D&D Diary: Character Creation
D&D Diary: Character Creation
Jul 17
Inspired by the super-streamlined 4th edition rules, my husband and our good pal Seth decided it was time for a new Dungeons & Dragons game. I was initially not interested. Like, at all. I’ve been around D&D-ers all my life, I’ve watched the game in action…but to be perfectly honest, I’ve never actually played. Somehow, it always seemed to end in tears or people fighting or whatever, and that did not appeal to me (kind of surprising, considering all the Trekkie fan club drama I got into in high school…but that’s another post).
I’m not sure what swayed me. I think some of it had to do with the incredibly cool gang of people that offered to join up. In addition to Jeff (husband) and Seth, we got good nerdly friends Sarah O. (who you might remember from her pon farr-larious contribution to Grok #1), Kelly, John Charles and friend-of-John-Charles Tony. Almost everyone is either a newbie or an “I haven’t done this since college”-type. And more importantly, everyone is very, very relaxed.
Also, the idea of character creation — going all-out with the minifig and painting it and shit — was sort of irresistible.
This weekend, we had our first session, which was all about the character creation portion. We visited the excellent Aero Hobbies, picked out minis and paints, and headed back to the homebase for a rousing afternoon of beautifying with teeny tiny little brushes. A couple of our quest mates, like Seth, decided against the painting (he claims to have bad memories from his youth), but the rest of us got pretty awesomely into it. John Charles proved himself to be a true master, going into fine detail work (eyeballs, teeth). We all decided he should quit his day job and make his fortune painting other people’s minifigs (JC tip: use a pencil lead for your character’s eyeballs!).
My character, a halfling ranger, ended up with a bright blue dress, silver leggings and brown ankle boots (sounds kind of like something Claudia Kishi would’ve work back in the day, only she would have added some weird-ass macrame jewelry or something). I tried the JC pencil lead trick, but after several failed attempts, I gave up and painted on a silver mask. Kelly, meanwhile, got very into creating a character BACKSTORY through painting. Big, bloody scar on character’s leg = BACKSTORY. Tiny mole on cheek = BACKSTORY. Slightly slutty outfit = BACKSTORY. All will become clear next week, I’m sure.
So now, in addition to my halfling ranger, we’ve got an elf rogue, an elf (or possibly half-elf — BACKSTORY) cleric, a tiefling rogue, a dragonborn fighter, and a dragonborn paladin.
Three other fun facts that emerged from this session:
1. Sarah O. had a bad RPG experience whilst playing with two male friends who insisted upon responding to everything she said with “quiet, woman.” Their rationale? “We’re in character.”
2. Seth’s dragonborn paladin is named “Mutha Ucka,” thanks to his recent Flight of the Conchords obsession.
3. Former Guild master Kelly has finally given up her World of Warcraft obsession. Her husband is very happy about this.
Next week: Our first quest.
