Prologue

[Jason_Miao]

I was going through old files, and found this vignette I'd written years ago.  It's intended as the untold prologue to most RPGs.

I never posted it to the FFML because (1) it's not anime (2) the few people I showed it to didn't get that it was a self-contained joke, and wanted to know when I was going to write the first chapter.  And jokes that you have to explain are generally not funny.

[Dracos]

That's...a pretty subtle joke for something so short.  And at the same time, it has a high noise level (Lot's of speaking characters, several sudden drops of causes) that distracts from it being a meta-joke about the prelude to a standard RPG (The failure of the heroes last time to finish the job).

[Jason_Miao]

And at the same time, it has a high noise level (Lot's of speaking characters, several sudden drops of causes) that distracts from it being a meta-joke about the prelude to a standard RPG (The failure of the heroes last time to finish the job).

Heh.  None of the reviewers I'd sent it to way back when phrased it quite that way, but you've hit the heart of the matter.

I think about 3/4 of what I write (including what I write for work) has some subtle joke in it.