Dating and Dragons (Dungeons and Drama, #2) (10)
“He’s very into D&D. Like, I think of myself as a big gamer, but I’m nowhere close to him. He probably just got used to thinking of our group in a certain way and needed to process the idea of someone new joining. Don’t worry about it.” She gives me a once-over and nods appreciatively. “Nice choice of outfit for today. You’re giving witchy-paladin vibes.”
I look down at myself, confused about why she thinks I look like a paladin, and then remember I’m wearing sun and moon earrings and a blue shirt with a large sun on it. Since paladins can worship sun deities, I guess that makes sense.
“Thanks, I actually made these.” I point to my earrings.
“Wait, you made those? No way, I love doing that stuff too! I made this.” She holds up her wrist to show me a bracelet made of six-sided dice interspersed with beads. I have no idea how I didn’t notice it until now—it’s so cool I’m tempted to barter my own jewelry for it. I tell her as much and she laughs loudly.
“We totally need to get together after school and make jewelry together. What do you think?”
I have to bite the inside of my cheek so I don’t scream YES in her face. No need to scare her off.
“Yeah,” I say in a fairly normal tone of voice. “That would be awesome.”
* * *
A small cheer goes up when I walk into the room. “You actually came!” Mark says, while both Sanjiv and Sloane wave.
I can’t stop myself from glancing over at Logan, who is looking carefully neutral as he flips through a manual. “I don’t scare easily.”
“Glad to hear that,” Sloane says.
“Session zero might be one of my favorite days,” Kashvi says. “Plus, my mom bought us pizza! Help yourself.” She points to a folding table pushed against a wall with multiple pizzas stacked on it, along with some half-opened bags of chips.
“But don’t eat all the veggie pizza. It’s my favorite,” Sanjiv adds.
At least there are snacks, so this isn’t completely unlike my other experiences. I take a slice of pepperoni and sit at the open seat at the table, which is next to Kashvi and directly across from Logan. He hasn’t made eye contact since I arrived. Maybe that’s how this whole campaign will go…assuming they’re still on board with letting me join after today. I guess it wouldn’t be horrible to have him ignore me, but it doesn’t feel great knowing someone is actively against my joining. I give him a peace offering in the form of a little smile, but rather than smiling back like a regular person, his lips press together in a line like he’s an annoyed emoji.
“Okay, we should get started,” Logan announces, and the others immediately quiet down. I guess he really is the leader here. “If we want to increase our viewer numbers, then we need this next campaign to be even more amazing than our last one, and that means we’ve got to bring it with our characters. What’s everyone thinking?”
“Are you ready for this? I’ve chosen my name….” Mark puts out his hands. “Rolo.”
There’s a beat of silence. “Rolo?” Sloane asks. “Um, can you give us some context here?”
Logan starts laughing, quietly at first and then louder. “That’s actually perfect for you.”
“Right? Because I…roll…low?” Mark sits back dramatically and flicks a candy with the same name into his mouth.
The others break into laughter then.
“You should have seen him last campaign,” Kashvi explains to me. “It was honestly impressive how he could roll so badly every time. I swear your dice are jinxed or something.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve this time to fix that.”
“What class are you thinking?” Sanjiv asks him.
“I’m not sure yet. I only have the name, but the rest will come to me.”
“Logan, I’m sure you’ve got your character all figured out,” Sloane says, and Logan nods. “What are you going with?”
“A charismatic rogue elf named Adris Starcrown,” Logan says. “He’s the third son of a respected elven family who has always felt lesser than his older brothers. Eventually he leaves his family to explore the world and discovers that his grace and speed make theft very easy for him, particularly when he can charm the person before stealing from them. He’s always wanted his family to be proud of him, but since he’s done nothing but sharpen his thieving skills since abandoning them, he’s afraid to go home and see their disappointment. So he just keeps pushing, hoping to finally do something that will make him worthwhile in their eyes.”
My mouth drops open a little. Um, okay, so we’re going to that level of character backstory? I’ve never created anything like this before. In the past, Caden used a preexisting campaign module for our game, which worked well, but he barely knew what he was doing as a DM and the rest of us didn’t put a ton of effort into our characters. This time I need to be a lot more thoughtful.
I flip through the Player’s Handbook, hoping for inspiration. Rogues can take a lot of forms—they can be tomb raiders, assassins, and Zorro. If Logan’s putting his highest stat in Charisma instead of Dexterity, then he’s not going with the basic character build…but looking around, I’m getting the impression that’s exactly the goal. A regular Orc barbarian or human wizard isn’t going to cut it.