Ready Player One inspired RP

[Burning Kitty]

Would anyone be interested in a Ready Player One inspired RP?

[MissCapnCrunch]

Definitely! :)

[DClassified]

Wit da shit for sure.

[Burning Kitty]

@DC The Dragon@MissCapnCrunch Would you prefer it to be set in the RP1 universe or just inspired by it? I have only seen the movie so that is what I will work off of.

Either way I’ll have a list of Artifacts that the players can acquire, some of which our characters will start off with.

We would all be members of one clan. Clan name suggestions are welcome.

[AnneLynch]

I'M SO DOWN FOR THIS!!!!

[MissCapnCrunch]

@Burning Kitty

I have JUST saw the movie myself, but I think a universe inspired by it would be fun and creative on our part. We can take from the movie as much as we want, but don't have to be word by word exactly- I think that might be our best bet, but I wouldn't be opposed to the other option either if it comes down to it.

Will our plot be the same as the movie or do you have a new adventure in store for us?

Love the idea of being all in the same clan!

[Burning Kitty]

@MissCapnCrunch at first there would be no plot they would be questing then (redacted) happens then shit hits the fan.

[King Cosmos]

@Burning Kitty

I'm tentatively interested in this; my only reservation is what the plot is going to be.

I'd rather not do a rehash of the plot from the movie or the book, mostly because we'd be facing challenges that we already know the solution to in a story we've already seen the end of, but there's not much else to work with. The Oasis is just a game after all, outside of the Egg Hunt and the threat of corporate take over there isn't any other major threat to face.

Maybe there could be a second Egg Hunt? Say a special event organised by the characters of the movie to mark the anniversary of something; anniversary of the Oasis' creation, their taking ownership of the company or just what would have been Ogden Morrow's 100th Birthday or something. There would be a second Egg Hunt with a special prize at the end (untold riches or a unique artifact, maybe even the chance to design your own artifact or area of the Oasis) that our clan would try to win.

It would be something relatively high stakes without being too serious at the same time.

Either way I’ll have a list of Artifacts that the players can acquire, some of which our characters will start off with.

@Burning Kitty

I would very much like to be able to at least suggest our own artifacts. The whole appeal of a Ready Player One RP to me is the mash-up of every pop culture IP ever; obviously there is a focus on 80's stuff but there's plenty of stuff from newer works in both the book and movie.

Besides, I already have a pretty good idea of the kind of character I want to build. Not being able to pick my own equipment would make that harder to achieve.

[Chain]

Interested

[MissCapnCrunch]

@King Cosmos

Agreeing with all of King's comments!

[Burning Kitty]

@King Cosmos
It definitely won't be a rehash. The third quest in the movie for the keys (video games) was boring only made interested by the corporate war. The quest itself needs to be interesting.

Still not sure if it will be in Ready Player One universe. Once I am ready to start it I will ask everyone their final opinion on that, so that I can adapt the plot as necessary if at all.

Everyone can definitely make suggestions. Some artifacts may not be allowed until higher levels if at all. Some may be unique, some may be acquired multiple times (common), there may be artifacts that have both a unique and common version (Master Chief's MJOLNIR armor versus MJOLNIR armor). I might not allow every feature of said item to be allowed for the artifact version or may restrict certain features to higher levels.

To everyone: I have the next two days off. I will work on the plot then.

I know in World of Warcraft they have pets. Should we include those?

Artifact Sheet:
Name:
Unique/Common:
Image:
Link to item:
Description of function: (if you create it)

Artifacts can be weapons, armor, powers.

Character Sheet:
Human Name: (optional)
Avatar Name:
Avatar Picture:
Personal Artifacts: (for now leave blank until artifacts are approved)
Pets: (noncombat, i.e. house cat)
Companion Artifact: (limited to one, combat capable "pet") (for now leave blank until artifacts are approved)
Mount Artifact: (limited to one) (for now leave blank until artifacts are approved)
Vehicle Artifact: (limited to one, car, motorcycle, tank, none that are flight capable) (for now leave blank until artifacts are approved)
Cash: 10,000
Significant quest(s): (this is your actions that made the clan notice and recruit you)
Other notable facts:

Across all artifact fields you are currently limited to one unique artifact.
Feel free to add any fields you want.

[King Cosmos]

It definitely won't be a rehash. The third quest in the movie for the keys (video games) was boring only made interested by the corporate war. The quest itself needs to be interesting.

@Burning Kitty

Just for reference the quests in the book were a lot longer and had multiple parts. The third quest in the movie is only the final, final part of the book's third quest.

We still shouldn't do a rehash though.

Everyone can definitely make suggestions. Some artifacts may not be allowed until higher levels if at all. Some may be unique, some may be acquired multiple times (common), there may be artifacts that have both a unique and common version (Master Chief's MJOLNIR armor versus MJOLNIR armor). I might not allow every feature of said item to be allowed for the artifact version or may restrict certain features to higher levels.

@Burning Kitty

I think artefacts by definition are unique, whereas everything else is just a regular item. That's just me being pedantic though, it doesn't really matter what we call them.

The movie made artefacts seems a lot more common than they should be, because they were trying to cram as much stuff in visually as possible. I think they pretty much all are earned as part of a hidden quest or something originally, before being put up for auction or entering the wild when the owner dies and loses everything. You don't just buy the Cataclysm from the in-game store.

If your character has a unique artefact I think there should probably be an explanation in your profile as to how you got it, either as part of your significant quest or other notable information.

Something else that was in the book and not the movie, that may be interesting to use, is the idea of magic/technology specific zones. In the book all items are classified as either magic, technology or neither (say just a regular sword) and zones are either non-combat, magic, technology or both. In a non-combat zone all items and atrefacts are disabled, it is a safe zone. In a magic zone stuff like lightsabers wouldn't work, in a technology zone a wizards staff would be useless and some zones allow you to use everything without restriction.

May restrict certain features to higher levels.

@Burning Kitty

If we were to set this in the Ready Player One universe there would be no levels. Strength is determined by equipment only.

Sorry for the wall of text and sorry if it sounds like I'm being negative or overly critical. I'm more just trying to provide information about the setting because you have only seen the movie and there was a lot of stuff in the book that explained the world that was wasn't included.

[Burning Kitty]

The movie I’m pretty sure indirectly mentioned levels. Once I’m pretty sure they referred to avatar death as resetting to zero and I know the wade told his aunt’s boyfriend to level up.

Unique I plan to have as my significant quest. Just trying to figure out what the quest is now.

@King Cosmos@MissCapnCrunch@Chain@AnneLynch@DC The Dragon
Voting time:
Ready Player One or unique setting?

Pets yay, nay or indifferent?

My votes inspired and indifferent.

[DJAtomika]

Unique setting, yes for pets.

You have my interest.

[Chain]

Unique setting, yeah for pets as long as they're not mandatory. Also like a few of the ideas @King Cosmos mentioned in his last post.

[King Cosmos]

The movie I’m pretty sure indirectly mentioned levels. Once I’m pretty sure they referred to avatar death as resetting to zero and I know the wade told his aunt’s boyfriend to level up.

@Burning Kitty

There are definitely no levels in the Oasis. I'll stake my reputation on it.

When you die your account "zeroes out". Basically you lose everything, your entire inventory and every single gold coin and you are given an essentially fresh character again. That's why people explode into piles of loot when they die.

I'm unsure whether it actually deletes your account or not, as in death is an actual permadeath and that character is just gone; accounts are free anyway so it wouldn't make much difference.

The "level up" line was just a general gaming reference I'm fairly sure. Wade was just telling him to "git gud scrub".

Ready Player One or unique setting?

@Burning Kitty

What would the difference be, aside from the lack of references to canon characters or events? Would the game world function differently, would the real world be less of a dystopia?

[Burning Kitty]

My original idea was Humanity finally created a true utopia, as it was all meant to be instead of the failed versions humans always do. Humanity through gene editing has purged the undesirable (murderous, terrorist, bigotry in all forms, etc) tendencies from humanity. Humanity is bored. They live in communities in one part of the world but thanks to something like the Oasis they can work anywhere in the world. Then comes along Super Fun Guy* who adapts the Oasis like thing into a gaming environment where people can do anything they want, mostly fighting, racing, and nsfw.

*Name made up for now, real name to be determined later, or that might be his avatar name.

Or we could go with the dystopia where they go to Oasis to escape and have fun instead.

My character will have two significant quests, feel free to have only one.

All artifacts in this game can be bought or be gained as loot. The unique ones will costs an absolute fortune to buy it. The commons ones will costs a wide range of prices depending on how easily they are obtain. The only artifact that can't be bought are Clan Ships they have to be won. If a quest would typically award a clan ship and you are a part of the clan you are given a choice leave your clan and start your own or get a different unique artifact.

Each clan gets their own hub a space ship. In clan hubs there is strict rules against PVP even among clan members, except under certain super strict conditions. Clan ships themselves are all non-combat ships, if your ship is based on a warship it cannot attack other ships. In certain missions ships can and do attack other ships, they just aren't clan ships.

I don't know about in RP1 but in this there will definitely be Player vs AI enemies.

[Burning Kitty]

In RP1 the avatar Aech is known for building Mods and doing repairs. If any of you want your character to do that PM me and we can discuss it. FYI you can't build the Iron Giant aboard the Clan Ship.

[Burning Kitty]

Addressing something I forgot to earlier:

I think artefacts by definition are unique, whereas everything else is just a regular item. That's just me being pedantic though, it doesn't really matter what we call them.

@King Cosmos

I know in the movie there were a few avatars wearing MJOLNIR armor from Halo, I don't know if they were artifacts or just regular gear people can buy in your general store, or if that was just how their avatar looked. I am using artifacts as a catch all at this point I can change that to just the unique versions and we can call the common stuff gear or whatever.

Plot

Sanctuary the virtual network that everyone visits for fun or work. It was created originally to give people universal access to the world, live in America but want to work for a company in Japan, with Sanctuary you can. Want to visit amusement parks that no longer exist you can. Eventually people wanted more they wanted adventure. At first an illegal expansion called the Badlands was made to allow people to do just about anything they wanted that Sanctuary wouldn’t. Eventually Sanctuary released a mandatory update that incorporated the Badlands expansion into its core features. The Clan Wars began shortly after.

The Specters of the Apocalypse a newly formed clan has not made a name for itself yet amongst the numerous other clans. Some clans restrict players to having a minimum level or minimum number unique artifacts. The Specters have no such requirements. The clan doesn’t exist to bring glory to itself and its members, it exists as a place for players to become friends and to provide support for one another.

While on Planet Doom the Specters of Apocalypse make a discovery that millions of players have never found before. A quest that was buried, likely once developed never intended to be accessed. Just finding it has changed the course of history forever. Once they discovered everyone knew about it, Stargates appeared in every Clan Ship and in every hub. The Stargates lead to secret locations throughout Sanctuary inaccessible through ordinary means. Once you solve the riddle, clues, & puzzles you are given the Gate Addresses to these secret locations. The Stargates themselves randomly display the riddle, clues, & puzzles. The Specters of Apocalypse have access to the first clue before anyone else.

If you have any suggestions let me know.

Votes as of now:
Setting: Unique: 3 Not Unique: 0 Indifferent: 1
Pets: Yes: 2 No: 0 Indifferent: 1

@Chain pets will not be mandatory, they don't even have to be combat capable. If your character wants a virtual common house cat that does whatever cats do for a pet, cool. If you want Robocop as a pet, not cool. If you want mechanical dog that fights alongside your character, cool. If you want a Voltron Lion as a pet, not cool.

[King Cosmos]

@Burning Kitty

I don't particularly mind whether we call all items artefacts or just the unique stuff; I was just being pedantic and explaining my interpretation of it. I'm starting to realise that the movie gave a very different view of this world than the books did. Stuff like Mjolnir armour wasn't in the book at all, but I'm going to guess it was generic gear; I want to stress that I think unique items should mostly be available only through quests or challenges, like the Gundam capsule being a reward for winning the huge deathmatch in the movie.

The plot looks intriguing. So, the Stargate's (love this inclusion by the way) just act as warp points to secret locations but are initially inactive; you need to solve the riddle/clue/puzzle to get the co-ordinates to the first world, then activate the Stargate and go to the next location, presumably find the next clue and so on?

My only issue with the unique setting is if this is a future utopian version of Earth then does it still make sense that Sanctuary has items and locations based on pop culture from decades or even centuries in the past? I also worry at the inclusion of levels because it seems unnecessary both in and out of universe; if Sanctuary was originally created as just a virtual world with no game elements then there would be no reason to have levels, meaning it was something added to Sanctuary after the badlands was introduced. I also don't really see it playing much of a deciding factor in fight in the RP so I just don't see a reason for it and would prefer a setting where your "power" is determined by your equipment, skill and intelligence.

Other than these nitpicks I also vote for a unique setting.

I also vote in favour of pets but would want to draw a distinction between pets, mounts and companions. Pets would just be, well, pets; basically a cosmetic item. Mounts would be anything sentient that you can ride, so something like a Chocobo or Shadowfax; basically another form of vehicle. Companions would be combat capable AI allies like the mechanical dog you mentioned. The latter two should be treated like artefacts, with unique and non-unique versions.

... feel free to tell me to shut up if I'm getting annoying.