u/Neolyphic

Figured I'd open a fun topic to discussion: What is the worst thing you or the players at your table have ever done, deliberately or by accident, which has collectively harmed an entire planet?

Ours is probably a recent Mercenary campaign. We were contracted by the Duchess of Regina to do counter-insurgency against some Fremen-style rebels on Yori. The Fifth Frontier War had recently erupted and we were supposed to keep open the crucial mines which fed Regina's shipyards.

Well after finally making some headway against the rebels, we started getting multiple confirmed reports from incoming traders that the Imperial front had collapsed, Regina was under siege, and a Zhodani fleet was likely in jumpspace towards Yori.

After weighing options, we went for scorched earth.

We cut a deal with the Sultan, the local Imperial noble, to evacuate himself, his treasury, and his household and escort them back to Imperial lines in exchange for his cooperation. With that secured, we went to town. We spiked every major mine on the planet, then cut a deal with the rebels we'd been fighting to arm them and start an uprising amongst the thousands of their kinsmen working as forced labor in the mines, then blew the rail lines and depots. We left a dozen volunteers from our intel unit behind to go to ground in the population and hinder the Zhodani occupation as best they could. With all that in place and the planet descending into smouldering anarchy behind us, we dusted off with the Sultan, his harem, and an entire treasury in gold.

Our GM later informed us that he'd expected and intended for us to run out into the desert and wage a guerilla war. Nope. Screw that. We decided to make Space Taliban.

Over the last few weeks, I've found myself deluged with unsolicited phone calls and emails from agencies informing me that my Auto Insurance quotes are ready and they'd like to discuss it with me. I don't own a car, and all of the agencies seem to be from my hometown where I haven't lived for about a decade. They reference a 2019 Ford that I don't own.

I've been scratching my head as to whether this is a mistake, annoying marketing, or identity theft. If it's the latter, I can't see why they'd attach my actual email and phone number for their grift. I've been monitoring my credit and haven't seen any changes.

Any ideas or suggestions as to what's going on here?

The simple answer is obviously, "It depends".

However, for GMing purposes in the event it comes up, how often do you think it is reasonable for an average security team to be rotating bound spirits out to keep them from getting uppity? How long are you picturing that random F6 Fire spirit having been stuck guarding that hallway?

Averaged out, how long does the typical spirit take before it starts acting out and talking shit about its wagemage summoner on the spirit realm?

While an incredibly nitpickey question, I'm curious as to whether there's a canonical answer to this, given Shadowrun's relatively hard magic system.

A mage requires LOS to cast on a target. That LOS can be established even if the target is, say, wearing a full-body chemically sealed suit. Thus LOS can be established through clothes. Wearing a bedsheet over yourself like a ghost won't protect you from spells.

However if a target leans against an opaque sheet hanging from a clothesline, a mage cannot establish LOS through it.

Thus, what are the exact parameters by which magic considers you to be "looking" at someone, instead of at their clothes?

Granular and rules lawyerey I know, but it definitely feels like a question that would be examined academically in-universe. Periscopes and mage goggles exist to help mages exploit the exact definition of "looking" at a target after all.