Long time lurker (before I registered anyways), first time poster.

So I was reading through Runners Companion for a quality to give to an NPC and it Astral Hazing seems to fit her well. My question though as an awakened character could she use Geomancy to control her own background count? I realize its a little cheezy but you would think that such a character would attempt to do so... and if it happens I am planning on making it a positive quality instead of a negative one.

Short answer ... no!

But welcome to Dumpshock anyway.

I think you'd have to be a big mamajamma for geomancy to work on you.

"We will begin by arranging your dorsal sensor spikes into a more harmonious configuration with your articulated arm - the one bearing the light machine gun."

So is that an official position that as long as the character is big (however big is defined) then geomancy would work?

When I say "big" I mean "indistinguishable from the landscape." But no, that's not an official position.

Bugger that not-an-official-position. A sufficiently high Disguise could possibly render a character indistinguishable from the landscape.

Or a few bullets, a shovel, and some time.

Please tell me you work in Law, toturi, or at least a related profession. An eye for the literal like yours would be criminally wasted on anything else.

like on rollplaying for example? *snickers*

I think that AH meant "is landscape" or at least is big enough for metahumans to inhabit.

There is no hard and fast rule about how large cyberlimbs are that I am aware of. By RAW, there is nothing to stop you from getting a full set of limbs, torso, and head that leaves you as a vertical aircraft carrier of sorts. Getting a cybertorso as big as an office should suffice, for these purposes, I think.

Of course, any GM worth his salt is going to smack you upside the head with a hardcover BBB for something like that.

Of course, you could also punch a hole to the Deep Metaplanes where the Horrors dwell, find some Dread Iotas with Geomancy, and convince them to set up shop in your body. The relative size difference being what it is, they should have no problem geomancing your innards.

Or you could just convince your GM to let you make a Shrink spell and have your magician buddy Fantastic Voyage through you.

The biggest problem is that unless the thing being geomanced is manipulated to be more inline with who is geomancing it (like doing fung shui on a room with a background count for example) then the geomancy ritual takes a penalty every test for it. Eventually, this penalty would get to the point where you could not even remotely attempt to try to geomance the hazing.

I seem to remember starting a thread like this a while back. People arrived at the conclusion that you COULD, but it was hideously overpowered and, at the very least, you'd need to buy the quality off with karma to get it to "neutral".

no, the basic problem is that if you rearrange the surrounding area to alter the flow of the mana (which is what geomancy does) then that is good only so long as the area doesn't change... so, for example, if you move anywhere, no good. if the region expands (which it will do if you don't move), no good, because all of a sudden the mana is flowing in uncontrolled areas also.

of course, if you don't move, you're also just asking to get thor shotted when ares gets tired of you disrupting their security wards from across the globe. assuming the dozens of other angry magicians, spirits, adepts, etc, don't kill you first.

well, the background count only extends to essence meters and then stops doesn't it?

IIRC there is a time factor for extending the background count. Eventually however, if a person with Astral Hazing lives long enough, the whole world will be Background Count 4.



Well, not really. I'm a civil engineer. You could say however that dealing with building regulations is being part of a related profession.

please, someone tell me that it is not only me who finds that at least a bit silly O.o



yes, well, some of the oldest professions in this world sooner or later start having similarities with the oldest profession of all it seems *g*

It *is* silly. But I suspect it is meant that if you move move out (essence metres) in any direction, then hey presto, new background count. Sure, if you're held down at a location for eternity..

Of course, it'd take hundreds of years to cover the entire world, and chances are we'll see some errata at some point saying "Because Dumpshockers are bastards and poke holes in our occasional slip ups, astral hazing has a maximum radius of essencex15."

heck, that would be awesome ^^
and hundreds of years . . dwarves, elves, leonization . . not really all that impossible O.o

Not really. You just need more guys with Astral Hazing. Spread them out equally, and maybe in 5-10 years, give or take a year or two and the whole world would be BC 4. Then after that near space, then outer space, then... this century the planet, the next the whole system!

and we have found a defense against the horrors O.o

If you're going for real badass, let the NPC in question learn the Cleansing and Filtering metatechniques instead.
Not as waesome, but much less questionable.

It doesn't matter if the person moves, it doesn't create a new backround count; his backround count moves with him. All you'd need to do is make yourself look more "in line" with your tradition.. Think of what Night Crawler did. All you have to do is extremem body modifications; tattoos, piercings, branding, maybe some sub-dermal implants (no essence, just time consuming). Completely by the rules, it's legal.

For instance, a Christian Theurge gets a cross tattood on his left shoulder and the ten commandments (in Hebrew) on his back. An Islamic Traditionist would get key verses of the Koran (Qua'ran, however they feel like spelling it this month) branded or tattood on hisself. The Path of the Wheel might get stories of Cu Chulainn and Moriggan (spelling?), as well as maybe a more permanent form of Woad pattering.

It does feel odd, but we shouldn't hold the players in error of making a very clever discovery.

Except the hazing is not from HIS tradition, its because he is a cyberzombie. I'd pretty much say that anything you could do to make yourself better match the haze from being a cyberzombie would kill you.

Add in Arcane Arrester and you WIN against Magic

wouldn't the background technically be adapted to the tradition of the cybermancer mage?

more or less, yes

Stupid me for posting from memory.

You're right, the site is originally cybermancy magic domain, and then is instead being geomanced to be cyberzombies tradition. However, since the original domain is generated because he is a cyberzombie, the only way to change it to align with his tradition would be to make him not a cyber zombie any longer.

Must like a toxic waste site is a domain for toxics. If you want to geomancy it to match your tradition, you'll suck the peanlties unless you get rid of the toxic source.

actually, as i understand it cybermancy is blood magic, and blood magic and the horrors go hand in hand...

as to the rest about aspecting the cyberzombie, no. doesn't work. i repeat, you must alter the environment around the area. unless the cyberzombie is filling the entire area of the background count, then you are not going to be altering the rest of the environment by altering the cyberzombie. i don't care if you tattoo a cross on the cyberzombie's arm, if you want to make this argument then you're going to need to at least have the entire area of the background count altered. at best, you could pull this off with a vehicle large enough to contain the background count, which extends in all directions... so you might be able to aspect a section of an aircraft carrier (remember, if your cyberzombie has -2 essence then you need 2 meters above and below the cyberzombie to be prepared as well as on all sides) or a space station or something like that. you aren't going to pull it off by poking holes in the cyberzombie's skin, or adding pigmentation, no matter what those holes or pigments signify. you need to poke holes or add pigments to the area *around* the cyberzombie.

i was thinking about general Astral Hazing . . isn't there inRC one "Flaw" that causes this?

Yes, its called... astral hazing. Its the exact same as the cyberzombies. If you wanted to geomance it, you'd need to adapt the area affected by the background count to match the geomancers tradition. Since the guy with hazing is likely to move around quite a bit, this is pretty much pointless.