Seeking other Deathnet mini-game fans

[Dagobert]

I was flipping through an old Dungeon/Polyhedron issue (105/164, December 2003) the other day and I stumbled across Deathnet, a d20 mini-game of "high-res adventure". I am intrigued by the versatility of the setting, excited by the potential for non-stop action, and completely gaga over the countless possibilities for character generation. My group likes the roleplaying as much as any other group, but they wet their pants over an action-packed evening of gaming with lots of attitude. (Yeah, they like Cyberpunk too.) So I can't wait to spring Deathnet on them.

I'm looking for other Deathnet fans out there who may have started a game or are playing in a game or might be thinking about starting a game or might have actually wet their pants during a game session (paying attention?) to exchange ideas, high points, pit-falls, and even supplemental material (character sheets, adventures, etc.) if you've found any or have generated some yourself.

 

[Dagobert]

*bump*

Wow, is it possible that no one ever before or ever after has played this game...?

 

[Asmor]

Never heard of it. What's it about? Simply judging from the name and "high-res" adventure, I'm guessing it's some sort of Tron-like setting. In that case, you might want to take a look at Horizon.

 

[Dagobert]

Never heard of it. What's it about?

Here's the blurb from Paizo:

Polyhedron #164
Deathnet
A d20 Modern Mini-Game
Ever feel like you can't escape the Internet? Deathnet, by Eberron creator Keith Baker, puts you in the role of a virtual reality playtester trapped in a deadly computer network. Team up with cartoonish plumbers, fireball-hurling wizards, and frag-happy space marines in an attempt to thwart the evil secret of the Deathnet!

The setting is a vast virtual reality system developed to support all kinds of video games, from arcade to first-person shooter to roleplaying. The PCs are characters from any of these games. Imagine playing Pacman as a PC or Duke Nukem or your favorite character from NWN.

The players are jacked into the VR game system, playing whatever game their character is from, when the system crashes. When it reboots, the PCs discover that they can't logout! They are stuck in the game and must figure out how to escape.

You can download a PDF (USD 4.95) of the Dungeon/Polyhedron issue here.

 

[Hellcow]

Hey Dagobert!

I'm glad to hear SOMEONE'S enjoying DeathNet - it's certainly been a while. Perhaps I'll have to get a game going over here.

To answer your question, Asmor, Tron and eXistenZ are certainly inspirations; it is based on the idea of people trapped in a world of video games. The primary twist is the idea that the type of game you're from determines your abilities and appearance. Are you a gun-toting first-person shooter? A high-jumping anthropomorphic platformer? Some lame MMORPG roleplayer guy? Or even tech support or a hacker who happened to be caught in the system when it went down? So it's not just "Are you red, or are you blue?"

 

[Asmor]

Ha, I'll make a character who was playing D&D Online, giving me access to all the D&D books evar!

Hmm... What happens if you were playing a Rogue or NetHack? Would your character just be a giant @?

Seriously, though, sounds like a fun concept, I'll add that to my list of PDFs I need to pick up.

 

[Dagobert]

For the uninitiated I should note that Keith Baker is the author of the Deathnet article, which was published just before Mr. Baker rose to worldwide fame with the Eberron Campaign Setting.

I'm glad to hear SOMEONE'S enjoying DeathNet....

Well that's the thing, Mr. Baker. I haven't actually played it yet. I will play it one day--hopefully this year. There are so many games I want to run. There aren't enough game sessions in the single lifetime that has been allotted to me!

Right now I'm in the middle of a summertime nostalgic game of The Keep on the Borderlands using the Bluebook D&D rules. After that I better get back to the most recent edition of D&D or my group might revolt.

I'm thinking to tie a short Deathnet arc into my D&D game. The D&D PCs are logged into the VR game system, in the persona of their Deathnet characters, in pursuit of something (possibly information) when the VR crashes.

 

[Hellcow]

I'm thinking to tie a short Deathnet arc into my D&D game. The D&D PCs are logged into the VR game system, in the persona of their Deathnet characters, in pursuit of something (possibly information) when the VR crashes.

Sounds good to me! Given that the whole point of DN is that the players ARE in fact players who were at one point playing games, taking that metagame a step further and saying "Our Champions game? The Vampire game? Those were all OTHER DeathNet sims you guys were playing." Thus, as the characters travel through the net, they can stumble into those other sims (or at least characters from them).