I will have to review Nightlife. Any other RPGs that do a good job with urban shamanism that I should review?

Quote from: Simlasa;783821For whatever reason this got me started thinking about the Mimic movies... particularly the third film in the franchise, Sentinel... which feels like it's moved into more surreal and dystopian territory... a bit into the future.

I will have to check that out!

Not an RPG, but a novel that hasn't been mentioned yet: City Come A-Walkin' by John Shirley.
Very early 1980 cyberpunk meets city spirits. A lot about Shadowrun's urban shamanism will make much more sense after reading that. If there is a single definite resource but the actual Shadowrun sourcebooks, it is this one.

Okay, found it. Nightlife main rulebook, starting at page 206 "Concretes: city elementals".

The rules don't reference shamans, but there are city elementals for Liberty Island, Harlem, East Harlem, Chinatown, the Theatre District, Wall Street, and Times Square fully statted up, plus names and a few descriptive bits for neighborhoods in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Queens.  I'm not sure how useful it would be to you, but concretes are tied to and cannot leave their neighborhood, though they can travel instantly to any location in their dominion and are omniscient in their dominion as well.

I'm NOT as sure that they would be useful for shamanic totems, unless you generalized them to spirits of temples, or government buildings, or slums, or wharfs, or sewers (Cloaca was the Roman sewer goddess, at least according to a Pratchett novel whose name escapes me); or even things like roaches or rats or pigeons.  

Oh, I can see nature shamans eschewing cyberware, but for city shamans it might be a way to commune with city spirits.

Interesting! The City Elementals sound like domain lords in Ravenloft.

Animism says that everything has a spirit. Shamanism allows people to deal with those spirits.

So, in a city, the buildings have spirits, sewers have spirits, rats have spirits, skyscrapers have spirits.

The World Above is formed of the skyscrapers and highest buildings. The World Below is made of sewers, maintenance tunnels, the Metro/Underground system and catacombs. Skyscrapers link the World Above to the World Below, especially those that have underground car parks or Metro stations.

Fantasy Shamans deal with nature spirits, as well as the normal spirits of light/darkness, above/below.

Urban Shamans deal with exactly the same things. Their nature is made up of rats, cockroaches, pigeons, feral dogs, mangy cats and the like. There is a Disney film where a princess comes across into New York and befriends the rats and pigeons by singing a pretty little song, the same can be said for Urban Shamans.

Cities are full of ghosts, in fact, far more people die in cities than in the country, especially in modern times. The spiritual environment would be different. Spirits could be summoned through water pipes, electric cables, gas mains and the like, channeling them to the shaman. They can be bargained with by sacrificing money, people, things. They can manifest in radios, TVs, computer screens and smart phones. The internet would be a source of modern spirits and also a source of spells and grimoires.

Quote from: soltakss;784413Cities are full of ghosts, in fact, far more people die in cities than in the country, especially in modern times. The spiritual environment would be different.

Agreed. The plethora of upset dead in a future dystopia could be interesting, and how the return of magic to the world affects those dead could be fun.

Dealing with hauntings / possessions / exorcisms could be fun sidetrek from the usual corporate attack adventures. Heck, the corps may even need them to "clean out" locations troubled by the dead.
 

Quote from: soltakss;784413They can manifest in radios, TVs, computer screens and smart phones.

I've always been a fan of poltergeists. They will be an issue for shamans and others to deal with.

I am thinking about Calender / Seasonal "mass hauntings", kinda like Hurricane Season where there is a sudden influx of spirit activity for certain periods of time.

Also, I am playing with an idea about the Wild Hunt, where the spirit world may declare a Purge-style night on the human world.

Good stuff Soltakss!

Quote from: Spinachcat;785280I've always been a fan of poltergeists. They will be an issue for shamans and others to deal with.

I am thinking about Calender / Seasonal "mass hauntings", kinda like Hurricane Season where there is a sudden influx of spirit activity for certain periods of time.

Have you ever seen the old BBC Halloween show Ghostwatch? Maybe a bit cheesy nowadays, but I mention it because of its central concept of a TV broadcast turning into a mass seance... conjuring spiritual activity into the homes of the viewers.

Quote from: Spinachcat;783734Thank you everybody!  

Keep the ideas coming!

I don't know if this will help or not. . . but they say a picture is worth a thousand words, and this image has always been a favorite of mine when I think about Urban Shamanism:

http://www.3dtotal.com/team/interviews/Justin_Kaufman_AKA_Coro/images/essaylokofinal2.jpg

Do you see any use in differentiating between necromancers, shamans, sorcerers, and witches? They all deal with spirits, but the contexts and flavors are different.

Quote from: Spinachcat;785280I am thinking about Calender / Seasonal "mass hauntings", kinda like Hurricane Season where there is a sudden influx of spirit activity for certain periods of time.

You could also have a sudden migration of spirits outside this time period; what is it that is frightening the spirits from their normal abodes?

QuoteAlso, I am playing with an idea about the Wild Hunt, where the spirit world may declare a Purge-style night on the human world.

Halloween.

Quote from: apparition13;785392Do you see any use in differentiating between necromancers, shamans, sorcerers, and witches? They all deal with spirits, but the contexts and flavors are different.

They all cast spells, too.

Personally, I would differentiate them quite a bit. That's mainly because I would give each type a different magic style, or mix of styles. So, necromancers would be able to summon the souls of the dead, animate corpses and draw power from the dead; shamans could summon, control, bind and interact with spirits; sorcerers would draw power from grimoires and cast spells; witches would draw power from their connection to various sponsors, drawing different kinds of magic from each.

But, if people prefer to have the same kind of magic available to everyone, then go for it.

As druids believe in a Nature bigger than mankind, urban shamans should see cities as ecosystems which Nature used man to build.  An urban shaman should see beauty in a skyscraper or a sidewalk, just as the druid reveres the rowan and the footpath.  

Where the druid could get on board with cutting down a forest if the gain is a cultivated field, an urban shaman could be conflicted over urban renewal.

Your urban shaman collects aluminium cans for material components, and might die defending an ancient billboard.  He acts as advisor to zoning boards and neighborhoods seeking sustenance and sustainability.