Story Idea 2: The Infinite Dungeon (Patreon)

WARNING! POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!

A while ago I said I had four ideas for the next story I intended to write, and that I would eventually ask my patrons what thoughts they had on each. Well, I’ve made an outline for each of the four ideas. Here is one of them. If you have time, please take a look and tell me what you think. Does this look interesting to you? Do you have any ideas or concerns you wish to raise? This isn’t a popularity vote, and I reserve the right to do whatever I want regardless of the reception each idea gets, but I do care what you think. That’s why I’m asking.

Oh yeah, just to reiterate the warning at the top of the post and clarify it – the following is a fairly detailed look at the story idea I may eventually write. If I do, some of the information may constitute mild spoilers for that story. There is nothing really crucial here, but obviously I cannot discuss the story without revealing some surface-level details about it. You have been warned.

Story Idea 2: The Infinite Dungeon

The premise revolves around the Infinite Dungeon – a constantly reshuffling dimension full of monsters, puzzles, traps, environmental dangers, and other obstacles – and a set of powers inspired by video games. 

In other words, it’s a LitRPG story. The protagonist gets powers that turn him into a video game character and he must navigate a dungeon-like environment to get stronger. He can put things into an inventory, look at his own stat screen, and grows in power as he levels up and finds equipment in the dungeon. And he isn’t the only person given this power.

The Setting: 

The world is completely mundane, aside from the people granted gamer powers. These people have gotten their powers at the same time the protagonist did, so the wider implications of people with these abilities is nonexistent at the time the story starts. However, I do intend for mundane people to start reacting to things as the story progresses. The protagonist will try to be somewhat discreet with his powers, but not everyone else will bother with that.

I am still undecided whether to make the setting a slightly altered version of our world or to make a brand new setting with no magic and modern level of technology but completely different in terms of borders and politics. I’m currently learning towards a brand new world – it would take more work, but it would give me more creative freedom (and I wouldn’t have to pretend I know how people in the USA live their lives). If you have any thoughts on this, I would appreciate your opinion.

The Infinite Dungeon itself is inspired by roguelikes, and the way they use procedural generation to make brand new randomly-generated levels for each game. The dungeon in the story is even more diverse than these games, and can create a wide variety of levels for the ‘players’ to explore: seemingly natural cave systems, derelict spaceships, rusted skyscrapers straight out of post-apocalyptic fiction, fantasy castles and palaces, etc. I don’t intend to limit myself to just regular tunnels and goblins here – each level should be its own bizarre thing with different enemies and treasure. Though obviously there is place for more mundane fantasy dungeons in there too.

The power growth is closely tied to one’s progress inside the dungeon. Players cannot not grow much in power and levels unless they descend into the dungeon’s depths and risk their life there to acquire prizes.

The Protagonist: 

The protagonist for the story hasn’t been 100% finalized, but he’s meant to be a 20-something college student when the story starts… meaning he has lots of free time for exploring the dungeon and other things necessary for the plot. He is enamored with the idea of supernatural, and perfectly willing to take risks and put his life on the line. He eagerly accepts the gamer powers granted to him and delves ever deeper into the dungeon, not because unfortunate circumstances compel him to, but because of his thirst for power and adventure. 

The protagonist isn’t meant to have any ‘cheats’ – he’s just somewhat lucky and willing to take risks. But we’ll see.

Other Notes:

The story has no obvious threat looming over the protagonist. There is the mystery of what the Infinite Dungeon really *is*, and why people have been given these powers, but aside from the dungeon dangers the main threat to the protagonist are other ‘players’. It's just a bunch of people with gamer powers exploring their powers, getting stronger and engaging in politicking with one another and the world around them.

For those of you who don’t mind spoilers and want to know more, you can find out more about dungeon mechanics and gamer powers in this document here.

Oh yeah, I have a somewhat silly question for my readers… if you were suddenly granted a power like this, one that starts rather low-key and requires you to risk your life to grow stronger, what do you think you’d do with it? Would you try to keep it a secret or would you run into the streets, screaming to everyone that would listen that you have magic? Would you take risks to acquire more power or play it extremely safe? If you were approached by other players for cooperation, would you be suspicious of their motives or eager to cooperate for mutual gain? How would you react if the government tried to confiscate your hard-earned magical loot? We’re talking a general order for people to hand it all over, not police kicking down your door and pointing guns at you. Is there any particular ‘build’ you would go for, assuming you could choose whatever you wanted?

Anyway. Hopefully the questions were at least a little amusing, if nothing else.