The words on the scroll burned away to be replaced by a prompt asking me to select a race. I concluded that based on the word Race written on the scroll. I was only beginning to figure out how to work this UI. I wasn't sure how to pick a race, what options there were, or what bonuses and penalties those options provided.
Now that I've started the process, I was also hesitant to back out of this screen. For all I knew it would saddle me with some random preset and turn me into a newt.
With no idea how it all worked, I figured staying human was my best bet. I've played more than a fair share of games in my days. In most of them humans with their versatility were, if not the optimal, at least a decent choice for most builds.
As I was thinking that, the word Human appeared on the scroll. Along with an invitation to confirm or decline my selection.
I chose to confirm it. The scroll changed again. This time it asked me to pick a Sex. The options were Male and Female, with the Male option already highlighted. I wasn't touching anything there and rushed to confirm this as well. I quickly patted myself below the belt just to be sure. Relieved, I returned my attention to the scroll.
It was now asking me to choose a Trait. Only the part of the scroll that looked like it would unfurl into a dropdown menu was greyed out. The choice was already made.
Old Dog
You get an extra rank in every skill you have
You can only learn new skills from specialized trainers and the training costs are doubled
I had no idea why it didn't let me pick a trait and instead saddled me with that one. The description alone wasn't enough to tell me if it was any good. An extra skill rank could be good. Provided the skill cap was reasonable. If skills went up to a ridiculous number like 250, or even past 9000, then that extra rank wouldn't do me much good. I also had no way of knowing how rare those trainers were or if I should worry about the doubled costs. With no other choice, I pressed on.
Then came the time to pick a Class. Much like with Race, the options weren't shown. At least I now knew there were classes. This was the closest thing I had to a clue for how this system worked.
In my experience, classless games often adopted a learn-by-doing approach that favored jack-of-all-trades characters. You had to work to get there, but you could eventually become good at everything.
Systems with classes, on the other hand, tended to be big on specialization. If you knew how to properly min-max, you could create an absolute beast of a character.
The issue was I had no idea what I was doing. I suspected that if I tried to min-max, I would ruin my character. And in this case, no matter how ridiculous it sounded, my character was me. I wanted to avoid gimping myself if at all possible.
I considered my options. It wasn't easy, seeing how I didn't know what those were. But since the scroll had Humans, it was safe to assume it would at least have some staple classes.
In most games I've played, it was a good idea to go for a simple and hard-to-mess-up class when learning the ropes. A Sharpshooter or a variation thereof was often solid. If you can deal with your enemies before they can reach you, you have little to worry about. And thanks to the display outside, I knew that firearms worked wonders against monsters.
A ranged class like that, however, depended on weapons, and even more so, ammunition. There was no way of knowing how abundant or scarce ammo was in this twisted world. I discarded this path.
That overall line of thinking, one where I prioritized my personal safety, wasn't about to give up so easily. It led me next to the Demolitionist. If you had the right combustible materials, you could always slap together a few bombs and deal with much bigger threats than goblins. The carapaced beast that pursued us through the city popped into my head.
But with a class like this, looking the way I did, I would be making myself into a quite literal boomer. That wasn't happening.
I toyed around with various class ideas. Ultimately my mind landed on the one that's been the most consistently good and straightforward. Fighter. No tricks, no hassle, no annoying resource management. Just a man, a weapon, and often an inflated baseline power level to make up for not having any of that fancy stuff.
As I considered that option, Fighter appeared on the scroll. This time it was kind enough to supplement the title with a description.
Fighter
A master of arms frequently found on the front lines. Always ready for a long march, a tavern brawl, or a duel to the death. Soldiers and mercenaries favor this class for its versatility.
Starting skills
Climbing
Jumping
Swimming
Dodging
Armament Master
One Skill of Your Choice (Disabled by Trait)
High Battle Prowess
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
"Mierda," I swore under my breath. That Old Dog trait was already screwing me.
Even more annoying was that I couldn't check what any of those skills did. I was wondering if this was an intended feature, or if I simply didn't know how to get what I wanted out of the system. The only way for me to proceed, barring a sudden breakthrough, was trial and error.
At least I had a pretty good idea what that Battle Prowess line meant. It made perfect sense that a Fighter would be good at, well, fighting.
I rejected the Fighter for the time being. The scroll turned blank aside from the original prompt to pick a class. I tried Barbarian next.
Barbarian
A tough and resilient dweller of the savage lands. Barbarians detest civilization but are not above enjoying its fruits. That is until they fly into an all-consuming rage where they revert to their more primal state.
Starting Skills
Climbing
Jumping
Swimming
Survival
Berserking
Two Skills of Your Choice (Disabled by Trait)
High Battle Prowess
I liked the part about resilience. And the Survival skill seemed enticing. Who doesn't like surviving.
The two skills I wasn't allowed to pick made it a non-starter. Plus, I was iffy on the berserk aspect of it. Flying into a rage and blindly rushing into battle was great when fighting weak enemies. But I wanted to be able to disengage or straight-up retreat if things got too hairy when I faced a tough foe.
I then tried a series of other super common classes. Rogue was even worse than Barbarian when it came to optional skills and had its Battle Prowess merely at average. Paladin demanded I pledge myself to a divine power, and I didn't want to go there. And Wizard, with its low Battle Prowess, went on and on about things like Arcane Overcharge and Runecarving, which seemed too complex for my limited understanding of this opaque ruleset.
In the end, I went back to my initial choice of Fighter. It was the old reliable. A description I liked to think I embodied even before this whole mess started.
When I confirmed my class selection, the scroll updated again. The heading now read Attributes.
Strength 10
Agility 10
Constitution 10
Intelligence 10
Perception 10
Charisma 10
Spare Points 5
I could distribute the spare points, and even subtract points from those tens all the way down to 3.
Yet again there was no explanation for what the actual attributes governed, which of them interacted with my skills, or even if this was a system where every point mattered, or only the even numbers did.
As I pondered what to do with the attributes, I read just their first letters. I was left with SACIPC that way. That wasn't anything. I always liked it when attributes spelled a special word when arranged this way. With this stat block, all I could do was rearrange the letters to get sac pic. That was a twist on the usual unwanted photographic message, but still nothing to be proud of.
I then wondered if I could afford to remove any points. Quint and his people were nice and all, but they weren't experiencing any of this. I felt utterly alone. For a Fighter in an actual game, I'd dump Intelligence and Charisma without a second thought to get more use out of my physical stats. Without the benefit of a party, I couldn't afford to turn myself into a repulsive slob. Neither did I revel in the idea of becoming stupid.
On a whim, I put all the attributes at 3 and started pumping Strength. I got it all the way to 50 that way. This was worrying. Both because it suggested a level of power beyond my wildest imagination and because it made my starting numbers look more pathetic in comparison.
I reassured myself with the thought that systems often had a non-linear stat progression. A +1 stat when you had 10 total did way more than +10 when you had 200.
I ultimately decided that as a Fighter I probably didn't need that much Intelligence. And Charisma wasn't all that useful when you could convince others to see things your way by bashing them over the head. I still didn't dare dump them completely. When I was finished, the scroll read:
Strength 14
Agility 12
Constitution 12
Intelligence 8
Perception 11
Charisma 8
I put a few points into Agility since I did have the Dodging skill, and in my head the two had to be connected. In games I always hated putting any points into Constitution. I always believed a good offense was the best defense. But when it was me who'd be doing the dying due to a severe lack of hit points, I figured I should add at least some padding there. What really stung was that I could only spare a single point for Perception. In games where it was an option, you often got a good head start by spotting hidden things others overlooked.
When I confirmed my selection, the scroll changed once again. This time with more sparks and fanfare. It then reformed itself into what looked like a character sheet for me.
Buck DiGriz – Human Fighter, Level 1
Old Dog
Strength 14
Agility 12
Constitution 12
Intelligence 8
Perception 11
Charisma 8
Skills
Climbing 1(2)
Jumping 1(2)
Swimming 1(2)
Dodging 1(2)
Armament Master 1(2)
This sure was a way to sum up a life of 58 years.
Now that I was done, I had the option to confirm everything and close the scroll. I did. As it disappeared, the orb in the bottom right of my vision remained, but it wasn't burning anymore. I also noticed that my health bar refilled to read 16/16. Getting 2 measly hit points on leveling up as a Fighter felt like a rip-off. With another 2 coming from, I assumed, the Constitution increase, going from 12 to 16 wasn't too too bad.
I got off the bed and tried a few motions. Flexed my muscles, did a couple squats. This felt easy. I just wasn't sure if it felt any easier than before I became a Fighter.
Examining myself in the mirror, I did notice that my muscles looked more pronounced. It wasn't a huge difference, but it was there. Oddly enough, I didn't look any uglier. I also didn't feel dumber. Perhaps those stats worked in another way. Or maybe it was the case of ignorance being bliss.
Watching myself flex my pecs, I yawned. My phone told me it was past 2AM now. I completely lost track of time while fiddling with that scroll.
The events of the day still gnawed on me. Not to mention all this stuff I've spent the last several hours doing. My mind was racing. Still, I knew that if I didn't get any rest now, I'd feel tired in the morning.
This thought allowed me to notice a new bar under my red health one. It was blue and showed 60/100. It must've been an energy or stamina indicator. And if I let it get all the way down to 0, I had the feeling I wouldn't be able to go on. I wondered how quickly it depleted and how big a nuisance it would be.
Either way, I had no desire to test it right now. I got into bed and fell asleep almost instantly.
Billy Joel Facts - Chapter 6:
Story Facts - Chapter 6:
