Heroes In Their Own Minds: Worldbuilding

[tuftears]

Okay, found the perfect title for this RPGfic I have in mind. I'd had in mind soliciting superhero suggestions but it occurred to me that I should lay out the world first.

As I alluded to in my previous post, I wanted to tap into the Marvel X-men vibe rather than the DC 'oh hey, we have random superheroes running around the world with all kinds of different origin stories, boy, our universe is such a mess that we need to have multiple Earths to explain them all.' So, think 'mutants vs humans.'

The 'real world' is a near-future world that has seen disasters reshape the surface of the Earth and etch deep the divide between rich and poor. VR RPGs are the opiate of the masses, and until ten years ago, "Mu Factor" was a cult classic that featured mutants at war with one another for the fate of their world. Unfortunately the company producing "Mu Factor", Programmable Reality Inc., was bought out by a larger VR RPG company, then their game was shuttered and its code base absorbed to make their other games better. [*]

"Mu Factor" featured an Earth in which a few mutants had been born before the Ecoclysm, a real world disaster in which the sea level rose dramatically and acid storms dominated the earth, causing a massive population crash and destruction of societal infrastructure. In the fictional history of "Mu Factor", two leaders emerged among the mutants, splitting them into rival camps, and their secret struggle brought on the Ecoclysm. In the throes of the disaster, the nations of the world agreed that only 'licensed' mutants would be permitted to operate, and only with supervision; all other mutants would be detained and restricted to special enclaves for their own safety. Child mutants would be separated from their parents and raised in special schools.

Naturally, this plan did not fare well with all mutants. Mutant society stratified into two factions: the Licensed, who were rich and privileged, going to special schools like Professor Xavier's School for the Gifted, and the Rogues, who grew up in the ghettos that had sprung up around the arcology-cities, working for criminal elements or citizens who needed special services that needed to go unreported to the Powers That Be. The Licensed were ruled by $EVIL_LEADER who believed that mutants would, over time, take the reins of authority and become the new leaders of the world, and the Rogues looked up to $GOOD_LEADER who believed that sharing and equality were required to bring the world into balance, and that eventually the "Y Gene" would spread to everyone, so everyone would be a mutant, just to varying degrees.

From there... Well, there'd be about ten years of tumultuous struggles as "Programmable Realities Inc." entertained their players with successive content patches. The Civil War would go from secret to world-shaking. $EVIL_LEADER would unleash the Guardians that would turn on their master and shatter the solidarity of the Licensed, leading to the rise of the Disbarred and the Redeemed, which allowed members of both mutant factions to cross the line and serve on the other side. An alien invasion would occur that would unite both sides temporarily to fight it. Artifacts would be discovered that could empower mutants, allowing them to gain 'epic powers' so long as they possessed them.

And then "Mu Factor" was shut down and all the players' shared dreams and hopes were dumped into the Great Bit Bucket In The Sky.

Ten years later, one lone genius believes that he has worked out a way to recreate "The Mu Factor". With the help of dedicated fans, he has secured rights and permissions. Now he has sent a call to all its former players, inviting them to come back and participate in the game reborn. Old heroes will be brought back, new heroes will be born.

What could possibly go wrong with this plan?

So, want to make hero or villain suggestions? Major characters that played big roles in shaping the history of "Mu Factor", minor characters that might have shown up here and there and become fan favorites, or just random character ideas that might crop up as former and new players? Even $GOOD_LEADER and $EVIL_LEADER are up for grabs! Or maybe just tell me what superheroes and villains from comics and such were your favorite.

(Note: "The Y Factor" has been changed to "Mu Factor" per feedback)

Comments

[cjthomas.livejournal.com]

Minor item: It might be worth picking a different letter. "Z-factor" is just as cool, and won't cause anyone to squawk about "Y chromosome chauvinism". Or perhaps pick a Greek letter ("zeta factor"), or something from mathematics ("aleph factor" to tie into the whole "infinity" thing).

Plot quibble: Keeping the same _name_ for the fan-implemented game is a great way to get sued. I'd be hesitant to believe that IP laws would be relaxed. If anything, tough times would cause those corporations who retained assets/IP to strengthen their grip on them.

Plot quibble: If the game features similar cataclysms to ones that actually happened in-setting, there's be a whole lot of Too Soon among the player-base. Even today, you'd get quite a lot of backdraft for publishing a game that prominently featured airplanes flying into the World Trade Center. A good rule of thumb would be that you'd want one generation's distance from it. Alternatively, the game might be popular among people unaffected or in countries that benefitted economically from the disaster, or the RL-disaster may have been much less severe.

Plot problem: After the disaster, civilization is presumably fairly authoritarian by necessity (and probably militaristic to prevent raids from have-not countries)... and your premise pitches a game that has the group that rejects authority and colludes with shady criminals as the _good_ guys? That would fly about as well as a "defend Iraq against the American infidels!" game would today. The game's pitch, and its plot, would have to be one that appealed to the society to whom it was pitched, and be acceptable to the authority structures of that society.

Lastly, if you were thinking about going with a plot along the lines of, "AI running the game decides to run the same revolution scenario in the real world using the players as its loyal minions", it might be worth re-thinking that plot. The minions aren't going to be terribly well suited to RL shenanigans, "Robin Hood" scenarios are a harder sell these days even _if_ you manage to bring the evil guys into full Snidely Whiplash villain territory, and the "AI tries to change the world's government" plot has been recycled enough times that you'd have to pull out something truly unusual to get a fresh take on it.

Hopefully I'm just jumping to conclusions with all of that =^.^=. There are certainly a lot of interesting stories that can be written about AIs, and about the search for personal identity and direction/meaning among humans in a new environment.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Good idea re: Z-Factor. Actually, 'Mu Factor' might work, speaking of Greek letters.

Regards 'the same name', I'm employing a bit of handwaving. There are important plot-related reasons $LONE_GENIUS_AND_BACKERS wanted to revive the game itself without filing off names, and Dantech Corporate may have been willing to cut them a break, unlike the real world NCSoft's recalcitrance with City of Heroes. (in the latter case, there's at least one fan-based revival being attempted, 'City of Titans')

Regards 'too soon'-- the Ecoclysm happens in the 2030s (an echo of the Great Depression) and the initial launch of 'The Mu Factor' happens in the 2060s, with the reboot attempt happening in the 2070s. So, a generation of distance as you suggest.

Re: authoritarianism versus 'free thinkers'-- in the story I don't plan to clearly identify them as $GOOD_LEADER or $BAD_LEADER. Both should be charismatic, sympathetic, but shadowy and powerful individuals with their own agendas that will not be entirely clear even to their most trusted lieutenants. I think it's interesting to imagine what Professor Xavier would be/do if he were the one having to run a 'back alleys' operation and what Magneto would do if he were secretly running things for his convenience. Though, once again, I haven't settled on who or what these leaders will be.

Re: 'AI running the game decides to run a revolution scenario in the real world'-- the focus ought to be on the game and what happens in it, and what players do in the real world that reflects back on the game. I'm not planning a stereotypical 'AI run amok' scenario.

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Re: Mutants vs. "Aliens, cyborgs, avatars, demi-humans, super-martial-artists, secret government experiments, &tc. -- oh my!"
I'm not really sure how to headline that particular argument, but I think I'm with you on that in terms of setting up a superheroic universe. As much as I found a lot to dislike in the execution of the "Wild Cards" series of books (primarily because of the phenomenon of "warring authors"), the basic idea of giving "superheroes" a common origin (it's all ... TELEKINESIS!) was pretty novel. I just think that it could have used a little more bordering-in than that: When anything and EVERYTHING can be justified via "it's telekinesis!" and the only limitation is, in essence, one's own psyche, and the limits of one's own imagination, it leads to egotistical power-trip pseudo-heroes such as Fortunatis (must resist urge to go into rant mode ... again).

Re: Copyright and Generations:
I think a "generation" is typically seen as about 20 years, not 10. Not unless childhood is REALLLLLY different in this future of yours.

RPGfic:
Are you planning on writing a story, or are you starting up a campaign and just trying to settle upon the back-story details first?

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

So far as copyrights and trademark protection go, I envision that this future has seen a number of shake-ups, and 'intellectual property' laws would certainly be one of those areas due for a good shaking up. Basically, it would cost a corporation money to maintain control of a franchise, expressed as a percentage of gross income; if they do nothing with a franchise, they pay nothing, but after ten years, the franchise is considered 'abandoned' and may be auctioned by $MULTINATIONAL_IP_AGENCY to the highest bidder. $LONE_GENIUS_AND_BACKERS would have been in this auction.

This is intended to be a serial story. I'd like to do some writing kicking off with NaNoWriMo, but am not obligating myself to do a novel's worth of content-- maybe one or two installments a week. I might take reader input into where the story goes, especially toward the actions of reader-inspired characters, but I wouldn't expect readers to specify every action 'their' favorite characters would perform.

I'm ripping off the Avatars 'real world' setting wholesale so you can probably expect North Bend to show up. But in this setting, there won't be a 'fictional universe becomes real' deal, the VR will stay VR only.

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Re: Shakeups on patents, franchises, etc.:
I could see something like that happening further down the line, certainly. It could be something that starts with one industry (say, pharmaceuticals, or tech) and extends to others by example. If nothing else, it could be prompted by pressure from governments anxious to bolster "growth" (in the hopes of taxing revenues). Patents and copyrights are intended to encourage innovators by promising them the ability to reap profits from their investments in turning an idea into reality. But if something is copyrighted and NOTHING IS DONE WITH IT for a very long time, that might be a bad thing from a government's point of view, especially if there are other parties champing at the bit to do SOMETHING (presumably taxable!) with it.

Trademark I think might be a bit messier. As originally intended, that has to do with brand identity -- with the idea that if someone buys something with the GARBAGETECH logo on it, he can be certain that he is getting genuine, 100% GARBAGETECH, and not some bootleg (or at the very least that if it's bootleg, it's illegal). If a company establishes a brand, it establishes a reputation. In THAT sense, it is likely to be messy with something like -- let's say -- World of Steamcraft, because World of Steamcraft is likely registered as a trademark, and hence a brand.

I could envision a setup where someone could win the rights to revive the setting of World of Steamcraft, various IPs and such, and everyone would KNOW what this setting is supposed to be, but for branding purposes the new start-up would be required to call it "Steamcraft Reborn" or "Return to Steamcraft" or something that is allowed to acknowledge the original, but clearly marks "this is still a different brand, under new management."

But, hey, your original premise said that the new owner managed to buy the rights. So there are all sorts of reasons a brand that was once a big money-maker might be later on sold for a fraction of its old value.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Since this is a VR-oriented fic and not a legal-oriented fic, I plan to handwave this quite a bit. :) There doesn't need to be a Phoenix Wright yelling 'OBJECTION!' right at the start of the story.

I picture this as being a future in which corporations are quite powerful but there is nevertheless a thriving market for 'indies'-- small companies, studios, developers, etc. working in spaces that the megacorporations don't find it worthwhile to prospect. Thus there was a reference to Randall Cranston being an aficionado of an 'indie' SF series, 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' WayBackWhen (http://tuftears.livejournal.com/71804.html?nojs=1). This series was too small an audience to appear in mass-market theaters, so it was distributed directly to its fans, earning enough to keep going indefinitely.

As such, intellectual property laws need to be forgiving enough that big companies can't just lock up All The Ideas and sue small companies into extinction for using characters similar to some 30-year-ago minor character appearance, et cetera. Also, it seemed to me that governments might decide they needed to be recompensed more directly for enforcing intellectual property law, rather than receiving a very tiny up-front payment and no further money.

[rowyn]

I think handwaving the IP issue is entirely reasonabe. :D

I look forward to seeing where you go with it, especially with the "VR stays VR" angle.

My favorite superhero from the comics was always Nightcrawler. Swashbuckling good guy ftw. n_n

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

And he has blink powers too! Very useful.

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

P.S., since it's that time of year, I've been toying with some ideas myself, a few remotely related to the whole VR world a la Avatars, Superior City, etc., but ... eh, we'll see if I get enough spare moments to actually write something this time around. I'm trying to find a different take than "VR world becomes complex enough and then *ZAP* -- MAGIC HAPPENS and it's real." I'm still waffling between whether I want it to be heavier on the sci-fi or on the outright fantasy, or what.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

You should definitely write something! You could take the Log Horizon/Sword Arts Online approach-- people get locked into the VR and have to figure out how to escape or make do with the situation somehow. If you want, I can write you an email describing my general plot/plan for Heroes In Their Own Minds.

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

I think I'm in a mood to do some sort of "cyberpunk meets folklore" mash-up. (I would say "fantasy" here, but I don't want to go the Shadowrun route of saying, "Magic comes back ... but it all looks suspiciously Tolkien-inspired, rather than anything resembling old myth and legend.") I've got too many ideas branching in too many different directions, and the trouble is, they don't all fit with each other. In order to say "yes" to one thing, I've got to say "no" to several others, and I think that's one of the hard parts.

(The other hard part is just overcoming general inertia. But overcoming THAT is much easier if I can settle upon a particular goal. I'm just not the sort who works well with, "Well, just start writing whatever comes to mind, and see where it goes." All too often, it ends up a mess, or else it ends up retreading old ground, and neither end-point is something I'm anxious to share for show-'n'-tell to prove that I've actually written something. ;) )

[rowyn]

Marvel's "New Universe" (also pretty terrible in various ways) used the "White Event" as the "this is what gave everybody their powers" common theme.

Y'know, I didn't remember the Wild Cards being "everything is TK". I thought it was just "this virus justifies all the comic-book weirdness we're now going to show".

I won't get you started on Fortunatis. I'm just gonna say UGH once and be done. -_-

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Looking this up, I'm guessing you mean Fortunato-- but yeah... Ick.

I figure that Mu Factor disallows various psionic powers-- telepathy, mind control, clairvoyance and precognition-- simply because these are powers that would be difficult to implement convincingly in a game, and they don't *show*. In-game powers have to be obvious, so players can figure out what their opponents are doing on the fly. There's no satisfaction to being disabled without explanation or opportunity to fight back or dodge.

[rowyn]

But mind control is great in PvE! I guess Mu Factor is all PvP.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

No, PVP is optional and Mu Factor players will be (were? Future past tense!) informed if they take actions that could lead to conflict with other players. But any power that exists in the game, the developers felt, should be workable for NPCs to have and for players to be able to deal with in some way, rather than seeming as if the opposing player or NPC had used a 'cheat code'. So, you get cartoonishly obvious elemental shackles or waves of force pushing players away, rather than 'fear effects' and 'charm effects'.

At least that's true for the first iteration of the game. The rules *could* change in the second iteration...

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Well, you could always use the caveat of "Jedi mind tricks only work on the weak-minded," etc. ("Your Jedi mind tricks won't work on me!")

PCs? Generally not weak-minded. Major "named" villains and allies? Generally not weak-minded. Random "mooks"? Weak-minded. And "weak-minded" doesn't necessarily mean "lack of smarts" or "lack of general willpower," per se.

In Savage Worlds terms, it might be the difference between Extras and Wild Cards. In game terms, if you want to go with a "mind control" power, it might mean something like, "Okay, you can affect large numbers of minions, but this power is going to be a mere nuisance AT BEST against the Big Bad." And if the Big Bad has it? "Okay, it means you can't call in the police or army to help, obviously, and you might need to subdue your sidekick if he hasn't yet gotten the 'Force of Personality' benefit." It might be the sort of power that is only taken as part of a *suite* of mind-related powers for PCs (so the mentalist isn't totally useless when up against the Big Bad).

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

True. Even City of Heroes had a psionic-based power for controllers which allowed 'mind controlling' the enemies. It works there because it's a third person perspective and you can easily see status symbols floating over characters' heads.

But for a VR MMO, I just feel that the designers would have made the conscious decision to omit any power that would feel overly... wrong or bad when used against the players experiencing them in first-person perspective. Shackles? Players can still yell at their comrades, and they have a chance to break out of the bonds or other mutants might be able to free them. Paralysis or mind control? Much harder to deal with, especially if there isn't a clear line indication of the caster responsible for the effect. You lose feedback (rattling chains, cracking ice, etc.) when your character simply can't move or does things different from what you imagine.

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Fortunato. Fortunatis is a mythical planet from Sinai -- the one corresponding to Chaos magic. No relationship intended whatsoever!

I like your thoughts regarding the boundaries on psionic powers. If there's anything equivalent to "mind control" -- it might instead be "motor control" (insert random pseudoscientific or Latin term here) or basically just be a "puppet" power. I can also see how being totally disabled would be very unpopular; I can see that in practice in RPGs. Being slowed? Very annoying. Being outright PARALYZED for 2d6 rounds? Good grief, time to go make a sandwich.