Hello everyone,

First of all, thanks for your time and attention It's my first post here so I hope it won't be too redundant. Obviously this problem must have been debated over for a bit already, but I've given up searching after the 23rd page of spirit topics here xD Still, here's the nasty part if you can bother giving me a hand (and no, am not a ghoul if you wondered >.<)
Many times upon a time, there was a fairly weak mage able to summon spirits, and he wanted to kill the president/steal my teddy bear/become the master of the universe ... And he made it ! (except for the teddy bear part...)
Basically, this could come true with the spirit remote service rules as they are stated in the core rule book. Maybe I read them wrong, or there was an update I missed (or a topic at least ). The exact manip revolves around something like this: I wake up early in the morning, eat my breakfast, do some gymnastics and start summoning spirits right after the sun has risen. The limit is supposedly one summoned spirit, and as many linked spirit as my charisma score allows it (one spirit a point), but ! If I send a summoned spirit on a remote task, he doesn't count towards the one summoned spirit limit anymore. Meaning that I could ask him things like : "See this teddy bear on the photo ? He is located right there. I want you to scatter him dead at 19 tonight." Once he's away, get another one and so on and so forth until I get a whole army of force 3-5 spirits running after my poor cuddly toy at 19 tonight. I didn't bother doing the maths, but "army" might even be underscored given the time it requires to summon a small spirit, and the 10 hours or so you have at hand to gather them. Obviously, you can get that trick done for huge assassination schedules, highjacking boats/planes/whatever, grand thefting, getting your own palace built in a day or so (if you can summon task spirits) etc.
Of course there is always a way around to avoid these, but that's my problem actually. Obviously the president can have an throng of protective mages to cover his moves and privacy, but how tedious and bothering to death would that be for a magical team to spend their whole day and night switch summoning spirits to counter a would be burst of goblin legion... Actually this just breaks the fun, and can't seriously be done, even more so that it also implies that the mages aren't supervising astral security meanwhile, allowing an easier strike for other kinds of magical attacks... Meaning anyone important on the planet would resort to living underground or something. No way !
Of course there is always the "don't abuse spirits" point, but what if a few dedicated guys decided to abuse them, be it just for once? Simply because of this possible threat, it means that countermeasures must be taken, and that this would make many a people's life a nightmare. Or even in combat, the mages would simply stick to chain summoning spirits in order to hamper the opposite team (and with great effisciency), switching to spell slinging at critical times maybe... Not to mention a pool of 1-3 (1-3 not being too abusive I guess...) "big" spirits a mage could have summoned beforehand with the order to "attack our foes when I snap", or all the terrific options I forgot ...
Given how big the issue would be, I'm obviously missing something here (mana barriers could be the start of a very partial answer, but still...) and I wouldn't mind to read your opinions/options/solutions on the matter
The solution I think I'll be implementing, is simply that a single spirit can be sent on a remote task, and chain services, like "at 16 clean my bedroom, at 17 star mawing the lawn, at 18 meet me for dinner..." are allowed (costing one service each time of course) BUT, if at any time another spirit is summoned, the first one is freed. This basically means that he will very probably leave things as they are, and get back to his meta sweet home. Now, if the mage is respecting the spirit, has an afinity with him or something, the spirit might keep going, but that would definitely never be something a mage could plan an action on.

Anyway, thanks again for your time guys. Any critics/comment is more than welcome

Welcome to DS!

Summoned spirits on a remote service count against your bound spirit limit. Still a respectable force (CHA spirits at most, minus a few slots for actually bound spirits).

Many thanks ! : )

And damn ! >< All that time spent figuring out a solution when it was a translation glitch xD (I'm French, and in this version, erratas including, this spirit thingie is quite the debate :/ ) Had looked into the English version of SR4 where the problem was still the same, but somehow I missed its errata, surely assuming it hadn't been corrected either, I dunno *facepalm* ><
Anyway thanks again for the tip and welcome ! : )

PS: I think I'll keep the lil' fix I devised as a homerule for awakened newcomers at my table, it will surely help them get the drill without being harrassed too much with all this tricky (and somehow heavy I reckon) spirit preparation homework : )

I've always read the errata a little more harshly.
If a spirit was not bound, you may not summon another until its remote service is completed.

Or the remote spirit is immediately released? /edit

Ok, the errata is quite clear. The German book references the bound spirit limit, so that is one of our local deviations (the race of the year: English hardcover vs. German hardcover. Both contestants will make it, but which is faster?). Also, spirits on a remote service count as released once given a task.

Can someone provide a quote from SR4A, please?

SR4A p.187: "Once a spirit has completed a remote service, it is technically released (unless it is a bound spirit). Spirits on remote service continue to count against the limit of summoned spirits until their remote service is completed."

Thanks!