2. Astral Perception/Projection, it seems to me that the predominant use of this is going to be surveillance, exploration, and searching. It seems to have pretty limited combat applications. I could see as a GM placing specific hidden objects that leave astral signatures, or even have NPCs hidden in astral projection that would only be detected either by a magician or an astral detection test. I could also see a magician astrally projecting to scope out an area before the part infiltrates it. Are there any basic or obvious applications of Astral Perception/Projection that I'm missing? I was initially expecting it to be sorta a "Matrix for magicians" thing, but it seems simpler than that (which is nice if true I think, because the rules are already complex enough!)
Im going to have to strongly disagree with your assessment here. Recon is a primary use of astral perception/ projection, that much is true, but that's only the tip of the iceberg.
Astral perception is a sense that provides a magician with *sight* (for ease of argument) in each and any situation (except high background count areas) that can and will cancel out any physical sight modifiers in order to establish LoS for your spells. Whenever vision modifiers apply, astral perception will cancel them out at the cost of making you dual-natured for the time. Whenever sight modifiers go beyond -2 for a physical action, astral perception caps you at -2. (Again, background count factors in too.)
Furthermore, Astral Projection allow you to combat things directly on the astral plane, which circumvents a lot of physical abilities of magical beings, most importantly the invulnerability to normal weapons. There is very little armor of the astral plane, so a magician can circumvent high armor values for dual-natured beings by attacking on the astral (not always a good idea, but possible). If the mage is projecting and his body is secure, dual-natured beings (DNB) are yours to kill with impunity because they are limited to a meat body and he isn't. The mage can sidestep through walls to break LoS, just keep his distance and move faster than any meat body ever will or simply fly high *above* the DNB and pelt it with spells. The same goes for active spells and foci, provided you have the skills to deal with them. It also allows you to react to magical events pretty much anywhere on the globe within minutes.
Astral Projection is also your Magical Phone none physical can listen in on (on your end) via Manifesting. This method of communication has no range limit and is utterly untraceable by physical means, while extremely hard to trace via magical ones. An often overlooked but powerful feature.
Once the rules for the metaplanes get published (working of the old editions here), Astral Projection will be your one stop access card to learning everything magic via astral quests.
The applications of Astral Projection and Perception may not be as obvious as the matrix ones, but they are no less powerful or simpler than the matrix is. The prime difference however, is that while every mundane uses technology and becomes vulnerable to the decker, magical activity is a little more exclusive. This is both a help and a hindrance. You can't brick people's guns, but its pretty unlikely that Joe Wageslave will have magical security to keep you from surveying him on the astral.
3. Magic weapons, the orc on the cover, Sledge, as also described in the opening short story, is carrying a blue-glowing sword. I assume it to be magic. But the only magic weapon rules I read in the Magic chapter were about foci, and they can only be wielded by the Awakened to whom they are bonded. Sledge is not awakened. So is his sword magic? If yes, where are the rules on that? If not, why is his sword glowing?
I always figured it was supposed to be a monofilament blade. But then, this is Shadowrun. It could be an AR image.
