the bear is coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!

[graveexcitement]

today my tabletop RPG group got together IRL for the first time in several years, possibly the first time since high school. normally we simply hold our sessions online, on discord and/or roll20, but everyone happened to be in town this week for winter break so we finally had the opportunity to play IRL!

our last two campaigns have been in dnd 5e, but for this one we're branching out into monster of the week, which is super interesting -- basically it's a tabletop RPG based around the themes and character archetypes of "monster-of-the-week" type shows, like Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and so on. it's a really neat system, i'd def recommend it!

our party consists of:

-Jonathan Ward, the Mundane (a character archetype that basically means he's the Normal Guy who's always going off on his own and getting into trouble). Big Dad Energy.
-Mary Rose Ward, the Spooky (has spooky powers that are sometimes out of her control.) Is Jonathan's wife. Very nice, motherly, but a little off sometimes. Her granddad's a demon.
-Oliver Park, the Monstrous (part monster.) He's half-pookha (an Irish shapeshifter/fae) who can shift into a variety of different animals, but whose human form always has some animalistic feature. Big Tired Energy.
-and my character, Simon, the Divine (celestial origin.) He's the resident Nerd Accountant Angel. Here to protect Jonathan, suspicious of the other two. Would smite Mary Rose for her demonic heritage if she wasn't Jonathan's wife.

so today our party (we travel around in an RV, by the way) pulled into a small town and wandered into an Obviously Suspicious Toy Store. variety of toys: stuffed animals, dolls, puzzles, etc. we get a rubik's cube (for Jonathan; it also catches Simon's interest) and a puzzle with cute baby animals (for Mary Rose; also Oliver, but primarily for Mary Rose). on our way out Mary Rose notices some spirit activity within the store, but without any idea of what it's doing, we decide to watch from the cafe next door.

half an hour later, there's suddenly a bear in the store. a bear with a pink bow.

chaos ensues as we try to shepherd the townspeople away from the store, figure out how it got there, etc. there's really no way the bear could have gotten in on its own. the bear is coming from inside the store.

it steals a mouthful of toys and escapes, so we try to track it. well, Simon and Oliver try to follow it while Mary Rose and Jonathan deal with the townspeople. Oliver is the best at tracking by virtue of turning into a dog and following the scent. (also, i rolled a 3 when trying to follow it, so Simon wasn't too helpful.) eventually we follow its tracks to the sewers, where we find

a stuffed bear

with a pink bow

[The above is my fanart of Simon (in all his accountant fashion glory) and Oliver (in dog form) next to a set of bear tracks that stop abruptly before a stuffed bear.]

and past the stuffed bear, the tracks turn into what looks like high-heeled footprints. and one of the toys the bear stole was a Barbie-esque doll.

oh, and did i mention a little girl in the town went missing a few weeks ago?
so yeah, there's an abridged version of like most of our first session (or at least the part that had to do with the bear.) dolls, spirits, and bears, oh my!

Comments

[inkpetal]

That sounds like so much fun. I've always wanted to get into dnd, but I've never tried it and it seems intimidating, especially not having any friends who play. That's awesome you guys have all stuck with it long-term!

[casualbird]

ooh! i've always really wanted to try monster of the week, ever since the adventure zone did it. i really like all the characters in your party, they seem like they have a lot of potential for good character interactions. i like the idea of an angel being an accountant--it's very cool in a wildly uncool sort of way, and it reminds me a little bit of my own character, who is a necromancer by night and an insurance salesman by day.

have fun with your campaign!!! i hope you get that weird bear figured out.

[graveexcitement]

you should definitely give dnd (or other tabletop RPGs) a shot if you ever get the chance! not having any friends who play is tough, though. i'm lucky that i have a group of friends i can play with. you could look and see if there's any tabletop rpg groups at your local comics/games store. or there's some groups that organize entirely online, on sites like roll20. but either one would involve trying to find a group with strangers, and that sounds intimidating to me too :c

our group didn't originally all play, but our DM started a D&D club in our senior year of high school and got us to join, so he basically dragged us all in. so it may be easier to start playing with your current non-playing friends if you're willing to DM. but i understand that's intimidating too, especially if you haven't played before. hope you get the chance to play someday!

[graveexcitement]

yeah i think our DM wanted to give monster of the week a shot because he listened to it in the adventure zone! it's definitely fun.

& whoops, my angel isn't literally an accountant, it's just that... 1) he has that vibe, and 2) if he was human / had a human job, he would probably be an accountant. so it was meant to be a metaphorical thing, but i wasn't clear, haha.

your insurance necromancer seems very cool!! they sound fun to play with :3

[casualbird]

aaaahhhh, i understand you. the accountant Mood is definitely a real thing. i had an oc once who had such an accountant mood that i decided to cut out the middleman and actually make him an accountant. :^ )

and thanks! he is fun. i hope i'll get to use him again someday, our campaign just ended actually.

[graveexcitement]

nice! do you have another campaign in the works? (we've actually been wanting to play this monster of the week campaign since like, july, but we wanted to finish up our dnd campaign first, which we did in... november, maybe?)

[casualbird]

yep! my bf is running starfinder in a couple of weeks, which is exciting because i've never played before!

i should see if i can pitch monster of the week to my pals.

[graveexcitement]

nice! i haven’t played starfinder but it sounds cool — have fun!