Idea Here's an idea. Thoughts?

[Error 420]

The age of heroes is over. The cosmic entities that threatened Earth, the alien visitors who protected us. The age of ultimate fear and ceaseless hope came to an end. They didn't die in some cataclysm. They didn't fade into obscurity and failing comic book sales. They just stopped showing up. The world had moved onto the next golden age. The world wasn't perfect. It had crime, corruption, everything the heroes sought to destroy. But it was okay. Evil stayed in the shadows where it belonged, instead of in the form of some destroyer of worlds.

Some still cling to the glory of the old days, lay prostrate to relics of yesteryear. Relics like Captain Infinity, the Atomic Avenger: a robotic superhero, left to rust in a bunker for a hundred years. He's more than a few circuits blown, and when the next one blows, he may take the world with him.

He's connected himself to the entire missile defense grid. If he is not deactivated in the next twenty-four hours, every missile built since 1975 will launch itself. Your mission is to enter the lair of Defense Patrol. Get in, disable the robot, and get out. The only challenge will be getting through the simulation. He's built an entire virtual world to prove that the only people entering are the members of his team. The last one of them died over a hundred years ago. You need to assume their persona and get past his challenges, or the whole of the Earth is doomed.
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So that's my idea. I'm not sure how to well make this into an RP, what system to use, ect (And I'm also very short on time) so I'm looking for y'all's help. Any suggestions?

 

[rae2nerdy]

So the plot is basically a video game with "real world" consequences where the end goal is to "win/defeat" the game and thus save the world?

Just wanting to make sure I got that right before giving my recommendations

 

[Error 420]

So the plot is basically a video game with "real world" consequences where the end goal is to "win/defeat" the game and thus save the world?

Just wanting to make sure I got that right before giving my recommendations

Well when you put it that way it loses some gravity, but yeah. The players will have to be superheroes.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Well when you put it that way it loses some gravity, but yeah. The players will have to be superheroes.

But the format of the story is regular people entering an immersive virtual reality game to defeat the main plot right? Like they are not so much superheroes as taking on personas in order to complete a specific mission in virtual reality

 

[Error 420]

But the format of what the story is regular people entering an immersive virtual reality game to defeat the main plot right? Like they are not so much superheroes as taking on personas in order to complete a specific mission in virtual reality

Basically, yes.

 

[rae2nerdy]

Alright that is actually good news.

So basically for how you can run the roleplay basically just think of it as a video game.

Before you start you need to come up with how many "levels" or "mini missions" you want your players to go through to get to the end of the game and "defeat the villain" stop the atomic hero from blowing up.

Now the mini missions can be like simulations of cases the "original" group would have taken steadily getting more difficult or maybe recreating some kind of nostalgic situation relevant to the atom. Really the exact nature of the mini missions will sort of depend on how you want to work the plot.

But the key thing to remember - each mini mission has a clear objective and a real life time limit. Like say the players have two weeks in real life to post for each mission ( or less this time line depends on how fast your players post ) and at the end of the time you time skip.

Since this is a virtual reality you can make this a little fun and have a literal fade to black and open up on the next mission or maybe have them set back to square one if they don't complete the objective and start the simulation again ( with some kind of real world consequence?)

Like this keeps stakes but also keeps your posting moving forward

 

[rae2nerdy]

For like stats and such for each superhero character welian has a cool stat system for their superhero roleplay

 

[welian]

This plot sounds like it's BEGGING for stat systems and level-ups!

 

[Shalalong]

A Simulation is a great setting with a lot of freedom as what scenes to portray to your players, this means creating unique and engaging situations is even more important. Maybe put the players out of their comfort zone once in a while by having them compete with each other, rather than fighting together to achieve a goal. Well, there are many different ways you can achieve engaging challenges, as this setting is basically a blank slate. As others have said a stat system coupled with level-ups will ensure that your players feel progression between challenges, even though some of the challenges may have not much in common. Though that really depends on how you want to roll the narrative between the simulation sessions. The suggestion of rae2nerdy to have failure states affect the real world is something that has weight to it for the world building aspect but may have too little impact for the players actually inside the simulation but who says you cannot combine both inside and outside failure states. With a little polish and a lot of thoughts to the challenges and the stat system, you can create a fun experience.

 

[rae2nerdy]

A Simulation is a great setting with a lot of freedom as what scenes to portray to your players, this means creating unique and engaging situations is even more important. Maybe put the players out of their comfort zone once in a while by having them compete with each other, rather than fighting together to achieve a goal. Well, there are many different ways you can achieve engaging challenges, as this setting is basically a blank slate. As others have said a stat system coupled with level-ups will ensure that your players feel progression between challenges, even though some of the challenges may have not much in common. Though that really depends on how you want to roll the narrative between the simulation sessions. The suggestion of rae2nerdy to have failure states affect the real world is something that has weight to it for the world building aspect but may have too little impact for the players actually inside the simulation but who says you cannot combine both inside and outside failure states. With a little polish and a lot of thoughts to the challenges and the stat system, you can create a fun experience.

I think you might have misunderstood when I said you could have real world consequences for failure I didn't mean instead of "in game" consequences.

I meant well say the progression of the plot was with mini missions that replicated old cases. One such case is run through an abandoned section of town trying to defuse explosives and save civilians before a villain blows them up.

The players have two real life weeks ( or however long evens out to an hour or so in game time ) to complete this mini mission.

They do not complete the mission and thus the simulation fades to black. Now you can either have them restart the simulation, have the fade open to the civilians all dead and some kind of fall out in the simulation, or maybe they get temporarily knocked out of the simulation all together.

But regardless of how the game handles the issue they know that in real life there is some kind of consequence. Like some actual building with real people explodes or some part of the city or whatever.

The idea is they know the simulation is fake so consequences in that might not matter unless there is also real world equivalents.

I mean it doesn't have to be like an explosion maybe they are physically in danger if they are in the simulation too long or maybe using the "superpowers" puts a strain on their mind or body or something.

 

[Idea]

It feels a bit like lost potential. You had a brilliant , albeit not as original as it once was premise of the time of heroes being gone. If there just not being a purpose for those flashy heroes beating up villains. The golden age. It was a fun idea worth exploring with characters and with many deep ramifications to look at if the player was smart enough to pick up on them.

Yet you throw that out of the window by giving them a basic concrete mission of a similar scale. Best this thing, no questions on the morality of right of continuing to act.

There ARE those that appreciate those more straightforward plots, but I feel like this is a bit of lost potential

 

[Error 420]

Yet you throw that out of the window by giving them a basic concrete mission of a similar scale. Best this thing, no questions on the morality of right of continuing to act.

I thought a more simple and concrete plot and story structure would allow for the ideas represented to be easily expressed. I thought that if the players did not have the motivation to act from the beginning, they'd just quit. Of course, while in the course of play, I would raise the question of the morality of continuing the mission, but from the beginning there needs to be a good reason for playing.

Alternately, this sets the stage for a more carefree beat-em-up adventure if that's more what the players want and what the game drives towards.

 

[Idea]

I thought a more simple and concrete plot and story structure would allow for the ideas represented to be easily expressed. I thought that if the players did not have the motivation to act from the beginning, they'd just quit. Of course, while in the course of play, I would raise the question of the morality of continuing the mission, but from the beginning there needs to be a good reason for playing.

Alternately, this sets the stage for a more carefree beat-em-up adventure if that's more what the players want and what the game drives towards.

I wouldn't say you are wrong. A concrete goal, simple and straightforward is a valid tool to help the players connect with your plot. The issue is that this goal in particular is at odds with the idea of the initial premise.

 

[Error 420]

I wouldn't say you are wrong. A concrete goal, simple and straightforward is a valid tool to help the players connect with your plot. The issue is that this goal in particular is at odds with the idea of the initial premise.

I agree. That's why I made this thread, to get help.

 

[Idea]

I agree. That's why I made this thread, to get help.

Well, I wouldn't recommend trying a goal that is at odds with the premise, but if you insist on it, then i suppose what you want to answer is the question "why?" . Why is there the disparity. Why in this uber non-villainous world with heroes going around taskless is there still an old threat just laying around? How well you answer that question to yourself and your player and how well you use it explore the themes will determine the artistic or lackluster feel of the narrative.

Another thing I recommend is to make the threat on-mechanical. It's easy to blame a machine, but if you want to explore the idea of a society that no longer needs heroes but hey still act, then at the very least you need to make the threat something the heroes possibly might be doing wrong by acting against. And doing that on a machine is not convincing. Heck, maybe anything non-human isn't convincing.

 

[Error 420]

Another thing I recommend is to make the threat on-mechanical. It's easy to blame a machine, but if you want to explore the idea of a society that no longer needs heroes but hey still act, then at the very least you need to make the threat something the heroes possibly might be doing wrong by acting against. And doing that on a machine is not convincing. Heck, maybe anything non-human isn't convincing.

I wanted the conflict to come from somewhere of an outside, morally-untied force, to show the truth with no emotional embellishments. Honestly speaking, I was inspired by a concept that I found out about in an episode of Rick and Morty about superheroes. The concept in question is one of "infinite justice". The idea that if the threat in question is infinite in scope, the fallacy of infinite justice is that nothing is beyond sacrifice to stop the threat. Like how in Man of Steel we see Superman kill millions to stop the bad guy. It doesn't matter the costs, the movie still presents this as a triumph.

The RP would have the players strapped with the decisions that the heroes made, to see what cost they would pay for victory, and how many people would need to be in front of the trolley.

 

[Idea]

I wanted the conflict to come from somewhere of an outside, morally-untied force, to show the truth with no emotional embellishments. Honestly speaking, I was inspired by a concept that I found out about in an episode of Rick and Morty about superheroes. The concept in question is one of "infinite justice". The idea that if the threat in question is infinite in scope, the fallacy of infinite justice is that nothing is beyond sacrifice to stop the threat. Like how in Man of Steel we see Superman kill millions to stop the bad guy. It doesn't matter the costs, the movie still presents this as a triumph.

The RP would have the players strapped with the decisions that the heroes made, to see what cost they would pay for victory, and how many people would need to be in front of the trolley.

But if this is the point, then why the initial premise? The idea that we're past the world destroyers and all, it's shooting yourself in the foot if you want the sacrifices and trades of heroism to be the thing you're exploring

 

[rae2nerdy]

If I may you can always ask your players outright. The advice is more in the mechanics of - how do you keep a roleplay actually moving forward instead of stagnating. As stagnation is the number one killer of these types of roleplays.

People just sort of start with some entry point and never go beyond that because either the GM doesn't move the story along or they get bored and quit before anything happens.

Which is why I recommend the mini mission format for pretty much all roleplays ( the virtual reality aspect just makes it easier to implement for this particular story ) as it keeps people progressing along the plot of the roleplay without stagnating.

It also irons out those issues of boredom and smooths over when people quit. If you're always progressing forward than you can more easily keep your player base engaged and also if people do quit it's easier to just write them out of the narrative. As you just basically say something happened to them between time skips / the intervals between your mini missions.

But the exact nature of the mini missions is entirely up to you. If you want them to be moral dilemas that the players contemplate along the plot that's fine. Just remember you need to keep things progressing so don't let people stagnate on any one scene always have some manner of moving things along.

And it's best to have these mini missions/scenes written out in advance. I like to have at least four although if your inspired enough you can certainly make more. I think I once made like 12 for a superhero roleplay I was in and had them all numbered like episodes. Now we never got around to all twelve but they were at least written up so that I knew I could keep things going if the players ever got bored and I got no feedback.

Now I start with four scenes/mini missions as that's usually enough to get you through a month IRL of posting and lets your players actually offer some feedback on scenes and directions they would like to go.