Alright VRPG follows the ‘adventures’ of a bunch of people both on and off line in a slightly futuristic world. In this world the internet has more or less been supplanted by the ‘next big thing’ the V-Net. Technological advances have made it possible for the entire internet to be converted to Virtual Reality and at the same time allowing the majority of the public to access it without . . . too much trouble.
VRPG itself has about 4 distinct aspects to it. The first is of course what the comic is named for, VRPG. The VRPG segments cover life online, everything from chat rooms to the characters learning how to host and maintain their own game rooms. Hosting your own room is a big thing here as well, you need to get a license for it as Ford_Rivers explains:
“Well, the sensory simulation of VR is more immersive
than most folks realize. As a Host, I have complete control over my Guests VR
feedback. It’d actually be surprisingly easy to cause a lethal amount of
feedback and just kill someone.”
So that they can make sure that everyone who is given a Host Account is responsible enough to use them a fairly extensive screening process and psychological examination is required. And if that fails at least they know who the one who fried someone’s brain was. You gotta wonder about this screening process though, after all Orige, bull, Black Out and Max_Override all have Host accounts . . .
A Host Account can be used for a variety of things, like a simple Chat Area, Interactive Web Sites and of course, VRPGs, Virtual Reality Role Playing Games (yeah their is an extra R, but VRPG looks better than VR-RPG.) This is the main use that most of the characters (in the comic at least, put the Accounts to use for and where the next aspect of the comic comes in. It helps to actually know something about RPGs to begin with to understand, but not necessary. For complete newbies to the term, Roleplaying Games are games like Dungeons and Dragons, GURPs and White-Wolf’s World of Darkness. You create a character, take on their persona and get led through a world of someone else’s imagination, usually called a GM (Game Master) or the term I prefer, used by White-Wolf, Storyteller (ST.) Look for more information when I put up the Sites, RPG section.
In Character are times when the Characters are actually playing in an RPG and the story revolves around what’s happening in the games rather than the real world, online or offline. These games range anywhere from traditional fantasy to cyberpunk, modern horror to alternate history and games you can actually find on the market to things like Moofs? As you can see it can be pretty varied, hope you enjoy it. However, you’re not gonna be seeing any IC or VRPG strips for a couple weeks, be patient, what you will see though are . . .
Down Time, covers the real world of the characters, or offline life. This can be as weird or surreal as anything online. Most of the main characters, Prax, Seraxa, Fox, Orige and Black Out all attend Dwieduck University in the town of Dwieduck, located somewhere in the United States, presumably California. (Where else would you find such a weird school but on the Left Coast?) More information on Dwieduck is forthcoming, for now suffice it to say that it’s weird, offering classes like Genetic Engineering 10, Prophecy 40, Toxic Waste Disposal 101 and Dealing With Mutants. Not to mention the students . . . really, don’t mention them.
The fourth aspect is OOC, or Out of Character. These things are completely random and run the gamut from Parodies using the characters to events breaking the Fourth Wall. These will be few and far between, first one won’t appear for at least 3 weeks. I’d explain more but I can go on like this for awhile, I’ll let the comic speak for itself.
--Prax