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Ace is late. Keiwa can't blame him - being a mega celebrity must make meeting up anywhere public difficult - but even Neon managed to beat him here, and she had to take a twenty-minute detour to give her bodyguards the slip. At least Keiwa had the good sense to arrive at the cafe on time rather than early.
"Do you think we should get started?" Neon asks, rousing Keiwa from his thoughts. "I only vaguely know the game from a couple streamer friends, and I heard character creation can take a while."
"Maybe," Keiwa replies, glancing at the clock. "It can't hurt to look over the rules, right?"
Neon nods, and they both walk over to one of the store's bookcases. Keiwa isn't expecting much from the game store (they mainly advertise a wide variety of board games, after all), but three of the five shelves are crammed with hardback books.
"Let's see," Keiwa says, getting closer to inspect the books' spines. "What was the game called again? Destiny something?"
"Divine Destiny," Neon corrects. "I think the cover's a dark blue?"
Keiwa scans further down the shelf before spotting his prize. "Ah-ha! Here we go."
Neon flashes him an enthusiastic thumbs up as Keiwa shows off the book. He sets it down on the table between their two seats, flips it open, and scans the index.
"O-kay, so… character creation starts on page twenty-four…"
Keiwa finds the page and starts reading. Neon looks over his shoulder.
There's a lot of text. It reminds Keiwa of exam prep books with its abundance of headers and subheaders, poorly placed pop-in side boxes of "quick tips", and badly rendered text.
Neon points to one of the five gray "quick tips" littering the page.
"It says we should copy the table on page 310 into a notebook. Did you bring any paper?"
Keiwa shakes his head. "I think they had some at the counter?"
"I'll go check."
Neon bounds off, leaving Keiwa to decipher the rulebook on his own.
Okay, so, the first step of character creation is that they need to pick a character class. Character classes provide modifiers to ability checks, and these modifiers are further determined by base ability scores, which… aren't explained in this section. But the pop-in box mentions there's more info about these scores in a later chapter, so it's probably fine to keep going. Anyways, Keiwa just needs to pick a class. There's apparently ten of them… and they aren't listed here. The next section seems to assume he's already picked one, so Keiwa checks a different pop-in box and skips to the referenced page it provides. There's only the class names and some special abilities written in a chart. Oh, and some numbers, but they're not labeled at all. Maybe he can find the section in the index? There's something called "Class Breakdown" so that's probably it, right?...
He quickly spirals. Time loses meaning. His vision swims in unlabeled charts and ambigious section titles and squished together, barely readable columns.
Keiwa startles as Neon sets down a stack of papers and a few pencils.
"Sorry that took so long," she says, smiling apologetically. "The staff here watches Neon TV, so they wanted a few pictures."
"It's okay," Keiwa says shyly. "Neon, have you tried making a character for this game before? I'm having some trouble."
Neon slides the book closer to her. "No, but we can probably figure it out together."
She smiles confidently at him, and Keiwa tries to match her enthusiasm.
…
Neon bites her lip, squinting at the book. "Do you think that's the Destiny Score they were talking about earlier?"
"No, I think it has something to do with the Destiny Die?" Keiwa says, shifting through the plethora of notes they've taken.
"But you can only use the Destiny Die to determine turn order, and you're supposed to do a 'flat' roll for that."
"Misprint maybe? We've caught like eight typos already."
Neon lays her face on top of the book, sighing deeply. "This is impossible!" she moans.
Keiwa scratches the back of his head. "Let's hope Ace knows what he's doing."
"If he ever gets here," she replies sullenly.
He can’t argue with her pessimism. They’ve been floundering at character creation for at least thirty minutes - that’d make Ace about an hour late. Where is that trickster?
Keiwa looks up, scanning the other customers in the store.
"He should be here soon-”
Suddenly, Keiwa blinks and sits up straighter. "Is that Azuma?"
Neon looks up. "Huh? Where?"
Keiwa points. "There, at the counter."
The figure at the register can't be anyone but Michinaga: the tied back hair and red flame-print vest peeking out of the unzipped denim jacket all point to that. Keiwa can spot well worn work gloves clipped at the man’s belt, so maybe Michinaga’s coming or going from a work site? He's holding a drink in his hand - some soda? beer? Weirdly, he seems to be talking to the cashier still, despite having finished his transaction. He's not smiling but not frowning, so that's pretty good for Michinaga.
Without warning, Neon waves. "Michinaga!"
And that familiar frown returns. He blatantly ignores her.
Neon, however, isn't deterred. "Heyyyy, Michinaga! O-ver here!~"
Keiwa's face burns with second hand anxiety, but he does his best to swallow it. He gives a hesitant wave.
Michinaga rolls his eyes before stalking over.
"What," he bites out.
Neon pouts. "That's no way to greet friends."
"We're enemies.”
These well-worn phrases might as well be greetings at this point. Keiwa doesn't believe they'll lead to fighting, but probably best to change topics and keep things civil.
"What are you doing here, Michinaga?" Keiwa asks as casually as possible.
The bull holds up his beverage a half inch higher. "Cheapest place for drinks at this hour, and I had time to kill." He shrugs, like he couldn't care less about this entire conversation.
Michinaga looks over their setup, eyes slowly drifting from each strewn about page. Keiwa tries not to wilt under the gaze, but it’s more than a little embarrassing to go through half a stack of notes trying (and failing) to learn the rules of a silly game. Don't school kids play this with no trouble? He can practically hear the scorn in Michinaga’s voice already. Not that he has to wait long to hear the real thing, knowing the straight-forward rider.
"What are you two doing here?" Michinaga asks.
"We're playing Divine Destiny," Keiwa says with a smile. "Or, we're going to. Hopefully."
"It was Ace's idea," Neon explains. "But he's not here yet, and we're…" She looks over the plethora of notes they've made versus their complete lack of progress with making characters. "Complete noobs."
Keiwa looks at Neon and can't help but frown.
"Maybe we should've waited until he got here,” he says.
"Maybe," she agrees.
Michinaga plays with the straw in his drink. Keiwa's pretty sure he's stopped listening to them.
"What edition?"
"Eh?"
"What edition," Michinaga repeats, "of Divine Destiny are you playing."
"There's more than one?" Keiwa asks hesitantly.
They might not be friends, but Keiwa's spent enough time around Michinaga to know the look he's sporting means he's losing his very small reserve of patience fast.
Neon flips open the rulebook like she's expecting it to bite her. "It says it's third edition."
"Yeah, no wonder you're having a hard time," Michinaga says dismissively.
Without another word, he walks to the bookshelf. He wastes no time in making his selection and tosses it at the center of their workstation none too gently.
"Fourth is more streamlined,” he says nonchalantly. “They've got some pre-builds for classes, and a step-by-step example starting encounter listed before the actual encounters - it's easier to get into."
"Thanks," Keiwa says, still surprised Michinaga could help them and then willingly chose to do so. He glances at Neon, who, based on her expression, must be thinking something similar.
Still, Keiwa hesitates to open the new guidebook.
"Do you think Ace would be okay with us switching editions?" he asks Neon.
Out of his peripheral, Keiwa can see Michinaga roll his eyes. Before the man can say anything, Neon places a hand playfully on Keiwa's shoulder.
"He should've been on time then," she says, awfully cheeky for someone who arrived late herself.
Without further comment, she opens up the book. The layout is certainly cleaner than the third edition. The headers for sections are in a stylized font but large enough to distinguish each character, whereas the bulk of the standard text is in a simple print so its smaller size is still legible at a glance. Sections are broken up here and there with some watercolor art ranging from quick abstract sketches to full-blown, detailed paintings.
It’s also promising that character creation is on page one.
Keiwa can’t help but notice that Michinaga hasn’t ditched them yet. Still standing at their table, and, despite not taking one of the empty seats, he’s still clearly in their space. He’s playing with his drink’s straw again and very deliberately not looking at them. Yet Keiwa could’ve sworn he felt eyes on himself and Neon just a minute ago…
“Let’s give it a try then,” Keiwa concedes.
Neon and Keiwa look over the book. Keiwa’s learned over the past hour that Neon’s a much quicker study than himself. It probably has something to do with all the text she has to keep up with in her chat logs during streams. He’s only finished with the introduction paragraph when he hears his friend sigh.
“There’s two ways to build characters,” she laments, “and I’m not sure which one’s better…”
Keiwa feels a brief rush of panic. He really doesn’t want another repeat of taking a million notes as they muddle through yet another guide.
“Uh, well…” Keiwa starts and trails off, hoping his words will at least provide some emotional support as he struggles with a solution.
"Arrays are more balanced, rolls are more fun,” Michinaga interjects. “That’s basically the main difference.”
Keiwa can’t help but stare. “Huh?”
Michinaga leans over the table, pointing at relevant sections as he speaks. "Array gives you a list of numbers to choose from - look at what numbers are in that table. You've got one high, one mid, one null, one low, and one bad starting modifiers. You add all those numbers together and you get zero. It's balanced because you've got just as many strengths as weaknesses."
His finger jumps to a lower section. "Then you've got rolled builds. You roll a dice for each modifier, and this table tells you whether your rolls net you negative or positive modifiers. So you can get a broken as hell build with high stats or get stuck with a dud. High risk, high reward basically."
Michinaga removes his hand and straightens back up. "If you've never played a ttrpg before, go array though - that'll mitigate any headache over challenge ratings, and you can get a better feel for whether you like a given class then."
Neon nods. "Okay, but how do I know how to assign base modifiers?"
"That's literally on the next page."
"Is it?" she asks innocently.
She shoots Keiwa a small grin as she turns the page. It seems the whole ordeal of failed character creation did nothing to dial down her mischievous streak - or perhaps it only made it stronger.
Michinaga doesn't notice. "It's the chart right there. Why else do you think they'd have that artwork on the opposite page?"
"So there's six different classes then." Her eyes light up at the figures depicted in joint combat against some draconic foe. "Aw, the girl here looks so cute!"
Keiwa leans over to get a better look. The figure Neon points at has a black velvet witch hat and cape. Her hands are stretched out in front of her, holding what looks like an oversized, gnarled wooden cane with a large glowing red orb attached on its hook. The light from the odd staff seems to be growing, casting crimson light around the mage and projecting winds that play with the edges of her satin green dress. Whatever spell she’s casting must take a lot of focus because her expression is hardened yet piercing.
"Skip to the Mage's section then,” Michinaga says.
Neon hesitates. "Really? It's an okay class for a noob to pick?"
Michinaga looks at her oddly for a moment before understanding. "Elite classes were just a third edition thing. Everyone fucking hated them, so they took them out in four. Any class listed in the base book has about the same difficulty level. Pick whatever you want."
Neon does a small cheer. Michinaga purposefully looks in the opposite direction.
Keiwa smiles as he watches Neon quickly take down notes and make her character. The Mage she builds has a lot of different elemental spells - ways to slow down, incapacitate, or otherwise deal damage to large groups of enemies. The trade off seems to be that the more powerful spells are drain mana reserves faster or take more time to cast. He doesn’t really get it, but Neon certainly seems to, judging by how quickly she volleys comments and questions with Michinaga.
Pretty soon, Neon has a ready-to-play character and shoves the book to Keiwa.
“Do you have any idea what you want to play?” she asks.
“Not really,” he confesses. “I figure I’ll look over the class summaries.”
Neon nods. “Fair enough. Let us know if you need any help!”
She wisely turns to Michinage before he can protest. At some point, he sat down across from her - probably to better discuss her character build or something.
“So,” so Neon starts, “why are all the moderate elemental spells called stuff like ‘ice blast’ or ‘wind blast’ but fire’s is ‘fireball?’”
“Sounds cooler.”
“Does it?”
Keiwa tunes their chatter out as he flips through the book. Sellswords come in a lot of variants, which makes them a dream for customized play: Soldiers make great tanks, Champions are the classic jacks of all trade, and Masters pick an area of expertise none can come close to achieving. But none of those Sellsword builds seem all that appealing. The Archer class is interesting, basically being a less powerful but more reliable version of the Mage - better not go for that one then, least Keiwa step on Neon’s toes. Brawlers deal heavy amounts of damage, but they’re not really team players… So that leaves him with more support classes. That's probably not good right? Maybe it would be better to go for a Sellsword…
“Keiwa?”
He looks up to see Neon watching him curiously.
“Any luck?” she asks.
He sheepishly rubs the back of his head. “Not really,” Keiwa confesses. “None of the classes are jumping out at me.”
"Try the Priest class," Michinaga suggests.
Keiwa flips back to the large watercolor battle painting. A robed man is tucked into the corner, far away from the giant dragon. Honestly, if not for his golden headpiece and robe, Keiwa might not have ever spotted him. Gloved hands are clasped together as he kneels in front of some tome. There’s a dim golden light surrounding the book but not much else - it’s kinda confusing what the holy man is trying to accomplish, or what he's trying to represent that the Priest class can even do.
Keiwa can’t help but be skeptical.
"Really?"
"It's just an idea. Since someone can't make up their mind," Michinaga huffs.
It would be kinda rude to not hear the fellow rider out, especially given all the help he’s offered, so Keiwa dutifully flips to the Priest section of the rulebook.
The Priest class is largely a healer’s class. Their unwavering faith in their principles allows them to turn belief into a magic source. There are some sample principles provided, and what and how many principles a Priest lives by in turn affect how their magic manifests: light spells, social skill buffs, and of course healing. Most intriguingly, when Priests are witnessed doing miraculous feats or acting according to their principles, their faith can spread to others, resulting in power boosts for the Priests themselves. It’s a playstyle that requires keeping track of not only other players but also the environments they find themselves in and how they'll reflect on the gameworld as a whole.
“This… could work,” Keiwa says.
“Yay!” Neon cheers. “Don’t forget to get lots of healing, Keiwa. We’ll definitely need that later.”
“Since when are you an expert?” Michinaga asks.
“Hey, just cuz I don’t know the specifics doesn’t mean I came unprepared. I watched all my favorite streamers’ VODs on Divine Destiny, so I have plenty of wisdom to spare on the finer points of party dynamics.”
Neon triumphantly places both hands on her hips and poses confidently.
“I’ll be counting on you then,” Keiwa says, good-naturedly.
He starts applying his modifiers and picking out principles and abilities. Honestly, he appreciates the suggestions for role-playing included - they give him a fun idea for what kind of Priest he wants to make. It really doesn’t take long at all for him to make a starting character.
“All set!” he declares.
Neon offers Keiwa a high-five as Michinaga glances at the filled out character sheet.
“Bump up your Will score - most of your Faith rolls rely on that.”
“Isn't it more important to keep the Destiny stat high?” Keiwa asks. “Its name is in the title.”
"Destiny rolls are important,” Michinaga concedes, “but you're probably already screwed if you're making one. It's better to have a higher Will score because, as a Priest, you can avoid having to make Destiny rolls at all, or, failing that, divert Faith tokens to negate any effects from Destiny rolls."
“Really?” Keiwa looks over the guide. “Where’s that listed?”
Michinaga’s immediately in his space. Is this the closest he’s ever been to him? Keiwa can’t recall a time the other has willingly been so near. He’s normally careful to keep his distance. But Michinaga leans forward so thoughtlessly now, fingers pointed to the page.
“It’s towards the middle here, under ‘Faithful Followers’: ‘Priests, because of their strong faith, interact with Destiny differently from other classes…’ Basically, once you’ve shown you’re an adamant believer - so like, three or four sessions into the game - you can make a Will check to see if your character just no-sells a Destiny roll.”
“Oh, I must’ve missed that. Thanks, Michinaga,” Keiwa replies.
Michinaga shrugs. “It’ll only pay-off later, so it makes sense you skimmed over that part.”
“No, but really,” Keiwa insists, glancing at Neon. “We’re all set to play now because of you.”
“Yeah, thanks, Michinaga,” Neon adds.
Michinaga’s back to mangling the straw in his drink - well, his cup. The beverage has long since been finished, and the even remaining ice is mostly melted and gone at this point.
“If you had started with fourth edition,” he says, “even you two would’ve figured it out in no time. Only a sadist would start someone off on third by themselves.” Michinaga stabs a particularly pathetic-looking ice cube, snapping it in half with the soft plastic straw. “Makes sense Geats would suggest it.”
“Well, well, well, isn’t this a surprise.”
Michinaga at least has the excuse of facing the wrong way, but somehow, the superstar Star of the Stars of the Stars had managed to come up to their group undetected by either Keiwa or Neon. Keiwa’s willing to chalk it up to just another of the fox’s many, many tricks.
“Ace,” Neon greets cheerily. "You came! You did know we were supposed to meet an hour ago, right?”
“My bad,” Ace says in a tone that sounds like he means the opposite. He flashes his camera-ready smile. “Got held up at work. But it looks like a wild buffalo joined in my stead, huh?”
“Screw you, Geats,” Michinaga hisses.
Before either can cause a scene in the cafe (honestly, it's a miracle no one's fawning over Ace right now), Keiwa speaks up.
"Ace, do you still need to make a character?" he asks. "Neon and I just finished making ours."
Keiwa slides the book over to the empty seat diagonally from him. Ace places a hand on top of it to stop the book from sliding further as he sits down.
"Keiwa's our faithful Priest, and I'll be our super cute, super powerful Mage," Neon explains, flashing a peace sign and a grin.
"Excellent," Ace replies. He turns over the book. "Oh, so you went with fourth edition."
"There a problem with that?" Michinaga asks, anger filling every syllable.
"No," Ace replies. "I just like the Sellsword class in third better. Making Soldiers a separate specialization wasn't their best move."
"Sure," Michinaga responds dismissively, "but nobody plays a Sellsword for Soldier. They play it for Master."
"Anything a Master can do, a Mercenary can do better - sorry, it's called 'Champion' in four, isn't it?"
Ace flips open the book to the Sellsword section. He takes up an untouched piece of paper and pen.
"Either way," Ace continues, scribbling as he chats, "they're not as restricted with their weapons and they've got Talent points to spare."
"Talent points? Yeah, cuz Encounter Cards will have a hobby level win-condition. 'Only adventurers with gardening or calligraphy talents can enter this cavern'," Michinaga mocks.
"Social Encounters often rely on them."
"That's being overly generous. Any time they're ever that important, you can roll with a relevant ability instead.-"
"Done," Ace announces, snapping the book shut. "Should I assume you're playing a Sellsword too then, Buffa?"
Michinaga looks taken aback. “Huh?”
“The recommended party size is four players,” Ace states, glancing over at Keiwa and Neon. “You two don’t have any objections, do you?”
“The more the merrier!” Neon says cheekily.
How she’s able to roll so well with Ace’s mischief, Keiwa will never know. Still, he can’t resist their magnetic, infectious energy.
“It’d be fun to work on the same side as everyone,” he says.
“So it’s decided then,” Ace declares. “All we need is the Encounter Deck and we can get started-”
“Like hell it’s decided,” Michinaga shoots back. He kicks his chair backwards.
“Aw, where are you going, Buffa?” Ace asks innocently. “The Encounter Deck is on that shelf over there.”
“I am not playing with you ,” he hisses.
“Come on,” Neon needles. “You don’t have to-”
Neon makes to intercede, but Michinaga brandishes his glass, firmly drawing a line between them. She backs off.
“We’re all rivals,” he reiterates. “Opponents. Enemies. Understand? It’s just unlucky we all happened to be here. Lesson learned: I’ll wait at the bus stop next time instead of a random nerd cafe.” Michinaga collects his things in a hurry.
Keiwa feels obligated to try to reach out. Michinaga was being pretty civil until Ace showed up, and the idea of him leaving mad after all the help he gave them doesn't sit right with him.
“Michinaga-”
“Do whatever you want,” Michinaga cuts off, “but leave me out of it.”
Without another word, he storms out. The moment the door closes, Ace breaks the silence.
“Oh well, I suppose it’s just us three for the first session.”
He smiles, passing the grin off to Neon and Keiwa. They all notice his choice of phrasing. Maybe it won’t be any time soon, but if they can work together during the DGP of all things, it’s possible they can sit around a table for a few hours and just hang out one day, right? Keiwa’s pretty sure they wouldn’t even have to spend a wish to make that a reality.