Welcome to a somewhat ambitious article! Below you’ll find a post-apocalyptic world with a vibrant virtual reality environment, a hack for the OSR system Knave meant to be used for virtual adventures, as well as an adventure for said system.

This setting is designed to be upbeat up front, with grim undertones once you start reading deeper, like a Bruce Springsteen song or Splatoon. The system is meant to be light, quick, and gamey, and the adventure is a coming-of-age-online type of story. These three elements work in concert to provide a fun and memorable experience for you and your players.

Setting

The year is 2005, but it is not our 2005. The Cold War ended much more violently, in a nuclear conflict known as the Hot War. The outside world is dangerous, plagued by fallout clouds and bioweapon spores.

This does not concern the party, however. This is all they’ve ever known: Walls, HVAC systems, and a fully-immersive internet full of knowledge and distractions.

The ‘Net

The modern Net began as a way to ensure future generations would be well-educated. The initial experiments with “remote learning” suffered from a lack of attention from students, low information retention, and a failure to impart social skills. The solution was to create an immersive virtual environment, recreating the schools of the pre-war era in simplistic, low-polygon style.

This proved highly successful for many of the important facets of schooling: World history, mathematics, hydroponic troubleshooting, and so on. Noticing the uptick in youth morale, the government expanded this virtual network for other uses. Any job capable of being performed over the Network is likewise conducted there, as are shopping and socialization.

Navigation in the ‘Net

There are two main ways to navigate the ‘net: Bookmarks and browsing. Bookmarks let you go somewhere instantly, assuming you have the right credentials to access that area and nothing is preventing you from leaving your current area.

Browsing is moving through the ‘net manually, either trying to find something specific or just wandering aimlessly. Browsing can lead to great discoveries, but you have a higher chance of stumbling across malware, phishing scams, etc, especially if you leave the Surface Net.

To people browsing, the net typically looks like a street lined with shops, stores, and alleys.

The Leash

Minors are typically restricted to a set of whitelisted bookmarks by a parental control system colloquially known as “the leash.” Attempting to browse beyond the borders of a whitelisted site results in the user running into an invisible wall, and a blue glow around their neck lets them know that they’ve hit the leash barrier.

The Leash is possible to circumvent, of course. The method usually involves installing something illicit. This can be dangerous and lead to scams.

Points of Interest

Tier 1: The Surface

When most people talk about the ‘net, they’re talking about The Surface. This area is heavily surveilled by the Wardens and mostly filled with corporate and government domains dispensing approved, sanitized entertainment and information. You can’t even swear on the Surface.

Habit-Forming Amusements

Habit-Forming Amusements (”Haffa” to the cool kids, or at least to your group) is a gaming zone that hosts a lot of mediocre-quality games, many of which are simplistic knockoffs of popular games. Unlike the popular games, however, these ones are free.

The main area of Haffa looks like a vintage arcade. The west side of it is filled with machines where you can play games. Touching the controls changes your perception of the world around you. For some, this is as simple as muffling any outside noise. Others pull you into the game entirely, transporting you to a sub-Zone with its own rules and mechanics.

The east side is filled with collectibles and merchandise, which you can redeem Amusement Tokens for.

The Galleria

The Galleria is a social zone lined with shops. The Galleria is advertising hell, but it has plenty of places to hang out: A pirate ship in the middle of a water feature (sponsored by a pirate MMORPG which has since gone out of service, but they paid for 10 years in advance), a grotto under one of the walkways (sponsored by GroTech Agrisolutions), and a movie theater with a fire-breathing dragon built into the ceiling (sponsored by the popular MMORPG Heroes of Hieronymus).

Wardens patrol the Galleria constantly, ensuring that the space remains safe and inoffensive for everyone. Swearing is automatically bleeped out everywhere in the Galleria, and the arms race between teens trying to be edgy and administrators trying to stamp out anything profane carries on here as it does in our time. More complicated forbidden speech, like political dissent, is not picked up unless a Warden program is nearby. There is only so much processing power, after all.

Any physical products purchased in the Galleria are shipped to your real address.

Tier 2: The Subnet

Just below the surface is the technically-illegal Subsurface Net, or “Subnet.” The subnet is an open secret, where unregulated speech thrives. Many suspect that its spaces are monitored just as heavily as the Surface, but enforcement action is only taken in drastic cases, so the government can keep all the would-be dissidents in one easily watchable place. Many teenagers consider gaining access to the Subnet to be a rite of passage.

NovelGardens

NovelGardens, or NG for short, is a sprawling maze of arcade cabinets and viewing rooms, roughly sorted by content type. Many amateur-created games end up being hosted here after being removed from the Surface. Profanity is as common as breathing here, since most of its clientele are teenagers.

There are no “prizes” here, that’s kiddy stuff. There are, however, plenty of people in dark corners willing to trade information, weapons, or Exploits for money.

Tier 3: Below

Below the Subnet, things start getting weirder. This is the realm of mailservs, daemons, GPRS receptors, and backbone terminii.

There are no sites down here, nothing meant for human consumption or even human viewing, except for the trained and credentialed maintenance staff. The servers down here are guarded by programs and booby traps, which, of course, means there are valuable things hidden here. And when you add valuable objects to danger, what do you get? That’s right. Fun.

If you want to throw a dangerous and lethal dungeon from another module into this setting, put it down here.

System

Web Page is a hack of Knave designed for use with the setting above. You can pick up the full version of Knave here, or check out the free SRD here.

The major differences are in how distances are handled (squares instead of feet. If you’re converting content from something else, five feet is one square. One and a half meters is also one square.), Spells have been replaced with Exploits, which are spells with a more computery name. Exploits use more variables than Knave’s spells, and this is intended to differentiate caster-hackers from each other in a simple but clear way.

Character Creation

You’re all equal on the internet, so character creation in Web Page uses a standard array of 16, 14, 13, 12, 11, and 11 instead of rolling for your stats. Distribute them among Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom. Refer to the Knave SRD if you are not familiar with what these stats typically do, because they work the exact same way on the internet.

Pick or roll on the chart below to determine your aesthetic.

Aesthetic

Roll 1d10
2. Magical Girl/Boy: Frilly, bright, and stylish. Your pupils are probably a strange shape.
4. You In Real Life: Maybe you hit randomize and said, “Hey look, that’s me!” or maybe you scanned your face. Either way, your avatar is You, no imagination involved.
3. Ultra Cute: Bright hair, bundles of trinkets, and a pink and white palette. You’re Cute, whether everyone likes it or not.
5. Biker: Leather, spikes, and muscles. You’re probably not as tough as you look.
6. Fantasy Character: Maybe you’re an elf, maybe you’re a guy in armor; either way, you probably like dragons.
6. Fantasy Character: Maybe you’re an elf, maybe you’re a guy in armor, either way, you probably like dragons.
7. Tron Lines: Your avatar is 90% black and 10% neon, and you really dig that retro-chic.
8. Approximation of a Fictional Character: You never got the face quite right, but your cyber cosplay is recognizable.
9. Steampunk: You’ve got a waistcoat, a top hat, and gears in places gears don’t go.
10. Soldier: You look like a soldier from the War. Thankfully, you’re young enough that stolen valor isn’t a crime for you yet.

Equipment

Knave (and by extension, Web Page) uses a slot-based inventory system. Every character has a number of inventory slots equal to their Constitution score. Most items take up one slot, but weapons and armor often take up multiple.

Characters in The Search for Stick Violence adventure start with either a Dagger or a Pistol, and no Protection. Characters created for other scenarios start with one Weapon and one Protection of their choice.

These weapons are meant to protect the user from viruses, but they work just as well against users. Using a weapon in a Tier 1 zone will almost certainly lead to getting attacked by the Wardens. Weapons can be upgraded for money by various vendors, though that is beyond the scope of this article.

Ammo is not tracked in Web Page, because you’re on the internet. Ranged weapons typically do less damage than their melee equivalents, however.

Weapons
Dagger, d6 damage, melee, 1 slot.
Sword, d8 damage, melee, 2 slots.
Really Big Sword, melee, d10 damage, 3 slots.
Pistol, d4 damage, ranged, 1 slot
Bow or Rifle, d6 damage, ranged, 2 slots
Sniper Rifle, d8 damage, ranged, 3 slots

Protection
Basic, defense 12, 1 slot
Mid-Grade, defense 13, 2 slots
Advanced, defense 14, 3 slots

Exploits

Exploits are programs that let you do unusual things. Each Exploit takes up one inventory space and can be used once per encounter. As noted earlier, these are effectively spells. Feel free to grab spells from OSR or D&D books and give them a more computery name. If all else fails, say they were extracted from an MMORPG.

As a reminder, every ability bonus is that ability’s score minus 10. So if you have an intelligence of 15, your INT Bonus is 5. L is your Level. I’m making you do math.

Exploits
Feedback: You create a zone of static interference covering a number of squares equal to 3+L+INT Bonus. This zone must be contiguous and must start in a square adjacent to you. Feedback deals 1d6 damage plus an extra 1d6 damage to users.
Prop: You turn up to L creatures into objects appropriate to the current environment. They have a move speed of 2 squares in this form, and can dispel it at will. While in this form, they will be ignored as long as they are not preposterously out of place, or seen moving.
Recover: 1d4xL healing on friendly target within WIS Bonus squares of you and in your line of sight.
Stun Trap: 1+WIS Bonus squares stun on contact, persists for 5 turns or until one square is triggered. Squares need to be contiguous.
Summon Construct: Create cover with a total of 10*CON Bonus+L HP, distributed across as many spaces as the caster desires. health is distributed evenly. For example, a level 1 user could create a two-square-wide construct, and each half would have 5HP. Constructs persist until the destroyed, or the user logs out or creates a new construct.

Scenario: The Search for Stick Violence

The Search for Stick Violence is an introductory adventure for Web Page, designed for first-level characters who are somewhere between junior high and high school age. This adventure includes mild peril and possible profanity.

Like many of my adventures, this includes [party] where numbers would typically go. Sub in the number of characters in the party whenever you see this.

“You’ve just finished school for the day. It was a perfectly average day. You learned about Greek mythology, mathematics, and how to check the fit of a respirator mask. With all that behind you, you all use your bookmarks to return to your favourite place on the ‘net: Habit-Forming Activities, or Haffa for short. A lovely evening of playing video games awaits you…’

But wait. When you get to Haffa, you notice something is off. The cabinet for your favourite game, Stick Violence 2: Getaway Sticks, has been disabled. Its controls are gone, the sides of the cabinet are stark white, and a message on the screen reads

“Content removed by the Wardens for violations of the Acceptable Content Act.

Sanitization is Safety.”

So, that sucks. Luckily for you, [pick a player character] heard a rumor that the black and red teddy bear in the prize section contains a program that will let you bypass the parental controls that keep you in safe parts of the ‘net.”

In order to win enough points, the group needs to pass [party] individual DC15 checks. Give them a wide berth to make up what games they are playing, and how their best skill helps them to win at those games. Below are some suggestions, if they can’t come up with any ideas.

Video Games
Punch-o-Rama (Strength): Punch the target as hard as you can, and if you pass the score threshold, you win prize tickets!
Dance Dance Democracy (Dexterity): Step on the arrows to the beat of the music to win. This game has all the hits, from Uranium Fever to Saints in Silos, the hit song about the crews that launched missiles during the war.
Tailspin (Constitution): Tailspin is a repurposed Air Force training simulation, where the player has to physically overcome the crushing g-force of a tailspin to reach the ejection handles above their head. Winning gets you prize tickets, losing gets you some wicked vertigo.
Uncle Sam’s Trivia Challenge (Intelligence): Answer questions about topics ranging from history to the biographies of bunkerball stars to win prize tickets.
Warfighter: Fulda Gap (Wisdom): This game puts you in the shoes of a brave American soldier during the Battle of Fulda Gap. Kill as many dastardly reds as you can before time runs out!
Star-Spangled Singer (Charisma): Sing famous songs as accurately as you can to win prize tickets.

“You redeem your prize tickets for the black and red teddy bear. After a few moments of investigating it, you find a zipper on its back. Inside is a key with a single word carved into it: ‘NECK.’ What would you like to do?”

The intent is for them to press this key into their neck and turn it to activate the leash-breaker program, but if they decide to insert it into the bear’s neck instead, that works. This is not an important puzzle, and keeping the adventure moving is more important than making them guess what I was thinking at this point.

“You walk up to the main doors of Haffa, and for the first time, they open for you. You step out onto the street and see storefronts, buildings, and alley entrances stretching on for what seems like forever. The street is filled with avatars: Some are normal people in suits, others are knights in shining armor, and still others are neon-colored humanoids with animal heads and tails.

You see a man with green hair and a leather jacket weaving through the crowds. He stops in front of a dilapidated storefront— you think it used to be a virtual animal shop of some kind— and jiggles the door handle. After a moment, he pushes the door open and disappears into the shadows inside.”

Give them a moment to discuss. This is a good point to roleplay the mixture of fear and excitement that comes with pushing boundaries at this age. Then, once they decide to continue, read out

“You jiggle the door handle and push the door open. Inside is a staircase leading downwards. The stairs look like stone, though with the unusually sharp angles that everything on the ‘net has. You feel a slight tingle on your skin as you descend the stairs. Eventually, you reach a tunnel running from left to right. There are stone walkways on either side of the tunnel, and between them runs a river of purple, glowing liquid. So, left… or right?”

The Sewers

The stone walkways are about two squares wide, and the purple data-liquid is about half a square deep. You can walk through it, but it counts as difficult terrain, IE, moving one square through it takes two squares of your movement.

To the left is a T intersection, and to the left of that are some goblins, indicated by the goblin head on the keyed map. To the right is nothing of import, just more of the data sewers.

“Around the corner, you see a group of [party-1] green-skinned, polygonal humanoids. You recognize them immediately: Goblins. Escapees from some fantasy game, no doubt. They start walking towards you, clubs in hand.”

These goblins are hostile and will attack users on sight. They charge recklessly into melee and will not retreat. Goblins, like everything else, de-rez when killed and drop a little data core that can be sold for a few dollars to hackers and datasmiths in places like NovelGrounds. They also drop a blue keycard, which unlocks the portcullis to the south.

To the south and on the other side of the data-sewage is a locked portcullis leading to a room containing 20 dollars of virtual currency, a sword, and a rock opera album inspired by some old video game series. The key to this portcullis is held by the goblins to the north.

Further south and to the west, Wolf359 from earlier is waiting for them.

As you round the corner, you see the hacker from earlier.

“I don’t know why you’re following me, but you’re going to regret it,” he says, drawing a pistol from his belt.

Roll for initiative.

Wolf359 keeps his distance and will not pursue if the party retreats.

At half health, Wolf359 strikes a dramatic pose and says, “I have to concede, that was impressive. I think it’s time to introduce you to a friend of mine. Let’s call it Feedback.” before using the Exploit Feedback.

If he drops below one-quarter health, he will attempt to retreat, logging out the moment he breaks visual contact with the party. The rushed logout leaves behind some money and a copy of Feedback.

A few more twists and turns, and the party reaches NovelGardens without further issue.

You step through the door from the sewers and into NovelGardens. A lively club-like zone spills out before you. Almost everything here is shiny black with glowing orange highlights, and an eclectic variety of avatars roam around the place. It doesn’t take you long to find a cabinet for Stick Violence 2: Getaway Sticks, and you wile away the rest of the evening with cartoonish violence. What could be better than that?

And so, this adventure comes to an end. Reaching NovelGardens is worth 100XP on its own, plus 50 from defeating Wolf359. The goblin encounter awards no XP but does award 1 data core per goblin, each worth 5 dollars, plus the keycard for the other sewer room. Of course, they have to find somewhere to sell those data cores, but that’s an adventure for next week, right?

Afterword

This article is heavily inspired by Mega Man Battle Network, the one hour of .hack I’ve played, and my own experiences growing up online. I was kind of a shut-in and spent most of my free time during high school on online chatrooms, which shaped me into who I am today, for good and ill. I’m not going to get too wistful about it here, I promise.

Some parts of this article ended up on the cutting room floor, like weapon upgrade mechanics and a “digital weather” system to represent connection issues and wider-scale virus issues. Hopefully, those will make it into another article soon!

An unreasonable amount of this article was written while listening to the British psybient band Shpongle. I’m not going to lie, I checked them out for the name alone, and it’s just the right kind of trippy for me. The other musical influence was the song Groundhog from DJ Hero. Great song!

Until next time,

-Garm

Map & Asset Downloads