Sir Les Paul
The Duke of Chords
Third Wheeling It | Death City
Old Collab Post Post
Old Collab Post Post
July 5th, Tuesday
The fourth of July party had been a pretty big event. A majority of their smaller friend group had gathered together for the massive fireworks display that Death City put on. The DWMA also had incredibly tight security, which did somewhat dampen the mood, but given the recent events in April, it was understandable. Still, it had been no surprise to anyone that Dani had drunkenly tugged Adrian back to his place just a touch earlier than the party actually ended.
She was impatient when she wanted something, and it had been a while since she felt even remotely normal after gaining her new power.
The alarm went off. The second one. The alarm at 5AM was silenced quickly. Neither one of them was getting up then. Adrian had abstained from drinking, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t exhausted nonetheless. No, this second second alarm went off at 9:45 as a reminder that he was supposed to meet Zosar… across town… in the entertainment district.
It wasn’t intended to wake them up. It was meant to be a reminder.
Adrian realized this and could only let out a sigh. Honestly, hitting the snooze button on Zosar didn’t seem so bad. Under normal circumstances, he might have felt bad, but it was hard to when that pink haired angel beside him with her sleepy face had his full attention.
”Death-damnit… I was supposed to show Zosar Games from the Grave…” Adrian grumbled, rolling over onto his stomach after silencing the alarm. His tone made it clear he wasn’t exactly enthused by this prospect. ”I probably should–even if I’m late–but…” he said, trailing off before planting a light peck on the forehead of Dani.
The alert caused Dani to stir, though rather than deal with the source as Adrian had she opted to simply grumble and nudge closer to the other source of warmth in the bed. She didn’t quite have a hangover, but she did intake enough alcohol to make getting up an unattractive project. She dug herself further into the embrace of Adrian, snuggling her face against his shoulder. At the kiss on her forehead, she couldn’t help but allow a groggy smile with a soft huff.
Dani found herself enjoying their alone time. Some nights were better than others, but there was something about having him next to her that gave her comfort and allowed her to fall into a deeper and more peaceful slumber.
“...Was that to tell me to wake up…?” She murmured groggily, though from her soft sigh afterwards and the fact her body and eyes didn’t otherwise shift at all showed that she wasn’t all that keen.
”I don’t know…” Adrian replied. Simple. True. He had a loyalty to his friends, which Zosar was among them. He wasn’t quite as close as Zari was or even Midori, but they got along well enough and were former teammates. Still, the counter argument was the beautiful, bubblegum-haired girl beside him–and even his strict values wavered there.
Given he was on his stomach, there wasn’t a whole lot he could do to add to that embrace, not that he didn’t want to. Seeing her bright blue eyes open in the morning had become an incredible site for him. It wasn’t something he had ever considered in the past, but this wonderful girl beside him had opened a lot of doors for his future he had never considered.
Still, the desire was there.
Adrian grumbled lowly, mulling over the options.
”I could text him I’ll be late… tell him we’re nursing a hangover from the fourth…” Adrian said slyly. He put the option in her hands, though part of him just wanted her to make it for him. He was a softie. He would’ve genuinely felt bad had he been the one to make the call.
”Not sure if he’d believe I drank anything… but, y’know…” he trailed off, trying to think of any convincing way he could sell this to Dani. ”...stay in bed, nab some breakfast, pick up where we left off last night, shower…” he went on, guiltily listing the perceived advantages.
At first Dani didn’t so much respond save for a mumble which was so subtle it was debatably not even a response. It almost seemed as if she had fallen back to sleep, though she was mulling it over. The endeavor of getting up was a steep hill to climb. Yet still, she knew he wanted to and at the same time didn’t.
Adrian was sweet and Dani knew he had difficulty saying no to her at times. She also knew that she took advantage of that as did he, such in this case by trying to have her make the decision.
Propping her upper body up with her forearms, Dani leaned forward and took a morning kiss from it. It was groggy, albeit nonetheless loving. “Aight… now you can get up…” She said with a soft sigh. “You’d probably be a cute drunk, but I don’t think he’d buy that,” She added, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
”Well… we’re gonna be late regardless…” Adrian replied, letting out a soft yawn after. ”I don’t know of anyone that can get all the way from here to the Entertainment District in fifteen–now fourteen minutes,” he said, slightly defeated in how little time there really was.
Mmm…” Adrian let out, though he didn’t say anything just yet. Instead, he just watched as Dani cleared her eyes, only appreciating them more in the clear light. ”Well, I know for certain you’re a cute drunk…” he told her, derailing the discussion for a compliment. He had gotten better about those, especially after their boundaries had been set, and Dani made it clear she wasn’t going to chew his head off. Or let Nadia lop it off.
”But you happen to make a cute anything, so…” he told her. He then rolled over on his side so he could lean in and give her a deeper kiss, his own personal taste being for something a little more carnal than that sweet morning peck they had exchanged.
It was a brief minute of locked lips.
”Have to sneak those in while Nadia’s not around, y’know…” he commented jokingly, knowing full well her partner–while moderately supported–wasn’t fond of the PDA.
Dani let out a lethargic chuckle. “There’s late and there’s late,” She said, knowing the plan the devil on his shoulder was opting for wouldn’t just be a delay of five or ten minutes. “Mm…”
Sighing into the kiss, a grin crept across her visage as she leaned in. Typically she found herself being the aggressor, more so earlier on, though as they grew more comfortable Dani noticed Adrian being less reserved, which she certainly wasn’t going to complain about.
“I think you’re good at this point,” Dani assured him. She wasn’t sure she could say Nadia was necessarily ‘happy’, but she didn’t want to kill him. It seemed like after the Leshy mission she even had some more respect for him, though that could just be in Dani’s head. “You’re a sweetheart, she won’t do anything except look a bit grumpy at times… Now then, shower?”
And, shower it was. Adrian sent Zosar a message about their potentially late arrival, a little vague in nature, but it worked. It netted them another hour, which a good portion of was wasted in that shower. Nonetheless, the two did in fact make it to Games from the Grave just a hair before 11AM–proving their punctuality to be on point, even if delayed once.
Games from the Grave wasn’t a huge store, but given it didn’t have the arcades or live gaming of a place like Gamescadia, it was impressive in size. It was an actual storefront. It sold old emulator copies converted into whatever format one could want, new emulation hardware, even old, retro gaming consoles decades past their prime. The floorspace was much more open due to its nature as an actual store instead of a game cafe style area one would go to play. Despite that, it was littered with gamer memorabilia that would make any vintage gamer gush. Ranging from Nintendo merch verging on a century old to the various posters for releases of various games displayed on a rotating stand, it was without a doubt a niche store to behold.
And, outside of another few hours with Dani that morning, a living dream for Adrian.
He had taken her there before if only because he wanted his two favorite things to intersect, but this wasn’t the type of place one could truly appreciate all in one go–especially if one was as dedicated as Adrian was. Gaming had over a hundred years worth of history, and this place had parts and pieces of every generation of it.
”If there’s a heaven, I hope it looks like this…” Adrian said once he followed Dani through the large glass door, itself covered in a variety of posters, some about running sales, manager picks, so on and so forth. They didn’t have a release schedule for new games, but they did have a timeline for their repair services as that brought in quite a bit of business.
More notably, the very front rack of the store. The discount rack. Where everything from repaired peripherals to pre-loaded rom cartridges that hadn’t sold in ages sat at heavily marked down prices. Of course it was on display here in the front, but it perhaps was the only thing in the world that made his eyes light up even remotely close to the way they did when Dani decided she wanted a kiss, damned be the situation.
“There they are!” Zosar appeared, moments after Adrian said this very line as they entered the store, he’d been off some other part of the store coming in from the right behind a display of games within the RPG section, it was impeccable timing really, to show up shortly after their arrival.
“My two favorite lovebirds,” his grin widening as he neared, cap backwards, sunglasses on for some odd reason despite being in the building, and arms spread open. “Let me in on a hug you two, c’mon!” His tone jovial.
As they entered the store, Dani simply smirked with a subtle chuckle as she stepped to the side to allow Adrian to hone in the discount rack. She liked games though wasn’t nearly as invested into the vintage as he. She just found it fun, and more entertaining was the sparkle in Adrian’s eyes when venturing into such businesses. It was like a kid in a candy store or toy store. Even if she didn’t care at all about the games, she’d be content to just come in and watch him.
Her stare was interrupted by the introduction of Zosar, causing Dani to look back. Toward his comment, she let out an amused scoff. “You’re such a dork,” She said, though her tone was light-hearted and she accepted the request, giving him a casual one-armed hug. “Sorry we pushed it back a bit.”
He waved his hand as if it didn’t matter. “No apologies needed” he reassured.
”What kinda hug is that?” Adrian responded before letting loose a devilish grin. Once the one-armed hug from Dani loosed, Adrian dived in for a manly bear hug around Zosar, lifting the man up with relative ease and giving him a playful but admittedly tight squeeze. Adrian, despite being so lithe, was surprisingly strong. No abilities needed to lift Zosar off the ground.
It honestly gave the meister a joyful laugh as he returned the favor.
After about a second of hangtime, Adrian put Zosar right back down on his feet. He didn’t want to impose on the shop.
Letting out an amused scoff, Dani watched with folded arms as Adrian practically squeezed the life out of Zosar. “Careful, before you make me jealous,” She jokingly warned.
”In our defense, Zose did ghost for a few months…” Adrian spewed out, light-hearted still as he knew there was no real need to defend their actions. Perhaps a touch of latent guilt, though he was well aware he would have done it again in a heartbeat.
”Actually, now that I think about’t… Zosar probably came back real confused,” Adrian commented with the sudden realization of all that had happened since the last time he saw Zosar. ”Zari and Jarvis went to hunt the Yakuza… Midori went from mentor to partner. Aaaand, we’re dating now,” he said, looking over to Dani with that wide, innocent smirk he was known for. ”Which, by the way, is my favorite news,” he added.
Information he already knew, yet it was the comment of him ghosting that truly hit and she'd a bit of light on what they knew. His smile only dimmed at the mention of Zari and Jarvis, not because it made him sad, he chose that specific moment to reveal a fraction of his emotions so as to use the line as a cover.
Zari and Jarvis' departure as a whole was disappointing but he understood. They had their own things they needed to do, and being shackled to DWMA while doing it was no easy task.
She was happy Zosar was back though. He was always one of the good people and it also helped that he was friends with Adrian. She remembered how he was after Zari and Jarvis vanished, so it was good that someone from the old posse per say was back.
“True. Good news is you came back after people stopped hating us–somewhat.” There was still a lot of skepticism, but there was a lot more positivity as well. It was a hell of a difference, though Dani was admittedly less concerned with the opinions of the majority than the opinions of the few around her. Smirking a bit in response to Adrian’s comment, she let out a chuckle. “I’d fuckin’ hope when the bar is ninja boy changing jobs and gangster hunting,” She teased him before standing on the tip of her toes and giving him a kiss on the cheek. “But, it’s mine too.”
"Ah," he said with his warm smile returning in full from the display of affection, patting Adrian on the back, "then I returned just in time."
There was a time and a place to ask, and now wasn't the time nor the place. Not in a public store, and certainly not to impose on the sort of atmosphere he knew he missed.
"Well then," he gestured towards the shelves around them, "can I interest you both to fly away with me on this exploration?" his brows up and his grin at large. "Never did get the chance to play that many games growing up, I mean I still did, but at some point after I turned 12, other things took a larger focus" he said with a glance of wonder that his voice did better to express than his unseeable eyes did. "What were your favs, or are now?"
”I’m not a fan of the new VR stuff,” Adrian chimed in, the excitement in his voice telling despite how much he tried to restrain it. ”I think there’s a certain… dynamic to using a controller for a game on a screen that VR can’t quite capture. Sure, it’s more immersive, and sure, most games support gamepad modes, but it’s just not the same,” he explained, though his explanation didn’t actually give any specifics.
Granted, in truth, this was all about the feel. The tactile response. Things slightly too eloquent for Adrian to put into words.
”Games and controllers got to the point where their rumble controls and reactions made this specific feel that got you immersed in a game in its own way. Mouse and keyboard are what some people prefer, but I think that’s just because of old PC tradition and how utilitarian some people are. In the early 40’s, there came a point when graphics cards became outdated. One company took over all of the high end market, the other countered by upgrading their APU line to support all the features of their main GPU line, they started using a dual die method for a single processing unit, then bam… suddenly you would pay three or four times the price for separate units that only had a twenty or twenty-five percent increase in quality. When that happened, the console wars were over. Everything bled together and only a few years later, the first modular handhelds came out that were just as powerful as dedicated systems. They took such a huge market share and were compatible with almost every gaming service. VR surged not long after, but that era right there in the 40’s was the sweet spot. It was when all the tech–aside from Nintendo–was basically on the same platform, gaming IP’s couldn’t be exclusive if they tried, and optimization was pretty much perfected because hardware became streamlined,” Adrian went over, giving both of them a fairly in depth review of the history of gaming. Adrian didn’t necessarily come across as the most intelligent guy in a room, but put him on his favorite subject, and he shined like a diamond.
”I’m a fan of first person shooters and RPG’s, but I’ll play about anything,” he said, shifting to a more personal answer. ”If you want the best game in my opinion, the Batman: Arkham series had some of the best installments during that time. A more traditional experience might be Elder Scrolls IX. That was the last one before it went purely VR. If you want something more action-y or with gunplay, there are plenty of good first person shooters. Black Ops Retribution or Titanfall: Impact are great. And, if you’re a masochist that wants a real challenge, Dark Souls: Cinders is is about as intense as it gets…” he went on, listing some of the highlights of the era.
”Or, y’know, if you’re all about party games, there’s Mario Kart and Smash Bros games on the Nintendo line-ups,” he said, though he wasn’t as excited for those. Not necessarily because he disliked them, but because Nintendo remained a hold out with their own proprietary equipment–and were notorious for holding onto their IP’s when every other company went to a shared platform. If not for them, the entire gaming market would be interchangeable by now.
“Pretty much what he said,” Dani said, riding the coattails of Adrian’s in depth explanation. She wasn’t going to interrupt him when he became so engrossed. Dani wasn’t as invested in the whole of the industry, however the games she played help her cope and get her mind off her other very real issues. Then there was her brother who would make her play all the ones he knew would piss her off. “I mostly play RPGs, but I’ll play anything really. Mass Effect’s stuff is really good story and character wise, just ignore the fourth one. Arkham’s really good too… I don’t play Nintendo’s stuff much anymore…” She said for obvious reasons given that they were somehow more rage-inducing than the ‘masochist’ games from Fromsoft.
There was a thoughtful hum as he weighed in all that had been said by both. Adrian’s knowledge of the gaming industry to say the least, was quite impressive. He’d never considered him an avid gamer until this point at least, his knowledge said a lot for itself.
“Smash Bros was one of the games I played a lot, mained Meta Knight and Bayonetta the most.”, he added at the end of Dani’s line as they talked. “I played the Persona series when it came to RPGs, though a lot of what I focused more on was the horror branch side of things, Dead Space, Resident Evil, hack-and-slash games like Devil May Cry, Bloodborne, those were games I’m a bit more familiar with, hell even FNAF. Those darker elements had something of a rush to them when playing and the lore bits they had were especially fun or at least when it came to the characters in some of them. Honestly though” he trailed off as he entered the RPG assortment to browse, “I'm open to anything. Since you both seem to favor RPGs, you got any experience with” he picked up one of the games and held it up, the title: Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
Adrian allowed his mind to race. What options were there? Party games could be fun, but that’s what everyone did when they started to play in a group. RPG’s seemed to be a common trend amongst them. So were first first person shooters, but he expected any skill-based game to likely be dominated in order of himself, Dani, then Zosar. Of course, they could all play a first person shooter on the same squad, battle royale style. For a moment, that actually was the plan he was going to suggest; mostly as he didn’t want to just default to party games. That’s what they did with Maria.
Something about a battle royale style game didn’t sit well with him either… it was still competitive, still quite structured, and would likely result in the three reverting back to how they behaved on missions–barking orders and falling in line. He didn’t want that.
He had to expand his thinking.
There were a few games that were quite revolutionary in VR. Some that even he couldn’t deny made the transition quite well. In no small part, more than likely, because they were originally turn-based and on the PC platform. When converted into a VR system, publishers and designers were able to take the turn-based combat and immersive reality of VR and turn them into fantastic roleplaying experiences–even more so because they were intended to be played in a group.
Given that they were one of the most popular genres out there in the current market, too, and received periodic updates thus antiquating older versions quickly, it would be fairly cheap to get used versions. The trick would be making sure all three were the same kind. He knew Markus even fancied a few despite his equally passionate love of retro-gaming, so Games from the Grave likely had something in stock.
”I’m going to pitch an idea here, and might cost a bit of cash, but… it would be really fuckin’ cool,” Adrian finally chimed in. He was sure he could convince Dani. It was Zosar he was more curious about. However, given Zosar was holding an ancient copy of Fire Emblem, a turn-based combat fantasy game might be right up his alley.
”Larion Studios paired up with Microsoft to make a chain of VR games that are maaad popular. You need a headset, gloves, and these special controllers called Uni-Cons, but I bet Markus can scrounge that up,” Adrian started explaining, trying to restrain himself–and quite obviously too–as he detailed out the requirements.
”The whole franchise is set in the Baldur’s Gate universe. It’s called Eyes of Mystra and it’s a whole VR experience set to the rules of Dungeons and Dragons. You have to pick your class, roleplay out your skills, and most NPC’s have special AI that make them pretty realistic–and a bit buggy. Point is, it stays true to the DnD system for the most part, and you have to execute your spells or attacks with either the gloves, chanting, or Uni-cons–so for example, you would swing the uni-con for a sword swing. But, since it’s all turn based, you select your actions first–don’t worry, it’s pretty intuitive,” he continued on, trying to flesh out how the game worked despite neither having set foot in it. Or, at least, he didn’t think Dani had tried it.
”The real cool part is that Larion basically mastered making DnD video games like forty or fifty years ago, so what they focused on is the roleplaying. They took a page from Bethesda’s book and let you interact with nearly every item and NPC in unique ways. Every book has text, some books have imperfections, mirrors work properly with your gear–things you do in the story affect the AI,” Adrian continued on, ”and it supports up to a five-player party.”
Then Adrian decided to back off a minute and slightly bob his head back, almost as if to withhold a wince. ”Downside… is that it’s all pretty much integrated, so you buy the stuff and it only works for that game–or the games in the franchise. That, and like… the main campaign is literally a few hundred hours,” he told them both.
He was rubbing his chin thoughtfully and the sunglasses made the eyebrows seem like they were more angry than exceptionally curious. He was silent for three straight seconds before he clapped both hands and said, "Let's do it. I'm in. Been years since I could even bother to grind a game, this franchise you're talking about sounds like the perfect chance."
“Few hundred-fuckin’ death,” Dani mused. Plus, that was just the main campaign. There was always side stuff and things were elongated depending on playstyle and players, so it was likely way more. There was also the expenses, but she had a bit more cash flow recently from the DWMA and she didn’t spend much. It was as good of an expense as any. “Sure, I’m game. Never tried the pen ‘n paper based stuff before.”
With that, the group had decided on what to do. Adrian was quick to run up to Markus and explain their idea. It wasn’t precisely easy, but Markus could do it. He would have to flash a newer model headset to an older version of the game to give the trio three paired sets, but aside from that, he could get them everything they needed; headsets, uni-cons, and the gloves. He even offered them a discount for the bulk buy, tossed on Adrian’s personal discount as a loyal customer, and then offered them another twenty percent off anything they wanted to buy in their downtime waiting.
It was still a steeper purchase than expected, but the discounts cut it down to a price even Dani couldn’t be too upset with. The fact they could snag up some other games during the wait at another twenty off helped. Zosar could get himself that copy of Fire Emblem while Dani could find anything that stood out. By the end of their session scouring the store for its goods, the lot ended up with a handful of extra games at an excellent price to add to their purchase. Not that Agents of the DWMA had a ton of time to play them, but the prices at Games from the Grave were generally good enough–especially with an added discount–that it was hard to argue with the splurging.
After that, the group made their way back to Adrian’s apartment. He lived in what one would call an intermediate apartment. Not overly large or fancy, but leaps and bounds better than what the other younger Agents had. The housing vouchers from the program and the money he amassed in escort missions afforded him a comfortable situation. More so, it had plenty of room in his relatively bare living room for three people to use VR. In reality, that was the deciding factor here.
”Alright, so first thing’s first…” Adrian said, pulling his headset out of the paper bags the group had received. He plugged it into a large charging station he had situated by his television, and it sprang to life after the touch of a button. He lifted up a flap on the back of the helmet to reveal a curved six-inch screen hidden under it.
”Before we get directly into the VR, we have to design our character profiles,” Adrian told them, scrolling through the options on the back panel. ”We’re hard locked at level one, but aside from that, we make our name, pick our race, class, feats, so on and so forth from this screen,” he explained, showing them the fairly straight forward character creation panel. It even had a rendered preview of their characters, of which their models were also customizable to an extreme degree.
”Now before you hog-wild here, we’re probably gonna be a party of three going in, unless we pick up an NPC or two to round us out. The game will balance some combat instances for a smaller party, but not all, so we should probably get a good idea of our party composition going in…” Adrian asserted, using his background knowledge of the game.
”So in general, you typically want one front line fighter that can take a few hits, a ranged fighter ideally with magic, and a utility character with some healing. I was thinking of going Paladin, maybe a half-elf.. The entire point of these games is to play something you aren’t, so that seemed fitting. Though, a cleric or druid really aren’t off the table, either…” Adrian continued on, explaining his approach to pre-game prep.
”So, uh… whatcha got in mind? Any questions?” Adrian asked, now trying to get feedback from Zosar and Dani.
"Was thinking barbarian, maybe even a Tiefling? Or Ranger Half-Orc? I'm leaning a bit more towards the ranged with magic." he quipped as he dug his own helmet out.
As Dani watched the electronics pile and pile, her facial expression grew more deadpanned, as if thinking the whole industry made it this way on purpose. Which, they probably did. Regardless, they had the stuff. Now she just needed to figure out how to use it. Dani looked at the equipment like alien technology while Adrian went through game strategy.
“Would it be better if I go a fighter then? Or is Paladin more of a fighter and I should go healer?” She asked, not really knowing what to pick out of all the options. “I was thinking tiefling.”
”With this game, it’s not, uh… like, set in stone or straight-forward like that,” Adrian answered them both, trying to explain the mechanics of the game and realizing very quickly he wasn’t prepared to provide this much constructive information at once.
”Let’s, uhm… look at the history a bit,” he continued.
”So… these Baldur’s Gate games are a video game version of Dungeons and Dragons, yeah?” he began. ”At its root, Dungeons and Dragons is a roleplaying game. When we say RPG now-a-days, it covers a lot of genres. DnD is all about getting into your role. Most of the time, you create that role. Some people like pre-designed characters and stories where you play what’s given to you. That’s actually how a lot of video games do it. DnD, uh… gives you the whole kit and kaboodle.”
Adrian rubbed his hand over his chin slightly, letting his fingertips feel the soft stubble he had grown. His was thin and sparse, easily shaved, but he didn’t have time today as he and Dani rushed out. This tactile feeling on his fingertips oddly helped him focus in the moment.
”So races in this game have sub-races and even some different cultures… they all have different stat modifiers to reflect generalities in the game world and some got some uh, unique abilities or traits. More importantly is the shift in roleplaying. Every NPC will react with you differently. You might get locked out of some quests, have to work harder to like… get people to trust you. Tieflings have a pretty negative reputation ‘cause they’re like, considered descendants of evil beings from other planes,” Adrian explained to them, trying to emphasize how their decisions now would have a big impact.
”So if that’s something you want to do for a whole game, then sure. But, if you’re just selecting the race because it looks cool on the selection screen, I, uh, might take a moment to rethink that,” he warned them.
”There’s a lot of reasons to game. This game isn’t gonna be about raw skill or high scores. It’s about the role. Most of the time, it’s all about escapism. You won’t get that power trip fantasy until way late into the game. So, like… if the goal of a roleplaying game is a touch of escapism, maybe, uh… try not being something a lot like what we are now?” Adrian suggested, trying to bring up this point, but struggling. It was hard to describe without completely addressing the elephant in the room: that they were all Fate Agents.
He was just going to have to.
”If you play a Tiefling or something like that, in most human populated places, you’re gonna be signing yourself up to be treated just like a Fate Agent in the DWMA. I don’t personally want my escape from the shit we go through to be a world where I gotta deal with the same shit, y’know?” he told them, just clearing the air on that topic.
”There’s a lot of history and politics in the game, really, so it’s not like you’re gonna make some universally beloved character either, but you can at least start off on a good foot,” he told them.
”And, as for classes, this game has a lot of variety and spells. Some even overlap. Like, uh, most casters get pretty similar spell pools; what really matters is how they achieve those spells. Wizard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Priest, uh… whatever the fuck else there is; it’s all different means to the same end, but you gotta look at the roleplaying perspective of it. A wizard is all about learning their spells, warlocks make a pact with a demon or some shit like that, Sorcerers have some weird blood connection to their power, priests worship a God. It’s all different in how it feels and plays,” he explained to them, trying to really ingrain the impact of their choices here.
”Now this game does change quite a few old pen and paper things to make it work as a VR game, but the core system is pretty damn similar. It struck gold on that line between feeling like the old system people loved but being fluid in a VR world. It was in development like, ten fuckin’ years ‘cause of that. Anyway, the point is that the core system is all about your role and how it fits into the world,” Adrian told them, rounding out his lengthy explanation. It lacked a little of the informative mastery a veteran DM might have had, but he wasn’t exactly a DnD veteran.
”Like… maybe I should explain what I was thinking. I wanted to be a Half-Elf Paladin. The Paladin class is mostly melee, has some spellcasting, and its core features work off your charisma stat. Half-Elves have a bonus to charisma. In some parts of the world, Half-Elves are kinda seen as muts. Places where racial differences are still pushed. But, in other places, the race is seen as a bit of a diplomat because it walks the line between human and elf, he told them, giving them some more insight as to what he wanted to be.
”You do have to pick your subrace and background which I haven’t figured out just yet; I’ll have to read the in-game prompts… but uh, the point is, I was gonna pick an Oath and play to that Oath while trying to be diplomatic,” he admitted, then released a guilty chuckle.
”An’, you both know me, so uh… you know that’s, uh, not normally me,” he explained, ”so I wanted to be that in a game.”
Dani hummed at that, chuckling a bit sheepishly. “...I was kinda just goin off the wings…” She admitted, though it seemed there was a lot more depth to consider. Looking through the various classes, she considered what would be best given the options. She typically used these games to escape as well, so a medieval FATE agent probably wasn’t the best choice. If she wanted to go for something she wasn’t–Well, the most obvious was probably a thief of some kind. “Rogue Wood-elf then? Subtle isn’t usually my style, so it’ll probably be… interesting one way or the other,” She mused. “So you can try to talk to’em, and if that doesn’t work…” She led on.
He made some valid points that was for certain. A Half-Elf Paladin was an interesting choice, Dani’s fit in a bit more to her style. He rubbed his chin, thinking on what to pick.
“Between a Bard Githayanki and a Barbarian Dragonkin.” Was his announcement. He wasn't sure what would be better, but being a bard would grant him some utility compared to being a Barbarian.
Chin rubbing commenced, he was squinting intensely behind his shades. “... I'll go with…Bard..” He decided.
Adrian thought over the new suggestions Dani and Zosar came up with, finding each of them much more suitable for their last set. It was definitely intriguing to consider Dani trying to be stealthy. Though, it wasn’t like a rogue purely had to be stealthy. It also wasn’t as if they couldn’t multi-class. His mind raced through a ton of options, but all of that was getting ahead of himself. They would have to get the hang of the UI and the unique take Larian had made on a VR turn-based system.
”I’d prolly go with the, uh… Dragonborn Bard,” Adrian suggested, mostly because Dragonborns made excellent bards - and Githyanki did not.
”If you got your class and race picked, you’ll design how they look and their name, then we’ll have to log in for the rest, like setting your background and your first set of spells,” Adrian told them, confirming how they had essentially gotten over the initial hurdle.
With a Rogue and Bard, there was in fact plenty of utility to go around. Chances are, if a Paladin couldn’t win a persuasion check, a Bard could. Not a lot of magic between them, but that was fine. If Zosar went Bard with Healing Word, between the two of them, they should have decent healing. All in all, not a bad comp, although it was a small one.
Adrian swiped through his options, already having in mind what he wanted. Gender, height, skin color, so on and so forth as one would expect from a character creator. Even if he didn’t like it once it was in VR, he would have a chance to change it. This first step was mostly to save time and immersion once the game had started. Given that he was mostly done, it was now really up to Dani and Zosar to finish up and then they could take the plunge.
The Regal Rper
EmperorsChosen
