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Of course, pretty much all GM's and players
know what the CyberSpace is supposed to
be, at least vaguely. We've seen representations
of the basic idea before in movies like
Johnny Mnemonic, The 13th Floor, The Cell,
and peripherally the Matrix movies. Some
of us have read about different takes on
the net in the original literary sources.
Others of us with a roleplaying background
have played Cyberpunk 2020, Shadowrun, and
similar games.
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Different spins take different tacts, but
the basic idea is easily understandable.
Combine something like the World Wide Web
(WWW) of the real world and a videogame
with graphics so real that suspension of
disbelief is very high, and there you go.
An interactive, anthropomorphic, submersive
skinning of the normally dry subject of
data, programming, and network protocols.
That's what CyberSpace is supposed to be
like; a Virtual Reality almost as meaningful
and rich as the "Meat Reality"
of "real life".
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CYBERSPACE IN RPGS |
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In literary and cinematic settings the dual
existence of characters in the physical
and virtual realities allows for interesting
storytelling, and the idea of a world spanning
network with practically global access was
a mind expanding idea back when the genre
of Cyberpunk was first explored. RPG's that
followed in this wake dutifully included
complex rules for including a separate CyberSpace
reality, called different things but fundamentally
rooted in the same idea. |
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Unfortunately, the way CyberSpace was represented
in most games introduced a fundamental problem
in that they basically required that all
the characters in a PC group have some ability
to participate in CyberSpace based adventures
(which seldom makes sense even within the
context of the setting), or else cause gameplay
to fracture into two seperate games that
happened to intersect occassionally. |
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While this works in a literary or cinematic
medium where the author or director can
control flow and pacing and contrive parallelism,
it seldom works as well in a roleplaying
game where many elements of the events in
play are not entirely under the GM's control. |
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Further, while the idea of a seperate reality
"inside the computer" with many
fantastical and wish-fulfillment properties
provides literary opportunities for polarity
contrasts in pursuit of an engaging and
thought provoking experience, this does
not always work for extended periods of
roleplaying. Additionally it is also very
easy for the two nearly incompatible realities
to detract from each other, to dillute each
other, to soften the impact of the more
extreme aspects of both. |
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CYBERSPACE IN METACYBER |
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The approach taken in the MetaCyber setting
is to encourage / push Hackers to stay with
non-Hackers on runs, and to make it so that
Hacker actions taken via the NET can be
resolved concurrently with actions taken
by characters in the physical world.
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In games run with the HERO System that involve
"Mentalists", this is regularly
accomplished without fuss; for instance
in a superhero campaign the team telepath
runs aroudn with the rest of the heroes
and takes part in the same encounters as
they do, even though their Mental powers
are being resolved in what amounts to another
reality -- in a mindscape rather than the
landscape if you will. |
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By handling the NET via (limited) Mental
Powers, this basic functionality of the
underlying game system is capitalized upon.
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The focus should be maintained on the grim
and gritty action-adventure aspects of Runs,
not on extended interludes of everyone else
sitting around watching a Hacker's comatose
body while the Hacker carries on in virtual
reality. |
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