In With the New

Inspirational song: Without Me (Eminem)

Finally, we are all playing D&D again. Well, nearly all. The neighbors who moved away aren't in this group, and two of our regulars weren't available to start tonight. Such is the way of scheduling a campaign. But four of us were present and one on the phone on speaker, to start a whole new storyline. Mr S-P covered up the book he bought with a paper bag, so none of us could see the campaign he purchased. He put a translation of what he wanted us to call it, but that doesn't really tell us how to interpret what we should take from that. His mind works in mysterious ways, full of logic leaps, tangents, and random obscure pop culture references from the 1970s.

This time around, I'm playing an artificer alchemist, a class I've barely heard of, much less know how to play. The inspiration for my character is the Curtis Mayfield song Pusherman. He's a bit morally ambiguous, and has a substance problem (both use and distribution). I have modeled his appearance based on one of my favorite YouTubers, so I have a clear image in my mind as I try to speak in his voice. In our campaign, we have two folks playing hexblade warlock (another less common class), but they have vast differences in their character builds and playing philosophies. We also have two players whose characters are Tolkien-esque dwarves, one brand new to this whole concept of role-playing games, and one our player with the most expansive encyclopedic knowledge of the rules and lore. I don't yet know what the two others will be. I assume we will find out next Wednesday.

The kids were here during the first half of the game, so that their daddy could hear how the game started. He's going to assist Mr S-P, in the running of non-player characters we encounter, like guides, shop keepers, and whatnot. The kids were also here to snack on the things grandma made, like 7-layer dip and raspberry cheesecake. They were a little distracting, as the game jumped right into combat within the first five minutes, which was hard to follow with Valerie chatting while playing a kid's video on a phone. But we made it through, and are now in the thick of it. I can't wait to see where it goes from here.