I'm scratching out some ideas for a Call of Cthulhu adventure.

The Scenario:
Decades prior, an MMO RPG called ＣＡＲＣＯＳＡ　ＯＮＬＩＮＥ took the world by storm. The game had billions of players worldwide at the height of its popularity. It was so addictive, that it was banned in several countries.

Fast forward.

Now there is an emulator that allows people to play ＣＡＲＣＯＳＡ　ＯＮＬＩＮＥ over the NeuralNet using a cortical-modem connection. The game is ancient, but with some mods installed for a more immersive experience, it should be approachable enough for a retro-hungry group of Designer Generation kids to get into.
The virtual world of Carcosa is nearly bereft of player activity. It is so eerie how the NPC's continue to cheerfully carry out their tasks in their empty and unchanging world. And yet, there is one other player in that quiet server. He's a level 108 wizard fully decked out in max-level endgame gear. He says he's a researcher at McMurdo station, and that the other players "need not concern themselves" with his age or "four-letter personal identification acronym". This crazy guy claims he's been playing alone on this server with a desktop computer for all these years, but that his guild "will be arriving soon." That player is named 「ＫＩＮＧ＿ＹＥＬＬＯＷ」.
Should the PC's try to log out, they will find themselves unable, and all attempt to switch off the game's sensory data or contact the outside world will collide with "Connectivity Error" messages.

World Building
Now, if I'm gonna get the PC's in a Call of Cthulhu game to log onto freaking ＣＡＲＣＯＳＡ　ＯＮＬＩＮＥ for escapism, then I have to make the world they live in really crapsack indeed.

The year is 2084.

America is blanketed with rolling clouds of pollen from some new strain of kudzu that has been spreading. Allergic reactions have been severe, and many now require synthetic lung replacements.

There is good news though...

The Designer Generation is in college. These bright young grandchildren of the Millenial generation are the first generation of Americans to have received comprehensive prenatal gene-therapy in mass, ensuring longer lifespans, lower nutritional requirements, increased disease resistance, the elimination of Down's syndrome, autism, and gender dysphoria, and neural pre-adaptations for improved cortical-modem connectivity!

America now has Guaranteed Basic Income. A single person receives enough money in a month to rent a 3x3 meter apartment with a mini-fridge, an oven, environmental sealing (to keep out the pollen), an efficiency bathroom (Korean-style, with a drain on the floor and a sink faucet that doubles as a detachable shower-head), and access to the free public NeuralNet!

America has free public healthcare for everybody. The public healthcare plan includes gene therapy for all unborn children, synthetic lung replacement (required by many due to the effects of the pollen), and cortical-modem installation so that all Americans can access the NeuralNet!

(The free public healthcare plan is not without controversy. Transgender rights activists are demanding free gender reassignment under the plan, claiming that their gender dysphoria syndrom they've suffered from birth puts them at elevated risk of suicide without sex-change operations. Doctors counter with statistics showing that gender-dysphoric individuals are still at high risk of suicide even after surgery, and that the suicide rates for post-op transgendered people are not significantly lower than those for pre-ops.  
The surgeon general has stated that free gender reassignment surgery is “out of the question” under the available budget, stating that the American health care system “cannot afford such extravagent procedures on the tax-payer dime when so many are in immediate need of lung replacements.”
Doctors offer that gender dysphoria syndrome, being a disorder inherited from birth, can be prevented through gene therapy. Doctors also offer that professionals on private healthcare plans can get treatment for their gender dysphoria through corrective nerve-rewiring therapy, or CNRT, at any premium healthcare clinic. Gender dysphoric individuals are advised to take over-the-counter anti-depressents available at any pharmacies. If suicidal urges persist, gender dysphoric individuals are advised to seek compassionate relief at their nearest assisted-suicide clinic.
Transgender rights activists attempted to hold a protest demanding public-paid gender reassignment surgery outside of health clinics in Denver, Colorado, but their demonstration was preempted by heavy pollen that day.)

(Ongoing debates about the role of healthcare in social justice have come to a head in the tragic wake of hurricane Wilbur. A Florida doctor is being charged with manslaughter after the death of eleven patients outside of his triage clinic. European-American and Asian-American patients in Immediate and Obervation levels of injury were left to wait in the rising waters and heavy pollen outside of Dr. Arthur Jenkin's clinic, while African-Americans at Expectant and Walking-Wounded levels of injury were given expedient service. Social justice advocates at UIC argue that Dr. Jenkins “would have been justified in killing twenty whites if it meant saving even one person of color.”)

(Ethnicity selection in gene-therapy is a major divisive topic among the black community of 2084. As part of the comprehensive gene-therapy program offered to all parents of the designer generation, parents were permitted the ability to select allele expressions so as to choose their child's apparent ethnicity. Many black parents elected to change their children's ethnicity to white so that they might benefit from the advantages of white privilege growing up. This leaves many leaders among the black community with concerns that the black population may be erased from existence by this new technology. Social justice advocates are now calling for a ban on elective ethnic-selection, and for a initiatives to institute non-elective gene treatments for purposes of changing a randomly selected portion of white children into black children.)

Character Sheets
I'll have to make my own for this one.
Perhaps I'll give each player two separate character sheets? One for their real-life persona and skills, and one for their Carcosa Online game persona, with skill points divided between them. Or maybe just one sheet with two halves?

Each character will have an Occupation to determine available real-life skills, and a Class (like Warrior, Mage, and Healer) to determine 'in-game' skills (like 'Loot Treasure' and 'Pull Aggro'). Class also determines physical stats for the game world. The NEET occupation does not provide any real-life skills, but it does provide one's choice of additional game skills.

Younger characters have less education and money, but benefit from genetic engineering for slightly improved physical stats and NeuralNet performance.

A few skills in Call of Cthulhu modern aren't going to be relevant to this adventure.
Nobody drives cars in this era; drivers are starting to be phased out by Google cars even in our own time. Hence, no Drive Auto (20%).
Pilot is out for the same reason.
Augmented Realy apps and search engines can be used for substantial bonuses to many skills, including History, Other Language, Accounting, Geology, and more. Such devices grant no bonuses to Cthulhu Mythos, however. I might have to make near-future people dumber than contemporary people (lower base skill ratings) just to keep things balanced.


I will continue to scratch out fevered notions here as they occur to me.