Cyber-Dungeon Classics II: Do Cybernauts Dream of Electric Goblins?

Deep inside the Dark Web, a notorious programmer called the Electric Goblin has set himself up with a kingdom. Called ‘Uniqorn’, it is a classic fantasy world with a dungeon with traps, monsters, and NPCs. Only some of the NPCs are not digital NPCs, but the avatars who have received an innocent-looking invite to a fantasy-based video game called ‘Warriors of Uniqorn’ which when clicked on and accepted, delivers a technobio-virus direct to their frontal lobe. It causes encephalitis and puts them into coma, which when the Electric Goblin strikes, opening a back door in his victims’ brains and abducting their consciousnesses and using them to populate his personal fiefdom as more ‘life-like’ NPCs. In the real world, the victims’ symptoms have been identified as Aether Blight. The Player Characters are hired by a Fixer to traverse the WorldNet and descend below into the UnderNet to try and stop the Electric Goblin before Aether Blight spreads and becomes an even bigger problem. This is the set-up for Do Cybernauts Dream of Electric Goblins?, a scenario for Netcrawl, the cyberspace setting and supplement for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game and the Mutant Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game – Triumph & Technology Won by Mutants & Magic, both published by Goodman Games. Published by Horse Shark Games, it works with other third-party settings such as Cyber Sprawl Classics, Crawljammer, Umerica, Terror of the Stratosfiend, and Star Crawl Classics.

Do Cybernauts Dream of Electric Goblins? is a scenario for four to six First Level Avatars—as Player Characters are known in Netcrawl—and should take roughly two sessions to complete. The Player Characters, whoever they before they jack into the WorldNet, are hired by a Fixer to stop the Electric Goblin who then gives them the grid co-ordinates for the entrance to ‘Uniqorn’. Upfront , the virtual world is described as looking like “… [B]adly-rendered ‘90s website mixed with some early 16-bit polygon 3D graphics.” As soon they arrive, they are given an introduction to ‘Uniqorn’ by a goblin wizard, effectively meaning that the Player Characters get an introduction and then their Avatars do too. Then they are step straight into Starterton, described as “You are now in a quintessential fantasy village, simultaneously familiar and unsettling due to a retro low-resolution aesthetic. Imagine a town built out of oversized  brightly coloured LEGO bricks, rendered with the limited colour palette of a ‘’90s computer game.” This very much sets the tone the scenario, short of quest-givers with exclamation points above their heads! The Electric Goblin is firmly ensconced in his dungeon at the end of the virtual dungeon and scenario, but the Avatars need to find a way in. This involves picking up and completing various mini-quests in order to find the ‘Golden Dungeon Key’ that will unlock its entrance as well as following up clues dropped by various NPCs in their rather limited dialogue.

Outside of Starterton, the Avatars can explore haunted woods, a giant spider’s lair, a hangman’s tree, and a cemetery before being ready for ‘The Goblin’s Dungeon’. The dungeon is a decent mix of semi-random traps and puzzles, backed up with a decent set of random encounters or events. Individual locations are quite detailed and there are several puzzles that the Avatars will need to solve, echoing the text computer adventures of the previous era as much the ones from the nineties that Do Cybernauts Dream of Electric Goblins? are inspired by. The dungeon design is not linear, but it is not extensive and there are chokepoints where particular items are required if the Avatars want to progress. The worst of these is a deathtrap. Fortunately, if the Avatars have been thorough earlier, they may have a device which will resurrect one of them if he is killed by the deathtrap.

‘The Goblin’s Dungeon’ is the main part of Do Cybernauts Dream of Electric Goblins? and it does feel oddly anachronistic. Now part of this is intentional, it is meant to replicate the feel of a computer game dungeon from the nineties. Unfortunately, if ‘The Goblin’s Dungeon’ feels anachronistic, the scenario as a whole feels anachronistic and dissonant. The problem is that there are multiple levels of reality to Do Cybernauts Dream of Electric Goblins? First of the Player Characters in some unspecified future in which computer games like ‘Warriors of Uniqorn’ were played in the nineties; second of their Avatars entering a virtual world; and third, that virtual world not being a modern contemporary fantasy adventure or dungeon, but one that is decades old in terms of its design; and fourth, that they playing this virtual world/dungeon not as fantasy characters, but as computer avatars. This means that the Avatars are using their abilities, effectively highly advanced software, to overcome the problems of a faux fantasy world. The conceit at the heart of Do Cybernauts Dream of Electric Goblins? just feels belaboured.

Physically, Do Cybernauts Dream of Electric Goblins? is decently presented. The artwork, cartography, and writing are all good.

By no means is Do Cybernauts Dream of Electric Goblins? a bad scenario, either in terms of design or story. It is just that the conceit at the heart of the scenario is layered and the associated levels of unreality demand equal levels of buy-in by the players, their characters, and their Avatars.