I was working on something similar, but because I really don't like the VR stuff, I made it real. (Though I did once use VR as a way to switch games, when we went from Gamma World to Shadow Run. The SR characters just unplugged from the fresh new Post Apocalyptic VR game they had been playing.)
The PCs all started out as villagers when a group of adventures arrive seeking, what else?, adventure. Through the course of that adventure, the PCs get swept up and it turns out that one of the adventurers isn't what they seem (though, in reality, none of them are), but a rebel of the interstellar empire that controls the planet. They find out that they are all genetically created people used as villagers for a type of pleasure world. Each time a new group of "adventurers" (read: rich theme park goers) comes along, they get mentally reprogrammed for their specific roles. That way they never remember their previous lives. (Small glitches do happen, and if they get too much the programmers just dump that individual and make another one.) Now, this rebel has a program to wake them all up, free their minds and let them remember at least some of their past.
The campaign would go from a fantasy adventure to a fantasy rebellion to, well, multiple genres are possible as there is more than a fantasy theme park on that world. So, cyberpunk, steampunk, all-the-punks, as well as other genres would be possible, until you could have a group made up of characters from different genres working together. (If you so chose.) Ultimately, it would go to a Star Wars-like sci-fi rebellion campaign. The game never got off the ground because I could never find people to play Rolemaster/Spacemaster.
My suggestion: Make it all real.