Not exactly. A genie is a being of Magic Might, not a substance or mundane creature. The sort of ward used (General or Specific) would take the form of a circle you drew or a charm upon yourself or another. If the level equals or exceeds the Might score, the genie is inhibited from touching or affecting you. It cannot slap you, use powers on you directly or indirectly, cannot attack you with weapons or throw things at you. It does not block the sword,it prevents it from swinging at you.
Thanks for the rundown, I totally understand this now! And I realize a personal ward will absolutely be worthwhile.
I'm fairly certain the Form bonus for soaking mundane damage is rounded up, not down.
You are correct sir. I stand corrected. ArM5, p77.
I shall reward you by crafting a worthy ally in El Piroman. 
Quite so. And it will protect you from a genie with a low might and a high Penetration. Say it was weak, might 15. But it is wise and has a good Penetration score of 5. But you are wiser and have a Parma of 4. So a power (with no might cost) has a Penetration of only 15 versus your resistance of 20 + Form (let us call it 5, for a total resistance of 25). No problem.
But wait!
The genie had managed to obtain an Arcane Connection. A letter you wrote last week grants a +2 to the multiplier, plus the letter has your signature of your name, adding another +2. A total of +4 multiplying a Penetration of 5 equals 20, plus a might of 10 equals 30, and that firebolt is ready to pierce right through your parma...
Yet you are even wiser still. Your ward against magic genies (no Penetration required) or magic beings in general (Penetration required), if level 10 or higher in protection level, not only blocks the firebolt but also inhibits the genie from otherwise attacking or assaulting you or affecting you with its powers.
The genie can still hit you accidentally with a mundane object. Say it is shooting arrows at your buddy and you jump in the way with a fast cast wizard's leap. That one is on you. But if you clearly stand in the way it is inhibited from firing and will miss by a wide margin if it shoots because he is forced to aim away from you.
Yeah, RAW wards are very powerful, which is why I'd do away with non-circle RAW wards completely and replace them with substance wards.
See the girl tytalus (the one with a twin) in MoH for an exemple of such a personnal ward vs humans. Groovy, ain't it?
Although IIRC, they only prevent you to take direct action, so the genie could, say, put fire to your surroundings, and the mundane fires would burn you.
I would shy away from purposeful indirect action. But consequential indirect action then yes. He can't torch you, but he can torch the guy over there and that has a secondary consequence of setting the building on fire which then burns you.
That'd make them even more powerful 
Purposeful indirect action is already difficult enough, IMO.
This is also hell to judge. If a magus with a personnal ward against humans is in a house, you couldn't put fire to it purposefully in order to burn him, yet someone that did it inadvertantly could? Or you'd just have to extend the chain of consequences, such as putting fire to the house next door? Or the third house? the whole town? And if you tie embers to a dog tail before releasing/herding it in the "right" direction, does this work?
Also, if you look at the guideline, the ward prevents direct action, that's all.
You are being too mechanical.
"Namoricus of Jerbiton"?
That got a huge grin out of me. Awe-some!
Also, I pre-ordered my copy of Faith and Flame today at my Friendly Neighborhood Gaming Store, because brick-and-mortar.
I will freely admit that games I run are more influenced by comic books than fantasy literature. :mrgreen:
And that store looks awesome!
That's because it is. That's been my comic and game store of choice almost since they opened, since (I think) the mid-80s, and this is their fourth location, I think. If you're ever in Austin, we should definitely hit it up.
You're lucky.
My friendly (no so) local games store closed a few years ago, and it was something I was very sad of. I was one of their earliest clients, and supported them all the way through.
Last year, a comics shop opened in its place, I was all excited (since I love comics), but the new owner wasn't very welcoming to those he didn't knew, it felt just like a supermarket to me, whereas the old place was somewhere I loved to hang out and chat with people => never went back to it.
You know, I'm pretty sure I've been there. I'm from Texas and dated a girl who went to UT for a while (I went to Texas A&M) and we went there a few times.
I've noticed a number of spontaneous spells dividing by 2 without an explicit use of Fatigue, instead of 5. Is this a house rule? Something the characters have that I've overlooked? An implicit use of Fatigue? Or something else entirely?
No HR on this one. I suppose it is just that the recovery time is assume to happen without major issue so it is not taken into account unless it is relevant to the scene.
What Xavi said 
And people forget when it is a slow paced scene, so do I
Yup, you're right, and I'm surprised at how well this worked for a murder mystery 
Nicely done!
Speaking for myself, I don't explicitly mention it because I think it's self-evident. Unfortunately, I also tend to immediately forget it as the scene progresses, which is what happened here. 
I'll work on correcting that, but feel free to call me on it.