A Day That Will Live in Infamy...

My wife finally joined me in DDO.

I finally managed to convince her to give it a try. Nothing crazy, mind you. Just a simple 28-point Ranger. (She likes bows.)

And, of course, she had to start with a 28-point build because I haven't had time to build my bank Cleric up quickly enough. In fact, she couldn't even roll a Drow yet. So, to be safe, I helped her roll-up a Human Ranger.

Her name's SoylentGreen. (Some of you will get the joke.)

And, she's *HAWT*!!!

A sassy and saucy-looking little human.

That's probably what led to the virtual orgy in the Waterworks last night...

But she was pretty intimidated by the game at first.

A couple of my so-called friends introduced her to WoW before I could get her to give DDO a try.

Bastards. ;-)

It's taken me forever to get her to even *think* about creating a character in DDO.

And, now that she's finally joined me in *my* game, she can't help but compare it to WoW. Where she has a combat pet. I've tried to tell her that she can have a summoned... pet (monster) in DDO, but that it isn't persistent like her other game. Not yet, anyway. I reminded her that the folks at Turbine hinted at the probability of the addition of Familiars to DDO *IF* they could get the henchmen AI to function correctly.

At least she knows what a familiar is... she played Neverwinter Nights for a bit, and became accustomed to having her black panther familiar help her through the various sub-quests in that game.

But, she, like many others, thinks that if D&D has familiars and WoW has battle pets, DDO ought to have something along the same lines. Of course, I have mentioned that there are *many* players who would agree with her, some even having left the game because of the lack of such a staple D&D element.

Still, she decided to give it a try.

She was having a tough time at first, though.

It was one thing to try to learn a completely new game, but it was another to have a ready-made adventure party waiting for her as she stepped off the boat and into the Wavecrest Tavern for the first time. I think she was a bit frustrated with my attempt to hurry her through the barkeep's two solo quests so she could join the rest of us. And, she admitted that she wasn't thrilled with the idea of simply jumping right into a group of other players right away.

She said she was afraid she was going to get everyone killed!

That's when I reminded her that this wasn't WoW.

And that we had more than enough characters to ensure that no one would die unnecessarily.

Well, except for Trinarias, later in the evening. But that was my fault. And, I'm used to it. ;-)

Still, we managed to get her through the Goodblade quests with barely a scrape on her pretty little chin. Phrudin (Belzur/Roulph/Factotum) was there to keep her skin healthy and unblemished. :-o

She thought Zith (Bashal/Stonehands/etc.) pretty cool, though. As though, perhaps I'd chosen the wrong class for her. She very much liked "the ninja." So, from now on, Zith, you're a ninja, not a monk. :-P

Lumma (Robinous) joined us for a bit, too, using his burning hands on all manner of things. She though she was on fire at one point. It took a moment for her to realize that it was Lumma's spell. But only after I told her to take a moment and relax. That friendly spells couldn't hurt her character. She was relieved. Though the sound effect still caught her off-guard several times after that.

She really enjoyed Phrudin's Turn Undead ability. And the way the skeletons and zombies would just float away and disappear. Perhaps there's a Cleric in her future!

Of course, after the Goodblades, we took a stroll up the hill and talked to the two halfling guards. That's when we told them with no small amount of certainty that we would Survive the Low Road. Fortunately, I'd had a chance to give her an underwater action item early on. Although she's used to having a character who can die from drowning, I don't think she was ready for the speed at which it can occur in DDO.

It was funny, though. Given the choice of an underwater action helm, necklace or ring, she enthusiastically sang out with "a ring, of course!"

Heh... what was *I* thinking!?!

It was certainly taking her a bit to find her footing with her Ranger, but she seemed to be getting there.

Thanks to WoW, she doesn't like using the mouse; keyboard only for her. So, I had to take a little extra time to explain some of the keyboard shortcuts that would make her play experience a little easier. And, then I had to re-map a key on her keyboard so she could attack her targets. Not something I remember how to do easily, as I basically play with the out-of-the-box keyboard, myself. But, I did manage to figure it out.

It was funny hearing her throttle the keypad Enter key repeatedly, as she tried to mow down her targets.

Poor keyboard...

I'm sure I'll be buying her an new one soon...

:-P

I think she finally began to relax a bit, and started to enjoy the game when we entered into the Waterworks. The first half, actually. We were simply trying to help her earn her writ of commendation from Guard Tember, so that Harbormaster Zin would give her his seal, which, in turn, would compel Captain Killmarten to grant her unrestricted passage to the Marketplace, and the rest of the city.

I think the first half of the Waterworks was a bit over-whelming for her, as she decided she'd had enough of sewer tunnels for a bit. That's when Phrudin suggested we take her on a tour of the Cerulean Hills. Being a WoW player, and being used to the outdoor areas, Phrudin correctly concluded she might enjoy the adventure area a little more.

Sadly, Zith had to log out for dinner, before running in his Hound raid later in the evening, with Bashal.

And Lumma had to log for dinner, too!

That left Phrudin, the wife and myself to the hills by ourselves.

The wife *really* liked the hills, though. It gave her plenty of room to wander about and explore things, and to try out some of the different things her character could do.

At one p0int, we decided to venture into a cave full of orcs. The wife started shooting, and Phrudin moved in to hack away at the one who'd notice he was being shot at. Of course, I saw the heard of them the target had called to his assistance. It didn't take long for me to find myself surrounded and, shortly thereafter, dead.

Fortunately, I'd done enough damage to the others that it didn't take long for Phrudin and the missus to finish off the stragglers. At which point, the cave was then empty, and it gave Phrudin a chance to carry my stone to the shrine.

A shrine that hadn't yet been cleared.

Which is why Phrudin and I told my wife to stay put in the cleared cave, where it was safe.

Fortunately, it didn't take much to clear the shrine and resurrect Trin, then rejoin my wife in the cave. Something we were looking forward to, as we'd stumbled into one of the rare encounters, and there was a chest to loot.

I found it amusing when my wife commented on how many chests there are in DDO. Her game isn't quite like that, and you spend most of your time looting corpses, rather than chests.

Not long after we'd cleared our way past then next couple of explorer points and the shrine, we circled around to the huge tree that is itself an explorer point, and held station while Phrudin's frien Kukoo joined us. I think she began to appreciate the benefits of having a few extra players in-group. Kinda reduces the workload for everyone when you have a few extra swords swinging about.

From there, it didn't take us long to complete the remainder of our explorer objectives, but the rare encounter of the gargoyle continued to elude us.

Finally, Lumma logged back in after dinner, and we decided to head back over to the Waterworks to complete the last two chapters.

While we were waiting, my wife asked me how you make your character shadow-hump. She'd heard me talk about how it's a rather popular pass-time, particularly while waiting for folks to come back to their keyboards during breaks.

So, I showed her.

And, since she had a good laugh when I was making my character do it to her character, I sent tells to the others in the group and told them to prepare for an orgy on my word.

She started laughing really hard and tried to move her character away, but three shadow-humpers were too much, and she finally decided just to stand still and let the boys have their way with her. Followed by the comment in party chat "I need a shower!"

That kinda set the tone for the rest of the evening; there were plenty of laughs about many things adult, though through inuendo only.

(This is why the game is *not* rated E for Everyone!)

Still, it was a lot of fun. And, amidst all the questing, we managed to rack up the complete set of rare encounters, and most folks had overflowing packs by the time we had finished.

Not to mention the fact that SoylentGreen earned her Level 3 *and* opened the gates to the Marketplace, all in one evening! (It took me weeks to get into the Marketplace!)

But, she had enough fun that she logged back into the game with me this afternoon to run a few more quests. I just made sure we stuck to the shorter, simpler quests, to give her a better chance to learn how to do various things in the game.

With any luck, she'll be running the guild for me in no time!

Keep it fun!!!