Roll With It

« Jem and the Holograms: Dimensions #1 »
"Roll With It"
Publisher	IDW Publishing, Ted Adams
Published in	Jem and the Holograms: Dimensions #1
First published	December 6, 2017
Cover date	November 2017
Written by	Kate Leth
Art by	Tana Ford
Colors by	Brittany Peer
Letters by	Shawn Lee
Editor	Sarah Gaydos
Editorial assistant	Chase Marotz
Chronology	After Jem: Infinite

The Holograms attempt to unwind after the show with a bit of D&D.

Synopsis

Returning home after a show, the Holograms are all feeling quite exhausted and ready to get some rest. All of them except for Jerrica, who immediately gets to work trying to answer all the emails that she have piled up while she was busy on the road with crappy hotel wi-fi. Sensing her sister's workaholism kicking in, Kimber takes Jerrica's laptop away from her and refuses to give it back until she takes some time to unwind. As her and Jerrica's argument stirs the other Holograms and brings them together, Kimber has a fantastic idea... they should all play a game together!

As they inspect the Benton home's sizable board game closet, Kimber digs out a Dungeons & Dragons box and suggests they try that. While Shana isn't sure playing something with so much set up involved is a good idea, Aja is certain Synergy could run a little mini-campaign for them. However, she soon reconsiders and decides that Synergy should play with them instead. With that, Jerrica is forced into the role of DM, but having to constantly stop and explain the rules to her inexperienced bandmates weighs heavy on her. As they play, the doorbell rings, Stormer having to arrived join their game! Though Jerrica isn't sure how she's supposed to add a character in the middle of the game, Kimber insists she and Stormer can share.

Attempting to continue the game, Jerrica mentions something about the smell of food, which gets all her sisters in the real world hungry as well. Already annoyed at the game being interrupted yet again, Jerrica's anger begins to boil when her sisters can't settle on what to eat. Finally, when Kimber suggests she make a list and poll everyone, Jerrica explodes at her sisters and dramatically kills all their characters off in one fell swoop! As Jerrica complains about her "night off" turning into even more work, the other Holograms apologize to her for making her carry all that responsibility. Though they offer to end the game, Jerrica doesn't want to keep her sisters from having fun and joins the game as a player while Synergy takes over as DM.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Jem and the Holograms	The Misfits
Aja Leith (1) Raya (2) Jerrica Benton (3) Kimber Benton (4) Shana Elmsford (5) Synergy (6)	Stormer (7)

Quotes

"Oh, man, barbarians have a thing that's just called "rage"."
"It's really useful! You can't wear much armor though."
"Fine by me."

-Aja and Kimber

"THAT'S IT! FROM ABOVE YOU HEAR THE DISTANT SOUND OF FLAPPING WINGS, AS GREAT AND OMINOUS AS THE WINDS OF A STORM BATTERING A SHIP'S MAIN SAIL. THE HAIR, SCALES OR FEATHERS ON THE BACK OF YOUR NECK STANDS ON END. YOU REACH FOR YOUR WEAPON AND SCRAMBLE FOR THE WORDS TO CALL TO YOUR DEITIES FOR AID, BUT IT'S TOO LATE. AN ANCIENT RED DRAGON HAS APPEARED, AND SHE IS HUNGRY FOR REVENGE."
"Don't we like, roll for initiative?"
"I'm pretty sure I have some spells-"
"IT'S TOO LATE. SHE BREATHES A THUNDEROUS WAVE OF FIRE ACROSS THE FORREST AND DEALS 10,000 DAMAGE. YOU ARE ALL DEAD."

-Jerrica has had enough of her sisters screwing around.

"I have complete access to dozens of highly-rated campaigns. Are you familiar with the Tomb of Horrors?"
"But-"
"It promises to be most excruciating."

-Synergy takes over as DM from Jerrica

Notes

Continuity notes

• As noted in the credits for this issue, this story takes place at some point after the Jem: Infinite event. While this isn't particularly relevant for most of the story, it does explain why Stormer is aware of Synergy.

Other Hasbro franchise references

• Check your Mazes and Monsters crap at the door, because publisher Wizards of the Coast is a subsidiary of Hasbro, meaning the RPG the Holograms play is honest-to-goodness Dungeons & Dragons! Based on the look of starter kit box, it would appear to be the most recent 5th edition of D&D originally published in 2014. Jerrica also appears to be reading from the Tomb of Annihilation module and Synergy later offers to run the classic Tomb of Horrors adventure.
• Among the other Quality Hasbro Board Games the Holograms have are Battleship, Monopoly, Trouble, Candy Land, and Ouija. Bizarrely they also have a game that appears to be Jenga but is instead titled Jongo as though they were trying to avoid naming a game owned by another company.
• The onesie Kimber wears is certainly colored to resemble the Rainbow Dash based one she received as a gift back in the Jem holiday special and has worn several times since then but the art doesn't quiiiite resemble the My Little Pony character.

Real world references

• The exhausted Shana will only be stirred from her sleep if Jason Momoa posts workout videoes.
• The Holograms also have a game and an accompanying plastic instrument entitled Keytar Hero, an obvious parody of the Guitar Hero series of video games.

Other notes

• The Holograms' D&D characters are:
  • Aja: Maslani, Gnome warlock.
  • Kimber: Ginger Happenstance, Halfling rogue.
  • Jerrica: Isn't named but appears to be a human with a sword.
  • Raya: Penelope Staunch, Orc bard.
  • Shana: Vivian Aqualine, Elf druid.
  • Synergy: Lanolin Graveswill, Tiefling barbarian.
• Kimber wears lightning bolt earrings like Stormer's. This is adorable.