LARP: 6

"Nope, never LARP'd before," I say.

"Me neither," Patty added. Malik shrugged.

"Me and Zoe both come from a LARP group," Sandy said.

"I mean I did theater in high school, I don't have anything against it. Just never had the wherewithal to get together costumes and things like that," I said.

"So you're not really opposed to LARPing?" Zoe asked, a bit more interest in her voice.

"I mean... I don't mind some theater of the mind. I kinda like being able to snack and stuff during a session. But no, not really opposed, myself," I said.

"Never tried it; suppose I could once," Patty said.

Malik shrugged. "It's your specialty it sounds like, so if it's what you're best at, I might be open to trying it once."

"So," Zoe said, pondering. "You're open to LARPing..." she seemed to really take a moment to look over the group.

"Why don't we think about characters first," Sandy said.

"Yeah, yeah," Zoe said. "Who did you all plan to play?"

"Orc Barbarian," Patty said.

"Hmm, do you have a preference on color? I was thinking of doing something with green orcs on the continent, and blue orcs in the islands. Think you'd be open to playing a blue orc?"

"Yeah sure I don't care," Patty said. And just like that I could see her reworking the aesthetic of her character in her head, without too much issue at all.

I was sure she would keep tweaking it as she finished building the sheet.

"I'm thinking of doing a pirate captain," Malik said. "Dark elf, since you mentioned them in your email."

"That's great!" Zoe said. "There's a few things I want to circle back on there--both how to play your age, and also some of the plot hooks we can build on. But let's finish getting a sense of the roster first. Seb, how about you?"

I paused. "Well, I had this idea, and if you think it's stupid then let me know and I can adjust my idea.

"Sure, what is it?" Zoe asked.

"I was thinking of using some AI music generators and then was going to play a bard." I played one sample of a song I'd made the night before. Just an acoustic piece that felt, somehow, maybe fantasy-ish but upbeat? And maybe piratey if you looked at it sideways? "I don't know, just thought it'd be fun to mix up the bard flavor like that."

Zoe thought about it. "Well, typically we won't want to pause sessions for a two minute song... but could be cool for non-combat sequences. Were you going to do lyrics too?"

"Yeah... I can. I didn't plan to sing myself, but thought it'd be fun to play with the AI songs."

"Hmmm... you didn't want to play with 'AI' being part of the theme of the character though, right?"

"No, still fantasy setting," I said.

"You could make it kinda Vancian," Sandy said.

"What do you mean?" I asked. I was intrigued by Sandy actually thinking about my idea... this was the first time we'd really talked and I was enjoying looking into her eyes and trying to process her suggestion.

"Like, Jack Vance was a big influence on D&D magic. But his thing was that all the great magic had been made in the past, and people in his setting usually just 'channel' the magic of the past. Maybe you could do a thing where the songs you sing are ancient in some way."

"Definitely an idea, although I think it'd be fun to do really topical lyrics too sometimes, like about what our party is doing right then. But maybe a mix and match of both," I said.

"Yeah, that sounds great!" Zoe said. "So, a bard--what sort of bard beyond that?"

Oh right... I'd been planning to play cross-gender. I guess we'd mostly just been talking about classes so far. But somehow with Sandy here I was feeling even more self-conscious about gender flipping my character... and yet, the idea of making AI songs with a male vocalist seemed less fun for a fantasy game somehow. Hmm... what should I do?