Unbound spirits can perform "remote services" (SR4, pg.178-179).

"Once a spirit has been given a remote service, it is technically released. Spirits on remote services no longer count against the limit of summoned spirits." (SR4, pg.178, top-right)

According to that, it seems like a mage can be within LOS of a target, yet beyond the spirit range (say, 601+ meters away from the target for a mage with Magic 6 rating). Then, summon an unbound spirit, send it on a remote service to assualt the target. It is released, no longer counts against limit of summoned spirits, allowing the mage to repeat this process forever - sending unbound spirit after unbound spirit at the target.

That seems way wrong to me. Then I saw...

"A magician may only have one unbound spirit summoned at any given time... Spirits on remote service and on standby count toward this total." (SR4, p.179)

Seems like a contradiction. Personally, I think the second one is the way to go. Thoughts?

One major limit to this is Drain. Personally, I think the magician should have a max number of spirits equal to half their Charisma. Bound or otherwise.

Using an army of spirits to attack somebody or something from long range is cheap and stupid.

As a gm i would inflict heavy counter attacks upon the player to screw them over ten times worse than what they did to the npc. Through ritual spellcasting and or hit sqauds from tracing the astral link back to you.

also I would just say that even though an unbound spirit on remote service no longer counts towards your total i would not let another spirit go on remote service until the first one disappears.

The second choice doesn't sound as broken as the first so go with it.

Using GM Magic to counter the problem is more liekly to piss off players than solve the problem. Just say "no you can't do that" not "no, you're dead."

yeah, it's kinda like telling your players that the corps have effectively "unlimited" resources to hunt them down and kill them, just for being criminals. while true, your players would certainly be angry if you pulled that on them. similarly, unlimited spirits is just way too much cheese. it makes the game not fun for anyone (least of all the players, who likely have fewer mages available to summon said infinite supply of spirits as compared to corps, plus lacking the resources to heal the drain every time their magicians summon... again, unlike the corps, who can have fully trained medical teams in proper facilities.

sure, you *could* allow unlimited spirits... but it'll ruin your game. no one will have fun. it won't be about the runners or the corps anymore... it'll just be about the army of spirits either one can summon.

edit:

never mind...

memo to self, properly read the other posts in a thread before posting...

i think many a confused SR4 issue comes from much of the text being copyed right out of SR3, often in bulks without a proper read...

i recall being somewhat the same issue with spell defence in SR3 as they have more or less reused the text from SR2's magic sourcebook, but added the ability to use skill dice as well as magic pool dice. this lead to some confusing about when the skill dice became available again...

there is a reason why SR4 needs a faq, badly...

There are actually two contradictory paragraphs on this matter in the core book with the most often cited coming up first under Remote Services (p.178). Unfortunately that one is wrong. The correct rule is that on p.179 (just before Glitches) as will be clarified in future errata and the upcoming official FAQ:

Synner, do you happen to know when the FAQ might be released?

Unfortunately I can't offer a hard date. The FAQ is a priority but currently FanPro is swamped.

What're they all busy with, out of curiousity?

Probably the several books about to hit the shelves. The last thing I read said that FanPro was two people. I only read that here, but don't remember any FanPro staff denying it, so I assume it's true. With 4 books due out (gear, ware, magic, matrix) two people are probably running around in circles twelve hours a day getting everything compiled, laid out, and edited. Not to mention going over the preliminaries from the printer to make sure what they designed is what actually hit the paper.

someone talked about there being a new battletech main book on the way. and if fanpro is only two people, then im not surprised if they are swamped...

True. I wasn't even thinking of other lines, just Shadowrun, which seems like it woul be plenty of work on it's own.

If it's going to get errattaed, I think that's a clearer indication of how it was meant than one interpretation or the other.

Right. The question the errata needs to clarify is WHICH limit p 179 is saying Remote Service spirits count against: '1 unbound spirit', or 'Charisma bound spirits'? The reference 'this total' is ambiguous, and could refer to either.

Luckily we know which way the erratta will fall.

Just tell me this;

My character summons a fire spirit, and siccs it on somebody as a remote service.

While that fire Spirit is doing the munching, can I summon an earth spirit to dig a grave on remote service? Can I even summon an earth spirit at all?

Currently you can summon the earth spirit. When the erratta arrives, assuming it says what we've been promised, you'll have to release the fire spirit to summon the earth one.

The Battletech book (total warfare) was released a little while ago, but the unit design rules (technical manual) are still being worked on as a seperate book. Plus any other projects they have on for CBT such as sourcebooks or the Tactical Operations book they're apparently working on.

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