Meet the Characters

I had managed to get over my own chagrin by the time I heard the girls coming back down the hallway outside of my game room. I wasn’t sure which of them, between Tori and Elyse, had made the comment but either way it was flattering to know my efforts to keep myself up paid off to the point a college coed thought I was ‘hot.’

Still, I was sure that once I was more of a regular facet in their weekly routines, the ‘new’ factor would wear off and I’d just be their friendly weekly Dungeon Master.

“Ready for our entrances, Shane?” Rhia called from the hallways, still out of view.

I chuckled and shook my head. “Should I announce you in?”

“Sure!”

I shook my head, grinning a little, and picked up the first character sheet. Thankfully they had all limited themselves to First Level characters and based on my math had used the standard array rather than rolling. I’d used all sorts of different Stat Generation methods over the years, and all sorts of game systems in general, but with the modern system I found the standard array was best for introing new players.

“Hailing from the city at the centre of the world,” I said in a deep announcer voice. “Knight-Paladin and overall do-gooder, Olivia of Parnasus!”

Both of the other girls in the hall made fake crowd cheering noises and started clapping as Rhia came in through the door with a big smile on her face. I’d been expecting some basic costume accessories and props, but apparently, they’d gone for full costume changes. Rhia, or ‘Olivia of Parnasus,’ was wearing a skirt that went down a little past her knees and had soda can tabs sewn onto it in a chainmail pattern, and strappy leather sandals on her feet. Her top had been replaced by a grey leather corset that did dangerous things to her waist and cleavage, and it looked like she’d sewn a gorget out of a silver-coloured cloth that hugged her neck and upper chest. She was wearing an iron band on her forehead, keeping her hair out of her face, and had on the leather vambraces I’d bought her when she’d come along to the Ren Faire with me and her parents and our D&D group when she was a high school senior.

“What do you think?” She asked, spinning as she walked around the table.

“Holy crap, Rhia,” I said. “You went all out!”

“I think I’m going to try to use some cosplay YouTube videos to make a proper breastplate, but I ran out of time with finals,” she said, adjusting her corset as she looked down at it. I had to gulp a little - I knew she was chesty like her mother, but I’d never been quite so presented with that fact before that day.

“Sounds cool,” I said. “But, uh, how about I get a towel for you to sit on?”

“Why?” she asked, looking at me with a confused expression.

“Wooden chair seats and metal links, even aluminium, don’t mix well,” I said as I stood up and went to one of the cupboards underneath the display shelves that were interspersed around the room and displaying off my nerdy collectables. I pulled out a towel and shut the cupboard again, handing it across the table to her.

“Shit, I didn’t think of that,” she said. “Sorry.”

“It’s OK,” I said. “The skirt looks great. Very cool.”

“Thanks,” she said with a smile, setting the folded towel on her chair and then sitting on it. Then she made a face. “Why do you keep towels in here?”

“In case of drink spills,” I said, not entirely lying but not telling the entire truth either. Towels were useful for absorbing a lot more than drinks, and providing soft padding for more than a butt.

“Always prepared,” she said with a little smirk. “OK, who’s next?”

I sat back down behind my DM screen and picked up the next character sheet, then cleared my voice auspiciously. “Hailing from the Shadowlands of Renn, the charming and mysterious Renee de l’Ombres!”

Elyse came around the corner, affecting a serene and aloof expression. She’d tied her hair up in a bun at the back of her head, exposing the shaved sides, and either she or one of the others had painted fake arcane-looking tattoos on her scalp and down the back of her neck in deep purple. She was wearing what looked like a modified silk bathrobe. It was black and hung down to her ankles, cinched at the waist with a bright white cord to offset the dark. She’d cut off the arms though and was wearing long-sleeved, fingerless mesh gloves that had a shimmery quality to the mesh. She’d also put on several pieces of ridiculous fantasy-style costume jewellery including a couple of taloned full-finger rings on one hand, a double-finger ring on the other hand, and a silver chain dangling from her septum piercing and connecting to her left earlobe. The final piece of the costume was a pair of costume elf ears, turning her into her half-elf persona.

I clapped along with Rhia, and Tori out in the hall.

“Fantastic,” I said.

Elyse broke her aloof expression and grinned naturally. “Thanks! I wasn’t sure if I wanted to wear a robe or a dress, but when I found this at the thrift store I knew it was perfect as a base to start from.” She headed to her seat and sat down, wiggling her beringed fingers and tapping the two taloned ones on her character sheet as I handed it back to her. “I think I might try doing some embroidery on it next to spice it up.”

“You mean you’ll try and get Alex to do it for you,” Rhia smirked at her friend.

“Teach me,” Elyse laughed.

“Alex is a girl a year below us who is super into costume design. She’s got some awesome skills,” Rhia explained for me.

“Well, we’ve got spots open so if she’s interested you can invite her,” I said.

“God, no,” Rhia and Elyse both said at the same time, echoed by a laugh from Tori in the hall.

“Alex is great in small doses,” Elyse said.

“Got it,” I chuckled. “Alright, ready for our third reveal?”

Both of them smiled and nodded, so I cleared my voice again and affected the announcer's voice once more. “Hailing from the nomadic tribes of the East Plains, daughter of the expansive Highkick family and student of the deadly Foot Flurry Wuju-style, Jade Highkick!”

Tori entered and I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, but it wasn’t the quality of ears she had. The most prominent part of her whole costume were definitely the ears though. Big, floppy rabbit ears, held on by what I had to guess was a sturdy headband hidden by her wavy black hair. The furry fabric on the ears was almost the same colour as her warm, brown skin tone and made it immediately apparent that she was playing a Hare-person, a species that had been officially added to the game system not long ago.

The rest of Tori’s outfit suited her decision to plan a Monk - her dress was gone and replaced by what looked like a leather tube top that was compressing her breasts a bit. It left her upper chest bare, showing off the necklace of big, chunky wooden prayer beads that were double-looped around her neck. Her lower abdomen was bare, showing off a smooth stomach, and she was wearing a pair of what I felt might have been impossibly baggy parachute pants in the same dark colour as the leather top and yet somehow looked pretty comfortable. To finish off the look she’d tied tensor bandages around her wrists and ankles like she was getting ready for a kickboxing fight or something.

Tori came in with a grin and then struck a kung-fu pose, closing one eye and pursing her lips as she wove her hands gracefully in the air, transitioning to a second pose and making a ‘come at me’ gesture with one hand before breaking into laughter.

Rhia, Elyse and I had all been clapping for her, and she took a bow before grabbing her seat with a big grin on her face.

“Wow,” I said. “You all look fantastic. Definitely the best costumes I’ve ever had show up at a table in over twenty years of running games.”

“We wanted to get into our characters as fast as possible,” Tori said with a grin as she accepted her character sheet back from me.

“Well, it’s definitely working for me,” I said. “As long as you ladies aren’t distracted by the costumes, I think it’s great.”

“Was everything good with our characters?” Rhia asked.

“Everything checked out,” I said. “Definitely some interesting choices, and I saw that Rhia gave you ladies some ideas for backstories based on my world.”

“She’s been telling us all about it,” Elyse said. “It’s pretty much all she’s talked about for like three weeks.”

Rhia stuck her tongue out at her friend, making us all chuckle.

“I also noticed someone put a secret on their sheet,” I said, looking at each of them in turn. That got their eyes widening as they glanced at each other. “But, no spoilers. I definitely liked the idea and approve of it.”

That had all three of them on the edge of their seats already, which was exactly where I wanted them.

“So, does anyone have any questions before we get started? No? OK. Let’s get adventuring…”

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