WHAT! Why had I not visited this magical haven earlier?!
I thanked him, and left. As if I hadn't already been nervous just going in to ask about the group, now I was crazy anxious. Excited to have opened a door to a possibly awesome world of nerdom, but also a bit apprehensive. I had only ever played with people I knew; groups sprinkled with friends of friends, but never complete strangers. What if no one actually went to these things? What if they weren't accepting of other nerds? How quickly was something offensive going to come out of my mouth? Nearly made myself sick the next day with my uncontrollable nerves :x
But I went anyway! I had to, there was no way I could pass up an opportunity like this, even if I had mental images of throwing myself to the wolves and being torn limb from limb. And it turned out to be significantly less bloody than anticipated!
I met several people right off the bat when I arrived, of which I probably couldn't tell you any of their names o.O There was actually quite a large turn-out for such a small store. I sat down at the newbie table with one other guy to build a character with one of the more seasoned players, who I would later befriend (Cullyn.) I figured going with some sort of melee class would be the best for me. I'm not a spell casting type, and I only had about an hour to flesh-out a character from nothing, so barbarian it was going to be!
Apparently, with Pathfinder Society, you register yourself and your character(s), your DMs run pre-generated campaigns, and actually track everything your character does and earns. This allows you to legitimately play anywhere! Yay! I'll never have to be nerd-lonely again! Essentially, everyone's characters are "Pathfinders" and part of a large "society" who live in the same setting, and get sent out on missions. This allows for you to play with new people, both players and DMs, with ease. I love this!
I think once everyone was ready to play, there were 4 or 5 tables worth of games running. I was placed at a table with DM Clint, Sly Goodguy the bloodrager (Cullyn), a fighter-wanna-be-ranger Demi (Wendy), drunken cleric Tom (Tom), slow-as-balls Paladin Brian Goodguy (Hunter), and a barbarian play-toy sorcerer (the new guy who was at the table making a character as well... like I said, I'm not good with names.) We were all level 1... and over the course of our 4-encounter-turned-2 scenario no one died! This was even despite Cullyn and I conspiring together and tossing the gnome over a gigantic fallen tree in our path (with his permission) and getting him stuck in a trap. Was actually a fun, combat-oriented game :) Played for nearly 6 hours! At the end of a PFS game, the DM fills out paperwork with all the participating characters, our loot, experience, gold, and prestige points. So official!
Cullyn ended up inviting me to his Monday night home game that Hunter plays in as well. I briefly met the other new player (Sarah) and two of the existing players (Felix and another Sara, to make things even more confusing!) I was advised to make pretty much whatever I wanted, since the essential roles were already taken care of. I decided upon an alchemist, as I had never played one before. While I was building her, I realized how similar to a spellcaster the class was, which made me a bit nervous all over again. Little did I know that being nervous for this game was legit!
The new Sarah and I were both introduced to the game at the same time, she was a released prisoner and I a released worker from within a necromancy lab. We were immediately thrown into combat, followed by a quick inner-party conflict (not including me!), and then the final encounter with my former teacher. A couple of misunderstandings during, and everyone mistrusts me! T.T So much so that they were going to murder me after they tied me up and knocked me out! Even though I was willing to go with them without issue, and I argued I hadn't done anything to have caused such adversary. My character's just a kid- and there's been some jumping to conclusions, but I've never played a game with players who are so distrusting and bloodthirsty amongst one another! I guess PFS has rules against PvP, so they go all-out in home games. We'll see how this goes!
Feel like I've been slacking on art-ing, so I'll have to fix that today. I did finish my Sherlock piece on Friday before going out to dinner with JR, Liz, and two of their friends.
I'm really enjoying vectoring. I haven't felt comfortable with people, recognizing shapes, and shadows... but these little projects have really helped with that. If I vector too long I start seeing shapes everywhere I look! Maybe that's the art-eye all those artists mention.
