[deathbat21]

So, I'm relatively new to Shadowrun. Only been playing for about a year. But after a few sessions my usual GM told me he thought I would be a good GM. So the next few sessions I started running. And completely by accident, vaporized my buddy's mage. He and our rigger were sitting in her van and I used a Control Actions spell on him, cast by a mage they failed to noticed. He rolled crappy for Willpower and let loose a force 6 Powerball right there in the van with i think 7 hits. The rigger spent 3 days sponging him off/out of her van. And I think the girl playing the rigger doesn't want me to run anymore. Anyways. Yeah. Le Fin.

[Mantis]

How did the mage that cast control actions see the PC mage if he was in a van? In shadowrun there is a general, maybe not rule, but conceit that all glass, especially that in cars, is polarized to prevent exactly this sort of thing. Most high end buildings also feature polarized glass so passing magicians can't just lob spells at people on the other side.
As well, the PC mage should have gotten his conterspelling dice to augment that will roll. The only time he wouldn't would be if he was surprised. Usually hitting a magician with magic doesn't work out that well due to counterspelling and the fact that most magicians have a high will power.
Also, spells are limited in hits by the force of the spell. So the most hits, without using edge, for a force 6 spell is 6 hits. This would be resisted by the magician with body and counterspelling in the case of powerball.
Lastly I don't think you can use control actions to make someone cast a spell on themselves. You would need control thoughts for that. Magic is a mental exercise and there is no physical 'action' to control in it. Just like you couldn't make a hacker hack a system by using control actions.
So for future reference, the PCs and the NPC mage should have had a surprise check with the NPC getting a +6 die bonus if the PCs fail to notice him due to ambush. The NPC mage needs to see the target, and vehicles have polarized glass making this difficult. Unless the PC mage is surprised, he should get counterspelling for his defense. Spells are limited in hits, not net hits, by the force of the spell and Control actions shouldn't make a magician cast a spell on himself. You would need control thoughts for that.
But otherwise, yeah it sucks to get hit by magic.

[Michael Chandra]

Counterspelling ALWAYS works on yourself, by the way. You only need to declare its use on allies.

[Mantis]

Nope. It doesn't. Check pg. 185 of SR4A. Surprised magicians can not use spell defence.

[Michael Chandra]

Hm... Point, active counterspelling works against spells you are unaware of (specifically, Detection and Illusion spells) but would you really be unaware of a spell being cast with you as specific target? It's formulated rather vaguely and they basically mention no passive counterspelling vs passive spells.

Also, any runner not in combat should probably be assumed to be paranoid enough to keep Counterspelling up at all times. If you're not in combat, that Free Action doesn't matter.

[Mantis]

Hm... Point, active counterspelling works against spells you are unaware of (specifically, Detection and Illusion spells) but would you really be unaware of a spell being cast with you as specific target? It's formulated rather vaguely and they basically mention no passive counterspelling vs passive spells.

Well it says the GM makes a secret Intuition + Magic (3) test to see if you can detect passive spells used against you. As there is no such thing as passive counterspelling I don't see where there is any vagueness. If you don't see the spell caster cast the spell or are otherwise unaware of the spell being cast, but still have access to counterspelling (not surprised), then the GM makes the above roll. Success means you detect the spell casting attempt and failure means you continue on blissfully unaware of your impending doom.

Also, any runner not in combat should probably be assumed to be paranoid enough to keep Counterspelling up at all times. If you're not in combat, that Free Action doesn't matter.

We usually play it this way rather than having to always have the spell tosser say 'I use spell defence'. The only other thing he uses his free actions for in general is centering off drain.

[Michael Chandra]

The vagueness would be in whether a magician would actually automatically fail to detect a combat spell being cast on him or being able to bring up Counterspelling by reflex as they feel the mana build up.

[Mantis]

Well in the case of a combat spell, it would depend on the spell. A fireball would be really obvious (like why is everything now on fire?) whereas a manabolt maybe not so much. The only visible indication of that kind of spell would be the glow or whatever the caster generates from channelling magic. A successful counterspelling where it was only the counterspell dice that caused the spell to fail would probably still need that Intuition + Magic check but one where it took will or body as well would I think, be fairly obvious. It would only really require that check if the spell failed. Success has its own indications (bleeding, bruising, death).
The magician doesn't automatically fail these tests anyway. He would still get that check and for most shadowrunning magicians, it should be a pretty routine check. Keep in mind an attacking magician needs to cast his spell in such a way that the defending magician doesn't see or notice it some other way for any of this to be relevant anyway.

[firebug]

By the way, they do specify the tinted windows in the books.

Tinted Windows
As a standard feature, passenger vehicles in 2070 feature windows that can be polarized, both for privacy and also to defeat line of sight for magic-based attacks. This means that for a magician to target a line-of-sight spell against a character inside a vehicle with a polarized window, the window needs to be down or broken.

But if someone's new to the game I can see them not thinking of that.

The only other thing he uses his free actions for in general is centering off drain.

Don't you also technically use Free Actions to speak and send texts?  That always threw me off when I realized people who're spending a free action each turn can't speak in combat anymore.  Though I guess it doesn't matter out of combat.

[Mantis]

Yeah you do. We actually had an issue with just this situation recently where someone was giving our magician information via a Mindlink spell but he wasn't passing it along to the team since he was using his free action to center for spellcasting drain. That is why I said generally rather than always. Sometimes you have to use that free action for other things. Like running.  From a horde of bugs.

[Michael Chandra]

Which is indeed very reasonable. If you're focusing that badly on your magic that it costs you both your free and complex action, you don't have time to talk. Heck, you don't even have time to consider talking, you're just gnashing your teeth and wanting to snarl "not now fragface!" but can't afford to because it would cost you your concentration.