MPC 62X: Character Creation

A new entertainment facility had sprung up in Akihabara's entertainment district which, to be fair, is actually the vast majority of that sub-city of Tokyo. The new place was called Spawn Inn: Imagination's Paradise and its contents truly lived up to that name. The ground floor was essentially one giant open room, save for a set of restrooms in the back and a kitchen off to the right near the front of the building. There was plenty of seating and large televisions built into the walls. Most were turned off, but some had small groups of people seated around them watching various adventurous doings.

In the center of the building was a single elevator with a reception desk in front of it. Here, people could choose from a huge list of adventures, situations, or scenarios they would like to experience here. The receptionist would input the data into a computer at the desk and, after a few moments, the elevator behind them would open up, and the participants would step inside. Inside were only a button for the lobby, an emergency stop, and call for help from the lobby. As well, though it only had one entrance from the lobby, the elevator actually had four doors on it. Each of this building's ten floors was segmented into 4 rooms, which the receptionist programmed so that the elevator always delivered you to your proper destination, and you couldn't interrupt other parties.

Each of the rooms was an identical solid dull blue, with four light towers, one in each corner of the room. Each participant was given an augmented reality headset and, upon request, a full body haptic feedback suit for increased immersion. It was inside one of these rooms that we find David and Ziggy, both standing around with headsets on. How did a digimon manage to get in here, and how did they have a tiny headset for him to use? There is a simple explanation for that.

The pair had decided to use this place to play and be immersed in the popular tabletop RPG:
Dungeons and Dragons. For today, they decided to just do character creation, as they had never played before and wanted to take the time to go through and customize everything. The first step was to choose a Race, and even then, the amount of information was a bit much for young David to take in, so he decided to narrow down his options a bit. "Hey, Ziggy. What are you thinking about being?"

"I think I want to be someone who gets up close and personal. I'll be your shield, David. So maybe a Dragonborn or Dwarf."

That did help determine things. If Ziggy was going to be up front, David would support him from behind. Neither of them had any real knowledge of team dynamics in a game like this. The concepts of being a tank, support, DPS, healer, or even a social character were foreign. Still, having one person up front and one in the back seemed to be a good idea. "Then I'll be a Warlock, and fight from far away." The class had the word 'war' in it, so it had to be powerful, right? And so it was set. David would play a Teifling Warlock and Ziggy would be a Dwarven Monk.

With those choices made and set into the game, a lot of things auto-filled themselves. David was given choices of several spells to choose from. He opted for things that would just do the most damage to things that got too close. Arms of Hadar and Hellish Rebuke seemed appropriate since one hit everything in a small radius around him, and the other was a reactionary counter when something struck him. As their character sheets began to get more and more fleshed out, the next option appeared, and a new message floated in front of each one.



Clearly, the boy had gotten the better blessing of RNGesus. Two 18s was nothing to snuff at. Since neither boy nor mon had a great grasp of how the abilities worked together with the larger game, they both just took a recommended spread with minor adjustments. David's 18s were put into intelligence and charisma, both things that were enhanced by his Teifling race, giving him 19 and 20 respectively. Ziggy had put his 16s into strength and wisdom, so he could hit hard and have good armor.

There was only one thing left to look at: Backgrounds. David chose the entertainer. It seemed simple enough, and he could easily roleplay the part of a traveling magician who used Thaumaturgy to perform at parties and kid's events. Unlike others of his caliber, David would specialize in the darker more mysterious side of things instead of bright fanciful magicians that are seen everywhere.

Ziggy would get a bit more involved. He chose the Noble background. He would be the estranged adopted child of a minor noble house who only adopted him so they could have a child. When the lady of the house was finally able to bare one, his presence was effectively useless and, in fact, detrimental to the house. As such, a plot was hatched to discredit and ostracise him. He could have fought back, but what would that accomplish if his family didn't actually want him there? Nothing, and so he took all the skills he had learned in the family, both martial and psychological, and went out into the world to adventure.

Finally, they were done, and a soft white filter flowed up the screen, changing what appeared before them. Since they had come here today just to make characters, they hadn't brought a scenario to load, so they still just saw the dull blue walls of the room. The only thing that changed was each other.

David looked upon his partner and instead of a small amphibian, he saw a very regal looking dwarf. Multilayered gold and brown robes flowed loosely around his rotund frame. Various circular patterns lined the trimming of each layer of clothing if only to emphasize that this was the work of a great craftsman and that the person wearing them was someone important. Ziggy's new beard was well trimmed and braided into at least two dozen strands, each one capped off with a golden ring to keep them from unraveling.

Ziggy turned his head towards David and was slightly disoriented by the experience. Since his character was about 4 foot high, the AR game had shifted the viewpoint to where his character's eyes would be. Since Ziggy was used to being very close to the ground, it took a moment to adjust to being up so high. Where before there was just a curious child, now there was a tall man with orange skin and two small horns in a tight curl on top of his head giving a thousand-yard stare into the distance. He had a long flowing dusty black robe adorned with two long animal skulls on the shoulders, giving the boy a very grim aura.

"Oh wow. You look great. Like a king."

"You, too. Very creepy and mysterious."

Having finished up their task for the day, the pair took off their headsets and went back to the ground floor to turn them in to the receptionist, thanking her for the wonderful experience. They would be back next week to actually go on an adventure.

Everyone is searching for a world where they belong. A place of light, free of falsehood.