So my characters may soon be running into the following situation.

The goal is to beat up a certain Mage in public, to teach him a lesson in humility. This Mage is pretty careful, and specializes in tracking and counterspelling. Essentially what I want out of this encounter is a chance for the muscle characters to shine. At this stage in the Adventure, the Face will have done quite a bit, and the Mage is going to have his hands full later. Assigning the characters to beat up a Mage who specializes in Counterspelling will make it such that the Player Mage can't just use a "Control Actions" or "Manabolt" him.

I haven't used Counterspelling exactly this way before, so I just want to make sure I've got it right.

Target walks into club (which is the public area the Players will be striking him). He has two goons and an Earth Elemental spirit escort. He's very edgy and in a crowded, public place, so he sustains a "Detect Enemies" spell.

When the characters make their move (whatever the hell that is)

1) The Goons and the Elemental all have to make Perception Checks to see if they notice the characters making their move. The Target's Detect Enemy spell roll is made if the Players come within range of it. This is a Spellcasting + Magic test vs. the Willpower of all the Players entering range of the spell, PLUS the Player's Mage's Counterspelling if he ACTIVELY CHOOSES to Counterspell (If the Player forgets to Assense the Target to figure out he is maintaining a spell, or just decides not to Counterspell it, he's out of luck)

2) Everyone (Players plus NPCs) makes a Surprise Test (Reaction + Intuition). Any NPC who succeeded at the Perception Check gets +3 Dice. The Mage gets +3 Dice if his Detect Enemy spell is successful at identifying them.

3) The players are automatically Not Surprised. The NPCs need to roll higher on their Surprise Rolls than the Players in order to act against them in the first Initiative Pass.

So, for example, if the Target IS Surprised by the Mage, then the Mage can cast "Control Actions" or "Manabolt" against the Target, and there is nothing he can do about it except resist with Willpower as normal. However, if he was NOT surprised by the Player Mage, he gets to add his Counterspelling Dice to the test.

Also, if the Target is NOT surprised, he can freely Counterspell any spell cast at either Him, the Elemental, or his Goons.

(The SR4A book doesn't put a limit on how many individuals can be protected with Counterspelling other than those in LoS?)

AFB at the moment, but I do believe the mage ALWAYS gets to counterspell for himself regardless of surprise. It is only when he is surprised and is CS for others they do not get it. There is no limit to CS other than LOS.

Mages always resist spells with [Attribute]+Counterspelling, even spells they are unaware of.
(Street Magic, p.162 - After getting out of bed, he declares "i use counterspelling on me" - finished.)

IMO: Circulate his picture in the bar with a warrant for unspecified sex offenses involving a minor.

Detect Enemies should be shut down after that.

As for Counterspelling, I thought it was everyone in his range gets half his Counterspelling skill dice? AFB as well.

Hmmm getting more confused.

SR4A page 185 - "Note that a Magician can always use Counterspelling to defend herself, unless surprised".

Also while we're on that page:

page 185 - "the magician must spend a Free Action and declare who she is protecting"

and then page 146 for Free Actions:

"A character may take a Free Action during his own Action Phase or at some later point in the Initiative Pass. A character may not take a Free Action prior to his first Action Phase in the Initiative Pass"

So once Combat has begun the Mage can always protect himself with Counterspelling (unless surprised), and he can only protect others in combat AFTER he has acted during the Initiative Pass.

Am I getting this right?

(I was under the impression you cannot just leave Counterspelling "turned on" all the time)

I believe the mage in question can protect himself and others with his first Free Action.

As I'm AFB ATM, I can't verify your findings - but if that's the case I think you'll need to be sinking massive disruptive modifiers on your mage to prevent him from running away with the show.

That's how I've always read it.

"I am counterspelling myself, Joe, and Duncan, and that guy" doesn't take more than a half-second to think.

Though the group may wonder why the mage had a drek-eating grin on his face before the Toxic Wave melted Mikey's face off and left everyone else unscathed.

And didn't Mikey owe the mage a lot of money?

As far as I've always understood it, counterspelling is an effect affecting the area around people, regardless of what's happening in said area. I don't even think the mage notices he's hampering someone's spellcasting -beyond seeing the effects of said spellcasting-, let alone actually have to put more effort into the counterspelling to do so.