Rules

In the twenty-first century, mages across the spectrum use computers as instruments of technological focus. By 2017, IT systems have been a part of mainstream industrial culture for a generation… for many people, a computer provides a more natural focus than, say, dancing naked in the woods. Even the more naturalistic groups – Verbena, Ecstatics, Bata’a, and so forth – have members who employ computer magick. These folks might not be as devoted to transhumanist ideals or hypertech innovation as Virtual Adepts or Technocrats are, but they have no aversion to computer technology. For them, computers – like brooms, swords, and so on – are simply tools, as magickal as anything else in their world.

Even so, computer technology has upper limits. High- end magick overloads a typical computer system and can – in the case of Sphere Ranks 4 and 5 – crash or burn a normal computer. To perform powerful technomagick, you still need a Trinary computer: a system specifically designed to handle hypertech operations, operations (as defined earlier in this chapter, and in more detail below.

A savvy computer mage will upgrade his gear to sus tain the tremendous stress involved with technomagickal computer processes. For more data regarding computers as technomagickal tools, see Computer Gear, Devices and Machines, Gadgets and Inventions, Mass Media, Money and Wealth, and other entries under Common Instruments in Mage 20, pp. 588-600.