From:	John DeLaHunt <JDELAHUNT@******.Colorado.EDU>
Subject:	Astral Space
Date:	Unknown time and date

From: John DeLaHunt <JDELAHUNT@******.Colorado.EDU>
Subject: Astral Space
To: barnhardt%knox.bitnet@*****.uic.edu

Hoi.
The rules sez (but don't ask where, *my* copy don't play no index...)
that all creatures great & small have astral presence corresponding to thier
essence. I suppose that means the essence 0.01 rigger is a shadow on the
astral plane, but he's still there... The rules also sez, (caveat above
applies here, too...) that mana spells are simply astral creatures who do
specific things, like blow away other astral creatures. This means, to me,
that a mage who is astral can use astral pool dice to cast mana spells that
affect the physical forms of the people in the area of effect.
So, yes, that means that a mage with the ability to go astral can
more or less destroy a bunch of samuri who don't have an astral-capable mage
with them. Bad news, chummers.
My response to players abusing astral space would be increased astral
vigilance by the baddies, up to and including pre-emptive strikes. Bear in
mind that if there are any spell locks on the party which involve spells that
the lockee doesn't know, there is an astral thread to the locker. Have your
astral-capable bad-guy mage follow that thread to the sap who cast the lock
and trash, but not quite kill, him/her. Make it plain that this was as a res-
ult of the lock and astral activity. Make the astral plane a last resort for
the characters.
My response to GM's abusing astral space would be a massive effort to
find the body of the abuser, followed by a .45 to the head. Or, have the
group's mage assence the astral location of the abuser, then cast a mana bolt
in that direction.
Like the network, astral space is an exlusive environment, and while
the mage is astral, the rest of the players pick their toes (or they do in
our games...). This means, to our group, that astral stuff happens fast and
is over with fast, so that the other players don't give up and go home.
Astral assensing can be crucial to the game, but astral activity may
not be. Try to do away with it until it's just the mages and the GM, then
let the games commence.

--------------------------

Shamanic Adept

Tech: 4
Magic: 3
Attrib: 2
Skills: 1
Race: 0

1,000,000 nuyen *and* 50 magic points??? Let's talk power foci,
spell locks (increase RXN +4 is a fave of mine...), a little cyber, and a
rating 6 spirit focus. So bloody what if you can only cast one type of spell?
Choose raccoon as the totem and Turn 'Em To Goo. This was going to be a
bad guy in one of my games, but it just wasn't fair. Po' widdle pwayers go
squish. Ever try to fight off a chaotic world 8? Good luck...

-------------------------

The last segment of a terribly long post...

Where can I find specific references to the effects of fetishes on
shamanic spells? I've looked and looked, but, since my books don't have good
indices, I'm stuck. Just a book name and page numbers, please.

Rat Rasta out.
JDELAHUNT@******.COLORADO.EDU