That tactic would work just fine provided your DM doesn't actually USE the Astral Visibility modifiers or Background Counts, if he/she does then you'd be better off visiting your cyberdoc.

Where do you get this from in SR4? It may have always been the case in the past, but I don't believe it is so as of the new edition.

GM: "Okay, the car rolls to a halt. You've reached as far as the grid extends and from here on it's officially the Barrens. 'Trix Baby (the hacker) is still brain fried from the Black IC so there's nothing you can do to overide the car. It deducts the 20 from your credstick and unceremoniously clicks the door open. <synthetic voice>Please Exit the Vehicle.</synthetic voice>"
Lead Player:Okay. I guess we'd better get going if we're going to make it to the drop. Does my mapsoft cover this area? And is it still raining?
GM: It's patchy - to both. Your image link pops up the layout of the main streets glowing in the rain before you where only you can see. But it's lacking any of the detail that you get in the better covered areas. The sole info-icons are the dull red "High Crime Area" glyphs which are liberally scattered across this whole area.
2nd Player: "Great - I hoist Trix Baby's skinny round-eared ass over my shoulder and we set off toward our drop point, walking as fast as we can."
Lead Player: Stealthily![/b]
GM: You're hurrying stealthily?[/b]
Lead Player:[/b] As much as we can.
GM:Okay. After a couple of miles of abandoned streets and the odd torched car, you have to turn off the main street. There's almost no light here, just the rain-obscured moon and the odd lit window that you don't feel like investigating. There are people here, but you don't see anyone. Maybe this cold rain is a good thing if it's cleared people off the street. These side roads are a lot more claustrophobic, Approximately eight metres wide with very high buildings, 20-30 stories, on each side. This is sniper heaven. Great heaps of refuse are dumped in the middle of the road, presumably to make bonfires at some point.
Lead Player: We keep to the walls as tightly as we can, and I keep an eye out for movement at any of the windows. Remember I have thermographic, too.
GM: I haven't forgotten. I want Perception rolls from all of you, please."

Players roll dice. Several groans

GM: The attack, when it comes, arrives from an unexpected direction. A dirty dishevelled figure literally springs out of the darkness behind an empty window, straight at Samurai Mack (lead player's character). The woman, you think it's a woman, is literally snarling (GM makes snarling noises and gruesome faces, clearly enjoying himself). In the meantime one of the piles of refuse explodes and three more figures lope toward the group at a run. And they're fast. As the nearest figure reaches you, you see it's not a man at all, but a creature. Its eyes are sightless milky orbs, but it's looking at you - you can feel it looking at you - and it doesn't care about the dark at all.

Lead Player: (cursing) "'Ghouls! Don't let them touch you!' To the GM: That edge point I've been keeping - I think I want to spend it now, please."

Actually, it really wasn't supposed to work that way astrally before, but it wasn't stated as such.

Now, in fourth edition, it clearly states that viability modifiers apply for the most part. This is a huge difference, and makes astral another option (and a good one) but not the be all end all of observation and reconnaissance.

Second, as for ghouls themselves, the smart ones are rare. But, there are enough smart ones out there to make them not so rare as to make a group, a town sized area, or even a small country impossible. (In fact, unless I'm mistaken, there was a African nation in Cyberpirates that was just that. Correct me if I'm wrong, it's been awhile.) The smart ones aid Organleggers, run black market cloning operations, help the mob, or do what it takes to make money and get the next big meal.

The chart mentioned earlier was slanted to the players, but it is probably a bit closer to about a quarter being roughly human intellect (Although not the brightest, most will have their brains roughed up by the viris still.)

Did this change between SR3 and SR4? I thought that glass was equally see-through in astral?

[Edit]Ghouls tend to be easier for mages to deal with, because their dual nature means they can be easily targeted by an astrally percieving mage without risking his teammates in the area effect spell. (i.e. "I astrally percieve and cast stunball, centered on me"...Every ghoul in the area of effect goes down, and the non-dual natured teammates don't have to resist damage because they're not astrally present.)

They still suffer Astral Perception Modifiers and such, but they don't suffer a penalty for targetting physical opponents with their Astral Perception.

-Frank

yes, the visibility on the astral thing was changed.

and that's a terribly way for a mage to deal with ghouls. it means he's going to be frying himself with his own stunball. do i need to explain why this isn't a good idea? =P

(well, it could be a good idea some of the time, but most of the time it is not =P )

Except he'd need to project instead of only perceiving, which supposedly leaves his body helpless in melee.

Ghouls have a large racial bonus to Willpower. A pedestrian Ghoul has a Willpower of 5. A Ghoul's normal Willpower maximum is 8. A Ghoul's augmented maximum is 12.

Ghoul's have an "average" Willpower as racial minimum. You can't even be a Ghoul with a Willpower of less than 3. And they can get Spell Defense just like you can.

-Frank