The Internet as a plane.


Homebrew and House Rules


So I'm working on a cosmology for my urban fantasy campaign setting. I've got most of it done, but I wanted to spice things up and make the Internet its own plane of existence. I'm looking for opinions and ideas.


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In my urban fantasy setting I put the internet on the ethereal with phase spider silk as the cables, and everything is wireless on the material. Just be weary of the ghosts in the machine. Animate dreams are also a lot more terrifying when they are animate memes.


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For a start, the planar traits would probably be:

- Subjective Directional Gravity (defaults to "Fall towards Google" if the traveler does not pick something else)

- Flowing Time (a minute spent on the Internet is equivalent to ten, twenty, or more on the Material, depending on the individual)

- Shape and Size: Effectively infinite (as it is enormous and it expands at an incredible rate)

- Magically Morphic: Some lesser portions of the plane can be altered by anyone with a Knowledge: Planes check, while others require actual spells. Billions of individuals have carved out greater and lesser kingdoms for themselves in the Internet, and altering their slices of the plane requires very powerful magic.

- Alignment: Strong Chaotic Neutral

- Air Dominant

- Wild Magic


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Let's be honest. The Internet is strongly Chaotic Evil.


Will everyone be playing a Summoner here? Because of not, they REALLY should be...

And now I'm sad, because I miss Digimon.


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You should definitely add certain sections of the internet that are overrun with swarms of Korean symbols, which threaten to overwhelm all of creation. Perhaps each additional swarm exponentially adds to the damage (and CR) of the other swarms?


I was thinking a modification of divinely morphic, with users outside the plane being the divinity. Also, definitely has the entrapping trait.


LeesusFreak wrote:

Will everyone be playing a Summoner here? Because of not, they REALLY should be...

And now I'm sad, because I miss Digimon.

Fear not, for another series approaches.

Though if you missed it before now, you should have been watching Savers or Xros Wars. =)


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DominusMegadeus wrote:
Let's be honest. The Internet is strongly Chaotic Evil.

Considering the Internet's diversity of alignments, actually, I would put it at neutral. Pretty much anyone can survive there, though evil's unquestionably got a better foothold. Like the Plane of Shadow.


Kobold Cleaver wrote:
DominusMegadeus wrote:
Let's be honest. The Internet is strongly Chaotic Evil.
Considering the Internet's diversity of alignments, actually, I would put it at neutral. Pretty much anyone can survive there, though evil's unquestionably got a better foothold. Like the Plane of Shadow.

Heck, strongly neutral even.


I guess I can see that. Even though Evil is more common, the Internet is no more inclined to it than it is to anything else. It's just what people put into it.

The absolute lack of control allows Evil and Good to run amok equally.

Strongly Chaotic Neutral works for me.

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Could make it something like the Matrix from Shadowrun.

I'm making an entire setting that takes place in a virtual reality internet.


Neat. For my setting, I'm erring on the side of interesting place to visit, but only weirdos actually live there.

Scarab Sages

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I'm not even sure it's true about Evil being stronger - it's just what people notice, and the consequences of people behaving out of fear of the unknown leads it to be more true than it otherwise would be.

Granted, there would be a significant Lawful Evil influence due to Chuck Norris being a god-like being on here - though that would be strongly counterbalanced by the similarly godlike status of V and all the cats. Then there's Cthulhu and the Ponies to consider....


Bit of context. The internet has only been a plane since January 1st, 2000. An unforeseen consequence of the Y2K hullabaloo.


Athaleon wrote:

For a start, the planar traits would probably be:

- Subjective Directional Gravity (defaults to "Fall towards Google" if the traveler does not pick something else)

- Flowing Time (a minute spent on the Internet is equivalent to ten, twenty, or more on the Material, depending on the individual)

- Shape and Size: Effectively infinite (as it is enormous and it expands at an incredible rate)

- Magically Morphic: Some lesser portions of the plane can be altered by anyone with a Knowledge: Planes check, while others require actual spells. Billions of individuals have carved out greater and lesser kingdoms for themselves in the Internet, and altering their slices of the plane requires very powerful magic.

- Alignment: Strong Chaotic Neutral

- Air Dominant

- Wild Magic

(Emphasis mine).

That's the only one I don't get. Why is the internet Air-dominant?


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137ben wrote:


(Emphasis mine).
That's the only one I don't get. Why is the internet Air-dominant?

I'd assume because of the Cloud.


Electricity falls under the domain of Air.


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I'm Hiding In Your Closet wrote:

I'm not even sure it's true about Evil being stronger - it's just what people notice, and the consequences of people behaving out of fear of the unknown leads it to be more true than it otherwise would be.

Granted, there would be a significant Lawful Evil influence due to Chuck Norris being a god-like being on here - though that would be strongly counterbalanced by the godlike status of V and all the cats.

So an even mix between Chaotic Evil and Neutral Evil?

Whoa. I just realized that V (from the movie) is a great example of a Chaotic Evil hero. I need to remember that next time we have a thread about evil PCs. ;P


Here's what I have. Subjective directional gravity, standard time, infinite size, divinely morphic. Looks digital, pixellated, polygonal, etc.

Scarab Sages

Kobold Cleaver wrote:

Whoa. I just realized that V (from the movie) is a great example of a Chaotic Evil hero. I need to remember that next time we have a thread about evil PCs. ;P

He seems sufficiently Chaotic Good to me....


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V for Vendetta Spoilers:
Wikipedia (on Evey's imprisonment and physical/mental torture) wrote:
Her imprisonment and torture were staged by V to free her from her fears. ... While Evey initially hates V for what he did to her, she realises she has become a stronger person.

V tortured and traumatized an innocent woman to get her to join in a war effort she didn't want to be a part of.

Oh, and the worst part? He didn't even need to do all that to her. He didn't need her to win the war; he did it on his own (though he did have her symbolically press the detonation button). He just wanted her to be a part of it—a motivation further complicated by the fact that he's apparently in love with her, which makes you wonder if he only wanted her involved for that reason. Otherwise, why not draft one of the thousands of citizens marching in support of change? That would be just as symbolically powerful. No, he does it to her because he wants her, personally, involved.

V does evil things to get what he wants (and what he thinks is best—he thinks what he did to Evey was for her own good). He does, however, have noble things he wants—freedom from an oppressive dictatorship. He has Chaotic Good ideals, but evil isn't about what ideals you have. It's about what ideals you don't have. And his willingness to commit blatantly evil acts is what tips him over. You can liberate all the nations in the world from faux-Hitlers everywhere, but it's not gonna "even out" if you're still committing brutally evil acts against innocent people.

V is Chaotic Evil. But he's a good action hero, and could probably work in your standard adventuring party just fine.

V is...not a good person. :P


V for Vendetta:
The movie was not a good thing. Bleuh. Anyway, going by the book, V tortured Evey to get her to take on the job he needed her for. He was too damaged, too dangerous to be a part of the rebuilding process. He was the cleansing fire, as symbolized by his night of waking up in the burning camp. She was an innocent, who could care, and hope, and nurture. She was water, symbolized by the driving rain after assuming her role. V knew he needed to die, and Evey was the guidance the people would need in rebuilding.


V for Vendetta:
Yeah, like I said, I was going strictly by the movie. Which is an enjoyable film, even if it's a crappy adaptation.

That said, evil acts in the name of good results is still generally considered evil. There are absolutely gray areas (such as the famous "no-win scenarios" GMs love sticking paladins into), but this isn't really one of them. He thought that torturing her would get the best results, so instead of looking for a more difficult alternative (finding someone else who wanted to be involved), he subjected an innocent person to horrific torture to "toughen them up".

Good goals? Yes. Evil alignment? Totally. Good accomplishments? Well, the book has some strong anarchist themes, as I recall, but I won't delve deep into that. ;P


V for Vendetta:
I interpreted it as his view that she, or someone as innocent as her, was the only possible choice to avoid a new tyranny. At the same time, he knew her well enough to know she was strong enough to take it. I would say it was certainly an evil act. It is not, to me, enough to push him squarely into Chaotic Evil. Not to mention he was made the way he was in the camp. Also notable is that the book is three parts, and the last one was written several years after the first two. It is quite possible that much changed in that time.


VfV:
Sissyl wrote:
Not to mention he was made the way he was in the camp

I won't bother debating the rest, since my original point had never been about the book anyways and this isn't exactly the place, but this is irrelevant to his alignment. Every bad guy has an origin story. :P

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Will it have a pantheon of cat gods of entertainment?


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Well, at least the Trolls are already statted.


Milo v3 wrote:
137ben wrote:


(Emphasis mine).
That's the only one I don't get. Why is the internet Air-dominant?
I'd assume because of the Cloud.

HAH!


There totally are cabals of animal races like catfolks and kitsunes


Also, beware of that part of the plane where Pathfinder becomes Ponyfinder.


The pioneers of internet planar travel.


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All that adult material, one nigh infinite red light district.


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Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

If I recall correctly Legandary games's hypercorps setting is going to have the VR/Matrix/internet portrayed as an alternate plane - or at least using the rules for a plane.


deathbyflossing wrote:
If I recall correctly Legandary games's hypercorps setting is going to have the VR/Matrix/internet portrayed as an alternate plane - or at least using the rules for a plane.

I saw. It's a bit too cyberpunk for my setting.


deathbyflossing wrote:
If I recall correctly Legandary games's hypercorps setting is going to have the VR/Matrix/internet portrayed as an alternate plane - or at least using the rules for a plane.

Damn skippy we do! The Hypernet itself is a plane of existence, and servers on the Hypernet are their own demiplanes (Darknet for demons and devils, Datacorps for the hacker crowd, Thrillville for amusement, Veranthea: Life & Death for true diehard MMO fans, and then we squeezed another one into the final copy for the book :D).

Sorry it's not your thing Steven! Hopefully it can be of at least some use to you as a jumping off point? :)


I like the Tron and Cyberchase view. Everyone is a program, game character, or visitor.
Data files might be actual files, or books.
In Cowboy Bebop, how the internet looks depends on your program.
Probably want to use a Golarion interface. Sites look like towns, castles, or dungeons. Programs look like npcs or monsters. Users who access the internet will look like what they want to be. A lot of them are ponies or furries there. Yes, bad guys will tend to be Trolls. Many atheists choose to be Lamias.


What about the dark/deep web? Represented as:
Demonic pits or
Shady taverns or something like that


Levels of access will vary.
Mouse/keyboard/touchscreen is the normal access. There may be a lag in reaction.

Virtual immersion is more complete. They react quickly, and bring up screens in the environment. They can touch anything. They can say anything. There are filters and safeguards to protect them from experiencing their character's death.

Actual planar travel allow a character to bring in their own belongings, such as a gun. They can only access the source world through their phones and such. Angels and Fiends will also be there trying to establish a beachhead. A couatl might be a flesh and blood creature. Solids, as some call them, can be killed, infected with lycanthropy, or turned into undead. When they go back home, you can throw them in the pool and hope they survive the electric shock.


Will there be legends of a Deity being born within the Internet?

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