Interest Check: The Shattered World [NC, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, VR]

[TheVillain]

So I had an idea for a group game and I wanted to see if people were interested in it.

The basic premise is that it's a few decades in the future and VR technology has advanced to the point where even physical sensations can be simulated via a neck implant. One of the more notorious VR MMORPGs that takes advantage of this technology is 'The Shattered World'.

-'The Shattered World' is a game that runs with this idea so much that it's not entirely legal. In the game's lore, the physical plane was created by mostly accident from an experiment by 'The Devils', a group of mysterious evil entities of whom it can only really be said in their favor that they're more interested in letting the experiment continue then ending it. However, this experiment has caught the attention of a rival group known as 'The Lords of Madness' who are more about trying to top themselves in finding creative ways to destroy the physical plane. The only good news there is that the Lords don't work together very well, or at all.

-The Game itself gets most of it's notoriety because of it's sexual content. Players are told from the beginning that the game world is divided into Green, Yellow, and Red Zones. In Green Zones content only goes as far as standard fantasy violence, in Yellow zones adult content is allowed but limited to consensual activities, and in Red zones you can find things like rape and cannibalism - it's only suspected that at least one of the Devs is a an actual diagnosed psychopath. Fortunately, the 'Devils' decided to be wise enough that no Red Zones or Green Zones actually touch. To get to one from the other you have to go through a Yellow zone even with teleportation effects.

-The Players with the Sensory Input Implants do get to control how much pleasure and how much pain they can feel. However, how quickly a player gains XP is also determined by this. Turn off the ability to feel pain and you're only leveling about half as fast as a player who has both gauges on full. There's also some boss loot drops that only appear if everyone in the party has both gauges on full.

-The adult content is surprisingly well thought out too. There's even a couple Yellow Zone villages made up of player character 'retired adventurers' who just try to live normal lives, even attempting to roleplay starting families. At this point female PCs can even have a simulated pregnancy (though, and perhaps for the best, the player of the female character has to petition one of the GMs to even start this process).

-In Red Zones there's all sorts of horrors. Players have reported Incubi and Succubi attempting to seduce them, and their characters dying afterwords if they succeed. There's at least 3 confirmed Orc clans that live in Red Zones whose members will actively attempt to rape some PCs, and if they are successful somewhere in the same zone an Elite Orc might spawn that's their offspring according to the game lore (though perhaps wisely this elite mob just appears elsewhere in the game unless the player specifically requests otherwise, the player may not even be aware of this). These three clans will use these elite new members to war on each other in bloody battles. There's even an Elite Rogue Boss called simply 'The Beast' that is said to drop some of the best boss loot in the game outside of a dungeon - but his whole deal is trying to hunt down PCs to kill and eat them if they're male or raping and "impregnating" them if they're female. [Again, fortunately the Devs seem to have wisely chosen the 'just means an elite mob will spawn somewhere else in the same Zone' route.]

-Rumors are starting to circulate of a new Dungeon Boss who is a Succubus Queen that will attempt to seduce male PCs into betraying their parties, said to reward success with sex so pleasurable that - again according to the rumors - the players sometimes die from the pleasure. There's said to be another new Dungeon Boss that's a tentacle monster that has his way with female PCs from failed attempts to kill him, permantly marking them with sexy purple spots down the sides of their bodies.

-Then there's the Lords of Madness, and what they have planned is anyone's guess.



Alright, so I'm thinking that this would be a very rules-lite system game. You'd make a player and a character, the character can level up. Nothing to complex, basically skim a DnD 5e book and if your character was, say, a level 5 fighter they'd have abilities and stats along the lines of a level 5 fighter in DnD 5e. You get XP from quests and dungeons, not killing monsters but that can get you better loot. I'm thinking players could start up to a level 5 character but this represents players who've been playing for a while and story must reflect that.

Here's the downside to all this. Due to my real life responsibilities even if this does take off I won't have any sort of real time for it until after July 15th or so. And even then I'll probably need a Co-DM as well as players. So if you don't mind picking up that too please say so. As a bonus, a GMPC can start as high as level 20 though keep it reasonable.


Edit - The character idea examples seemed to just be causing a bit of confusion so I got rid of them.

[Vonandi]

Put me down for a homosexual wizard please and thank you.
EDIT: Sorry, the second concept just tickled me a bit, but my interest is genuine. How much should we be focused on the PCs real life backstories, or is that more of a secondary element in this game?

[Humble Scribe]

I'll put a marker down - definitely interested. I'd probably lean towards an 'Angelica' clone - female character gets into trouble etc - but could do male character instead, depending.

[TheVillain]

Keep in mind those are just possible examples of general concepts, not hard rules.

[Vonandi]

I didn't intend for my character to be a clone, I just haven't decided on anything concrete yet. Most likely he'll be an evil trickster who only plays the game to greif. For example: casting permanent status effects that either are an inconvenience or deadly depening on his mood. Illusions to trick other players, a long lasting polymorph, etc.

[TheVillain]

No worries, just playing it safe on my end.

I'd say there's actually some wiggle-room for real life backstory. You probably won't need much, but if there's some real life interaction I do want it to make sense.

[Humble Scribe]

Likewise, I was more indicating the kind of character I am likely to play. I'm still thinking about actual specifics.

[Arcanist]

Colour me interested

[Dominique]

Sounds quite fun, and I'm on holiday until about that time so it would work out well for me, too :) I'm definitely interested!

[Apple of Eris]

This sounds like it could be lots of fun, I'll probably make up something for this one.

[TheVillain]

I am going to need a Co-DM to help handle the logistics, but I'm glad to hear about people being interested.

[arielk]

I'm interested in playing. :)

[helvorn]

I am tremendously excited by this game and would love to participate. 

My thought would be a female player playing a female character in the game, ideally a rogue-type.

[TheHangedOne]

I'd likely be down for playing a Warlock type character. Probably lives out in Fae territory because they don't aggro on him unless he shoots first (Pact of the Fae). As likely to get up to mischief as to help people out. Probably grinding out levels because he wants to be the first (?) to take down The Beast.

I'm cool with the game not starting for a bit--gives us time to figure stuff out. Character connections, standardized sheets, etc.

[TheVillain]

https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=307460.0

Thread continues over here.