22 Panels... No More!
DIE rpg Episode One
Getting the Band Back Together
So, now that we've whipped up some characters, who the heck are these people, anyway? When it comes to DIE, finding out is both part of the fun and the point of the journey. But what we know so far:
Tad is playing as Alan Spectre (formerly Luis Chisholm), a high school dropout turned former tech mogul (mogul might be too strong a word -- he honestly sounds like the rare software startup that found a niche and got out of the game in a reasonable fashion). He was a "social vagabond" back in school -- frequenting many groups, but belonging to none. Equal parts aloof and unaware (in the best way possible). Dreams of writing, yet is petrified to show his words to the world. I hope becoming The Fool helps him find his way, rather than getting lost all over again.
Peter has graced our presence with Lex Romanski -- the coolest outcast of her day and a dancer with dashed dreams. After an accident in college that ruined her promising career as a dancer, Lex got serious about life and settled down with a husband -- no kids, yet, but they're trying. I really appreciated how well Peter took some of the notes I gave him, and I'm really excited to see what he continues to do with her character and where he takes her. (Also, if you couldn't hear it in my voice when he asked if it was OK to play as a woman, it was very much a "Hell Yes" from me. We are an emphatically pro-genderbending podcast. Plus, even though I haven't gotten there yet, it's nice to not be the only one voicing a different gender on the zoom.)
Jonathan has created the early crowd favorite -- Eamon (pronounced AY-mon for those who haven't read and/or seen Game of Thrones) Heartwell, the darling wallflower who has finally joined the game. He had a rough time, academically speaking, with a total disconnect from various academic subjects, his confidence was shattered, and I suspect it's left quite a few scars we've yet to see the extent of. I was initially surprised when Jonathan said Eamon never played with the group back in high school, only watched, but it's quickly turned into one of my favorite quirks. I've known plenty of people like that over the years (and at times been that person myself), and it's the power of DIE that I have the chance to reconnect with one of them, even fictitiously. It also feels like a special kind of Kismet that Eamon works at a Library when I'd been planning to place my characters lurking between the stacks as well.
Speaking of which, I play Garion Eddings -- the goth with a god complex (and a thinly veiled reference to a formative fantasy series of my youth -- read by my parents and passed down to me, for good and ill). I was a goth in high school (and while I've softened since then, I still have tattoos and listen to an excessive amount of heavy metal) and since the GM doubles as the antagonist for the party, I've decided to use Garion as a vehicle to explore how my life could have gone horribly wrong. If I'd stayed lost, and thought the best thing I could do with my life is attempt to abandon this world for the imaginary (moreso than I already have, anyway). I don't know if he's a bad person, but he's certainly not a good one. Let's see if the power of friendship can prevail (without killing too many people along the way).
And after we've gone through the trouble of arranging time to play a game together, creating character sheets, selecting equipment and abilities, what's the first adventure we set out upon? Well, we arranged time to play a game together, created character sheets, and selected equipment and abilities ~ naturally. It was only after recording was over that I started obsessing over all the things I should have said and done. "Oh, I forgot to say this line right... why didn't I ask them about that... is it really OK that we played our first session without rolling any dice?"
Good thing we get to do this again, right?
One of the sayings regarding DIE is "Persona Generation never ends" -- even though we spent over two hours creating characters, introducing them, transporting to a fantastical world, and each going through a magical girl transformation sequence, we've only just begun. These people are still new, still fresh, and I can't wait to uncover what secrets they've been hiding.
DIE is a fascinating game for me, while I've played a lot of games over the years, I've generally shyed away from actual "Role Playing" (I'm more of a roll player than a role player, amiright?), and now that I've tried it, I think I was afraid of enjoying it too much. Even when I played with a group of friends years ago, at a table that explicitly said: "we're here to roll dice and kill orcs, not waste our time with any of that other shit, understand?" I tried to play a character I thought I embodied -- that I wanted to be.
DIE is different -- very different. I don't want to be Garion. I hope I'm not too much like Garion. Without spoiling our end-of-episode twisthanger, what happened to Garion is based on something I experienced in a very dark period of my life. I just got lucky that my monster was benevolent -- I rolled well, and now I'm still here to share the impossible with all of you.
Roll on!!
--Phil Uebbing
01.29.25
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