So, my ghoul physad just initiated and got Masking, which was greatly needed. However, it occurs to me that he's still permanently dual-natured, and thus always astrally active. Here's what the Metamagic power says:



Does this then mean that he will still look astrally active? I don't suppose you can hide that? I'm sure he could make himself appear to be a non-infected magician or adept who happens to be astrally perceiving, or perhaps a spirit in the shape of a human, but he can't turn off the bright astral beacon of being astrally active. Thoughts?

You answered your own question... "look mundane". A mundane cannot be astrally active.

You can hide that you are active... but you can't stop being astrally active ever... so if someone stunballs the astral plane and you're in it... you get hit... even if you don't look like you're active.

Also means you can never sneak through a ward, except by trying to mask as the wards creator but only after you've assensed him. Also you'll have trouble making full use of masking without the assensing skill and the astral perception adept power.

Yes, I was aware that I couldn't shut it down, although I hadn't thought about your "bug spirit detector"- I'll have to remember that one!

The thing is- this power wasn't written with ghouls in mind. It can be used by a non-active (not perceiving) magician to make his/her aura look mundane. The question is whether a perceiving (astrally active) magician, or for that matter, a permanently dual-natured being (like my ghoul) could use this to appear non-active. The book says:



In our game, we've taken this distinction to be almost automatically detectable, but I guess it's something we'll have to discuss.

To sum up:
You can make your awakened aura look like a more or less powerful awakened aura.
You can make your awakened aura look like a mundane aura.
You can make your astral form look like that a different astral creature.
Can you make your astral form look like a "regular" aura?

Well street magic goes a lot into the astral plane. Just remember it's a much different 'sense' of reality than you're used to. Life gives off light and lights the space. Everything non-living is a dull colorless shadow of itself. Things like writing don't show up. Things which are magical, show up more vividly especially if they are astrally active. All living creatuers whether they're astrally active or not have an aura. Things do not have two seperate auras... one physical and one astral... they have an astral aura and a physical form, auras are astral and astral only.

Masking is literally the ability to subdue or alter that aura. To hide that magical nature, or to alter it so it makes you look like something you're not (mundane, another caster you've assensed, some other kind of astral critter like a spirit). Extended masking extends that to your active spells and foci.

I do not mean to imply that things "have two separate auras... one physical and one astral... " I am saying that an aura and an astral form are different from one another. Your earlier line "All living creatures whether they're astrally active or not have an aura" (emphasis mine) is correct, however, as my above quote states, projecting mages and dual-natured beings (such as ghouls) have astral forms. The astral form of a projecting magician or a dual-natured being might be thought of as an "enhanced aura".

A purely astral form, such as a non-materialized spirit, or a magician who is projecting out of his body can pass through non-living materials and non-active living creatures. If a magician wanted to know if something was dual-natured or not, he could project out of his body and try to pass through it (Living beings get a Perception + Intuition (4) Test to notice such a thing). If the person or object is mundane, then they will pass through. If it is dual-natured, like a ward, a focus, a projecting mage, or my ghoul, they will hit against it.

So, the questions remains-

First: can you automatically tell the difference between a simple aura and a more robust astral form by simply perceiving it astrally? Do you have to make an assensing test? Do you have to try to touch or astrally pass through it to know for sure?

Second: Can masking make an astral form look like an aura? I continue to assume that the astral form still behaves as such, and thus a purely astral form couldn't pass through it even if it looked like a simple aura.

Every table I've ever played with has considered astral forms, merely more vibrant and real auras. Sort of like the difference between manifesting and materializing for a spirit.


Yes, if you look at the assensing skill. And the Masking metamagic. You'll find there is an opposed test specifically to see through the masking and see what the target really is. It's not an easy test btw... and more likely to fail than succeed most of the time. (unless you're good assenser and the target is a very low level initiate. It's a reason i normally specialize assensing in reading auras).


First question: if the target is not masked... then yes it's obvious. Provided you have the assensing skill. (trained only... you feed someone without assensing deepweed and essentially they're on a 2001 space oddysey style acid trip).

Second: I believe so, and this has been how I've always seen it played. It's part of making yourself 'look mundane'. Without that ability it makes masking a much much much less desirable power. You can't have a mage do recon by masking as mundane while he assenses people walking by. Masking is essentially an astral illusion. It doesn't mean things can pop through it... it's still more 'real' and vibrant, it just doesn't show it.

Yes you automatically can differentiate an astral form from an aura p. 184 Astral perception (SR4, cant tell with SR4A)


Says on masking that you can make your aura/astral form look mundane and since mundanes don't have astral forms I assume that means that you make it look like there is no astral form.

Edit: Couldn't find anything relating to it in the FAQ so the RAW seem pretty clearcut on this.

A ghoul, being dual natured and innately possessing the ability to sense things on the astral, does not need the Adept power.

The Assensing skill, yes.

But not the Power.

So, I just happened to be looking at Running Wild for another rule (Astral Combat for dual-natured critters), and I also saw this:

DUAL-NATURED MASKING


I think that it could be worded more definitively, but it seems to say that I can make my ghoul's astral form look like the aura of a mundane metahuman.

So, I just happened to be looking at Running Wild for another rule (Astral Combat for dual-natured critters), and I also saw this:



I think that it could be worded more definitively, but it seems to say that I can make my ghoul's astral form look like the aura of a mundane metahuman.

Yes, you could make your aura look like a mundane metahuman, but it would still be an astrally perceiving mundane metahuman.
It would be immediately obvious that you have an astral form, then an assensing test would reveal that you're human and mundane if the assenser scores enough hits to identify your metatype and Awakened potential, but not enough to see through your Masking.

Of course, in SR4 there's reasons for mundanes to have an astral form (see below).



Deepweed only forces Awakened characters to assense (it's basically the smokeable version of the Astral Perception adept power).
If you want to make a mundane perceive the astral, you either have to book a flight to Hong Kong and show him that place that's a permanent gateway to the astral plane, give him tempo or give him shade (shade forces people to astrally project for the duration of its effects).

Of course, as has been pointed out here already, a Dual Natured critter already perceives the astral anyway. But with all those awakened drugs, we finally have a plausible explanation for why you're astrally active when your aura looks mundane to a casual observer.
In some cases, I'd rather come off as a tempo user than a ghoul if somebody starts assensing me.
If you play during or before Ghost Cartells, tempo isn't even a scheduled substance and drug laws in SR are pretty lax in general.

Check the description of Tempo. IIRC, Tempo confers a Magic Rating. So when you take Tempo, you are no longer mundane.

You are looking for a drug that either gives you astral perception (hence dual natured) or astrally project without confering any Magic rating.

Does the Astral Gateway power cause mundanes to astrally project?

Actually... as soon as they start astrally perceiving their aura enhances to astral form.

So without masking they lack any element of control. Like I said they end up on an 2001 style acid trip of sight and sound and color with no real idea how to interpret anything they're experiencing. (that training comes with the assensing skill).


Apologies if i had the exact drug wrong... I just know there's one which is fun to use on unawaked characters.

First of all, sorry for derailing the thread. Just clarifying a few things here.



The astral passage in Hong Kong sadly lacks a rules section.

I just read the relevant sections from Ghost Cartells again and it doesn't mention if tempo grants a Magic attribute - it grants Astral Perception. If getting Astral Perception confers a Magic attribute (I'm not sure about that), this means tempo grants a magic attribute, but note that it doesn't use the term Dual Natured, which would come with an automatic Magic (1). Besides that, all that is mentioned is that long-term use

Rereading Arsenal's entry for shade, I found that it also doesn't mention a Magic attribute- it only says that it allows users to project longer than usual, which I interpret as completely overriding the usual rules for astral projection where duration is limited by the projecting person's Magic attribute.

Deepweed doesn't directly mention a Magic attribute, either, because it is irrelvant. The text says that it forces any magically active character to astrally perceive, even adepts without the Astral Perception power, so having a Magic attribute is a given if deepweed is supposed to do more than give people a +1 boost to willpower and make them really, really stoned.

In total, I'm left a bit puzzled now. These drugs give abilities that are normally firmly tied to possessing a Magic attribute through some means, but they don't mention if they grant a temporary Magic rating. I don't know what to make of that. I'd probably rule that they do not grant a Magic attribute and that somebody assensing a character on tempo or shade would recognize what's up if he was familiar with the auras of people under the influence of these substances, but that's just my interpretation of the sparse mentions the texts make of their effects in that regard. It's not explicitly stated anywhere.



No problem, I had to read up on this stuff again as well to get it right. It's been a while since I read Ghost Cartells.

Tempo aka flipside actually does give the users a meaningful interpretation of what they perceive astrally- they get a +2 to all skills from the Influence group because they subconsciously pick up emotional clues from people's auras.
Of course, they'd have to learn assensing to make normal use of astral perception, such as determining if somebody is awakened, diagnosing diseases via aura reading, telling that somebody is sustaining an illusion spell, benchmarking Essence or Magic of others etc.

On top of that, tempo also causes visuals by pharmacological means- the text mentions "serotonin stimulators" in that context. That could mean either 5HT2a receptor agonism as with LSD or serotonin release as with MDMA (ecstasy), or both as with MDA or 6-APB, with the accompanying visuals.
General perception also seems to get heightened (+1 to Perception).
All of that must be a bit confusing, as is to be expected from being simultaneously on a powerful psychedelic/empathogen and perceiving glimpses of astral space for the first time, hence the -1 to Willpower.

It's basically like acid on acid. But also like ecstasy on ecstasy. And it seems to be a more powerful dopaminergic drug than either of these as well.
No surprise it's the wonder drug of the 2070s.