Virus.Zone

Introduction

The Virtual Veil does not exist, has never existed and will never exist. Welcome to the Virtual Veil.

Virus.Zone is a modern tale where the boundaries between digital systems, the human mind, and the ancient metaphysical forces of the Gods have begun to bleed into one another. The cause is unknown; a simple apocalypse, a clean technological singularity, the rise of a vengeful spirit, or some other cause. Instances and signs of these end times, are referred to as 'The Virtual Veil' due to the level as which the base laws of physics can be altered with the appropriate technology and ritualism. The rise of cosmOS, the spread of COMPs, and the thinning of The Veil that once kept thought, data, religion and reality in their proper places.

The systems provided within Virus.Zone provide a chance to save the world in one heroic gesture. But, with that same level of power you can put the world out of its misery. It is about navigating a world both totally foreign and familiar, finding great horror and joy and having the agency to make a difference, and staying cool doing it.

The World Underground

On a typical day, the world of Virtual Veil looks familiar. For most people, life goes on. Cities still function. Rent is still due. Jobs still exist. People commute. Corporations send noise relentlessly. Slop content is consumed. The end of the world, if it is coming, is doing in the disguise of plain sight. It says so in every single Terms of Service update:

Something truely alien is in the code.

This is not a spiritual age. Its all too easy to understand something as a glitch, an error or even a coincidence. Most citizens will never knowingly encounter a Sprite, a Demon, or the Veil in their lifetime.

And yet, the influence of cosmOS is everywhere.

If if everything we ever owned had a microphone, recommendation algorithms know us too well. Urban legends and Conspiracy Theories spread faster than facts. There are well-maintained business and buildings that never seem to have people in them. AI is becoming more and more convincing as a flesh and blood human. Communities and people vanish overnight, leaving behind only rumors of something that followed them offline.

The physical world and the unknown are not fully merged, but they overlap constantly, and often shifting and twisting each other in a spiraling reflection. A person can be fully grounded in reality while unknowingly contributing to the Matrix through devices, platforms, or rituals disguised as normal digital behavior. Moving in time with the new waves of technology is closer to stepping into a dream that has rules, witnesses, and consequences.

Most people do not notice the cracks. Those who do rarely seem to find a way out of the system.

COMPs and Those Who Use Them

The COMP is the linchpin of the new world.

Any piece of modern technology and infuse with ancient spiritual capabilities is considered a COMP. Officially, it is just another device, bought, sold, traded and modified. Unofficially, it is a key, a weapon, and a liability.

Forging a contract with a COMP makes you a peer in a vast sea of a virtual cyber-space called cosmOS. This digital land of imagination has been fully crafted, designed and utilized to control the world a deep vantage point. With access to a COMP however, you admit yourself to be a part of the game for control.

Using a COMP changes how the world responds to you. Patterns become visible. Nodes, specifically tailored realms for COMP users become accessible. The Veil becomes thinner around you. This does not inherently make a COMP user special. It makes them exposed. Many wish to harvest the powers of other COMP users to power their own fantasies. Every action taken through cosmOS leaves traces. Every interaction carries weight.

Very few people know what COMPs are truly capable of. Fewer still understand the risks of using one. Becoming a COMP user is not a career path advertised to the public. It is something stumbled into, inherited, recruited for, or coerced. The 'Contract' as it is called is a deeply mentally intensive process, that often times greatly changes and affects the COMP user for the rest of their lives.

Once inducted as a peer, there can be no clean divide between “in the real world” (IRL) and “in cosmOS” for COMP users. The two bleed into each other constantly, often in subtle ways that only become dangerous after it is too late. Prolonged or dangerous overuse of the COMP causes them to literally shatter physical reality, wrapping reality around the COMP past the Veil.

Money, Power, and Freedom

It's impossible to not be affected by politics.

Not everyone works for a massive corporation. But most people are affected by them.

The existance of a COMP, is predicated on expensive technology. All created by commitees, market analysis and decades of product testing, COMPs and their creators do not exist in a vacuum. Corporations in Virus.Zone do not rule openly. Many genuinely believe they are making the world better. They do however provide almost all of the causes for the recent shifts.

Behind the scenes, corporations are some of the most aggressive explorers of cosmOS and COMP technology. They fund research, suppress information, acquire competitors, and quietly eliminate any and all liabilities. Some treat the supernatural as a resource. Others treat it as a branding opportunity. A few understand it just well enough to be terrified.

Players in a game of Virus.Zone may work for corporations, oppose them, exploit them, or depend on them. None of these positions are clean or permanent.

What Is It?

Virus.Zone is a Lovecraftian Cyberpunk tabletop RPG that draws from many contemporary Horror and Science Fiction as well as hown they manifest in modern day bleeding-edge technology.

Sessions and campaigns of Virus.Zone combat localized manifestations of madness, technology, spirituality and the end of the world.

Characters might begin as freelancers, urban explorers, researchers, hackers, cultists or ordinary people pulled into something they don’t understand. Early sessions often revolve around investigation, survival, and learning how much of the world is fragile.

Combat is always a threat. Violence is stylish and quick, but has consequences. Planning matters.

The plot of any campaign can focus on many scales:

• Local mysteries tied to a single local neighborhood or cosmOS Node.


• Corporate intrigue and espionage.


• World-Ending Veil Events that threaten entire cities.


• Expeditions into unstable or hostile Nodes


• Saving the world and preventing all these things.

The Terror of Technology

For anyone interested in becoming a part of the Virus.Zone project, there are a few questions that might be helpful:

What costs are worthwhile to reach great heights?

How much control are you willing to give up for convenience?

How much of your own thought is really yours?

Remember: The supernatural is not hidden because it is rare. It is hidden because it is inconvenient, unprofitable, or destabilizing. The people who interact with it are not heroes by default. They are people who noticed too much, learned too fast, or refused to look away, and may or may not have the capabilities to make the world a better place than they left it.

This is a setting where mystery matters, where answers create new problems, and where the most dangerous thing is not a monster, but a system that works exactly as designed.

Take the Pill, Down the Rabbit Hole