[Lighthouse]

I want to play a physical adept in missions but the one time I did it sucked. I was told anything with a level (improved reflexes, mystic armor, etc) the things that make adepts shine would be nixed by the background count. Being the count was between two and four the whole mission I was essentially nerfed. There isn't a real way to have a crap ton of powerpoints so that you can overide the background count. What should I do?

[Herr Brackhaus]

Don't play a physical adept in the warn-torn hellscape that is the Chicago CZ?

I'm sorry, I'm not trying to come across as a jerk here, but yeah, background counts suck for magicians and adepts; any skill test affected by magic would take a negative dice pool modifier equal to the background count.

That means that if you have a Level 2 Combat Sense power, it would be nullified by a Rating 2 Background count. Improved Reflexes is probably one of the better powers, because things like Initiative and Defense rolls are not skill tests.

[Lighthouse]

Which powers does it not effect? When I played last they had it effect improved reflexes and I was the slowest person in the group.

[Herr Brackhaus]

I can't access dropbox right now, but I believe the missions FAQ should have answers to your questions:
http://forums.shadowruntabletop.com/index.php?topic=18342.0

If I remember correctly, any skill test affected by magic gets penalized.

[Lighthouse]

Thanks

[Hibiki54]

You initiative is not effected, but any skill or maneuver that involves your Reaction as a dice pool is effected such as evading, driving and some martial arts moves.

[Lucean]

So essentially: You have been screwed by people not knowing the rules and not the rules themselves.
Improved Reflexes are not effected by background count as far as initiative is concerned. You get dice pool penalty only for skill tests linked to Reaction.
Combat Sense doesn't penalize your standard defense test.
You do suffer penalties, though, when using Improved Ability, Improved Physical Attribute, Attribute Boost or even things like Critical Strike, Killing Hands, Enhanced Accuracy.

So to sum it up: In general you don't get penalized for defensive actions, only for offense. For details, reference the document.

[8-bit]

Well, I would say he got more screwed by people not knowing the rules. He still got screwed by the rules; Physical Adepts are at a disadvantage in the background count-ridden Chicago.

[Lucean]

Don't you think that this generalization might be a bit too broad?

Improved Reflexes - a power that can easily take up more than 50% of your PP allotment - is unaffected for it's main benefit: acting faster and earlier in combat as well as being hit less often
Combat Sense - for the defensively focused is also unaffected, because even when using Dodge/Block/Parry it remains a defense test and remains unaffected

To reduce penalties by background count many adepts have the option to use Adept Centering to remove penalties. Granted, it doesn't work for all skills, it takes your free action and depends on your initiate grade, but it at least is an option.

So no, if you take the right powers you are not necessarily screwed.

[8-bit]

Ok ... So, by going the most generic adept build and spending a bunch of karma to get something incredibly noticeable, you can function at starting level efficiency? Maybe we have different definitions of screwed.

To me, outside of roleplaying reasons, you go adept for specialization and useful magical powers. Most of these are negated or even give you penalties for having them. You want a Face? You can go Magician (for manipulation spells, even with background count, it's better) or mundane with some 'ware. You want a Tank? Go super cyber-troll or whatever. You want a gunslinger? Fit in a ton of 'ware that does pretty much everything.

Literally any build you want to go as an adept that is specialized, in my opinion, is going to be worse if you are running in a high background count than their mundane counterparts. Already, the reasons for playing an Adept are low, at least mechanically for me, as 'ware can do so much more early on. Taking away the main strengths of an Adept severely gimps them and really does make it not worth it.

As I think I said, this is all my opinion. And, it is true that background count does affect Adepts, they are at a disadvantage compared to others; it's just running the numbers.

Does this mean the rules are unfair? No, of course not. But I cannot say that Adepts are not screwed over by background counts, just by their very nature.

[Michael Chandra]

Originally Initiative was counted as penalized, as noted by Bull, until the final Background Count rules came out. Note that Bull didn't know for certain so he just basically said to penalize it for now, and that ruling no longer stands due to SG's release.

HOWEVER. It did NOT impact your Initiative DICE. Since you say you were the slowest, I assume they penalized your dice and that would be horribly wrong.

Anyway: Nearly every CZ Mission has 2 Background Count. I cannot speak for the second batch but on rare occasions it will spike beyond that. So at first, yes an Adept gets penalized (though they can turn off a power). If you double-dip, however, you only suffer the penalty once. So if you grab Agility Boost, Improved Automatics and Improved Accuracy, you'd take the penalty once, not thrice.

Second, Adept Centering should be one of the first Initiations you take. Yes, it means you sacrifice a Power Point. But once you hit multiple Initiations, which takes 4~5 runs depending on whether you kept 7 spare karma at chargen, you'll be able to pretty much negate every penalty. Once you get even more Power Points for your Initiations you'll quickly be at the point where you succesfully ignore circumstancial modifiers such as range and vision penalties as well as the background count.

By the way, CMPs sometimes include background count but most of them don't.

[Lucean]

To me, outside of roleplaying reasons, you go adept for specialization and useful magical powers. Most of these are negated or even give you penalties for having them. You want a Face? You can go Magician (for manipulation spells, even with background count, it's better) or mundane with some 'ware. You want a Tank? Go super cyber-troll or whatever. You want a gunslinger? Fit in a ton of 'ware that does pretty much everything.

Your Face can still use his powers to change his appearance or make people obey his orders.
I don't know of adept concepts that revolve around soaking damage ... dodge monkeys I know plenty, but tanks? That sounds entirely like a mundane domain. Other than that soaking damage is not a skill test and thereby not penalized.
Gunslingers are still able to be the most accurate shooters and get the highest dicepools.

Literally any build you want to go as an adept that is specialized, in my opinion, is going to be worse if you are running in a high background count than their mundane counterparts. Already, the reasons for playing an Adept are low, at least mechanically for me, as 'ware can do so much more early on. Taking away the main strengths of an Adept severely gimps them and really does make it not worth it.

That's why the Awakened dislike those areas and many of them try hard to even the flow of mana.
Background count is part of the philosophy 'everything comes at a price'. And the price for not having to replace parts of yourself with artificial elements is that you are subject to the flow of mana in the world. Additionally background count can also work in your favor, if it is correctly aligned.

Mundane characters have enough weaknesses already. Since they need to operate their gear wireless to access lots of benficial boni they open themselves up for attacks from the matrix. It's not the same vulnerability, but could come into play much more often than background count. Chicago could be a good way to make SR less Magicrun. But since even Chicago does often not go beyond BGC 2, it sounds like it should be manageable for the Awakened often enough.