May Pinup #1 - Playing Yourself - The Second (Patreon)

The sequel to Playing Yourself. 

Story:

Six months isn’t a long amount of time, but there’s still a lot of room for things to happen. Bexxy really wasn’t the nicest person before her usual role-playing group were assigned a research project across the pond. All of them were studying advanced biomechanics, except for Bexxy who at the time was studying programming at Empire Bay’s University for Cultural & Technological Innovation. The five of them did get along very well, but Bexxy had always had a mean streak to her that used to make her particularly averse to less “hardcore game enthusiasts.”

The other fellows paid no mind to Bexxy’s old habits, they knew that she used to be kind of a “coconut,” they joked. Hard on the outside, but with a soft and sweet interior once broke you through. And that was exactly what happened when the four of them went on a summer-long research trip abroad.

Without her usual role-playing troupe to satisfy her table-top gaming addiction, Bexxy accepted her friend’s advice to check in with a local university legend. Denise Willems had grown popular among the role-playing community at EBUCTI, even though she was a top student at the game design program, she somehow still made time to run five separate campaigns as a game master. At one point she had been cajoled into running eight, but even that was proven to be excessive and didn’t last too long.

When Bexxy came up to her one day to ask if she had any campaigns she could join, she was in luck that Denise had just been asked to run a Spells Of The Seventh Realm module with some people who needed another player. Despite the grumpy attitude that used to define Bexxy before she figured some things out, Denise was happy to introduce Bexxy to the other players.

To say that Bexxy was unprepared for Denise’s style of running a campaign would be an understatement. She had heard rumors of Denise being somewhat of a pushover and that her adventures were too easy, which wasn’t what Bexxy cared for in her old runs. But that wasn’t the case whatsoever. Denise certainly fudged some of her rolls when she felt like they ruined the plot, but that was really the thing. Denise’s campaigns were intense when it came to the storytelling. And she pulled no punches when it came to any kind of social skill rolls.

“I intimidate the guard. How many dice do I roll?” Bexxy asked in her first session.

“Well, what do you tell her?” Denise demanded in response.

Bexxy looked back at Denise with confusion in her brown eyes. “What? What do you mean?”

“I wanna know what your character says to the guard so that I can estimate her kind of reaction.”

“Can’t… Can’t I just roll the dice? I mean, my character has high strength and charisma, it shouldn’t be that hard to intimidate a regular guard, right?”

Denise’s eyes shone with devious intent behind her big circular glasses. Oh so this is how you’re gonna play…

And with a devilish smile she said: “Fine. If you want to intimidate the guard without making any effort, I guess we’ll have to let the dice do the effort. Eight d6.”

Eight d6?! Bexxy screamed within herself. The odds of getting a successful roll to either her character’s 17 strength or 18 charisma was astronomical. And sure enough, Bexxy’s character failed spectacularly. But it was still within the rule set of the Seventh Realm system, and Bexxy had to admit that she was impressed at how Denise kept full control over the game. She never gave her players anything they hadn’t earned and she never broke any of the rules during that first session. And Bexxy had to admit one more thing.

Denise was special.

~

Over the months that Bexxy played with Denise, the two of them also began spending some additional time together outside of the games. They shared a lot of the same passions and eventually enough trust was built between them that Denise shared a personal detail that impressed Bexxy further. Denise had fallen in love with the Seventh Realm setting and system because it was so focused on the characters. And when she first played it, taking on the role of a female character and getting to play it in a way that no other system had lit a spark in her that changed her forever.

Once a jock studying fitness and health, Denise quickly told her parents that this wasn’t the path she was meant for. She switched programs and began her transition only two years before Bexxy asked if she had any campaign openings. And her parents couldn’t have been happier. They knew that even though their “son” had a happy outlook on things, there still flickered an untold melancholy within. And when she came out, that melancholy faded away like smoke in the wind.

Bexxy was stunned at this revelation. Just being this upfront about it, peeled away layers of similar feelings within her. By this time, Bexxy had already been impressed enough by how well Denise had pushed her to act as her Tiefling character, so much so that she had started taking treatments to resemble her character more. It just made sense to Bexxy that she felt so connected with her character that she wanted to also have the same horns and tail that she had.

But now, she wanted to be the same gender as well.

~

The summer came and then gave way to the first month of autumn. Her old friends would soon be back. Bexxy couldn’t have been more excited to see them again. She had so many things to tell them about her transition and she wanted to gush incessantly about her cute-ass girlfriend.

Before their travel to the other side of the ocean, Bexxy had been a mousy kind of person. Wearing masculine or unassuming colors like blue and beige. Her hair had been a ratty blonde that she had chosen to exchange for dark red, and her girlfriend helped maintain the sidecut that she liked so much. She had traded her sour attitude for a kind of devious and almost aggressive edge. It was clear from hearing her speak with her husky voice, that somehow sounded lower-pitched than her old tone, that she could kick your ass and then some. She swayed her arrow-tipped tail with confidence when she walked across campus. And even though people talked about her like she was some sort of mob boss, everyone also knew that she was as sweet and optimistic as her girlfriend.

And heck, if you wanted to play a solid role-playing campaign and you couldn’t get a hold of Denise Willems, you now had another option in Bexxy Hoffman. But be careful with your rolls. You might get a critical hit in life like they did.

The End.

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Might have gone a little overboard with the alternative versions here, at least if you look at the work file for this pinup 😄

It was very fun to do another kind of Demon/Tiefling/Luminant that they have in Empire Bay, unlike the one for Brimming With Sick Gains. And I will admit that Bexxy's design was inspired by Bowsette 😅

But can you blame me when the song is so fun? 

Big thanks to BisectedBrioche for the suggestion! And another big thanks to you, my beautiful patrons ❤️