"Design", to quote the Bard, "is a fucking heaving bitch".

So I'm trying to devise a character concept provisionally entitled Wu Shaman.

The Wu Shaman is a Taoist Priest sort except with technology/computers. Unfortunately everytime I come to this I feel unhappy with the concept. I'm not sure how to make this work. There's something about pure fantasy where science doesn't get in the way and magical powers/classes can be exciting and mysterious - we don't need to know why the wizard has dark necromantic powers except in the most oblique way, because it's fantasy. Not quite the same with sci fi, and what I need is that synergy with fantasy and (not hard) science fiction.

So currently the idea is that, deep within the Galactic Internet ancient sentient AI are being discovered by the techie/hacker types of the setting. The two come into contact and...well, Wu Shaman is born. Not all AI are good, some are corrupt and corrupting. Deep within the Galactinternets there's a place, the House of Jade, where these entities live and peopel can interact with them. Not really sure how that's magical. Plus the internet is perennially a problem in rpg's unless everyone can log in.

Do these people become like Neo and have mysterious inexplicable powers to fuck up tech in the real world? Does he automatically get 'programmed' to learn Matrix kungfu? Do you think that's air you're breathing?

What does it mean to have an ancient super computer (the analog of the gods/immortals of Taoism) talking to you?

I also have this potentially annoying habit, when coming up with ideas (i write shit down in word and save it all) of coming up with phrases, monikers, titles and words for things. These help inspire me and capture the feel of what I want, but the reason it's a problem is that they are empty of actual meaning, and finding that meaning is difficult. So I'm writing about these hacker types using phrases like 'Data Shamans' and 'Info Priests' because that sounds more appropriate than 'cyberpunk' or 'hacker'. But what do these titles mean? What is a Data Shaman or an Info Priest? Does it have to be anything specific?

Data = Info. Shaman = Priest of Nature.
Data Shaman & Info priest is potentially the same thing, but if one wants them to be different ....

First, do not be afraid to use the word "Cyber", because it comes from Cybernetics with is about Communications (not half man half machine, like too many people in popculture seem to think).

"Priest" has inherent reference to "the one god", so it would be fitting for an Info Priest to focus more on the galactic 'net as a whole, and use Cyber Prayers to gain info ...

The Data Shaman is more direct, travelling obscure parts of the 'net if need be, to get what is required.
This also means that the shaman are far more probable to have gained Neo-Matrix-style abilities than the priest, and he also knows were to get such abilities, in order to download it to others.

So no, advanced combat is not common to regular people, they either must be special in themselves (NEO), know where to find it, work to make such programs oneself, or get someone to download it to them.
Also, unlike in the Matrix, i'd suggest that skills like that often needs to be used to stay fresh, or they will vanish.

One of the fundamental problems is in creating a class that isn't great for actual roleplaying. If you have a Taoist Hacker of some kind, whatever he's called, he's going to rely on the internet, and that has always been a problem in gaming, just look at Shadowrun. Ok they've tried to fix it by way of Augmented REality and such, but even so, a character whose shtick is traversing cyberspace is a solo experience that works well in fiction and less well in reality. I'm not sure how that problem is solved here.

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;614617One of the fundamental problems is in creating a class that isn't great for actual roleplaying. If you have a Taoist Hacker of some kind, whatever he's called, he's going to rely on the internet, and that has always been a problem in gaming, just look at Shadowrun. Ok they've tried to fix it by way of Augmented REality and such, but even so, a character whose shtick is traversing cyberspace is a solo experience that works well in fiction and less well in reality. I'm not sure how that problem is solved here.

I first thought you meant a character that more or less lived in cyberspace, and all or most adventures were had there.

This, however, is a classical cyberpunk/shadowrun - setting you refer to.
That actually implies a less complex cyberspace, and the datamancers usually, in cases like those, has to be defended from threats that may be attacking "irl" ... or, the companions are launching a physical run against the site, while the the datamancer is on a secure(?) distance from it all, unlocking doors and similar.

Essentially this is sci fi, or perhaps science fantasy, ie it's not hard science or even science oriented no matter how wacky like cyberpunk or shadowrun. It's a Taoist Sorcerer/Wizard/Priest concept in a science fiction way. I don't know how else to do that without involving tech and perhaps some form of cyberspace. So in that respect it is like Shadowrun, but Shadowrun, as I mentioned, is more 'techie'; this is a broader setting, ie it's intergalactic, so having lots of detail for computers, hacking/tech, cyberspace is not really something I want to get into. Not in the same level of detail. besides there needs to be some sense of mystery, otherwise it might as well just be a straight up SF setting where you play a hacker.

Reading Eclipse Phase, which is a little harder than I would go for (even if i was actually runing Eclipse Phase!), has inspired a change. Warning, lots of text.

(The Tien are an ancient superior race, btw.)

Hsien Intellects:
The River pervades all aspects of galactic life; an intergalactic mass communication and information network. Yet there exists a hidden depth; a layer of information and power that predates the system now in common use. This is the Jade World, created from the animate code of the great Tien interstellar ur-network known as Heaven. This network of the ancients remains unparalleled. It was governed by sentient computer Ancestral Intelligences, some of which survived the collapse of the Tien and Heaven.

Heaven did not survive the fall of the Tien and fractured into lost nodes and corruption. The Hell Signal arose when the Evil Force created the Feng Du Virus broadcasting into disparate nodes and corrupting the Ancestral Intelligences that existed, turning them into Demonware; propagating the Signal both within and without the domain of information.

With the rise of the River, constructed during the great Xia Empire, the pinnacle of human culture for thousands of years, the surviving programs were able to network again. They were able to tap into the new system, even though it could not contain them. Together they constructed the Jade World where they may commune and, through servant programs of their own design known as Shen, observe the world beyond. However just as the Ancestral Intelligences could interact so could the Hell Signal, which reached out into the real world through interfaces and machines, seeking to corrupt even flesh and blood where it connected to the machine.

During the time of the Xia there existed Data Shaman cults, privy to the trust of the Ancestral Intelligences whom they had come to revere. In return for service the Shamans developed powerful technology and gained access to the vast accumulated wealth of the ancient master programs. That service consisted largely of keeping mortal systems – the River – free from Hell Signal corruption; however the Ancestral Intelligences sought then, as they do now, is to reshape the River into the image of the still vastly superior Heaven network so that they may incarnate anew.

Unfortunately, as with all things, the time of the Xia Empire passed ushering in the now-dominant force of Imperial Iron Qin. Before the Iron Emperor could usher in his totalitarian doctrine, curtailing the freedoms of the galactic data net, the forces of the Hell Signal surged leading to a secret crusade against the Data Shamans, already at odds with the authority of Iron Qin over the River.

Now: the Ancestral Intelligences have found that many Data Shamans have survived. Tied to the Jade World when their bodies were killed by the agents of the Hell Signal (those Shamans not corrupted into the enemy’s service), their egos lived on. In order to continue their work, the Ancestral Intelligences have merged a part of their superior Heaven code to allow the Data Shamans to be reborn, but at great cost to the host program, relegated to mere information within the House of Jade. A new form of info-life was born: a Hsien Intellect. They are able to interact with the River and the Jade World, able to command great technological power within and without the surviving domains of information in the 10,000 Stars, but yet unable to return to human form.