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View Full Version : Campaign Idea in dev - Lost in a game



Sipex
2009-08-18, 01:33 PM
I just finished reading over The grand list of console RPG cliches (http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html) and thought it would make an interesting campaign to have the PCs have to deal with this stuff in some way or form.

Well, the only way that seemed to fit is if the PCs characters were aware of how stupid all the stuff was when it happened, so how to do this? Well, I thought...maybe most of the PCs (or all) get sucked into a brand new RPG somehow and to get out alive they have to beat the game.

Along the way many of the tropes from the list make appearances (along with those not included on the list).

I was thinking of allowing two types of PCs, those that get sucked in and those that don't. Those that don't get access to the game through the programmed characters so they face a lot of restrictions in that regard (not choosing their characters, stupid boundaries) but they also get to control themselves outside of the game. Those that get sucked in start off as level 0 characters (themselves) and find some way to acquire a class within the game (maybe absorb it from a pc party member, earn it themselves or maybe an outside PC enters a cheat) but being different than the game they get several bonuses...like not being restricted by knee high walls but would suffer disadvantages too (not being able to be revived once they truly died, falling damage).

A few other ideas to make things interesting:
- The outside PCs can't talk to the inside PCs at first until they try plugging in their headsets while playing the game. They can find this out by reading a post on a forum or overhearing it.
- The outside PCs can look up walkthroughs of the game...provided the inside PCs don't mess up the flow of the game entirely.
- The outside PCs can find some cheats possibly
- The inside PCs can do things untraditional to a console RPG...like breaking down locked doors, attacking NPCs and altering cut-scenes.
- Naturally the PCs will be concerned about what happens if the console is shut off and hence probably avoid it. This is the perfect time to add in a thunderstorm or have a sibling play the game while the outer PCs are away.



Opinions? Ideas?

One particular idea I need is what system would you personally use to run this game? All I know is D&D 4.0 and while that would suit the RPG world somewhat it would need tweaking.