Generate a Major Charge: Be the first one to use a piece of technology to do something that was formerly impossible (for example, if time travel becomes possible, a technomancer could net a major charge if he was the first one to use it).
Alternatively, invent something that becomes well known and in fairly common use (Bill Gates, if he is a technomancer, obtained one of these for each version of Windows, someone involved in inventing DVDs might have gotten one, someone at Blizzard might have gotten one for Warcraft III). This works if you have a fairly minor role as long as there are no other technomancers who were more closely involved. Each invention generates only one major charge, which goes to the technomancer who was most closely involved.
Note: You only obtain charges for any of these if no technomancy is involved. You don’t get the major, or even a significant or a minor, if your goal is to travel from Florida to New York in five minutes and you do it by casting a spell to make the plane much more effective (although this would probably cost a major anyway).
Taboo: Have a failure in any piece of technology make your life more difficult. You’re supposed to control the machines, not the other way around. However, this does not count if you are servicing the machine, knowing it’s broken, or if it is non-functional because of a spell you cast. Also, you only get tabooed once per breakage of any given piece of equipment. You lose all your charges if your computer crashes and stops working, but if you gain some before you start working on it again, you don’t lose them all when your first attempt to fix it fails or does not fix it completely. Also, you only break taboo if technology makes your life harder by failing. You won’t break taboo by encountering a door locked electronically, because it is merely fulfilling it’s function.
Random Magic Domain: Use magic to do anything a piece of technology to do. Or, use magic to make a piece of technology do something: work, break, improve, or even do something it can’t normally do.
Starting Charges: A Technomancer starts with five minor charges.
Charging Tips: The average technomancer can get at least a minor a day and a few significants a week, as long as he has goals which require the use of technology. Some days may net multiple sigs, while others may net none. Of course, if a technomancer isn’t busy, he can spend time improving technology and getting sigs that way.

Technomancy Minor Formula Spells

I read about it on the Internet
Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: The technomancer immediately knows any one piece of information that is anywhere on the Internet. This basically displays one webpage, which is found by the spell, inside the caster’s head. Simple knowledge (Fred’s phone number is 15555553535) is retained indefinitely, while more complicated knowledge (an map of the New York Subway System) is retained for half an hour, unless the caster spends that entire half hour committing it to memory.

If at first you don’t succeed, give it a good kick
Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: The caster can use this spell to fix any piece of technology which he is touching which is broken, and could be fixed normally. For example, if an electronic door won’t open because of breakage, the technomancer can lay his hand on it and fix it, as long as it could be fixed by a technician with his normal tools. Viruses can be purged from computers, and other minor troubles can also be fixed.

Ph33r my 1337 skillz
Cost: 2 minor charges
Effect: The caster can break any piece of technology. The breakage will stop it from functioning, and will be difficult to fix, while still being in range of the “If at first you don’t succeed, give it a good kick” spell.

Cower, brief machines
Cost: 2 minor charges
Effect: The caster can make a machine do anything within its normal power that he wants it to. This is mainly useful for bypassing passwords and electronic locks of any kind. However, it can also grant a computer a temporary connection to the Internet, or make a cell phone work no matter how far you are from a tower. When a time limit is applicable, it lasts thirty minutes.

Shocking
Cost: 2 minor charges
Effect: This is the technomancy minor blast. Electricity emerges from the caster’s fingertips and hits the target. Electricity from electronic devices supplied with power which are within five feet of the caster or the target joins in, adding a point of damage per device.

Technomancy Significant Formula Spells

Create a meme
Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: The caster names a web page when he casts that spell, and it immediately begins to work its way into the public consciousness. For one significant charge, the spell works for one day, during which about 1000 people see it. It will be spread by being posted on websites where it will attract attention and be clicked on. The caster can use up to five minor charges to increase the number of people who will view it by a thousand per day per charge, and an unlimited number of significant charges can be spent to increase the duration by two days per charge. (For example, if you spend 5 minor charges and 6 total significants, about 6000 people will see it per day for 11 days.) It may continue to spread past its duration if there is a reason for people to spread it (if it contains some mystery or entertainment value, generally).

Zap!
Cost: 1 significant charge
Effect: This is the Technomancy significant blast. It works like the minor blast, except any electronic device within 20 feet of the caster or target, rather than 5, adds a point of damage.

My computer hates me
Cost: 2 significant charges
Effect: Any piece of technology the target uses, for a number of days equal to the two numbers the technomancer roles to cast it added together plus a day for any additional significant charges added, has a 75% chance of malfunctioning. Things generally do not completely break, they merely fail to work for the target.

Mr. Fix-it
Cost: 2 significant charges
Effect: Fix any broken piece of technology by touching it, no matter how damaged it is. It will operate as well as it did when it came out of the box (or better, if there have been improvements made to it since then).

I just made a few small improvements
Cost: 3 significant charges
Effect: Either make a small, permanent improvement to a piece of technology (adding up to +4 to the damage of something, adding 10mph to something’s max speed, etc.) or make a large improvement for a day (adding up to +20 damage to something, adding 50mph to something’s max speed, etc.).

King of Machines
Cost: 5 significant charges
Effect: Make all nearby machinery of one type do anything it could possibly do (based on form, not normal function) for the next three hours (plus one hour per additional significant charge). Cables can become whips or trip-cords, any part of the machine connected to the power supply can generate electrical shocks, metal backbones can stretch out and re-form to create fighting machines, etc. These machines need to be connected to a power supply, and consume normal amounts of power for the duration of the spell.

Technomancy Major Effects
Do anything you can do with technology. Make “Create a meme,” or an even more potent form of “I just made a few small improvements,” permanent, make “King of Machines” permanent to create a small force of fighting machines, make a machine sentient.