Trapped in a MMORPG

[Michael Hopcroft]

One of my favorite anime series from a couple of years ago was .hack//SIGN, which postualted that the hero was a child who had been trapped in a MMORPG gone horribly wrong. Not only could he not "log out", but his real body was in a coma in a hospital bed in japan, and his father was trying to get the plug pulled!

 

I don;t know if it would be too mcuh metagame to have some other type of campaign turn out to be a MMORPS in whichone or more characters is a real person trapped inside. Although it would ex\plain such RPG conventions as "the world will never run out of rocs!" (the system generates some more), it would present quite a roleplaying challenge, especially if players in character start challenging and manipulating the reality of the setting.

 

How would any of you handle this?

[Blue Jogger]

Re: Trapped in a MMORPG

 

The important thing is to design the MMORPG rules which are immutable.

 

1. Death is final and irreversible. Ok, there's a difference between status-dead which might be reversable and having your essence destroyed.

 

2. Playing with reality in MMORPG has consequences. Done correctly, it stablizes the game universe. Done incorrectly and without thought can lead to destroying or corrupting someone's essence of the complete collapse of the game universe. Any serious world-altering effect is considered playing with reality. (GM is finally say if doing something is "hacking the system" rather than a simple "illegal modification".)

 

3. Because of #2, playing with reality is quite difficult unless it is to counterbalance someone else's playing and the net result is more stable. Another words, the MMORPG wants to heal itself, and it wants to punish those that hurt it.

 

Now, once you have the immutable rules, you then have "modifications" which are cool, don't disrupt the universe, but will gain you an instant hunted if you abuse them. Players will love to break everyone of these rules...

 

4. Things should not be bigger on the inside than on the outside. This is simple enough to change given time, knowledge (and character points). The exception is allowable magic items in the game.

 

5. Door should not open to another room across town. These doors should not be used as a fast way to get around town. When creating this mod, you must be able to install matching doors that are linked to each other. Smart characters will make this act like a normal door unless a magic key is used, but this can be bypassed by a lockpicking skill or oddly enough simply bashing it down (the portal still works if the door is broken, it just can't be turned off).

 

6. Characters should not have exotic appearances. (This is a simple Distinctive Looks. possibly an increase in COM, possible an increase in PRE for certain Interaction Skills)

 

7. Characters should not have "banned" or "dangerous" items. Characters should only used "approved" magic items and certainly not custom modify them.

 

8. Characters should not steal their stuff from other characters while inside the town unless they are obviously a thief and wearing a mask (so people who don't want to be robbed can avoid being robbed).

 

9. Characters should not engage in combat within the town. If a monster wanders into the city, please tell the guard and he (or others) will dispatch the monster. Attacking the monster will only provoke it into attacking senselessly and possible kill random nearby NPCs and player characters.

 

10. Characters should refrain from using combat magic, including defensive, within the town. All triggers should be disarmed. Healing and Divination are ok. Characters are allowed to activate all magic just before leaving the town.

 

 

Did I forget any?

[Reneshat]

Re: Trapped in a MMORPG

 

It reminds me of the Otherland series by Tad Williams. It was a little more than simply being stuck in an MMORPG, but I think it gives a good idea on the sort of things you could do in such a situation.

[Sn00gans]

Re: Trapped in a MMORPG

 

I've actually done something like this for a DnD 3rd edition campaign. The game actually started out as an experiment in Artificial Communities (like AI, except the system controls many intelligences instead of just one). The experiment was shut down and the data bought by a large gaming company and turned into an MMORPG.

 

The PCs were 'saved' by the system (who took the form of a goddess, of course), and were charged to re-take control of her world from those who took it from her (the gaming company).

 

Since the PCs 'programming' allowed them to attack anyone (even in towns), they could attack the town guards and even win... which really surprised the administrators.

 

Anywho, it could be possible to do it under Hero rules. Just have a certain type of 'magic' that can affect 'reality' itself.

[Curufea]

Re: Trapped in a MMORPG

 

I've been in a very amusing metagenre game like this before. The blurb at the con was for "Plan Q" and comedy excape from a POW camp in Germany in WW2. Very Boys-Own-Adventure and Ripping Yarns, with elements of the Goon Show.

 

However - it was soon found out that it was all a Holodeck simulation. And the only real person assumed his role (back as Captain Picard), while the rest of the characters managed to stay as they were (yet another "escaped from the holodeck" malfunction).

 

Quite fun. But this anecdote is a bit off topic

 

However, I still remember one of the Privates in the group (who had obviously watched too much of the Cat in Red Dwarf) attempting to build a plane out of matchsticks so he could escape the Enterprise (they were all still thinking of escaping back to England). And as I was Picard and wanted to keep him busy, I introduced him to the replicator...

 

"Match!"

Zap

"Match!"

Zap

"Match!"

Zap

Other, slightly smarter Lieutenant turns to Private, "You know, there must be a faster way to build our escape plane."

Private: "You're right! Box of matches!"

Zap

"Box of matches!"

Zap

..........

[Citizen Keen]

Re: Trapped in a MMORPG

 

This weekend I'm going to go to Powell's City of Books to pick up Niven's Dream Park series (as discussed in this thread), so I can start making my meta-genre campaign. Don't know if it will ever be played, but gosh-darnit, I'll have fun trying! I'll keep you posted.