From:	Caric caric@********.com
Subject:	Tech and the Astral
Date:	Wed, 21 Jun 2000 10:43:56 -0700

>From: shadowrn-admin@*********.com
>[mailto:shadowrn-admin@*********.com]On Behalf Of Philip Smith

>> One of my players is trying to confuse me. His mage is
>> currently astral and an announcement has just gone
>> over the ship's loudspeakers. (Oh, guys, remember how
>> I was suggesting you could screw with players in a
>> pirates campaign by sticking them on a boat/submarine
>> with a vampire? Well, the vampire's still at large and
>> they're in the process of being intercepted by a
>> well-armed Azzie corvette...;) )
>>
>> Now, I thought he could hear the announcement, but he
>> says he doesn't think you can hear technological
>> devices (i.e. the loudspeaker) from the astral.
>>
>> I don't have my books to check, so...who's right?
>
>IIRC You have to manifest from the astral to hear anything going on around
>you, read anything, have a look at any cloudy non-astral objects
>or whatever
>but my books are all the way across the room and I'm not bothering
>to check.

Actually what I understand from p.173 of SR3 is that some things have
changed from SR2 and some haven't. You still can't read anything from the
astral (it makes no mention of whether or not you are manifest at the time,
and I don't really see how that would make a difference), but you do get the
emotional content of whatever it is that you are trying to "read." As far
as hearing goes, NightRain is definitely correct about not being able to
hear recorded sounds in SR2, but SR3 didn't add that little detail instead
just saying "Speech and sounds are as easy to hear from the astral plane as
they are in the physical world."

Personally I always liked the way that SR2 handled it, added a nice little
quirk.

~Caric
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"I like my women like my tamales, red hot and out of the wrapper."
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