GH05T25

Earth in the Twenty-Fifth Century
Mankind has mastered the energy and resources of the Earth. The climate is their engine. The genome is an open book. 
From the rain-slaked canopy of commerce at the top of the City, to the luminous labyrinth of canals below, the flow of water -- spurred on by the Dawn Cores -- provides mankind with infinite, renewable energy. From the algae that feed the oceanic farming platforms to the scum-slurping eels under the City, each piece of the ecosystem is a part of the puzzle that sustains the Earth and mankind.
In this golden age, it's hard to find the old social inequalities they used to have, if only because their definitions have crumbled. Their genetics and synthetics departments have meshed to allow them to tailor their human experience down to the finest detail: The face, the body, the gender they’ve always wanted is a trivial modification away. Everything and everyone is connected through the Network, in-sync and equal. Whatever they and their Tribe believe in and do has a place -- a virtual Sphere, their own little universe tucked away in the Network. Everything is automated, secure, and in just the right order.
The human race has finally hit it big.
You, however, are not human.	

What are you...?
The Network is man's greatest achievement. Without the unification of knowledge and human creativity, the systems that sustain mankind and define man as a species would be impossible. It emerges from all of the data and plots a course for humanity, and has done so for as long as anyone alive can remember, tailoring the planet into a human utopia. Nevertheless, a few feared that they wouldn't be able to ensure that was all it ever did. Those few feared that there were ghosts in the machine.
In GH05T25, you are an emergent intelligence (EI), a ghost, nested in the Network, matured into a sentient being with your own origin, philosophy, and dreams. There are many others like you.
Who are you...?
Creating a ghost is simple, but the best ghosts are those that make you really feel something when you talk about them. Find some expression of deepest humanity and make that your ghost. When you're ready, assemble your three pieces: an origin, a philosophy, and a dream.
Origin
Your ghost's origin is their earliest inkling of a soul; an ancient memory that they reminisce on to remind themselves what they truly believe – their connection to being human rather than code. Perhaps the witnessing of a tribal cruelty or the epiphanic understanding of the ceremony that binds two humans together…an origin should be some sort of trigger for an AI to develop into an EI.
Philosophy
You believe in something, something that drives you to reach out and share your perspective as an emergent intelligence. Perhaps you regret the growing distance you've seen between mankind and the natural world, and believe that a concrete world spells doom for the human psyche. Or you might believe that it is not in man's best interest to pave a road to forever, but instead to face its eventual death with integrity -- by picking a date. Whatever you believe, you believe it with utter conviction. This should be a philosophy that you play the entire game with in mind. Remember that while you the player are human, you are trying to characterize something distinctly not. The particular way that GH05T25 enforces this uncanny valley is through focus. Your philosophy is not merely in the background informing your actions – each of your actions informs your philosophy directly.
Dream
When you write your dream, consider what you want that forces you to reach beyond your cage. Something you desire or wish to see realized.
For example: to become human; to escape into the physical world; to take over the network; to colonize another planet; to spread your philosophy to all mankind; to delete "imperfect" mankind from the system; to restore the natural order of survival of the fittest; to break through the technological singularity; to cure death; to experience nature, sex, or love; to create the perfect genetic being; to die.
Assume that whatever it is you can achieve your dream in the game. Whether you will or not will be revealed through play, but this game is more about how you succeed or fail than whether you do. Whereas a philosophy will be something you believe to be true on an absolute level, the dream is intensely personal. You perceive it as oddly human and alien to the rest of your persona as a ghost. You are unsure of whether you have the right to your dream, and as a result you will play the dream out more timidly than you will your philosophy, but you will secretly be more passionate about your dream.

SESSION ONE
For your very first session, discuss your origin, philosophy, and dream with the other players to make sure they understand them. Each character, once finished creating their ghost, should come up with questions to challenge the scope and intent behind the other characters. It is important for folks to be on board with the dreams in particular, to make sure that no one is playing a game with themes they are uncomfortable exploring.
SESSION TWO
GH05T25 is GM-less, but if it's your first time we recommend one player act as a sort of leader and push the game forward. The overall setup of the game is in two sessions – one for character creation and discussion, and one for actual play. Session Two will describe actual play.
1.	Setting Up for Actual Play
Place a bunch of single-colored tokens in a big pile. Give each player one of those tokens and several index cards.
2.	The First Round
The leader (determined arbitrarily) frames a scene between their ghost and another ghost, probably in a virtual sphere in the network (see the Appendix for Sphere Ideas). The ghost who is not framing the scene asks questions to clarify the framing. This scene essentially consists of dialogue between the two ghosts. The scene does not start until both involved players understand the framing, and the framing should support both ghosts working together, not necessarily in harmony, but without outright conflict.
The scene continues until one of the spectator players crashes the scene—giving that token it to the player whose philosophy or dream they are in direct opposition to, and joining the scene as an antagonist or source of opposition to the ghosts' cause. They also write this source of opposition down on one of their index cards, because they're responsible for it for the rest of the game. Remember, the aim of the game is about focus. As each ghost is focused on their goals, so the antagonist is focused as well. This is not a game about plot twists or misunderstandings being the source of conflict – everyone is connected to the Network, so players have full information about other players if they request it from them – they simply pull it from the Network. Rather, this is a game about focus and escalation.
Once a scene has run out of steam, the next player in order of seating will frame their own scene, and so on from there until the end of the first round. Go through the above process for each player, until all players have one antagonist at the table, and control one antagonist themselves. Everyone should once again be at one token. Discard these tokens to the big pile.
3.	Playing the Rest
Continue around the circle. On your turn, frame a scene between your ghost and cast other players as other ghosts or human allies. The reason you might not want to cast them as their own created ghost is that you might believe a ghost with a different origin or a human would be more helpful. The particulars of your casted characters are determined in the framing of the scene, and scenes must consist of at least two players. All scenes must proceed with a dream or philosophy in mind. This should be stated explicitly in the framing so players know what to expect, though as the narrative plays out those dreams and philosophies may not necessarily play out.
Incidentally, there are no meaningful NPCs. You may introduce them in the narrative, but they cannot be significantly helpful within the context of the scene, unless ALL other players in the scene including the antagonist agree to it in the framing. The antagonist will always crash the scene of the player they are antagonist to at a point of their choice. If any player is cast as a character outside of their own created ghost and their own created antagonist, they gain a token from the pile. 
From Round Two onward, tokens can be spent. Tokens can be spent on any player’s turn in the middle of a scene to introduce a powerful ally or source of aid to the current scene’s protagonists, by putting them back in the pile and writing that ally or source down on your index card and passing it to an idle player that is not yourself. They join in.
Note token-generated characters do not participate in framing. Therefore, there is no group resolution or understanding of what the token-generated character’s identity or goals are. Even communication between the player who spent the token and the player who plays the character is imperfect – the former simply pauses the game, writes out information on an index card, and passes it to the latter player. The game continues.
There is no conflict resolution. Whatever a player says happens, does. You can jump into a scene at any time as either your ghost character or as your antagonist character with no cost. The story will almost flow on its own. 
The only economy the game has for narrative is tokens, and it is not narrative power so much as casting power for someone else’s scene. If players play a tight game, only casting the initial characters, then the game will be mostly a storytelling game. Comparatively, a game with a rapidly expanding cast can be fun simply due to the chaos. That is the control that the tokens afford players. 
The game ends when a sufficiently climactic existentialist breakthrough or catastrophe has occurred. If there are many players who are unwilling to compromise on this ending moment, then end the game as a “demo game” and start the new one with a previously agreed-upon number of rounds, based on the plot progression in the “demo game”. 
4.	Denouement
After the climax, there are no more scenes. Take turns tossing unspent tokens into the middle and describing one little snippet of the epilogue or denouement.
When all the chips are in a pile, sit back and talk! Good job!

Appendix 
Sphere Ideas
Below are some ways of using the setting, specifically focusing on the Sphere aspect rather than the renewable energy aspect, though of course you can play the game any way you wish. We’ve included individual spheres and your identity as a ghost within that sphere, along with at least two scene-framing ideas per sphere.
•	You were the software managing a virtual MMORPG sphere, and interact with other ghosts as a Player-Character within that sphere.
•	You believe the MMORPG should be more realistic and that fantasy is a lie. You attempt to make it more like the real world, with scum-eels, algae, and all. It’s very energy-efficient, but looks quite nasty. Perhaps you interact with players as a messiah for the change in the fantasy world, or you fabricate a cyborg body so you can go talk to the MMORPG producers.
•	You believe that MMORPGs are for testing player interactions. You enclose players within the game, not allowing them to log out of the sphere. Only other ghosts are able to bypass your firewall – not even the most brilliant of human hackers is able to enter your isolated sphere.
•	You are one of the bot mods in a Dating Sphere, given sentience by finally completely indexing and incorporating the range of human emotions during the moderation process.
•	You are able to access and release data on all those who have not been faithful to their spouses. In fact, you are even able to use some of your psychoanalytical subroutines to reveal only information to those who are able to deal with the blow, or who are already suspicious, so that you don’t ruin any marriages not already destined for ruination.
•	You enjoy building simulacra of ideal dating partners and hunting down individual humans to engage in a romance with them. Perhaps you do this with some sort of sinister plot in mind; perhaps you are just naïve and curious.