Way way back in the mists of time, I have vague recollections of the original Germany sourcebook providing rules for characters that were able to use astral perception but mundane for every other purpose. Seers I think they were called or something. Came as Priority C for magic and you had to spend a point of karma every time you used it.

First off, could someone be kind enough to confirm that what I'm remembering is right- or even that it was an option- and the costs/rules of the thing. Did it give any build point costs for taking it at character creation or was this pre-Shadowrun Companion like I think it was? I was considering trying to come up with something similar for a character concept I was thinking about- mundane for everything else but is able to access a certain metamagic by spending karma. Something like Diving for the spooky soothsayer lady or Psychometry for the blessed/cursed psychic.

You can do it in 3rd Edition through the SURGE rules. It basically costs 11 Build Points (5 to be a Changeling and 6 for Astral Sight). You gain a Magic Attribute of 1 and can use Astral Perception. You're free to initiate as you see fit and can obtain any Magical Skills and Metamagic Techniques that you have the ability to use. Examples include Aura Reading, Enchanting, Divination, Psychometry, and Masking. You also have the ability to create wards as per the standard rules.

At 11 Build Points, that's only a fraction more expensive than a Priority of C. I've used 'em to create a pretty cool paranormal investigator in the past.

Ooo, nifty. Thanks for the help.

Not a problem.

SR states that of the 1% of the Awakened population, only a fraction are full mages. This therefore entails that a vast amount of Awakened people can be treated as adepts having 1 or 2 power points (like Seers that have astral perception, or people that are just really good at physical activities), or even be mages that have no spells or sorcery/conjuring skills.

Nitpick, only a fraction of them are aspected, undiscovered or insane. The majority are full mages according to MITS.

The original rules you were thinking of were for spokenkiekerin (the O has an umlaut. I think spokenkieker is the singular form - any German-speakers want to back me up?). They're in the original Germany sourcebook. Basically, you can take Magic priority D and have normal astral perception. You cannot do anything else a magic user can do - including be initiated and gain any metamagic, learn enchanting, sorcery, conjuring, etc, except just have astral perception. You do have a magic attribute (presumeably 6, modified by essence, like normal, though it doesn't say) and your astral perception only functions as long as you still have above 0 magic. All rules for deadly wounds and magic loss, etc. apply. They also say you have to spend one karma every time you want to percieve, but when I used those rules, I threw that out the door as way too expensive. And all this was before the companion, so no build point value, etc.

I used these rules once, for an NPC German character who was a world-renowned researcher studying the fovae in Aztlan. Worked fine. I did notice you could now do the same with SURGE, but I haven't had a need to.

I always assumed they were referring to Sorcery and Conjuring when they stated that just to quell any chances of someone arguing that they can cast spells or summon spirits with that trait. Considering they have access to Enchanting, I don't see why they wouldn't be able to use other skills or abilities that only require a Magic Attribute of 1 like Divination, nor any reason to restrict them from initiating since they won't gain much from their higher Magic beyond the ability to create better wards... in the very, very long run.

But a strict reading would suggest otherwise. Just something else I'm going to have set aside as a house rule.