Plot, Continuing from Ideas. Options

[Sparrowsmith]

The closest thing we have to a plot synopsis can be found here: http://www.rpgrevolution.com/forums/index....st&p=557072
but there is still a lot of work to do.

Mainly, we need to work out some characters. Who are they and, more importantly, how do they behave/develop?

We have a few character outlines:
-The 'main' protagonist. The first one to log off the game/one who returns to his original body in layer 3
-The fighter. One of the two members of the group who does not own the game. He is an adept martial artist of some kind and spends his introduction robbing a warehouse for a copy of the game and then saving the 'main' protagonist from a group of monsters.
-The fighter's accomplice. An unwitting ally. Also doesn't have the game.
-The programmer that shoots the Rogue Program
-The programmer that contacts Matryoska (spell fail) might be the same programmer as above
-The Rogue Program (quite developed, but still a little weak in characterization)

We need to develop these, and make some more, then develop them as characters. I'd rather not have us submitting characters, but trying to work out how these people should act according to their situation.
Let's get these characters worked out, nice and logical like. Also, any additional plot points. We gotta work them out too.

We're kind of slowing down here, let's not have that.

[Sparrowsmith]

The only problem is that layer 1 was never very real at all, but I agree we could do something to keep it alive.
I guess layer 1 becomes 'real' once layer 2 is damaged. If a L2 character says "remember the time we stormed that castle in the haunted forests? If we did that we can do this." then right in saying that they actually did that. It doesn't matter that it was a game because it turns out their whole life has been virtual anyway.
I also still think it would help if a character from L2 was something of a roleplayer. Their way of coping with the whole thing is basically to buy into it completely and just pretend they're doing a quest. It's kind of sad, brings in a L1 character, and it can be funny too.

The three-layered boss sounds good in theory, but it would have to be spread out across three different engines.
Okay, so lets say once the L2 characters are in L3's security systems, they find out the Rogue Program is backing himself up into a locked off version of L1, sort of like he did originally, but this time it's more serious because he'd be able to destroy all the backups. So a few L2 characters journey into L1 to kill him there. Meanwhile the other L2 characters try to lock off any progression the Rogue Program might make from where they are, and also they try to make the turrets stop firing at L3 characters. Eventually the L2 characters find the rogue program and attack it, but it escapes into the robot. Then in L3 they have the final confrontation with the robot (this could theoretically be the toughest battle of them all, because no one in L3 has real combat experience).
The confrontation ends with the L2 characters figuring out how to use the turrets, activating one, and firing upon the Rogue Program as it tries to leave the lab.

Is that multi-layered enough?