pulchritudinous
adjective
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The mood around the table was excited. They finally had a fifth player, which meant they could finally begin the campaign. The DM, Henry, had been working hard for months, both to get his masterpiece ready and to find the magic number of players to bring his world to life. Four of them sat eagerly around the table, dice and character sheets at the ready. The fifth player, Chris, would be arriving any minute.
He watched the door carefully as the players chatted among themselves. Mostly about their new arrival, who had so far not met with any of them. Everyone hoped he would be a good player. That he would not be a rules lawyer or a power gamer. That he would get along with everyone and be able to role play well.
The door opened and Chris walked in. All talk stopped, eyes widened hearts raced.
“Sorry I’m late.” Chris said as she made her way to the open seat at the table. “Traffic sucks right now, and I lost track of time. I am in the right place, right? I can see you guys have sheets out, so I guess I am.”
“You…you’re, uh, you’re Chris?” Henry asked.
“Yup, that’s me. Something wrong? Oh, right. You guys probably thought I’m Christopher, not Christena, right? Yeah, that’s a common thing for me.”
That was one problem, and as far as the other players and Henry were concerned, a minor one. The bigger problem, if it could be called that, was that Chris was gorgeous. Hers was a face that would make Hollywood actresses jealous. With her elegant facial features, lustrous black hair and vibrant blue eyes, everyone else in the room was left with a dry mouth. And even though she wore baggy, well worn clothes, they could also tell she had a figure most supermodels did not have.
She was not the kind of woman who they associated with DnD. In their experience, she was more in line with those who made fun of people who played the game.
Chris shrugged a backpack from across her shoulder and onto the floor next to her. She rummaged around and pulled out a sheet of paper.
“Okay, so I’m going with a paladin. Got everything set up except the stats. Figured it’d be best to roll those here. I assume we are rolling, right?” When she got no response, she looked up at her new gaming group. She sighed. “Okay, let’s get this over with. Obviously, I’m a girl. That doesn’t mean I’m a newbie or need to be coddled. I’ve been playing DnD since I was 10. I’ve been in over a dozen campaigns, and have been pretty much every class at least once. I have three sets of dice for each damage type. This game, I’m going with my radiant set.” To emphasize her point, she pulled out three tubes, each containing a full set of white dice.
With her dice on the table, she faced Henry. “Now, let me be clear. I do not want any favoritism in or out of game. I don’t need it, I don’t want it. Now, getting cool magic items is great, but if I’m the only one getting them, I walk. If cool things only happen to me, and NPCs only talk to me, I walk. I’m part of a group. I have no desire to be the main character. That means everyone gets the chance to be awesome, got it?”
It took a moment for Henry to remember he had to respond. He did so with a nod.
“Good. That goes for the rest of you too.” She said, looking over the rest of the party. “No favorites. Also, just to get this out of the way now, my character does not like getting hit on. She’s all business and isn’t interested in a relationship. That goes for me too. Just to be clear, yes, I am single. No, I will not date any of you. I’m here to have fun and roll dice, not to find a boyfriend. If you ask me out on a date, I will probably refuse. But, to be fair, if you impress me enough, maybe, and this is a pretty big maybe, I will consider it. And when I say big, I mean tarrasque big. Don’t get your hopes up, and let’s have some fun playing, okay?”
The other players managed to take their eyes off Chris long enough to process what she had said. Just the fact that there was a chance, however slim, of being with her filled each of them with more hope than any had ever felt in their lives.
“We good here?” She asked. All responded positively. Chris grabbed four normal six sided dice. “In that case, let’s roll some stats and play some DnD.”
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In case you aren't familiar with DnD, a tarrasque is an end game monster that only the greatest of parties dare take on. it looks like this and is the kind of thing that both can and will step on houses. It's pretty nasty.
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