LARP: 2

There was a gentle knock at the door which I instantly knew was Malik. Even though it was Patty's house, I went over and opened the door to let him in.

"Hi," he said, simply, with that calm smile, holding up the pack of beers he'd brought. It weirdly felt like Malik always made the right choice, and so it was strange that even after all these years he still 'felt' single. I knew we weren't the only group he gamed with, and there was a girl I sometimes heard things about--I was pretty sure he was straight, but honestly, I like... had never flat out asked him, and also had never heard of a proper girlfriend. I wasn't like, really sure. And even though this felt kinda basic, asking him why he didn't have a girlfriend definitely would feel like prying. I mean, hell, why didn't I have a girlfriend? Would I appreciate the question?

He was also our kind of "holdover" GM. He could always pull up some one-shot or rules-light one-page-rpg when our previous longform campaigns had ended. He always knew the rules better than the rest of us. When he was a player, and not a GM, his playstyle was what I can only describe as a "disabler" player. He liked to shut down enemies rather than simply kill them immediately. This unfortunately could sometimes mean combats were both slower and less lethal. He almost never, to my recollection, played the "face" of a party.

He made his way inside. With Malik here, the last of our remaining 'usual' group was here.

"So, you guys decide what you're all playing?" he asked.

"Seb wants to face," Patty said. No one called me "Sebastian" -- it was always just "Seb."

"I mean, Bard can be support..." I said.

Really, though, I often liked to play a 'talky' or 'face' role in our groups, someone who would manage the diplomatic choices.

"Okay, so a bard," Malik said. He didn't really seem intent to question it. "Patty?"

"Barb!" she said.

"She wants to be a chonky boi," I added.

"I was thinking about maybe a warlock going a ship captain route," Malik said.

"Cool!"

He nodded. "We'll see what Zoe says when she gets here. I pulled this from online in case she wants to use a VTT. I've also been debating maybe having a whip be part of the kit."

He frowned. "Whips just aren't mechanically very good, but it'll probably be superfluous anyway."

"Oh, you're going to be a dark elf?" I asked, looking at the online art.

"Yeah, the fluff Zoe sent out for it looked good."

Huh, I guess even Malik was going to be playing cross-gender... in our group it really had just stopped being a big deal.

From what I'd heard, Zoe was bringing Sandy, which would be the newest player to our group. Hopefully once they were here we could finally get going!