Chapter 1

Cameron Richards didn't know when he bought the magazine in 2002 that he was starting a series of actions that would lead him to the most excitement, joy and horror of his life. Of course it is often that way about life changing events, they don't appear that significant in themselves because life is incremental.

Former Sergeant Richards, discharge papers tucked in his overnight bag, caught a bus from Fort Lewis that stopped off at SeaTac, the Seattle airport. This enabled him to call one of the nearby hotels with airport shuttles where he figured to take a couple of days seeing the sights.

Also tucked in the overnight bag was a box containing the basic rule books for a role playing game called "Traveller". Thanks to his mother's interest in the genre, Richards had been a science fiction fan literally since he had learned to read. The concept and practice of role playing games like "Dungeons and Dragons" was attractive but he had a hard time with the fantasy elements. Chess, Bridge, and other strategy games also fascinated him and he actively played them when he could find partners. Old book stores, especially if they also billed themselves as carrying games, pulled him like a magnet.

Cameron's usual habit in a new town was to pull out the yellowpages and take a look for book and game stores. Enroute to Korea, a stop over in the San Francisco Bay area facilitated a couple of days of riding the famous Bay Area Rapid Transit and hunting up stores. It was in such a store just off the campus in Berkley that he had found tucked away in a back corner a letter sized black box entitled "Deluxe Edition Traveller". While his tour in Korea had provided a number of interesting experiences, it had not provided any more than lots of time to read the "Traveller" material and wish for an opportunity to play the game.

It only took a few minutes for one of the shuttles from the chain hotel he selected to show up on the arrivals concourse. The hotel front desk found a route map for the really excellent public transit system and some advise on which ones to take to get to the main things he wanted to see, the Space Needle and the Air Museum at the old Boeing Field. Once settled in his room, Cameron dug out the yellowpages and started hunting under "books" and "games" for likely targets.

He spent all of his first day at the Space Needle and walking around the old downtown part of Seattle which included a couple of the stores on his list. The next day he started with Boeing Field and spent several hours going through the exhibits. The last store on his list was in a suburban shopping center that was somewhat off the public routes so he sprang for a cab.

The shopping plaza was one of those typical sprawl developments with every store being one floor and each with its own exterior entrance strung out in a long horseshoe around the huge parking lot. The rather bored young lady clerk acknowledged his presence, but not much else. The place was basically deserted which made a certain kind of sense as it was mid-afternoon on a weekday. The long narrow layout felt a bit like being in a submarine but Cameron quickly saw that he had hit the motherlode as far as material went.

It didn't take long to find the section for role playing game material. Most of it was "D&D" stuff but there were several other game genre represented. Pulling out "Traveller" items quickly revealed that Cameron was behind the times as the system had clearly evolved over time and that the original publisher had folded up shop. Then he found the magazine rack, again dominated by "D&D" but not entirely. One magazine had articles about games that were played by mail. Being from rural Montana this looked like a solution to the no partners problem. There were several back issues including a series on a game called "Starweb", a computer moderated play by mail game. These went on the pile growing on the counter.

More people had started coming into the store, many of them obviously teens now that school had let out. While wandering around Cameron had noticed that the back of the store contained an outside entry, restrooms, a meeting room, and a notice board. Monday - AH nite; Tuesday - "The Druid's D&D"; Wednesday - open gaming 6-9; Thursday - "Travellers Aid Society"; Friday; cards and chess 6-9; Saturday - Seattle Miniatures Assoc...

Bringing the last of his selections to the counter he caught the clerk's eye, "I'm ready to check it out now." He noticed that the clerk was not only less bored but also a quite attractive young woman, about 5' 5", brown hair, brown eyes, maybe his age, about 23. He also noticed she was actually looking at his selection and apparently trying to decide about something as she ran the items through the checkout process.

"That comes to $149.25 sir, let me get a bag for these;" she said and suited action to word. It actually took a couple of bags. "I noticed that most of this stuff is oriented toward "Traveller". Have you ever played?"

"No, I have been in the army in Korea ever since I got my first books. Its not the sort of thing the average grunt is into."

"Would you be interested in trying? At 6 my group gets together for their weekly game session."

"How would that work? I don't have any characters and I don't know your campaign. Would it be OK for a stranger to drop in out of the blue like that?"

"It will be if I say so, I'm the gamemaster. What I had in mind was having you run one of my non-player characters that is likely to have a lot of contact with the group tonight. If you want to give it a go, say so."

"I have been fascinated with the game idea. If you are sure I won't muck things up for you, I would love to see how it runs in action."

"OK, my relief comes in at 4:30. You can buy me supper over at the Pizza Hut and I will brief you in on the campaign and your role."

Cameron thought this was the best offer he'd heard in two years but was a little bemused by the girl's assurance.

Walking over to the Pizza Hut only took a couple of minutes. Cameron was happy to see that the buffet deal was still on. Pizza was one thing he had missed a lot during his tour in Korea. It was going to be a few minutes before the buffet line opened though so they got a table and sat down to introduce themselves.