Hi all,

One of my groups is about to move into Ascension. This is a group with 7 people, 3 of which GM, so we have split the characters up amongst those of us that run it in order to do some sessions where we play through each character's Ascension path. One of the ones I have been given is the Tech priest who has gone for the hidden knowledge option. He is a techsorcist and wants to discover some lore relating to viruses that are slightly different to corrupted machine spirits.

For a while I have been toying with the idea of an adventure where the PCs are drawn into a machine world (hence 'Tron') and have to solve puzzles/discover a way to defeat a corrupted machine spirit or perhaps an AI. So I was thinking what if this happens as he looks at a supposedly corrupted machine spirit? He gets drawn into its created world when he interfaces and must fight his way out or work out a way of destroying it (or even negotiating with it?). Note I would like to stear away from a full on AI and think of it more like a virus - it has a particular objective and parameters that it stays inside.

I'm thinking that as he gets drawn in he will subconciously populate the world with his allies - thus allowing the other PCs into the game. Perhaps though they have subtle tweaks based on his perception of them? Also inside this world I was thinking the stats should work slightly differently. For example more physical things should be based off your Int rather than Agility/Str.

So first off, what do you think of the idea? Do you have any suggestions for how the machine world should be different from the materium and any thoughts on encounters would be appreciated!

I actually played through a game like this before. The GM had these wires/tubing from a giant library database writhing towards us like tentacles, we tried to combat them but we all slowly failed. Even fleeing, the wires still caught us. We were brought into worlds of our backgrounds. It was mostly narrative however, and didn't have much for us to interact with, but it was a cool "cinematic" where we each experienced our pasts being destroyed.

I think it's a great idea. One of the best things about it, you could run virtually … virtually ANY type of scenario in the "cyberworld."

My personal vote would be a corrupted machine spirit rather than an AI, simply because I think an AI might be a bit limited compared to a machine spirit(daemonic, xenos, logicians, etc.)

You could also look to other game systems' published adventures for inspiration with the scenario inside the machine.

Another option is to completely use a different game system in the cyber adventure. Maybe you have a book sitting on the shelf that you never had the opportunity to play. See if its possible to pre-generate the PCs in that system, and have them play through the adventure with those characters to simulate the 'different world' feeling of it. Just try to use a rules-lite system if you go this route, or a system that the players are familiar with.

Maybe ask the tech-priest's player to describe the other players to you, and make their characters based off of those descriptions.

One last thing, you will essentially have an unlimited special effects budget, there's not really any Lore that you should have to adhere to inside the cyber-dimension. Even if the entire group is there, I'd specifically tailor the scenario to let the tech-priest be the center of attention since it is his path to Ascension, making it fit his play-style preference: action, investigation, intrigue, etc.