Sphere of the Planes: A D&Der's fantasy swap.

[Ravenloft]

Clayton Boomer had everything set up for a long night of role playing. All the players books were stacked knee high on "their" side of his kitchen table, and at his end of the table, he'd built a DM's sancturary, neigh, a fortress against even the most abusive and clever player. No one would derail his carefully thought out adventure, he was sure of it, no one could. He'd spent all week preparing it with every free moment he could find. It was perfect, a thirty floor dungeon, culminating in an epic battle with a great white wyrm, who would have plenty of time to prepare for them once they blundered down into his realm...

And the cleverest part of all was that Clayton had designed the dungeon so that the dragon could escape through a wide tunnel that connected from its secret lair to the towns public wishing well. So the party would only find out at the end that if they had but known to go down the well, they would have had a straight shot to the dragon and been able to take it down completely unaware. But they would never think to try an innocent public well, not in a million years!

Clayton chortled with sinister delight at how clever he was, only to jump, startled by the first knock at his door. "They were ariving, soon, very soon, my plans will see fruition! Muahahah!" Clayton thought as he went to answer the door.

 

[cats]

Joe Smith

IC: I waited patiently at the door for a few minutes. "Damn it he better not be laughing like a Maniac again... It creeps me out since I know he's only doing it in his head, but just so obvious. Well enough of being patient." I set down the 24 pack of Mt. Dew, and opened one. I took a sip, and then proceeded to pound the door loudly and nonstop with the other hand.

 

[Ravenloft]

"Joe! Come on in man and don't forget your dice! ...Or the dew!" Clayton exclaimed, shaking Joes hand emphatically, practically pulling him into the house. "I've got a new campaign that I've been working on all week that I'm going to start tonight, so I hope you don't mind having to roll up a new character, no higher than third level though, please!" Clayton added as he directed his friend, Joe, to the kitchen table.

 

[Kalika84]

Sitting in her beat up red ford laser outside the house, Sarinah just sat there and wondered whether she should go through with this or just turn around and go home. Seriously, how much fun could sitting around a table and talking out actions really be? She thought to herself.

Pulling her brown her back into a pony tail she decided to go through with it. Pushing the door open, which was a feat in itself it was so rusty, she slid out and slammed the door shut behind her. Walking up to the door always looking down at her feet she knocked rather hesitantly but hopefully loud enough to be heard.

However she could hear a rather....exuberant guy talking away loudly inside so she decided to knock harder then stood patiently outside waiting for it to open.

 

[Ravenloft]

Clayton rushed back to the front door, swinging it open rather quickly. "Sarinah! You came! I'm sooo glad you came! Come in, come in! Join the fun!" Clayton said, his eyes wide. His overtly energetic demeanor was due to the three Monsters he drank in the last three hours, getting 'juiced' for the game, as he would call it.

"I saved a Monster for you! And... This is Joe, Joe Smith, an old friend of mine from high school, he brought the Mountain Dew." All while he was talking, Clayton walked Sarinah into the kitchen, where he had left Joe, who was already half done with his dew.

 

[cats]

Joe

IC: I took another sip of the dew and nodded at the new face. "Nice to meet you." I then turned to our host. "This 3 level thing isn't going to work for me. I was going to play a were-mole, but the level adjustment is 3 alone. Hey wait your smiling to much is this one of those days were I should make my first four characters now?"

 

[Kalika84]

Sarinah quietly followed after Clayton trying not to be to confused by the words almost falling out of his mouth.

"Three monsters? in three hours? You did know you can drink too much of that stuff don't you?"

Sarinah following Clayton into the kitchen and murmured a quiet "Hello." back to who was obviously Joe.

"Umm, Clayton, I am new to this remember what is this level 3 adjustment limit....what? were-mole? Maybe I should come back and play some other time...."

 

[Ravenloft]

"Yeah, it says right on the can, to not exceed three cans in a twenty four hour period, so thats why I saved you the last can... Besides, I'm sure Joe would share some of his dew with me, if I ask nice." Clayton said, giving Sarinah a goofy smile.

"Joe... You know how I feel about the level adjustment rules on character races? Its a bunch of crap! However, I am also a firm believer in not allowing templates during character creation. Lycanthropes, vampires, that sort of thing, I only allow if you become one during actual play! So... House rule, you can play any RACE without its level adjustment, er, within reason." Clayton said in the most authoritative voice he could manage.

When Sarinah said the dreaded words: "Maybe I should come back and play some other time." Clayton almost panicked. He had been trying to ask her out for the past several months, only whenever he would see her on campus, he would freeze up and not know what to say. It was only last week that they found out they had a mutual love of fantasy, an area that Clayton was sure not to make an ass out of himself, talking about. They spent like four hours just talking about the books they had read, and finally, Clayton mentioned that he role played, and somehow discribed it to her in a way that wasn't pervish or too geeky, so she asked if she could try.

So, here she was, about to leave, because Joe was talking game mechanics. Grr! "Wait Sarinah, Joe's just talking about game mechanics, thats all. Please, stay, let me help you make a character?" Clayton offered, pulling out a sheet for her.

 

[Kalika84]

Sarinah looked at Clayton with his puppy dog eyes imploring her to stay and chewed on her bottom lip while she thought about it. If he was willing to help maybe she could stay?

"Okay, but only if you promise to take it easy on me, and I'll pass on the monster thanks the false energy makes me....jittery." Sitting down at the kitchen table she set her bag next to her chair on the floor and waited for Clayton to join her and explain this 'game mechanics'.

"Joe would you mind if I had a mountain dew instead?" This last question was very quietly asked again because she didn't really know Joe and was very introverted around strangers until she knew them a bit better.

"Now Clayton do you promise this isnt difficult? Im fairly certain I'm going to feel like an idiot sitting here saying 'and now i swing my sword and chop the evil dread goblin in half'..." Sarinah said laughing softly and blushing.

 

[Ravenloft]

Clayton visibly twitched when Sarinah consented to stay, and again when she mentioned that Monsters gave her the jitters. Finally getting a handle on himself, Clayton sat down with an excited grin. "She was gonna stay! Hoody hoo!" He thought, fighting the urge to start jumping up and down.

"Ah Sarinah, the game is only as complicated as we want it to be. There are some players who arn't happy until they consult table after table, just to find out where they hit the evil dread goblin. But... We don't have to do that." Clayton took the rules pamphlet with the said rules and slid them back into his "game case", an old brief case that he had retooled to be the perfect gamers resource.

"Really though, what it all comes down to is telling us what your character is trying to do, rolling a twenty sided die, and adding your characters bonuses to the roll. If the outcome is high enough, you succeed."

 

[cats]

Joe

IC: I continued to scribble out a monk and last moment decided it would be a hot female, which was always fun.

Hearing but not answering the question of Sarinah, I put the Dew on the table next to her. I brought it to share any how. The trick was going to be keeping Clayton from having any, since I was pretty sure more cafine then he had right now would cause a repeat of the time we went to Comic Con.

"So Sarinah, let me just come out and ask. Did you watch Dino-Riders growing up?"

 

[Kalika84]

Watching Clayton intently while he explained how 'simple' it was she also noticed how excited he was...which was kinda cute actually she thought to her self with a silent chuckle.

"Okay so, how about you help me make a character and as we go along in the game you can explain how to add my bonuses etcetera?"

Picking up the Mountain Dew Joe had kindly put on the table for her she popped the tab and took a drink while trying to think of if she had even heard of dino-riders. "Ah, no Joe can't say I have seen dino-riders....I am pretty sure I have heard of it though..." Sarinah paused and blushed adding, "I actually preferred Transformers..."

 

[cats]

IC: "Yeah I suppose Dino-riders is a rather select time span. Perhaps just for me. They only had 13 episodes you know... Wait off topic. I brought up the show because Sarinah was the name of the only female. Kind of like the shows Smurfet. But then again there were other females just not ones of any importance."

 

[Kalika84]

"Right....I think I know what you mean." Sarinah caught sight of Joe's character sheet. "You're playing a girl?" She asked incredulously.

 

[cats]

IC: "Until it dies. I am the excuse to try something new type of player. But any how its fun to play out of gender and mess with people on occasion."

 

[Kalika84]

Sarinah wrinkled her nose in response to Joe's statement. "I don't think I could play a guy very convincingly. Do you think you can play a girl very convincingly?"

Sarinah started thinking about the kind of character she wanted to play....someone completely different to herself personality wise....strong, forthright....maybe a warrior?

 

[Ravenloft]

Clayton stared longingly at the dew Joe had sat next to Sarinah, just knowing Joe was still holding the "Comic-Con debacle" against him. Just because he ran up and hugged Mark Hamill while wearing a home made costume of Comander Courage, and asked him to sign his chest... It wasn't like he NEEDED caffine, he wasn't addicted to it, he could quit drinking the stuff any time he wanted to.

The mention of Dino-riders snapped him out of his revelry, and back into the now. "Dino-riders ewwww! Give me Land of the Lost over that show ANY day!" Clayton laughed, snorting, until Joe also mentioned that the only girl in the show shared Sarinah's name. Clayton back tracked a little, adding. "But, come to think of it, the girl in that show was hot, like... Pink Ranger hot! Er... Anyway..." And he went back to filling in Sarinah's character sheet with as much information as he could without taking away her choices.

Sarinah mentioned transformers, and Clayton couldn't help but wonder how they did IT. I mean, they had male and female autobots, at least as when the cartoon movie came out, so they had to do IT! "Robot sex... Hmmm..." Clayton mumbled under his breath before jerking back into the now again. This always happened, he got a load of caffine into him and he would constantly follow every tangent that came to mind.

"Oh no, Joe's playing a girl again..." Clayton thought, remembering the several awkward moments they had had the last time he had played a female character. "Okay, Sarinah, I've rolled a set of stats for you, now, all you have to do is pick which stats you want them on. I rolled two eighteens, a fourteen, two twelves, and a seven. now, there are a couple things to keep in mind, anything above a ten will give you a bonus, anything below gives a penalty. So, if you want, say, a warrior, you would want your higher scores on your physical stats, your strength, dexterity, and constitution, and your lower scores on your mental scores, your intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. So... What do you think you want to play?" Clayton asked, hoping that Sarinah's knowledge of fantasy novels would be enough to guide her decision. He just knew if he had to explain character types, he would probably lose her...

 

[cats]

Joe

IC: "Land of the lost didn't have laser battles now did it?" I waited for Clayton to explain stats before answering Sarinah. "As for being a convincing woman I am a drag queen on the week ends." I then counted to three in my head. "Gotcha. This is the type of messing with people that I am talking about."

 

[Kalika84]

Sarinah sat back and absent mindedly picked up a pencil from the table and started nibbling on the end while she considered her options.

If she was going to be a warrior, strength was a must so definately an 18, constitution as far as she could remember was health/robustness etc so that should be an 18 as well, she needed to be good with weapons so dexterity should probably then take the 14, now she did not want to be a dumb ass however so a 12 for intelligence. That left a 7 and a 12 for wisdom and charisma.

Writing down the numbers next to the relevant stat she pondered on the 7 and 12 dilemma while answering Joe after the mention of being a drag queen and the subsequent 'gotcha' to indicate he was joking she said, "So basically you like to keep people on their toes and stay as far away from the norm as possible without being thrown in a loony bin?"

Turing her attention back to Clayton she asked, "If I want my character to have mild magickal ability ie, shield, minor healing etc, what should I do with the 7 and 12? I have wisdom and charisma left, any suggestions?"

 

[Ravenloft]

"Now Joe, if I wanted laser battles, I'd watch Dr. Who... You know... EXTER-MIN-ATE! EXTER-MIN-ATE! El-oh-el! I love that show! *Snort*" Clayton shot back pretending to be a Dalek.

He turned to Sarinah, a slight look of concern on his face. "Actually, I would put the second eighteen in dexterity, and the fourteen in constitution, that way, you can avoid being hit more and still have a fair health bonus. Shield and healing spells are clerical, so if you want access to those, you would want your wisdom to be the twelve."

Just then Wesley Norton showed up, knocking on the door as he peeked in. "Hello, looks like everyone's here?! Sorry I'm late, just got off work..." Wesley worked at the PizzA-Go-Go, and that ment he almost always came with a free pizza. On this particular night, he had brought two, one with the works, and one with just pepperoni and extra cheese, which he brought out and presented to the group.

Clayton jumped to his feet, shouting: "Yippy! Pizza time!!!" He cleared a spot on the kitchen counter for them as Wes brought them over. "Hi there, you must be Sarinah? Wes asked, extending a hand to her while Clayton took the boxes. "Clay talks about you all the time, says you're into fantasy big time."

Clay yelped in dismay, cutting Wes, his flat mate, off. "He's so TOTALLY exagerating, I just mentioned that we talked at the library, and that you were coming over tonight." Wes gave Clay a sly smirk. "For four hours...? Best four hours of his life, or so he told me, Sarinah." He gave her a wink as he went to grab a paper plate for pizza. For Clay's part, all he could do was turn red with embarassment, and hide behind the open lid of one of the pizza's.

 

[cats]

Joe

IC: "The best thing about Wes is he gets free pizza, mind you there defective. Oh its generally best not to ask why." I lied quite happily.

 

[Kalika84]

"Well, it looks like my character is all sorted out then, I just have to come up with a name and some description..." Sarinah trailed off as a new guy entered carrying....Oh.My.God. pizza.

Sarinah stood up and delictaely sniffed the air...oh my god, pepperoni and cheese pizza. Sarinah followed the boys over to the counter and smiled at the new guy who extended his hand to her. Taking it she replied to his statement, "Yes I'm Sarinah." One of her eyebrows raised at his comment of Clayton talking about her all the time, which Clay appeared desperate to play down.

Sarinah blushed pink all the way to the roots of her hair so she just grabbed some pizza mumbled something about really liking books and scurried back to the table. Just then she twigged to Joe's comment about the pizza she stopped abruptly and looked down at the pizza on her plate and looked at the boys questioningly. "Defective?"

 

[Ravenloft]

Wes gave Joe an arch look, shaking his head. "By defective, Sarinah, he means someone called in an order, posing as a frat boy, with an address that didn't exist. So we reap the benefit of some poges prank call. The pizza is fine..."

Clayton silently sat across from Sarinah, daring an occasional glance her way.

 

[cats]

Joe

IC: "You know I think I am done with the mind games for today. So Wes what you making."

 

[Ravenloft]

"I'm thinking Mage, maybe a gnome illusionist... I think I'll call him Rando Shmook..."