Sword Art Online: The Tabletop RPG

Note
For more on the game itself, the link to join the Discord server for it is in the FC/OC Discord server's announcements channel.

Some of the aspects of this verse page was directly taken from the canon verse page on Vs Battle Wiki. Credit where credit is due.

Summary
In an alternate universe of Sword Art Online that loosely follows the canon light novels, the Progressive light novels, Integral Factor, the Abridged, and many other sources, you yourself play Sword Art Online to complete the death game. No matter where you're from, whether it be in a different country, different time period, or completely different world, you're dragged into the game, and you must fight to get out.... or die trying.

For those uninformed about the setting:

The year is 2022 (in canon), and Japanese gamers have lined up on launch day for Sword Art Online, a hotly-anticipated MMORPG that lets players connect to an immersive virtual reality world with special helmets called Nerve Gear. But soon, Sword Art Online's players discover that not only are they unable to log out, the only way they can return to their physical bodies is by beating the 100-level tower's final boss - death in the game means death in the real world.

Changes and Keeps From Canon
There are a handful of things that are different and a handful of things that are the same in this version of Sword Art Online.

First and foremost the biggest change is that anyone can practically be thrown into the game, whether they be from different countries, time periods, or universes. However everyone is still bound by the rules of SAO and its mechanics. The explanation for this would be that the Cardinal System (the AI engine essentially running and managing the game) is taking bits and pieces from fiction, nonfiction, and the past, and inserting them as life-like beings, or giving features to certain Players, such as new or completely different memories of someone else in the past. In roleplay terms however, this allows complete freedom and unique situations that would otherwise be impossible in canon. Second would also involve the Cardinal System, as it can completely take anything and everything and insert it into the game. Unlike in canon, the Cardinal System does not care about copyright, and would just take anything that exists on the internet and paste it into the game in some way, shape, or form.
 * Note that it's still completely possible and fine to roleplay as either your future self, or an alternate timeline self where you were born later so that you'd be the same age as you are currently to play Sword Art Online. That, and/or you either speak Japanese, somehow got a Nerve Gear and a copy of SAO, or are in Japan yourself currently playing it (Luckily another change in the roleplay is that there's an auto translate system in play, so that even if you can't understand Japanese, you can still understand what they're saying and speak back to them like normal). Either way, you decide whether you want to be realistic about this, or completely go bonkers with it.

Third, this version of Sword Art Online allows the players to use a variety of ranged weapons, such as bows and crossbows.

Since the list will probably get too long, here are the rest in quick, summarized versions:
 * The overall name for Skills is called Magical Skill (Even though there's no magic in SAO).
 * Aggro from most to least important are: Who hit the enemy last, the player's level, the player's Health. Players also have the ability to pull aggro via their Charisma stat or Skills.
 * Floors 1-10 are 10 km in distance. Floors 11-20 are 9 km in distance. Floors 21-30 are 9 km in distance. Floors 31-40 are 8 km in distance. Floors 41-50 are 8 km in distance. Floors 51-60 are 7 km in distance. Floors 61-70 are 6 km in distance. Floors 71-80 are 5 km in distance. Floors 81-90 are 4 km in distance. Floors 91-100 are 3 km in distance.
 * Parties are still 7 Players max, but Raid Parties can be as big as they want.
 * Switch is now essentially a short distance "switch" teleport between other players.
 * Players' avatars at 0 Health will still stick around for a short period of time before exploding into shards.
 * Anyone can obtain the Unique Skills, such as Dual Wielding.
 * There's no limit to what weapon you can wield, or what type of weapon you can pick up. This means that you can dual wield giant greatswords and shields, as well as craft weapons such as guns or cannons. Any kind of weapon can be theoretically made and used in this game.
 * You can't harm a player 10 levels above and below you.
 * There's actually a new bar for swimming called a "Swimming Bar", which dictates how much air you have while swimming underwater, unlike in canon where it just depletes your Health the longer you're in water.
 * Original Sword Skills and simply original Skills in general are able to be made.
 * There are tons of new Skills (as well as re-imagined Skills from canon and from other sources such as the games), and Passives are in the Tabletop RPG unlike in canon.
 * Kayaba actually has motivation for his actions. Or at least, doesn't conveniently forget them when the writer had to show it.
 * The Tabletop RPG attempts to explore the themes SAO tried to express more often.
 * The lore is expanded upon much more in the Tabletop RPG, but it still attempts to stay true to the original lore as much as possible.
 * Players, enemies, NPCs, etc are much stronger in this version of SAO than in canon.
 * Other than those above, the rest attempt to stay true to the original Sword Art Online as much as possible, lifting things directly from the light novels and other canon sources (with some other inspirations sprinkled in).

Power of the Verse
Unlike the canon, by Floor 5 the verse is already seeing high end building level feats (via monsters and bosses that size) and supersonic+ speeds (via Skills that are as fast or faster than bullets) in-game. Of course though, most players in the real world are simply normal humans, but with their virtual avatars, they can be well into building levels of power. So far, the verse is still on Floor 6, however it's bound to see better feats continuing on.

As for abilities and hax, unlike canon SAO, there is definitely more, such as invulnerability (in comparison to the strongest thing in the game) when near death for a short period of time, halfing damage taken, durability negation (via True Damage Skills), and infinite speed and infinite slashes via Infinity Moment (albeit at the cost of instantly going down to 1 Health and not being able to use it ever again).

In summary, in just 5 floors, the Tabletop RPG has arguably already caught up to the level of power the canon SAO has.

Average Scale of Power Per Floor
Floor 1: Street level (Even at level 1, players should still be stronger than their real life counterparts, and are able to handle what people in real life usually are never able to do) to Wall level (Illfang was able to smash Gergy into a wall and create a large crater)

Floor 2: Wall level (Should be stronger than before) to Small Building level (The bosses on Floor 2 are this tall)

Floor 3: Small Building level (A random Elder Treant was able to smash Gergy into a wall with such force) to Building level (Elder Treants and Nerius the Evil Treant are this tall)

Floor 4: Building level (Should be stronger than before)

Floor 5: Building level (Should be stronger than before) to Large Building level (Fuscus the Vacant Colossus is this tall)

Floor 6 and for the forseeable future: Large Building level (Should be stronger to significantly stronger than before)

Feats and Calculations (WORK IN PROGRESS SECTION)
Blog for tabletop feats

Supporters and Opponents of the Series
 Supporters: 

 Neutral: 

 Opponents: 

Characters
Note that the characters will be constantly updated to their current versions in the RP, so that they won't have 100+ keys when the game finishes.

 Clearers (High-level Players): 

Kirito

Asuna

Zeke

Erold

Claire

 The Party (Guild): 

Gergy

Kai

Keita

Sachi

Tetsuo

Sasamaru

Ducker

Laxus

Jackie

MartieTart

SageBOI

Yuna

Nautilus

Okami

 Mid-level Players (Near or on levels 20-40): 

Klein

Nezha

Rain

Bryan

 Low-level Players (Near or on levels 1-20): 

Saber

Tanks_without_guns_are_just_really_thick_cars

DarkLordChinChin

PatrickStar

 Player Killers: 

Kuros

Morte

Joe

PoH

 NPCs: 

Kizmel

Jay