[firebug]

So I've been playing some of the more traditional fantasy RPGs with my friends, and it makes me pause and wonder what things can happen there in terms of "session narrative genre" and the like that can't really happen in Shadowrun.

Keep in mind, I'm not really comfortable with pushing the boundaries of what's canon in Shadowrun.  I love the setting to a level where I think it's improper to introduce something that would be impossible and/or imply a massive change to the setting from the macguffin's implications.

One of the things that I know is very accessible in things like D&D and Pathfinder is the bizarre and surreal, because magic can have very strong influences on an area and generally speaking, magic can accomplish much greater things in those games (since it's often also their replacement of technology and the existence of godlike entities is standard and considered magical).

In Shadowrun, magic is less accessible, by which I mean in this instance, that it can only be used or often even seen by a tiny number of people.  Having only one awakened character in your group is common if not often preferred.  So interacting with magic for mundanes would usually come down to dealing with magicians or spirits.

While spirits have a lot of flexibility in how they can act and look to come across as abnormal and weird, I'm concerned that's not really enough for what I'm imagining.  I'm talking about really drawing the players into something trippy and unreal and fantastic.  Very possible in D&D where magic is everywhere, but not as easy in Shadowrun.

I'm thinking maybe the use of...  What's it called?  Alchera?  Those places that appear out of magic and then fade away after an amount of time.  They may be good backdrops for a surreal storyline.  I don't want to literally make it a drug trip or a simulation.  That's just...  Really lame.  It's the same as just going "It was all a dream!" and that's just shitty writing.

I probably didn't really explain what exactly I want.  I'm having difficulty explaining it.  And I fear that, even if I did manage to find something that allowed the characters to enter a properly bizarre and disturbing quest, that it'd be impossible to still give everyone the proper spotlight.  The hacker in particular.

So...  If anyone has an idea of what I'm asking and some suggestions on how to have those kinds of stories in Shadowrun, I'd love to hear them.  And, thanks ahead of time.

[MijRai]

Alchera, astral shallows, astral rifts (keep in mind the Mundane will not enjoy the trip if the rift closes on them), all of those are possibilities.  Keep in mind places like the Maya Cloud around Tibet, various mana storms, things like that as well.

[Herr Brackhaus]

A Warp Rift would do; even mundanes can Astrally Project into a Rift, and once you get into the deep metaplanes anything is possible.

Of course, Rifts have some pretty serious drawbacks, the biggest being that if the Rift closes before the mundane character returns to his body, he's plain old D.E.D. dead, baby. But, for a targeted campaign where you want to mess with the players, I'd go with Rifts that you conveniently close after they make it back out.

Alchera are also possibilities; I don't remember the full rules for them but there are different kinds, with one essentially replacing the current physical landscape with another one. So take the middle of downtown Seattle and replace it with an alchera mimicking medieval mythical England, for instance. Boom, instant weeeeird.

You could easily explain the characters abilities away by making them "magical" in nature. The hacker's agent becomes a crow who helps him spot enemies, and his deck becomes a mcguffin that fulfills some sort of purpose. His hacking skill allows him to interface with the mystical cogwheel machine in the nth dimension of Rhal'kor. Etc, etc, etc.

[Michael Chandra]

The Alchera in Lost Islands Found was brilliant. Was especially nice when the shaman summoned a spirit and asked them about the place, so I had the chance to play out that reaction. There's also non-magical ways, such as the possibly-CFD extraction scenario described in one of the books: Target begging to be taken back and the entire community going crazy hive-mind. Or you could have the team Laes'd and put into an UV Node, causing them to get really confused on what's going on. As far as Rifts are concerned, you could send them on a really well-paying job to retrieve two Artefacts and when they find the spot, they find out that the artefact they found is merely a portal to the Metaplane of <X>, where they have to find the other half.

[Reaver]

Don't forget surreal science!

Shadowrun gives you the chance to play with the "Mad Doctor" angle. With all the genetic expermintation, cyber/bioware research, nanotechnology, and product testing going on, whose to say how those experiments are being done?

If you look back through the fluff, people are always encountering odd shit. Make something of your own for you players to find in the next Lab...

[Michael Chandra]

That reminds me, the Gestalt in Chasin' the Wind is pretty creepy. I loved actually playing that out since we had some time to spare. Hive-minds are always fun to use, since describing how multiple people do the exact same thing sets off every paranoia trigger in players.

[cantrip]

I second 'Lost Islands Found' from Firing Line --- a simple way to introduce players to a surreal area without making it a huge story line in your game. You can if you want, though! 

Target: Wakened Lands has some good stuff too, especially down under.

I spent a lot of time with Earthdawn material and had a the surreal beaten into me by a magic intensive GM back in the 1st/2nd ed SR.

IMO you can get pretty surreal with the matrix and resonance now. I've found that the technomancer I'm running a game for ends up being somewhat similar to astral space/quests. And with sim reality, you can bring other team members along for the ride so to speak.

Samurai: Why is everything fuzzy?
Techno: That's the resonance.
Samurai: Is it supposed to taste like chocolate?
Techno: ....
Samurai: Fuzzy chocolate...mmmm!
Techno: <face palm>

[Sternenwind]

Ultra Violett Host

Do whatever you want.
I once gave my players other characters, with some resemblances to their own characters and a little over powered, and let them replay the Fluff text from Renraku Arkologie Shutdown S.34 ff. Ok I altered a lot, but basical it was the same, and they died horrible, again and again and again. And after every total party wipe they woke up again in a train full of weapons and shadowrunners on a job into the Renraku Arkologie to beat up some Futchi Terrorist.

[firebug]

Thanks for the examples.  I'll see if I can look into Lost Islands Found to read about an example of alchera.

And thanks Reaver.  Somehow I forgot about the whole "terror science" thing.  I'm sure I could add some HR Giger shit if I wanted things to get real weird real fast.

[McGuffin]

Drugs can also add to the surreal. Stuff like "Warp" has hallucinogenic properties that last days.
During the last halloween session I managed to play on the metagame knowledge of the players about Shedims and the Horrors and manipulate their characters into freaking out.
I decided that the effects of the drug would be stronger if the runners are stressed. So on the job, under pressure they started to hallucinate pretty heavily and regular guards suddenly grew antennas, claws and demonic faces. Heck, even the walls were slime and fur covered.
Since the player's imagination ran amok, they expanded upon the original job to steal data and cleaned out the nasty bug hive (which in reality was just a low level corp site with underpaid staff that got butchered by madmen).
Bottomline: chemistry, technology and magic are possible to plausibly introduce the surreal into your game.