Silly idea: Sword & Source Code

[AdamLeisemann]

(This might be Fantasy Hero or Star Hero)

 

Take your typical Sword & Sorcery fantasy setting, like the Hyborean Age from the Conan stories or the Valdorean Age setting, and then apply the following twist, to be revealed late in the game:

 

In the distant future, a virtual reality MMORPG hit the market, requiring special consoles in order to play. It proved to be a hit, with all the players getting to fill whatever role they wish in a world of fantasy. However, there was certainly something odd about this. It was a completely immersive experience. The food and drink tasted great and actually nourished those who imbibed it, you could even feel the cold bit of steel, and yet not die in reality (only in the game). In fact, folks could play the game for years without taking any breaks.

 

And they did. And they still are.

 

In truth, this game was sold as part of a scneme by aliens to take over the world. By getting everyone to play, humanity would be completely out of the way and the aliens (whom we shall call Valdorians for this example) conveniently took over, with none of the hassle of killing anyone. Once the PCs escape, they may find themselves using the skills of the game against the alien rulers and liberate their planet once and for all! Or they might pursue more personal goals...

 

(Of course, the loss of magic might complicate matters for sorcerous players.)

[Curufea]

Re: Silly idea: Sword & Source Code

 

You could have it similar to Cybergeneration (a spinoff of Cyberpunk) - in that magic is actually the ability to hack computers.

[Lawnmower Boy]

Re: Silly idea: Sword & Source Code

 

I actually used an immersive virtual reality fantasy RPG in my last Star Hero campaign --which was one heck of a long time ago. It was supposed to be the key to the big campaign revelation when the players realised they were interacting at FTL speeds. (The setting was a pure STL interstellar campaign very loosely based on Ursula K. Leguin's Hainish novels, so this was a big deal.) But the players never cottoned on to the point, and the game sort of ground to a halt after I threw them in a petulant "rock falls" kinda death trap.

[Curufea]

Re: Silly idea: Sword & Source Code

 

Actually, why would the aliens have a fully useful virtual reality?

 

It seems to me that smart aliens would build into the system a complete inability for the users to reproduce. The game would simulate reproduction - but all offspring would be AIs pretending to be children. Something not dangerous in the machines themselves (hence marketable) and not likely to offend puritans (hence even more marketable).

Then - one generation later (possbly hundreds of years), the aliens invade a planet where the entire population has died of old age.

 

This would lead to characters being one of three types:-

 

1) Very long lived or artificially age-decreased human survivors that are unplugged from the VR. I'd only have one of these, as it would require a big backstory as to why they haven't died of old age.

2) AI children of the original human users that become fully sentient and acquire bodies.

3) Humans that didn't hook up to the machine and have had to survive possibly hundreds of years of living in a world that the infrastructure was collapsing and may have regressed to barbaric levels.

[AdamLeisemann]

Re: Silly idea: Sword & Source Code

 

I wish first to state that, although nobody seems to have commented yet, that this is basically a Fantasy version of The Matrix.

 

Actually, why would the aliens have a fully useful virtual reality?

 

It seems to me that smart aliens would build into the system a complete inability for the users to reproduce. The game would simulate reproduction - but all offspring would be AIs pretending to be children. Something not dangerous in the machines themselves (hence marketable) and not likely to offend puritans (hence even more marketable).

 

Well, if you're stuck in a VR simulation, you can't reproduce anyway, and while the VR simulator can provide good tasting nutrients in the form of virtual food, the kids would have to be AIs. The sustaining element is there basically to keep the player playing pretty much as long as their natural lifespan allows, a kind of ironic take on how lots of people allegedly gave up their real life social networks (among other things in their lives) for games like Everquest, World of Warcraft, and possibly the upcoming Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures.

 

Of course, there is still one thing I haven't considerred yet; how to deal with the need to go to the bathroom while still playing the game...

 

Then - one generation later (possbly hundreds of years), the aliens invade a planet where the entire population has died of old age.

 

This would lead to characters being one of three types:-

 

1) Very long lived or artificially age-decreased human survivors that are unplugged from the VR. I'd only have one of these, as it would require a big backstory as to why they haven't died of old age.

2) AI children of the original human users that become fully sentient and acquire bodies.

3) Humans that didn't hook up to the machine and have had to survive possibly hundreds of years of living in a world that the infrastructure was collapsing and may have regressed to barbaric levels.

 

An interesting possibility, but it kinda means thwere's no point to a revelation as the players would mostly be dead.

[Lucius]

Re: Silly idea: Sword & Source Code

 

Of course, there is still one thing I haven't considerred yet; how to deal with the need to go to the bathroom while still playing the game...

 

 

.

 

Like that's any stranger/harder than eating and drinking while playing?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Palindromedary unplugged

[Curufea]

Re: Silly idea: Sword & Source Code

 

An interesting possibility' date=' but it kinda means thwere's no point to a revelation as the players would mostly be dead.[/quote']

 

It means the game will be post-apocalyptic.

I like the idea of a mix of characters with no skills in technology living in a post-technological world.

Barbarians, people who have forgotten they have skills, and artificial people that were never programmed to have technical skills.

 

You could have players waking up during the first generation - if there were a reason the aliens couldn't wait for folk to die out. Possibly the aliens have some kind of fast strategy for killing large amounts of VR users - gas or biological perhaps? You don't want PCs to wander around disconnecting folk and returning things to normal, after all.

[sbarron]

Re: Silly idea: Sword & Source Code

 

(Of course' date=' the loss of magic might complicate matters for sorcerous players.)[/quote']Perhaps an unforeseen side-effect of humans playing sorcerous characters in the game is that it develops their latent psionic abilities. I wouldn't have these psionic powers exactly mirror their spell casting abilities, but they'd provide a good surrogate to help the PC compensate for the loss of the ability to use "magic."