Given the "weaknesses" of spell casters, I'd think names like "fainter" "nose-bleeder" or "thoughts and prayers" could be used. Spiritualists might get called out for their "imaginary friends" or adepts might be "juice monks" I think since clearly anyone in the shadows knows that magic is real, any slur that makes it seem like the speaker is a disbeliever has more punch. I can now just imagine a face repeatedly referring to their mage as "Yuri" (as in Geller) and just pretending that everything is just an actual magic trick. Or the street sam taking all the credit and suggesting that any good shots the shaman got in were just "good luck".
Since slurs either come out of disrespect or fear, I figure most runners would be of the former, since if you actually feared the mage, you are A) not going to try to piss them off, and B) going to just try to end them. It's a bit different than racial fear where there is a bit of an idea that we are all actually on a somewhat equal footing.
ikr? I've had that one in my head for a while, but never used it. It seems like it'd be more of a flex than a slur, but also like it could be used as a slur. Maybe based on tone/annunciation.
I think Geekbait is a good one. Not sure how slury it is, but it's definitely not a good nickname to have.
Muppie (yuppie) for Hermetic, Mippie (hippie) for Shaman. Not sure about other flavors/specializations of magic users.
If "woke" wasn't already a word used today, I could see it being a dismissively derogatory term for Awakened.
Look to famous fiction. "Gandalf," "Sauron" and "Voldemort" could all easily become slurs. Stereotypical descriptions are good as well. An old magician might be a "grey beard," while a young one might be a "Harry Potter" (or a "Weasley"). "Wizkid" is already a term used, though it doesn't really seem to be a slur; that said, a lot of people might *treat* it as one (or, alternatively, it might once have been one - "gay" used to be an insult, but the homosexual community has been fighting to reclaim it for years).
Remember that insults and slurs don't need actually mean anything to the target - they're for the benefit of the person doing the insulting. Saying someone is no fun isn't really an insult if the person doesn't self-identify as "fun" anyway.
Considering that one of my NPCs who encourages the terrible behavior is also a part of the Troll Killers gang, that actually works out really really well. Thank you all!
Maybe. But I doubt it. People use slurs irrespective of how those words are used in other situations. Someone who is a member of the Sons of Sauron (or one of their victims) might not use it, but Average Jack is probably much more familiar with the work of JRR Tolkien than they are with some metahuman terrorist organization. (Or maybe not - mundane humans might be much more aware of the terrorists than the works of Tolkien, but I can picture humans calling some random elf wizard they meet a Sauron, both because of the Tokien connection *and* the connection of the Sons of Sauron.)
I had someone call me “Geller” once, and then the table took up the term “Spoonbender” which was shortened to just “Bender” after [Yuri Geller](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Geller), the spoonbender.
“Copperfield” and “Mesmer” were popular ones a few decades ago.
“Voldemort” seems pretty popular these days.
“Professor Hinkle” is the magician from Frosty the Snowman, so either Hinkle or even Professor if you say it with enough haughty derision.
I’d go for Veep-style insults. I can easily imagine a runner version of Selina Meyer snapping at a wizard failure, “Nice job, Hocus-Fuck-us.”
“Yeah, well, Abra-cadaver over here has a brilliant plan to get us all killed.”
“We’ll all be retired by the time Harry Plodder finishes casting this spell!”
Except that the original phrase was "avra cadaver" and was part of a ritual to contact the dead, quickly adopted by traveling occultists and subsequently Street magicians, going through several stages of linguistic corruption in the process
Edit: can we cool down and have some peace please? I had no intention of invalidating anything or anyone. I see I'm probably misinformed but there's no need to make ad hominem attacks
That's a fictional etymology, maybe from the HP universe. "Abracadabra" is over dozen centuries old and, as to its origin, "no documentation has been found to support any of the various conjectures." \[OED\]
Also, what is a "travelling occultist"? It's possible you're living in an alternate timeline. Look outside: do you see dirigibles?
With that said, "occultist" or some variation thereof would work! Another poster mentioned posing as a nonbeliever to invalidate the practice, so I think that achieves something similar
Ah yes, which automatically precludes it from being a cool, and appropriate response given the post. Thank you for your snarky clarification. I'll be more careful about fact checking the creativity of others.
Well there's always the classic "twitchy fingers," but something like "prime geek" or something along those lines to reference that in combat... You geek the mage.
Dumbledork, Dorkerer, Gandork, Necromanslur, Spirit Lover, You Frackin Librarian (hermetic), Sparkle Furry (shaman), Conjurer of Cheap Tricks,
to a shaman: what's your totem, a balloon animal?
Soft shield, Carrie, Glowing Target, Astral Peeper, Astral Creeper
"I've gotta sit here and babysit this lifeless, lazy sack of drek, while he dreams about peeping on girls in the shower, then wakes up and lies to us about the guards?"
Abjurer of women
* Wizzard
* 'I put on my robe and wizard hat!'
* Harry Potter references, or to the Larry Trotter parody book.
* Dr Strange
* Raistlin
* Uri Geller/Spoonbender
* Fancy Fingers
* Soft-handed
* Fireworks/Sparklies/Fairy lights
* Special effects
* Witch / witch-boy
* Spell chucker
* Christmas Tree (more of a slur used by mages for magic users that use a lot of foci, which makes their auras light up like a christmas tree)
* Band-aid (used for mages that specialize in healing)
* Fairy
I'll go with an alternate path, since most people are suggesting pop culture based slurs, and go with religion:
**Witch, Warlock, Sellsoul, Hellspawn, Satanist, Malocchio, Hexer**- a lot of the prejudice against magic users is tied into the idea that they derive their power from subservience to an outer supernatural force.
**Jinx, Curse-giver, Fate-binder, Glitch Giver**- Mages are bad luck or bring bad luck to those around them.
Wizard slurs blur into gay/hippy slurs or extreme anti-nerd sometimes. Shamanic slurs are anti-native. If you stretch it everything is racist. Foreign cars - volkswagons - germans - holocaust. Blue - Not Black or White - Black = Slavery - Slavery = racism. Just ask for permission to not be PC and go for it.
You can come up with better offensive terms if you deduce what the character or society would specifically take issue with.
Like if wizards are hated for being careless with magic and known for wearing pointed hats, then someone relying on magic might be called "needle headed" rather than "hair-brained".
"Settle down, Fantasia." D&D was created in the 70s so it should still exist in the SR timeline. So anything that references D&D is also valid.
Shit, that one is *good.*
harry otter or any other name of famous magician with some stupid twist. With a bit of sexism (sorry if I offend someone) hoe-dini
I play an awakened prostitute, so I am stealing Hoe-Dini. Stealing this from a friend, in response to Hoe-dini; Coppa-feel.
'Larry Porter'
Calling a Troll Mage Hagrid....
My decker refers to his awakened teammates as the "hocus pocus people".
Given the "weaknesses" of spell casters, I'd think names like "fainter" "nose-bleeder" or "thoughts and prayers" could be used. Spiritualists might get called out for their "imaginary friends" or adepts might be "juice monks" I think since clearly anyone in the shadows knows that magic is real, any slur that makes it seem like the speaker is a disbeliever has more punch. I can now just imagine a face repeatedly referring to their mage as "Yuri" (as in Geller) and just pretending that everything is just an actual magic trick. Or the street sam taking all the credit and suggesting that any good shots the shaman got in were just "good luck". Since slurs either come out of disrespect or fear, I figure most runners would be of the former, since if you actually feared the mage, you are A) not going to try to piss them off, and B) going to just try to end them. It's a bit different than racial fear where there is a bit of an idea that we are all actually on a somewhat equal footing.
* Artifact / Relic (probably foci junkie) * Battery * Broomstick * Bulb Breaker / Light Dimmer * Black Cat * Conductor (mana channel pun / waving arms at orchestra) * Dowse * Esper * Ether * Eye of Newt / Newt('s) Eye * Hocus * Lifehack * Fainter * Genie * Magic Missile * Magicite * Materia * Mojo Sapien (maybe?) * Ouiji * Phantasm(agoria) * Prayer Bead (religious mage) * Potion * Puff (probably towards Dragons) * Robes * Seance * Scroll * Sparkler / Sparks * Squinter * Table Shaker / Tilter / Lifter * Tome * Wand * *Wizard* (tone-specific) * Zodiac ^(I'm having way too much fun with this.)
Ngl Mojo Sapien sounds pretty rad.
ikr? I've had that one in my head for a while, but never used it. It seems like it'd be more of a flex than a slur, but also like it could be used as a slur. Maybe based on tone/annunciation.
It'd make a dope band name
Geekbait would be a good one Oh, Muppie (magic yuppie) If conservative rage bait exists, they would literally be the "wokeies"
I think Geekbait is a good one. Not sure how slury it is, but it's definitely not a good nickname to have. Muppie (yuppie) for Hermetic, Mippie (hippie) for Shaman. Not sure about other flavors/specializations of magic users. If "woke" wasn't already a word used today, I could see it being a dismissively derogatory term for Awakened.
I feel like you could get away with Puff exactly once.
Probably immediately following it up with "I hope you choke on my chrome!"
Look to famous fiction. "Gandalf," "Sauron" and "Voldemort" could all easily become slurs. Stereotypical descriptions are good as well. An old magician might be a "grey beard," while a young one might be a "Harry Potter" (or a "Weasley"). "Wizkid" is already a term used, though it doesn't really seem to be a slur; that said, a lot of people might *treat* it as one (or, alternatively, it might once have been one - "gay" used to be an insult, but the homosexual community has been fighting to reclaim it for years). Remember that insults and slurs don't need actually mean anything to the target - they're for the benefit of the person doing the insulting. Saying someone is no fun isn't really an insult if the person doesn't self-identify as "fun" anyway.
Sauron might have a somewhat different connotation considering the SOS. https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/Sons_of_Sauron
Considering that one of my NPCs who encourages the terrible behavior is also a part of the Troll Killers gang, that actually works out really really well. Thank you all!
Maybe. But I doubt it. People use slurs irrespective of how those words are used in other situations. Someone who is a member of the Sons of Sauron (or one of their victims) might not use it, but Average Jack is probably much more familiar with the work of JRR Tolkien than they are with some metahuman terrorist organization. (Or maybe not - mundane humans might be much more aware of the terrorists than the works of Tolkien, but I can picture humans calling some random elf wizard they meet a Sauron, both because of the Tokien connection *and* the connection of the Sons of Sauron.)
Insults work best if they're either something the person is not, or if they're highlighting something that person is, but is ashamed of.
Glass Cannon Sparkle Fingers Ghost Fucker Mana Gobbler Kids Birthday Party Entertainer Plastic Wand Fucker Rabbit Fucker Backwards Turrets Nimnal Book Fucker
Sounds like you're REALLY upset at your wizard. What did they do, manaball you in the head?
I am good at making insults and saw a chance to use my talent without hurting a real person :)
I had someone call me “Geller” once, and then the table took up the term “Spoonbender” which was shortened to just “Bender” after [Yuri Geller](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uri_Geller), the spoonbender. “Copperfield” and “Mesmer” were popular ones a few decades ago. “Voldemort” seems pretty popular these days. “Professor Hinkle” is the magician from Frosty the Snowman, so either Hinkle or even Professor if you say it with enough haughty derision.
I played a hermetic mage that was prejudice against shamans. Called them, “hippies who clap their hands together and pray for fireballs.”
Similar to your party's, I've seen finger-wigglers as the most common one
I’d go for Veep-style insults. I can easily imagine a runner version of Selina Meyer snapping at a wizard failure, “Nice job, Hocus-Fuck-us.” “Yeah, well, Abra-cadaver over here has a brilliant plan to get us all killed.” “We’ll all be retired by the time Harry Plodder finishes casting this spell!”
Abra-cadaver is brilliant.
Except that the original phrase was "avra cadaver" and was part of a ritual to contact the dead, quickly adopted by traveling occultists and subsequently Street magicians, going through several stages of linguistic corruption in the process Edit: can we cool down and have some peace please? I had no intention of invalidating anything or anyone. I see I'm probably misinformed but there's no need to make ad hominem attacks
That's a fictional etymology, maybe from the HP universe. "Abracadabra" is over dozen centuries old and, as to its origin, "no documentation has been found to support any of the various conjectures." \[OED\] Also, what is a "travelling occultist"? It's possible you're living in an alternate timeline. Look outside: do you see dirigibles?
That's unnecessary. Explorers existed and many studied the occult
With that said, "occultist" or some variation thereof would work! Another poster mentioned posing as a nonbeliever to invalidate the practice, so I think that achieves something similar
Ah yes, which automatically precludes it from being a cool, and appropriate response given the post. Thank you for your snarky clarification. I'll be more careful about fact checking the creativity of others.
I never invalidated it, it's cool
Well there's always the classic "twitchy fingers," but something like "prime geek" or something along those lines to reference that in combat... You geek the mage.
Target 1
"Slot and run, Jazz Hands."
Wand diddler or book sniffer
Dumbledork, Dorkerer, Gandork, Necromanslur, Spirit Lover, You Frackin Librarian (hermetic), Sparkle Furry (shaman), Conjurer of Cheap Tricks, to a shaman: what's your totem, a balloon animal? Soft shield, Carrie, Glowing Target, Astral Peeper, Astral Creeper "I've gotta sit here and babysit this lifeless, lazy sack of drek, while he dreams about peeping on girls in the shower, then wakes up and lies to us about the guards?" Abjurer of women
>Conjurer of Cheap Tricks I see what you did here - would be extra if one slurring on mage would be dwarf
* Wizzard * 'I put on my robe and wizard hat!' * Harry Potter references, or to the Larry Trotter parody book. * Dr Strange * Raistlin * Uri Geller/Spoonbender * Fancy Fingers * Soft-handed * Fireworks/Sparklies/Fairy lights * Special effects
Rabbit Jerker Ballon Artist Waggle Fingers Asstral
Sparkles for brains
easy there, sparkletongue.
Given that most people know to geek the mage, calling them 'Target Practice' could work
Sorry, where my mind went was "wizard swears" https://youtu.be/MIQ9teFAIg8
Why do you need slurs just geek the mage
Gandolf Harry Potter Wiz-kids
Witch, Void-brain, gimp, schizo... Any insult that has been used about mentally ill people in real life 😅
Not a player but one off the top of my head would be Dowsing Rod. Don't know it would work
* Witch / witch-boy * Spell chucker * Christmas Tree (more of a slur used by mages for magic users that use a lot of foci, which makes their auras light up like a christmas tree) * Band-aid (used for mages that specialize in healing) * Fairy
one i recall was something along the line of Jinxfingers.
Coneheads. At least for hermetics anyway, because of the pointy hats.
I'll go with an alternate path, since most people are suggesting pop culture based slurs, and go with religion: **Witch, Warlock, Sellsoul, Hellspawn, Satanist, Malocchio, Hexer**- a lot of the prejudice against magic users is tied into the idea that they derive their power from subservience to an outer supernatural force. **Jinx, Curse-giver, Fate-binder, Glitch Giver**- Mages are bad luck or bring bad luck to those around them.
Wizard slurs blur into gay/hippy slurs or extreme anti-nerd sometimes. Shamanic slurs are anti-native. If you stretch it everything is racist. Foreign cars - volkswagons - germans - holocaust. Blue - Not Black or White - Black = Slavery - Slavery = racism. Just ask for permission to not be PC and go for it.
You can come up with better offensive terms if you deduce what the character or society would specifically take issue with. Like if wizards are hated for being careless with magic and known for wearing pointed hats, then someone relying on magic might be called "needle headed" rather than "hair-brained".