[Herr Brackhaus]

Figured I'd start a thread for GMs (and players for that matter) to share paradigm and host ideas.

Here's a few to kick off. Feel free to contribute and discuss, but please keep comments constructive.

Island Paradise

Description:
Upon entering this reality you find yourself on one of ten tropical islands spread out equidistant from each other in a large circle, with clear sight lines to the horizon. Each island has sparse foliage consisting mostly of short grass and tall palm trees, as well as white sand beaches, a small straw hut, and two canoes tied off at a long wooden dock. Schools of fish and the occasional turtle can be seen in the sea around the deep end of the dock, and several birds travel between the islands on the gentle breeze. A few fishing boats can be seen on the water inside the circle of islands, with humanoid shapes resembling aboriginal humans casting nets into the ocean. A sense of peace and tranquility permeates the environment, and the smell of salt persists in the air.

GM notes:
The nodes in this instance could be the schools of fish (players need to "go fish"), the huts on the island (players need to get to the right island and enter the huts), or anything else the GM can come up with (palm trees with coconuts moving up and down and direction determining data trails).

The birds and denizens could become aggressive if the players don't adhere to the island theme (i.e. variance could result from PCs not changing their icons to aboriginal humanoids, PCs using high-tech gear, or PCs not adhering to "island time").

Potentially useful active skills: swimming, animal handling, etiquette, navigation, tracking, survival, and locksmith
Potentially useful knowledge skills: tropical environments, fishing, history (aboriginal), and ornithology
Potentially useful qualities: Outdoorsman


Rocky Road

Description
This physics-defying environment manifests as a perfectly straight and ten meter wide road stretching into infinity in both directions, while the sides drop off into a vertigo-inducing abyss after only a few meters to each side. The edge on both sides of the road is lined with a wire fence seemingly placed there to prevent an accidental spill over the side, while the occasional peal of thunder from the oppressive storm clouds overhead seems out of place given the utter lack of visible lightning. The area is littered with pebbles that float around in the air seemingly of their own volition, but upon closer examination it becomes obvious that they form a complex geometric shape that is constantly moving in all directions.

GM notes:
In this instance both the nodes and denizens take the form of the rocks floating in the air. Individual stones travel to and from collections of rocks, and to avoid variance player characters must become part of the pattern of rocks and blend into a persistently shifting geometry.

Potentially useful active skills: Artisan, Perception, Gymnastics, Pilot Aircraft
Potentially useful knowledge skills: Geometry, Mathematics, Engineering, Geology
Potentially useful qualities: Analytical Mind


WAR!

Description
Welcome to hell, recruit. In this futuristic battlefield grunts form battlelines that shift constantly while explosions go off all around as heavy mortars indiscriminately shell the positions of both friend and foe. Every military ground and aircraft imaginable, from helicopters and jet fighters to tanks and APCs, are fighting in a chaotic, war-torn countryside, and generals are frantically trying to gain the advantage over their opponents in what seems to be a seven way fight.

GM notes:
In this instance the nodes are the HQ tents of each force present on the battlefield, and denizens take the form of troops actively trying to kill each other. Messengers run communiques from all of the fronts, and player characters will have to do their best to engage in combat to fit in while avoiding death by (friendly) fire.

Potentially useful active skills: Anything combat related, Leadership
Potentially useful knowledge skills: Anything warfare related
Potentially useful qualities: Rank

[Redman]

Awesome stuff.

[Ech0]

Feudal Anime Japan

http://static.hitek.fr/img/actualite/w_bcuafyx1buhaqx54aytx-1.jpg

Description
This Foundation is based on the layout of cities back in feudal Japan, according to the imagination of Anime artists. While the architecture it's not historically accurate, the visual representation is. It's a huge sprawling city, busy with everyday life, surrounded by the typical bamboo forest, shrines, small villages etc.. The time of day and the seasons change in fast-forward, every 15 Minutes. Trails of merchants, soldiers, citizens and nobles walk around the city.

GM notes:
The nodes take the form of typical important buildings that correlate with their functions in the Host: A Torii Gate in the forest, a Shrine, soldiers' Barracks, a Daimyo's Palace, a Scroll Library, a Temple, that serves as a hub of countless paper lanters on ropes. Players have figure out the patterns of the people moving around the city. Breaking the patterns of feudal japanese life will result in consequences, including ninjas on rooftops, samurai warriors in the streets etc.

Potentially useful active skills: All social skills, stealth and (maybe) combat & athletics.
Potentially useful knowledge skills: Anything history related, bushido code, architecture
Potentially useful qualities: College Education

[Herr Brackhaus]

Nice, I like the inclusion of a picture to kind of set the theme. I'll steal that

[ScytheKnight]

Cyclopean Ruins



Description
If Foundations are often interpenetrated as dreams, welcome to a twisted nightmare. The scale, the angles, every colour, smell and sensation is... wrong. Indecipherable scripts and monuments that confounded the senses a spread around a space that seems both claustrophobic and infinite. A rustle and glimpses in the corner of the eyes speak of others in this space... but you are unsure what they are, or if you ever want to know.

GM notes
The nodes can very much be anything here... but the scripts or monuments are easy targets. but even just a particularly odd piece of geometry or the oppressive atmosphere could work... this is a place where concepts of reality are being pushed to breaking point. Variance would rely primary on trying to impose normal 'reality' on this place, and needless to say someone taking it all in their stride would stick out in a place of madness and confusion.

Potentially useful active skills: Look at some of the more esoteric skills, arcana comes to mind or perception to notice things amidst bewildering sensory input, also skills to navigate a space outside of normal metahuman scale.
Potentially useful knowledge skills: Again, anything really esoteric will work here. Anything from advanced physics to extreme magical theory... if it's something odd, bizarre or strange they know, it could work here.
Potentially useful qualities: Anything relating to mental disorders. In a place gone mad, who better to understand than the mad themselves? Also feel free to make a Technomancer with Decaying Dissonance really stand out (in a good way or bad) here.

[belaran]

Decaying Futuristc Elven World

Description: A decaying half-plants, half machine elven spaceships, ruled by a an immortal, and mysterious, Queen, over hundred of drone-like "space elves". While quite beautiful, there is a distinct feeling of stillness and decay. The starship seems more lost in space than going anywhere, all the elves seems a bit "out of it", like being half hypnothised, than actual sentient being. Everbody wants to please the Queen, but no one appears to be doing actually anything, and the ship itself is slowly rotting. Most of the commands panel are either overrun by plants, and not functioning, and nobody tries to fix anything...

The elves are rather creepy-looking, 2m high, white pale skin, completly blue eyes, often followed by a sort tumbleweed-like organic balls , which leaks some strange green ooze behind them. The starship itself is forms of cluster of odd looking shapes, orbiting around the core, which includes the Upper Level (Master Control Node) where the elven court, including high ranking officer, gather in useless meeting discuting long forgotten interstellar wars, and try to figure how to serve the queen. A data trails lead, a sort of magic transportation tube can led to a lower part of the ship, the Engine Rooms (Scaffolding), or one actually leaves the ship to connect to one of the surrounding asteroid like ships, where a gigantic observation deck allows a magnificent view of the universe (Portal Node).

From the Engineering Rooms, one can get to the bottom of the ships, in the water invaded, abandonned Forgotten Levels (Archive), where no elves go, because they are "hunted by monster". Or use an other data trails, as a space elevator, to get an other ship of the cluster, the Queen Garden (Slave Node) where all the pet creatures of the Queen, lives and run amok.

At last, the Engine Rooms , like the Obervation, possess two other "space tube" to access a war-like external ship, called the War Room (Security Node). However, no elf has been there for ages, as the starship has been adrift for centuries without ever facing some real enemies...

At last, on top of the ship, accessible only from the Upper Level, a Data Trails leads to the dread Queen Palace (Null Node) where the Queen is strangely nowhere to be found, while being everywhere.

GM Notes:
* The node map
* Variance: fixing things, not speaking Sperethiel, contesting decision, preventing people to be wandering aimlessly, questioning the emptyness and aimlessness of it will create Variance, and triggers "monsters" to appear.
* One of my player being a bit of elf supermacist, this foundation was a twisted reflection of his one subsconscious.

[TwilightVulpine]

The birds and denizens could become aggressive if the players don't adhere to the island theme (i.e. variance could result from PCs not changing their icons to aboriginal humanoids, PCs using high-tech gear, or PCs not adhering to "island time").

If I can revive this topic to ask a question, how can they change their icons to fit the Foundation Paradigm if you can't do Matrix Actions on the Foundation?

[Raiderjoseph]

Wait. Can the foundations be based on ANYTHING?!

[Blue Rose]

Wait. Can the foundations be based on ANYTHING?!

Yes.

[Mirikon]

Wait. Can the foundations be based on ANYTHING?!

Yes.

Even Foundation.


The Emperor's Harem

Description:
Like something out of 1001 Arabian Nights, the setting is a palace with gilded walls, silk curtains and pillows, and beautiful women dressed scantily, if at all. In short, it is like any one of a few thousand VR porn games you might find on the Matrix. Of course, that is why it makes for a clever (albeit twisted) trap.

GM Notes:
There are multiple traps laid out in what is, on the surface, a hentai scene in the making. The designer of this foundation subscribes to the popular belief that a high percentage of hackers are not, shall we say, the most gifted when it comes to social skills and things involving exercise. While this may not be true in every case, the design of the foundation will heavily penalize those who are not skilled in those areas.

To start, anyone with an avatar that is not a realistic-looking human or elf will stick out SEVERELY. This includes both cartoonish avatars, as well as object avatars, or avatars of other metatypes/sapient critters. Male avatars need to be dressed like they're a stereotypical sheik visiting a harem in the Arabian Nights. Female avatars need to look like they're part of the harem. There are both male and female NPCs in the foundation, and 'security challenges' go differently depending on the avatar chosen.

To successfully navigate the Foundation, one must play along with the harem motif. While a Face or cat burglar type could accomplish this easily, it can prove a tough challenge for hackers.

Important to note that this need not get above an R rating (does anyone keep a PG-13 with Shadowrun?), especially with proper use of 'fade to black' moments, and making allusions to actions rather than depictions of those actions. This setting is deliberately provocative, because it is attempting to deliberately play against the 'common knowledge' about hackers. In other words, its like trying to stock up on Fire Pokemon before going to the Bug-type gym.

Useful Skills: Con (Seduction), Negotiation, Intimidation, Perform, Gymnastics (Dance)
Useful Attributes: Charisma
Useful Qualities: First Impression, Double-Jointed, Indomitable (Social), Natural Athlete, Knowledge: Literature
Variance: Not appearing in suitable avatars, not engaging in acts portrayed in the harem style, using language not appropriate to the setting, and other such acts will cause Variance. This can lead to guards appearing, and taking the offending characters to the Dungeons, where Bad Things happen.

[Raiderjoseph]

I was thinking a Foundation where each node is based on a work of fiction or interest or hobby. And it had a few special rules. Would anyone be interested in me typing this out?

[TwilightVulpine]

That would be interesting.

I would still like to know if there is an official word on it. If Matrix Actions are not possible within the Foundation, you wouldn't be able to use Change Icon, especially when it comes to requiring the deep runners to have a certain look. If it's truly disallowed, there would need to be a way to change it within the Paradigm.

[Herr Brackhaus]

Based on the the descriptions of Variance on page 117, and the numerous hints at the Foundation being a "dream scape", I think it's safe to say that you don't need to use a Matrix Action (which is not allowed to begin with as per page 111) to alter your icon, because there is no icon to alter.

Similar to creating an Anchor, you get to choose what you look like when you're in a (the?) Foundation. Of particular note is the fact that you need neurons to even enter the Foundation, and then there's this from page 116:
"Since a Foundation is literally created from the stuff dreams are made of, at least in part, just about any setting is possible."

In short, you can do whatever you want with nothing but your imagination.

[Mirikon]

Changing your avatar to fit the theme? Yeah, imagination. But interacting with the environment will require the actual skills, which can make things nasty, especially when the setting is specifically tailored to certain skills that hackers generally don't have.

[Blue Rose]

This has been entirely too serious.  Time to bring something truly terrifying.

The Meadow



Description:
As you pass through layer upon layer of code, the world takes form, starting with a blinding light.  The sun, bigger, brighter, friendlier than you have ever seen stretches in every direction, shining high in a brilliant blue sky, dotted with the kind of white, puffy, smog-free clouds you only ever see in really old pictures anymore.  This brilliant sun smiles upon an endless meadow, filled with tall, vibrant green grass and wild flowers, broken up with the odd tree, vegetable patch or burrow.  In the meadow, you see dozens of little fluffy bunny rabbits frolicking and playing and saying how glad they are to be friends.

GM notes:
Nodes could be a particularly small and innocent bunny, a mama bunny, a big, leaderly bunny, the mostest bestest carrot in the warren, the big scary owl, the mean old farmer, that weird scarecrow everyone stays away from, or the mysterious bunny-eating monster (read: a snake).

Nonadherance to the warren's ways of friendship, happiness, fairness, and play cause variance.  The bunnies will not attack the players, but the environment will and additional predators and malicious entities will.  If the world starts attacking players due to variance, the bunnies will not comprehend their being in peril.  Technology in any form causes variance.  Swearing causes variance.

Potentially useful active skills: animal handling, etiquette, running, gymnastics, survival, stealth, tracking
Potentially useful knowledge skills: zoology, agriculture, botany, children's cartoons
Potentially useful qualities: outdoorsman, natural athlete