TUNNEL
CORE
A Living Cyberpunk World
349 souls // 16 zones // 8 factions // one frequency
WHAT IS TUNNELCORE?
The city has no name. Residents call it by what they see: the blocks, the drainage, the bloom. A megacorporation called Helixion Dynamics built a Broadcast Tower at its center — currently 40% complete, always ticking upward. With construction came the GHOST signal: a 33 Hz frequency that altered everything.
TUNNELCORE is a multiplayer text-adventure RPG where you connect via SSH, Telnet, or WebSocket to a single persistent world. Every NPC is an autonomous AI agent with its own goals, memories, and personality. They don't wait for players — they scheme, trade, fight, and build alliances on their own schedule.
The game uses Cortex Prime dice mechanics — no d20s, no hit points. You build dice pools from your Attributes and Approaches, rolling against opposition. Stress accumulates across Physical, Mental, and Signal tracks. Three traumas and your character is retired — permanently. Every decision carries weight.
CORE SYSTEMS
LIVING WORLD
349 autonomous NPCs pursue goals, form relationships, and react to world pressures. Eight systems tick independently — rumors spread, infrastructure decays, factions consume resources, and scarcity drives conflict.
CORTEX PRIME DICE
No d20s. Opposed dice pools where your Attribute die + Approach die face off against opposition. Stress accumulates across Physical, Mental, and Signal tracks. Three traumas and you're gone — permanently.
LLM-DRIVEN NPCs
Every named NPC runs as an independent AI agent with its own goals, memories, and personality. They don't wait for you — they scheme, trade, fight, and build alliances whether you're watching or not.
PERSISTENT ECONOMY
Dual currency economy with dynamic pricing. CREDS for the surface, SCRIP for the underground. Shop inventories fluctuate. Supply lines break. Your reputation affects every transaction.
SIGNAL FREQUENCY: 33 Hz
THE BROADCAST TOWER
When it reaches 100%, something changes. Nobody knows what. Everyone fears it differently. Eight factions race to control or destroy it. The Tower is the ticking clock at the heart of every conflict in TUNNELCORE.
THE WIRE
There is no human Game Master. The Wireis an autonomous AI that watches everything — every failed roll, every act of violence, every whispered deal. It doesn't control the story. It facilitates it.
When a combat goes badly, The Wire decides if the doom pool grows. When tension builds between factions, it escalates or diffuses. When the world gets too quiet, it introduces complications. It narrates consequences you didn't see coming.
The Wire holds the doom pool — a growing collection of dice that represent mounting danger. It spends doom to make your life harder at dramatically appropriate moments. Fair? Always. Kind? Never.
The Wire can:
- ▸Narrate — inject world events, atmospheric descriptions, breaking news
- ▸Complicate — create obstacles, mechanical complications with die ratings
- ▸Spend Doom — use the doom pool to escalate scenes at critical moments
- ▸Shift Factions — tip the balance of power between the eight factions
- ▸React — respond to combat, stress, trauma, and death in real time
"The Wire sees every failed roll. It remembers every betrayal. It doesn't judge — it just makes sure the consequences find you."