The planet of Serabi is a well travelled spot due to its high
tech-level and station facilities. The decks of Serabi Orbital
are well trodden by all spacers. Amongst certain circles,
though, it is best known as the centre of virtual reality games.
The Real-Vision hardware is made here and The Red Wizard
software brand is based on the station.
Red Wizard produces a wide range of virtual reality games and
entertainment software. It leads the field in depth and
complexity of software and inter-playability. The latter is a
strong feature whereby you can carry forth treasures gained from
one Red Wizard game may be carried over into another. Even
occasionally from one genre to another.
This is done by maintaining structured laws of how the world
works. "Phantasy Physics" is the buzz-word amongst the
programmers. On a more general level the different genres are
cross-compatable on many areas and convertible on many more.
This has allowed them to make advances across all genres in
their products. The strong sense of consistency amongst Red
Wizard games had lead to the highest rate of Product Loyalty in
this market.
The company is run by "The Red Wizard" himself, a long-term
games devisor and writer. At the end of any game during the
credits his analogue appears and conducts a satisfaction survey.
What was initially received with irritation developed into kind
of a game where during the last few minutes any players would
expend all remaining ammo in an attempt to destroy the Red
Wizard. There is rumoured to be one set of clues in each game to
reveal how to destroy him.
Technicalities aside, this has made possible the Event of the
Year amongst all "Virtual People" -- The Serabi Critter
Competition.
Each year the best Red Wizard games are taken from each genre
along with the highest scoring players. They are then run in the
Serabi Virtual Centre in parallel with each other. The teams and
critters from each genre compete against each other for overall
supremacy.
After the competition the joint game runs for a few weeks for
the public to try their hand at.
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The Critter Competition and virtual reality games in general
allow a Referee to take a break from normal play and insert in
any alternate adventure they wanted to play. I did a post a few
months back on how I used the Virus background as a VR games. It
is a great way of using up old D&D modules.
It also gives you the chance to introduce film, book, and media
nasties from all sources against the players in a non-permanent
environment.
The upcoming Critter Competition in my campaign consists of the
following:
MODERN: Bughunt on Ryleh
Your squad of Imperial Marines hunt vicious acid blooded aliens
across the weird un-human architecture of a recently risen
island...
FANTASY: Dragonriders of Prynn
Your staltward band of adventuring warriors must battle against
the recent invasion of dragons from the mountains...
HISTORICAL ROMANCE: Revenge of the Jheddi
The last survivors of a old Vilani Order battle evil elements of
the Empire of Man in the days before the Psionic Suppression
using the mysterious mental power of The Force...
VAUDVILLE: The Pirates of Parlance
A whimsical band of rogues assault and romp with you through
many adventures. But you can't hit them while they are singing...
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The Serabi Entertainment service "RED CHANNEL" is please to have
in the studio tonight M. Neil Hart, one of the prime developers
of "Bughunt on Ryleh", winner of this years critter
competition. Neil, are you pleased with your results?
NH: "It was kind of inevitable."
RC: "So you were confident from the start that your critters
would come out on top. Many people were backing the adventurers
from Dragonriders. This is their third year in the competition."
NH: "They had the advantage of long range weapons and flight but
those aren't winning strategies, just delaying tactics. You
can't win with that, only place."
RC: "What about the Jheddi Monks?"
NH: "Pah. My aliens are just animals, not subject to psionic powers.
Their Weapons of Power are only so much plasma. My aliens just
breed to fast for them. And the Evil Empire were less equipped
than the Imperial Marines from its own stomping ground."
RC: "What about the pirates. There are some accusations that you
cheated by making your critters immune to their singing."
NH: "That's a pack of lies. My aliens can only hear certain select
ranges of sound. It is a defence mechanism against sonic weapons.
When the pirates hit the chorus the left the active range and
were only good for incubators", he smirks.
RC: "It must be disappointing that getting that close it wasn't an
overall victory. There was one survivor from your own genre,
Lt. Ellen, the Warrant Officer."
NH: In agitation, "The ultimate creature of destruction in all the
universe! And she attacks it with a fork-lift! Fluke, complete
fluke. She should have been gutted with the rest."
RC: "You seem quite attached to your critter..."
NH: Interrupting, "You can't just call it a critter. It really is
the ultimate in destruction. When I designed it a ran through
infinite regression tests and self-improving loops. The generator
was self modifying and self-constructing. My aliens came out
of the other end. It is the ultimate."
RC: "I've heard rumours that the Red Wizard himself is talking about
cutting them down. Surely an ultimate beast, as you put it, is
to deadly for entertainment."
NH: Getting angry, "Such shortsightedness. He can't admit when he is
beaten. It's all because my alien ate his analogue..."
RC: "Neil, you do take this all rather personally. Surely, no matter
how devised, you critter, sorry, alien, is just a collection of
heuristics and behavioural algorithms? There will be other
projects."
NH: "Your DNA is just a collection of heuristics and behavioural
algorithms. Did your mother move on to something else after
you? Yes, I have other projects in mind." He smiles here. "But
I'm not telling..."
RC: "Thank you Neil..."