William Prahl

I have put together an RPG of what I hope is mythical fantasy (hence, the name). It deviates from a number of RPGS by having a relatively streamlined character creation process and by emphasizing epic (in the traditional sense of the word) storytelling over hack-n-slash gameplay.

Mythic is slightly different from other role-playing games in that the focus of the game is on the play, not the creation, of heroes. Mythic is, as its name suggests, based heavily on the sorts of heroes found in, well, myths. Gilgamesh, Achilles, Odysseus, Heracles, Beowulf, Siegfried, Arthur; the characters you create in Mythic may not be as famous as these, but their deeds will be no less heroic.

Though set in a fantasy world, Mythic strives to maintain a fair level of historical accuracy. Also, Mythic is set up to conduct play beyond the simple level of hack n slash dungeon delving often expected from fantasy rpgs. Characters are expected to be part of the game world, not some nameless killing machine.

Lucidity is a game about dreaming. In the world of Lucidity, for reasons unknown, what people dreamed started to become real. But, for the most part, people didn’t realize that it was happening. The characters are lucid dreamers in a world made out of dreams. Can they save the world from this menace? Or do they even want to?

Lucidity is a 24-hour RPG. That means that all the actual work was done in 24 Hours. The idea for the game was bouncing around in my head for a couple of days before I actually sat down and Took the Challenge, but all of the typing, editing, and layout was done during the 24 hour period of Wednesday, June 27, 2007.

This is not my first RPG. This is not even my first 24-hour RPG. I’m also the William Prahl of N/ AI, a really cool digital-themed pen and paper RPG. I can’t bear to look at the thing now, but it’s still on the web. I have, in the past, tried and failed to create games with no time constraint, and most of them have ended in failure. Let’s hope this one joins N/AI on the very short list of games I have finished.

NA/I is a role playing game where the characters are programs in a worldspanning internet gone horribly wrong. Something has happened, but now one can seem to remember what it was. And now sentient programs fill the digital world, and even fewer are at all interested in knowing where they came from…

Every program is written for a reason. But recently, many programs are writing themselves. You need to decide: is your program first or second generation?

First generation programs were written by conventional means, or before the Rift. They were actuaries, games, viruses, spambots, etc., and were written to serve humans. Somehow, they developed sentience, and lost all memories of what happened before the Rift.

Second generation programs, arose spontaneously, evolved to sentience in the ?wild? and entered the main internet through some security hole. Second generation programs are frowned upon by most first generation, but they are growing in number.

Regardless of whether he is first or second generation, your program has a role to fill in the digital world. This is his niche. Think about what your character does. Is it a ruthless datum pirate or a calm, ex-actuarial adding program? Does it fly around in a security daemon, or does it run for cover when there?s danger nearby? Anything that needs doing in real life has a digital equivalent, so figure out what that is, and model your program around it.

Write your concept down on your character sheet, along with your background, and description. Go onto the next step.