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Swoksaar
“Swoksaar, you failed your check again. You’re out of tries,” said the DM.
Swoksaar crumpled up his character sheet and tossed it into the garbage can in disgust. “Man, I can’t believe how useless this character is. I distributed the stats all wrong!”
There were mutters around the table. Troubling Rain was the loudest, saying, “You can’t just throw it out! You’ve had Wei Chen for the whole campaign! Are you really going to give him up now?”
Swoksaar nodded. “Yep. In fact, I’ve been eyeing that one NPC the DM played a couple times. Hey DM, can I take over Yu Wenzhou? I think he’d be perfect as my new character.”
The DM frowned. “I was actually thinking of retiring that one since he didn’t seem very popular. Sure, take him.”
“Sweet! You’ll see, Troubling Rain. I think Yu Wenzhou will work really well with your character.”
. - . - .
That night, Windward Formation crept into the room once everyone had left. He reached into the garbage can and pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper. He smoothed it out until he could see “Wei Chen” written at the top. Prize in hand, he snuck back out.
He had never participated in a session before, but maybe with a premade character he would finally have the right push to start.
Demon Subduer
“All right everyone, that’s it for tonight!” said the DM. “Great session as always, thanks for coming. Please level up your characters and send me the updated character sheets before the next session. Oh, and Demon Subduer, your character is officially aging into the next age tier. Don’t forget to modify your stats accordingly.”
“Already?” Demon Subduer asked.
“Yeah. You’ve been playing him the whole campaign so far, and you told me at the beginning that you were starting him at age nineteen.”
“Can’t you give me a few more levels before I get old? The age modifiers suck.”
“Nope, no exceptions.”
“Fine,” Demon Subduer said. “I’ll create a new character then. I think I’ll call him Tang Hao. Just you wait, he’ll be way better than Lin Jingyan.”
“Hey,” Dark Thunder interrupted. “If you aren’t using Lin Jingyan anymore, can I have him?”
Demon Subduer shrugged. “Sure, but why would you want to?”
“I think the mental stat boosts from aging are actually pretty great. I think I can make it work even with the physical stat penalties.”
“If you say so.” Demon Subduer handed over his character sheet. “Here, have him. Good luck.”
Desert Dust
After the session one day, the DM asked Desert Dust to stay back for a few minutes.
“Desert Dust, you’ve been playing Han Wenqing for ages. Nearly everyone else has switched characters at some point. Are you sure you don’t want to create a new character?”
“Han Wenqing is fine,” Desert Dust replied.
The DM went to touch Desert Dust on the shoulder then thought better of it. “C'mon man, don't you think you've played him long enough? Isn't it boring? You should try playing a character with a different personality sometime.”
Desert Dust grunted dismissively.
The DM was losing steam, but he plowed on nonetheless. “I get that you might not feel like going through the whole character creation process again, so I made a character just for you. He’s even the same class as Han Wenqing. His name is Jia Shiming. Why don’t you give it a try?”
“Han Wenqing is fine,” Desert Dust repeated, then walked straight out the door without another word.
In the ensuing silence, the DM sighed. There went his plans to integrate Jia Shiming’s backstory into the plot.
Dancing Rain
It was the first session ever, and everyone was excited to begin, especially Dancing Rain.
“Okay, Dancing Rain. Your character Su Muqiu has just stepped out of the internet café. What does he do next?” the DM asked.
“I’ll look both ways before crossing the street,” she answered.
“Hmm, why don’t you roll for it? Let’s start this campaign in style.”
“Sure!” Dancing Rain said brightly. She carefully selected the right die and rolled it. “Oh no! I got a one!”
“That’s bad,” the DM said. “You’re too distracted to notice anything and step out into the street. You get hit by a car. I’m going to roll damage.” The DM rolled a few dice. The other players at the table just heard some clinking and a sharp breath. The DM winced. “Bad luck there, I rolled max damage. You take twenty points of damage from the passing car.”
“What?! But I only have eleven to start with!” Dancing Rain exclaimed.
“I didn’t expect this on the very first session," the DM chucked awkwardly. “Okay, this means you’re knocked unconscious. Don’t worry, Dancing Rain, there are NPC bystanders nearby who rush to help Su Muqiu. They call an ambulance and try to stabilise him.”
The DM made a few more rolls behind his screen, wincing a couple more times. The players could hear him mutter under his breath, “No, that didn’t work. Um, that’s bad. Really? Oops.”
Dancing Rain cleared her throat. “Um, DM, what’s going on?”
The DM wrung his hands nervously. “Well, it turns out the ambulance is too far away to reach you in time, and the bystander NPCs all failed their checks to stabilise you.”
Dancing Rain sat in disbelief. “So that’s it? I’m dead?”
“No, you still get a chance to stabilise yourself. I’ll even lower the difficulty because you have so many people helping you.”
Dancing Rain took a deep breath and rolled. “I rolled a one again?!” she cried.
“Seriously? You have such bad luck. There’s nothing I can do then. Su Muqiu was hit too hard by the car and dies from his wounds.”
“That’s ridiculous! Any cleric could have saved him.”
“Ah, but there are no clerics in this world,” the DM said. “It’s too bad, but that’s what you rolled. Do you have any ideas for a new character?”
Dancing Rain crossed her arms and huffed, then relented. “Fine. I’ll create Su Mucheng, Su Muqiu’s younger sister. I’ll send you her character sheet later. For now, I’m taking a break.”
Dancing Rain stood and left.
One Autumn Leaf and Lord Grim
The session had ended, but everyone still sat around the table eating snacks.
“Listen,” One Autumn Leaf said. “I’ve been thinking of replacing Ye Qiu. I’ve had him for too long; he’s just not that interesting anymore. I think that now with experience I’ll be able to create a more complex character.”
“Have you come up with a name?” the DM asked.
“Yeah, I think I’ll call him Sun Xiang. Ye Qiu was too chill, you know? Sun Xiang will be intense! I think it’ll be great.”
“Too chill?” Lord Grim asked in disbelief. “You just don’t know how to tap into his potential. But you’re right that he could have used more backstory. Can I have Ye Qiu? I think I can improve him.”
“No way! He was my character, only I get to use him. If I say he’s done, then he’s done.” To emphasise his point, One Autumn Leaf ripped up his character sheet and threw it out.
“No need to take it so seriously, dude,” said Lord Grim. “Whatever. I’m still creating a new character for next time.”
. - . - .
The next session, Lord Grim showed up and proudly presented his brand-new character. “His name is Ye Xiu. He’s 178cm, and he was born on May 29th. He—”
“Hold up!” One Autumn Leaf exclaimed. “You just copied my character! You’re describing Ye Qiu exactly. You can’t do that!”
“Actually,” Lord Grim said smugly, “this is Ye Xiu, not Ye Qiu. He’s Ye Qiu’s secret twin brother.”
“Ye Qiu doesn’t have a twin!” One Autumn Leaf protested.
“I just said he was a secret twin. And it’s too late for you to claim Ye Qiu was an only child. You lost that chance when you threw out his character sheet. Tough luck, dude. Ye Xiu is all mine now.”