Ok, so I'm stupid, but what exactly is this flaw?

You have the urge to slap everyone you meet with your glove.

Seriously, though, you are active both on the mundane and astral planes, and are attackable from both.

~J

If someone insults you, you have to make a Willpower (4) check to resist the urge to slap him across the face with a glove.

Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the soy-chicken.

Never heard of it. Maybe it has something to do with Yu-Gi-Oh?

Unless you mean Dual Natured, which is a SURGE flaw that causes the inflicted to become a Dual Natured character, meaning they are always astrally active.

[edit] (It's official: We need to get out more)

PS, SURGE is in Year of the Comet while most 'standard' edges and flaws are found in the Shadowrun Companion.

Thanks, I had no idea, and my BBB is on loan untill my brother ships it back.

*shakes head in disgust*

No. You're all wrong. Dual-natured is when you constantly switch between manic and depressive.

Actually, I think that particular condition is "manic depressive."

Well, it does involve two natures...

As to why it's a Flaw:

1) You can't turn it off.
2) You are vulnerable on the Astral to attack. This may not seem like much at first glance, but when the enemy mage unleashes his Watcher Attack Pack ™, usually consisting of 6-8 Force 4 Watcher spirits and two or three Force 4-6 elementals, you're basically screwed. Several times.
3) Wards don't like you. Wards get set off or prevent you from passing, as you are active on the Astral. You can easily knock yourself out running headfirst into a Force 6 ward. And, not being Awakened, you can do little but try to break your way through.
4) Mana warps *really* don't like you.
5) Did I mention you can't turn it off?

oh and going to sleep is like strapping a kick me sign on your ass for any curious projecting mages with possession.

Can dual-natured but otherwise non-projecting initiate characters use an astral pool?

As far as I know, yes. It doesn't give the character access to more abilities, but it can be used to augment those abilities he can already use on the Astral.

This is not necessarily true in regards to the effects of the SURGE Flaw.

Or we can go with the whole 'Critters was released before SURGE, and couldn't take that into account at the time' argument. A character with the Dual Natured flaw from SURGE doesn't necessarily have a Magic Attribute, so it follows that not 'all dual-natured creatures can Astrally Project' since the advent of SURGE, being that without a Magic Attribute (or an effective Magic Attribute of 0) I don't believe one can survive in the Astral.

I don't know, the wording of the flaw now that I have a copy of YotC is basicly that it is treated exactly the same as critters.

A free spirit with astral gateway can allow anyone to astrally project, even the essense .01 street sam. Life span is based on essense, so it probably isn't a good idea for the .01 cyber-psycho to go wandering.

I believe that the critters quote is also clarifying that if a dual-natured creature happens to have magical powers that it isn't stuck in its meat body. Otherwise a ghoul full mage would be significantly hampered.

Wait, lifespan is based on essence? Where did you find THAT little tidbit?

Anyone can learn it period, though mundies need to be in an astral shallows to practice or use it.

~J

True, though I don't remember that spell offhand.

~J

Astral Window is for allowing an astrally perceving/projecting subject to see through a normally opaque astral barrier. It does not create a view into the astral plane.

Sorry, back to the astral projecting for a moment:

If all dual-natured beings (including PCs) can automatically Project just by possessing a Magical Skill, that makes the SURGE Flaw that much more of an Edge for Adepts and Physical Magicians than it already is (those with Masking that is! ).

Adepts doing (unaided) Astral Quests?!? Hmmmm ...

Even so, if it's canon, it's a pretty decent bonus for a Flaw. And just because you limit access to the combo, doesn't mean everyone will.

The reference requested is for being able to use the Astral Pool without projecting. (The same ruling might apply to the temporarily dual-natured astrally perceiving magician.)

And what I'm looking also for, along with references (if anyone has the precise wording, it would be appreciated), is where the potential ability of a dual-natured adept to project without having the SotA 64 metamagic is mentioned.

Sorry if I was unclear.

Which rules out Astrally Perceiving Adepts.

Who can buy astral preception as an adept power.

Rules out anyone who is relying on the use of the Astral Perception Adept Power, as they would still not be permanently dual-natured.

I had thought the dual-natured main book ruling referred only to such dual-natured creatures as would "otherwise" have the ability to project, ie. regular magicians? I could be wrong. (I only have the original Paranormal Animals books, not yet Critters.)

Interesting point re adept perception powers: I hadn't realised that they could be turned off unless they were geased (and thus sometimes simply didn't function). It seems almost parallel to, say, an appropriate metatype turning off thermographic vision. After all, sometimes it could work against you -- in which case wouldn't there be times when you would want to turn it off?