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of comrades, who had just survived their first battle together—and in one piece.
     
    *
     
    “And that’s where we’ll end for tonight,” Dingo said. “I want all of you to level up. That was one tough battle.”
    “Woot!” I exclaimed. “Level two. Watch out, mofos! Here we come!”
    We all shared a chuckle before I looked at Dingo. “Oh, how do you do hit points [11] at each level? Do you just do the standard, where you roll once?”
    Dingo shrugged. “No, I usually have players roll twice and take the better of the two. How do you do it?”
    “Well,” I replied, looking at Xavier, who was familiar with my games. “It’s kind of convoluted, but my players like it. You roll once. If you like what you get, you keep it as normal. But if you don’t, then you have a choice. You can either roll again or take half the max roll, rounded up. But if you roll again, you have to take it, no matter how crappy it is.”
    Dingo pursed his lips, thinking about it. “You know what? I like that. It sounds interesting. Let’s do that.”
    “All right.”
    He watched while we all rolled our hit points. I distinctly recall rolling an eight on my first try. Blademasters can gain between one and ten hit points each level, thanks to their d10 Hit Die [12] , so I was pretty pleased with that result, which set my maximum hp to twenty.
    After scrawling in his new hit point total, Matt relaxed in his chair. “I dunno about you guys, but that was awesome. Even the bitching we did.”
    “Yeah,” Xavier and I agreed at nearly the same time.
    “That really was cool, Dingo. Even the werewolf, which I’m glad you modified from the standard one,” I said.
    Dingo shrugged again. “Heh. Thanks, guys. It would have been a short campaign if I’d left it the way it’s supposed to be. But I’m glad you had fun.”
    I glanced at the clock. “Man, it’s past one in the morning. I can’t believe we played for six hours. It feels like it was only one or two at most.” I yawned and stretched and jiggled my computer’s mouse to make the monitor wake up. “Well, thanks for a fun time. I’m really liking this game already, Dingo.”
    Everyone else nodded, and Dingo replied, “Yeah. I’m loving the way the party interacts already, too. Your characters are all really interesting and fleshed-out. And Xavier, you’re usually such a quiet person, but you really get into this.”
    Xavier just smiled and muttered something I didn’t catch.
    Everyone packed up, and Dingo and Matt headed out after we all agreed to meet for D&D again a few days later. Xavier and I stayed up for a while, talking about the experience we’d just had, as well as our hopes for the future of the game, before turning in just before two in the morning.
     

IV.
    I was greatly surprised and pleased when Dingo agreed to allow me to play my homebrew blademaster class. In fact, he really seemed to want to see my creation in action after I explained the concept, mechanics, and flavor of the class to him.
    “So, tell me about your blademaster class,” he said over the bustle of Kriner dining hall a few nights before the first game session. “I take it it’s some kind of melee fighter.”
    Around the food in my mouth, I responded to Dingo’s question: “Melee, yes. Fighter, yes, sort of,” I said. “It’s hard to explain using current classes, but… take a paladin, mix in a little monk, and then toss in some soulknife for some flavor, mix it all together… and that’s what you get, at least on a rudimentary level.”
    Dingo kind of stared at me with one eyebrow raised, waiting for me to go on. “I’m waiting for you to tell me how that’s not broken.”
    “Well, the blademaster’s powers are mitigated by certain limitations on equipment, as well as by daily usage limits on many of their abilities. Most of their class features can’t be used in medium or heavy armor or while wielding a shield. They also aren’t proficient with ranged weapons, so outside