Posted September 22, 2023 by lectrotext
#Netcrawl
COMING TO KICKSTARTER IN 2024!
Netcrawl RPG
You are coherent data traveling at the speed of light,
a digital avatar searching for computerized information.
There is something hidden in the virtual realms,
and you shall hack it.
What is Netcrawl RPG? Netcrawl is a TTRPG about adventuring inside a computer system. Everyone goes in, seconds pass in the meatspace as players spend hours conquering a cyber-dungeon - together.
Computers let us wear avatars, skins, and personalities in their online environments, why can't the PCs also do this in a game? Instead of reducing computer system hacking/raiding into a series of specialist character class skill rolls, the entire party adventures forth into the computer to find whatever ICE lies inside protecting the party's objective. The system is inspired by Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG by Goodman Games, but can be used as a stand alone game or as a cyber sidecar to your current game.
Gameplay is typically centered around obtaining something from a computerized system. Objectives could be gaining a piece of information, accessing other systems, destroying a program or server, or freeing oppressed, helpless programs from the computational prison of an unreasonable and uncaring AI. Looming over the players is the constant threat of detection, opposition from ICE (Intrusion Countermeasure Entities) or, worst of all, the attention of god-like AIs.
More recently, I’ve come to realize that the world-wide conversation around AI, Deep Learning, LLM, and generative content is a part of this project. The human race often explores its problems through storytelling. TTRPGs are a place for us to directly wrestle with lots of topics. Netcrawl RPG is a game that can enable us to explore the stories about AI - or maybe just our fantasies about taming or destroying them.
Netcrawl Links
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