Strange but important thematic question for this newbie. I understand that the action in A:NR consists of a runner's attempts at hacking corporate software. My question is, based on both card artwork and what the effects the various cards seem to represent in the world represented in the game, roughly what percentage of A:NR takes place in cyberspace, versus events occurring offline at the same time? I like the idea of a customizable card game set in our future, but am just as interested in seeing its vision of what life is like outside the digital world, as well as what it's like inside.

Off the top of my head i would guess 70% outside of net. programs and ICE are in net, most everything else is outside.

If theme is of great interest to you, I suggest you have a look at the cards online to get a better idea of the art and theme. There's several websites to do so, but CardgameDB is a good one. Since FFG imported Netrunner into their own Android universe, there's definitely a vision of what goes on outside of cyberspace; there's even a bunch of Android novels, and some of the people and places have found their way into the card game. So if you're interested in the setting, you can also check this website for more info on the board games and books.

Agenda cards are program files installed inside the Corporation's servers. But they also represent real world strategies/policies that become active once a corp score them. ICE are defence programs/firewalls or AI robots designed to prevent hacking into those servers. Runner programs are of course software that is installed into a Runner's memory, most likely representing their own mind, seeing as performing hack runs can cause serious brain damage.

Runner Hardware, executives and contacts type of cards represent real world people. The game has a pretty good balance of software related and real world locations in order to give meaning to both Android:Netrunner's real world and cyber world locations/themes and ideas.

Programs and running are necessarily in the Matrix, but Resources, Hardware, and Events generally represent things the runner does between runs, though sometimes Events take place in the matrix.

On the corporate side, Ice is necessarily virtual software, but the Agendas represent real world activities and when the runner "steals" them, it means he's gotten either valuable intel about confidential corporate projects, or has been able to sabotage them, or both. Likewise, the corporation has sysops, executives, and real world assets. Like Runner Events, Corporate Operations may take place in the matrix or in the real world.