| Born: 1 / 9 / 76 Inspirations: Terry Pratchett, Piers Anthony, Robert Asprin, Mickey Zucker Reichert, Christopher Stasheff, Leo Frankowski, Alan Dean Foster, Robert Heinlein, and Spider Robinson. |
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I have been gaming since I was 7 years old, when a friend named Mark introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons. I have been hooked ever since. I have wandered the gamut of games such as D&D, White Wolf, Paranoia, GURPS, Palladium's Megaverse, and every homebrew system I can find. Most of them worked great with a great GM, well with a good GM, and lousy with a poor GM. None of them had just the right amount of flexibility, enough varied sources, or enough viewpoints to suit me. Palladium and AD&D came close, but they always wanted to BBD (Bigger Better Deal) anything new that came along. So characters would inevitably become to powerful, or too weak for the enemies and situations. Then I met Ty Dobson.
Ty is a gamer from the old wargaming branch of roleplaying. A retired Coast Guard officer who took far too many history classes in college, his homebrew game is a derivative of AD&D that took a turn for the better. Its a solid system, but doesnt allow for enough new additions. So I struck out on my own and created a system called Alpha. Nice and simple name for a system that incorporated Cybernetics, fantasy magic, and everything else under the sun. It worked well for a good number of years but it was lacking something. It turned out that it was missing the same thing all those other games were: an opposing viewpoint.
Later on, a friend of mine was starting to beat around some ideas for a new fantasy system. I offered my aid, and soon it became a collaboration with Trey Coonrod. Trey and I have some VERY different ideas on gaming, and fantasy rules in general. That difference is what makes Alpha Arkana so interesting as an author; it allows us to incorporate a horde of different ideas and influences to make one complete system and fantasy world. In fact we are always looking for those individuals who want to join us in our quest. We aren't kidding about wanting new submissions, and we will post them. We want our system to be as unique and varied as it possibly can be.
I want to personally thank each and every one who visits our site, plays our game, and especially adds to the world.
Thank you,
J. Keith Wykowski
