Astral Signatures, Background Count, and You Options

[JonathanC]

A thread about organlegging in the other forum got me thinking...assuming that someone ran an operation that kidnapped live people and organlegged them on the spot (not something I'd allow players to do in my game, but that's just me), wouldn't the amount of pain and suffering inflicted screw up the background count in the area? Now, a mage could erase the astral signatures of any spells left there, but without Cleansing metamagic, the background count would remain, right?

For that matter, what about a more 'normal' murder? Say, a shootout with a dozen gangers. The mage cleans up after himself and erases the signature for that fireball spell he cast, and they cart off the bodies...but would another mage coming on the scene later at least be able to sense the difference in background count? Or would it remain unaffected?

I can see an argument for it working that way. On the other hand, that would mean that nearly every inch of Seattle, especially Redmond, would be choking in Background Count.

[sunnyside]

Just ordinary murder and such certainly produces background count but that doesn't make it Auschwitz.

What I mean is for a lot of reasons much of Seattle should probably have a light background count, but not a high one.

[JonathanC]

[Dancer]

Even an completely immoral bunch of organleggers wouldn't leave their victims conscious. Complicates the surgery too much.

Is there even a market for chopped-out organs in 2074? Given all the problems with diseases and rejection and the need to take immunosuppressants for the rest of your life I would have thought everyone would use cloned organs. People who can't afford that use cyber replacements. Only the desperately poor would use organs originally from other people, and that's not going to cover the costs of an organlegger operation.

[Kagetenshi]

If you think the scene of a murder is dirty on the astral, god help you if you ever astrally perceive near where someone just proposed. The astral pollution that creates is disgusting.

~J

[JonathanC]

I agree about the organleggers: this is why I was opposed to the idea. Among other things.

But I was just re-reading the section in Street Magic on Background count, and it looks like it's been retconned a bit; nothing in there about emotion or suffering or anything else affecting it. It just seems to be semi-random, or drawn to places of "great tragedy and wonder", which isn't exactly how I would describe the block where 300 gangers died in a riot.

[Buster]

Ghouls still need to eat real humanoid meat, so there's going to be big market for "meatleggers". Organlegging gangs would hunt humanoids for the ghoul meatmarket and sell any organs left over to the cheapo street docs.

"Soylent Green: The other white meat!"

[Buster]

As to the background count question, only emotions would cause the background count to go up because of crimes. If the meatleggers were "humane" and KO'd the victim from behind, there probably wouldn't be much of an effect on the background count over time.

However, if the locals figured out what was going on and started to get afraid, their constant fear could raise the background count.

[JonathanC]

[Buster]

[JonathanC]

They weren't specific enough about Background Count in Street Magic, I think. It only says that mana pools in places of tragedy and wonder.

So, the spot where some guy proposed to the girl he'd been in love with since childhood and was cruelly rejected, then immediately killed himself would have a background count...maybe. The place where a bunch of gangers high on PCP shot each other to death wouldn't, because that's not terribly tragic.

The place where the newest, most amazing commlink ever is unveiled might have a background count (does that count as a place of wonder?).

Honestly, I just don't understand what these new rules are trying to say. Do I just mess with the background count whenever I feel like it?

[Buster]

I was at the AT&T store at the mall on July 4th and was nearly knocked down by the background count coming from the iPhone kyosk.

Or maybe I just slipped on the drool on the floor.


(god, I hope it was drool...)