lucetilogs | Fear not, Ranger, Barbarian, Magician, Thief, Cavalier, and Acrobat...

Fear not, Ranger, Barbarian, Magician, Thief, Cavalier, and Acrobat...

Who:

likevegeta,

steadfastest,

redstringed, and

consultmybooks
What: Old School Dungeons and Dragons.
When: Thursday evening, some time after this.
Where: Andrew's apartment
Summary: Rachel needs a new social outlet now that she has an embarrassing costume.
Rating: PG.

There was horror going on all over Luceti as Halloween drew nearer. Weird mists, strange killings, and non-removable costumes were all part of the fun. So what better time than now to hole up in the one-bedroom apartment version of Skywalker Ranch and dig out the old dice bag? Xander had been thinking about this for a while, since meeting Andrew and deciding that they guy was pretty cool in his own way. He never expected Rachel to accept the invitation to the game. Add to this mix Giles, who will undoubtedly take everything far too seriously, and lots of delicious snacks, and you have the recipe for Good Times to be Had By All.

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There were things Andrew tried not to question in this strange new world - tried being the key word there - such as why the Malnosso had saw fit to give him his dice, or why they had so many D&D manuals sitting in the library, or why toast always managed to land butter side down even when you hadn't put butter on it. However, he wasn't in the mood to question these things tonight. Not when everything was going so weird. He needed a distraction and there were no good games, books, or shows to be had - and a D&D game was better than anything else he could think of for this.

"So! Who knows how to play?" Giles probably hadn't learned yet.

Giles was honestly not quite sure what he was doing here. Well, no, that wasn't true, he had a very good idea. It was getting ridiculous out there and it had reached the point where it was safety in numbers. He'd already found that he was less likely to hallucinate when other people were around.

The fact that he was here while still dressed up as Bela Lugosi made him appreciate Xander and Andrew's unique bravery in the face of the supernatural. The presence of Rachel made him appreciate it even more - who would have thought that the three of them would ever reach the point of playing this..."game"...at the same table with a vampire.

"Heard of it. Never played."

"It's not that hard to learn, Giles." Xander was sitting on the floor, back against the couch, half-distracted by the insanely awesome Star Wars mural that Andrew had somehow finagled onto the wall. He had had a distinct feeling of apartment envy ever since the other guy had first invited him over. He was also wearing the Goku costume (http://fanchaos.com/fanplusfriend/c2/Dragonball%20Movie%20Cosplay_Goku%20Costume_C00243_01.jpg) that Andrew had guilted (http://likevegeta.livejournal.com/2528.html?thread=154592#t154592) him into.

Popping open another can of Dr. Pepper, he stared down at his character sheet and tried to decide. "Do I want to be a guy, or a chick?"

Edited 2010-10-29 01:56 (UTC)

And a young vampire girl in an irritatingly pink dress made four - of course, from the way she looked down at the strangely-shaped dice in front of her, Rachel might well have preferred to be at any other spot in this entire world. Still, she had given her word, and that was not something easily broken.

"Nor have I. Though if this game always starts out with the players questioning their gender, I am glad that my dignity has managed to survive that long, at least."

Rachel is the rain on everyone's parade.

"It's just a game, dude. It's fun to try everything out at least once." Naturally, Andrew saw nothing wrong with this question. There is an explanation here, but the mun doesn't have the time to type it out and can't find the books to explain all of the mechanics. So pretend that Andrew is enthusiastically launching into a long rant about how the game works, it's origins, purpose, and steadily managing to get around to classes and races.

And Giles is actually listening. Intently. If he's going to play this game, he reasons, he might as well know everything there is to know so he can at least be good at it.

It's easiest just to think of it as an overly elaborate tactical simulation. That functions under extremely improbable circumstances, even for Sunnydale. But he does have a few issues:

"Sorry, but are elves actually like that in this game?"

"Yes, elves ARE like that and from here on in you may call me Culfuindil Half-Elven. I think I'm gonna go for a ranger in this campaign." Rolling for dexterity, charisma--"Well, looks like Culfuindil Half-Elven is hot!"--AC, strength, wisdom, intelligence--"Aaand Culfuindil might be a looker, but he's kind of stupid. I'm sensing a lesson in this."

"I will call you nothing of the sort."

"Nor shall I," Rachel concurred with the Watcher. "Where do you create these names?"

That said, she had taken Andrew's words and committed them to memory. If this was a game, she was determined to win it.

"Hey, I got that from the Tolkien elven compendium glossary, alright? Sheesh. You guys have to pick characters now."

Giles stares at Xander for a second. He just...stares, not at all sure what to make of this. Then he glances sidelong at Andrew, watching the other boy to make sure he's doing this right.

"I'll play a...gnome? Gnome...wizard?"

"Ohhh, good one," Andrew held a hand up for a hi-five, absently running over the list of characters he could play in his head... it had been a really long time since he'd last been able to enjoy a good game.

Xander, meanwhile, started shuffling through character sheets. "A gnome wizard's pretty good, yeah--a good campaign always needs a gnome. That there's words to live by. SOOOOOOO Rachel, what's it gonna be?"

Rachel had been mulling over her options as the others had spoken, until Xander questioned her - she arched a pale eyebrow. "Paladin," she said after a moment's pause. "Human."

If she were aware of any irony in her choice, she remained completely straightfaced.

Giles high fives Andrew, bemused. And shoots a sideways look at Rachel. He is certainly aware of the irony in her choice, or thinks he is, at least. You never can tell, with Rachel.

"And Xander is playing his half-elf. Have you decided on something, Andrew?"

Well then, that just leaves him. Andrew seriously considers his options for a moment. It's a chance to show off, so he has to aim big - but he doesn't want to hog the spotlight too much, then the others might not want to play again. Oh, oh, but if it's not interesting then they might not want to do this again anyhow. Choices.

"Uhm... Changeling Rogue. I haven't played one of those since my last campaign said no more DC references."

"I can get behind that, man." Xander wiped a little bit of spilled Dr. Pepper off his character sheet and handed his dice to Giles. "That'll be interesting. You got a plan for the campaign?" Of course Andrew had a plan for the campaign.

"Is he not the one running this game? I should dearly hope so."

Giles took the dice and examined them thoughtfully before addressing Rachel. "Since we were probably the last two involved, I'd imagine we'd be a bit out of the loop in that regard.

...so I roll for abilities, yes?" That seemed to have been what Xander had been doing.

"You catch on quick, Mr. Giles," Andrew beamed. He'd already seen this in action once before, though. Granted, they'd been facing the end of the world the next day and had been playing for what could be the first and possibly last time for all of them. Sadly, it certainly had been for one of them. But he's not thinking about that, he's just rolling for his abilities. Which shall be gloriously handwaved so we can get to game start!

"I've got it all planned out, don't worry."

"Good, because Culfuindel Half-Elven wants to fight him some orcs. Bring on the orc action! But not, you know--that sounded wrong." BIG sip of soda, then--actually too big: Xander choked and sputtered as the Dr Pepper violated the hippocratic oath and ran down the wrong pipe. It took him a minute or so of hacking coughs to make everything right again.

If eyes could sigh, then that was exactly what Rachel's glance over at Xander was doing. "Very well. Then this is, at its core, a game of chance, is it not?"

Rachel felt slightly silly as she picked up her polyhedral dice and rolled for her abilities - rather well, to her delight. "My, then chance seems to be smiling on me tonight."

"And on me." Well, according to these numbers he'd rolled and the categories he had to work with, Giles' felt safe that his character would probably make a decent gnome wizard. And he was determined to continue thinking of him as "the gnome wizard" until he had no other choice.

The numbers added up, and a lot of this seemed to be all about numbers. He glanced at Xander to make certain that the boy was in no immediate danger of choking, and then at Andrew.

"Are we going to be fighting orcs?"

"Uhm, not right away." Andrew's turn to roll. He'd never had good luck with dice. Actually, his luck was downright terrible when it came down to it, though back in the old day it could be attributed to Warren simply somehow always rolling better than any of them. He could remember Jonathan swearing up and down that it was because those dice were fixed, but neither boy had ever been able to find any concrete evidence... though later, Jonathan's luck had inexplicably improved, and Andrew was then the only one with a not-so-skilled character. He had never been able to find any evidence to Jonathan's cheating either, though the bones to the KFC they ordered had always gone missing shortly before the game.

As usual, his lackluster luck had him with an average skillset.

With Xander no longer in any immediate danger and everything set, Andrew cleared his throat. The voice.. well, certainly not familiar to those who haven't heard it, was one that could not be forgotten anytime soon.

"It is a cold and dreary night that greets our travelers. A night darker than any other, a night darker than even the blackest of hearts!"

And here he stops for a dramatic pause.

Rachel didn't say anything.

But oh, she wanted to.

Giles also didn't say anything, waiting politely for Andrew to continue. Well, at least it wasn't "it was a dark and stormy night".

Andrew's voice deepens somewhat as he settles into the role of storyteller, taking on a dramatic edge. "Oh, brave travelers. You have been sent upon a quest to gather the ancient treasures of the kingdom. It is a difficult quest. The fate of your home rests upon your shoulders, ad should these jewels fall into the wrong hands then the fate of the world may be in jeopardy!

You arrive in the first town weary and exhausted, but you cannot rest. The tavern is the ideal place to gather information. It's a dingy, dirty establishment bustling with shady figures. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy, but this is where you must be to find the people who can you on your quest.

"Okay, okay, so Culfuindel Half-Elven is gonna be sitting in the corner of the tavern, like Han Solo. Or Aragorn. Total back-of-the-room table-in-the-shadows kinda guy." Xander paused to check the stats on his sheet before continuing. "Oh! Can I have Culfuindel hit on the bar maid and try to get the DL on whereabouts of treasure that way?"

"And why would a lowly tavern wench know something like that?" Rachel grumbled. "We would be better off finding a historian or someone well-read, not wasting our time in a hovel as people lose their heads to drink around us."

"She does have a point. But I think the essential point of this scenario is that we're supposed to be relying on the, um, 'practical' knowledge of the travelers, rather than on books." He doesn't quite approve of this notion, but he glances at Andrew again to see if that's the right idea. "Granted, since I'm playing a wizard, I probably wouldn't think that."

He has to think for a second on how the nameless little gnome wizard can contribute to this scene. "We probably need food, yes? I'll go and get us some food."

"Well put, Mr. Giles. Well put." Besides, the quickest way to find out what you needed to know in any RPG was to talk to the townsfolk. They were more alert to the goings on than any book could be - which, well, directly contradicted Sunnydale logic. "And the bar is the first place any shady figure goes, of course."

"Of course." Xander cleared his throat, getting into character; then he turned to Andrew and began his seductive interrogations of the NPC, whom he imagined as a lusty barmaid.

"Good eventide, fair maiden. This looks like the kind of town where beautiful ladies know a thing or two about treasure." He smiled and nodded at Giles and Rachel. Clearly, this was the best method of gathering information.

There was something rather disturbing about hearing Xander speak in that tone of voice to the other boy, Rachel decided, resisting the urge to sigh heavily. Instead, she only sighed moderately. "And while my hormone-driven cohort persists on seeking untold ancient knowledge from an uneducated farm girl barely fit to serve alcohol to dimwitted yokels, I search the room for someone who might have a scant idea of what they're talking about."

Giles took off his glasses and started cleaning them. He needed a few seconds to process Xander's actions without sighing right along with Rachel.

"And I'll...help Rachel do that, then. Even if this nice, um, young lady actually knows something, it's probably best if we get information from as many sources as possible."

Now, Andrew is skilled at DMing. Not quite as skilled as Warren, who could easily fall into the role of villain abnd do the most terrifying manical laugh you could imagine, and not as skilled as Jonathan, who could come up with the cleverest plots - but skilled enough not to flinch or stutter when Xander addressed him. Just... begins to think over his words carefully.

He was just filling a role, after all. He was good at that. "Treasure you say, brave traveler?"

"Why yes, lovely maiden." Xander's "come hither" voice would probably be considered highly disturbing to almost anyone who knew him. "Though the true treasure might be the lovely fullness of your lips."

Rachel didn't even know him that well, and she still found it disturbing. "May I also remind my cohort that we are seeking ancient wisdom, and not disease-ridden dalliances of the flesh."

Edited 2010-12-01 23:31 (UTC)

"Rachel, be polite. There's no need for us to alienate everyone in town just yet." Easier to focus on Rachel and...not on Xander. Because Giles did know Xander quite well, and so found his tone of voice highly disturbing.

"Perhaps I should handle communicating with the rest of the tavern. Shall we speak with the bartender? He probably overhears things."

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Fear not, Ranger, Barbarian, Magician, Thief, Cavalier, and Acrobat...

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We might need a thread order

Andrew -> Xander -> Rachel -> Giles?

HURRAH YOU HAVE BROUGHT ORDER TO OUR CHAOS

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life keeps eating me. Dx

I like the partially-digested you.

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