First Day, huh?
I can tell. You have that weird, wide-eyed look. It’s that realizations that everything around you is wrong. That is shouldn’t be real—that it couldn’t be real. But…you know. It is.
So here’s the deal. You need to remember three things.
First, we secure, contain, and protect, not “destroy, destroy, destroy.” We don’t decommission anomalies except as an absolute last resort. And if you do it, expect that at the minimum your career is going to be completely, 100% over. At worst, you’ll be, like, dropped in a void somewhere or something. Remember: there are always fates worse than death.
Second: We have rules for a reason. You follow the containment protocols. If you don't, people could die.
Third: You tell no one. I’m sure you already knew this part, but the Foundation staying secret isn’t just for convenience. It’s literally keeping the whole planet together.
So grab a coffee and let’s get started.
Welcome to the Foundation
The Foundation is an adventure role-playing game about what lurks in the dark, and the people entrusted in keeping them contained, documented, and separated from humanity.
As you play, your decisions and actions will change the world. These changes have consequences that will determine what mark you will leave on the Foundation archives. If you will at all.
What you need to play
Choose one person to be the Administrator, or game master. Everyone else will be players, taking the role of the Foundation Personnel (we often call these the player characters or PCs). As you play, the players say what their characters say, think, and do. The Administrator describes everything else in the world and the players say how their characters react, while using the rules of the game to determine their success.
You can play a single session or string together multiple sessions into a campaign. Each session will usually be a few hours and you’ll be able to start playing right away within the first session.
Playing The Foundation requires the following:
- This rulebook (each player may want their own copy)
- A group of 2 – 6 players (1 Administrator and 2-5 players)
- A Personnel File for each player
- A set of dice for each player. Each player should have two of each four-sided, six-sided, eight-sided, ten-sided, and twelve-sided dice. You can share dice if you need to, but it's better for each player to have their own.
- Tokens (coins, stones, candy, etc.) to represent your character, particularly if you're using a map
- Miscellanea such as: pens and pencils, scrap paper for maps and notes, maybe some index cards
The Foundation is all about finding out what happens when your characters encounter dangerous and exciting monsters, strange locations, and bizarre (and often disturbing) situations they encounter when acting as operatives of The Foundation. It’s a collaborative story being told between the players and the GM—the GM tells the players what they see and hear in the world around them and the players say what their characters are thinking, feeling, and doing. Sometimes those descriptions will trigger an action—something that’ll cause everyone to stop and roll the dice to see what happens. For a moment everyone hangs on the edges of their seats as the dice clatter to a stop. Tension and excitement are always the result, no matter how the dice land.
As you play your characters they’ll change from their adventures and gain experience while learning about the world, overcoming obstacles, and gaining new information and insight. You’ll discover how they feel about each other and where their moral compass points them. When they earn enough experience they’ll gain levels, becoming more powerful and having more options to explore.
You can play The Foundation with the same group, session to session, over a long series of adventures, watching your characters change and grow together. You can play it as a self-contained game in a single-session, too. Whether a long campaign or a one-shot, these rules will guide you and help you create a world of intense survival adventure.
Get ready.