background count Options

[Straight Razor]

ok, i was curious how most of you handled background count in a normal run.
do not most cities have a BC of 2 or 3.

i am wanting to go as cannon as possible.

[James McMurray]

They should, although I don't know of anyone that runs them that way. It would definitely be a way to mitigate the "magic is too powerful" idea.

Keep in mind that if someone shoots a gun or swings a blade the background count goes from 0 to 1. Likewise casting an offensive spell makes it harder to cast future spells.

[Dog]

I ignore background count unless I want to impress on the characters that something very out of the ordinary has happened, or I want to interfere with magical goings-on as a plot device.

I'd regard the typical level of ongoing violence in the city the same as any predator/prey relationship in any other environment; it's an integral part that helps make it what it is. Baseline is a typical city and an especially passive area like a corp cubicle farm or a place of worship is more likely to have the background count.

I have no idea if this fits canon.

[RainOfSteel]

[Arethusa]

I'm not sure James is right about it being intended to work like that. Canon SR3 really is fucking schizophrenic, and that extends to magic; some source material acknowledges the horrendous imbalance magic creates, and background count, as it's usually described, should be around 2 for most cities. However, that doesn't fit with canon SR3 style, which as has been pointed out in the past, is very much intended to follow 80s action movies.

How you play it is obviously up to you, but even what is canon is a little questionable. If you're only looking at the descriptions of background count, I'd say it mostly points to background count being a fairly constant issue for magic users. If you're looking at all the source material, things get a bit dodgier.

[noname_hero]

In my games, most of the city has background count low enough to be considered zero. In some places, usually because of some pollution or magical anomally or total lack of life and hope, the background rises to 1. Higher background counts are very rare, and usually limited to relatively small areas - and the characters know that a high background count means that something is *wrong*.

What I do, though, is use "fractional" background counts - sometimes I say things like "It is as if there was some thin smoke filling the astral here, and it 'tastes' like crude oil and naked metal - nothing too serious, say 0.3 background.", or "You can *feel* the belief of the churchgoers here - a christian mage would feel OK here, but for you it is as if the reality here was slightly angry at your attempts to use magic here. Say 0.8 background, almost enough to be a problem - you're lucky it's been quiet here the last few days."

It serves to tell the players more about the place, and warns them that in some places inside the area the background can actually be high enough to matter.

[toturi]

In games that I run, the city has background count, but for the most part, the PC is so used to the background count that it has become neutral to him. Other PCs that do not live in the city or come from a peaceful wholesome small town area will suffer the effects, but will gradually get used to it like someone from the lowlands can get acclimatised to the mountains.

[eidolon]

[James McMurray]

I wasn't trying to say how it was intended, or what canon was. I was just pointing out how the rules work.

[noname_hero]

[James McMurray]

Different interpretations. No biggie. :)

[toturi]

IIRC SRMs had a scenario that used BC, and it was due to some acid rain phenomena that was not usual to the city. Remember Background Count can be Aspected (MITS p 85), so it can be considered canon to have BC 1-2 in the city aspected to be neutral to city dwellers. Which was how I rationalised my acclimatisation interpretation.