Chapter 10: It Was in the Cards

Vee and I saw each other a couple of times a week, and she was able to get free for gaming with our friends every two weeks. The guys and I maintained our regular sessions, too. Otherwise, everybody was pretty busy with girlfriends, work, and school. This was a first for us, all having girlfriends at the same time. We did socialize as a group whenever we could.

My classes were going really well. March flew by. April brought lots of rain ... and exams. I studied my ass off, and it paid dividends. When the marks were posted, I saw immediately that I had not only maintained my scholarship, but possibly even increased it. My GPA had never been higher.

I also received another cardboard tube from Australia. This one was delivered directly to my house.

- “From Jazz?” asked my Mother.

- “Who else?” I replied, escaping to my room to open it.

It was a board for Amazons.

Jazz had outdone herself again. This one was predominantly blue seas, with gray-black mountains and green coastal plains. It was mostly a map of Greece, the Aegean and Asia Minor, and the Black Sea, with stretches of Scythia and Sarmatia.

Jazz had the rules, and my crude map to work from, so she had included Troy, Mycenae, Colchis, and all of the major quest destinations. She had drawn spaces for the event decks, surrounded by mythological beasts. The colours were spectacular.

My favourite features kept me staring at it for quite some time. At the bottom of the board was a Greek ship, crewed by Jason and the Argonauts, with Hercules standing prominently near the prow. In the upper right hand corner, in the Black Sea, was a highly stylized Amazon warrior, with her shield and spear raised. The style of the drawing reminded me of ancient Mycenaean or Minoan art. It looked very different from Vee’s character cards, but it was very cool. Yes, it reminded me of Jazz.

Of course I had to email her right away, telling her how wonderful it was, and how she shouldn’t have, and so on. I could only imagine how many hours it had taken. She had done it for me to take to the convention, of course.

Her reply didn’t come until the next day.

You are very welcome. I taught my sister to play Amazons, and she loved it. I wanted you to have this for your convention. Good luck with your exams! Now go study.

Once everybody else saw the board, they immediately wanted to play on it.

- “We need to practice with seven players.” insisted Les. Everyone agreed that the brilliant colours only made a good game even better.

At the beginning of May, Max broke up with Angie. They both insisted that it was mutual, and that they would remain friends. Les wasn’t so sure.

- “Fucking Max.” he said. “He found out that Angie would be away for the summer. He just doesn’t want to go without for a few months.”

- “He wouldn’t do that.” I said. “Would he?”

Angie and Trisha both left to visit their families. Trisha would be back sooner, with Gerry to come back to. As usual, they offered Vee the use of their place. She moved some of her clothes over there, and used it as her base on weekends.

I welcomed the arrival of summer. I got the same job as last year, which would leave my evenings free. But Vee would be working full-time, while keeping her job at the restaurant on Saturdays and two nights a week. I worried that the pace would be too much for her, but she assured me that she had done it before.

Vee invited me over when her roommates were out, or when she was staying in Angie and Trisha’s apartment, but she was often too tired to make love. I couldn’t prepare a bath for her every night. Well, maybe I could have, but she wouldn’t let me. She might’ve thought that it would make her feel as though her workload was too much (which it was, in my opinion).

So we cuddled, sometimes, until she fell asleep in my arms. She was disappointed in herself when that happened.

- “Don’t be.” I told her. “I understand tired, but some nights you’re beyond exhaustion. You need sleep, or a break, more than you need sex.”

At one point, I even contemplated offering her money, but I knew she would never have accepted it. Vee did her best, when she had the energy. And her best was very, very good.

And then came Gamescon.

Les was super-organized, master of all of the details. He got us a ride to the downtown hotel and Convention Centre where Gamescon was being held, so that we wouldn’t have to worry about parking. It was early in the morning, but there were already dozens of colourful cosplayers and costumed re-enactors inside. There would be even more parading outside.

Max and Gerry would be coming later, with general admission passes, but Les was prepared to work alongside me for the whole morning. He had also studied all of the maps and diagrams, so he was able to find the registration area, and then direct us to the out of the way corner we had been allocated.

The table they had given us was in predictably poor shape. Les had purchased a blue tablecloth to throw over it, so in the end, it didn’t look too bad. We didn’t have much to set up, otherwise. Jazz’s beautiful board, Vee’s player cards, and the other game parts took only minutes to lay out. Les had also printed up players aids, with a brief summary of the rules.

The players who had signed up arrived on time. Anyone who had attended a convention like this before knew that there were dozens of people on the waiting list only too ready to swoop in and claim their spots if they were late.

We had four girls and three guys. Leah and Chantal were college students, who were into Settlers of Catan and games like that.

- “But once we saw the name of your game, we had to try it.” they said.

Michelle and Liz were a bit older, and a bit scarier. They had more tattoos than the U.S. Navy, and piercings in their noses, lips, and eyelids. Yet they turned out to be remarkably friendly, and well-informed. They were particularly taken with the map board.

Two of the guys were college-aged role players, more accustomed to Dungeons and Dragons. They had expected our game to be more of an RPG (role-playing game), and so they were a bit disappointed. Brian perked up a bit when he saw the girls, but his friend Ian was a whiner, especially when he found out that he had to play the part of a female.

- “Can we kill him?” asked Michelle - or Liz.

The seventh player was a high-school nerd named Carlos. He liked everything he saw, and kept saying “Cool.” anytime we spoke to him. But everyone else said the same thing when we passed out Vee’s character cards. Even Ian stopped whining for a little while.

We covered the rules in a matter of minutes, and started right away. Most of the other tables were still setting up, or reading their rule books. There weren’t many spectators in the hall, at this point, and certainly very few in our remote corner, but the few who were around soon gravitated to our table, where the action was underway.

It was great to have Les helping me. He was able to answer questions and offer advice when I was occupied, so that the game never bogged down. The tattooed twosome worked as a team, and seized the throne early. Brian was making nice with the two college girls, but his friend’s whining kept distracting him.

Carlos, the high-schooler, got the college girls to pool their resources with his, and oust the piercings Queen. It was fun to watch. Ian was a doofus, too busy complaining to figure out the game mechanics. Everybody else caught on quick, and used the rules to their advantage.

Spectators dropped in every once in a while, to see what was going on. There were positive comments about the board, and the cards won rave reviews. Most of them didn’t linger very long, but a few stayed for a while, to watch the action.

The dice Gods were fairly neutral on this occasion. The tattooed girls (Michelle and Liz) mounted a furious comeback, but the little coalition against them held together. They managed to kill off Carlos, but one of the college girls emerged victorious.

- “Can we play again?” asked Carlos.

The kid had a point. The morning game session was scheduled from 9:00 to noon. The afternoon session lasted from 2 to 5. There was a two-hour interlude for lunch, which allowed time to set up the more complicated games. We weren’t on the afternoon schedule, so we really didn’t have anywhere else to be.

- “It’s almost 11:00. Is there time for another game?” asked Brian.

- “I’m outta here anyway.” said his whiner friend. “This sucked.”

- “We’ll play again.” said Michelle - or Liz. Her friend nodded in agreement. “That is, if you guys don’t mind if we run into your lunch break.”

Les gave me a thumbs up. “Sure.” I said. “We can squeeze another one in.”

- “Cool.” said Carlos.

The two college girls had friends to meet, and excused themselves. That changed Brian’s mind, and he pulled the plug, too. On the plus side, that got the Whiner out of our hair. The girls, at least, gave us a positive review.

There were two guys standing by, who had watched the end of the game, and were only too happy to sit in. They looked a bit like cellar-dwellers (pale, and overweight) but they turned out to be decent guys named Robert and Sean.

- “Can we play with five?” asked Liz - or Michelle.

- “TWO SEATS HERE!” yelled Les. “AAAA-MAZONS!”

That was enough to get us two more players - two young girls - and two spectators. It took only about fifteen minutes to teach the new players, and we started a game well before 11:30.

The tattooed girls, Liz and Michelle, were clearly out for revenge on Carlos, who was enjoying every second of being the centre of attention. They tried to recruit the high-school girls into an alliance, but Emma and Vivian (their names) were clearly a little intimidated by the weight of metal the older girls were carrying.

Max and Gerry finally arrived. By the time they got there, there was a circle of spectators all around the table. It was probably the lunchtime effect: we were one of the few spots where something interesting was still going on.

- “Sorry we’re late. How’s it going?” said Gerry.

- “Second game.” said Les. He had been talking to a heavyset, bearded man who was asking questions about the game mechanics, the artwork, the ideal number of players, and so on.

Max and Gerry were more than willing to help with the questions and strategy advice, so the game flowed smoothly enough. Carlos was definitely grandstanding for the audience, the little ham. Liz and Michelle soon brought him down, and exiled him.

One of the last players to arrive was bound and determined to win the Trojan War; to reverse mythology, as he called it. When they succeeded, the two guys leapt to their feet and let out piercing war cries. Most of our audience laughed and applauded to see them so excited.

Emboldened by their success, the two heroes marched home to claim the throne, only to lose their first challenge against Queen Michelle. The two younger girls finally found their voices, and started intriguing with the remaining guy (Sean, I think it was). They had enough influence between them to bring Carlos back from exile, and then unseat the tattoo girls.

To my surprise, Emma and Vivian were sneaky enough to immediately re-exile Carlos, and then defeat Sean’s belated challenge. There was more applause as the two girls claimed the win. Even Liz and Michelle were smiling.

- “You played us, you little rats.” said Liz, with a grin.

As the game broke up, and Les scrambled to get our players to fill out reviews (for the convention organizers), we got a number of requests to play in the next game.

- “Sorry!” I told them. “We were supposed to be done at noon.” It was 12:40. My answer was received with a chorus of groans.

- “The cards are beautiful.” said Emma. Who drew them?”

- “A friend of ours.” I said.

- “Tell him he should be a professional artist.” she added.

- “Uh, it’s a she.” Emma and Vivian liked that answer even better.

Carlos came over to shake my hand. “Cool game, Bro. Thanks.”

Then Liz nudged my arm. “Dean, where can I buy this game?” she asked.

- “Umm ... you can’t. It’s just a prototype.” I said.

- “Really? Too bad.” she said. Then she produced a pen and scribbled on a sticky note. Liz folded it in half and passed it to me. “Here’s my contact info if you ever do get it produced. I’d love to play again.” she said, with a wink.

I looked at her note. It said Liz, followed by her email address, and then her phone number. Underneath that, she had also written ’Call me’. I looked up as she and Michelle were moving off. Liz gave me a wink and another wave.

Les pulled me over to introduce me to the big bearded fellow.

- “Ed West.” he said. “This is Dean. He designed it.”

The big guy had a hand the size of a small ham, and a firm grip.

- “Interesting game. All your own work?”

- “No.” I admitted. “The cards were done by a ... my girlfriend. And the board is the work of another friend. I just made the rules.”

- “What’s the ideal number of players?” he asked.

- “Well, seven works, but we think 4 or 5 is best. I’m not sure about 6, though.” I turned to Les. “Have we ever played with six?”

- “No.” chipped in Gerry. “Five a few times, but never six.”

- “How about three?” asked Ed.

- “No, I don’t think we’ve done that, either.” I said. “It would probably end up being two on one. No fun for the person left alone. Unless I made some specific rules for a three-player game.”

- “And you played two full games in under 4 hours? Including time to teach them the rules?”

- “Yes. But the second time around, only half of the players were new.”

- “Listen,” said Big Ed, “I have to run, now. But I wonder if I could contact you guys later? About your game.”

- “Uhh ... I guess so. Sure.” I said.

Ed produced two business cards, had us write down our contact information on the back of one, and gave us the second. I flipped it over.

EDWARD ‘ED’ WEST

CIRCLE THE WAGONS GAMES

I looked up immediately. “Circle the Wagons? You guys make Stalag XV, don’t you?”

Ed smiled. “You know it?”

- “We got his parents to play it.” said Les. “Great game.”

- “Thank you.” said Ed. “I’ll be in touch.” He ambled off, tucking our info into his pocket.

- “Whoa.” said Gerry. “You think he wants to buy your game?”

Max was also interested in the tattoo girls, and the fact that I had Liz’s number. But Gerry and Les were obsessed with Big Ed and Circle the Wagons.

- “Dude, what if he wants to buy it?” repeated Gerry.