Trapped in an MMORPG

[Azaraiha]

I've been brainstorming on a new project that has the main character, who plays a popular MMORPG, that somehow gets transported to a real world representation of the game world as his player character.

Here is some Background:
Main Character IRL: A 15-18 year old outcast
Player character: MC plays as a Demon who rp's as a Dark Lord
MMORPG: Dark Fantasy mmo
I was thinking that once he arrives in the world, the NPC's and other characters react to him as his Dark Lord persona


My question is what is the best way to go about this?

 

[Kazu_Arrowsoki]

This kind of sounds like "Overlord" with a bit of a mix of "Death March to the Parallel World Rhapsody"

 

[Lynea]

I guess my question is why does a demon want to role play as a dark lord?

There are a few ways one can go about it. The first is to set up the game world and present the conflict within it, i.e. why they need a certain hero and have them summon your hero there. Another way is to first establish the normal world and why your protagonist prefers to spend their time doing an mmo rather than other things such as homework. Either way, your goal is to establish the motivation for your MC to leave the homeworld and enter the game world whether he's aware of the stakes or not. It's not so much about the how as the why. The how will most likely come after you establish the why. And to agree with Kazu, there are already some great models to draw from. I think you'll find other rpg stories helpful.

 

[Azaraiha]

I guess my question is why does a demon want to role play as a dark lord?

There are a few ways one can go about it. The first is to set up the game world and present the conflict within it, i.e. why they need a certain hero and have them summon your hero there. Another way is to first establish the normal world and why your protagonist prefers to spend their time doing an mmo rather than other things such as homework. Either way, your goal is to establish the motivation for your MC to leave the homeworld and enter the game world whether he's aware of the stakes or not. It's not so much about the how as the why. The how will most likely come after you establish the why. And to agree with Kazu, there are already some great models to draw from. I think you'll find other rpg stories helpful.

Thanks for the help. As for why the MC rp's as a Dark Lord I'm thinking about making him a outcast IRL, the bullied shy type. He plays a Dark Lord on the MMORPG to get back at those that shun him IRL.

 

[Eduardo Ficaria]

Maybe you'll also like to check out other examples of stories about characters being taken away to other places, no matter whether is another planet, dimension or whatever. I mean, I'd try to get a different taste beyond the MMORPG trend on this kind of stories. For instance, you could check out (on Wikipedia at least) the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, in particular the Barsoom series. A couple of good japanese isekai anime series are The vision of Escaflowne (Tenkuu no Escaflowne) and The twelve kingdoms (Juuni Kokuki). Of course, there are a ton more of examples, like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, etc.

Now I'd like to point out a few things regarding your setting:

• How much does it really matter that MMORPG in relation to the real version of it? In other words, how hard is the connection between those two realities and how they influence each other? This will determine the true value of that MMORPG in your story.
• Be very aware that that real world which happens to be similar to the game will be... Real. It means that people and any other creature have to truly live in it. They won't be just NPCs, they'll have their own lives with needs and their own agendas.
• Nature doesn't give us status screens or menus to navigate through life, so in your real fantasy world shouldn't be neither. Of course you may have a magical device or spell, but I'd suggest to make it unreliable or limited in a certain way.
• Hunting or fighting is not easy: it takes quite a lot of time, energy and can be really dangerous. So, unlike any RPG, you don't go wandering around a village or city killing monsters all day long.
• In nature, the only monsters are the ones we humans create. Anything else is an animal surviving the best they can, they are not waiting to fight heroes and, of course, they don't drop loot when they are killed. Also, be aware that killing can be really messy.
• Also, bear in mind that MMORPGs and other multiplayer games have different instances running at the same time. That's why many people can play, for instance, the same dungeon at the same time from different parts of the world. This means that there are parallel versions of the same virtual world alive. If you also takes this into consideration, you'll soon realize the implications this could also have in your real fantasy world.

About your main character, you might find interesting to think about the following considerations:

• From what you tell of your him, I infer that he's a young insecure man who has found emotional solace in a particular MMORPG. He's hook to it, and knows it through and through. When he's taken to that real world he will carry with him his personality with all of his issues and his deep knowledge of the videogame but, depending on how the connection between the game and that world works, his knowledge could be at least partially useless. This can give you a nice initial setup for your story.
• Also, again remember that nature doesn't give us menus or buttons to interact with reality. So your character may be aware of the power he could have as a demon, but he should be unable to use them since he doesn't really know how to invoke them at all. In the end, the only thing he did in his previous life was button mashing. Here you have another opening to put your character on a trip into maturity and make him overcome his complexes and insecurity.
• Do you like to play games with all the cheats on? I don't think so, that way they become dull really fast. So please don't make your character powerful and likable just because he's alive and knows a ton of crap about a videogame. Make him earn its place, it's powers and the respect of others, that's something readers really like, the evolution and struggles of the characters, specially in stories such as these.
• Still, if you choose to make him Dark Lord, you could consider the possibility having already several others like him in that fantasy world. This could be due to the fact that there are several versions of the game running on Earth at the same time (even from different editions of the game on different platforms). In this case, you should think hard about the connections of those games with that real fantasy world.

And finally, a few thoughts about your secondary cast:

• They won't be just NPCs, they'll be alive and kickin'. This could give you very interesting circumstances like the usual sexy and cute character usually attached to the player in any jrpg for the sake of it, would not like your main character at all in reality. Playing with these expectations can enrich your story a lot.
• Please don't dollificate your female characters like most of the media of this kind does. By dollification I mean reducing the women of the story to be just cute sexy organic dolls for the sexual and emotional convenience of the main character (and an assumed kind of potential reader). This includes giving them proper clothing (cute dresses are NOT armor, specially not against fire or electric spells...), avoiding making them childish and helpless when they're without THE man of the story, etc. In short, treat them as people, not just as cute and f*ckable dolls.
• Don't forget the difficulties your main character will have dealing with other people, being the way he is. That also reflects how the others will treat him, beyond him being a demonic Dark Lord. They might try to use his insecurities against him, or help him overcome them.

Well, I think I've written quite a bit, so i'll leave it here.

 

[ChasingSuns]

If you are looking for inspiration, there's two anime (Sword Art Online and .Hack//Sign) that explored this type of story. Might be a good starting point for some inspiration.

 

[ThinkerX]

There is an an entire sun genre - 'lit-rpg' where this is a central feature.