Awaking from a Virtual Dream

[Eldora]

First off I would like to say, I haven't roleplayed in almost a year, and not on this site for a very VERY long time. But I'm inspired to write again, and I have an idea. That said it is unlikely that I will post more than a few times a week, so bear that in mind. I am busy like 99% of the time, but I really miss writing. I was a teenager when I first joined this site and now I'm in my thirties with a husband and child. But I never forgot it or the lovely people I met here, although almost all are long gone as I was. More importantly I always loved the welcome feeling and sense of community here. That's why I'm back. That and, if I don't write something soon I'm going to go insane.

Now that's out of the way, on to the story:

What if a child were raised entirely within the confines of a video game? Not the sort we have today, but those you read about in sci fi novels. Fully immersive virtual reality. Think along the lines of Ready Player One and Sword Art Online and Log Horizon. So advanced that the game's AI produces a lifelike world and dynamic characters that grow, think and learn like people. But the only player is this one child, who does not know, at first, that this life they have been given is not real.

He or she's basically raised to be an NPC in this world alongside other NPC children. They go to school together - though as you can imagine the type of subjects they learn about are very different as being centralized in this fantasy realm - and do activities together. The real child has an NPC family that takes care of them.

On the day of his/her 16th birthday, the family comes clean to the child. They are adopted. And not only that, they were given to them by the Creators. Now this child has grown up hearing legends about the Creators who live in a world beyond, and about the Heroes who came from that world to bring balance and peace to this one, But there have not been any Heroes in this world for a very long time. So at first, the child believes that he/she must somehow become the next Hero. But there isn't any kind of grand quest to accomplish. The world as a whole is relatively peaceful. Well at least they have to know more about the Creators and the Heroes.

But things do not stay quiet for long. Having fulfilled its obligation to raise the child and with no further instructions from the "Creators" it begins stirring to create challenges once again. It might be old programming, but the game knows that its original purpose is to be a game, and it wants to stimulate the child to challenge them, allow them to break free and experience the real world, and at the same time it wants the child to keep on playing at any cost. This logical conundrum creates a divide in the AI that has literally been this child's parent, and in response it compartmentalizes itself into two distinct entities which serve as gods in this virtual world. And naturally they begin to war with each other dragging the now teenage human into it.

So here is what I'm thinking. If I decide to do this as a one on one, which is pretty likely, one of us will play one of the gods as well as the child, while the other plays both the opposing god and the NPC companion(s) of the child. We'll explore what's going on with the outside world and why and how this all happened a little bit at a time. If however there's enough interest to make it a multiplayer, I've learned by experience to keep the important roles to myself, so I'd play both of the gods, an the child role would be transferrable if the original writer either quits or ghosts for a while, and everyone else can play NPCs or enemies, whatever you like.

[Eldora]

Some ideas for alternative titles:

War of the Virtual Gods
Beautiful Dreamer
The Quest for Meaning
Do Humans Dream of Real Sheep
Wait, I'm the Hero?

And welcome any ideas you have as well.

[Headwrapper]

I think this sounds pretty cool! I'm at work right now, so I don't have time to offer up any ideas for a while, but I'll throw my hat into the ring whether it's for a 1 v 1 or a group RP.

I've never done a group RP on this site to be honest, but like you, I've been RPing for a very long time. I cut my teeth on a different site that has since gone inactive, leading me to join RPA eventually.