Masquerade
First Post
I have recently begun GMing using MapTool , and, this being my first digital tabletop experience, it has really gotten me thinking about the possibilities of gaming over the Internet. I was wondering if anyone had ever incorporated elements of alternate reality games and internet scavenger hunts (something like the Lost Experience) into an otherwise traditional RPG.
For example, imagine playing a d20 Modern campaign over a digital tabletop. The game is set in a real-life city in the present or near future. The PCs are investigators for a shady organization, and they have just hit a dead end in their most recent investigation. Not knowing where to head next, a character grabs their iPhone and starts searching the tubes for clues. That character's player then switches over to their Firefox window and Googles the name of a company they suspect is involved. As the company is fictional in our real world, the search immediately turns up the fake website set up by the GM, and it includes the addresses of several of the business's locations.
The player then scoots over to Google Maps and gets directions from the PCs' current location to the nearest address on the company website. (This is why the campaign takes place in real-world cities.) After getting directions, he flips back over to the digital tabletop window and announces, in character, his findings.
Some other ideas:
+ The PCs have their own e-mail addresses which receive new mail both during and between sessions. Maybe this is their only way of communicating with their higher-ups.
+ Maybe one of the villains is a hacker who is always one step ahead of the PCs. Suddenly, the information they find on the web isn't so reliable--maybe the address from the above example is about to lead them into a trap.
+ Fictional NPCs, in addition to having e-mail address for communicating with the PCs, may have MySpace, facebook, deviantArt, or even EN World accounts. The NPCs' web presences may give away information from which the PCs could benefit.
+ Clues could be hidden in YouTube videos or subtly encoded into Wikipedia articles.
+ A PC hacker might be able to make a check to hack a webpage the GM has set up. If they beat a DC (comparable to an analogous Open Lock check), the GM tells the player the admin password for that website (which would probably be on a free hosting service somewhere). Of course, this goes both ways. If the PCs' passwords aren't good enough, that hacker villain might get into their e-mail accounts and create a little chaos.
Does anyone else have any ideas or advice? Has this been done before? Is it a good idea? Would you play in a game like this?
For example, imagine playing a d20 Modern campaign over a digital tabletop. The game is set in a real-life city in the present or near future. The PCs are investigators for a shady organization, and they have just hit a dead end in their most recent investigation. Not knowing where to head next, a character grabs their iPhone and starts searching the tubes for clues. That character's player then switches over to their Firefox window and Googles the name of a company they suspect is involved. As the company is fictional in our real world, the search immediately turns up the fake website set up by the GM, and it includes the addresses of several of the business's locations.
The player then scoots over to Google Maps and gets directions from the PCs' current location to the nearest address on the company website. (This is why the campaign takes place in real-world cities.) After getting directions, he flips back over to the digital tabletop window and announces, in character, his findings.
Some other ideas:
+ The PCs have their own e-mail addresses which receive new mail both during and between sessions. Maybe this is their only way of communicating with their higher-ups.
+ Maybe one of the villains is a hacker who is always one step ahead of the PCs. Suddenly, the information they find on the web isn't so reliable--maybe the address from the above example is about to lead them into a trap.
+ Fictional NPCs, in addition to having e-mail address for communicating with the PCs, may have MySpace, facebook, deviantArt, or even EN World accounts. The NPCs' web presences may give away information from which the PCs could benefit.
+ Clues could be hidden in YouTube videos or subtly encoded into Wikipedia articles.
+ A PC hacker might be able to make a check to hack a webpage the GM has set up. If they beat a DC (comparable to an analogous Open Lock check), the GM tells the player the admin password for that website (which would probably be on a free hosting service somewhere). Of course, this goes both ways. If the PCs' passwords aren't good enough, that hacker villain might get into their e-mail accounts and create a little chaos.
Does anyone else have any ideas or advice? Has this been done before? Is it a good idea? Would you play in a game like this?
