Line #17 Literature/Steppe


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/steppepiersanthony.jpeg]]
2	''Steppe'', written in 1972 by Creator/PiersAnthony, was not published in the US until 1985. It predicted many of the elements of the MMORPG, along with [=LARPs=].
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4	Alp is a warrior from 9th-century Earth who, at the moment he should have died, instead is kidnapped into the future. There he finds himself participating in a sort of live-action MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRoleplayingGame. The game, controlled by an enigmatic Game Machine, is a recreation of the history of Earth's great Steppe empires; and winning the Game is Alp's only alternative to being exiled back into the past, and the death that awaits him.
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7	!! Some of the tropes found in ''Steppe'':
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9	* AnAdventurerIsYou: In-universe, this is the main reason for the contemporary Galactic players to be in the Game; it lets them experience the thrills of battle and life in a different time without actual risk. DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything
10	* BadassCrew: Alp, Uga, and Pei-li in their first alliance. Alp (as Temujin), Qasar, Borchu, Subotai, and Jelme later on.
11	* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Alp's friends Uga and Pei-li contract this as the Game reaches its final stages [[spoiler:and one of them must become Jenghiz Qan.]]
12	* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: The Game Machine, charged with seeing that history is accurately recreated, [[spoiler:somehow saw to it that someone from the past, like Alp, would be brought into the Game to guarantee the part of Jenghiz Qan would have a worthy player.]]
13	** In fact, the Game Machine would have to be a MagnificentBastard to be capable of overseeing millions if not ''billions'' of players and making sure that the major roles did not diverge from their historical models. This is somewhat handwaved, but also left up in the air. Eventually one follows the MST3KMantra in regards to this.
14	* CoolSword: Game Swords are electrical stunners which paralyze with a graze, and knock the player unconscious with a solid hit. Unconscious players are "killed" and out of the Game, unless they buy into a new part.
15	* CovertPervert: Audience ratings are a large factor in determining the player's final score when his part ends. The Machine flat-out tells Alp that audiences enjoy any illicit thrills they can get, brought on by the liberating setting of the Game and the fact that players have their awareness of the audience blocked out while they are actively playing. Yes, that's right; in the future, millions of viewers will watch you have sex. [[{{Squick}} And you won't realize it until afterwards.]]
16	* TheDeterminator: For Alp, losing the Game means expulsion to the real world, where he will be sent back to the past to die at the bottom of a gorge.
17	* FireForgedFriends: Uga, the first player Alp meets in the Game, and Pei-li, Uga's aide, become this to him after an adventure in the China section of the Game. Later, as the character Temujin, Alp makes a friend of Borchu, who helps him recover his stolen "horses" from a superior force and later becomes a general in his army.
18	* ForegoneConclusion: For anyone who ever studied Central Asian history [[spoiler:and knows that Jenghiz Qan aka Genghis Khan was born with the name Temujin]]. Regardless, it's a thrilling read.
19	* GoshDangItToHeck: Apparently cursing will decline in the future, if the best oath Alp can come up with ("in good Galactic slang") is "You crazy fool!"
20	* HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: Alp was falling to his death in a gorge when he was brought to the future by a time machine. By the rules of the future, only a man who would otherwise be dead could be taken from the past.
21	* HubWorld: Alp's entry into the Game coincidentally seems to be in one of these. [[spoiler:It's not a coincidence; the Game Machine arranged for his arrival.]]
22	* MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRoleplayingGame: The Game of Steppe is a live-action version. Players pay to enter parts, act them out, eventually "die", then enter new parts if they were successful enough to have points left over. Minor parts are played by people who want to earn enough points for their first "good" character.
23	* MrExposition: Munlik, "Temujin's" advisor, delivers a page-long political summary which all the characters should have known, but the readers did not.
24	* NakedPeopleAreFunny: Alp arrives in the future ''sans'' clothes. After escaping his abductors, he starts knocking out and stripping everyone he meets, so there is a wave of nude people fleeing for cover to confuse the police.
25	* OneTrueLove: Kokachin, the Chinese princess who Alp meets and then loses, returns in a new role 400 years later (Game-time) to marry him. [[spoiler:They are reunited in real life as well, after Alp wins the game.]]
26	* OverworldNotToScale: Sort of; The Game-world is meant to be a representation of Earth, but it is spread across the whole Galaxy. Horses are one-man spaceships; rivers are dust-nebulae; star clusters represent mountain ranges. Players travel at light-speed from planet to planet to get to the Game-area of each world.
27	* RecycledInSpace: In a variation, the Game recreates ancient Earth by cordoning off parts of various planets and sections of the Galaxy to represent a stylistic version of the Asian Steppe. The scale is much bigger, but time is compressed so that one Day in real life represents a year historically. It all works out somehow.
28	* RoaringRampageOfRescue: Kokachin (after marrying Temujin/Alp) is kidnapped by another player. Alp's response? ''Raise three armies and go get her back!''
29	* SexyDiscretionShot: After Alp and Kokachin are reunited.

Context Literature / Steppe