Now im looking at this SURGE effect, and immedately im thinking that this would be a good flaw for a slightly Twisted Adept, but it say's that it can't be taken by Awakened Characters. Now why is that? Surely an Awakened character would be more Likely to cause a background count then a equally twisted but mndane character?

Anybody else see what im getting at?
Anybody else, be able to explain more about background counts that im not getting?

Replys on a post card...

Well, you could house-exempt the character, but otherwise the following is close enough to true.

Astral hazing is an emission of mana that is aspected in a way that is rather unusable. To allow this for a magical character would either mean that their magic is in constant opposition to the mana influence of their own existance, or that they create a cloud of mana aspected only for themselves. The first case would have little to no effective magic rating since the internal conflict would be far greater than the external hazing effects. In the second case, the individual would be able to create mild power sites everywhere he takes the time to sleep that count as background to everyone else.

Based on the two above, allowing it for a magical character would either make that character completely impotent, or wildly overpowered.

As a SURGE effect, mechanics state that it has nothing to do with the corruption of the character. In terms of the game, it's just something that happens... right?

Correct. Or rather, it can be.

What was Ristul's mark like, if it had one? Been too long since I last read Horrors.

~J

Astral hazing is superficially similiar to karma hazing. Some quirk of mana about the character simply distorts the nearby astral energies. Going out on a limb, I'd say it'd be some sort of damaged, altered or mutated gene: the astral shadow configuration is right to let mana in as if the character was going to Awaken or Goblinize, but the output is distorted and simply dumps the mana back into astral space haphazardly, which interferes with normal astral space.

That's basically how I've always viewed it. It's more annoying than malignant, and it'd prolly "taste" different from a normal background count.

The background count is just as real as the one flowing out of a cyberzombie. The reason may be much less disturbing and more comfortable, but the increased difficulty is very real.

Rating 3 background count is the same numerical effect on magic use whether it is from a creature that should not continue to exist killing 100 innocent children (if there was such a thing) or if it is from a joyous mosh. The second cause may be much more pleasant to percieve, but is just as disruptive to mages.

Ok thanks, people.
The Character in question as i said is an adept, with a slightly sick mind, but not quite a twisted Adept. She "gets off" on seeing people die, the light fading from their eyes as such, though dispite this she's still knows it's wrong to go out of her way to satisfy this kick. And i thought Astral Hazing would be a good Flaw for the character (which as a side note, can only get a Background count of 2, due to cyberware).

:: nods :: I know Herald, don't worry... I was just noting down that there's the off chance that a mage might distinguish between Astral and karma hazing, something that could be important rp-wise.... also I wonder just how distinct your personal hazing flavor would be?

Ok, the phrase "more annoying than malignant" lead me to thinking that you would see it as less of a difficulty.

On to the question you actually meant, astral hazing is pretty rare, so even if it had a consistant 'flavor' between all with the flaw, it'd be more specific than most other sources of background counts. The exact level detail is currently GM whim, but I'd expect it to perfectly match the person exuding the aura for a short time (hour, maybe a few) and then details start fading. After a while, the background would contain only such meaning as "healthy human" but no longer match the person's aura in enough detail to make a certain match that way.