Roll for Initiative Audiobook By Lesley Camphouse cover art

Roll for Initiative

An Extreme Horror

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Roll for Initiative

By: Lesley Camphouse
Narrated by: Salem Arbuckle
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When Gemma moves across the country, she’s thrilled to be accepted in a group to play her favorite TTRPG. The group is excited, too.

Then, in one session, one of the members takes it too far, becoming that guy. However, the game master silences Gemma when she stops the game, telling her not to ruin the fun for everyone.

Unbeknownst to Gemma, the group's behavior spirals after this incident to a point where Gemma has no choice but to play their game, but Gemma is determined not to roll a natural one…

This is an Extreme Horror, consider this a warning for all TW. 18+.

©2025 Lesley A Camphouse (P)2025 Fright Night Audio Anthologies & Short Stories Horror Short Stories Game Scary
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Are you a woman who enjoys a D&D group setting?
Have you ever felt the creeping dread of being the only woman at a table full of unwashed men?
Do you like your horror short and gory?

If so, you've rolled a Nat 20 as this book is 100% written for you! You can safely stop reading here and go listen to this audiobook.

If you don’t know anything about D&D, don’t worry. You don’t need to. This book uses tabletop RPGs as more of a reason for the author to surround the female protagonist with every negative male nerd stereotype imaginable. If you know what a “dice” and a “fireball” is, you have all the knowledge needed to navigate the gaming vocabulary present here.

Roll for Initiative starts strong and maintains solid tension throughout, but it falters toward the very end. I felt palpable unease for Gemma as she navigated a deeply terrifying situation, only to be thrown off by a final chapter's random line from a minor character that felt a little heavy-handed.

My chief issue is that the characters can feel a bit one-note. The women exist primarily as victims of male violence, while the men fall into familiar roles: dumb, misogynistic, and predatory. (Edit: I’m now seeing that this dynamic is the author’s bread and butter.)

Despite my issues (more listed below with spoiler warning), I enjoyed the story overall. Some D&D references are awkwardly inserted into moments of revenge, which felt a bit clunky. But the book is an otherwise fun, gory read for the target audience.

I loathe spoilers, so I’ve tucked them away here for the following paragraphs. Don’t read on if you want to approach this story completely blind.

Stuff that bugged me. [Spoiler Edition] 🚨

Missed tension opportunities. The story seemingly foreshadows that one of the men might betray the group and help Gemma, but that tension never fully pays off. She simply kills him. That potential intrigue fizzles out. The guy seems like he's poorly socialized and possibly neurodivergent. It doesn’t excuse him following her and grabbing her butt, but making him seem genuinely apologetic seems like a weird direction to take his character considering his demise.

Needless side character. A mysterious girl with very specific hair color shows up at the end, gives advice about corpse disposal, and disappears. No closure, no payoff. Unless you’re familiar with the author’s Aphex Prey trilogy, you will have no idea why she’s relevant. But even those who know who she is will likely struggle to see why this story needed to end with her in the final chapter.

Questionable logic around the police. Avoiding the authorities after a break-in and attempted assault forces Gemma into unnecessary corpse-hiding logistics that exist mostly to justify more gore. Also... since when would a cop see red in someone's hair and casually assume it's paint? C'mon now.

When D&D Meets Empowering Revenge Horror… With Some Missed Rolls

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Listener received this title free

Well this was a little found treasure! What a great, unexpected, story of feminine rage and vengeance. Narration was fantastic. Highly recommend.

Roll for Initiative

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This little story exceeded my expectations! I absolutely loved it. Justice served on a hot steaming plate of rage!

Delicious vengeance

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Roll for Initiative by Lesley A. Camphouse
Narrated by Salem Arbuckle
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fantastic extreme horror story!!
It’s entertaining, dark and original!
Gemma joins a roll playing gaming group, but she quickly finds out the other gamers did not add Gemma to join them with innocent thoughts.
Gemma shows the horrible men that she’s a kick ass person and doesn’t need to take shit from others!
This author is easily a must read for me! Her writing is fantastic!

I listened to the audio version and the narrator did an excellent job! It’s a fast read/listen, with some great gore, and I loved it!
*I highly recommend the read or listen!!*
🎲🩸🎲🩸🎲🩸🎲🩸

Fantastic and extreme!!

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