Hey folks. I'm having just a tad bit of an issue GMing Astral Space. In reading through Street Magic and the BBB I'm having doubts that how I'm doing it is correct or not.

1 - Can you recognize people in Astral space? Everyone has auras, but those auras don't necessarily look like "You". What if you're a Shadowrunner in a bar, and you see your mark walk into a back room, and then Astrally project and follow him. In the back room are 10 people. Can you pick out who it was who came into the room by looking at them in Astral Space?

I'm assuming "yes" in the sense that the auras of non-projecting NPCs will still look very similar to that NPC. Astrally projecting wizards however, might look substantially different.

2 - How do you handle communication in Astral Space? Say a wizard is on security duty and he's Astrally projecting, making sure no one is getting too close astrally. He doesn't have any Wards or anything. He runs into another Astrally projecting wizard nearby. Can he communicate to said Astrally projecting wizard to "Frag off!"? Or does the other wizard perceive this more in the aura of the astrally projecting wizard, and just sense that he's hostile, and being threatened? If the other wizard was an ally, could he communicate factual information, like "There are 2 Air Spirits within the compound. I'll take the one on the north, you take the one to the south". What about communication between astral space and the physical world? I know that Astrally projecting characters can "Manifest" and make ghostly sounding vocalizations. Can the astrally projecting character understand responses from those in the physical world, or again, does he only perceive these as emotion?

Thanks!

Well, most people should be recognizable, but the actual trick is to have a look at their aura when you first meet them. You can then, identify people by their aura. A magical active character by the way, shouldn't be so hard to identify as they (in most situations) are the "only" one of their kind in that room, as the awakened are still a rare breed.

Characters that are active on the astral can normaly communicate with each other. They way they communicate might be beyond our understanding, but the information stays the same. The mind will probably translate the information the sixth sense provides into something resembling the other 5. A "materialized" projecting character, can as far as I know communicate with his sorroundings (meaning input and output )

However the astral plane is by it's nature works by rules that even the most experienced mages just started to grasp a fraction of. It is interpretable and most discussable.

Are you asking if someone originally seen only mundanely can be recognized later when only perceived astrally? Or vice versa? This there may be some difficulty with.

This would be akin to only seeing my writing online, and then trying to figure out what I really look like when trying to meet me in person.

You'd have to do an astral perception test at least, and an aura read at most. I'm pretty sure things look fairly different on the astral plane. For example you can't read in the astral. So I imagine it's harder to see faces and details in the astral, and you'd be looking more at their auras, with only a guideline of their physical form.

It's really up to GM fiat. I'd suggest you make it harder like I proposed in the above paragraph, because astral projection is a very powerful tool already.

As Dire Radiant said, recognizing someone on the astral you've only seen on the physical is difficult at best. I'd let them make a roll for it, especially if they have distinguishing characteristics, like cyberware, a particular disease, or magical potential. The more you know about the person's 'true nature', the easier it is, so you're more likely to recognize your wife than the postman.

As for communication, yes, astrally projecting creatures can talk to each other normally. No, it can't be heard by anyone on the physical. Yes, this means they can communicate without concern for mundane eavesdropping techniques.

You could easily recognise them, even if you have never seen their aura before. The astral shadow of thier body is still visible while you are projecting, it just isnt as vibrant as thier aura. Its like asking if you can recognise which building is your house while projecting, your house still looks just like your house, even if you cant read the address printed on the mailbox.

Thanks for the responses thus far.

My first foray into the Astral several gaming sessions ago devolved into a bizarre sign-language type of dialog - I was under the impression that there was no sound in Astral Space, and the only thing you could understand about a person was their emotional states.

I figured afterwards that I had to be doing it wrong.

They can communicate with people on the physical plane as well, by manifesting (though they still couldn't read.) A manifesting character wouldn't be picked up by any sensors either - though they could be eavesdropped on by living people and become vulnerable to physical-plane cast mana spells.

I don't think I'd recognize my wife if I only saw her shadow. I'd recognize she's a woman, but without further information, I don't think I'd make that leap of logic.

"Astral shadow" is an oversimplification:


Your wife would look pretty much exactly as you see her now - except it would be even easier to read her mood, for example.

The body at a funeral would be trickier to ID, though.

I think that's a question of interpretation. I don't know that I'd recognize my wife easily if she were 'grey and lifeless', hidden underneath a colorful rainbow I didn't recognize. But hey, maybe I would.

Non-dead == non-"grey and lifeless"

You're not losing any visual detail on a living person, you're just gaining some additional not-specifically visual information (the aura.)

It's roughly analogous to saying you wouldn't recognize your wife if there was Mozart playing.

Looking at some-one on the astral plane is more like looking at a person through a stained glass window, who's got a torch in their mouth. The aura (which is a projection of the self, not the outward physical characteristics) is colourful and vibrant. You see their emotional state, the state of their health, and some of their own unique idiosyncracies and features. The meat is not vibrant, the aura is.

well, i'm not totally convinced to your points.

sure, the manifesting mage can "speak" to people nearby. but the BBB is not so clear about people talking to the mage. the chapter about astral space says, that you get more of the emotional content, whereas mundane stuff ist quite grey and shadowy. if this extends to sounds as well is not declared. sure a manifesting mage cannot hear clearly the sounds emitted by a TV-speaker as he cannot read a mundane book. but living beeings speaking? at least i'm very unsure.

but for your second point: a manifestig mage cannot be targeted by a physically-plane cast spell unless the caster is astrally perceiving. because the manifesting char may be "seen" on the mundane plane, but he IS not there, so he cannot be targeted. if he was materializing (which is almost impossible for methuman mages, but a spirit could do it), then everything would be ok (execpt for the target ^^).

Unfortunately, it doesn't extend to sound. The astral mage can hear more or less normally.

Wrong:




They are very much vulnerable to physical-plane cast mana spells.

I think that that may be poorly worded. If they're trying to reflect the rules in SR3, I think what they mean to say is things like invisibility, which have a mana effect, will effect manifested mages. However, something like stunball would not hurt the manifesting mage because he's technically on a different plane.

Affected by invisibility?

They're functionally dual-natured and thus would easily see the aura of both the person and the spell itself.

Sure, they wouldn't be able to pick him out of a lineup later (without making a high-threshold assensing test, anyway.)

Anyway, if you'd allow them to be affected by Invisibility, Mind Probe, Influence, Confusion, etc., then you should allow them to be hit by manabolt too. An effect is an effect, whether or not it's straight damage. If the devs don't want that to be the case, they need to write up a clarification in the FAQ, or better yet, the errata.

That was probably a poor example, since his manifested eyes might not see the target, but his astral perception would. A better example is silence. A manifesting character wouldn't hear a character who has silence cast on him. He might also see trid phantasms (although he'd recognize them as illusions, obviously). However, I'm not sure if an astrally projecting mage who wasn't manifesting would be affected by a physical silence spell.

The difference is, in these examples, he's an indirect target. He's not directly targeted by the spell, but he's seeing the influence from it. He wouldn't be affected by Mind Probe, Influence, etc., but presumably he would be influenced by invisibility, phantasm, silence and would turn up on detection spells.

I agree though, a more clear answer would be useful. I'm only assuming the rules didn't change significantly from SR3, which may be a false assumption.

the errata says something different:

Well, there you go then - I hadn't seen that line.