Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Derren" data-source="post: 6164955" data-attributes="member: 2518">You are right on both accounts, but they work a bit different than planes in D&D.When you brain goes on holiday Lets face it, the world of Shadowrun is a a dreadful place. Widespread oppression, pollution and violence. And your job of Shadowrunner doesn't leave much room for a holiday except visiting the slum of the city next door which looks pretty much the same as your slum except that the dirt has some different shades of greybrown.Now for the normal person there are only "the usual" ways of escape. Drugs, TV, sex or religion (bring bug spray, just in case). Now mages have one more option as they have a build in vacation hotspot, the Astral Plane.A quick pointer about mana and magic in Shadowrun, mana, the stuff needed to do magic, is generated by life. Now the astral plane is not a different place than boring reality, but actually the same just with a filter on it. The brick buildings fade into the shadows while the few plants growing on it shine light bright beacons, as do the rats rushing past it and the people living inside the building. But you are not actually seeing the peoples bodies (they are still there, but muted), but their astral auras or souls if you swing that way. And like real bodies the auras can be inspected more closely. While you are in the real world you can see details that the someones hair is dyed and that he should really do some more dental hygiene while his auras can tell you things like if he is troubled, angry or in reality a huge dragon who just shapeshifted to look like a cute dwarfen hooker. And while you think such details (at least the last part) are obvious, no they are not. The astral does not work that way as that the difference between dwarf or dragon is obvious. You have to learn to look for this stuff and other mages (and only them + whatever critter has magical abilities) can learn to hide their true aura.So how does the mage access the Astral? There are two way. Perception and Projection.Through the looking glassPerception is the easier method of accessing the astral plane and is something most mages can do and even adepts can learn. When you perceive the Astral you see both the real world and the astral world at the same time, seeing both the physical form of a person and his aura. You are still bound by your normal vision though, but you can sorta use information from one vision mode to fill in for the other. While you have trouble to see through smoke in the real world, the astral is not troubled by it and you can see the auras of living things behind it. Its not easy to aim a gun according to what you see on the astral, but doable. Creatures who permanently live in this state have no problems with that obviously.Another thing which lights up on the astral are magic spells and items so you know when someone decked out with this stuff approaches (unless he hides it). So why not always perceive the astral? Because you are also vulnerable to things on the astral. While your buddies can walk through a magic barrier only existing on the astral just fine you are stopped by it. Granted you simply can turn your astral perception off and walk through, but spirits which currently reside only on the astral can attack you while you perceive it and your buddies can't help you. Sure, you can fight back as you exist on both planes at the same time when you perceive, but for the others it will look as if you are fighting air as your real body moves together with your astral one. And it can kinda hurt when the spirit hides in a wall (they can do that when they exists only on the astral plane) and you try to punch it. Punch? Yes, because spirits and other things on the astral plane are not really hurt by physical objects, but by the will behind the attack. And last time I checked the bullets do not possess that much willpower. So it is usually a better idea to use a melee weapon on them.If you are not awakened but really want to try, certain drugs the Ghost Cartels used to fence (before they went boom) gave you the ability to perceive even when you were mundane with some nasty side effects.I am packing my suitcase and take with me ... nothing, reallyThe second way of accessing the astral plane is only open to full mages and powerful entities. You detach your mind completely from your body and go free floating . You are existing completely on the astral now and are not bound by physical limitations (As the title suggest, you can't really take stuff with you). The physical world looks muted and you only see the auras of living beings (note, the planet counts as alive). You can fly at the speed of thought and pass through nonmagical and nonliving objects without problems. Of course seeing where you are going is a bit hard as you can neither read or even look through windows as their physical quality of being transparent doesn't matter on the astral. You can always fly through, though. So, projecting is a good way of scouting ahead (unless the enemies uses drones. As they are not alive they are very hard to spot) or enjoy a free porn show somewhere in the neighborhood. Also, being detached from your body  makes fighting things on the astral much more easy as you are faster than when dragging a meat body with you. Speaking of your meat body, it still exists in the real world (currently unconscious) and can still be hurt or killed. So before going out make sure it sits comfortably. You also can't stay out forever. You have to come back after some hours or sort of dissolve. For some giggles, you can manifest in the real world. When you do people can see you like a ghost from stories. You can't affect anything in the real world (unless it is also active on the astral) and the real world can't affect you, but you can talk to people and hear what they are saying.So the next time you find your groups mage in the bed unmovingly he either had a great time at the club last night or is projecting. If you want to play a game with him hide the body. Mages love to having to search their body to get back in before they dissolve.To infinity ... and beyond!There are other planes of existence out there, collectively called metaplanes. While for a mage visiting the astral plane is like driving to the next city block, a visit to the metaplanes is the intercontinental flight including applying for a visa.Not every run of the mill mage can even visit them. To do that he had to initate first. Initiation for a mage means increasing his magical power beyond the ordinary level for your species through an epiphany like experience. If you are such a mage you have to make preparations as like when projecting your body is out cold, only that a trip to the metaplanes can take days. So make sure your body is fed and "other needs" are taken care off. Then you have to get past the bouncer, or more scientifically the Dweller in the Darkness (Yay science!). No one really knows who or what that thing is, a real spirit or a manifestation of your subconscious mind or both and neither. Anyway this guy makes it hard for you to get to a metaplane and challenges you with overcoming your personal flaws in whatever way he pleases. He can create entire worlds in your mind and send you on an epic quest to do so or just play some riddles with you.Either way, when you make it past him you arrive at the metaplane of your choice (pro tip: pick your destination before starting to travel). What metaplanes are there? No one knows. Very likely there are an infinite amount of them. They are the homes of spirits and other weird things and they can look like earth or something really bizzar like a world made out of flesh tunnels inhabited by man sized bugs (Your life expectancy just dropped below 1 second). What you can do there? You can go on a quest to gain knowledge no mortal knows or you can destroy a spirit for real instead of banishing it if you know its true name (see the knowledge part).Now if you are not a mage, there is a substitution to an astral holiday.The Matrix Now with 100% less Keanu ReevesFirst, there was the Internet which went down when some hardware frying supervirus got lose. Then there was the first matrix, a huge highway of cables with regular jackpoints all over the place which also went down when an AI decided to play god and was stopped by another nasty virus and several nukes on certain data centers. Now we have the second Matrix and this one is wireless.Actually we are already in the Matrix 2.5. Previously in the 2.0 version the Matrix was a very free and open place so everyone was happy. Except the Megacorps as they don't like people being happy without paying them first and everyone being treated equal, even virtually, also isn't their cup of tea. So they updated the Matrix to what we have now. One thing before I continue, while the Astral plane is exclusive for mages and other awakened, the Matrix, no matter how is it accessed is for everyone. So even when you are not a Hacker you can surf it with your mind with the right equipment which by now is cheap, available everywhere and can be considered mandatory for normal social interactions by now. There is just one exception which I will address later.Processors have become so small and cheap that pretty much everything has one these days even if just in the form of RFID chip. Even the candy bar you just ate had one, scratch that, multiple ones. The packaging had one and the bar itself. Don't worry, for the most part, they are edible.Now every one of those processors sends and receives wireless signals, routing them to the next device and so on. All this forms a world wide net of devices which make up the Matrix. The only cables still used are for security reasons, outdated hardware and to cross the oceans (and satellites can also help with that).What you can do is to hop along the devices to reach whatever you want in the world. You always start from your Comlink (or Deck, or from yourself if you are a technomancer), then maybe hop to your TV, then to your neighbors smartwatch then to the car parked in front of your house and so on till you reach your favorite restaurant on the other side of the city to check todays special. But with the new user friendly Matrix you do not see any of this, you just activate your Comlink and open the menu of the restaurant. Everything is automatic and done so well that even Hackers don't care any more how their signal is bounced (the authorities will find them anyway).Like the Astral plane there are two (and 3 quarter) ways to use the Matrix.Would you like a bit more reality?The first is Augmented Reality. Like astral perception you overlay the real world with informations from the Matrix. When you look at a shop window you don't just see clothing, you actually see yourself in that clothing in your current pose. Are you visiting a car dealership and look at a car there? A window pops up next to it showing this models sales trailer and consumer ratings. And the adverts do not just stand there, they scream at you (while being of course personally designed for you according to your spending habits and interests). You can even create objects called AROs in Augmented Reality. Want to meet up with your friend? Simply draw a line to your location only he will see. Looking for a date? Log into your favorite dating portal and have it mark all compatible persons in your field of view. See some guys running around the street with their hands formed like guns saying "pew"? They are either on drugs or playing Miracle Shooter which creates Augmented Reality monsters they have to shoot in order to score.How do you see all this information? The easiest and most outdated way which gets you laughed at by 140 year old grandparents is by looking at the display of your Comlink. Instead and a lot more modern, you could simply send this information to your cybereyes and have it overlap your normal vision. Are you one of those hippies who do not trade away perfectly functioning body parts and some of their humanity for machine replacements? You can get glasses, goggles or even lenses to wear for Augmented Reality. Add in some earbuds and a AR gloves so you can touch Augmented Reality objects and you are fully equipped to not feel quite as embarrassed when people see you. But to be really part of this decade you need an DNI, a direct neural interface. You can get one by drilling a hole into your brain and installing a datajack or, for the hippies, wearing a trode net on your head which connects to your brain by ultrasonic. That way images, sound and more get transmitted to your brain directly without having to stop at your eyes first. Add a simsense module to your comlink and even more information can be send into your brain than just AR objects and sound. Want to try out a new place to eat? Try a virtual bite first before you decide. The simsense module makes it possible to transmit taste over the matrix. Isn't it great? Imagine the fun you can have when you hack the taste information.You also do not have to manually type in commands into Augmented Reality windows (windows which simply float in the air which only you can see). Simply think of the command and it will happen. Neat, or?Hot brains and Cold dataYou can go a step further than just having an AR interface and immerse your mind into the matrix. Like a projecting mage you detach your mind from your body and let it wander. Here a simsense module is a must instead of just an addition like in AR. With it you perceive the Matrix like you do the real world with all senses you have available. What you will see when you jack into the Matrix is a black plane with a lot of Icons on it. Every processor I mentioned above is represented by an icon in the Matrix (most of which are filtered out as they are pretty uninteresting). When you look up you will see hosts floating above you. A host is like a building with stuff going on inside it, but more on that later. Generally, the more important the host the bigger and higher up it is. How does a host look like? That is entirely up to its owner. Same for the Icon. The only rule is every host and Icon must relate in some way to its real function. So the Matrix icon of a gun can be any weapon, from a knife to a laser cannon and a car can be represented by anything with wheels. And your persona can be anything living with some size restrictions (Griffons are currently popular).Also, the exact details of what you see depends on your grid. Different providers display the Matrix differently. You will still see all the content, but the colors will be different and adverts will favor the owner of the grid and so on. The megacorps of course have world wide grids. Then there are local grids which you can only access when you are physically in the area. People from the rest of the world can still see and interact with you but working across grids is slow. Or you could use the free, public grid which is also world wide. But that is even slower and many hosts don't accept users from it as they use the simple equation of "Free grid = no money= no customer = get out".So, hosts. A host is as said above a building. You can enter a host (with access, often paid or hacked) and use its services. What you see in the inside of a host is completely up to the owner as are the simulated rules of physics. A dance club owner can sell access to his host which looks like a copy of the real club with "real" physics, so you can spend the night there, dancing, interacting with others and even drinking as if you where there when in reality your body is thousand of miles away. You can even get virtually drunk. There is of course no alcohol in your body, but your brain will react like there is until you leave the host or filter the signal out. Some clubs even exist only in the Matrix and have no real world counterpart.Other hosts can look like you are walking on the ocean floor and the employee can be a squid in uniform. All that is decided by the host who can also restrict how your avatar looks like to fit the theme (which can be hacked of course).Now about the 3/4 ways of accessing the matrix which are left. There are some different ways to immerse yourself into the matrix. Hot Sim, Cold Sim and the Technomancer way.The difference between Hot Sim and Cold Sim is how safe you set your filters. In Cold Sim your Comlink or Deck will filter all incoming signals to a safe amount. Nice for keeping you not dieing but when a Decker is in a pitched battle with some ICEs (Intrusion Countermeasures, programs to defend against hackers) it can slow his reaction. So there is the possibility to remove those filters and go Hot Sim, providing greater speed at the danger of your head exploding.Technomancers have the strange ability to not need technology to access the Matrix, their brain can simply process wireless signals. They even have strange abilities in the Matrix like "summoning" programs to help them.One thing about hacking and the problems you face, the Matrix is watched over by the Grid Overwatch Division (Yes, GOD). They are really good in what they do and with the help of the new matrix protocols they will find everyone who does something illegal on the Matrix within minutes (or hours when he is good or inactive). When they do they kick him out, likely fry his Deck and send the police at him as they know exactly where he is in the real world. At least that happens when the Hacker is outside of a host. When he is inside he is the host's owner problem. Just do not leave the host when you have been discovered and become their problem. Simply jack out form the Matrix. As your mind only travels virtually you do not have to travel back to your body like a projecting mage does. Just pull the plug. As soon as you do that GOD leaves you alone the next time you jack in until you again do something illegal.Brave New WorldOk, now it gets a bit strange.The Matrix has its own version of metaplanes called resonance realms. They are only open to Technomancers. Deckers do not need to apply. No one really knows what they are. Are they magical? Are they are strange side effects of technology? Beats me.They do work a bit like magical metaplanes in a way as Technomancers who want to visit them get to meet their own version of the Watcher in the Dark. Same rules, you shall not pass unless you play a round of high stakes Truth or Dare.What do you find on the metaplanes? AIs, both sentient and ferals, lost programs and according to rumors even e-ghosts, the mind of people who have died while connected to the matrix. There are also many different resonance realms with different purposes out there (but no human did create them as far as we know). For example there is a big archive out there which contains all information which had been saved on the Matrix at one point in time, even when the original and all its copies have already been DELETED (In capital letters. With gasoline and fire). Of course to be able to take a copy of those information with you, you have to offer something in return, for example information which was not yet saved in the Matrix.</blockquote>

Verification