CHAPTER 7: LUNCH ATTRIBUTES

  WC:1658

  “Hey Tyler,” the guy said. “I’m Carl. Where you from?”

  “Caledonia. Middle of nowhere,” I said. “You guys?”

  “I grew up near Kansas City but my family lives in Oak Creek,” Carl said. He opened his can of soda and chugged it.

  “I live here in Milwaukee,” one of the girls said. She had short light brown hair and wore a ton of bracelets on both wrists. “I go to MIAD for graphic design. Originally, I’m from Sheboygan.”

  “Cool,” I said.

  “Oh, sorry, my name is Kailee.” She smiled.

  “I’m Mel,” the other girl said. She had half white hair and half black, and wore a pink Hello Kitty T-shirt under a black hoodie that was all ripped up and pinned together with safety pins. “I’m from Racine but I’m staying with a friend here for a bit and maybe moving out to Madison next year.”

  “For school?” I asked.

  “Yeah, I got in but took a year off to work and just decide if I really want to go to college, you know?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I went to some parties in Madison last year,” Carl said. “It was lit! Those guys know how to party!”

  “What about you, Tyler? Are you in school?” Kailee asked.

  “Yep,” I said. “Thank goodness it’s summer, right? What other games do you guys play?” I changed the subject before we could get into which school I went to. I didn’t exactly want to say I go to J.I. Case High School. I’d be sitting alone at the lunch table every day.

  “I do some racing games and first-person shooters mostly,” Carl said. “I’m not that into MMORPGs but I have a Sunday night D&D campaign that my buddy has run for three years. We were actually going to come to the interview together but he wasn’t able to do a six-month thing here. He just got married and said he has to keep his job in medical equipment sales.”

  “Bummer,” Mel said. “Medical sales. At least it sounds like he’s making money. I’m here because I play MMORPGs all the time. I have a Discord and YouTube channel.”

  “Send me a link,” I blurted.

  “Sure,” she said. “I’ll add you.” She pulled out her phone, which also wore a Hello Kitty skin. She handed it to me. “Put your number as a contact.”

  I typed in my number and saved myself as Tyler B. in her contacts. “Console or PC?”

  “For Discord, I usually do PC. My family gives me Steam cards as birthday and Christmas gifts. YouTube I usually screen share. I’ve played all kinds of things for my followers. Red Dead, Sims, ARC, just everything.”

  “I’ll check it out. I had a sweet town built in Sims. My mom used to let me save up allowance for chores and spend it on expansions, so I have like, all of them.”

  “I remember Sims,” Kailee said. “My older brother had one, but it was seriously old.”

  “So what do you all think of this game Hexentor?”

  “The VR was pretty fabulous,” Kailee said. “When I was in there, I was like looking around, just in awe. Pure awe. I don’t even know what else to call it. I haven’t played a lot of epic fantasy games, just some on PC growing up, and I could never have expected how real it feels.”

  Carl said, “Yeah, I don’t think I could even describe it to someone. I’d just be like, dude, you gotta try it out. My buddy who runs the campaign is gonna be so jealous!”

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  “I can’t wait to make my character,” Mel said.

  “Me too!” I said, excited to share my ideas.

  “I’m making a sorceress with, like, crazy black witch hair and tats all over.”

  “I like it,” I said. “I always play a thief, so I have to start there—"

  “You can get tattoos in the game?” Carl interrupted. “Bet.”

  “Yeah,” Kailee said. “My character I played in my interview was this gnarly Scotsman in a kilt with a face tattoo and angel wings tattooed on his back!”

  We shared a laugh. “The developers had fun making the test characters, didn’t they?” I said. “I was a dwarf dressed like an armored car. I didn’t even know because the guy was totally covered in metal I couldn’t see him and then the guy who rolled up on me called me a dwarf.”

  “I got that when I died,” Carl said. “Someone called me a woods elf.”

  “You died?” Mel asked.

  “Yep.” Carl crunched his chips loudly. “I fell off a cliff or something. I dunno. Maybe I drowned. I fell into water and then I woke up at a well.” He tipped his chip bag back and dumped the crumbs into his mouth. “I’m kinda surprised they asked me back because my test run didn’t go so well.”

  “I died too,” I said, maybe to make Carl feel less sucky. “I thought the sign said Beware! Turns out it said Bears! And I just can’t read German.” They laughed with me.

  “I was in a meadow,” Kailee said, “and I kept stopping to pick up flowers every three steps, and I think I spent the whole hour running around trying to get rid of them. I wish I’d known about the hand gestures thing we heard today.”

  “That would have been helpful,” Carl said.

  “I hope we get to see casters this afternoon,” Mel said. “It doesn’t sound like any of us had a mage character on our test runs.”

  “Two-handed sword and heavy armor,” I said.

  “I had a bow and leather armor,” Carl said.

  “I had the angry Scotsman, remember?”

  “What was yours again?” I asked Mel.

  “Oh, I had an Artemis-like lady with a bow. Light and medium armor.”

  “I might make the old lady from the arena,” Kailee said. I think she’s really Hel or something.”

  “What’s hell?” Carl asked.

  Kailee said, “Not Hell, the place you go if you’re a bad Christian, H-E-L. She’s Loki’s daughter in Norse mythology. She rules the underworld, which is also called Hel. I think the lady in the arena is some sort of underworld goddess or an avatar for one. I hope that’s the storyline. And we all get to go into the land of the dead. I just love creepy stuff!”

  “I hate skeletons and zombies,” Carl said. “They just freak me out when they pop out of coffins or shamble down the street. Man, all those are a big miss for me. If it’s got zombies chasing after me or things coming up out of graves, it gives me the shivers.”

  “I’m not a huge undead fan either,” I said. “I played a game when I was eight or nine and you had to go into crypts and zombies kept rising from coffins. I’m sure I lost sleep over it as a kid.”

  “Not me,” Mel said. “My favorite game was a PC game released in Japanese only. You could play as a dark mage and resurrect the dead and they fought for you. I want to see what magic is like in this game. Gonna get my sorc on. Watch out for this witch!”

  We finished our sandwiches and mused about what else was in store for us that afternoon. Mel invited all of us to her Discord and YouTube channel, and then we went back and found seats together for the second half of orientation.

  Ramon’s next video talked us through the three main character traits: Health, Stamina, and Magic. “These attributes are key in building a character that can deal damage, self-heal, and has survivability.” A table popped up and showed three slices on a pie. The colors were blue for magic, red for health, and green for stamina. (Pie shows 50 points in blue, 10 points in red, 0 points in green) “Okay, this first one shows a character who deals damage with only magic, and acts as a healer in group content. All characters start with ten base attribute points, so this character is level 50, which is the max level at which point all the attribute points are given. They can, however, be reallocated.

  "Example two is the same character, Lv. 50 Cleric with her points disbursed differently. (pie chart shows 10 points in blue, 35 points in red, and 15 points in green) Still sixty points, but this time spread out more evenly.” Ramon came back on the screen. “Why would we want to redistribute the attributes?” The screen changed to a chart with different kinds of characters with titles like Battlemage and Dark Seeress, and dozens more. Each had a pie next to the image of the character in armor. “One reason is to create a unique build that you enjoy playing. Another reason is as you level up you may find that certain content is more difficult if you have your points placed in certain ways. For example, we are working on a dungeon that will be covered in poisonous swamp gas and it will sap stamina from characters as they traverse certain areas. If your character has no enhancement to stamina and has zero points in that attribute, you will move very slowly, will not be able to perform stamina abilities, and will not be able to use special attacks. So, in that particular content, even all-magic spellcasters will have to find ways to buff their stamina or they’ll become a liability to their groups.”

  “So you never have to worry about placing points. In the world of Hexentor you will find that your character will grow with you as you increase your levels, raise skill levels and purchase more skills with skill points, and as you learn more about the game and take part in harder content.” The chart went away and Ramon said, “Thanks for joining me in talking about attribute points. I hope this overview gets you started with your first build and many more to come.”

  Carl leaned over and said low, “I think I’m gonna need a lot more help.”

  “Me too,” I replied. And I meant it.