What Is DreX?

So, I hear you all beg... what IS DreX?

DreX is many things.

Firstly, and most of all, DreX is a dissatisfaction. I had tried my hands at many roleplaying games across the years, together with my (patient) group of friends. Everything, from Dungeons and Dragons, to Mutants and Masterminds, from Dark Heresy to Gearkrieg. GURPS, too. We'd seen it all, and our wardrobes were overflowing with those damn t-shirts, here in the form of rule books, taking up acres of valuable space. They all had something excellent, some spark of beauty within them, and don't get me wrong, they were all fantastic games in their own way. But they were all fantastic in different ways, and this.. annoyed me. Yeah, let's go with 'annoyed'. I would be spending a lot of time with these games, living in these artificial worlds, playing to these organic rules. I had a right to be selfish!

So I looked at them all. Deep and hard, I looked at every single one of those games, and began to contemplate; how hard would it really be to make my own game?

I already had years under my belt as a forum-RolePlayer, through a multitude of internet web forums, playing more characters than I dare count! I'd won awards (which I still claim I do not deserve), I've hosted awards ceremonies, I've played the devils advocate and Gods right hand man, and in some rare cases, playing God Himself! I'd designed sites, and with that, had designed worlds. True, they were shallow worlds, fitting around the character I'd played, and whoever interacted with me, but they were there, right?

Another thought had struck me. Why start anew? Why not take these years of experience and create a Frankensteins monster of a game! So I started. And, I admit, I've hit many roadblocks along the way. My loyal group will recall the countless-thousands of directions I went with DreX, from space-tactical-warfare (both with-and-without ships) a strategy fantasy wargame (with icons representing units), to a high-fantasy roleplaying game, even to a zombie-apocalypse survival horror game. It mutated with my tastes, until, as always, it returned to my first love; Science Fiction.

But, almost equally as important, I am DreX. Not just as omniscient (hah!) creator of this world I've laid out infront of me, piece by piece, but by name also. It was an ironic joke, a mockery of a name that became a source of strength and even inspiration. See.. my names Dan. And I'm not afraid to admit that, proportional to my body, I have rather small hands. Like a Tyrannosaurus Rex. See where I'm going here. Dan. T-Rex. D-Rex. And there it began.

But wait! For years, I had been going my the name Mr eX on various chat forums and online gaming platforms (most notably, Steam and Xbox Live.) A subtle promotion to Doctor (to which I justified to myself as being through my tireless work examining and questioning the philosophical nature, both of todays world, but also the various fantasy worlds I had come to grow up in during my roleplaying years), and we had Dr eX. Right?

And when I needed a name for this world, this system, this.. everything of mine, it came to mind. And so we have DreX.

But DreX is more than just me. Drex, lowercase 'x', is a world of infinite possibilities. When the hyper-advanced Exohumans fled their original home, they settled in a bare and barren expanse of space. They built a star, constructed planets, and surrounded their new haven with an internally- and externally- shielded dyson sphere. They named their system Drex. This would become the home of the events of DreX, providing safety for the Exohumans, disease and dying though they may be. Protector of the species growing up within her, Drex would be the source of a million adventures, passing unknown through time or affecting the lives of every single living being, born before then, or raised on stories and tales afterwards.

A dream. An ideal. A freedom of thought. A source of inspiration and energy. A place to escape the hum-drum activity of every day life and start something new, something endurable and eternal, where the only limits are the words you use and the actions you describe. A person, but not just that, every person. A galaxy, a swirling mass of planets and asteroids, around a sun built for the sole purpose of providing life and light to all and sundry.

This. This is what DreX truly is.