Astral Recon, How good is it or is it even possible? Options

[equinox]

Many times I have mage players who want to do a recon side mission before a bigger mission and I'm not too sure how the astral plane works. When a mage goes into astral form, he's allowed to move freely at the speed of thought, right? Well, how good is the mage's perceptions in the astral plane. How does the world look to him? Is this even possible? If so, what kind of countermeasures are used against such tresspassing? If astral combat is involved, where can I go to get a better idea of how it works?

[Backgammon]

Uh, start by re-reading the Astral section of the rulebook. You're surely have more questions after, but so far everything you asked is specifically described there. If you have Magic in the Shadows, you can also take a look at Astral Security for more in-depth details.

Edit: Here's a bunch of threads that should be helpful to you. Going through all those should clarify some points.

[mfb]

you should check the magic section of SR3, as well as section on the astral plane in MitS (Magic in the Shadows).

[GrinderTheTroll]

[Voran]

Yeah originally Astral Recon seemed like having your own personal X-ray spy satellite with supermegazoom focus. The only real protection versus it originally was having dual natured beasties as guard 'dogs' or having another mage doing astral patrol.

"Nowadays" its far more difficult. Harder to pull off without planning. Easier to get caught. Still very useful, but heh....especially if you've incorporated Shedim into your campaign, your mage may come back to find his body has walked off and is chewing on a teammate.

[Zen Shooter01]

Magicians get addicted to astral projection in no time.

First, give them a target with astral defenses.

A ward can prevent astral recon, and/or damage the magician.

Anything that alerts the target to the astral intrusion (ward destroyed, spirit reports intrusion, glomoss lights up, spirit destroyed or disrupted) might cause the target to call in reinforcements or take other measures (running away, mailing the paydata to another location, killing the hostage) that louse up the PCs' day.

And, of course, any patrolling spirit Force 8, unexpected ghost, wandering shedim, or magician working for another team with the same target as the PCs, can rip your PC magician's astral butt in half rather suddenly.

But the really important thing to keep in mind the limitations of astral recon. Objects are pretty vague. Is it a bomb, or is it a fuel pump? And video and audio don't come through.

I recently ran a game where the PCs had to extract a sex worker from a puppet parlor. The PC magician did astral recon, but couldn't find the target because he'd never seen her aura before - he couldn't tell her apart from any of the other women. He glanced in a room where the parlor's ganger security was gathered around a video monitor. He deduced that the unprofessional ganger security was probably watching a game, or even a client, for laughs. Actually, the gangers were carefully watching the PCs' car, out in the parking lot. When the gangers attacked a minute later, the PCs were totally surprised.

[TheScamp]

Technology is your friend vs the astral intruders. Gas emitters, hidden gun ports, pressure plates, etc. The mage would have to check out the spaces between the walls and floors as well as the rooms/security guards to even have a chance of finding any of that, and they only have so much time.

[Zen Shooter01]

Excellent point, Scamp. And in a workshop, laboratory, or residence, astral recon would have a hard time telling a security drone from an air compressor, or a cleaning robot, or a piece of lab equipment.

Especially if the magician lacks the knowledge skills to know an air compressor when she sees one.

Consider this, as well. Astral recon shows an ork with low Essence, and implants throughout his body. What it does not show are the three IPE off. grenades, Smartgun loaded with APDS, and the armor vest with plates he's got under his jacket.

It'll show you an adept, but not the monowhip in his pocket.

And let's not forget that background count louses up astral recon, too.