created in NovelAI

Dave looked at the email again. An 'exclusive' invite to a beta test of a new pen-and-paper RPG. He had been itching to play a tabletop RPG again, so the email had come at a great time. He quickly replied with some basic info.

Less than a week later came the response. The game would still happen online, but for some reason instead of using the many websites available for character creation, the author had insisted that he print out and hand write the character details. Although this was annoying, the author sweetened the pot by saying that he would start at level 10 so they could try out some of the later skills and powers. The author closed the email by saying that he had to fill out the sheets before Saturday, but not to actually sign them until the author actually saw it on the webcam.

'Was this some kind of elaborate phishing prank? To try and steal his ID and signature?' Dave thought to himself, and sent off another reply. The author answered and insisted that it was just so he could physically read what he wrote down and verify that everything looked good, and signing it was merely a formality that signified that the character was complete and locked, and he could even sign the back of the sheet if he wanted to hide it from the camera.

His doubts assuaged, Dave spent the next several days going over what kind of character to build. A thief, of course, since he always liked playing high skill high speed get-in-and-get-out characters. A girl, because why not? At level 10, he would have several stat bonuses and after bumping Agility all the way, put a couple of extra points into Strength. After all, he might need the extra carry weight for all the loot he planned on stealing. Hair? Eye color? Physical description? He glossed over those unimportant parts, filling them out mostly based on himself. Short hair, brown eyes, nothing particularly outstanding. It didn't affect gameplay, so he didn't care.

Saturday came and he connected to the server the email specified. It was a private session, one on one with the game author. Their webcam was dark, but they had a mic. Dave heard a feminine voice ask him to hold up the sheet so they could look it over. The game author was a woman? That made Dave even more curious who, exactly, he was talking to. And if they were single. Or at least attractive.

"OK, your character sheet looks OK, but is there anything else you want to change or ask about before we move on? I've recorded it on my end, so there's no changing the sheet once you sign off."

"Nah, I'm good," Dave replied, and pulled the sheet away from the webcam. Still slightly cautious about this being a scam, he signed on the back side in one corner as small as he could.

He could swear he heard her smiling through her voice. "OK then, let's begin."

Dave suddenly felt nausious. As he watched, he could feel his body contracting, becoming smaller. "Am... am I shrinking?" he asked no one in particular. Then, louder, he directed his question at the mystery voice, "What the hell is happening to me?" Dave's voice was already becoming higher pitched, more feminine. His clothes seemed to melt like water, but then quickly flowed all over his body, reshaping themselves. One hand went to his chest, and confirmed the small mounds, while the other hand went lower and confirmed the absence.

"Hey! This isn't fair! I didn't sign up for this!" he shouted into the webcam.  The woman replied, "Heh, you literally did. I asked you if you were satisfied with your character sheet? I even left it open to fill out however you wanted."

"You didn't say it would change me! That's not fair!" His small fists pounded the desk.

"I said it was YOUR character sheet, didn't I? Besides, I read your sheet, remember? It's not that bad."

As she spoke, he could feel the muscles in his/her arms beginning to swell with power. She flexed and admired the baseball sized bicep. She got up from her chair and, unused to her new strength, almost threw herself to the floor. But even as she fell her arms shot out instinctively and easily caught her, going into an effortless handstand, then a simple flip back onto her feet. Right, she had literally maxed out her Agility. Another easy backflip put her in range to look at her new reflection in the mirror. 

Plain, but not unattractive. An athletic build. She dropped into the splits so effortlessly it was like she had practiced all her life. Rising back up, she pulled the hood of her cloak over her head, and gasped as her reflection turned invisible. Right, the starter gear included this invisibility cloak good for several uses a day.

"Everything good? You all set?" asked the author from the other room.

Dave... no, Danielle ran back into the room and answered, "I wouldn't say ~everything~ is good, but yeah, I think I can work with this."

"Good, once everyone is here I'll open up the game channel and connect everyone, and we can start playing the game."

Danielle ran a hand through her hair and smirked. She'd still have to ask about whether this was permanent or temporary, but for now, she had some time to kill before the game started. She shut off the webcam and muted the mic, then proceeded to the other room to give her new body a real test drive.