[blackatana]

I am sure this has been discussed before, but my search skills are lacking and I couldn't find the information I need.

I am in a game where a fellow player is summoning spirits and using the concealment ability to extreme effect.   I know that it's a dice pool modifier to all perception tests and S4 says it works on the astral too.  My concerns and what is not very well established is does it work on all forms of technological sight?

What I am referring to is, does it work on echolocation, ultrasound, the radar sensor cyberware, thermographic vision etc.  I raise this question because in the shadowrunner's companion page 26 is a little anecdote about a runner who had spirit concealment and a bunch of other stuff on but still got caught because of his RFID tags.  So I can assume that the spirit concealment isn't stopping radio waves from being transmitted. If it's not stopping radiowaves, why would it be stopping ultrasound, or radar sensors?

Right now if you guys don't give me any solid rules or clarifiaction the apparent plan is to summon a F7 spirit use concealment and try to be stealthy and basically waltz around any and all missions from here on on being for all intent and purposes totally undetectable.  Now we understand that opening doors, starting fights etc, will stop it. But it still seems too OP to me, that this power trumps and nullifies every last bit of technology out there.

So is spirit concealment just that OP? as long as we get one success on our stealth roll we are basically immune to being percieved as long as we don't interact with any physical objects more or less? One last thing. we have access to the corebook, runners companion, street magic, aresnal and augmentation.

[martinchaen]

Concealment doesn't hide your electronics. A Technomancer with E-Sensing would also be able to detect you, depending on your reading of the rules. AI or other Matrix attempts to locate you would similarly not (potentially) be affected, and could detect any electronic devices with the appropriate rolls.

[blackatana]

Thanks for that. I hadn't even thought of that line of thinking. I am still curious to know if works on things like radar sensors, ultrasound etc? also as an aside if the sensor, ultrasound etc was part of a system and not say cyberware, would it always be at the +3 dice modifier for actively perceiving it's surroundings?

[Mithlas]

Radar is specifically called out multiple times as being a different phenomena that magic can't even simulate (check the text under the adept power Improved Sense for one example). Ultrasound would be a harder one, because that's sound and is mentioned in augmentation as something you can perceive with bioware.

I checked the description as given under the Critter Power (SR5 395, S4A 293), and I think it's ambiguous as to whether it definitely affects tech-sensors or not - it mentions perception tests, but the flavor text doesn't say whether it's a Mana or Physical type. To decide whether a yes or no applies at your table, think about this: do you treat Concealment as a Mana or Physical ability? If Mana, then it works against anything living but wouldn't stop a technological device like an ultrasonic perimeter sensor. If Physical, then it's going to mask you from that high-frequency sound microphone.