Monday, July 17, 2006

Monkey jokes about it, but I'm not actually joking

I forgot to tell you guys about how last weekend I bought a set of polyhedral dice, FOR MYSELF, and how the night before that my descent into Enormous Nerddom became complete.

Because yeah. Hulk is "running a campaign" with a Star Wars themed D20-based (meaning you really only need 20-sided dice and 6-sided dice to play) role playing game. That means he's the game master (if it were D&D it would be dungeon master) and he is God and makes up the story. Several of our friends and I are playing characters that are participating in the story/adventure that Hulk is making up. Last weekend we all got together and rolled a whole lot of dice and looked up a lot of things in books to tell us what kinds of attributes our characters will have, and pretty soon we will start playing our characters.

!

I had never been at all interested in any sort of role-playing game before I met the Hulk, and ever since we got together he has been wearing me down. When he and our friends decided he'd run another campaign I decided it would be more interesting to participate and figure out what all the hell was going on than to spend 10 or 15 more evenings watching other people roll dice and "level up" and engage in combat with NPCs (non-player characters). Because just watching it is boring as hell; I should know, I've done it a lot.

So I gave in. And I talked to Hulk about the kind of character I would like to play, and how I would go about doing that (since my character isn't what all she seems) and still make it work. She has somewhat of a background, though I'm still working out all the specifics. I think it will be fun. If nothing else, I will have tried it - because how can you knock it 'til you try it?

If you've seen the TV show Firefly (RIP), I'm essentially playing a very similar character to Saffron, aka Mrs. Reynolds. Now I just have to figure out a weakness I can bring to the table that will make things more interesting. I was initially thinking she should have an irrational fear of the force, but since her traveling companions will be two Jedi and a force adept (a non-Jedi force user), that would be too debilitating. So. Does anyone want to descend into utter nerddom with me and help me figure out what Saffron is afraid of that she has to try to keep her companions from discovering?

Oh god. I'm such a nerd. Let the D20 roll.

5 comments:

-qir said...

oh you are such a nerd. I roll my eyes at your polyhedral dice rolling, rpging self. :p

Was saffron the Courtesan? Oh how my memory shrinketh daily. Anyhow, if that's the character in question, note how she is always poised and in control and does what she want. SO her secret is about a time that she was not in control or couldn't do what she wanted or perhaps was put in a humiliating position such that she vowed Never Again!

MLE said...

No, Saffron is the woman who tricks Mal into "marrying" her and plays this innocent girl; then lures the ship into a chop shop sort of place. We see her later in the series too. She's kind of deliciously evil.

Yank In Texas said...

Oh you are such a nerd. But that's ok, I'm a nerd too. I just never got into the whole role playing thing. It just never interested me. I'm just happy disappearing into my book worlds.

Monkey McWearingChaps said...

I swear to god...friendships through Eurotrip has worn me down into a book-purchasing-comics-reading-not-as-interested-in-fashion-now-liberal hippay. I swear you won't get me on the role-game-playing. No MMORGs either.

*shaking tiny fist*

*small voice* I bought the Scott Pilgrim comics yesternight. They were really good. The art is manga influenced, not my favourite, but the plot is really funny.

-qir said...

Ohhhh, yes! The marriage that wasn't. I called foul, no intent to wed, but anyhow.

The GOOAAAAL equivalent goes something like "I smite your +187 Ranger-wizard with my magically immune battle mace to inflict 1008 damage points. In doing so I collect your ring of invisibilty, (2) Charisma potions, and end the alliance between the mutant-dwarves and elves of the blue hooded woods."