Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 05-12-2011, 02:07 PM   #11
wellspring
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Default Re: Game within a Game

I've been considering doing this in my Transhuman Space game. My plan was to adapt the rules for cybershells from that setting, so that people/AI's operating in a virtual reality have "virtual shells"-- that is, a collection of physical stats/advantages/disadvantages that they switch to when online.

Now, the next question is how to juggle character points between the two characters. And on that I'm hungry for ideas. One is to just let characters buy skills like Thaumatology and Broadsword and Navigate (TL3). When logged off, the "real world" of the campaign has Mana-0 and supernatural advantages are banned, so any levels of Thaumatology you have are worthless. Once you log in, your virtual shell might have Magery-2 in a normal mana world, in which case you just use the regular magic rules.

The problem is that the characters may not want to spend character points on a virtual setting. In which case I could discount it (make certain in-game skills Easy to represent the game AI's assistance).

I have even thought of giving a separate set of character points to players that can only be spent on their virtual shells. They earn these points through playtime and by having their regular characters buy them.

I'd love to hear how other people do this. To me, the mechanical problems are minor compared to the major issue: how do you keep the plots straight, and keep both settings relevant to the players?

The plot going forward for me is a spy scandal. The players are in a remote space colony (Titan) where several VR games are popular. The base itself faces a long-range military threat. The players become aware that a spy is exchanging information with his case officer inside one of the game worlds. The players must navigate the game world to find the spy and the case officer and figure out their "real life" identity.
wellspring is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2011, 02:22 PM   #12
Gigermann
 
Gigermann's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Oklahoma City
Default Re: Game within a Game

There was talk at our table a long time ago about someone running a game based on The Matrix. Stuff in the "real world" was going to use a realistic system, like GURPS, while the stuff in the Matrix was going to use something more cinematic, like Feng Shui. This would have been no problem to convert, really, since Feng Shui's characters are a lot more "abstract" than GURPS.

Also, I ran a game where the Players were all playing self-characters, who went to a sci-fi/gaming convention. Some of them played in some RP tournament games, making use of their Games(RPG) skill in Contests. Not quite the same, but still "recursing" :P
Gigermann is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-13-2011, 02:40 AM   #13
Rendu
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Buffalo, NY- the weak live elsewhere!
Default Re: Game within a Game

This discussion has gone this long without mentioning the Dream Park RPG from R. Talsorian? It's out of print, but you could probably find a used copy.
Rendu is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
gurps, mmo, playercharacter, tl4, tl9

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 03:35 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.