I got a tool that'll work. *Pulls out Monofilament Chainsaw* Hold muh beer and watch this!

Heh... Yeah, nothing is safe when there's a Redneck (or a Marine, or hell, a Redneck Marine) around... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Heh. Or, worse, Redneck Marine Demolitions Specialists.

We've been over this. There is no such thing as a "Demolitions Expert" or "Demolitions Specialist", there are only Demolitions Enthusiasts (IMG:style_emoticons/default/spin.gif)

Yup. And they can be so very enthusiastic--and an inspiration to the rest of us... to run faster.

When did we meet? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Actually, TJ, you wouldn't happen to be acquainted with an Edward Becerra of Haxtun, Colorado? Retired Army gunsmith, geek, fun guy to bounce gaming ideas off of...?

Unfortunately not, I have Never heard of him, or of Haxtun, Colorado... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

They are expensive and not sold in the US, Canada or Mexico last I knew.

Doesn't Glo Moss only detect things within a few centimeter radius though? I seem to remember (AFB) that a spirit has to pass very close by to activate the Glo Moss Wand in SM.

AFAIK, astral things have to actually pass *through* GloMoss. I'd have to check the book.

It works like the magic sense adept power (p 127 street magic). Magic sense can detect magic within force x 10 meters on the same plane (p. 178 street magic). Including active foci, spells, mana barriers (which means your own wards trigger it), dual-natured beings, and mana anomalies.

So it only detects spirits that pass through it because they're on another plane (until they materialize), but other magic it can see fine at a pretty good distance.

Just have a Watcher go through it so often that the security guards get annoyed with it constantly giving "False Signals". (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

"That's right, fella, play the Glowy/No Glowy game!" "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" "I hate those things." "So do I, but they have their uses."

Hmm. Well, that makes sense, but it means the fluff description of GloMoss is quite poorly written. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) Oh well. It also means I was mis-remembering: it should work fine on astral forms within range, no touch requirement. (It's dual-natured.) I was probably thinking of something else, perhaps a FAB variant.

Bit of a problem with this - I was under the impression that astral perception vs words only conveyed the intent/emotional response, and even then it was iffy and prone to multiple meanings?

ie: Flash card comes up
Mage: "I see....bacon?"
Guard: <Shoots Mage in face, then calls it in on his radio> "Ha! Got another one Jim! Bacon, my ass, it's just some wavy lines!"


-Tir.
The damn Glowy/not glowy game....sheesh...

The Flash Cards have plain text printed on them, which mundanes can read but the astrally perceiving can't. They'll probably get an emotional reading of fear and confusion. Or peace and tranquility considering deepweed is being applied. However there are different words written in astral paint that appear as colorful words. Of course this isn't really necessary. If you just want to determine if someones awakened, you could leave it blank and watch them try to guess what portion of the tax code you have printed out or have on your computer display. A Mundane will easily read, "The Annual Summary Report describes the closed meeting activity of the Commissioner's Art Advisory Panel for the most recent year. The report discusses the procedures of the Art Panel, provides a list of Panelists and summarizes the art items reviewed during this year by the Panel broken down by estate and charitable contribution. If you would like older Annual Summary Reports, please contact the IRS Freedom of Information Reading Room at 1111 . . .". The Awakened characters probably going to have trouble with that if they can't make out the text. Of course, it also means that you'll get a false positive from illiterate individuals. But better to shoot one hundred morons in the head then let a single mage go free.

As for the glowy/not glowy game, you can do that with pretty much any security system. Repeatedly set off the motion sensors around a facility in a single night by setting a squirrel free or get a node to send a thousand false alarms about being hacked and the spider will eventually stop logging in to check or run and tell everyone that there is a wolf coming to steal your sheep until no one will listen to you. It does work, but it's nothing new and it's hardly unique to any security system.

… Astral paint? I guess big enough cards could have simple shapes made of somehow-sustained FAB 'paint'. :/

Low-level security: false alert cluster might be missed since alarm might already be ignored.
Mid-level security: false alert cluster results in alarms turned off or ignored.
High-level security: false alert cluster seen as indication of impending attack; security status upgraded and intruder-bait operations undertaken.

Your mileage might vary

This makes trolling high-security facilities remarkably easy. Keep this shit up indefinitely and they'll be running around on paranoia fuel and spending tons of cash on security measures.

Just make sure you're launching your trolling attack from the extraterritorial property of someone they won't dare cross, or you're likely to get shot right in the god-damn face.

Time will feed upon your weaknesses
And soon you'll lose the will to care...

The reason they won't dare to cross them is why you don't want to do this. The owner the extraterritorial property will be annoyed at people doing things on his territory. And the Pyramid always needs more freshly beating hearts.

Sorry, I thought the "... With the tacit approval of the owner of that territory" was implied. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

If you allow people to attack other people from your territory that is exactly the same as you attacking the same people from your territory. If you cannot control your territory other people are allowed to do it for you to protect themselves.

I'm pretty sure this is precisely exactly how things don't work in Shadowrun, which is exactly precisely why jumping across Megacorporate territory is such an effective tactic. It's a lot of bother to police the infinite, relatively not-harming-you little guys who aren't doing anything to you in your territory, so you put in the bare minimum effort to say you're doing everything you possibly can. It's quite another to tolerate the next Mega over deciding "well, if they're not going to police their own territory, we will!" and sending in a hit team. And by that I mean they absolutely will not tolerate that under any circumstances whatsoever. Corp Wars get started that way.

And nobody wants that. So you just make your own territory tougher and try to zap those pesky Shadowrunners when the cross into territory you do control, because God help you if you get any stray bullets on another megacorp's property, let alone intentional bullets.

This is where you get things that have real world analogies like hackers in China and terrorists in Afghanistan. One is in the "we're watching you..." stage, the other passed into the "you're lack of action amounts to endorsement". Both require chronic and/or dramatic pain to the target to hit that stage. As long as your characters spread around which other corp they hide behind it should work out. As long as the other corp doesn't decide to capture them and apply a penalty for disturbing relations (you've caused us headaches but we like that you caused them more so we'll let you off if you do this little job for us...).