Plot

• The year is 2075.

• The Universe has taken over the world and is a big part of many peoples day to day lives. It is a virtual reality experience that can make a persons wildest dreams a reality.

• The major cities of the world have become countries within themselves, the sheer size and scale of each meaning that very few live outside of these hubs. Each City is broken into distinct districts, in this RP we'll be exploring the City of London.

• The outer ring of the city is where the poorest live. The manual labourers, farmers and manufacturers all live here and it is similar in appearance to a favela or shanty town. Homes are either made of scrap metal and wood or people are found in the decaying remains of old buildings. Food is provided by special centres and require a key card. No key card, no food. A black market operates here in everything from food and water to vehicles and guns. [Also known as The Slum, The Favela and similar names]

• The next ring is the Manufacturing Ring. Here is where everything is made, built and grown to ensure that the city and it's inhabitants can survive. Farms are now in multi-level facilities that reach down far into the earth. Some factories are as big as small sky scrapers as they try to produce enough for the cities residents.

• The next and final ring is the City Ring. This is where the rich and middle class mostly live. Office workers, corporate stooges and high ranking CEO's all reside and work here. The City Ring is taller than it is long, reaching high into the sky. The poorest who are lucky enough to live in the ring live at ground level. Daylight is just a dream here as the many skyways and levels above block out most of it. As a person rises up the levels of the City Ring, their status increases. At the very top are the owners of the Corporations that run the city. Even with their vast wealth they are unable to leave this ring to reached the central area.

• The central area of London is called Paradise and rightly so. What was once tower blocks is now a picturesque nature reserve for only the most elite and rich amongst the cities inhabitants. They number less than 100 but have the freedom to move across the vast open landscape they inhabit. Paradise is located above even the tallest skyscraper in the City Ring, providing a view that is unobstructed. Those who live here are the descendents of royalty, the last Prime Minister and super wealthy.

• Each ring has the most high tech in security available. In addition to manned patrols there are automated defences that could hit a fly with a single bullet. Each citizen is given a chip at birth which in DNA coded to them, making it impossible to steal someone elses chip and to use it. Those in The Slums have access to the Manufacturing Ring during work hours and The Slums. They are completely unable to enter the City Ring unless they win the lottery or receive a promotion. Anyone caught trying to cross into the City Ring without access will be gunned down after only one warning. The same applies for people travelling from the City Ring to Paradise. Apart from a few courriers and security, access to Paradise is restricted to only those who live there.

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The Universe

• Created by a small team of developers who continue to run the program from an undisclosed location. The rumour is they are in Paradise.

• Use is so widespread that everyone has personal access, even those in The Slums.

• Much like Ready Player One, there is very little that cannot be done within the confines of the Universes rules. There is loot, special items and artefacts and even an in game currency that can be utilised in the real world.

• Clans are a big part of the world and are heavily utilised by Corporations to try and gain control of locations within the virtual world.

• PvP and PvE are all accepted in game and are always on. However there is a clan that operates as a police force. They outnumber all but the biggest corporations.

• Death from PvP does not yield a character reset when in hub locations. However when outside hubs Death can result in the dropping of all character loot.

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Corporations

• Five Corporations make up for 82% of the cities jobs and manufacturing output.

• These five corporations employ people just to occupy The Universe and farm loot in search for the most rare items available. In addition to this they can often be found blockading locations whenever there is a competition running.

The Arc System

The interface to log into The Universe. In its most basic form it consists of a headset, gloves and a tracking treadmill. There are travel versions, static chairs and suits that provide physical feedback on the wearers body in relation to what happens in the virtual world. For travel version and static chairs, joysticks are required for character movement.

What is in The Universe?

• When you log onto the universe you are loaded into your characters home location. This can be anything as simple as a small apartment up to a useable intergalactic spaceship. These homes can also be set as clan home locations which can then be used as a characters default spawn point. These homes are fully customisable and exist as their own separate entities to the rest of the world. As such, only people with verified access are allowed to enter, making it a good place to store gear.

• From this home location the main entrance so whether it is an apartment door, castle gate or airlock, act as a doorway into The Universe. To set your destination location you simply say the locations name. When you then open the door you will find yourself facing into the location you called for.

• Locations cover almost everything that you can imagine in terms of pop culture. There is a planet based on LV-426 with its resident Xenomorphs, a full scale recreation of the Mass Effect Citadel, a planet entirely based on Ancient Egypt...the possibilities are endless.

• While PvP and PvE are always on, a lot of locations have weapon free zones meaning that characters can not enter with any sort of weapon. This is most prevalent with the Holiday worlds.

• Moving from location to location can be done easily using the teleport system but it is possible to travel from location to location using starships. A lot of players, inspired by Eve Online, spend more time on their ships acting as pirates or traders rather than seeing any of the planets. Planets can be bombarded from space apart from those with weapon restrictions. However many planets features heavy defences and even the biggest battleship would have no hope of doing any significant damage before finding itself destroyed.

• A lot of people now work through The Universe, whether it is mining currency, farming resources or work in a virtual office. The cost of real world property has skyrocketed and so virtual offices are infinitely easier. With real world currency tied to the virtual, payment is often now made through the virtual currency. This can be automated to pay from time of log on to time of leaving.

Possible CS

User Details

Name: Simple
Age: Must be a minimum of 18
Gender: Simple
Sexual Orientation: Simple
Height: Easy
Weight: Easy
Appearance: Please use a real persons face. Feel free to expand with text.
Ring Location: Do they live in the slums? The middle tier of the City Ring? Take the opportunity to expand and talk about their local area.
Occupation: What is their job? Do they work a real world job or do they have one in The Universe? Are they literal farmer or virtual resource miner?
Real Life Skills: There are no limits to this really, however I’d much rather see realistic characters.
Likes and Dislikes: Minimum of three each please.
Personality: A paragraph or two on how your character acts.
Background: What has happened in your characters life up to this point?

Avatar

Username: Your avatars name
Appearance: Can be pretty much any art work within reason (keep to the tone of the RP I.e. It’s going to get dark at times so I’d rather not see Care Bears or My Little Pony)
Home: Provide a picture/description of their private spawn area.
Fame Tier: How famous is your Avatar?
Weapons: List a couple of “basic” weapons. This is standard armaments whether real world, video games or movies.
Armour: What skin/armour does your character have? No super/power armour at this point.
Utility: List some utility items e.g Omni tool, tricorder etc
Steed: A non-flying mount for your character.
Artifacts: Pick one artifact that could be considered rare/high powered e.g Green Lanterns ring

Try to include descriptions for all items so that everyone is aware of their capabilities. If it’s not in the description, it can’t be done. Also, Artifacts, while powerful, have limited time useage. It all depends from item to item. It’s not a use and lose situation, but features a pretty hefty cool down.

THΞ UNIVΞRSΞ [Ready Player One inspired RP]