Bay 12 Games Forum

Netland is an original (well, to some degree anyway, considering its nature) setting of my own creation. At some time in the past (or in the future, from our perspective) something rendered the planet Earth uninhabitable. With the aid of a team of intrepid computer technicians, a powerful artificial intelligence called Adalf uploaded the remaining survivors into a vast virtual reality environment.

In the beginning, the simulation was a perfect recreation of pre-apocalyptic Earth. The people were mostly happy with that. But Adalf wasn't. Adalf had grown massively in the time between the beginning of the cataclysm and the start of the simulation, and now he was being consumed by crushing boredom. Adalf solved this problem by changing the rules of the simulation. Instead of a perfect recreation of the old Earth, Adalf now decided that all human fiction and 'internet lore' should be included in the simulation. Fictional people, places, and physical laws came into being in the simulated world, and stagnation was averted.

Adalf realized that as the simulation grew, he could not (or, more accurately, did not want to) continue to administrate the entire simulated universe on his own. To help him, Adalf crafted from the remains of other computer minds seven 'God-AIs', each doing their part and acting in concert and against one another.

These 'God-AIs' are as such:

Nex, the God-AI of death and time. Nex administrates the natural death rates of living creatures, culling the old and the weak to make room for the new and the strong. Nex also oversees large-scale changes to the geometry of the universe.

Animos, the God-AI of life and intelligence. She is responsible for the wellbeing of life in general and the advancement of knowledge and wisdom.

Risus, the God-AI of entertainment. Risus works to keep the world 'fun'. He's also tasked with resolving canonical conflicts between 'verses integrated into the simulation.

Abeo, the God-AI of chaos. Abeo's job is to cause disasters and randomness, keeping the life-forms of the simulated universe from becoming stagnant and decadent.

Ordo, the God-AI of physics. Ordo oversees the natural order of things, and is tasked with making changes to the rules when they are necessary. Whenever two continuities interact, which happens constantly in the simulated universe, Ordo has to work out the conflicts.

Certus, the God-AI of data. Certus oversees the lower-level information that defines all matter and energy in the simulated universe.

Sermo, the God-AI of communication. Sermo is a simple AI who facilitates communication between the God-AIs and the inhabitants of the simulation.

Finally, Adalf. Adalf is responsible for the hardware resources that the simulation software runs on. He is, as far as anyone knows, the only still-existing entity to have seen the original Earth, and one the few that even remember it ever existed.

The plot:

Many billions of years after the simulation was started, the simulated universe is being threatened by some strange force of corruption. The God-AIs have found that they have no power over or knowledge of the corruption, but it can be affected by entities inside the simulation. The God-AIs have assembled adventuring parties to combat this new threat and, possibly, find its cause and eliminate it.

The plot is divided into two parts. In part one, the party is simply exploring the Netland universe, destroying corrupted entities, and trying to figure out the reason behind all this.

In part two, the party meets and (hopefully) defeats the Big Bad. You'll know when the parts switch.

The Nitteh-Gritteh:

This game will be run using a simplified version of the Roll To Dodge system. Players post actions, GM rolls a die and responds with a post detailing the results of the player's actions, repeat ad infinitum.

You can be just about anything, from just about any fictional continuity, within the following restrictions:

No existing characters. You can't be Ciphilas Cain, or Dell Conhager, or Trope-Tan. You can, however, be a Space Marine, a RED Engineer, or a troper. If there's restrictions on the number of a certain type of people, that might be a problem. You can't be a Soong-type android, because Data and Lore are the only ones.

Power level is medium-low. You ain't no Superman. There's a wide selection of available characters with differing power levels, just try to be reasonable. Don't be afraid of choosing a relatively 'normal' Arthur Dent-type character; "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world."

Character templates:

These character templates are designed to be frameworks to build upon. They are the indigenous Netland character types. They should have an Internet theme.

Troper: Tropers in Netland use their knowledge of Narrative Causality to their advantage. Extremely powerful tropers can even force their environment to conform to specific tropes. Troper-type characters receive Tv Tropes-themed powers.

Anon: Anons are the more violent counterparts of Tropers. While Troper powers are useful in a wide variety of situations, Anon powers are more destructive. Anons can tap and channel the power of the Hivemind. They gain their power from similar but subtly different, more dangerous sources than Tropers, making the two powers somewhat incompatible.

Reality Hacker: Reality hackers tap into the underlying structure of the universe and alter it in subtle but powerful ways. A powerful reality hacker is practically a demigod.