Background Counts, Kinda bland Options

[Stormdrake]

I want to spice up the idea of background counts for my game. Currently the only thing it does according to cannon is make things hard for the magic users. The description on how background counts occur (pain, misery & massive atrocities) would seem to lend itself to all sorts of nasty creatures taking up resident or being created out of the warped mana. My first idea is ghosts of course which could be minor spirits. Has anyone added to the idea of background counts to make them more dangerous in their game? Ideas?

[Neurosis]

It's not uncommon to have appropriate spirit types just kind of coalesce out of background counts (like people used to think that spoiled meat just naturally generated maggots). This idea is touched on (I think) in published material, and I know I have done it, and it seems that you came up with this idea too.

However, Background Counts, particularly aspected ones, are already really really dangerous. I'm not sure I'd want to make them more dangerous. : )

[Stormdrake]

Mayhap I am missing somethinng then. It is my understanding that background counts act as a dice subtracter (to magic) but I have seen nothing else mentioned that would make them any more dangerous then walking to the corner store. Are there other effects I am missing?

[Ascalaphus]

You could be a bit more selective in how you apply them. Misery/pain/rage BC could amplify combat spells while hindering healing spells.

[Neurosis]

It is not just a dice subtractor. It is a MAGIC SUBTRACTOR which is a dice subtractor squared. Keep in mind that not only magic is going down, but also spell force, also the force of foci (probably deactivating them) and spirits (probably disrupting them)...

[Mäx]

And if its aspected toward the enemy mage it add its rating to his Magic attribute (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

[Game2BHappy]

Thanks Stormdrake, sounds like a great idea for a run. A hostile free spirit causing havoc in an area affected by an aspected background count. Too powerful for the PCs to take on while the spirit is boosted by the background count (and while the PC mages are negatively impacted by it), they must figure out a way to remove whatever is generating the background count, or trick the spirit into leaving its favored domain.

[Neraph]

It is not just a dice subtractor. It is a MAGIC SUBTRACTOR which is a dice subtractor squared. Keep in mind that not only magic is going down, but also spell force, also the force of foci (probably deactivating them) and spirits (probably disrupting them)...

Only spells being cast into the area - ones cast inside that area suffer drain as if they were F + BC (Force 3 spell in BC 3 is treated as 6 for drain), and with the mage's modified Magic rating, that may very well easily turn simple spells into deadly overchanneling.

And in Street Magic, Magical Threats, it talks about toxic zones spawning free toxic spirits.

And ghosts are more formalized in Running Wild. I like the last two listed.

[Stormdrake]

Will have to take a look at "Running Wild". The ghosts of the dead in areas of high background (deathcamps, battle fields and lets not forget cities that have been nuked) could very easily get into the hundreds or higher if such areas made it easier for the restless dead to manifest. I think Shadowrun fluff has hit on this a couplee times concerning the "Shattergraves" in Chicago.

[Jizmack]

You could maybe try making the background count dynamic – it fluctuates with the seasons (winter brings more misery) or phases of the moon (full moon = crazies), it is only relevant at night (darkness = sorrow), the more people are suffering from mental or physical pain in the area the higher the background count (agony begets agony), the background count spikes every time some one is killed or otherwise molested, etc…

This can be used to sway the characters’ choices for when and how to act.

You could also make the fluctuations seemingly chaotic, which could make the background count area even more unapproachable.

Last, the background count could be moving or hopping between various areas (predictable or chaotically), which could make it more threatening and mysterious.

[Neraph]

And that would probably just cause all your players to be street sams/hackers/TMs. Too much BC is a very bad thing.

[sabs]

Most of Seattle should have a 0-1 background count.
With the occasional 2.

[Apathy]

And that would probably just cause all your players to be street sams/hackers/TMs. Too much BC is a very bad thing.

GMs can use BC as a way to scale back the power of magic in their games if they have the opinion that mages are too versitile and powerful, as long as they set expectations appropriately before the campaign begins.

I see the BC distribution in Seattle as roughly:

50% of the city BC 0
45% of the city BC1 (primarily heavily industrial areas, polluted areas, hospitals, Redmond Barrens and Pullyup Barrens, can also sometimes include sources of strong positive emotions like churches.)
4% of the city BC2 (toxic spills, worst areas of Barrens, ley lines)
1% of the city BC3+ (the failed reactor at Glow City, sites engineered to deliberately induce high BC - usually corp sites)

[KarmaInferno]

What might be nasty is a custom toxic area that only increases the difficulty of doing Drain Tests.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)



-k

[Yerameyahu]

Too little BC can be just as bad. Everyone complains that magic is overpowered, but how many of them are regularly using a BC 1 to balance it?

[Neraph]

True Yerameyahu. It's really fun to have a team run in thinking they're gunna steam-roll the place just to find out it's Aspected BC of 4-6.

[Jizmack]

And that would probably just cause all your players to be street sams/hackers/TMs. Too much BC is a very bad thing.

With some creativity, a GM can use the spiritual powers of a fluctuating background count to not just exclusively effect magic, but perhaps induce electromagnetic anomalies that hamper Matrix connections, active equipment, and cyberware.

Or for the more exotic taste, the fluctuating background count could warp space-time… effecting everyone regardless of magical prowess.
Example-1: You take shot at an NPC standing 12 meters away, but the target randomly teleports 1 meter to the side and you miss!
Example-2: You walk out of a room and get blind punched by a nasty Troll mugger, but before you roll your Initiative dice, your character is standing inside the room again one step before walking out... Temporalporting a few seconds back in time, with foresight to what's waiting for him just outside the door.

[Yerameyahu]

I think that's a mistake, unless the whole group understands that you're playing a very different house-ruled setting well in advance.

[Neraph]

I think that's a mistake, unless the whole group understands that you're playing a very different house-ruled setting well in advance.

/agree. It's well established that, at least as of yet, magic can't teleport.

[Jizmack]

I’m sorry, I though we were discussing how to “spice up the idea of background counts” (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Neraph]

Well I thought you were still trying to keep it within the setting, otherwise you can have BC increasing people's level by the BC or adding spaceships and Jedi equal to the absolute value of the BC.

Keep it in the setting.

[Jizmack]

Keep it in the setting.

It's in setting +/- 1 meter and +/- 3 seconds... yes, I'm being a smart ass (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)
The Jedies would be cool, though (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Yerameyahu]

Honestly, if the BC *directly* affects mundane characters, it's taking away some the Awakened's specialness. You owe it to them to *selectively* screw them over, because they're special. ;D Now, crazy spirits (affecting everyone) are fine.

[Neraph]

GM - "You're in -12 BC.. so there's now 12 Star Destroyers and 12 Sith Lords."
Party - "Not agaaaaaaiin!"

[Abschalten]

Funny story: In my Caracas campaign, I had a character who was in a very upscale and well-known whorehouse, trying to figure out what happened to his sister. He was a magician, and right away I began playing up on the background count of the place, being that it was positively aspected towards rampant lust and hedonism, being as it's CONSTANTLY full of horny lechers trying to get their groove on, as well and what's going on at any time in many of the rooms. I think I gave him a +2 background count for being there, and adjusted his rolls and thresholds accordingly.

At one point he's trying to do something, I think possibly he was attempting to assense somebody, and he critically glitched. Long story short, I told him the positive emotional psychoactive charge got to him and that he had a... erm... little accident in his pants. It made for a briefly embarassing moment in front of one of the NPCs, and some chuckles from the group.

Anyway, the point of the story is to keep Background Counts interesting, and justify why they're there. Don't just say "Here's a +2 Background Count to screw with you and keep your Magic pools down." Try to make it make sense within the context of the game, and play up the IC ramifications and just how DIFFERENTLY the characters see and experience the world around them. It'll probably make them less upset at the fact you're "screwing" with them and more appreciative of the craft of a hardworking and imaginative gamemaster.