[Brainstorming] Setting, Meta-play, Plot-hooks

[Rasenka]

I've been tinkering for a while now with a few ideas that have finally started to click together, and I'd like to brainstorm and sketch a few possible scenarios. I have a group completely new to the Gurps system, but I'd still like to leverage the whole power of it so just bear with me and read through the whole thing.
Here are the main points:

1) Setting

The story starts with the players being "gamers" in the normal world, just enough in the future at the point that quality sensory-VR is commonly available like console gaming is now. The world is a slightly shittier version of our own, global warming has worsened, middle-east is still ****, North Korea is still making everyone nervous, USA stil hasn't recovered from the Trump era. Gaming is really a big deal, in some cases even reasonably dangerous as an addictive life-style. People can get insanely rich and famous by playing competitive level gaming, and almost any genre has at least a couple of titles with massive audiences.
Players do play "themselves", with life struggles that will sometimes get in the way, but their characters will be their virtual avatars in whatever game they'll decide to play.

2) Meta-play

This is the angle I find particularly useful given my circumstances, because I could put in and out of the game any level of complexity and any subsystem at whim, calling it "game development". So, for example, I might have them start in a vanilla fantasy world with no magic, no hit-location, no crafting, and then "patch" in, or simply iterate a game in "early access". It might even become a whole set of different game narratives, in which the (once become famous) players can somewhat dictate the development of a game world in which their characters are involved.

3) Possible plot-lines embedded in the theme

- There are many ways to play this whole thing, one could play a half in real life with day to day struggles that disrupt or otherwise influence the VR part of the campaign, like balancing a regular job, or the hardship of a harsher reality that's going even worse.

- It could be played completely in the VR world, maybe the PCs are already world-famous players and are testing a revolutionary game world still in "alpha" that is actually dynamically run by a new AI. Obviously something goes wrong, and we could have a story similar to those narrated in anime like Log Horizon and the MMORPG-subgenre.
But it could also be something different and weirder, maybe there's a cult on in-game addicted players that are worshiping the new AI as a god, and find a system glitch to remove the safety-nets of the game introducing REAL death "because only real conflict can harbor true victory".

It is a very flexible and, in my opinion, a fairly easy introduction for new players to the intricacies of the different Gurps systems. I wonder what else could be reasonably done to reinforce the theme without diluting it. I'd love to hear opinions and ideas.


A thanks everyone for putting the time into reading this, and for bearing my non native english.

[(E)]

The players might on completion of a dungeon/quest have the oportunity to earn sponsorship (Better VR rig with corresponding improvements to their character sheets)

- do they illegally practice on a leaked copy of the quest first?
- does the competition try to sabotage them (from break ins to sending over someone to get them drunk before hand)?
- running 3rd party software?


Reamde by Neil Stephenson might be a handy reference as well.

[Rasenka]

Originally Posted by (E)

The players might on completion of a dungeon/quest have the oportunity to earn sponsorship (Better VR rig with corresponding improvements to their character sheets)

- do they illegally practice on a leaked copy of the quest first?
- does the competition try to sabotage them (from break ins to sending over someone to get them drunk before hand)?
- running 3rd party software?


Reamde by Neil Stephenson might be a handy reference as well.

Yes, "cheating" could support a whole lot of meta-advantages and even, let's say, afflictions to hit other players with. Participating in a closed beta could grant hidden lore to the players, but also open up to interesting ways to blind-side them with changes in the retail version so to speak.

And I also really like the double life of the gamer, which could be loved/hated outside the world, but still be a relevant champion inside. And all those real life events can interact in interesting ways in real life, especially in the PCs end up living together in a sponsored team for example.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by (E)

The players might on completion of a dungeon/quest have the oportunity to earn sponsorship (Better VR rig with corresponding improvements to their character sheets)

(SNIP)


Reamde by Neil Stephenson might be a handy reference as well.

Also, Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline.

[Rasenka]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

Also, Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline.

Got that one a while ago, amazing book especially for "older" people who can actually get that ton of references to some pretty obscure stuff from the 80s.