Reroll

It's the burning place again.  I have a bit more room this time; I can see down the hall, and have easy access to the doors for cabins 001, 002, and 003. Looking down, I'm my old self again… and naked.  I do see my sheet, blotter, inkwell, and stack of books… but there is far too much room here… hmm.  Eenie meenie miney moe… I settle on door number one: Mom and Dad are rather unlikely to tease me if they're there.

They are... and they're also asleep.  Oh, the bathroom is in range… I find I can wrap myself in a towel: Nice!

I then grab two bathrobes, and wake my parents up… oh, there are blotter, quills, inkwells, and books here… but they're not mine… oh.  I guess I am contagious. That's annoying.

“What is it?” My Dad is a little slow to get up sometimes.

“Oh, hi son!” Mom's all smiles.  She is always so happy when she first wakes up.  She never wakes up grumpy. It's a wonderful trait.  I mean, she still often wakes up not quite firing on all cylinders like a rather lot of people, but she always wakes up happy.

“Apparently I'm contagious after all.” I shake my head, “Welcome to what I call ‘the burning place’. It's where I come every time I level up or… well. I should wait on that one. And given the cabin doors… I'm pretty sure Sam and Sarah are here too.”  I take a breath, “We should probably all get together to go through everything… and I do mean everything.”

I hand them their robes, “I honestly got over that aspect pretty quickly, but I always arrive here naked.  At least this time there's towels in easy reach.  I'll wait for you in the hall.  Please grab your books, page, inkwell, blotter, and such…” I point at the stacks.

We have Mom wake up my sisters… mostly because yes, everyone is dressed in their skin when they wake up.

I notice some details when we're together: Mom's ears are pierced, Sam's nails are painted, Sarah's hair is styled, and Dad looks like his pictures from his navy days.  That must be why Jim turned to Betty, even here: Self-image. Huh.  Which, I suppose, means the same will eventually happen to Ed and myself, if we stay long enough in one body… huh. Of course, Dad still looks like he's twenty five, so… there's no telling what will happen, I guess.

“So… we're all together… what's going on?” Sam prompts me.

I'm still in a towel. I can't get to my bedroom, sadly. “Welcome to what I call ‘the burning place’. It's where I've come ever since…” I still can't talk about it, it seems, “...the event that made me Mythic. I come here every time I get killed, or when it's time to level up.”

Dad raises an eyebrow, and I continue, “Yes: Level up.  My Myth - and this, my power - is rooted in the games I play with friends. The ship is from Starfinder, most of my build is from Pathfinder, and I make heavy use of Spheres with a sprinkling of D&D 3.5 and 3.0 content.  It looks like when I raised you all from the dead… you got pulled into my Myth.”

I take a breath… which actually helps, here: Yay! “However… I have met people that made it clear Myths can get a little watered down when spread.  I am hoping this means you won't be stuck with ALL of the rules from the game I ended up with: The ‘No brothers’ clause and the ‘Random appearances’ clauses aren't great: That's why my body in the real world looks like it does: Female, an unreal skin tone, and with a dog's tail. ‘No leaving play’ is mixed: On the one hand, it's proper immortality of a very high end sort: I don't stay dead and I can't be trapped.  On the other hand, it also means I can't run away and retire: I can take some down time, but I MUST keep engaging with the world.  The rest is strictly beneficial: Gestalt is a straight up power boost from the base game, Pathfinder is a fun system, and having all d20 compatible content means the combinatorial explosion is on our side.  There's a number of other nice clauses too… but we can get to that when we actually build your characters. Any questions so far?”

Dad knows something about the game, at least, “Who's the DM?”

I shrug, “Seems to be my subconscious… for me. I can't ‘cheat’, and most things on my sheet seem to run on how I, personally, would rule them; my friends seem to be their own DMs as well. You are… new territory. I have no idea how it’ll work for you.”

Mom considers, “So you don't really have any hard answers, do you?”

I look down and to the left, “...no.”

Sarah shakes her head, “Let's just move on to character building, then….”

My family has, at best, a passing familiarity with my hobby. I end up helping each of them through their full builds, top to bottom, asking them what sorts of things they want to be able to pull off, and building characters with them to be able to meet those goals… eventually. Sadly, I can't seem to start them above level one. Still, they are Gestalt, and do get suitable wealth.

Starfinder gear rocks, even at first, so I set them all up to get it.  Everyone plays a Fey Adept on one side (so they'll eventually be able to get arbitrarily large hordes of minions like I have) selecting their Magic Talents based on their proclivities, and a suitable Starfinder class on the other.  As Starfinder armor rocks, I also make sure they all get Shadowstuff Armament.

Dad is a very physical sort, and wants to be able to punch and shoot things, so I set him up as a Soldier: Full BAB, high health, and lots of weapon and armor potential; his magic talents end up being Enhancement focused.  Mom, a generous soul, wants to heal… so she's set up as a Mystic (a Starfinder spellcaster that gets healing spells), with her talents taken from the Life sphere.  Sam wants to be able to strike from the shadows, so I set her up as an Operative (the skill class of Starfinder) with a lot of illusion talents.  Sarah wants to double down on technology, so she becomes a Technomancer, with talents from the third party spheres Technomancy sphere.

I waffle a bit on their feat choices…  but I eventually settle on the theory that I can just use Illusion or Alteration to grant whatever appearance they'll need, and let them go wild with races.  Dad goes with a variant Tiefling for some claws, Mom goes with an Aasimar for the divine nature, Sam goes with a Dhampir for the shadows synergy, while Sarah goes with the Hologram race.  When I see Samantha's racial choice, I stop and talk to Mom about swapping out one of her talents for Esoteric Healing, so she doesn't kill Sam… and as a bonus, it helps with Sarah.

We also design a ship for them: A basic Light Freighter with a Gyrolaser mounted port and starboard (so they can also shoot anyone in front or behind in addition to the sides, although at a penalty), luxurious quarters, light shields, budget long-range sensors, a basic Drift Engine, and a minimal VI so it doesn't matter where their ship starts.  There's not much you can do at Tier 1, really.

After they all sign off and fade out, I get to work on my own sheet: 15th has some nice break points for Spheres of power: Most notably Costly Creation for expensive materials from the Creation Sphere, but also Complete Reversion from Time… the latter of which will let me trade out all my actual class levels whenever I feel like it, which will be sweet; I figure I will simply pick those up as temporary talents as needed. I keep going with Incanter and Fey Adept, picking up three magic talents and True Seeing for a short while.  I also upgrade my ship, adding another turret weapon, upgrading power to match, and adding a shuttle bay so my family can visit easily.

For my Pathfinder wealth, I grab a few more Trompe l'oeils (seriously, they rock) and scrolls of various spells that I might want on hand at some point, but don't expect to need often.  For Starfinder… I have the garage for it… I go ahead and get a tactical dropship (which doesn't actually need the skycrane: It can get to or from orbit on its own) and a bunch of utilities.

For the party ship, we upgrade to the next size up (a Battleship), and set ourselves up with a garage and a sky crane (I make good use of mine).  Yes, we're working our way towards a city in the sky: The ultimate goal is to have a Base Ship with the Colony Ship framework, allowing us to house a million people in space forever… at which point, I fully intend to downgrade to a Medium sized ship so I can fit it in the hanger on the Base Ship… well, that or get a Base Ship of my own.

That all done, I stop and consider: How bad will it be? My family may or may not be subject to all the same rules I am.  Dad could become my other mother; they could all warp into who knows what… there's no telling, really.  What does it mean if they do?  Are they faced with all the rules except the starting level?  Will they be immortal too?

…I suppose that last doesn't matter; as long as I keep in regular contact with them, I can keep them all coming back.

With that thought in mind, I sign off on my own sheet, and the real world fades back in.