1 Wednesday October 19 2016
I'm looking through sets of dice at the local game store. The door opens as a large crowd teens enter. They are wearing eclectic clothing with lots of "d20" and "Crit" scrawled in magic marker on their shirts.
"How many in your group?" the cashier asks.
"We have fourteen today." replies one young girl. She has green spiky hair and a nose ring.
"Any storytellers?" Asks the cashier.
"We have a storyteller with us." replies the the girl. She seems to be the leader around fifteen years old.
"Seven allowed per table. Game night is $5 each and your storyteller is free."
The crowd eagerly pays the money and walks to the back of the store.
"Um. What's Game night?" I ask the cashier.
He looks over and in his best salesman pitch states. "Game nights here start at 7pm. $5 admissions fee to sit and play. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday is military futuristic wargaming. Wednesday and Thursday is RPG. Friday are card games, not the poker kind, no gambling is allowed. Saturday is family board game night." He's very animated as his arms sweep back and forth. The beads on his long dreadlocks tinkling musically.
"Can I watch?" I ask. "Sure it's right in the back."
I walk to the back passing the only bathroom in the store as well as rows of comic books and shelves of games.
The back room is large with eight long folding tables set up. Many seats are already filled with people reading through game books while taking notes on their character sheets. Others are practicing rolling their dice. "This d20 keeps rolling low" says the green spiky haired girl before she tosses it into the trash.
"Slayer you can't keep throwing away dice. Those cost real money" says another teen. He fishes in the trash pulling out cans and pizza boxes. There isn't much before he pulls out his treasure of three dice. The boy puts back the other teach into the bin before heading to the bathroom to clean the dice.
"Mudlark don't bring the d20 to my table. I don't want it affecting my other rolls tonight." Slayer AKA the green spiky haired girl says.
"Hey. I'm new here is it okay if I watch your game?" I ask feeling slightly foolish.
She looks over at me. I must look as old as her dad. "What class to you play? Tank, Striker or Support? You know fighter, rogue, sorcerer or cleric?" Slayer asks.
I thought about that. The last time I played was over thirty years ago. "I played a half elf ranger before." I said.
"Eh? That's a old school Striker class. Let me see your PC logs." Slayer continues.
"I don't know what you mean. I haven't paid yet and don't have a log." I said.
"Oh a newbie. Well pay your game pass, ask for a premade PC sheet and sit at our table. We're starting a new campaign tonight anyway." Slayer said. Mudlark had finished cleaning the pizza grease off and sat at the table."
At the register after paying the cashier the entry fee I ask for a premade character.
"You mean you want a pregen. We have dwarf, human and darkling." Mr. Cashier states. "Any half elves?" I inquire.
"No but we have human variant and half darkling that explodes only fifty percent of the time in sunlight." Mr. Cashier said.
"I'll go with the human variant then." I chose. "Which class?" Continues Mr. Cashier
"Jack of all trades? Magic commando? I'd like to heal, use a katana and magic. " I inquire.
"Well that would be a classless commoner. They are usually the base class that all the other classes start from. With it I'll give you the cure injury spell, a knife and a pet. Would you like a small, medium or large pet? Pets follow you around and if intelligent can follow basic commands. You have to feed and train them or they leave. You also have to name your character and pet. Then your done."
"I'll name my character Kong the commoner and choose a medium pet." Having my PC logs printed I inspect it as I head to join the group.
Name: Kong the commoner
Race: Human variant
Class: Classless commoner
Hit points:4
Armor class:7/20 plain cloth
Physical Strength:9/20
Mental Strength:10/20
Spiritual Strength:8/20
Weapon: knife 1d2
Pet name: "Kong the commoner"
Pet size: medium-shadow tattoo
Hit points:12
Mana Strength:20/20 Gold core
Spells: Cure injury 2d4, shadow blades 1d4
Strange that my character name and pet name were the same. i showed Slayer my sheet to ask about it. She made a disgusted face and said " Gold core, huh. Are you planning on having your pet do all the fighting?"
It was getting pretty noisy since all the tables were full. Slayer showed me her PC sheet.
Name:Slayer
Race: Giant
Class: Tank 🛡 🛡 🛡
Hit points:5,007,501
Armor class:20/20 Blessed Shield
Physical Strength:50/50
Mental Strength:20/50
Spiritual Strength:30/50
Weapon: Holy Sword 5d20, Blessed Shield
Pet name: Growl
Pet size: large-war tiger 🐯
Hit point: 2,000,000
Mana Strength:200/200 Gold core
Weapon: claw 2d100, bite 5d100, roar 1d20
"Wow. You PC is so strong. "I was amazed.
"I've been playing the same character for ten years. My dad is a storyteller so I started hearing his adventures from the cradle." Slayer said.
After that the table filled out and we began rolling a twenty sided dice to establish our turn order with the highest number going first. Maybe I had beginners luck rolling the lowest score.
Lucky for me since I could watch others to determine how to play. On my left sat Slayer to my right sat a large muscular dark skinned man wearing digital camo named J.S. He played a ninja named after a Saturday morning cartoon.
As I didn't know I needed a Player Hero's Handbook I asked to look at Slayer or JS's.
The game began in combat. Our army position was over run by lizard men riding giant fire breathing alligators. In my first melee engagement my character was killed.
However, the human variant was the special Chimeran type and able to resurrect by losing a level thereby sending my character to level zero. Since there was no levels to lose further I primarily played by sticking near the mages in the back of the party for the rest of that adventure.
