Sarcor

Fear and Loading: A Tale of Cyberpunk Misadventures

I love gritty cyberpunk! Count me interested!

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Virtual Reality/Online-Offline [Sci-Fi] Interest Check

Sample Text

Fumbling a tiny pill, Marten cursed again the weather as of late. The lanky college dropout stood on the street corner waiting for the damn light to change, so he could finally cross the street. Around him was a bustling city intersection. People closed in everywhere, car fumes made it hard to breathe. It was midday and the Rulnapolis was in full swing. The cold didn’t seem to affect it much at all. Grey clouds above only encouraged the endless drone of monotony. However, Marten felt the sting of winter’s chill as a tiny white pill straight up fell from his grasp, into a pool of dirty sewer water.

“F***in’ **** f***…” Eloquent language seemed to not be a strong point for the young man.

Leaning down was the wrong decision, though, because the little green man came on the traffic light, signaling the hordes to start their stampede. A shiny leather shoe expertly stepped on the soggy pill and moved indifferently forward. The world seemed to grab Marten’s luck and throw it down the chute, it seemed.

Straightening up, Marten almost walked into a car making a right turn into the street he was crossing and, following a loud, angry tirade, made his way to his apartment complex. Cramming himself in the small hallway, Marten put his hands up to his face, trying to warm them up enough so his keys didn’t fall and bounce down the stairs as he reached for them. Shuffling up the stairs took some time, as the lighting was poor and weird shadows made it hard to see the rickety old steps.

Pushing open his front door, Marten almost attacked his bathroom door as he burst in. His grimy footsteps tracked into an already stained apartment, not making much of a difference. Reaching for the bathroom mirror, the crazy eyes of an addict were caught in the reflection. Brown hair, limp as a mop, framed a pale sweating face and dull green eyes. Not even skipping a beat, Marten threw open the cabinet and rifled through the various pill bottles, finding a small, transparent blue bottle labeled “Desoxyn”.

Grinning like a wild man, his hands shaking, Marten lunged out of the bathroom and staggered to the center of the living room. The middle of this room was dominated by a giant terminal, with computer screens hanging about a central dunk tank filled with a clear, viscous liquid. CPU groans and squeaks were overshadowed by a shallow panting. Two fluorescent lights hung from precarious wires clipped to the ceiling, probably citing a dozen fire hazards. Several thick tubes and bundles of cables extended from one side of the tank and disappeared behind the giant black box of a computer.

This monstrosity could only be used for one thing: jacking into virtual realities around the Web. The dive tank contains special oil for electrically interacting with nerves in the human skin, with various pumping mechanisms to keep the whole apparatus clean and running efficiently. Several blank screens flickered to life with readings on the whole system. Marten had spent the remnant of his college fund on this very expensive equipment, he had to make sure it was operating smoothly. Punching some keys on the terminal with one hand, and downing one pill from the bottle with the other, Marten saw the familiar logo of ATRO flicker to life.

Still smirking madly, the college dropout quickly stripped and lowered himself into the tank. The grime on his body was instantly picked up by the sticky substance, but Marten thought little of it. The filtering system would take care of the contaminants he brought in; it was like he didn't have to shower anymore. Though he did faintly smell of mineral oil all the time now. Marten breathed in deeply, filling his lungs with the familiar oil and experiencing a dull rush he was used to for a long time now.

Closing his eyes before completely submerging himself, a metal apparatus approached his head from the front of the tank. A metal ring with electrodes attached to them secured itself around his skull and yet another black screen came alight with vital signs. A slight beep, reminiscent of an EKG, filled the room in addition to the clamor.

A flash of colors greeted Marten’s vision, a swirl that was different every time he connected to the main server of ATRO. The colors coalesced into a giant log in and username query, with Marten’s information already filled out. Marten reached out with a browned hand and punched the ‘complete’ button floating next to him. Looking down at himself, Marten was decked out in his most awesome gear, customary of a veteran player. A ranger has to look his best after all.

Forgetting the worries of real life, the brown skinned human entered Tanak with an audible yell, his mind high on yet another foray into the game. The drugs helped a lot as well. Marten paid no heed to his troubles, though, and felt the almost realistic grass beneath his feet. He rested his hand on his bow, and gripped it hard. Time to go on another epic adventure.

Hello all!

I would have liked to create a splash page, but after 30 minutes of tinkering with the QQcode format we here at roleplayerguild have to get used to, I gave up! Again!

In exchange here's some pictures to get into the mood:







So here is the breakdown of what I'm trying to start up (details, of course):

Basic Setting

- The modern urban city is called Rulnapolis, founded by the corporation of Rulnap Co.
- It is surrounded by a bay area to the south and a large suburban area to the north and west. A river naturally empties into the bay and into the ocean which stretches to the east.
- Rulnapolis is in Puresk, a country in a supernation known as UTA (United Transatlantic Alliance). A conglomerate of smaller countries, UTA swallowed Puresk in a bid to compete with the land grabbing WAU (Western Asian Union). Politics won’t be a big deal unless they have to do with the character plot arcs.
- The technological level is pretty much the same as the modern age, with the exception of virtual technology. As well some major medical advances and military capabilities.
- Rulnap Co. pretty much owns the city, runs the game, funds the University and supports the government of UTA through modernized propaganda. They mostly control media and all information that reaches Puresk goes through the higher echelons of Rulnap Co.

-The players will be enrolled University students attending New Luther University. The university is a public university that has general and specialized majors. Players can pick whatever age (as long as it's above 18, because of content warning reasons). There is going to be some mature stuff, but that just includes language and adult behavior, mild sexual themes. We can all be adults here, right?

The Game

- The game is known as Adventures in Tanak: Rise of the Overlords or ATRO. The system CAN be pseudo DnD with random numbers generated from a d20 and other respective dice to represent all the actions in the game (but honestly the honor system is the only real option here). If people want to get technical about we CAN implement DnD rules (3.5 or otherwise) but the emphasis isn’t on the game mechanics, but the interactions between characters offline and online. I want this to be a narrative driven RP.
- For the game’s purposes, the players will be immersed in the virtual world through a special chair, a helmet that encompasses the head entirely to provide stimulation to all senses. The sense of touch is transmitted through a skintight suit that is infused with nanomachines that do the work. The sense of pain and pleasure is DRASTICALLY reduced by normal standards. That means anything that has to do with pure physical pain (wounds, injuries) as well as pleasure (sexual and otherwise) is numbed to the point where people are aware of it but can choose to ignore it. Pain and pleasure slightly increases with the severity but players have an option to turn that off and opt for no stimulation or the signal being repeated. This can be exploited sometimes to enter harder dungeons and surpass your levels but the game mechanics don’t allow for any major exploitation (level-locked). However, hackers are always looking to break this hard limit. Rulnap Co has since defended its code with ferocity.
- Death mechanics are pretty standard. All items are lost (dropped at gravemarker) except for bind on character items. These are kept by Death and you can get them back automatically by paying a price (expensive). Otherwise they will be destroyed in 15 days from the date of death.
- NPCs are actually virtual AI inserted into the game. Since the game was advertised by Rulnap Co, which is a Bioinformatics and Technology Corporation, the code is encrypted to the point where hackers have all but given up (or disappeared) after investigating it. The AI are capable of acting to near human capacity and are only limited by their prime directives. These include following all game mechanics to the numbers, obeying all Administrator accounts and following their specific purposes.

This idea came out about as Log Horizon is in its mid-season right now, and I had recently read Otherland by Tad Williams. I would really like to try this virtual reality idea out.

Suggestions

I have learned over my travels that even 5 or 6 people is a bit too much for a consistent, engaged, and exciting roleplay, so I'll cap this at 4 people (not including me). That way, everybody gets a turn, and there is a simplified post order. Thank you!

Dues Ex Artificium

Hello there! I have read over your OOC and I noticed that no one has really touched the Nogyth (or the Amlugan for that matter, but they seem rather terribly important for a newcomer to control). I'd like to try my hand at one of the Nogyth.

Also another question, what is the character limit per person?

Playing with virtual reality and social identity: What's real? What's not?

I know I'm double posting, but after 4 days of no other interest, I am going to have to start winding this down. It is a bit disappointing that my interest check didn't do well at all, I thought I had an interesting idea. If both of you would like, I could start the roleplay with just the 3 of us and continue this interest check's life a bit longer, to recruit people on the way. How does that sound?

Playing with virtual reality and social identity: What's real? What's not?

@Headphones

I appreciate you enthusiasm, however, I'd like to wait at least one more day to see if there is sufficient interest.

Character creation is standard, really. There will be two sheets: one for your in game character and one for your out of game character. Name, sex, age, nationality, appearance/description, brief background with an image if you so desire. In game characters will be added later because I will have to establish the rules of the virtual game world so people can choose who they want to play as (classes, etc.)

As for world building, while this interest check is up I will be mulling over specific details. I have established a vague skeleton of a world, but I will be doing all of this as we speak. I hope you understand.

Playing with virtual reality and social identity: What's real? What's not?

@Headphones

I introduced this idea as a foot in the door, that's why I didn't elaborate on the plot details. Interest checks are supposed to be exactly that in my opinion, interesting. At first, I wanted to present the premise. The plot structure of this RP is something I am currently working on, but trust me, it doesn't involve the cliche 'getting stuck in the virtual reality' idea. Examples of this cliche include: .hack, Sword Art Online, Log Horizon and Otherland.

I wanted to establish our characters in this world, show how things work I suppose. Let people roleplay their exposition of out of game characters as well as their in game characters. Set the scene, if you will. (It can be done in one post) After everything is settled, I will introduce the initial plot arc, which will be something to the effect of guild wars (an in game conflict) related to competition in the University (out of game conflict). I want this to be an exploratory roleplay that goes into how we react to virtual perceived aggression, as well as distinguishing the difference between reality and the virtual world.

I also want this to be a heck of a lot of fun. :D

The D&D comment was there as a sort of insurance, explaining to people who want hard rules to be set in the virtual game itself (conflict resolution). In the end of this interest check, there will be a final decision whether to use these rules to help navigate the game within the game, if you will. You don't need to be acquainted with any of the references I made, they were just musings I put down. A simple google search of those keywords will remedy that if you are interested. I find Log Horizon (despite being seemingly cliche) to be the best of the virtual reality anime shows. I respect the amount of detail the creators put into the virtual game, portraying characters as realistically as they can (showing how people would really react in that situation). The trilogy of Otherland by Tad Williams explores how vague and twisted cyberspace can really be, if identity is combined with virtual reality. It's a bit of a mystery as well, with the villain in the shadows.

I like to have character arcs in my roleplays in addition to the story I want to introduce as well. The best solution is to combine stories with character arcs, so I hope I can work with people to collaborate on the work put into this RP. This is why I would like only 4 others. It would get exceedingly complicated beyond that.

Playing with virtual reality and social identity: What's real? What's not?

Hello all!

I would have liked to create a splash page, but after 30 minutes of tinkering with the exceedingly poor QQcode format we here at roleplayerguild have to get used to, I gave up! Who knew!

In exchange here's some pictures to get into the mood:







So here is the breakdown of what I'm trying to start up (details, of course):

- The modern urban city is called Rulnapolis, founded by the corporation of Rulnap Co.

- It is surrounded by a bay area to the south and a large suburban area to the north and west. A river naturally empties into the bay and into the ocean which stretches to the east.

- Rulnapolis is in Puresk, a country in a supernation known as UTA (United Transatlantic Alliance). A conglomerate of smaller countries, UTA swallowed Puresk in a bid to compete with the land grabbing WAU (Western Asian Union). Politics won’t be a big deal unless they have to do with the character plot arcs.

- The game is known as Adventures in Tanak: Rise of the Overlords or ATRO. The system will be pseudo DnD with random numbers generated from a d20 and other respective dice to represent all the actions in the game. If people want to get technical about we CAN implement DnD rules (3.5 or otherwise) but the emphasis isn’t on the game mechanics, but the interactions between characters offline and online.

- The technological level is pretty much the same as the modern age, with the exception of virtual technology. As well some major medical advances and military capabilities.

- For the game’s purposes, the players will be immersed in the virtual world through a special chair, a helmet that encompasses the head entirely to provide stimulation to all senses. The sense of touch is transmitted through a skintight suit that is infused with nanomachines that do the work. The sense of pain and pleasure is DRASTICALLY reduced by normal standards. That means anything that has to do with pure physical pain (wounds, injuries) as well as pleasure (sexual and otherwise) is numbed to the point where people are aware of it but can choose to ignore it. Pain and pleasure slightly increases with the severity but players have an option to turn that off and opt for no stimulation or the sending the same signal all the time. This can be exploited sometimes to enter harder dungeons and surpass your levels but the game mechanics don’t allow for any major exploitation (level-locked). However, hackers are always looking to break this hard limit. Rulnap Co has since defended its code with ferocity.

- Death mechanics are pretty standard. All items are lost (dropped at gravemarker) except for bind on character items. These are kept by Death and you can get them back automatically by paying a price (expensive). Otherwise they will be destroyed in 15 days from the date of death.

- NPCs are actually virtual AI inserted into the game. Since the game was advertised by Rulnap Co, which is a Bioinformatics and Technology Corporation, the code is encrypted to the point where hackers have all but given up (or disappeared) after investigating it. The AI are capable of acting to near human capacity and are only limited by their prime directives. These include following all game mechanics to the numbers, obeying all Administrator accounts and following their specific purposes.

- Rulnap Co. pretty much owns the city, runs the game, funds the University and supports the government of UTA through modernized propaganda. They mostly control media and all information that reaches Puresk goes through the higher echelons of Rulnap Co.


The players will be enrolled University students attending New Luther University. The university is a public university that has general and specialized majors. Players can pick whatever age (as long as it's above 18, because of content warning reasons). There is going to be some mature stuff, but that just includes language and adult behavior. We can all be adults here, right?

This idea came out about as Log Horizon had just ended (anime), and I had recently read Otherland by Tad Williams. I would really like to try this virtual reality idea out.

I have learned over my travels that even 5 or 6 people is a bit too much for a consistent, engaged, and exciting roleplay, so I'll cap this at 4 people (not including me). That way, everybody gets a turn, and there is a simplified post order. Thank you!

Resolving Character Conflict: A look into non-tabletop engagement

It seems the only reasonable way to do it would be to just discuss this extensively in the OOC, and resolve it that way. Granted none of the rolelplays I have participated in have gotten to the point of bickering, it still remains a concern for me.

Resolving Character Conflict: A look into non-tabletop engagement

@Prisk:
So the way a player writes out their creativity onto their post is then quantified in a set number of points? Perhaps I was too naive to think that there could be any other way to decide how a conflict is resolved without a hard number system. In your example it seems that the GM is subjective in the distribution of these points unless there are specific rules that govern the output of these points.

I myself GM'ed a game a long time ago that was very harsh in consequences but relied on creativity (and a great deal of collaboration) to resolve scenarios either between players or between the players and the GM. It felt like I was forcing the story down their throats, and I do not want to do that.

Input Requested: The Compendium of Modern Zoanthropes

This is all well and good, but at first glance when I saw this post I believed that I was looking at a proposal for describing a creature from the Warhammer 40k universe:Zoanthrope

Why not use the descriptor Therianthrope?