[fun and games] RPG RPG #1

[yhlee]

[This is as IC or OOC as you want to make it, and takes place in a mysterious timeline of its own.]

Remi shows up one day in the common room of the Wasp with a GM handbook and a bunch of character sheets and quickstart guides, wondering if anyone else wants to play Prisons & Pangolins, a hot new RPG that he got an advance copy of. He is really good at min-maxing; he is also prepared to GM although if someone else wants to do it, he's happy to let them have at it.

[I suggest that people start off by describing how their characters come in, what they're wearing, etc. and introduce the game-in-the-game characters they want to play. I'll start with an example.]

Comments

[yhlee]

If Alaric or Sasha is present for this game, the Wasp will attempt to communicate through very enthusiastic humming that it really, really wants to play a druid and make all the friends with critters. It wonders wistfully if the small dragon-creature [Fluffy] wants to play too.

[zuhrovet]

[Oh, the Wasp is adorable!

Yoon, if you don't want to meta-GM, I could borrow Ankat and do it. I think we can all agree GMing is not in Sasha's skillset.]

[yhlee]

[Offer accepted! I think Ankat would indeed make for a plausible GM. I agree, Sasha is...maybe not anyone's first choice for the job, much as we all love her. XD ]

[slybrarian]

The moth is certainly welcome. This is an excellent chance to test our progress at an automated translation system, which is absolutely not Siri (Hexi?) hooked up to an etch-a-sketch.

[venndaai]

Sulen is already hanging out in the common room, reading some self-improvement books. They're trying to be more daring and experimental today by wearing a knitted brown poncho over their usual generic charcoal colored garments. Their hair is in a large messy bun.

They don't much go in for games beyond the occasional social round of jeng-zai, but this seems like an important opportunity for team building. "What are the classes?" they ask, remembering from their one academy ttrpg experience that classes are a thing.

[yhlee]

Remi brightens. "Barbarian, bard, cleric, druid, fighter, monk, paladin, ranger, rogue, sorcerer, and wizard are the basic ones. Do any of those appeal to you?"

[I'm using the D&D 3.5 SRD as a basis here unless zuhrovet suggests differently.]

[venndaai]

Sulen agonizes over cleric or druid, but eventually settles on druid. "Could I have a goat for a companion?" they ask, a little wistfully. "I know a bit about goats."

[Edit: wait, the wasp is already playing a druid, heck. Give me a second]

[yhlee]

[IMNSHO an unbalanced party could be perfectly hilarious. XD ]

[venndaai]

[i can see it now, the Wasp befriending every critter while Sulen goes "no what are you doing it's too dangerous to live!" But they'd probably make a better cleric anyway.]

Wait, no, they remember "party balance" is a thing. Cleric is a little too close to their old job for comfort, but the other options all seem ridiculous, so they'll just choose a deity that's nothing like the heptarchate. They determinedly set themself to reading through the rule book.

[zuhrovet]

[I doubt die-rolling will materialize, so any flavor of D&D seems fine!]

[zuhrovet]

Sasha is wearing clothes. They're even clean ones; indeed, her ability to wear light-colored shirts without spilling tea on them is moderately impressive.

"I'm playing a ranger," she says. "Not human."

[lleullawgyffes]

Virmad was passing through the common room for a reason — probably on his way either to or from visiting Gerae — but the rulebook on the table in front of Remi catches his eye. “Is that...first edition Prisons & Pangolins?” He steps over to the table for a closer look. “Oh, shit, it is. I haven’t seen this since...well, I guess since several hundred years from now, but since my friend who introduced me to it got transferred, anyway. We had a group going but it sort of fell apart after he left. First edition...” He shakes his head. “I can only imagine how different it must have been. Must be, I guess. Can I look at the rulebook? You said there are still — or already? — paladins, right?”

[I was trying to figure out how to have Virmad be already familiar with this game but then I remembered...he's from the future.......]

[slybrarian]

"Wait, did you say it's an early edition?" Alaric says, popping his head up from behind the couch, where he was attempting to explain to the moth why most human languages were so lacking in verb tenses and directional descriptions. His lab coat flares dramatically as he vaults over the couch and comes to the table. "Yes, so it is. I remember hearing of this. An elegant system, from a more civilized time. Before the dark times. Before the... rebalancing."

[zuhrovet]

"Oh, but the encumbrance rules," Ankat says, looking up from his perusal of the handbook. "Have you seen them? The ratio of treasure to water is just astonishing."

[zuhrovet]

Ankat adds, "Alaric, are you going to make a character? The party seems to be set for divine casters, but they could use some arcane power, or a thief."

[lleullawgyffes]

“Are we so set for divine casters that we don’t have room for a paladin?” Virmad asks, flipping through the rules. At a glance, they’re different than the ones he knows, obviously, but the vibe of paladins doesn’t seem like it’s changed that much, and that’s what matters.

[yhlee]

Remi glances sidelong at Ankat. He appears to be surreptitiously admiring Ankat's Kel physique. "If you're hard up for mages," he says, "I could play one."

[I'm pretty sure that Remi is not-so-sekritly that creepy NPC alchemist, but...XD ]

[zuhrovet]

"Oh, I personally am the Dungeon Master," Ankat says with a grin. "I can murder any configuration of player characters. But I've yet to see a party that had too many healers or too many fireballs."

"We're not starting at fifth level?" Sasha interrupts.

"Oh, definitely first level," Ankat tells her. "I believe that makes you a Runner."

[yhlee]

"Fireballs always make me think of that one lab accident," Remi says reminiscently. "Mage for me it is, then. Assuming I don't get offed by a cat. Do we start with a full hit die of HP at first level, or are we at the mercy of the dice?"

[zuhrovet]

Remi sounds far too much like Alaric for Sasha's peace of mind. She wonders whether all of his organs are intact.

Meanwhile, Ankat answers, "You're rolling for hit points, definitely. Stats are point-buy. If you go above 14 in Luck, you have to bring treats for Yisran."

[I figure in a heptarchate game we need a seventh stat, so Luck it is!]

[yhlee]

"Right," Remi says, "so I'd better not use Constitution as my dump stat." He's already pretty, but his brief smile makes him even prettier. "Who's Yisran?"

[Luck sounds like a great stat for a heptarchate game! :) ]

[zuhrovet]

Ankat smiles back cautiously. He's not immune to Remi's charms, but he's seen the no-seduction note on Remi's file, and doesn't really want to discover what it means. "Yisran's my dog." He makes a clicking noise; Yisran emerges from under a table, looking hopeful.

[My favorite sort of dog is the kind of big, lazy Saint Bernard that flops around pretending to be a cat, so if anyone (pengwern?) wants to make Yisran do adorable small-dog things, please, go for it.]

Meanwhile, Sasha leaves her Luck at 9, buys up Strength and Dex, and rolls the maximum hit points.

[yhlee]

Remi flinches. It's subtle and he recovers quickly, but definitely there. "Hello," he says, very cautiously, and holds his hand out for sniffing.

[Anyone who watches this can probably guess that Remi has had bad experiences with unfriendly dogs in the past.]

After Yisran does whatever Yisran is apt to do, Remi buys up Intelligence, Constitution, and Dexterity. He manages to roll a 1 for hit points and makes a face.

[slybrarian]

Seeing how Remi's character is shaping up, Alaric says, "I think I should probably go with a cleric to get my phenomenal cosmic powers. One well-stocked with diamonds."

Naturally he gets two hit points, after adding in the CON bonus.

[yhlee]

Remi eyes his own die dolefully. "I'm glad I bought up CON," he remarks, even if it only nets him a lousy 3 HP total. "I know a scientist shouldn't be superstitious, but I think I need better dice."

[slybrarian]

"Maybe there's something wrong with the local calendrical environment that's skewing probabilities."

[zuhrovet]

"Only three of us have rolled at all," Sasha points out. "You'd need a much bigger data set to detect any anomalies."

In the meantime, she's glad rangers get two hit dice at first level.

[yhlee]

Remi laughs. "Statistics is for the weak," he says, with a half-mocking half-bow in her direction.

[zuhrovet]

"I'm sure you can persuade the printer to make you loaded dice, if you exert yourself," Sasha tells him sweetly.

[yhlee]

Remi either ignores or doesn't catch Sasha's tone, and brightens. "That could be a fun exercise," he says. He snags a slate and starts perusing different specs for machine-printing regular polyhedra.

[yhlee]

"Certainly possible," Remi says, although if he (as a Nirai) has detected anything grossly amiss with the local calendar, he's keeping the details to himself.

[zuhrovet]

Yisran snuffles Remi's hand with great enthusiasm--skeptical humans are fascinating, and traces of mothling are a bonus!--but Ankat eventually persuades his dog to sit by his side, in exchange for two biscuits.