With SB Month right around the corner and lulls in activity in the majority of my storybooks, I thought now would be the perfect time to test the waters with a new storybook idea! I've had an idea for this ever since I played Sword Art Online: Integral Factor a little while ago.
For those who don't know a lot about SAO, Sword Art Online is a popular, still running anime that started with a whole slew of gamers getting trapped in the world's first virtual reality game - which is where the title of the anime came from. After realizing there was no log out button, the characters were summoned to the main square of the game and reverted back to their original appearances. Almost all of them had customized their in-game avatars to look different than their actual selves, so it was the rude awakening they all needed to realize how real the game had become for them.
But while I was playing one of the show's several mobile games, I realized you could 1) make your pre-reveal and post-reveal avatars identical and 2) that you can give your post-reveal avatar an appearance that didn't make any sense in real life.
That's when I got an idea for a fun storybook: the characters are in a SAO-like situation where everyone is trapped in a new game and reverted to their original appearances, but there's just one little problem.
Our protagonists still look like themselves.
In the anime, the people who played the game before it was released - the beta testers - were villanized and called "beaters" for short. The argument was that they should have known better, and should have been doing more to help out the newer players. In this storybook, it's a little different. Those who didn't have their appearances go back to normal are the ones that are hated by the other players; mostly are convinced they had something to do with getting trapped in the game.
So our characters have been pretending that they aren't one of those people.
After hearing about a side quest that can give them answers to any questions they might have, our characters decide to complete it as a party - the only catch is that they haven't told the other members of the party why they want to complete the quest.
Shenanigans ensue as the cast travels across the digital world, trying - and often failing - to keep their secret. The fun of it would be having the characters slow reveal the truth to each other; for example, in a party with A, B, C and D, A & B would know the truth about each other. C & D would know the truth about each other. But neither pair would be aware that the second pair is just like them, too.
I don't really have a world in mind for it, so the game's setting will be mostly up to all of us. If we want to throw in some monster or location, we can! I'm still working on a reason for why they're stuck in the game and why their appearances haven't changed, but I should come up with one the farther we get into the story.
If you've read through this massive post and it sounds interesting, let me know your thoughts on it! I'd love to know if anyone is already interested in joining.
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