novelraw Chapter 1 : Prologue
Chapter 1 : Prologue
Chapter 1: Prologue
"……Everyone, thank you for your hard work today as well!"
"Good work."
‘…Phew.’
Even after the TRPG session ended, I felt more emptiness and regret than satisfaction.
Out of habit, I picked up my phone and accessed the TRPG online community.
§§
"How to make your character’s attack power infinite" <- I tried this
Wow, this replay is insane
Why are there so many people these days ruining campaigns just to play rule-chicken?
§§
Not long ago, after the small group I had been playing TRPG with for so long disbanded,
I finally realized that our rule-chicken play was close to trolling.
In the first normal group I joined afterwards, nobody competed to play rule-chicken.
After going through quite the ordeal among strangers, I stopped playing rule-chicken, but I couldn’t stop myself from developing a kind of withdrawal symptom.
To ease it even a little, I started uploading ‘replays’—records of TRPG play—one by one to the online community, and just like on this screen now, they caused quite a stir within the TRPG community.
[You have received a message.]
‘Hm?’
While I was basking in the praise for my replay, a notification arrived saying I had received a message.
§§ To Daisu.
Hello?
I was deeply impressed after reading your replay.
I would like to invite you to a long campaign using the AaA rules that I have planned as the game master.
Please feel free to try rule-chicken play here!
From: A fan of Daisu §§
It was a very short and enticing message, but that only made it suspicious.
Above all—"A fan of Daisu"?
A nickname I had never seen before—and yet skilled enough to be a game master—felt almost as if they were mocking me.
But even so, the fact that it was an AaA rule long campaign really appealed to me.
Here, AaA, or ‘A and A’, is short for 「Adventure and Acting」, the most famous and popular TRPG series out there.
It also happened to be my favorite series.
‘Hmm… Maybe they’re just a newbie with little experience who wants to try mastering. And if they have enough taste to be impressed by my replay, then even as a game master, it shouldn’t be a problem.’
The promise that I could freely play rule-chicken for the first time in a while made me think—maybe just this once, I’ll knowingly walk into the trap.
After some doubt, I sent a reply saying I would participate, but no matter how long I waited, no further messages came.
Only after several more hours passed did I realize, as expected, it was just a petty prank.
Another nightmare.
When I was young, I lost my parents in an accident, and my younger sister and I had no choice but to drift between several relatives’ homes.
Because of relatives aiming for our inheritance, I grew into a paranoid, suspicious person.
On top of that, after becoming an adult and breaking away from those relatives, I began to have nightmares due to the trauma.
When my life was starting to crumble from it, I happened upon TRPG by chance and became completely immersed.
When I played TRPG, I could throw away my own self while acting as a completely different person.
The characters I made were often brave or righteous, and sometimes even foolish—completely unlike me.
Eventually, I even came to view myself as just another character in a story, able to observe everything with detachment.
Perhaps thanks to that, I stopped having nightmares around that time.
But recently, because I’d only been playing unsatisfying campaigns, I began to dream nightmares again.
Fortunately, unlike before, I no longer directly experienced the nightmares.
By observing and watching with detachment, the nightmares played out like a quarter-view video game, and I could realize that it was a dream.
Seeing my parents fade in front of me now—it must mean the nightmare is about to end.
When I opened my eyes, a pitch-black space appeared along with a voice.
[Notice. Daisu, thank you for accepting my invitation. Before starting the campaign, I will briefly explain the rules.
The rules and setting are based on AaA 4th Edition.
Since there is only one participating player, the rest of the party will be filled with characters from your replay.
All party members cannot be revived or recreated.
If you fail to gather all party members or even one member leaves, the campaign fails and the player dies.
For smooth game progression, the first chapter will proceed with a scenario suitable for the created character.
Now, please create your character.]
‘What kind of nonsense is this?’