[Lethal Joke]

Heh. Wasn't a contact, but an underground astral rock band I created as background for a meet for my players had a free spirit of man doing the singing. That way I could have classic rock music playing while I ran the campaign. Not that I really need the excuse...

[ScytheKnight]

It adds more than flavor. Spirits, despite their ability to manifest on our plane, are not metahuman. Sam the free spirit bartender will never be able to enteract with AR, he'll always be dual natured (on our plane), he will be effectively immortal, he won't have metahuman needs or desires, etc. Sam, the free spirit bartender may very well have stood behind the bar 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365.25 days a year for the past 50 years for reasons known only to it.

Which matters to everything except how they function as a contact.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Every kind of spirit has some way of becoming corporeal - whether that's through direct Materialization, Possessing a vessel (living, dead, or inanimate), or by Inhabiting an individual or creature (thus exterminating its own life force). 

In regards to a 'free spirit contact', I would nod and say, 'Interesting idea' - and simply let him build his stable of contacts.  He should not know which contact, if any, is a free spirit, simply that certain contact(s) are especially good at getting certain information.  (Which, as things go, certain people SHOULD be better at figuring out.)  Maybe the talismonger who knows a lot about the spirit realms is a free spirit.  Maybe the bartender in the Barrens who knows a curious amount about corporate intruge is a free spirit.  Maybe the Halloweener ganger is a free spirit - who knows?  Letting people know that he's a free spirit is IMO a level 5-6 loyalty thing - because once they know, it can result in them working on blackmailing the thing.

As a matter of handling a Free Spirit's true name - and its most desired form of payment, i.e. karma - see my thoughts on the matter.

[ShadowcatX]

It adds more than flavor. Spirits, despite their ability to manifest on our plane, are not metahuman. Sam the free spirit bartender will never be able to enteract with AR, he'll always be dual natured (on our plane), he will be effectively immortal, he won't have metahuman needs or desires, etc. Sam, the free spirit bartender may very well have stood behind the bar 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365.25 days a year for the past 50 years for reasons known only to it.

Which matters to everything except how they function as a contact.

Not being able to take or make calls doesn't change how they function as a contact? Seeing people's auras but not their faces doesn't change anything? Having no understanding of time and being incapable of reading a clock doesn't change how they function?

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

That's ... a very interesting, non-standard view of spirits.  It would definitely make a contact interesting, though I should point out that spirits can see faces, understand time, and can read a wind-up clock just fine.  The 'no calls' thing throws an interesting wrench into it, but if you make them explain themselves as a moderate Luddite ...

[UncleClone]

It adds more than flavor. Spirits, despite their ability to manifest on our plane, are not metahuman. Sam the free spirit bartender will never be able to enteract with AR, he'll always be dual natured (on our plane), he will be effectively immortal, he won't have metahuman needs or desires, etc. Sam, the free spirit bartender may very well have stood behind the bar 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365.25 days a year for the past 50 years for reasons known only to it.

Which matters to everything except how they function as a contact.

Not being able to take or make calls doesn't change how they function as a contact? Seeing people's auras but not their faces doesn't change anything? Having no understanding of time and being incapable of reading a clock doesn't change how they function?

Not to mention that the thing WHAT the spirit is doing 24/7/365 behind the bar counter propably has everything to do with what  the spirit might want in return of the services it renders to its trusted contacts.
Knowing that you can also desing runs the spirit might want the players to accomplish, taken the spirits overall agenda.

[ShadowcatX]

That's ... a very interesting, non-standard view of spirits.  It would definitely make a contact interesting, though I should point out that spirits can see faces, understand time, and can read a wind-up clock just fine.  The 'no calls' thing throws an interesting wrench into it, but if you make them explain themselves as a moderate Luddite ...

With what does a spirit of air / fire / whatever see faces? I was under the impression that spirits perceived the world entirely through astral vision, though I suppose that's not necessarily the case. As to understanding time, how can a being that is immortal and may be upwards of 4,000 years old understand time as someone who will most likely die before their fiftieth birthday? And a wind up clock? Sure, I guess if you can find one, and someone knows how to use it.

None of that is to say a free spirit doesn't work as a contact, I certainly believe it does, but it will know things, pick up on things, and miss things, that others wouldn't. Its not just a meta human with the ability to go astral on command.

[Reaver]

It adds more than flavor. Spirits, despite their ability to manifest on our plane, are not metahuman. Sam the free spirit bartender will never be able to enteract with AR, he'll always be dual natured (on our plane), he will be effectively immortal, he won't have metahuman needs or desires, etc. Sam, the free spirit bartender may very well have stood behind the bar 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365.25 days a year for the past 50 years for reasons known only to it.

Well, Buttercup has successfully been a Free Spirit that ran a Mega Corp from the Board of Directors for the last 40 years. And there have been other Free Spirits that have been in the fluff in various jobs in the SR universe. If you can get your hands on it, the 2e Magic book has a great write up on Free Spirits and how they integrate into humanity. (or, at least try to)

[ShadowcatX]

It adds more than flavor. Spirits, despite their ability to manifest on our plane, are not metahuman. Sam the free spirit bartender will never be able to enteract with AR, he'll always be dual natured (on our plane), he will be effectively immortal, he won't have metahuman needs or desires, etc. Sam, the free spirit bartender may very well have stood behind the bar 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365.25 days a year for the past 50 years for reasons known only to it.

Well, Buttercup has successfully been a Free Spirit that ran a Mega Corp from the Board of Directors for the last 40 years. And there have been other Free Spirits that have been in the fluff in various jobs in the SR universe. If you can get your hands on it, the 2e Magic book has a great write up on Free Spirits and how they integrate into humanity. (or, at least try to)

Buttercup is quite exceptional, you can't judge all free spirits by her, the same way you can't judge all dragons by Lofwyr. But I'll check it out, do you have a title on it? (No big deal if you don't, shouldn't be difficult to find.)

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Lofwyr is a significant example of a dragon, even of a great dragon, but he's by no means exceptionally different.  If a spirit wants to stick around, by that very decision it has - wants - some sort of association with humanity.  Being a spirit doesn't automatically make every single one of them utterly inhuman, or else we wouldn't have animus/anima, players, and all the other 'I like to interact with humans' types.  We wouldn't have a spirit spearheading one of the top megacorporations in the world.  Making them otherwise may emphasize their difference from humanity, but it also would completely alienate them from humanity, and essentially eliminate the idea of a free spirit contact in the first place - so while they aren't all Buttercup, they aren't all Xkq'd'wrks from Z'na'd'po'k; your implication is that they are, and is thus at least - more - unlikely, since Shadowrun has portrayed many if not most spirits as being innately interactive with humanity, even to the point of them existing because of humanity - e.g. spirits of man.

As for the 'what do they see with' and the like, please - you're seriously asking about the biology of something which does not have an innate physical form in the first place?  C'mon.  They see with whatever they want to see with - but the default assumption is that any creature in Shadowrun generally sees in the standard ROYGBIV wavelengths.  Anything else requires a power, such as being dual natured, thermographic vision, and what have you.

[Herr Brackhaus]

Why wouldn't a Materialized spirit be able to take a call? If a materialized spirit has a solid, physical body and can interact with it's environment like a metahuman would, I don't see why it wouldn't be able to interact with a commlink, especially if it's a free spirit that has seen the rise of technology and chosen to attempt to learn it.

From the rules:

If a spirit wants to affect anything on the physical plane, it has to materialize fist (p. 314). It gets physical attributes based on its type (Spirits, p. 303) and appears as a solid, physical version of its astral form—it’s relatively solid even if it doesn’t look solid, like a spirit whirlwind or a water elemental. The spirit is dual-natured while it’s materialized, which means it exists simultaneously on the physical and astral plane, meaning it can see objects in both places—and be targeted by both mages on the physical plane and astral entities, such as astrally projecting mages. When materialized, the spirit is able to perceive the physical world much as other material beings do. A spirit’s physical form is metahuman-sized or smaller and very obviously ethereal (there is no mistaking a spirit for something worldly). Its physical body is not subject to gravity—though most spirits stay close to the ground because that’s where all the action is—but it can be knocked around by other forces which makes staying grounded handy at times).

Not to mention, one of the tasks an unbound spirit can perform is a physical task.

Physical task: A spirit can materialize to perform actions on the physical plane for you.

[pariah3j]

That's ... a very interesting, non-standard view of spirits.  It would definitely make a contact interesting, though I should point out that spirits can see faces, understand time, and can read a wind-up clock just fine.  The 'no calls' thing throws an interesting wrench into it, but if you make them explain themselves as a moderate Luddite ...

Well the no calls thing was more because I didn't realize they could materialize and even take on the form of man, etc. I thought they had to be summoned/bound to do that. So knowing they can materialize and even hold secret identities changes some of how I imagined I would handle it. So yeah getting ahold of the spirit just became alot easier, but why the character knows its a free spirit just became a bigger question.

[ShadowcatX]

Are we reading from the same books? From 301, from the rule book:

When materialized, the spirit uses astral perception (its only perception) to perceive the physical world

Astral perception is not capable of being used to interact with AR thus the very vast majority of technological devices are out. It sees auras, not faces. Etc.

ETA: The first sentence isn't me being factious, I'm curious if you're drawing from a source I'm unaware of, perhaps from an older edition. . .

[Reaver]

There is several spots in the rules that make mention of the limitations of Astral space. (Such as not being able to read a computer screen , or view AR material... or even read word for word from an open book.)

On Spirits its a little less clear. Yes, they beings from the astral plane, and yes they are dual natured. But, it never states just how the vision of a spirit that is materialized works. We have that little quote from page 301, but it is not overly clear. Especially since listed under the spirits it is just "Perception" and not "astral Perception". Of course, with the history of 5e CRB editing (not trying to dig up a dead issue) it's unclear if this is an error in editing on either spot.

However, that doesn't stop a spirit from being able to do physical mundane tasks (After all, a mage can choose to just astral perceive all the time. They incur a -2 dice pool penalty, but they can do it... hence why "Blind" is only a 5 karma disadvantage for awakened.) But it does add some interesting limitations for the player and GM to work out.

It could be that the Free Spirit contact can not be reached by Commlink, and you must go to his "place of business" to talk to him. Or you might have to take an astral trip to get to him, or any other contact means that does not use a digital interface.

[pariah3j]

I'm guessing a free spirit would need to use voice commands ? I doubt it can have cyberware(aka datajack) and I don't see Trodes working either.

However Pg 222

Augmented reality isn’t just visual information, either. You can hear audio AROs if you have earbuds or a cyberear. AROs can be tactile if you have a haptic device like AR gloves

edit: Reaver's response got posted before mine.

I take it as the spirit sees the astral plane, but I've always imagined that as almost an overlay of the physical world. So things without a astral signature the spirit may have trouble interacting with - words, text, AR - but not impossible depending on how it interacted with them. Just my 0.02