James and Miles and fellow gamer Nate were huddled in Miles' room late in the evening on April 5th.  The weather outside left little room for anything else as the rain poured down in a cold steady rhythm.  Nate dropped his backpack on the floor with a thud and James looked at him expectantly, "Well, what character should I pull up, what are we playing?"

James kept all his characters in neatly organized folders on his laptop, a beneficial side effect of his mild OCD.  Nate waved him off, "I thought tonight we might be trying something a little different.  I've been looking through some online Indie games and I've come across a few gems that might spice up the evening a little bit.  Take your pick gentlemen, Stone Heroes, Gear Crazy: Sublight, or Court of the Dragon Emperor.  I think I've read enough to run them effectively.  What do you say, Miles?"

All the titles were dubious at best and unfamiliar.  Nate had sprung Indie games on them before to disastrous results, Warring Lands that he clearly didn't understand, Heirlooms of Antiquity that surely required more than just three people, and Warlords Evolution that James and Nate wound up arguing over due to the lax rules and their individual interpretations.  James still held onto that character though, just in case.

"I don’t mind," said Miles. "Maybe Court of the Dragon emperor? Can’t go wrong with dramatic sword fighting." Miles tended to phrase his answers as questions, and sat back as Nate and James squabbled. The game would probably fizzle out as these obscure ones often did, with Nate trying to work in hopelessly over-complicated plots and James tried to bend the rules, min-maxing and metagaming as much as he could get away with.

Eventually they got stated up and started, and Miles enjoyed that feeling of being part of a group, a comfortable feeling. He spun a twenty sided dice around with his finger, and watched a drop of rain fall down the window.

He had opted for a stealth character, a knife thrower, but this game was about diplomacy and discovering some secret plot, with all kinds of silly rituals that their characters were supposed to know but the players didn’t. He had a low ‘Face’ score, so wasn’t getting much respect.

"Hey, why don’t we kill the guards and take this secret scroll?" said James, part in-character, part as himself.

Nate made a face, as this wasn’t how he had planned the game, and both James and Miles laughed. "You’ll get killed if you try that!" said Nate. "The elite guards have stats only slightly lower than yours!"

"That sounds like a challenge," smiled Miles, looking through the section on surprise attacks. The light bulb dimmed for a moment – a power surge – and Miles shivered. In the distance, he could hear a roll of thunder. He got the impression that he was forgetting something important, like an itch in his brain, like something in the corner of his eye. He shivered again, and refocused on the game.

James wound up going full frontal crazy on the guards and knocking one completely out.   Nate described the event and the combination of James actions and Nate's description only served to alleviate the itch for Miles, he was forgetting a report that he had due on Monday, Social Studies, two pages, on the atrocities of war in ancient China.  It seemed a bit tough but the teacher said that Miles had it in him to do the research.

While Nate looked for Sneaking rules for the other guard and Miles, James went to the small sink in the room and drew a glass of water.  "Stab him in the back of the skull.  Or do one of those assassin moves you see on the tele," James makes a sound and draws his hand across his throat sloshing the water a little and getting some on the dice.

"Wipe those off and roll 'em," Nate says to Miles.

Miles decided he would go for a stealth kill using a length of razor sharp wire, and flicked to a section of background into the gamebook, wondering idly if he could use it to blag his report. He was clever enough to bluff his way through it, but did feel slightly guilty about not doing the work properly. However he liked being with his friends, and wasn't about to tell them to leave so he could cement his reputation as a complete book worm.

Mile's character managed to pull off the stealth kill, given that most of the guards were distracted with James' character, who was now in serious trouble. Another round of combat, and his hit points took a battering. Miles decided on some unconventional tactics. "What objects are near me?" he asked Nate.

"Not much," said Nate. "A few pots, a basket, some stone pillars..."

"What's in the basket?"

"Some clothes for washing..."

"I have a tinderbox - I attempt to set fire to the basket and throw it at one of the guards."

He rolled the dice and succeeded, causing much mirth as a basket of flaming shirts set one of the guards on fire. "This is awesome!" said James, as Nate rolled his eyes, their frivolity clashing with his usual super-serious role playing tendency.

Nate took a turn of chi-charge meditation in an effort to gain back some HP, and they waited to see if they could somehow pull this off.  Nate flipped through the rule book and scribbled some notes, "My NPC helper is back to full."

James opts for some wushu move he finds in an optional supplement online and Nate allows it.  He points to the plastic red dice near Miles and says, "Roll that for.... What the hell is wrong with your hand?"  Miles' hand, the one he rolled the plastic red dice with, appeared to be made of the same plastic red substance as the dice.  It was still flexible.  It could still feel the cold tile floor beneath but it was red and plastic.  Nate looked up from his book and stared at the plastic appendage and his jaw dropped open speechless.

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