My group and I are about to begin a Shadowrun game and need some clarification on some of the rules dealing with astral projection.
1. A mage who is in astral form can only cast spells/attack on those who have astral forms as well, meaning that anyone who is not duel natured is immune to damage from the. Does that change when they manifest? Does manifesting allow a mage to target people in the physical world with spells and physical attacks?
A manifesting mage can activate command preparations. That would mean he could follow his scouting buddy, from astral space, manifest and activate increased reflexes/armour/levitate/heal etc.
As a twist, let the runners steal 10 McGuffins, which later turns out to be nasty spell preparations. The team mage must then either use disjoining (which he likely doesnt have) or battle the opponent mage in astral, while the rest of the team must endure nasty ball lightnings while fighting off the meat and matrix world opponents. (they cant ditch the McGuffins, as the Johnson would be pissed then.)
And no, they cant just scratch the preparations off either.
That would be a great opportunity for the astral perceiving adept to finally get to use his astral combat skills. (say, the McGuffins are inside the runner vehicle, and the opponent mage needs to manifest inside the wagon to be able to see the McGuffins)