[Charasanya]

I'm not sure if this is the right board or anything, but I am interested in hearing any and all ideas on how VR, AR and other technology would influence your normal, relaxed once-a-weekend fantasy roleplaying game. Would players still roll dice? Would they act out their characters in full VR? Would there be toolkits for the GM to create immersive content and an agent to take care of the rules?

My idea was to run a little game-inside-a-game, more or less like a holodeck episode on Star Trek that takes place during a lengthy journey. The In-game-GM in question is a talented hacker with a top-of-the-line comlink and software and apropriately high editing skills (as well as high Gaming knowledge skill and specialization on roleplaying games). The other characters have very basic comlinks with barely a browse program installed.

In order for it to become relevant to the story, the game takes place in a "generic fantasy world" that (according to my slightly devious plan)  is actually Earthdawn, and some things or locations they encounter mysteriously reappear as ancient ruins in the modern world during one of their next runs.

What could be the cause of this? Some unexplicable ghost in the machine? An ancient elf recreating gaming content from memory? The players are actually transported onto a metaplane or even back in time?

Has anybody ever done something similar or would you recommend to stay away from it? I'm pretty sure the players would love a refreshing change as they are usually quite keen on experiments like this.

[Automaton]

I would go for time travel a time traveler has spilled knowledge on it and someone turned it into a game, or some experimental tech is used in say the hackers comlink which he stole from corp X and hasnt got a clue it doesnt recreate old era's but transports people back to it. Or the hacker IS a corp hacker using experimental time travel tech and the runners as ginnypigs.

But wasnt earthdawn actually more like a paralell universe instead of the past? In which case you could actualy have a dimensional shifting device that sends people into another dimension with a controller (the gamemaster) sitting at the other end able to see them.... allthough ofcourse he would very quickly realize he isnt in control any longer....

I dont know enough about earthdawn to come up with more then that...

Ofcourse you could do it so that the device malfunctions and parts of earthdawn (temporarily?) spill over into the SR world, thereby creating locations like earthdawn buildings, creatures, ruins, and so on in this world...
And the party having to fix the mess they created.

[Mithlas]

I've considered having the characters have to play The World (.hack in order to meet several contacts and matrix-obsessed people).

As far as the time travel aspect, that's always a sticky one that I know that a lot of people want to avoid. After having seen Star Trek 4 when I was a kid, I made a rule for my own personal writing that permanently banned myself from ever having time travel when I'm writing science fiction. However, Shadowrun includes magic and is innately fantastic even if it also has sci-fi/transhumanism in the trappings. The creators have decided not to let magic be a time-warper (which I think is wise, it can mess up so many things otherwise), but technology also hasn't shown any time-space-warping capability. If you're already doing it, maybe the game they're playing is a simulation of neural recording of some sort and the characters merely think they're time traveling?

[Charasanya]

I'm more or less still in the process of  idea-gathering, so any and all are welcome!

Anyways, I'm not keen on time travel, I was thinking about the game providing some more or less vital clues about a situation during the next run that should feel vaguely familiar to the characters.

Mostly though, I am interested in how you think roleplaying games would be run in the future. Will there even BE a gamemaster, or will it all be some sort of MMORPG?

[Mithlas]

Storytelling has existed for tens of thousands of years with a dedicated storyteller (GM, if you will), and collaborative storytelling without a primary storyteller has existed for many hundred years (speaking from literature studies, which I would say is not far removed from RPGs). I would even argue MMORPGs are not absent GMs, though for the most part it's the game developer (ie ActiBlizzard in world of warcrack). Whether RPGs become larger things that people worldwide do...why not? Telecommunications merely facilitate being able to participate in these things whether you're all physically together at a table or if you're two hundred people linked together over the Matrix and participating in player-determined stories. If it can be done nowadays, I see no reason why it shouldn't spread in the future.

[Automaton]

Hey I also put a alternate dimensions idea in, not just time travel
two very different things.

As for rpg's in the future. Well since you can fully submerge yourself into a virutal but hyper realistic world in the Shadowrun future I'd say that an rpg would be all about actually being your character in a virutal world that seems as real (or better) then the real one. gamers could actually become addicted to that world and forgetting their real lives and bodies. (it apparantly happens in this age allready now and then)
So Playing say Age of Conan, or Star Wars, or World of Warcraft in Shadowrun would be actually living in the Age of Conan, The Star Wars galaxy or Azeroth....

Allthough playing an elf, troll or dwarf in a fantasy rpg is going to be a lot less interesting for a lot of people because they actually are one... Or not... because they can play their actual race in there.. not sure about that.

But at any rate, rpg's and the real world would totally have the line between them disapear. That Dragon in the rpg your barbarian hero is fighting is gonna be just as real as the one ruling the corp you work for...

[emsquared]

That many games within games is too unstable!

Err... I mean, I'm sure some RPGs would be a cross between BTLs and games (more BTL than game), and some would be just games with VR immersion (simsense but with programmed mechanics, VRRPG), and there'd probably still be Trideo games played with a manual controller or AR (ARRPG), and table-top gaming, with PnP (it'll never die!), screened devices and AR. Basically you could implement anything that would achieve the desired effect, but if you're trying to plant the seed of a thought in there heads, to be truly effective they may have to play an ARRPG within the VRRPG...

[Automaton]

LOL And at the end they find out that they all are actually just characters in a rpg called Shadowrun played by a bunch of guys in a room in 2013...... ooohh wait...   

[Mithlas]

LOL And at the end they find out that they all are actually just characters in a rpg called Shadowrun played by a bunch of guys in a room in 2013...... ooohh wait.

I'm reminded of a webcomic of either aliens of monsters playing accountants and janitors.

"The building has a power surge, and the data sheet you've been working on all day is about to go down."
"Oh no! I roll to save..."