//------------------------------//
// Chapter Two: Character Creation 
// Story: Vinyl and Octavia Engage in Roleplay 
// by DoctorSpectrum 
//------------------------------//

“Wow, can you believe this?” asked Vinyl, looking at a gigantic twenty-sided die. “Who in Equestria needs something like this?”
 
Octavia shrugged. “Someone who has no life outside of roleplaying, I suppose. Alternatively, somepony who receives it as a terrible present and is too polite to reject it.”
 
Vinyl grimaced.  “Huh.” At Octavia’s insistence, the two ponies had headed to a games shop the day after Octavia found the Pony Tales Handbook – apparently, they needed more equipment before they could play. Recalling this, Vinyl asked, “So, what are we here to buy again?”
 
“We are going to need dice – I have lost my ones from university, and you certainly do not have any – a gaming mat, figurines, character sheets, markers for the mat –”
 
“I thought you said that all we needed to play the game was the handbook,” said Vinyl.
 
“Well, that and some dice, true, but the additional equipment adds so much more to the game!”
 
“And so much more money to Unicorns of the Coast,” muttered Vinyl.
 
“Now, how about you head to the counter and buy yourself a set of dice?” suggested Octavia, missing Vinyl’s muttering about the company who owned Pony Tales. “I shall worry about the other items, and then join you and buy my own set.”
 
“Uh…okay,” said Vinyl, feeling out of her depth. She didn’t see why she needed a separate set of dice to Octavia, but she figured she should just listen to the Earth pony until she got the hang of the game. “Uh, hey, I need some dice,” Vinyl said as she approached the counter.
 
“What type of dice?” asked the green-coated stallion behind the counter.
 
“Um…roleplaying dice?” Vinyl answered, not sure what to make of the question.
 
“So, what type? A d4, a d6, a d8, d12, d20, d-”
 
“What type of dice do you need for Pony Tales?” asked Vinyl, worried that the stallion would keep listing random numbers and never stop.
 
“Ah, now for Pony Tales, you’ll just need a basic seven-dice set,” said the stallion. He reached below the counter and pulled out a small transparent container. Within, Vinyl could see assorted geometric shapes. “We’ve currently got a sale on this particular set – it’s fifty-percent off.”
 
Vinyl considered it for a moment. “I guess then I’ll take it-”
 
“Don’t you dare, Vinyl Scratch!” Octavia interrupted Vinyl unexpectedly, slapping the container of dice out of the stallion’s hoof as he had been passing it to her. “If you buy those dice I shall flush them down the toilet when we return home!”
 
“But you wanted me to buy them!”
 
“I wanted you to buy dice; I didn’t want you to buy those dice,” said Octavia, flashing the stallion a dirty look as she dumped the items she had been picking up onto the counter.
 
“And…what was wrong with them?” Vinyl asked, still trying to make sense of it.
 
“They were cheap! Didn’t you see what he was doing?” Octavia exclaimed. Vinyl raised an eyebrow. “He was trying to sell you cheap dice! He clearly used up all of the natural twenties on the d20 – not to mention the natural fours, eights, and so on.”
 
“They were brand new!” the stallion countered. “You could see that the container hadn’t been opened before!”
 
“That may be true, but how do I know that they weren’t previously rolled at the factory?” Octavia hissed. “I know all about the dirty tricks they use…” She fell silent and began glaring at the stallion, who glared back in turn.
 
“Uh, am I missing something here?” Vinyl asked, waving a hoof to get Octavia’s attention. “What’s all this about natural twenties or whatever?”
 
“Okay, you know what a d20 is, do you not?” Octavia asked. At Vinyl’s blank stare, she added, “A twenty-sided die.”
 
“Uh-huh.”
 
“Well, if you were paying attention when I was explaining how to play Pony Tales last night, you shall recall that a d20 is typically rolled to determine whether you are successful in an endeavour. The higher the number, the greater the chance you have of succeeding in whatever it is you are trying to do. Hence a natural twenty is the best number you can roll in a check.” This small recap seemed to calm down Octavia somewhat.
 
“Okay, I get that,” Vinyl said. “The thing I don’t get is you saying that he was – what was it? – using them up?”
 
“A d20 can only roll a twenty so many times, Vinyl. After that number of times, it will never roll another twenty again,” Octavia said solemnly. After taking this in, Vinyl frowned.
 
“Uh…why not? Does the twenty get scratched or something?” she asked.
 
“No, no, it is due to the way the probabilities work. It is literally impossible to roll one.”
 
“…That’s not how probabilities work,” Vinyl said slowly, raising an eyebrow sceptically. “I can understand there’d be a lower chance of rolling one, but –”
 
“Don’t question it!” Octavia snapped. “Just believe me, it’s how it works!”
 
“Okay, okay, I believe you,” said Vinyl hastily. “So then…in that case, which dice should I buy?”
 
“Hmm…” Octavia examined several sets of dice below the glass counter with a critical eye. As she did so, she failed to notice Vinyl rolling her eyes. As far as the unicorn could see, all of the dice were exactly the same, just in different colours. Did getting the right ones really matter that much?
 
“That set,” said Octavia finally, pointing a hoof at a set of white dice with the numbers engraved in blue. “If nothing else, they match your coat and mane.”
 
“They look pretty sweet,” Vinyl admitted as the stallion behind the counter placed them on top of the bench for her. “What are you getting for yourself?”
 
“Hmm… those ones look rather appealing,” said Octavia, looking at a set of green dice. “Oh, and so do those… but those other ones match my eyes!”
 
“Guess it’s gonna be pretty hard to choose one, eh Octavia?” Vinyl said, smirking. “But there can only be o-”
 
“I shall take all three,” said Octavia to the stallion, ignoring Vinyl.
 
“You – what?!” Vinyl exclaimed in surprise. “What do you need three sets of dice for? Have you even noticed the price on them?”
 
“I need three sets of dice for three different things,” Octavia said simply as she passed over her money for the dice and other accessories. “One set shall be used for combat, one for out of combat, and one for when I need to make very important rolls which I cannot afford to fail.”
 
“So, what, should I get another two sets of dice as well?” Vinyl asked, confused. “Is that normal?”
 
“No, you should be fine with just the one,” said Octavia, moving aside for Vinyl to pay for her dice.
 
“So then…why do you need the three sets?” By now, Vinyl was utterly baffled by the whole business. Even though Octavia said that roleplaying was good fun and easy to pick up, to Vinyl it felt like learning an entirely new language.
 
“That’s simple.” With more than just a hint of arrogance in her voice, Octavia said, “I am not a filthy casual.” She smirked at Vinyl, silently daring her to deny it.
 
Luckily for Vinyl, she had a comeback thought up within seconds. “So if you’re not a casual player, how come you haven’t played in years, don’t have any of this stuff – ” she pointed a hoof to the additional accessories Octavia had bought “- already, and lost your dice and had to buy new ones?”
 
“…Shut up.”
 

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“So, how goes your character creation?” Octavia asked. It was the next day, and they were just finishing preparations for the game. An old friend of Octavia’s from university named Natural Twenty had agreed to be the Dungeon Master for their campaign, and he was due to arrive within the hour.
 
Aside from the character sheets, everything was set up for the day’s session – the game mat was spread out onto a coffee table in the lounge room, where Octavia and Vinyl currently were, and the two pony figurines Octavia had bought (which sadly looked like neither pony they were supposed to represent) were sitting in adjacent squares, waiting to be moved. Vinyl and Octavia’s dice sets were sitting in their individual containers at two corners of the game mat.
 
“Pretty great,” Vinyl said, grinning. “I reckon the Pony Tales version of me is gonna be just as cool as I am! How about yours?”
 
“I just finished my character creation,” Octavia said, placing her sheet onto the table and stretching. “Do you mind if I take a look at yours?”
 
“Go ahead,” said Vinyl, levitating her character sheet over to the Earth pony.
 
“Okay, let’s see what you’ve got here…” muttered Octavia to herself. A moment later, she frowned. “Vinyl, you must have made a mistake here. You are roleplaying as yourself, just as I am, are you not?”
 
“Damn straight,” said Vinyl, grinning. “That’s what you told me to do, so I’m doin’ it!”
 
“Then why have you given yourself the ability to fly?” Octavia asked, turning the sheet to face Vinyl and pointing to the utility talents It’s Almost Like Flying and Flight School.
 
“’Cos I thought it’d be cool, y’know? I mean, me, flying? How awesome will that be?”
 
“Yes, but… Vinyl, you can’t fly in real life,” Octavia pointed out.
 
“Yeah, I know that. What’s your point?” asked Vinyl.
 
Octavia sighed. “The point is, you are supposed to be roleplaying yourself, as though it were really you in the story that the DM will craft. As you cannot fly in real life…” She trailed off, allowing the statement to finish itself.
 
Vinyl shrugged. “Hey, I wouldn’t have taken it, but it basically says that you can fly for whatever reason you can think of. Blame Unicorns of the Coast, not me.”
 
Octavia grimaced as she read over the description for the utility talents, confirming that the fault technically wasn’t with Vinyl. “Well then, what is your reason for being able to fly in-universe?” she asked, dreading the answer.
 
“I figure that thanks to my awesome magic, I managed to grow myself a pair of wings,” said Vinyl, her grin growing larger. “See? It totally works in the story!”
 
Octavia resisted the urge to facehoof…and failed. “Vinyl, you are not becoming an alicorn,” she said. “That’s… no, that’s just too silly.”
 
“Well…I won’t be one at first,” said Vinyl menacingly. Octavia cringed.
 
“What do you have planned?” she asked.
 
“Right, so this Dee Twenty-”
 
“Natural Twenty,” Octavia corrected.
 
“- right, Natural Twenty, he’ll throw us into a story and stuff, right? What we’ll do is, the first opportunity we get, we’ll head to Canterlot, and kill Celestia and Luna.” Vinyl ignored Octavia smashing her face into the coffee table and continued talking. “So then we’ll get their powers and become alicorn princesses – sexy alicorn princesses. What do you think?” She beamed at Octavia, who slowly pulled herself up from the table.
 
“I think that it is a horrendous idea and you do not know how to roleplay,” said Octavia wearily. “And besides, I doubt whether you would be able to kill either princess – knowing Natural Twenty, he will probably give them insanely high stats in order to prevent you from doing exactly what you said you would.”
 
“That’s what you think. Check out my combat talents!”
 
Dreading what she would find, Octavia looked down the page until she found the aforementioned combat talents. “Vinyl, are you sure that you know what you are doing?” she asked. “You’ve taken all of the overpowered abilities.”
 
“I know, right? I figure I’ll stomp anything that gets near us into dust,” said Vinyl confidently.
 
“I think you’re missing the point. By selecting almost only high-end abilities, you’ve taken all of the abilities which are too expensive to cast, leaving you vulnerable whilst you build up to them.”
 
The unicorn shrugged once more. “I figure we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” she said casually.
 
“Urgh, if you insist,” said Octavia, sighing once more. She passed Vinyl’s sheet back to her. “I am not even going to ask about your justification for how you can supposedly cast half of these attacks – your Hammer of Thunder in particular hurts my brain.”
 
“Oh, like your sheet is any better,” Vinyl scoffed. “Here, let’s see what you’ve got.” She skimmed over Octavia’s sheet. “See, what is this crap? Did you pick all of your combat talents from the friggin’ Monk tree?”
 
“As I said, I like to have combat talents that I could realistically use,” Octavia defended. “The same with my utility talents.”
 
“Oh, really?” asked Vinyl, a mischievous grin appearing on her face. “Then what’s this utility talent? ‘Sweet and Elite - You’re the type of person everyone should know. You're marginally famous, and-’”
 
“Give me that back,” snapped Octavia, her cheeks burning as she snatched the sheet from Vinyl.
 
Seeing that she had hurt her marefriend, Vinyl’s grin fell and her look softened. “Hey, I’m sorry, Octavia,” she said. “I didn’t mean to do that – it’s just that, between calling me a ‘filthy’ casual yesterday and now going over my sheet, you – it kinda felt like you were picking on me.” Vinyl went over to Octavia and sat in front of the couch the Earth pony was lying on, placing a hoof on one of her legs.
 
“No, I am the one who should apologise, Vinyl,” said Octavia. “Back in university, we used to tease each other about our characters and such all of the time. I forgot that this is all new to you, and I – well, I suppose I fell into old habits quickly.”
 
Vinyl leaned in and gave Octavia a kiss. Then another one after deciding that she liked the first one. “Can you forgive me, Octavia?”
 
“Of course I can – nopony can stay mad at someone as wonderful as you for long,” Octavia said, smiling. “Can you forgive me?”
 
“You’re implying that I haven’t already,” said Vinyl, grinning. She was about to lean in for another kiss when there was a knock at the door. Vinyl looked up, ready to go answer it before Octavia saved her the effort.
 
“Come in!” she called out. “We’re in the lounge room!” A minute later a blue-coated unicorn with a frizzy mane and a d20 for a cutie mark came into the room. He was carrying a saddlebag which looked incredibly full.
 
“Hello Octavia, how are you going?” he asked her before turning to Vinyl. “And you must be Vinyl Scratch. Pleased to meet you.” Vinyl grinned as she shook his hoof, already able to see how Natural Twenty and Octavia had become friends back in university.
 
“We just finished writing our character sheets a few minutes ago,” said Octavia as Vinyl went to lie on her favourite couch.
 
“Excellent to hear,” said Natural Twenty, seating himself and clapping his front hooves together. “And I see that you’ve already got the board set up and some dice ready to roll – what say you two ladies?” He grinned. “Shall we begin?”