Dream Park

'I believe we are ready to proceed. Mr. Myers?'

Myers stood and wiped the corner of his eye with his knuckle. 'Good evening. I call this meeting of the International Fantasy Gaming Society to order at eleven twenty-five A.M., Friday March sixth, twenty fifty-one A.D. Tomorrow morning at eight A.M., Dream Park's Gaming Area A will open for the largest and most elaborate Game in the history of the Park. Basic rules will be as follows:

'One. Duration of the Game will be four and a half days, from the morning of the seventh to one P.M. on the eleventh.

'Two. Number of participants, fifteen, with substitutions for killed personnel allowed until the beginning of the fourth day.

'Three. An adjusted Wessler-Grahm point system will be used, with compensations for duration of assault, difficulty of logical problems, and abilities needed. Bonus points will be awarded for bravery, and for dying well.

'Four. There will be a penalty of 50% of accumulated points in case of death, reduced to 25% if the ‘dead' player re-enters the Game as a zombie.

'Five. Players may withdraw from the Game for any reason at a loss of 25%, until evening of March ninth. Players may not withdraw after this point without total loss of points, except for medical emergencies.

'Six. The Game will be conducted for twelve hours out of every twenty-four, which will allow for sleep time, meals, and two half ­hour rest breaks per day.

'Seven. Additional bonus points will be awarded based on a secret ballot vote cast by all surviving and nonsurviving members of the expedition, each member rating all members of the party.

'Eight. The Lore Master has final word on all prospective en­trants to the Game, except for the single Game space reserved for discretionary use by Dream Park.

'Nine. The Game Master and the Lore Master will share any profits accruing from the Game on the basis of an eighty-twenty split of net.

'Ten. The usual good luck symbol-' Myers tapped at his key­board. Glowing curves formed in the hologram overhead, shaping a crescent moon. Myers, smiling as if it hurt, waited for a ripple of laughter to die. '- will indicate the presence of restroom facilities. Look for it in patterns of trees, rock formations, whatever.

'Eleven. As usual, a minimum of one novice must be included in the expedition.' Myers coughed politely and rubbed his eyes again. 'Ms. Metesky?'

Metesky stood, shaking her head so that her gray mane bil­lowed around her. 'The following additions and qualifications have been approved by Dream Park. If they are suitable to Mr. Henderson, there are no further barriers to the opening of Gaming Area A tomorrow morning. Mr. Lopez?'

Richard Lopez stood, thanking Ms. Metesky as she handed him the leather briefcase. He opened it. 'In this case,' he said, his Puerto Rican accent almost unnoticeable, 'I have the complete outline for the Game that begins tomorrow. There are only a few points that remain to be discussed.' He raised a sheet of paper close to his face and read.

'One. The Lore Master is to receive 25% of all nonbonus or penalty points awarded during the Game.

'Two. The Game involves firearms. These will become availa­ble during the course of the Game.' The murmurs of surprise from the audience included a few groans. Firearms were unusual. Warriors tended to prefer hand-to-hand weapons.

'Three. All Garners will wear neck tabs.' Lopez held up a short, flesh-colored plastic band bearing a silver- dollar-sized disk. 'The disk is standard make; it bears a microphone and receiver and a 100 volt/.3 amperage microwave receptor. As usual, a shock will indicate wounding or death.

'Four. All categories of players will be admitted, except where such conflict with the rules as already stated.' Lopez sat down.

Henderson looked at him suspiciously. 'Is that all?'

Lopez nodded quietly. Chester said, 'I'm not sure I under­stand.'

'Mr. Henderson, after the last Game we were involved in, you claimed that the rules had been stacked against you, and that that was the determining factor in your defeat. I want you claiming no such handicap this time.'

Lopez's smile was as innocent as a piranha's. Chester nodded; he understood. A loss in a Game with rules as soft as this would devastate his reputation. He asked, 'Why are you making the Sur­vivors' Bonus a lump sum instead of the standard allocation?'

'Merely to make things more interesting. Of course, if you think that it would make it impossible for you to engender a spirit of cooperation in your expedition...'

'Don't let it worry you, Lopez. My team will pull together just fine, thank you.'

'Excellent. Do you have any further questions?'

'Just one. Am I correct in assuming that tropical gear will be needed?'

Richard lowered his gaze to his fingernails and considered. 'I don't believe that it would be giving too much away to say that. Any needed modifications of costuming will be provided by Dream Park.' He pursed his mouth meditatively. 'Is there any­thing else you will need?'

'I do hope not.' Chester stood. 'Let's call it a Game and let me get down to the business of choosing my team.'

Chester looked at the dossier in front of him, then up into the eager face of a strawhaired youngster of seventeen. 'Says here that you play as an Engineer. We can use one, and I think you can fit the bill.' He glanced again at the papers and seemed pleased. 'What do you think, S.J.?'

S.J. Waters exploded in laughter. 'What do I think? Wow, I think that's terrific! You won't regret this, I promise!' He bounced off happily, and Chester watched in amusement.

Gina stopped trying to massage his neck. She leaned down to whisper in his ear. 'First team? You're going to start him? Are you sure you want to do that, honey?'

'Quite sure,' he said, trying to be irritated with her. He didn't say that a little cannon fodder never hurt. Stick a few of them in the opening lineup, and use them to spring traps. By the time you get into the 'no substitutions' period, you have the territory pretty well figured out, with a minimum of valuable characters lost. 'Next!'

The selection process had been going on for two hours now. Nine of the slots were pre-registered, including Gina, Ollie, Gwen, Acacia and her guest Tony. Three more slots were filled now, so he needed three more primaries and some alternates. So far he was pleased with the quality of applicant. A rough calculation gave him almost a century of fantasy gaming experience among the players he'd already selected.

'Next,' he called again, and there was laughter in the line of applicants. A small strong fist banged on the table in front of him, and he jumped. The top of a head was showing above the edge. It rose until a pair of watery brown eyes was staring at him.

Chester cackled in delight. 'Mary-Martha!' He jumped out of the chair and ran around the table and hugged the dwarfish woman. She was an inch above four feet high, and almost as wide as she was tall. Little of her bulk seemed to be fat, and when she hugged him back the creak of ribs was audible.

'Chester! Lord knows I couldn't let you run off and get your­self into a mess without old Mary-em to pull your worthless car­cass out of it.'

'No explanations needed. How's your hip?' He had read of her injury in the I.F.G.S. Monthly Bulletin.

She slapped her hip with the flat of a callused hand. 'Fine, jus' fine. An' I'm going back to Yosemite this year too. It's gonna take more than little Mount Excelsior to keep me down.'

'I'm betting on you, Mary-Martha. Are you up for this jaunt?' Her eyes narrowed to slits, and for a bare moment she wasn't a chunky, harmless woman at all, but a raging force of nature caught in the wrong era and the wrong body. 'You can believe it, Chester.'

'Good to have you aboard. I'd like you as a Primary.' She nodded vigorous agreement, and waddled off. Absurdly, Chester sensed that that walk could only be balanced by a battleaxe carelessly toted on the right shoulder.

The next two wanted to compete as a team, which was unfortu­nate. Nobody had been able to prove anything, but the rumor mill had it that Felicia Maddox was a cheat. Very shrewd about it (she would have to be) but somehow she came out of Games with more than her fair share of points. However she did it, she would be found out eventually. Chester just didn't want to deal with that in one of his Games.