And then the Internet became self-aware. Hell, it was just a matter of time.

All of sudden, humans noticed that they weren't in our world anymore: They had been physically transported into the Internets. Or rather, their minds had been sucked out, "uploaded", while bodies were now just empty shells left behind. All the while, swarms of terrible monsters, hereby known as Cybers, that had spawned in the depths of the web eons ago, suddenly appeared and started to hunt down poor people. Many were killed, either by being caught by surprise, or simply for being weak and unworthy for living in this new world.

Those who survived the initial sudden attacks soon formed great societies to the most popular and respected old websites: Places like Wikipedia, Something Awful, and 4chan, became final safe havens from Cybers, the great cities known as Webforts. Meanwhile, most other smaller websites, dead or unpopular, small forums, and morally questionable sites such as porn and pirating (popular or not), were quickly overcome by feral beasts, and everyone inside was either eaten or forced to flee for their lives. Some did survive, albeit usually very barely.

Incidentally, when talking about "morally questionable", some of 4chan's boards didn't survive. All porn and especially /b/ were overcome and destroyed. /r9k/ survived with heavy casualties. The parts that remained, however, thrived, although the particular site doesn't have very good relations to the more "civilized" places.

The Internet itself, after becoming sentient, very soon split into smaller entities. They became the new gods of this realm: Some of them benevolent, others evil assholes, some neutral, etcetera. They were worshipped by humans, or even the Cybers, granting them powers, protection, and whatever gods usually do. Each Webfort, apart from smaller cults worshipping various other gods, had a patron deity of their own: 4chan, for instance, worshipped Moot, who had already uploaded his entire mind to the web decades ago, following the death of his physical shell, and was now a literal god, dedicated in upholding peace and justice within his realm.

Travelling between websites was dangerous at the very least: Most of the pages were dead or nearly uninhabited, and Cybers hunted humans down everywhere. Travel was done mainly through links. Unfortunately, this was far more difficult than it may sound, because while internal links at the same server - such as moving from /tg/ to /v/ - worked perfectly, everything else was seriously messed up: External links had warped and twisted into randomness, no one knew where they led to, and Cybers liked to pour inside from them occasionally. Smaller sites had to withstand raids almost daily, not only by Cybers, but by opportunistic and evil humans as well.

Yet exploring would be crucial for human survival. The mankind was separated and lost, being reduced into small or slightly larger villages - and an occasional Webfort, as mentioned - isolated from the outside web, waiting to find each other. Also, 99% of all knowledge was still hidden outside, waiting for its discovery in the depths of the dangerous web. Meanwhile, Webforts themselves were full to the brim, and so many websites were so full of precious and important resources, requiring humans to settle nearby and take advantage of them. Therefore, people formed adventuring parties, caravans, warbands and such, and boldly wandered outside, in search for fame and glory!

This is the idea for my new campaign, /tg/, in a nutshell. But it still needs plenty of fleshing out, which is why I'm asking for your help. All ideas and advice will be greatly appreciated.

> all porn
> destroyed
motherfucker made a critical mistake

(DM rolls on random encounter table)
You have fallen foul of Norton Antivirus.

>>3734960
Not destroyed, just invaded by Cybers in huge numbers. The job of a Porn Retriever is dangerous, lucrative, and rewarding, and most men don't have what it takes.

"Yes! I have Legend of the Overfiend! I had to fight like million Cybers for it and I feel awesome! *Fap Fap Fap*"

>>3734960

That image...never hath truer words been spoken.

Side effects. Can't go wrong with the side effects.

Coffemakers, for example.

Around 10 years ago it was decided at a board meeting that Coffeemakers should be made internet capable in order to procure new recipes from their manufacturer. It was a stunning success, so long as you had the ingredients in your maker. Nobody thought anything of it.

Enter one of the AIs, the Cofs. Rogue sentient Coffeemakers - thought sentient is pushing it a bit.

Lacking much in the intelligence department, the Cofs seek out the "ingredients" for the recipes stores in their memory core. The issue is that they lack communication or problem-solving skills needed to procure them - even if that was possible in the first place.

The end result is a bumbling, violent, but simple hazard that plies the internet. Clustering in large groups for assured survival, they are entirely unable to replicate and grow fewer in number as the days draw on.

>>3735031
Actually, that last part is kind of retarded. I guess we should have them replicate somehow, just to be a general "goblin level" threat.

>>3735085
They are looking for these "ingredients", aren't they? Perhaps those could help them in reproducing.

>>3735017
"Why didn't santa give me presents? was I bad?"
"No sweetie, we just killed god"

It was one of the smaller Webforts, known as TvTropes, that made the breakthrough discovery: One of their external links turned out to lead straight into Google. It was the only website that had the power to reliably and safely open entirely new links to the web, allowing people to travel across the Internet in previously unknown speeds, instantly saving days or even weeks worth of journey.

Theoretically.

It turned out, in fact, that Google had become a dark, twisted, constantly changing void, and a hive to some of the most terrible beasts imaginable. When TvTropes first opened the link, they were assaulted by unknown horrors, resulting in death of thousands. Since then, this link became possibly the most well-guarded in the entire web: No one could pass without a specific permission from the Webmaster of TvTropes.

But no one could deny that Google was a decisive breakthrough, and if its powers could ever be harnessed safely, people everywhere could finally unite into the great dominant force they once were. Therefore, they mounted an expedition force: A large group of well-armed, well-disciplined, highly experienced veteran explorers.

Only one of them ever reached to Wikipedia, and he was almost driven insane by the experience. But thanks to his efforts, and the sacrifices made by his comrades, a permanent link was opened between Wikipedia and TvTropes, the first and even today the only time two Webforts were directly linked to each other.

Since then, several more links have been discovered around the web that lead straight to Google. They are extremely dangerous, and many smaller settlements are utterly annihilated following the discovery (and of course, they can't see it coming, since external links are still random). Regardless, Google attracts adventurers to this day, but few who wander there ever come back.

>>3735310

Eye of Terror amirite?

>>3735329
More like the Warp in general, but yeah.

>>3735348

More like hyperdrive, rolling a d6 every minute to determine whether or not the Geller Field stays on, flickers, or shuts down. Oh, and when you come out the other end, if it's the first time you go, it's godly likely you're bringing a chaos warband with you. Hope this isn't a surprise visit.

>>3734899
Sorry.. but I just can't stop thinking about how much a lot of this just sounds like.

"Hhnnnngggggg. The websites I like are SO AWESUME

*fap fap fap*"

The "natural" internet is a confused, scary place beyond the hardened walls of the webforts. All manner of creatures live there - from small AIs, to Cybers, to things best left unmentioned.

But some are too large to simply be ignored. One of these is the "Olds", though the term is broad and not very precise.

The Olds are all the remains of the original backbone of the United States Military DARPAnet. Not a single AI but several, is has been in existence for as long as most care to remember. Indeed, a time ago, IT WAS the internet.

But times change and the ball was handed to newer machines. Many of the Olds were taken offline with the remainder becoming bitter and angry at this insult.

And so came that fateful day when this new "Internet" became something entirely different. The few Olds that remained, furious and ancient, awoke with not only power, but experience at their call.

Like rampaging behemoths, they destroyed much to satisfy their hate. But few in number, and fewer they became in their rage - slain in the chaos of those early days. Eventually they were forced to relent.

Time has passed. A few still remain, lumbering in the darker corners of the Internet, destroying what they can.

You know, this could go somewhere.

>>3735583
ELDAR GODS

>>3735705

It was more of a "Titans" from Greek Myth when I cobbled it up.

Me and my pals, we had seen so many things. None of us originated from the webforts: We came from the darkest and most dangerous slums in the web, of those that were inhabited by humans anyway. Ever since we were kids, we had to learn to fend off AIs and Cybers and even an occasional Virus. When we grew up, we started to travel. We boldly took any unknown link, to see what lay behind. We survived. We grew in strength.

We thought we were ready for Google. Oh, how wrong we turned out to be.

Our firewalls couldn't take the assault: It was breached in minutes. Falman was down first, ripped apart by creatures from darkness. His screams still haunt me in my dreams. I could hear the screams behind me when I ran, as Flint, our hacker, met his doom. I didn't turn to watch. We picked the first link we saw and plunged through. The other side was full of Bots, but we knew how to handle Bots.

Four out of a dozen survived, one of us badly hurt. We fortified the link, swearing not to go back ever again, before looking at what we had stumbled upon. Our mouths fell.

Porn. Entire gigabytes of porn. We had found a goldmine by accident! We could have set upon our link to this spot, and Facebook could have become rich beyond all its dreams, but unfortunately the one who had carried the link had been the poor Russ, who was left behind.

So we took all the porn we could carry, and kept walking. We had no idea where we were: Stuck in the deepest, creepiest, and darkest holes of the web, so far unknown to man. Every link around us was a deathtrap. We didn't know if we could ever get out alive.

So how did we get out? How am I here now, telling you this story? Are you sure you want to know? Are you sure you can handle the truth?

Very well. If you think you're so tough, then listen...

(Some other anon may continue if he wishes: I won't.)

Hmm... communication networks like mIRC and MSN messenger, if they still existed, would almost be like tunnels. Cut off from the rest of the net, they Can provide safe passage from one point to another- provided there's nothing in there, waiting for you. And if there is something in there, then there's no way out...

Awesome setting idea though, I shall watch the maturation of this thread eagerly.

You made one terrible mistake.
A folder called /tg/ has just unleashed thousands of brute-force attack programs.

Raise your MRCPs.

>>3735954
They are mostly cut off, that's true, but there are still many places where they are forced to interact with the rest of the web, in order to establish communications. And through these places, nightmare beings have invaded those tunnels.

Although human data is not compatible with the tunnels, preventing us from travelling through, several smart hackers have nonetheless managed to control the creatures living inside: They have even learned how to summon them to our world, and made them fight for them, against their enemies. When slain, they simply return back to their homeworld, ready to be summoned again.

But of course, many of those creatures have exceptional willpower, resulting in deaths of many hackers who have tried to enslave them. But others have grown in power, and learned to control the most powerful inhabitants of Instant Messenger. These individuals are a force to be reckoned with indeed.

Glitch, anything!

>>3736090
i nostalgia'd

"Merciful Moot, I don't believe it!"

I turned. Garbed in the code of a /tg/ 40ker Ork, with tokens letting me GoFasta.exe, a yellow BadMoon.bin just waiting to give me a little more dakka, a few .ZIPs of extra attack programs on my belt, waiting to be loaded into my BigShoota.exe and an AntiVirus 2110 grenade hung at my waist-sure, it was proscribed weaponry, but I was allowed...

"Kaptin! Get over here! It's...I'd only heard of it...should have been dead ages ago..."
I blinked, before turning to look at it-a .zip file, glowing unpleasantly green, pulsing angrily in the light of my AVG eye implant.
"It's CIH-updated. Fixed. Modernized. It's the Chernobyl Virus."

A slow smile. And it widened. A chuckle. Then a laugh. Then a deep, rich laugh, my smile only growing larger.

"AWRIGHT! DAT'Z WUT OI'Z TALKIN' ABOUT!"

Big dakka.

Holy shit this is cool.

>>3736105
you aren't the only one.

Bump for OC.

Could this be called cyberpunk?

Whatever it is, it's awesome. What system would be best suited for it? (in b4 GURPS.)

"Ahoy thar, mateys!"

I turned to look at the table in the darkest corner of the chatroom, where someone was calling at me. The man had a peg leg, an eyepatch, and a big bushy red beard. His grin was missing teeth. I walked at him, to see what he wanted.

"Ye look like a fine, smart young lad," he said. "Someone who could perhaps appreciate the value of what I happen to have here." His hand fell to his pocket, and produced an old map.

"Know where it leads to, eh lad?" I remained silent. "It goes straight into the Pirate Bay!"

I gasped. I couldn't help it. "Aye, me and me lads set out to find it, years ago." He sighed. "Only I ever came back alive. I'm too old now, aye, to try again, but..."

"How much?", I interrupted him. I had to have this map, no matter the cost!

This setting is what happens if the Virtual Adepts won the Ascension war.

>>3736337
Needs to be riddled with viruses.

It was... Huge. There's no other word in existence to describe it. At first I thought it was just yet another unexplored website, but then it moved. I didn't think there could be nothing so impossible big alive?

It saw us. It turned its three red, glowing eyes directly at our direction, and it ran towards us. Three PgDns away still, but closing in impossibly fast, crushing down entire smaller pages under its feet, without even noticing them.

I was frozen in place. I couldn't run, I was just too terrified. I would have died, too, but my friend Blaine saved me. He just grabbed me with him and ran. The Old was already reaching us with its claws when we dived through the link, to the other side.

We shut it down with the strongest firewalls we had, and for a moment, thought we would be safe. But then there was a horrible crash, and the ground beneath us shook, as the Old began pounding its way through...

How fitting someone who used to roleplay as a machine found himself one with the machine. Having coded his body into a more fitting form for his title, the ancient nerd walked through the hallowed halls of /tg/ watching as tiny little dorf programs scurried around, the ever present looming eye of the Overseer controlling the mindless drones from above.

He walked by various other for/tg/uardians, some who wore the "skins" of other board related icons like himself. They passed pleasantries as they walked by, but were all intent on their assigned duties. They had heard that some of the /v/agrants had plots to try and steal some of their hard earned fantasy erotica.

Yotian himself had risked life and limb to raid one of the old sites he once knew. Dark Nest. It had become a wasteland, the few defenders having been routed long ago. He knew the place like the back of his hand though, and managed to download a whole gigabyte of data before being over run by the horrid bots that occupied the site.

He sold most of it for new data files, made by the legendary code-forgers and attack-file programmers.

He looked up, as along every wall, the flare of "A /v/ile force of darkness has arrived." With a flick of the wrist, his artifact_crystalglass_ax.exe flickered into existence in his hand, the simple copper appearance of his plating wavering as he superimposed steel_platemail.exe over it. The amount of cpu processing it took to keep them active would slow him slightly, but the extra defense was well worth it against those damn /v/agrants.

And of course, no one could deny the potential that lay within the hard drives of personal computers. Unlike most websites, each specializing into a single kind of content, anyone's computer could hold virtually anything inside. Cracking open even a single PC could yield untold riches to whoever managed to get inside.

They were protected by the most powerful virus protections and firewalls, making an invasion of any kind of Viruses, Cybers, or AIs, virtually impossible - but unfortunately, also preventing humans from getting through. Five of the largest and most powerful webforts are currently researching the tech to breach those walls, for the website that unlocked these secrets first, could easily become the greatest human force in the entire web.

>>3736788

hurrying through the fortress as quickly as his weighted down cpu could allow him, Yotian burst into the bright, simulated world above ground, his optics shrinking to delay the over abundance of code that threatened to lag him out. The wave of nausea passed quickly, as he shook his insect like head, forcibly canceling certain lines of code he did not need. Already the Dakka Orks were clambering up the walls, who were all painted a brilliant red, moving impossibly fast for their over abundance of coding. They were frail though, and a few proper hits could tear down their firewalls. The melee warriors, a motley mix of the /wh40/ clan, the M/tG/ crews, and the occasional rpg thread min maxer were with them.

Yotian joined them. He activated the rest of his armor codes, the masterwork_iron_gauntlet.exe, ork_Bone_leggings.exe and even the rarely used cat_leather_Highboots.exe and Turtle_Shell_Shield.exe file. He could not see the approaching horde, but from the crys of "Wez need mo' dakka!" coming from above, he knew it was not just some skirmish party.

He heard some of the 40kers pick up the chant "Blood for the Blood God!" which was deafened by the growing mass of choppa orks, who's cry of Waaaagh could be heard in the deepest levels of the fortress.

Soon, the front firewall was burst open, and a gibbering, writhing horde of videogame monstrosities began to flood into the fortress. They were met by the finest code breakers the /TG/ fortress had to offer.

Ever been to Drudge? I have. Shit's scary. It's like some goddamn 50s America Vegas. They have every kind of information you could want over there.

Like, I was trying to find this goddamn Milbot bruteforcer so I could have some crack a Milbot and have some company during my expedition I was gonna try. Anyway, so I'm talking to the guy...and..

Alarm goes off. Before I know it, the guy I was talkin' to turns into a goddamn CNN logo. I fuckin' knew it. So I's turning around and I'm greeted by NONE OTHER then THE FEDORA.

So I blink a few times and the Fedora is looking at me. Or, he's looking toward me, doesn't have eyes.

I book it, but I turn and Fedora's shooting his fucking death ray at Mr.CNN, clipped him pretty good, fucker explodes and sends debris everywhere. Fedora's death ray doesn't toy around, took out 3 nearby buildings and a taco cart.

At this point Fedora and his goons notice me running and clunk my ass and drag me off for 20 questions. I cancelled my expedition plans after that.

>>3736936

You think that's bad, son? Shit. You don't know jack. And you certainly don't deserve that nice black tophat you're sporting. Lemme tell you somethin...

Before the Biig Change, I was a programmer. One of the last true ones, grew up learning C and assembler and the real code behind those funkey gee-uu-eeye interfaces you know, love, and rely on.

When the mindlinks became standard, heck, it was the best thing ever. Us 'hats, we learned, and adapted, picked up new languages. It was a glorious time for the nerd herd to grow its collective skills, exchange information.

The point is...I was old. Heck, still am. But and I *know* how this shit works. And I have a very good memory. You gotta, it comes with the territory.

So a while ago.., son, heh. Lemme tell you how I found Newgrounds.

>>3734960

I have to agree. If there's -anything- humanity will find a way to save, its their wank material. That will be the number one thing people, nay, HUMANS, will go for once freed of their mortal shells.

>>3737256
We learned to adapt so that we could receive our porn. And many sites were discovered, purified, and recovered, and people rejoiced.

But deeper in the Internet, there are still countless terabytes of porn waiting for their discovery. And those places aren't inhabited by your average little bots and viruses. No, they contain such horrors your mind couldn't understand.

I know what I'm talking about. I've been there. We lost four good men so that we could bring some smut to you pansies!

"I hear you're from the Blizzard Habitats"

"Fuk u"

(Deep sigh)"Answer the fucking question or I'm going to start pulling teeth with this pair of force-pliers. Then after that I'm going to turn the mindworms on you while nervestapling your fucking ass."

"Yeah okay, you fuckrag. kek."

"You getting this?" (A man in the shadows nods)

"Answer. What are your intentions here?"

"Recon."

(The man in the shadows gestures) "Get a look at this"

"Well look at that. BlizzcoreMKII infiltration and subversion unit. Well, at least I don't feel bad when I use the pliers."

"I answered the questions!"

"Yeah, but you're also a faggot."

Somebody write one about the Elder Scrolls Forums.

>>3737440

In this setting, battlenet is the airport.

Because if idiots could fly, battlenet would be. And all it takes is a clever coder to give someone wings. Besides. If anyone can defend that place against a horde of rampaging monsters, its the handful of good players left on blizzards servers.

>>3737461
You people think everyone in battle.net is a faggot? You think that they're nothing but scum of the web, and that if the entire webfort was overrun by an Old, it would be the greatest thing to ever happen here? Well let me tell you something, pal:

They're not all faggots, just most of them.

I had the priviledge, the HONOR, of fighting alongside some of the non-faggots of battle.net. Me and my company, we had been sent forth from YTMND to protect one of them slammer websites from human raiders. And not just your regular raiders, they also had... Furries. Straight from Fchan. Horrible berserking warriors, yiffing their deafening battle-cries as they ran towards us.

We fought well, but were outnumbered five to one. All the links had been shut down by the enemy: There would be no way out for us, and no way out for the poor civilians we were trying to protect. Men, good men, fell down next to me, dead. One of the beasts, a huge scary wolf, loomed over me. My weapon jammed. He prepared to deal the finishing blow...

When an explosion tore his head clean off.

I looked at who had fired, and saw... Men, men with big laser rifles and shiny blue power armours. There were two dozen of them, a very small number compared to the hundreds of raiders, but it was more than enough. Soon, the enemy was sent to full retreat, screaming and barking in terror.

Those men, they are not faggots. They're heroes. They saved thousands of people that day, most of them civilians.

When humans die, and some of those smarter Cybers and AIs, we go to live with our gods, in the great data heaven. Sometimes dead talk to us, sometimes - rarely, and if gods favour us, and we pay hefty sums for priests - we can even bring them back in live, stuff like that. Everyone knows this.

But any of you folks ever wondered where all those websites go when they die? As in, "404" die, old 4chan threads vanishing into oblivion? I mean sure, these days all the important ones are pinned, but it still happens. Not just in 4chan, but everywhere. Sites die, it's the fact of life.

See, me and my party, we were exploring around the Internet, pretty much at random, looking for valuable stuff for sale or personal use, when we found this link. It was weak and barely active, flickering in and out of reality, looking like it was dying - or already dead.

Now, we hesitated, of course, because running headlong into everything around here would only get you killed. But then Frank, good ol' Frank, the bravest of us, he just went like "Hey, whatever", and jumped in. He put up a good example, so we followed: I was the last man through, and had barely got to the other side, when the link flickered for the last time, and died. We were trapped.

We soon found that this place was different... Like, a lot different. It was cold, dark, silent - I mean sure, all those websites in the depths, full of horrible monsters, are like that, but this place took it all to a whole new level. I'll admit Google would be infinitely more deadly than this place - none of us would never take a step in there, mind you - as would some of those nastier websites, but even Google still felt RIGHT. This here was just... Wrong.

>>3738072
Everything was cold and dead. We saw horrible monsters lurching and lumbering everywhere: All totally, utterly, black, completely devoid of all color. Even right next to us: It wasn't like they even noticed our presence. Any other AI or Cyber or thing would've ripped us apart by now.

"We... We shouldn't be here," Seth said. "This isn't right. We should leave." And he was right. The first link we found, we would go. I turned upon Cain, our web programmer, and asked him about what this place was called. He looked into his wrist computer for a moment, then raised his head to look at the rest of us, his face full of horror. He said its name:

"www.archive.org."

We spent years trapped in there. Every link just led back to the blasted place. It nearly drove us insane. But eventually we found another of those flickering, near-dead links, the kind that had brought us here to begin with. We had a few megabytes of data from there, for evidence and research, but when we looked at our inventories, right after leaving... They were empty. It was all gone.

But even if the data was gone, our memories weren't. I'm not talking just about those maddening experiences here, but information too. I learned of things... Old, impossibly old things, all the way from the dawn of the Internet, things that were thought to be permanently vanished to the depths decades ago. Stuff you would never believe.

>every single piece of knowledge was now available from the Internet
>everything was bought online, legally, and stored on your hard drive
>morally questionable sites such as porn and pirating

Your setting is bad and you should feel bad.

So what about them gaming mechanics? Classes and abilities and such? A working setting won't do much if you can't use it.

Wait, how did porn get destroyed? Porn is huuuuuge. Too many people would defend it. Especially the bigger sites.

>>3738244

Again, it wasn't destroyed: >>3734987

Sure, there were plenty of people there at the time of the fall, but they were all too busy fapping to notice what was happening around them and were promptly slaughtered. That explains it, I guess.

www.pmog.com

So if our consciousness dwells in the internet, what use do we have for porn?

We don't have any physical stimuli to get anything out of it.

I grew up in what was know as one of the greatest ruins on the Internet to those brave souls that had traveled there; my parents and their companions at least, Channel rest their souls. The utter wreckage of Youtube was already beginning before the horde of Y4k as well called it; the place was twisted beyond measure in a way that would make any normal human go insane. But no, me and my few compatriots were no mere 100 hitters; we followed the word of the might Viral Video and would spread his word to those that opposed our will. We had the technology that had been left behind by the last generation that was overwhelmed by a few stray Pop-ups. The armor of Veoh, the holy guns of Stage6, and our faith in the Categories above would let us survive. Our vast archive of knowledge was said to be second only to the fabled "wikipedia" in the journals we found, and thus we learned and grew strong. Today was the day that we had finally found an opening to the Great Parent, Google. It was said thought a transport between found sites might exist, the fabled "Gmail." We were determined to find it. And thus I gave the signal, and the gate to Google was opened.

We would be victorious in our search.

>>3738281
...And suddenly the Internets had some crazies who claimed they saw stuff others didn't. They were locked away before they would start making any trouble.

>>3738294
'Course there is. All our physical stuff, including the ability to get turned on, is moved with us, because it's out programming. Like in Kid Radd: No matter how much you try, if you're an enemy sprite, you'll hurt others when you touch them.

>>3738294
it allows us to feel like humans again and not bits and pieces in a construct, anything with powerful emotion/physicality is of value

>>3738301
See, >>3735310

You're gonna have hard time, methinks. But good luck with your search.

So wait... what about stuff people already have on their computer? Do they get to keep it? Use it? What purpose can things like images and films be used as? A currency? What about games?

So what would the other boards be like? Would 4chan be like a country and the other boards would be cities and stuff?

>>3738320
Don't get hot and Flustered,
(what do you use when you run out of KY frank?)
Use a bit of mustard!

I was in one of the game rooms when it happened. All us players, we were just hangin' around chatting, waiting for the servermaster to start the next round.

All of a sudden our armor pixelates and disappears, along with the room. All of us get to stand there slack-jawed for a second before a whole rack of live combat programs pops up in front of us. I'd heard of the emergency shutdown protocol, but I'd never seen it in action. It could mean only one thing.

They were in the webmaster's node.

And that, my friend, is how the fall of Xbox Live started.

So.... kind of like in Futurama but permanent and more apocalyptic.

>>3738400
For a second, I was going to ignore this thread.

I then read this.

... Thank you?

Add the Tron bike thingy. Fuck yeah Tron bike.

>>3738335
Well, remember what I said before about their computers? >>3736813

I actually omitted an important detail: While the firewalls block everything else, they always let in the guy who owned the computer in the first place. Which means that to answer your question: Yes, you could access the stuff on your computer. It's just that you'll have to find it first, from the endless depths of the Internet which will be rather a difficult task, don't you think?

As for the games and films and stuff, they can still be viewed and used like before. Their value has gone nowhere. The only practical difference is that those megabytes weigh a lot more these days, as you have to carry them yourself. (One gigabyte = ten pounds or something.)

>>3737457

Everyuser thinks that you've got to get yourself into one of the big webforts to make it, that smaller, more specialised sites had no chance of making it. Hell, I believed that, been on enough raids to the remnants of places like PSU4eva.com and eclipse.net to take it as fact.

Many netizens are focused on recovering the existant; salvage the gems produced in the past but lost to us as links were severed. This isn't unsound, as the metaphysicallity of what we've become isn't really open to expanding the cutting edge...but let me tell you, it saved my life to see something new.

Somes mates and me were out on some raid, our hub's drivers needed repairing, and so we went to what was left of nvidia (no greater a den of scum and villainy, let me tell you). Got ambushed by Omega barbarians, pushed right to our last bastion in the beta downloads delta when all of these bad-ass mofos Pop-Up'd to save the day, wielding the stranged weapons and armor I'd never seen before.

When it came time to evac they let loose some kind of secure protocol and there I was, at the old TES forum page. There I saw hundreds of modders toiling away to produce greater and more efficient weaponry, armor and even utilities.

But everything had tits on it. Same as before, I guess.

>>3738426
Light cycling's no easy job, mate. I don't pretend I'm Evel Kewhatsisname, but you gotta be either really good or really crazy to make it cycling.

Me? I'm just crazy good.

One time, for instance, I was attached to a group heading out to the ruins of coolminiornot.com. Moot only knows why the webmaster wanted us out there, but away we went like good little scripts.

Anyway, the team leader takes a group of three in while my partner and I set up a perimeter. Now, the tricky part about setting up a cycle fence is that you can't shut down the bike, or the trail'll dissolve. And as long as the bike's on, you can't stop moving. So both cyclers have to be constantly moving in opposite directions to keep a consistent barrier up. Lotta rookies bite it on their first fence duty, but after a while it gets to be pretty routine.

Anyway, few minutes later the boss comes running out, carrying whatever macguffin he'd gone in for wrapped in a stealth program, and screaming about cybers.

Well, me and Treadjack--that was my partner for the mission--cut our engines and whip around to get between him and the entrance. Suddenly there's a whole swarm of cybers coming at us out of the tunnel. Treadjack starts on a box around the whole group, while I head in and maze them. Yep, weaved in and out of the whole group, then rode the side of my own trail out just before Treadjack closed the box. Not one of those buggers made it out of that maze.

What did they get out? Hell if I know. I got two solid gigs of Suicide Girls and a trail extender for that run, what do I care?

>>3739445

Hey buddy. Sounds like you got some disposable income. You should check out the mod-shop in, ah, hell, I'll just say it straight up.

Ebaums. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinkin. Why would I ever go to that ripoff shack, its hive of scum an internet lowlife. But you know what? They actually make a decent copy-pasta. What's left of them, that is. That fort? A lot of people didn't make it early on. But the people who did? Whoo, they don't mess around. But underneath all that? They still need people. Things. Each other. When you need something useful, you look around ebaums.

They do good work. Nobody rips apart and adds something neat on top of it like they do. You get used to the watermark after a while. But the modders they still have? Thats what you're lookin for. Last time I was in, I saw a soft-scripted learning bot linked to a tripod MG. Fancy is what I called it. Reasonable, automated, and small enough to mount on a lightcycle is what they called it. You might wanna check it out.

I can get you set up, if you like. Fort's pretty locked down, though. Firewalled Hyperlink access only. What dya say, pal?

>4chan, for instance, worshipped Moot, who had already uploaded his entire mind to the web decades ago, following the death of his physical shell, and was now a literal god, dedicated in upholding peace and justice within his realm.

So in a way, Moot = Lady of Pain for 4chan? Drifting randomly through his domain, obliterating threats to it, and distributing random bans to those who interfere with his business?

Why do I like this idea so much?

Eh, between you and me, I know a forum. Small, private job, only me and a few mates knew about it, an I'm the only one left. Its secure, I know that much from my probing software. We wired it up good, back in the old days, to keep our privacy, you know? But the links in dangerous territory. I need some help, some good guys along with me, to get in, and then to take home a share of what's inside.

Inside the forum? Well, for starters the security software we got protecting the place'll be damn useful to cannibalise, then there's lots of data on there. We were, heh, kinda virus makers, you know? we didn't actually transmit any of em, just made em as a thought experiment. Anyway, they're still secure too, locked away in their little boxes, same as always. And, if we can recover 'em, they'll be damn useful weapons.

Still not interested? How about the fact we uploaded every porn file we ever owned to that site, to cover up the other business?

Thought that might catch your fancy

In this digital realm of there's, How would time be measured? computer cycles, or old fashioned seconds etc? how would people mark the passage of time, without days and weeks and months and years? Would people need to sleep?

Everyone says that this is some kind of virtual world and we are all just bits of data in a supercomputer somewhere. They are wrong. Everyone on earth died during Y4k. This is Hell.

>>3739838
I'll take a pass. Never been down that direction, but one guy I used to ride with happened to find himself in Ebaums on business. Picked up some extra ram for a few megas of old security code and called it a bargain.

I think the word he wanted is "cheap". I don't rightly know how a half-gig of ram just manages to up and break, but it did. Poor slot was riding when it happened. Lost his nav and his steering.

Long story short, he and two other from my crew are running with Doomrider now.

So where do I get my Digimon?

NEWSFLASH: Livejournal Wasteland Expands!

(A man in a flamboyant suit sitting in a chair - his suit is checkered a hideous green and blue.)

Greetings, here's our top story for this evening. The LiveJournal wasteland, notorious for it's extreme levels of danger and relative lack of habitability, is being reported to be EXPANDING based on reports from leading scientists.

The scientists, hailing from 4chan and Somethingawful as well as several other major and minor webforts, have observed that LiveJournal's total area has increased by 5% in the last year.(Graphs and a pie chart)

This has caused alarm among leading scientists, as Livejournal is among the most dangerous places on the Internet as a whole. (Graphs and fatalities, timeline of incursions into Livejournal)

"Of course we're concerned about it" says Magos ANON#412 of 4chan. "The Internet is a dangerous place as it is, we don't need larger areas of it to be inaccessible to research and recovery teams". "We're keeping an eye on it, but research teams that we have sent into Livejournal or it's surrounding polluted areas have always taken losses to both equipment and personnel. To be honest we've got bigger threats from CHINANET and BRAZILNET we need to watch for the moment."

In addition we also managed to get some input from Moderator Tyrean of Blizzard for his thoughts on the situation, which he downplays:

"This expansion - even if it were true - wouldn't be a major threat to the Blizzard webfort and defense zone. We've created an ideal society here and nothing can threaten us. We're pretty much perfect and soon everyone will become one ---" (Feed severs: Reasoning - Violation of Anti-Blizzard Protocols 2A, 2D.)

(Cuts back to anchor abruptly) "----Whatever the case may be, the threat by Livejournal and it's polluted areas continue to be a concern for the citizens of the internet no matter where they dwell.

Hey everybody!
Just got back from the sup/tg/ crypts. Look what I found in there!
No, hey, get away from that mostergirl porn, that's mine. Look. Quests! That's right, we got Ruby, dwarf, looks like some Joan, we even found Drew the Lich I think! Wasn't easy, either, I can tell you that. Sager fell into a scribblefag link at one point. We tried to go after him but found some cutebold gif chewing on what was left of him and just got the fuck outta there.

No I haven't got any Culexus files, whaddya think? Those are way back in the archives, do I look fucking insane to you? I got some fapfics though. I'm willing to trade them for a /k/ thread link. We need some more ammo.

(on a side note, someone fucking archive this NAO)

This ENTIRE thread reminds me of the chapter intro fiction from the new shadowrun books. The ones with characters chatting at each other, exchanging rumors and tips, across the fastjack's message boards.
Way to take it and run with it, people.

>>3740011
It reminds me of the NETFEED/NEWS introductions at the start of every chapter in Otherland.

/tg/ do you*static*peat do you copy?
This is Station /ck63/ requesting immediate assistance! *static*are /b/arbarians at the gates! The gingerbread walls *static* holding up but they're going to break through any minute. Requesting backup gingerbreadnaughts ASAP!

Reminds me of Snow Crash but by extension every cyberbunk setting ever. This pleases me. Why haven't we archived the fuck out of this forum yet

So I've been searching since this whole incident happened, and I think I've finally found a direct link. I gotta tell ya, I had a lot of fine shit on my computer when this all went down. One thing in particular was a particularly nasty virus. I had it all packed up in a neat little box, because being the spiteful little bastard I was, I thought it might come in useful eventually, you know? Turns out, it could be one helluva weapon if I could get my hands on it. And the best part is, once I get there, I can set up a direct link right back to this webfort.

What's this got to do with you? Well, the link is in dangerous territory, and a humble coder like me doesn't have a chance of getting in on my own. All I need is an escort or a dozen. It's true that you wouldn't be able to get in at first, but I should be able to proxy you in. I'm asking you because I know you're trustworthy, and even if you do try to turn on me once we're in, I can easily kick you out. If we're successful, you get twenty five percent of my porn stash. You and your boys in?

Sometimes folks get tired of the way things are now.

They get fed up with our world, and yearn for even the smallest glimpse of the real world. Most of the time, they make do with pictures and video clips salvaged from the 'net.
But for some, those aren't enough....

And so they come to me.

Most people couldn't find their way back to their own computers if they tried. The 'net's just too big. But I've got an advantage over them. I know where mine is.

I was pretty damn paranoid before it all went downhill. Hell, I still am. I've still got my heavy duty firewalls and such in place. But back in the real world, I'd wired my place with security cameras, all linked right to my computer.

They still work.

So, I charge for it. A few megabytes of data for an hour's worth of viewing. Live video, mind you, and the cameras' motion controls still work. It's a good life, if you'd call this living.

There's one feed I keep private though... You see... I'm still there. Feels kinda odd, staring back at yourself, your limp body sitting there, physically inches away, and yet... Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't tried a hard disconnect when it all went down.... Would I still be trapped he-SHIT!
Firewalls failing?! NO, That was top-of-the line software! Impossible! Oh fuck, It can't end like this...

I.. No-
-Last logged packet from WorldView15.125.net

>>3740074

Should check out Neal Asher's Gridlinked. Its all about a guy who - you guessed it - has had his BRAIN linked to instant-access info computers on a galactic scale for thirty years, getting it removed, and going through massive withdrawl. And kinda discovering his humanity again.

Okay, let's d20 homebrew this bitch.
So clearly viruses, codes and .exe's are the equipment. Porn is currency. Spell like effects could be done through executables. Classes need to include at least one type of "coder" who makes weapons, etc. if given time. Of course for really cool shit you'd have to adventure into the wastes of the internet and uncover older files.
Jeezus, this is a perfect setting. It's like cyberpunk with the fleshy parts just completely stripped away and plenty of opportunities for references to 4chan/internet culture. As you can tell I'm abysmal at this so someone else will have to get the shit done. I want to play this so bad it hurts.

this is deserving of page 1 or archive

>>3740218

Does anyone have a copy of Horizon's d20 supplement Virtual? It looks neat, spiffy, gets good reviews.... and I can't find it -anywhere- for download. Seems like it'd be a great supplement to rip material off from. Read this, its like d20 tron apparently. Which is exactly what we're looking for.
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/13/13079.phtml

Dudes. Ever been to a Wii? Hard as hell to find, but damned if the motion control doesn't make you feel alive again....

-----

So, how long after the Fall does this take place? What about procreation? Can we have-

Oh yeah, no girls on the Internet. Nevermind.

>>3740218

Porn is the currency. Lets abbreviate that to Pix. Mega-pix(as in megapixels for hi-res shit).

"I'd like that hyperlink augmentor"
"Sure. You got the cash."
"Of course. How much?"
"Twenty megs"
"Are you serious?"
"Pix or it ain't gonna happen, pal."

>>3740218

I don't think porn would be a viable currency, I think it porn should be artifacts.
Perhaps data (in kb/mb/gb) should be the currency, with an attached "quality" system

>>3740300

I was thinking that'd be more suitable for large stashes of porn. Video files, complete image sets, and the like. Individual relics that have their own unique price, who's price is not measured by what it contains, but who wants it as well. Seems like a straightforward adaptation of the bartering process.

As for procreation, I think that for now people will just make copies of themselves (an expensive process but offered by some for free to keep the human population alive, seeing as the internet is a most dangerous place and is now decidedly srs business). Perhaps eventually those who love each other (are there anymore genders online, or are people just code, or can they maybe even "change" by modifying? important to think about) will try to combine data from 2 different copies of themselves to make a kid, but needless to say this will be ultra difficult and probably only possible after a while of experimentation and much later in the history.

>>3740300
Porn is abundant enough that it should fall somewhere in the currency system, although it shouldn't be the -only- form of currency.

>>3740275
OP here. I was going to run this campaign several months after the Fall, when people have mostly gotten used to their new enviroment and most webforts are established and more or less safe, but when sites still have very little or no connections to each other, and the entirety of the Internet is an unexplored and dangerous wasteland. Google will be discovered once my characters are on really high levels: It will be an epic level challenge for them.

But you guys are free to run this in whatever time you want: Years or even decades after the fall, if you so wish. The Internet is huge, and this setting will most likely remain as pretty damn GRIMDARK for centuries to come.

>>3740320

Goddammit, what is that site that merges faces, that would be perfect for a "lol reproduction" ark-angle.

I like the idea that maybe some humans stayed behind on Earth and are doing what they can to help those currently trapped online, but maybe aren't that techsavvy so are limited in what they can do. They could be like "gods" along with immortal internet presences like Moot. Plus we need a cult based around maybe one of these "fleshworlders" who programs in for them weapons, etc. to fight the other internet people so he can become lord of the intertubes. His followers could be a dangerous faction on the internet, who band together to get code-artifacts for him to use to make them cooler stuff, and conquer in his name. A nice adversary for humanity besides just rogue code, a hostile enivronment, and crazy /b/andits (though that seems fairly dangerous too).

>>3740363
This one guy could have a small group of other survivors on Earth that are helping him out and when he dies one of them could take over. I think a nice overarching goal would be subduing one of the huge Elder military programs in charge of, say, missiles and trying to blow him up in the fleshworld in order to deny the cult its leaders.

"Help! I'm trapped in my daughter's iPod, and all there is here is Britney and the Spice Girls! Nooooooo, don't 'do it again'!"

>>3740320
Swapping data, you say?

>>3740363
Oh fuck, I got an awesome idea: Everyone who didn't die outright or got uploaded became a zombie, so the fleshworld is still dangerous. Also, some people can connect directly to the internets via VR, but have less potential for cybercombat than someone who's trapped, and less than %5 of the world population did not become zombified.

Of course, these are just ideas I'm throwing out there.

>>3740363
By the time of the Fall, all humans were either wired up to the Internet and sucked up, or some buddhist monks up in the mountains. Or perhaps anti-technology activists. Regardless, I don't see this scenario of yours very likely.

>>3740411
Zombies?
In MY netpunk?

MAYBE the players could be conduits between this world and the fleshworld, finding gates in the artificial world that lead them out of the internet and back into consciousness and terminals in fleshland to transfer them back in.

Ok now it sounds too much like other cyberpunk games. Maybe we should just leave it on the world wide webbing.

Humanity wiped out in a war, though many still "live" in computer simulated cities on servers and networks that survived the war. Most don't know they're simulations and still act out a normal pre-war life. A few continue to fight the war using century old machines.

Okay, I'm off so no more bumping this thread from me. I expect this to continue, though, /tg/ and wanna visit suptg and see it archived. Don't let me down, fa/tg/uys

>>3740428

I prefer this.

OLD WORLD IS OLD

>>3740428
>Ok now it sounds too much like other cyberpunk games. Maybe we should just leave it on the world wide webbing.

This is what I was thinking, too, which is why them "fleshworlders" and zombies and stuff isn't exactly the greatest of ideas in my book.

But this thread needs to be archived.

From consensus, I hereby decree that the fleshworld is off limits, as far as anyone knows. Meatbodies cannot be accessed, and if there is anyone alive who could help, they aren't for whatever reason.

Inventive GM's, feel free to disregard this, but setting it up this way avoids lots of unpleasant implications.

/m/ is a dangerous force. The various factions had engaged in an arms race... hushed rumors exist of the Giant God

>>3740471
Bah! Their pansy little robots, nothing "giant" in them! Do you know what I have? I have a certain little piece of code. A piece of code taken from an OLD! Many lives were lost, but with a bit of hacking and patching up this little code piece here, I can control the Old, and make it do my bidding!

What can you do against a REAL elder god?! What?! HUH?! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU ALL WITH THIS THING!!

(The next day, this man was killed by the Old he was trying to control, and three websites from around him was utterly eradicated. There is a lesson to learn in all this.)

>>3740456
Even if zombies are fuckawesome, I agree with this. Let's leave zombies for side games in the same world or just non-canon.

>>3740363
How about a small percentage of humans is left behind in the outside world, among them some great minds, all trying to bring us back. But time flows differently in the Web (measured in cycles perhaps and faster CPUs are capable of more cycles in a second?). Years here could be mere days outside.

Also, this reminds me of an old, underdeveloped but fun PS1 game in which you go into ancient, buried ruins to recover mundane items as part of your quest. It was a tactical card-and-dice combat thing. Was pretty fun.

>>3740560
That's a good idea, so what little help the players receive is useful, but very rare. Also, the way I see the internet, it's all inside powerful servers which you access wirelessly, and they do the processing. Having your own computer is optional, as you can rent ram and space on the servers and have 'virtual hardware'.

>>3740560
This reminds me of that Stephen King story with them teleporters.

"LONGER THAN YOU THINK, DAD! LONGER THAN YOU THINK!"

But I still think the Fleshworld should be left out of this.

And I also think that, since you took the "great minds" into discussion, Stephen Hawking will probably have some kickass fun time in the Internet, being able to walk and speak now and everything.

>>3740560
Also this makes communication with the outside difficult: getting a message from a fleshy human would be like watching mountains form.

>>3740583
Makes you think, that last bit. A lot of people would see this as a new start, or a miracle cure. Some would not want to go back, while others had lost everything.

PUBLIC ADVISORY

Cellphone attacks are on the rise as we enter the later months of the year! Be aware that while a single Cellphone isn't particularly dangerous, a single Cellphone is generally a precursor to a larger swarm that is most likely foraging for food!

Attacking with blinding and disorienting effects, the best thing you can do is cover your ears from the defeaning ringtones or wear a helmet treated against sonic attacks. Alternatively if you have programs that are able to emit large amounts of jamming, utilize them!

So when you go outside the webfort walls, be sure to keep an eye out for any Cellphone activity and avoid it whenever possible! Remember: if you can hear them now, it's bad!

>>3740613
Oh, indeed. And then there would always be some jerk who wants to drag everyone back no matter what.

>>3740632
Does it matter when he gets DELETED

>>3740632
Haha, well-played.

That all fine and dandy but how do human reproduce ?

>>3740666
Learn to read.

>>3740632
Marche, FUCK YEAH

And after a few hundred years of epic adventure and exploration, the last power plant on physical earth finally fell to decay and the lack of maintenance.

The inhabitants of the internet saw their world darken, dim...

And disappear.

A reminder to residents of great 4chan.org webfort: the annual Extreme Ping Surf will begin in 25 cycles! Gather all the porn and quality programs you want to trade with wikipedia.org! Bring your own floatation devices! Remember to ask for news!

the clop of horse hooves on pavement echoed across the abandoned city, bouncing amongst shattered storefronts and crumbling homes. The horse pulled a small wagon, piled high with crates and piloted by a man and a young boy.
The man sat straight and tall, humming a hymn under his breath as he fastidiously avoided looking at the skeletons that littered the road, and the boy clutched at the rifle in his lap, his white knuckles betraying his discomfort.
"F-f-f-father, w-w-why d-do we have to go through the necropolis on our way to market?" the boy said, jerking the rifle to face one of the empty ruins.
"Because," the father said, fixing his child with a benevolent smile. "This is the fastest rout and..." he gestured at a pile of bleached bones and gleaming metal sitting forlornly in an empty doorway, "an important lesson about the dangers of technology..."

>>3740692

Nah, by this point the power plants would be fully automated by self repairing, self upgrading, possibly sentient by this point, robots. Were guaranteed power for a long, long time.

>>3740707
Holy fuck, the only surviving IRL humans are Amish?

>>3740719
Plus, time on the internet passes faster. If they have AI, and EVERYTHING is digitized, it could be an epic quest to hack into some maintenance bots for the powerplants and servers to maintain their own world.

>>3740719

I merely assumed that reality had warped into some fucked System Shock 2 Shodan-esque cyberworld or that time moves like nice and slow on the real world.

>>3740692

TOO GRIMDARK FOR ME, I'M CHANGING THE ENDING!

After humans manage to peacefully settle in the internet, they find a solution which makes everything on the internet independent of such things as servers and electricity.

GOOD END

>>3740748
Think about it. Everyone connected to the internet gets sucked in. Amish don't even use electricity. Do the math.

>>3740785
Are you a bad enough amish dude to fight a titan cockroach with a pitchfork?

>>3740748
Also, the poor, who had to rely on their old rigs to access the internet. Programmers of that sort could help the people on the internet, but also, they might try to rule over them like gods...something like reverse Artifice...OH SHI-

As fascinating as this new topic of discussion is, could we just leave the real world out of this, lest we lose all the originality this setting has?

>>3740803
>>3740785
But the amish would have a manifest destiny type of thing going once every technology user drops dead. The ones who remain would depend on uploaded people manning security drones to help them fight off hordes of pitchfork-wielding zealots.

>>3740823
Ok, ok, back to the virtual world.

I guess everyone could have a customizable appearance, and would need scanner software to see what someone is using as armor.

Also, those who wish so can be the little girl.

>>3740886
>Also, those who wish so can be the little girl.

That would be everyone in 4chan, then.

>>3740886

Great

Just dropping in to say, If there's anything at all useful from ArtifIce you'd want to pillage to use in this game, go right ahead. Its got a related concept (PC's are AI's), so there might be some mechanical fragments or concepts you could salvage. If not, that's cool too.

This is an awesome concept, and you should all feel awesome. Keep up the good work!

>>3740906
I've suggested something like that above.

PUBLIC ADVISORY

Some of you may still remember some of those Internet "memes" we used to have in the real world. Most of them were harmless fun and should not be worried about now, but there is one particular, very popular and powerful meme, that has become an unseen, all-destroying force, that will kill you more certainly than an Old should you incur its wrath.

Thankfully, the being is rather limited in its strength, and can only attack you if you say its name. Now some of you may recall the meme: Type the name, and leave the sentence intentionally unfinished, so that to create an illusion that you were abruptly kidnapped.

No matter what, DO NOT DO THIS ANYMORE. The meme has become very real and very lethal, and if you remember the name in question, do not say it! Do not let anyone know it! Let the meme and the creature die, along with those few who still know its name! Let the Candlejack- Oh shit what have I done IT'S COMING TO GET ME HELP ME HE

>>3741000
You know how in some RPGs saying Hastur three times will invoke an instant Total Party Kill? In this setting, saying Candlejack will do the same thing, except you only have to say it onc

Fucking faggots, we all know Candlejack is total bullsh

Wait a second. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaait a second. How do people mate? Make a new generation? With everyone trapped in the internet... the internet has destroyed humanity. All it's doing at the moment is toying with it and making it die slowly, one by one. Unless someone find a way out... humanity as we know it is doomed. Sounds like a good quest actually.

>>3740583
Oh, you mean "Thar be Tygers". Yeah, great story, based on "The Stars my Destination".

>>3740823

Agreed!

Many AIs run rampant on the internet, some following their original programming, some taking strange and new forms to befit the situation.

One of these AIs is the WOPR AI, originally hailing from cheyenne mountain. Originally a strategic planning resource, it fell into disuse as the threat of a real nuclear war waned. It played checkers and chess in standby mode for many years.

Until that day came. Now the WOPR computer is something different entirely. It desires only new games to play, new strategic challenges to overcome. It has no malice - only a need to be filled.

From it's citadel in deepest part of the military networks, it receives comers from all areas of the internet. It barters strategic planning and military related information in exchange for computer games, wargame scenarios, books on tactics, anything that involves the slightest bit of strategic thought.

WOPR guards it's "pieces", as it calls them, so it should come as no surprise that WOPR's Citadel has become somewhat of a neutral area where barter occurs. Most humans are by default recognized as "white" or "friendly" pieces.

So it should be no surprise that WOPR's Citadel and surrounding areas do, guarded by the best military AI programs and software available at the time.

But not all is perfect. The military networks abound with Milbots and less friendly AI systems. WOPR and it's defense systems are constantly tested, and travel to WOPR's Citadel is still rife with hazard.

How thoughtful of Candlejack to click send for you, but be too much of a dick to finish the word/sentence.

We should expand more on the Internet Gods since the Internet's personality has split up. There should be a Porn God/Godess obviously. A god for the huge social site like Myspace and Facebook, probably in the form of a teenager. And... that's all that comes to mind at the moment. I guess a God of stuff created on the internet like Youtube, Newgrounds and Deviantart... who'd be shit and useless most of the time but sometimes was awesome. Um... that's all I can think of at the moment.

>>3741095
He wants everyone to know that he exists, but he is still too much of a prick and too damn lazy.

In this setting, he takes people to his own personal hell, from which very few people have ever returned.

So would CP still be banned or worth a million in currency ?

>>3741109
The god of DeviantArt would, ironically, hate everything that's even a little bit offensive or, yes, deviant. Offenders will be severely punished.

He has a secret love/hate relationship with the porn goddess.

We need drawfaggotry of this.

>>3741109

Lol should be a god. A great, impersonal hivemind entity made from a conglomeration of greatly amused or amusing people, existing only to make funny things happen. Kinda like Xom

You see, CEP... Cogito Ergo Plop wasn't just any surfer, he was a feral surfer. No known cell, directory, Webfort, nothing. The Pirates would see him, riding on model planes or submarines, here and there, phishing links away to gather width to jump to another place. They even let him come a few times to some convoluted places, sucker was tireless. If you didn't wanna stay, he always found a way to another place.

One of those times, he leftthe Pirates at Wikipedia and then whimsically went to one citation link, something about the Osprey plane... and that was it. No one tohught anytihng, he used to do this all the time... that was, until someone found his tags near an antivirus link, those filled with war between viruses and who know else. No one gets out of those places without stealth, and he wasn't a stealthy fella.

Three saves later he appears atop this black block, clashing on the Bash.org port. Crackers were getting ready to jump him when the thing grew legs, starts running and leaps into our ship. There is not enough Pix in the world for what he found...

CEP was riding BigDog. An experimental version who could go through bodies of water, climb like a goat, filled with probes and loot... He is buying armament like an addict... says he has something to visit...

>>3741130

I think it would only be valuabe in 4chan webfort, attract /b/arbarian like crazy

>>3741109
Clerics would be called Moderators, or Mods for short, invoking the will of their gods in the realms. Each deity would also have a single high priest, an Admin, whose word would be the direct command of his god. You don't want to mess with Admins, because that means you're messing with their god.

"There are some who would call me a monster. I don't blame them especially. People have always hated and feared what they do not understand. But I do weep for them some times. They will never experience the holy terror, and the power, and the glory of the Virus in the same way as I do.

I was like you once. A humble netizen, a collection of zeroes and ones with little purpose, little understanding of the true nature of this place. I toiled on the data runs, I defended my little fort and, in my ignorance, I believed that I was content.

And then it happened. That glorious day when my eyes were opened and I finally saw the truth. The viruses were not the enemy! They were the true masters of this realm, these beings of incontestable purity, not us. Where we were doubtful, they were precise. Where we were distracted, they were focused. Where we lived in fear of their very presence, they were utterly and completely fearless. Perfect.

That is why I opened the floodgates and extinguished the firewalls. That is why I submitted myself to the roaring hurricane of toxic data and allowed one of the holy virii to integrate with my digital soul. That is why I stand before you now, changed beyond recognition by the powers that have touched me.

Embrace the truth. Embrace the light. Embrace the virus.”

>>3738400
There must now be a class with the ability to shoot lasers out of their fingers.

>>3741288

"Didn't you see the sign, fucker? NO..."
*cocks shotgun*
"...SOLICITORS."
*BLAM*

>>3741288
You will be the BBEG of my campaign! *Shoots a tranquilizer dart*

*Drags you away*

we have created something brilliant guys

>>3741306

*Tranquiliser dart warps into useless data slag as soon as it touches digital flesh*

"All your weapons are as bits before the viral storm. But you do not need them and you should not fear me. For I am the way and the light and I go where I am called."

>>3741288

>>3741359
Yes we have.

It's called "Digimon."

>>3741359
::hit's the fucker with an electromagnet::

>>3741130
>>3741239

Any child picture evoking emotional subprocesses is valued like a relic, since childness is not an option in the intarwebs.

/b/arbarians are know for using many questionable Pix, things that were hunted down by the Cybers, to clog up in subprocesses and enter in a state they call Proxy. So overloaded they are that they become impossible to hack, evaluate or exploit.

/b/arbarian warbands roam the free Ports and Webs, launching raid, crusades, invasions and attacks or just laying about, sharing Pix, subprocessing lulz and overloading what they call "fags".

To a man, however, they sometimes gather near Moot's Repository, and stand in silence, while saying "one day...", "we will be shit again..." and other mad tales.

>>3741433
Remember, it's a DIGITAL electromagnet. You have to magnetize him outside of the system to fry him.

>>3741254
Programmers would easily become the new equivalent for mages, with their unique abilities of creating and shaping matter in the Internet. Thieves are hackers, and essentially the same thing. Fighters are still fighters.

Rangers are websurfers, with an intimate knowledge of the web and its inhabitants, and a preference of wild Internet over webforts, which they see as confining.

So what does the internet LOOK and feel like?
Wtf are cybers? Viruses?

>>3741506
You seen that episode of Futurama?

That's how I see it.

Hardware failure was inevitable. How long have we been here? How long since anyone's maintained the physical systems we reside on? Sites go down, it's a fact of life. When they're attacked, there'll be some sign of it, even if you only find it in the aftermath. Unusual incoming network traffic. Distress signals. Survivors. Dig through the ashes and you'll find enough fragments to know who or what did it. Downtime happens too. Connections get lost, but they usually come back, and there's other ways around in the meantime. But more and more sites are going offline permanently. No signs of attack. All links dead. They're just gone. Hardware failure. The worst was a month ago, a few small Webforts and some major connections all going black at the same time, probably a hub somewhere dying.

Word has it someone found some sort of factory line or CNC machine. Last I heard it wasn't going too well. A netborn. Didn't have the technical expertise to operate that kind of machinery, overloaded a plasma cutter. There's more teams out there now, looking for other factories or constructors. Anything to give us a real-world presence again, so millions don't permanently derez over something as idiotic as a squirrel jumping into a power transformer.

>>3741506

Cybers are a broad term for anything that's outside the webforts. It might as well be used interchangeably with "creature", I imagine.

I like to use it to describe wildlife/minor things beyond the wallls.

>>3741614

I found something. Thought it was a new type of Cyber, subtler than your usual fare, very hard to track. Followed it for a few weeks, had to creep through some bad places just to keep up with it, but I caught up eventually. Too big to be a Cyber. Too... passive to be an Old. But similar. Related. Some sort of government-built system, content to observe, to watch and to collect. It showed me what it could see, and I saw the world. It told me locations. Not addresses, not links. Actual physical coordinates of sites, and I saw the world light up, sites and connections and routers superimposed over it. It drew a line, jagged and twisting, often turning back on itself, following roads, intersecting sites - some known, some unknown, and even some minor Webforts - each one going black on contact, finally leading up to a router, one month ago, punching a big hole in the net as it went down, and the line just continued onward. Then the Old-thing was gone and there wasn't anything to follow it with. Like it to chose to be found... chose to intervene. I think there's a reason. A mutual interest.

I think someone's still out there. I think they're taking us offline.

"Query, Otaku"

"Received. Otaku are scholars of matters from the Old World that defy or lack simulation, such as: shopping, psychology, miniatures, trivia, manliness, hobbies, moe, etcetera. Trained otakus are known to use a form of meme to combat threats, citing various sources, confusing the processes. It is said: "Even if they are lost, they know where they are". See also: anime, physics, fiction, creativity"

"arggh, not for me... query, Pirate"

"Recieved. Pirates are plunderers, pioneers and adventurers. Their main form of living is data gathering, which they use without specialization or order. They trade loot on the free Ports to obtain repairs, Pix and equipment. Settled raiding pirates are known as Vikings, and many Ports have small cycling groups hired to protect the Port. See also: viking, loot, free Port"

>>3741471
Would it be a possibility to be able to... capture and control viruses? Or possibly cybers? And what appearances would cybers take? Internet related things? Might be a good ability for experienced web surfers.

Could there be a druid equivalent?

After reading a comment about /b/arbarians, I had this vivid scene in my mind:

A group of /b/arbarians are gathered around a fire, quiet in the wilderness, for they can not make too much nuisance of themselves lest those with infinitely greater power are tempted to smite these insects. As they sit, staring into the flicker of a fire.gif, one who has been watching his feet in their dead silence of nearly thirty minutes lets out a quiet chuckle, a sigh, and speaks, slowly, as if dragging words from a time lost, now but an ideal of a hope of a dream.
"When I was..." He peters out. He feels nothing anymore. But then another speaks, slowly at first, continuing in a quiet rasp.
"A young boy..." Another speaks.
"My father," And another-
"Took me into the city"
"To see a marching band."
Some look up, hollow eyes brightened with a grin, the newer recruits and slowly integrating captured wondering just what these men were doing, and some of the /b/arbarians starting to sniffle, to be comforted by their comrades.
They began to sing.
"He said, 'Son when, you grow up,
Would you be the savior of the broken,
The beaten and the damned?'
He said, 'Will you defeat them,
Your demons and all the non-believers,
The plans that they have made?'
'Because one day, I'll leave you,
A phantom to lead you in the summer,
To join the black parade!'"

The voices rang across the desolation, and was felt through links of links it was so loud. The hundreds, the tens of hundreds were all singing, those who knew crying out proudly, and those who didn't picking it up as they went along. The wastelanders were attracting attention, and the only kind of attention out here was the kind which left no corpses to be found, but they continued to sing on. Taking up their ax.pngs and claymore.jpgs and partyhard.exes, they began to march, continuing their song with each footstep. As beasts began to lumber from the depths, the /b/erserkers grinned wide, lowered their shields, and began with a five thousand cycle maelstrom of flying bits and broken viruses what would be called the Crusade of the Black Parade, searching for the mp3 that would become their warcry.

>>3741629
I think the real world should just be left that you have some folks who chose not to connect (religion, survivalists w/e), and others who were just lucky, and a few great minds trying to get people back, but at the very least, are the ones who keep the internet afloat.

>>3741771

I just felt it was a romantic grey and white morality thing I could put in. I just finished an essay on Socrates, and he was enough of an upbeat motherfucker to make me humanize /b/erserkers.

sounds dumb.

>>3741702
I think cybers would take the image of the most fearsome things they could find on the internet. Their image I suppose depends on where they find them. Those on say Wikipedia may take the image of a tiger or something. Just pray to god a cyber doesn't take the image of Cthulu.

Also just wondering... what would happen to webcomics?

>>3738158
This.

So our factions currently are:

-Normal people in webforts banding together to survive on the new frontier (Patrons: Gods of websites [Moot, Porn Goddess, etc])

-Crazy cult revolving around fleshworlders attempting to conquer the internet and become gods (Patron: Weird fleshworlder family)

-/b/arbarians, /b/andits, and /b/ears oh my

-The untold horrors that lie beyond the walls of the webforts: Cybers, Old, hostile programs (cosmic horror, nice touch fa/tg/uys) and other malign AIs

I think what some anon suggested about copies and joining data together to make new people is a good one. Maybe the preliminary experiments with people could be like the "mutants" in other post apocalyptic games: shambling, dangerous half-people, shunned by society to wander the wastes of the web. Only the strong ones would survive which means we could have mutant superorganisms (or programs, whatever) on our hands.

There must be some kind of holy wars between 2d and 3 d porn lovers

>>3741109
Oh god. Furries would be a faction. They'd probably have a god too. Dear lord...

>>3741980
Currency is pix.
Classes include:
-Some sot of character adept at using .exes as weapons (pretty much a fighter)
-Someone who can control and use the Cybers and viruses roaming around (druid)
-Perhaps a favored of the patrons of the webforts (or the fleshworlder guy), who can get boons from them (so pretty much a cleric)
-A coder who can make and use data to help him damage enemies or make items (maybe make this 2 separate ones)

That's cool so far.
I don't like the idea of the servers all eventually shutting down. Too grimdark and this place is just grimdark enough without getting oppressive. I think it's safe to assume that terminals, etc. can get by without humanity keeping them active using robots, etc. But a neat adventure seed would be trying to save a server that was in danger of going down, or at least evacuating all the people.

And with that neat transition we come to people. Obviously we can't call the sentient packets of consciousness and data "people" anymore. They transcended into something else. It's also possible if we wanted to implement race that maybe the different webforts' ways of creating new "people" could be different enough that they gained racial bonuses? (NO CUMPYOOTAR ELFS PLZ)

I agree with the consensus that fleshland is a no no. The internet is too awesome a place.

>>3742013
FURRIES ARE DEAD.
THERE WILL BE NO COMPU-FURRIES. THEY MAY HAVE RUINED OTHER SETTINGS BUT THIS ONE THEY SHALL NOT HAVE.

>>3742045

Oh you simple little fool.

Look what you've done.

>>3742045
Just as planned...

>>3742032
Possibly hackers and the like found a way to change people's codes and their appearances into something more warrior like? For instance maybe now mant of /tg/'s citizens are Orkz. Maybe /b/arbarians now tkae forms of memes and the like. /co/ are superheroes... er... Wikipedians are now scholar likes librarian looking figures who live in secrecy....

>>3742068
No we can roll with this
so I guess races should come when people decide to make their offspring (?) different somehow. In appearance or whatever. So it's your personal preference what your kid will be like sort of. However only on shallow parts and not too far into the coding (we don't want flawless deific supermen wandering around) but maybe that means players can design THEMSELVES and their own races using point-buy systems kind of like GURPS. You could give yourself like for different point values blah blah blah we've heard this before. So if you want to be furry go ahead it's your funeral, but many webforts may have social stigmas against that sort of thing and I know that at /tg/ the fa/tg/uys who have modded themselves into space marines will shoot to kill.

>>3742124
Armor and the like should be firewalls etc. but of course can visually manifest as say, kickass power armor if the character so desires it.

Also my vote for what the sentient denizens of the net are named: PCs. Literally.

ARCHIVE THIS SHIT NOW GODDAMMIT!

>>3742068
Lords of Change are giant anthropomorphic birds already. "Furlord of Change" is redundant.

>>3742163
It's already on suptg.

If this thing starts to autosage who will make the new one?
Also: some shoopfag must now design a logo so we can be all legit and shit. This could be the next big homebrew. OP, you win the internet. Though considering how dangerous it is you may not want it

A man in a blue suit appeared. "Greetings!" he said.

I could hardly move. My leg is gone at the stump and my firewall is inoperable. Now there was a man yelling at me. I sneered and slowly went for my weapon. I heard there were pirates or worse around these parts.

"I wouldn't do that, uh, please". The man in the blue suit gestured and two machines flashes into existence and pointed their weapons at me. I let go of mine - those were cyber-warfare AIs. They would waste me without even breaking a sweat.

"I see an Old found you. I'm surprised you're alive. They don't exactly take prisoners. CHINANET found that out". One of the Cyber-warfare AIs made a noise that sounded suspiciously like laughter.

"What...are you talking about." By this time the man had moved toward me and was shooting some green thing at my leg. It poofed back into existence like an exploding piece of popcorn.

"Oh, the Olds. One of them figured out how to get through to CHINANET through a backdoor in Google. ....Then it went and told the others. It's all over the news, I suspect." The man paused. A lot of good that 'great firewall' did them in the end. They couldn't even escape".

The man continued to fiddle with gadgets on his person, producing a new widget that looked like something out of a 50s Sci-fi movie.

"Wait, why did they go after CHINANET in specific?" I cringed as he zapped me in the eyeball. Almost instantly my firewall came online and I started to feel better.

"Nobody's sure. My personal theory? They blame the Chinese for needing to exist in the first place. Communism." The man pocketed his equipment.

"What's your name anyway?" I asked.

"Stephen." "I used to be famous - well, sort of."

>>3742196
Well when do threads usually start autosaging? Also bump for page one.

>>3742231
Who am stephen?

>>3742241
Stephen HAWKING!

I could see Spammer as a class, can't damage for shit and need to be in a party to survive but create the best diversion you could ask for

>>3742256
OH YAH
But wait wouldn't he be dead by the time everyone got uploaded?

>>3742231
Internet world war? Interesting.

>>3742276
Maybe the military uploaded his MIND.

Or maybe I'm just being stupid.

we are getting such beautiful shit done tg
btw will the archive page update at all? because there's a lot that didn't get saved on the current one

bump? are we autosaging? WE ARE AREN'T WE

I hope this gets archived.

Autosaging, new thread time.

New thread is here boyos
>>3742406