Whadaya think of this idea?(my players stay out!)(LONG)

blackshirt5

First Post
I was walking home from work this morning, when I hit upon this idea for what I thought was a great game, and I started text messaging myself notes on it(until my hand cramped up).

Nuras Online
Nuras Online is the most popular online multiplayer experience in the world. Created 10 years ago by a computer programmer named Darius Wales, the games infectious blend of Sword and Sorcery action, hideous mind-crushing monsters, and amazing interface all combined to make it first a cult classic, then a worldwide phenomenon, despite rumors of an impact on general mental and physical health(but we all know those are just rumors). However, not all of it's popularity and notoriety come from the game itself; a good deal of it comes from the Hacks.

No one knows exactly when the first Hack was used, or by who, but they do know who was the first one to make it famous: A Dwarven Fighter named Bludst0ne B4RR3LBL4Z3(Barrelblaze), when his team used the original Hack, Gun Hack, to get ahold of Chain Guns to wreck a vampire lord's caravan during a quest. After that, the rest was history.

Hacks can be used for just about anything, whether it's getting ahold of things you definitely shouldn't have, such as superpowers or modern equipment and weaponry, or just getting ahold of things you shouldn't get that early or that easily, like stat boosts, exceptional but legal weaponry, or sanity buffs. The problem with Hacks is that they screw up the coding of the game, which can cause server crashes as well as other nasty problems(rumors circle on the message boards and chat rooms of unbeatable monsters, of actual players going insane, etc. The usual stuff) that come from people messing with the code. In addition, they're just a pain in the arse, since a Gamehacker, 29 times out of 30, will blow away a Sleeper(or as they call themselves, Legits) in a fight, no contest. Enter the AntiHacks.

Antihacks are former Gamehackers who, for one reason or another, have signed on with the Nuras Corporation to police Nuras Online and stand against their former Gamehacker brethren. Some do it for money(and have actual paying jobs with Nuras), some do it because they were threatened with an IP Ban, and some just did it to get an edge. Regardless of the reasons, they're traitors to the cause, sellouts, who, to the Gamehacker community's mentality, are only doing it to keep their upgrades on PermaHack. Some of them have AltAvatars for when they go into AntiHack mode, to keep from being shunned, but some revel in their status, especially those AntiHacks who are top players.

Nuras Online sponsors many tournaments that people from all around the world compete in. The tournament quests can take just about any form, from recovery of a treasure to the slaying of a dragon, to even(since some of the Directors at Nuras are quite the geeks) philosophical questions or creation contests. Regardless, although Hacks are supposed to be illegal in any part of Nuras(especially tournament quests), many prizes have been awarded to Gamehackers, and it's hard to understand the rhyme or reason of the award process(especially since you can buy DVDs of tournaments from nVIZ, a company spun off from the Nuras Corporation that specializes in Nuras related media, and some of the Hacks are painfully obvious, like a fighter class suddenly pulling an Uzi and wasting goblins).

There are several servers employed by the Nuras Corporation to house the entire world of Nuras: Grea Mors, Home(where you end up when you die, or you can teleport to your home through a gate), and many others. However, one legendary server is seen as the final destination of all Gamehackers(some even seek to break in): H4XX0RZ H3LL, a server created to house the characters of Gamehackers who've been caught by the AntiHacks. Inside H3LL, it's nothing but constant 24/7 fighting, with the NEED for tremendously powerful Hacks to even be able to defeat the monsters in this level. It's the ultimate test and the ultimate life destroyer; some Gamehackers bring their offline lives to a stop when they end up in H3LL, trying to find a way out. Thanks to an IP Address Ban that's put in place when you get sent there, you cannot register another character from your computer unless you can escape from H3LL, using information that has to be pieced together(including, quite unfairly, information that isn't available in the H3LL server, only on the normal servers) to bypass the 13th Gate(the Gate Home; a.k.a the HellHack, it's never been known to be pulled off except by one person, the now legendary AntiHack PHell[sis]; some say he was the one who created H4XX0RZ H3LL, actually, and was just testing it).

OK, well what do you guys think? I've heard that it's kind of close to .Hack, which I've never seen or played. I like the idea of walking a razors edge between being a Loser(as Gamehackers call Legits) and being possibly caught and sent to H4XX0RZ H3LL by an AntiHack(who are gonna be kinda like the Agents in the first Matrix film; at first, they're seen as unbeatable, looked upon in a mixture of awe and disgust by Gamehackers). I plan on also having the players gen normal real world characters, and have a few real world adventures, as the players get caught up, try to find information in cybercafes if they end up in H3LL(since you can't even gain access to message boards or chatrooms with a Ban on you), trying to decipher the known alias of AntiHacks, etc. Any number of things.

Does anyone know where I can get ahold of some free message board software to set up a board for this, and would anyone be willing to help me out with it, if I gave them info on the setting, by maybe putting up a few posts there? I'm not planning on running it for a little while, still working on the exact details of the World of Nuras. It'll probably be a few months; I could also use some cool names, both real world and game, for top players, etc. Heck, just gimme your real names and some net IDs you'd use, and a brief description of the character, like what weapon he uses, and that'll be great for me, save me a lot of time brainstorming for NPCs.

Thanks.
 

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You want to play a game about people playing a game??

You are an odd one indeed. ;)

Names should be easy. Just open a phone book or go to any old message board.

What system do you plan to use for this? Homebrew? d20 Modern?
 
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Well, the idea is that...well...yeah, I guess that is a bit weird. Oh well, I like it, adn I think my players will get a kick out of it. I just need to be able to set up the message boards(although if nothing else works, I might just set up a little newsletter in my email account and start sending it out to my players).

Actually the system is the weird part; I'm thinking a mixture of CoC D20(for sanity), D20 Modern, and D20 Fantasy, with FCtF used for the superpowers and other bits of the Hacks. Haven't decided how I'm going to run the regular, real world adventures though, either WoD or D20.

Also, as you go insane in the game, weird things start to permeate the game. Anyboy who's ever played Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem will know what I'm talking about.

True, I could open up a phonebook, but I'd like to be able to get netnames too.

BTW, would anybody be interested in seeing this after it's done as a freebie?
 
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I've got a 40min trip to work too. And yea, a lot of good ideas are born during this time. ;)

My humble suggestions:

Stick to only a few systems. d20 Modern + CoC's sanity system can cover pretty much anything. Thats how we run one of the CoC games that I'm in. Also, d20 Modern will be getting more support so that is a bonus.

Hacks can easily be added as feats. The system is perfect for that sort of thing. You might also consider looking at the prestige races info in one of the recent Dragon issues and Oathbound.
 

Yeah, D20 Modern + a bit of CoC should do the trick, actually; I wanna have it be like one of those animes where you see all the kids going and doing all the cool stuff, that's why it's a game within a game.

I haven't figured out the exact details of the Hack system yet, but Hacks allow you to temporarily get access to skills and feats as well as superpowers and all the rest of those goodies. I'm not sure if Feats is the best way to go, since you have to learn or create your own Hacks, kinda like a spell, and they're not on 24/7(that'd be way too dangerous to the player, you'd get caught within a day; only AntiHacks have Hacks going all the time).

I got a great mental picture of a group competing in a tournament quest, and while one player handles the quest itself, the rest of the team contributes by going into other servers and causing havoc, making it so that the AntiHacks who're working the tournament(or playing in it, since they ARE still players in the game after all) get pulled away(they have no choice in the matter, it's either go to handle the situation or go the H4XX0RZ H3LL), leaving the other players free to win the tournament with a bit of an advantage now.

Thanks for the advice, BTW Geekus.
 
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I like the idea a lot! If I decide to run a modern campaign, I may steal your some of your ideas... :)

If you're looking for a free message board, there are plenty of developer communities where you could get some nice ones. I develop in ASP, so one of my favorite spots for free code is ASPIN.COM

Once you start running it, I'd like to hear more details.
 

Ok. If I read the above correctly:

The "real world" is a slightly futuristic version of our world where something like Everquest has evolved into something more resembling the Matrix.

Nuras is a fantasy setting right?

Why not use d20 Modern (with modifications) for the real world characters and D&D (with modifications) for Nuras?
 


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