virgil wrote:If illusions aren't inhibited on observers in mana voids, then why does counter spelling work?
Does it? Does counterspelling automatically let you dispel an illusion spell effect that never comes anywhere close to you? I can see it resisting a Fireball has you in its blast radius, or a Control Thoughts targeting you (passively, even), and some mana illusions target a person's senses directly.
But the relevant text for physical illusions reads:
Physical illusions are
effective against technological systems, assuming the caster achieves
enough hits to meet the Object Resistance threshold (p. 183). They
are resisted by Intuition + Counterspelling (if any); non-living devices
do not get a resistance test. The spellcaster must generate more hits
than the observer for the illusion to be considered real. If the spell is
not completely resisted, the character is fully affected by the illusion.
I don't even know why you'd allow counterspelling to affect your roll to disbelieve, that sounds like making your entire visual field part of you for magical/counterspelling purposes. But them's the rules and I'm not arguing them.
But for inanimate objects, the only thing that determines whether a satellite is affected by the illusion is the hits the caster gets, which is likely to be pretty good considering he is not physically in the mana void of space when he's casting the spell.
And the relevant text for mana voids and casting is:
Voids have background count ratings ranging from –7 to
–12. The first effect of a void is that it renders most magicians
unable to use magic, due to the absence of available mana; re-
duce the character’s Magic by the background count rating, as
described under Background Count and Magic, p. 118.
If a character exposes himself to the astral plane (either
by astrally perceiving or projecting) while in a void, he risks
having his astral form torn apart as it dissipates into the surrounding
emptiness—as would air in a vacuum. Each Combat
Turn the character is astrally active, he suffers Physical damage
with a Damage Value equal to the absolute value of the
void’s rating (so a –8 Rating void deals a DV of 8). Dual-natured
or astrally-perceiving characters resist this damage with
their Body attribute, while pure astral forms (such as projecting
characters) resist with their Willpower attribute. If the
character has any form of astral armor (such as the Mystic
Armor critter power), it applies to this test. Characters experiencing
this damage often suffer disorientation and terrible
hallucinations, and the gamemaster may chose to apply
Negative mental qualities to any character who has suffered
astral exposure to a void.
At no point does it mention anything about the spells themselves being affected by the mana void, just that the voids themselves make it nearly impossible to cast spells of any potency, since they apply the double whammy of -BGC to Magic and then +BGC to DV. So, if you could target a satellite from earth*, you should be able to cast a spell on it as per normal. If you are standing in space and have a Magic rating of like, 28 and enough drain dice (lel centering) to tank around 20 DV of Drain, you should be able to cast a powerful enough spell to affect a a satellite. But by itself, just passing through a void doesn't seem to have an effect on the spell.
*Note that this is pretty much impossible since AFAIK, there's no way to get a magician's senses capable of perceiving and observing a satellite that is several hundred or thousand km straight up, even if you use cyberware.
If your religion is worth killing for, please start with yourself.
