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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grakarg" data-source="post: 8354331" data-attributes="member: 41096">Hey Lackofname-I have virtually the same premise for the game I'm running!  So far its been a lot of fun and my players are having a blast.First off, decide (maybe with the players input) if they are also going to want to play their characters outside of the game, in their 'real world' in addition to their avatars inside the MMO space.  If you're going to have the characters switch back and forth between the different realities, it creates different play opportunities and design challenges for you vs. if they are just logged in all the time or are just only playing their characters when they are in the game.For my game I've made a big deal about how the players are from a cyberpunk reality with high end VR equipment that is the newest hottest game on the market (which is the D&D game they play their characters in).  So far, its been a convenient conceit to explain what happened to certain characters in the game when they couldn't make a session (the hadn't logged in) and we game that all their table talk about game stats and such is in character chatter between their avatars.  Making nearby NPC's very confused...So far its been fun!  And I think i've read the book series you've mentioned, as well as several others like it.Anyway... back to your question: "locked in/sucked in" is taken off the table... What's left? I'm not sure. That's where I need help.Here are some ideas, all with the assumption that the players can freely log in and out and that they may or may not care about also roleplaying their characters in ther IRL.1) Monsters from 'the game' start to bleed over into the real world.  Maybe the game world is just a game, or maybe its really an alternate reality, but either way some of the creatures figure out that the players reality exists and try to seek a way to invade (or just get payback).-  what happens if an Intellect Devourer consumes the mind of a gamer?  Do they take over that player's body too?  Or a mind flayer learns of the new dimension and seeks to planeshift to the gamers reality?  Or an aboleth or nothic or any number of standard critters that can read the players minds?  The monster learns a lot of surprising secrets about their own reality and the players as well.   3) The corporation that produces the MMO, lets call them.... Warlocks of the Coast, forms a partnership with a toy company, lets call them... Hasbruh.  The toy company makes animatronic toys based off the MMO creatures and the AI of the game infects them so they think they are real versions of the game's monsters.  The players need to defeat/confront the AI and get some secret mcguffin to defeat the killer toys terrorizing their town. 4) The game world is a real world, at least as far as the beings inside it are concerned.  The players might think they're in a game, but the NPC's do not.  To them, its all real.  Just play the game like normal, doing normal adventures and stuff, and slowly work into it that when they go all murderhobo on townsfolk, that the people in the game are very much real, and that they can't tell the difference if they themselves are in a simulation or not.  Have them log out and their hometown is being attacked by a murderous MechaRobot run by some murderhobo alien that is running their home reality as a simulation.5) Just play it straight, go very light touch on the out of game stuff, and only use it as a reason why some players are in game or not.  It doesn't have to tie to the adventures at all.  Its still fun, its D&D.6) The MMO game is a vehicle the players use to confront some villain they know out of game.  Perhaps its a school bully, or a rival, or just a jerk they know IRL.  Whoever it is has lots of gold or powers or whatever in game, and the players NEED TO TAKE THEM OUT.  Your BBEG for the campaign is a powerful necromancer?  His name is NECRO-RULZ and he is a total tool.  He's ruining the game for everyone else because he's ammased so much power.  Maybe the players were former friends, or members of his guild and he betrayed them, or whatever... they need to adventure and destroy his power in the game.  No world shaking events out of game... their opponent is just a tool and needs to be knocked down a peg or seven.7) The MMO game has a secret that the players learn that could have real world implications and they have to fix it (or take advantage of it) in game.  The games economy is being gold farmed in a weird version of a cryptocurrency and the players need to figure out how the Red Dragon behind it all is working the system before it crashes the real worlds economy.8)  There is a major prize ($$$, Fame, etc) at stake and the first party of 5 players to reach lvl 20 get the big prize.  (thanks ready player 1)  Set up a showdown with a rival gang of players just before the endgame of their run to the final levels or final adventure or whateverHope you have fun with your game, let us know how it works out!</blockquote>

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