Three Five

VR Doomed! - A Comedy Roleplay

It is a gloomy Fall day, and you watch the rain slide listlessly down your window as you contemplate the age of that Chinese takeout in your refrigerator. Just as you are about to throw caution to the wind and finish the last of that General Tso's chicken, you are roused from your comfy armchair by the sound of the front doorbell ringing. You move to the door and open it gingerly, wondering who could be calling at this hour. Looking down, you see a weasely-looking man in Coke-bottle glasses and a smile too wide for his face thrusting a slightly greasy envelope into your hands.

"Special Delivery!" he says, and disappears around the corner as you grasp the envelope.

You look at the envelope and your name is stamped crookedly on the face, but next to your address is a garish green and pink palm tree and a fairly smug-looking sun with aviator sunglasses. Above the sun, in what appears to be some sort of speech bubble, are the words "YOU'VE WON!!!!!!!!" in bold, red font. Maybe it was the slight hope of escape from this darned rain, the egging-on from that smug-looking sun, or just simple curiosity, but you decide to open the letter right then and there:

Dear Sir or Madam,

Congratulations! You are one of the few very lucky winners to have been selected for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! You have won an all-expense-paid trip to our tropical island corporate office and will be given the chance to use our state-of-the-art virtual reality technology! Ever wanted to be practically transported into another world? Your days of ignorant daydreaming are over. This fantasy is now a reality for you and you only! (Participants may not inform loved ones or relatives about this opportunity, or risk being disqualified).

A free trip? And VR technology? Sounds awesome! You're ready and rarin' to go! So what do you do now? Do you forgo your disease-ridden leftovers to send a reply indicating your interest in claiming your prize? Or do you forget about this scam-mail crap and go get some delicious salmonella? THE CHOICE IS YOURS!

But wait. There is some small print at the bottom of the letter, but you can barely read it. Reading it would break the 4th wall, so you decide not to. Still, you feel as if another person connected to your consciousness reads the text. That's odd.

CONTEST DETAILS (More detail about the Rp!)

Since the above info may not be enough, here is some explicit, simple, and OOC descriptions of the plot.

This RP is intended to be a comedy. The goofier, the better. It's very very loosely based on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Let's Plays, I suppose.

A group of evil scientists, masquerading as a legitimate company, want to study how advanced virtual reality and particular environments and stimuli affect the human brain. They contact a group of people whom they have been investigating for some time. These people are the perfect subjects, they feel, as for one reason or another they probably will believe the invitation to be legit and will come to their lab with no questions asked.

Once at the "tropical island," (which may or may not be a shady back-alley warehouse with palm trees taped to it) the participants will be hooked up to virtual reality machines. These machines are unlike any others currently in production, as the person is completely immersed in the digital world. Their real bodies are transferred into an inactive state and their consciousness lies completely within their digital representation. The VR machine simulates all of the five senses, so a person really feels as if they are "there."

Once hooked into the VR, the participants will be placed in various environments together, through which they must traverse and go through obstacles or solve puzzles. People in the VR environments, henceforth called "players," cannot die in said VR environments. Their actions in the environment may "kill" their digital representation, but they will simply return to the beginning of the course when this occurs, or "respawn." Players can feel free to "kill" each other when stuck, if a glitch occurs and they get physically stuck in the world, or just when the mood strikes them.

There may be other threats introduced into the plot, since death is not one of them. We can work on this, if the need arises.

For most of the environments in which players are placed, their digital representation is simply a digitized copy of their own body. They look and feel the same. At times, they may be placed in different forms, like those of an animal or another person. This will vary based on the digital world they are placed in at the time.

So after all that, anyone interested? Got any questions/comments/concerns/complements for your insanely clever OP?

The Time Travel Murder Mystery (Still Recruiting)

Sorry, I completely forgot about this. If people are still playing (and it's not just me!) I'll post something up soon.

The Time Travel Murder Mystery (Still Recruiting)

I was going to post, but I am actually not quite sure what is going on right now. Where should our characters be at this moment? Do they know where they are yet?

The Time Travel Murder Mystery (Still Recruiting)

Oh gosh. Vinny is in the team lead by Hitler? That's not gonna end well. :o

The Time Travel Murder Mystery (Still Recruiting)

@SpookySquid
Oh! I'm glad you brought that up. For some reason I thought only real historical characters needed a secret. I'll have to think up one before we start.

The Time Travel Murder Mystery (Still Recruiting)

Here is my character sheet! I did not know what to add, so let me know if I missed anything.

Vincent Callahan

Name: Vincent “Vinny” Callahan

Age: 25

Time period: World War 2

Occupation: Infantry soldier (machine gunner) in the U.S army

Physical Description: Vinny is 5'8 with a slimmer-than-average build. He has a long face with his narrow brown eyes too close together, and all his facial features seem to be too low on his face, leaving a large forehead. He attempts to cover this with his wavy chestnut brown hair that he wears slightly brushed forward with a deep side part. Since beginning in active duty in Europe, he has shaved his hair into a mohawk in an attempt to intimidate his enemies (and maybe even some of his comrades). His mouth is very wide and he has a rather large chin, giving him a gangly, almost comical appearance. Despite his awkward full-face appearance, however, his profile is strangely handsome in a non-traditional way.

Personality: Vinny is what you would call a bonafide smartass. He is as sarcastic as they come, impatient as a 3-year-old child, and swears like a sailor. He is known for his cackling laugh, which erupts from his mouth more than is probably socially acceptable. He likes to think of himself as a rather charismatic smooth-talker, but he usually just gets too cocky and gets himself into more trouble. That was his (near) fatal flaw.

As for his good points, he is confident (bordering on cocky) and fairly brave. He tries to be helpful, but he is often condescending without meaning to be. As for all his sarcasm and general jerkery, he does generally mean it in a good-natured way. It's the only thing he knows.

Background: Every soldier feels that it can never happen to him. Others may get hit – wounded or worse—but not him. He was invincible. He didn’t go through all that training to get taken out the first day. That is, every soldier in his first battle feels that way. After the adrenaline from fighting for one’s life, too many close calls, and being surrounded with death at every turn, the realization hits that yes, it can happen – if one is not careful. Foolish maneuvers and carelessness could easily buy a man six feet of Earth, or usually far less than that in the case of this damned war.

For one Vincent Callahan, or “Vinny” as he was often called by his comrades when one of his many other nicknames proved too inappropriate, this feeling of invincibility did wane, but was never really lost. He did become more careful, but his fatal flaw was his cockiness. That is, he thought it was fatal.

The story, as far as he knew it, was this. He and his assistant gunner on their M1919 machine gun were tasked at providing cover fire for their squad as they rushed the enemy lines. Everything was going according to plan, when German Tigers rolled over the rise ahead and began pushing the men back. Feeling it was still his duty to cover his comrades until they passed, Vinny held his position and kept firing, much to the distress of his assistant gunner, Albert Drees. Vinny held out until the last man passed their lines, and he could remember Drees yelling at him that he was going to get them both killed. To appease the man, he began picking up the MG, when he felt a locomotive plow straight into his chest. He felt no pain, and he could not see or hear anything. Was this what death is like? It was kind of boring.

The Time Travel Murder Mystery

Neato! I'll come up with something ASAP. Oh, and I will be playing a "nobody," just to let you know.

The Time Travel Murder Mystery

Oooh, I am interested in this! This sounds super cool!

May You Live in Interesting Times (A Murder Mystery)

Awww, I am really sorry to hear that. ;_; Still, thanks for all the effort you put into this, Twhirtley! It looked like it would have been a blast.

May You Live in Interesting Times (A Murder Mystery)

I just wanted to give everyone a heads-up that I am going to be gone starting tomorrow until Wednesday of next week. I'll be happy to post after that, though! I really hope this RP isn't dying. I'm having lots of fun and I want to find out what happens next!