"Anderson, Kevin J - Game 1 - Game Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anderson Kevin J)

"Are New York or the Rocky Mountains real? Have you ever been there? No! Then how do you know _they_ exist? Huh?"
She thought of Gamearth, the villages, the characters. Every one of them seemed to be real to her. Couldn't the others see it? Or feel it? Scott blinked at her vehemence, which surprised even Melanie. She could feel something going on here, something important.
Since the four of them had equal experience in role-playing, they took turns acting as Game-master. Each of them ruled a particular section of the map and interacted with the other players.
"Why don't we just go back to exploring dungeons? That was fun," Tyrone said.
Scott made a rude noise. "_Those_ were boring, Tyrone. Wandering through catacombs gets monotonous really quick. And what do all the monsters eat? What do they do all the time? You can't say they just stand there waiting for our characters to come along? How am I supposed to have fun if I can't _believe_ any of it?"
Melanie grabbed at the idea. "But we outgrew the boxed dungeon adventures! We broadened the Game to cover an entire world. _Our_ world. Didn't you enjoy the old Sorcerer wars, David? You thought of that."
Tyrone said, "I liked it when the old Sorcerers created all sorts of creatures to do their fighting, not just humans."
"Oh, you just like monsters," Scott said.
David used a cracker to scoop up some of Tyrone's dip. "Yes, and the fighting got boring, too. Battle after battle in a war that was never going to end. What's the point?
"We had the Sorcerers make peace between themselves. They used the rest of their magic to turn the race into six giant Spirits. The _Transition_. We should have known enough to end it there."
"There was more to the story!" Melanie said. Why weren't Scott and Tyrone helping? "How could you just stop the Game there?"
She began to feel clammy sweat on her back. What if they put Gamearth away to gather dust on a shelf, never to play it again? What about the world? What about the characters?
"I tried," David sighed.
"But I won. Roll of the dice."
"Yeah, Melanie," Scott added, "and we spent the past three months playing the Scouring of Gamearth. The humans and a few leftover Sorcerers hunted down surviving monsters to make the world safe for Mom, democracy, and apple pie. Tyrone had a lot of fun. But the humans are all settled down now. You've got your Stronghold established and safe. There's nothing else to play."
"I want to quit," David repeated.
"No." Melanie tried to glare him down.
"Doesn't matter to me," Tyrone said. "I thought even the dungeons were fun."
Scott pursed his lips, putting on his coldly logical "Mr. Science" persona again. "Settle it like we always settle disagreements. Why don't you two just roll for it instead of arguing?"
Tyrone shifted in his seat. "I'd like to play _something_ tonight -- it is Sunday, you know."
Melanie watched David, and they both reached for the twenty-sided die at the same time. David grabbed it first.
"If I beat you, we stop playing. We think of something else to do, or we stop meeting altogether. We've got our lives to live, you know."
Tyrone and Scott sat up straight. Melanie took a deep breath. David was serious -- it meant more to him than she had thought. Something worse than this was bothering him.
But the Game meant even more to her. She wanted to hold onto the world they had created. Gamearth was a part of her and a part of them all. They couldn't just put it away and forget about it like a game of Monopoly.
David squeezed his hand around the die. He threw it down hard onto the smooth painted surface of the master map. The die bounced, but came to rest before it could fall off the table.
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*18.*
"Eighteen, Melanie. You won't beat it."
She picked up the twenty-sided die -- the expensive transparent kind from the hobby shop. Each facet looked smooth and perfect, with a number etched in the center.
"But if I win the roll, we keep playing. We stay in Gamearth with all our characters there. No chickening out."
David bristled at that, but Scott and Tyrone remained silent.
As she leaned forward over the master map, Melanie felt that she could fall into the world. She imagined the mountains, the forests, the islands, the frozen wasteland, vivid against a backdrop of the history they had played.
She closed her eyes, silently asked for help from whom ever else watched over Gamearth, and tossed the twenty sided die onto the table. "Come on!" she whispered. The die skittered and rolled and came to rest against the master map.
The 20 faced up.
"Yowza!" Tyrone clapped his hands.
"There." Scott sounded businesslike again. "Now can we get started? It's your turn next isn't it, David?"
David glared at the twenty-sided die that had betrayed him.
"Come on, David. Don't be a sore loser."
He drank from his glass but continued to look at the map. "If we don't quit, I'm going to destroy Gamearth. I'll have my turn and I can set things in motion. There won't be anything left to play in. Then we'll have to stop."
"You've got to follow the rules," Scott said.
"I'm going to. But I'll unleash something so horrible upon this world that nothing can stop it. Your characters can try all they want. It won't work. I'm going to win."
Melanie stiffened. Scott and Tyrone seemed to be enjoying the friction. Melanie thought of the Game's characters, looked at their settlements, their lands, and felt a pang inside her. Something seemed to be calling out to her.
Melanie ran her fingertip over one of the smooth faces of the twenty-sided. She hoped she hadn't used up her luck for the evening. She wished the characters themselves could help in the fight -- if only they knew what the stakes were.
She wanted to warn them somehow.
"The rules work both ways, you know. I can use them to _save_ Gamearth." Melanie forced a smile, trying to look self-assured and a little wicked. "I'll beat you, David. You can count on it."
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* * * *
Attack on the Stronghold
"Gamearth has been built around a precise set of Rules. Though we may find them restrictive at times, these Rules can never be broken, lest we invite chaos and anarchy into the world."
-- Preface, _The Book of Rules_