Rules of Prey

to the numbers as Eric Clapton started on “I Shot the Sheriff.”
    The fantasy game’s story line was complicated. An American armored platoon was fighting in the Middle East at some unspecified time in the near future. The platoon got word that a tactical nuke was headed toward it and dug in the best it could.
    At the instant of expected detonation, there was an intolerable flash and the platoon found itself—complete with M3 tanks—in Everwhen, a land of water and fens and giant oaks. Where magic worked and soulless fairies danced in the night.
    The whole thing tended to give Lucas a headache. Every fantasy game in the world, he thought, had a bunch of computer freaks with swords wandering around Poe-esque landscapes with red-haired freckled beauties with large breasts.
    But it was money; and he had a responsibility to the prepubescent intellectuals who might someday buy his masterpiece, the Grove of Trees. He thought about Grove for a minute, the Gettysburg game he was perfecting in the weekly bouts at St. Anne’s. Grove required an IBM computer and a separate, dedicated game room, along with teams of players. It took two nights just to set up the pieces. As a game it was impractical and unwieldy. But fascinating.
    He tapped the pencil against his teeth and stared sightlessly over the drawing table. On the fifth night of the game, JebStuart was still out of touch with Lee, riding far to the east around the Union army that was slowly crawling north toward Gettysburg. That had happened in the actual conflict, but this time, in the game, Stuart—in the person of the St. Paul grocer—was moving more aggressively to close the gap and could reach Gettysburg in time to scout the good ground south of town.
    In the meantime, Lee’s order of battle had been shuffled. As he closed through the mountains toward Gettysburg, Pickett’s division was in the lead and was hunting for bear. Even if Reynolds—a university student—got there ahead of Stuart, and Reynolds managed to stay alive, as he hadn’t in the original fight, Pickett’s aggressiveness might push him aside and allow the Confederates to take the hills at the end of Cemetery Ridge or even the entire ridge. If he did, then the gathering Union forces would have to choose between an offensive battle or retreating on Washington . . . .
    Lucas sighed and wrenched his mind back to Everwhen, which was, naturally, under attack by the forces of evil. The armored platoon had been called in by a good wizard who planned to introduce a new element to what had been a losing war: technology. Once signed up with the forces for good, the armored platoon would march on the cloud-veiled castle of the Evil One.
    The story was not particularly original. Working the details into a logical game was an ordeal.
    Like the M3 tanks. Where did they get fuel and repairs? Magic. How did the platoon acquire magical talents? By valiant deeds. Save a virgin from a dragon and the magic quotient goes up. If the dragon kicks your ass, it goes down.
    The creatures of Everwhen were a troublesome problem. They had to be dangerous, interesting, and reasonably original. They also had to be exotic, but familiar enough to be comprehensible. The best ones were morphologically related to familiar earth creatures: lizards, snakes, rats, spiders. Lucas spent dozens of winter evenings sitting in his leather chair in the den, a yellow pad on his lap, dreaming them up.
    The slicers were one of them. A slicer was a cross betweena bat and a razor-edged plate of glass. Slicers attacked at night, slashing their targets to pieces. They were too stupid to be affected by magic, but were easy enough to kill with the right technology. Like shotguns.
    But how would you even see them? Okay. Like bats, they used a kind of sonar. With the right magic, the platoon’s radios could be tuned to it. Could you get them all? Maybe. But if not, there were hit points to be worked out. So many hit points, and a character died. Lucas had to take care not to kill off the characters too easily. The players wouldn’t stand for it. Nor could the game be too simple. It was a matter of walking the line, of luring the players deeper and deeper into the carefully crafted scenarios.
    He worked hunched over the drawing table in a pool of light created by the drafting lamp, hammering out the numbers, drinking coffee. When Clapton started on “Lay Down, Sally” he got up and did a neatly coordinated solo dance around the chair.