NOTES on "Virtual Reality Mystery"  (title still TBD)


Set about year 2000 at the first (second?) West Coast Virtual Reality
Faire.  Mostly a showcase for setting and related ideas, but the
possibilities for red herrings are truly wonderful too.

Title and Epigraphic Elements:

	Might want to yield to MITish epigraphy.

	Could certainly do something with "Notamun Town" -- Notamun Faire?
	Then there's always "Alice".

Mystery Elements:
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Crimes:
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We want to get a murder or two into it, but kidnapping and espionage are
good too, and a lot more probably as ways to start off the action. 

Method:
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At a VR faire, the obvious method (speaking in general) is to do the
deed in "public", making it look virtual.  Something involving an axe or
a sword might be suitably spectacular.

Could perhaps have the perpetrator thinking that the weapon is real but
the victim is virtual, while the victim thinks that the weapon, if not
the perpetrator as well, is virtual.  A little too tricky.

Another possibility is simply to use VR to make the scene of the crime
look uninteresting or inaccessible, or even just do it in plain view but
use VR to make it look fake.  

Better, use VR to hide it: do it in a room where all the action is
virtual -- all the perpetrator has to do is stab the victim quietly,
grab his helmet so it doesn't fall with him, prop him up in a corner,
and leave.  The crime wouldn't be discovered until somebody looks at the
room non-virtually.  Or if people were sitting, victim would just sit
there until he falls over on somebody next to him.

Note that killer can become "invisible" simply by removing helmet, and can
come and go through doors that aren't on the virtual map.  Makes it real
hard to figure out who's where!

Victim should be somebody unpopular -- the typical ruthless entrepreneur
who's just laid off a lot of people should be good.  (The Ed Sack type.)
Killer might be someone who's just been cheated out of something --
either a product, a girlfriend, or both.


Motives:
-------

Possibly related to the piracy of some VR software. 

Hmm.  Maybe something could be worked out involving something criminal
or something religious, or both.  Virtual porn? (alt.sex.offered!)

Hmm.  Revenge for killing a favorite game character? Would at least make
a good red herring.  Maybe the victim is an unpopular gamer or
net.flamer.  Virtual lechery might be a factor, too. 

Probably get the best motivations if the victim is the president of some
company; it's a good way to get unpopular.  On the other hand, this
could be the killer, too.  Maybe the company is going down the tubes and
he tries a drug deal or something similarly sleazy.


Red Herrings:
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Setting:
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Technology:
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Society:
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The Faire:
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Virtual Places:
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We can assume that by this time there are a few virtual places, along
the lines of alt.callahans and the various MUDs today.

Characters:
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