So, I was reading SotA 63 today at a friend's house, and I came across the entry for the coffin clubs, where the magicians go into coffin-motel style pods, astrally project, and rave in the Astral.

I'm wondering what's stopping a mage from going in, hopping into his pod, astrally projecting, floating into someone else's pod and possessing them. It would seem like a fair danger.

I can imagine the sort of scandal this sort of thing would cause, if a dirty old man magician possesses a woman, and proceeds to go have her body have unprotected sex. Especially once the lawyers get involved, and start trying to figure out if it was rape or not.

Maybe a safety feature would be to astrally ward their little pod for the short time they're in. I don't think it said anything about the club frowning on that feature.

From the whole using a person's body, it would probably be a new crime in the wake of the magic.

Hmmm... kinda makes the term mindrape a new category of crimes, eh? Probably classify as a first amendment violation if used by the government since one has the right to free speech which has been interpreted as also the right to formulate the ideas to free speech which means one has the right of privacy to their minds. Also there's the right to bodily integrity issue that... oh, I'll shut up now.

The problem is that wards require hours to set up, and so by the time you've got the ward up on the coffin, the mage will be back in their pod sleeping off the Essence loss from Astrally Projecting.

Only other thing I can think of is an internal keypad that asks for the user password to get out. That way only the original mage knows the password to get out, unless the management is really convinced to let them out, or something odd like that. Eh, I guess it's user beware with those darn folks who do possessing.

You could ward the whole area, then be selective about who you let into the building. It could be a members-only thing, where you can purchase a membership for a small cost, but you'd have to be on file somewhere.

Astral Barrier + Physical Drain for the truly paranoid.

Also, you've been assensed on the way in, so if your aura doesn't match up with your body...

Plus, with so many mages floating around, you think one or two might not notice?

The security is grade A, ever one is worried about the Shedim.

aye, possesion is the biggest fear in these places, and as such the security is more then up to par in most places. read the whole entry and you'll know this already =p

I thought alot obout the culture in SOTA63 was awsome. especially the coffin club thang got me interested.

It;s a new place for a meet with Astral Mr.Johnson.

Yeah, they're worried about the Shedim. That's why they've got high-force wards along the walls of the place. All that will do is stop someone (or something) from coming in astrally and possessing somebody. It does nothing to stop someone from coming in in the meat, going astral, and hopping into someone else's body, though.

Is most of the stuff in SOTA 2063 relevant for SR4?

And wouldn't having astral barriers limit the space of such a club?

Do you notice when someone possess your meat body? Since the astral form won't be far, it would be very easy to check if they say, 'hey, did you feel that?'

A two or three digit code to get back out of the coffin, with a routine to alert security that there might be a problem if someone is making a lot of mistakes trying to get back out.

Possession like that could very well be done, but there are going to be astral forms everywhere. What if one of the body's friends sees you getting in the coffin, and then the body getting out? Or the owner themself?

It'd be difficult to pull off, but could be a very cool part of a run. "We need his palm print, with his hand still attached to his body, and a retina check before that. How are we gonna manage this?"