Choose your character carefully. This will be your persona for the rest of the game. Unless you die. But let’s not talk about that now. You have plenty of other things to worry about.
—The Haunted Place Player Guide
Although I’d be happy to have Nathan join our game, his words confused me. The Haunted Place played five: me, Gwen, Cody, Cody’s friend Tyler, and the store’s owner, John. Shannon was here to oversee, watch, and answer any questions about the rules. We’d already warned her that she’d be banished if she got too obnoxious about knowing what was going to happen. This wasn’t Dungeons & Dragons or Monopoly. We didn’t need a master to run the game or a banker or anything.
Before I could voice these thoughts, Gwen appeared behind me. “Hey, Dad! Glad you got my message.”
I turned to her. “Your message?”
“Yeah, John texted that something came up with the kids, and he can’t make it. Rather than delaying the game, he’s going to bow out. Said he called the store, but no one answered. I texted you.”
“I haven’t checked my phone in ages.” I opened the door and stepped back. “Come on in. Sorry.”
Nathan grinned at me as he brushed past, sending a tingle up my arm. Geez, my hormones were getting ridiculous. We lived together. My pulse couldn’t start galloping every time we passed each other in the hall or my hand grazed his while we made breakfast in the morning. This crush needed to be squelched and fast, before it got embarrassing. Nathan could never know the way he made me feel.
I blamed Gwen for planting the seed of finding someone new in my head. Alas, she probably meant finding someone new that I could actually date, like the customer from earlier. I suddenly wished I’d noticed he was flirting. If nothing else, flirting back would give my suppressed hormones an appropriate outlet for release since Nathan was totally forbidden.
Gwen was right, it was time to put myself out there. My extreme reaction to Nathan confirmed that I needed to dust off my online profile and make an effort. Going on dates with nice, safe guys my own age should help me gain perspective. If nothing else, I’d eat a few good meals, meet new people, have interesting conversations. Or maybe I’d spend enough time around members of the opposite sex to at least notice when one of them flirted with me. Baby steps.
With a deep breath, I forced myself to focus. This gaming session wasn’t only for fun. We had a job: Shannon was counting on our group to point out problems, errors, mistakes in the directions, omissions, and other issues before The Haunted Place went to print. If we messed up, the game could flop on the market, get bad reviews, and it would be partially our fault. Last year, one of our biggest complaints in a legacy game we’d all played was that it felt like no one play-tested it. We couldn’t let that happen to Shannon.
With determination, I shoved my personal issues out of my mind and trailed Nathan to the back room. Cody and Gwen sat side by side at the table. Nathan pulled out the middle remaining seat, so I dropped into the empty spot between him and Gwen. From my vantage point, I could see the main area of the store. Not necessary with the door locked, but I liked being able to keep an eye on things. Shannon came over to stand between me and Gwen.
The three of us made an odd trio. Having divested most of her layers, Shannon looked like a much taller version of Velma from Scooby-Doo: curvy, short hair, with glasses. Her frames enhanced the comparison, which I suspected wasn’t a coincidence. But she wouldn’t be caught dead in an orange turtleneck, wearing mostly vintage-style dresses and some actual vintage dresses passed down by Nana. To her right, Gwen was short and skinny, with the most gorgeous red hair usually hidden in pigtails, blue eyes, and freckles she hated but gave her face character.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Shannon, I was completely average. Average height, average build, wavy medium-blonde hair, medium-brown skin from my Puerto Rican mother, and hazel eyes with mediocre vision. Without my contacts, the world turned fuzzy.
To look at Nathan, you would never know that he and Gwen were related. She must look exactly like her mom, but I didn’t know. Dr. Connors—who never changed her name—left when Gwen was a kid. There wasn’t a single picture of her in their home. While she went to medical school, Nathan worked to provide for the family—and then she ditched them both after getting her degree. Poor guy. He deserved better.
According to Gwen, her father barely dated in the years since. It broke my heart to think he pined for the woman who treated him so badly. Especially when any number of women out there would love a chance to make him happy. Like me.
No, not me. Focus, Holly.
Shannon placed a box in the center of the table, slowly, almost reverently. Since this was a play test, the box hadn’t been printed yet. The plain white cover provided a stark contrast to the dark wooden table. A blank slate, not a hint of what we were about to experience. “Is everyone ready?”
“We’ve been ready for years,” I pointed out. “Ever since you started making this. Stop stalling. We’re dying to play.”
“Shouldn’t we wait for Tyler?”
“If you don’t open that box now so we can set up, I will take it from you,” Gwen said. “We won’t start until he gets here.”
With an evil grin, she lifted the lid an inch at a time, slowly revealing the contents. Cody hummed the Jeopardy! theme song. A board sat on top, which Nathan removed to find the rest of the pieces. He also pulled out a few cardboard sheets. Underneath, the box was filled with compartments, covered so we couldn’t see what was inside, all marked with numbers or letters.
“Issue number one: There aren’t any instructions,” Gwen said.
Shannon held up a sheaf of papers. “I was going to read them to you.”
“Nope,” Nathan said. “Let us play. As if we were five strangers who pulled the box off the shelf and don’t know you from Adam.”
She started to protest, but the rest of us agreed. Play-testing gave the game designer valuable information, sure. But if she read the rules, self-editing and guiding us as she went, we wouldn’t be evaluating the game so much as Shannon’s explanation of how to play. That didn’t help her or future gamers.
Part of the nature of a legacy-type game is that things change. Certain events would tell us to open sealed packets in the box, read cards, or take other actions. Cards read at the beginning and end of each game revealed rule changes. Players made choices based on the information available, but we wouldn’t know until later whether those choices panned out. A seemingly good idea early on could lead to disaster after a plot twist. No way to plan, no way to know. So much fun. And impossible to play as intended with the creator hovering. The tiniest flinch or smile could alter our choices, impacting the course of the game.
“Go read out front, or hang out in the staff room,” I said. “We’ve got some new comics. Just read carefully. Let Tyler in when he gets here.”
Begrudgingly Shannon handed the instructions to Nathan. She then gave him a second booklet, with strict instructions not to open it until the game directed us to. She would, after all, be listening from the other room.
Cody unfolded the board onto the table. I held my breath. The tone in the room was quiet, almost reverent. We were hard-core gamers, all of us. We loved the smell of a new game, the feel of cards that haven’t been played, the excitement of finding out what an untouched box contained. After waiting so long for this one, I could hardly believe the time to play had finally arrived.
Lines crisscrossed the surface of the board, creating a grid. The squares themselves were blank, except for three. One on the left side said “Front door.” One on the right side said, “Upstairs.” And one near the bottom said, “Basement.” According to the rule book, the remaining room stickers came in a stack. We were prohibited from looking through them until the time came to place each new room on the board.
Nathan bumped his knee against mine under the table to get my attention. A thrill went through me. “You okay?”
As I gazed up into his dark eyes, I nodded. “I’m just excited.”
And not only about the game, I added silently before I could stop myself.
Something flashed in Nathan’s eyes at my words.
“Tyler’s going to be a few minutes late. He said we could read the introduction and fill him in,” Gwen said. “Let’s do this!”
I forced myself to drag my gaze away and focus on Cody, who held the Player Guide.
Opening the instructions, he started to read. “It is a dark and stormy night. Your car breaks down by the side of the road. You see a house in the distance, and you approach, seeking shelter.”
“Is this the Rocky Horror Board Game?” Gwen asked.
“You wish!” Shannon’s voice came from the other room.
I yelled back. “We can’t hear you!”
Cody continued reading, keeping his voice low and spooky. “This house isn’t like other houses. For one thing, it’s got some…unusual rooms. Strange things keep happening. Some of you might not make it. For now, each of you chooses a character. This will be your role. There are more roles than players, and each has unique attributes. Choose wisely.”
“Do you think Tyler will mind if we pick characters while we wait?” Nathan asked.
“Even if he did, we can trade once he gets here,” I pointed out.
“Good point.” Gwen waved a stack of cards. “Here are the role cards. Looks like there are six characters. We’ve got your fairly standard horror movie roles: the Virgin, the Jock, the Flirt, the Geek, the Skeptic, and the Nice Guy. Does anyone have a preference?”
Cody snagged the Geek instantly, naming his character Noah after the horror movie fanatic in MTV’s Scream.
“Well, you know me,” Gwen said. “I’m the Skeptic.”
“Shouldn’t there be a couple?” Nathan asked. “In horror movies, there’s always two people who get killed making out.”
At the thought of making out with him, even as part of the game, my face grew warm. I’d happily volunteer to be part of the couple. To feel his lips against mine. To…stop fantasizing about my best friend’s dad.
Shut up, Holly.
“There’s no couple character.” Cody gestured at me and Nathan, presumably since we hadn’t picked yet. “Unless the two of you want to team up.”
It was as if he’d read my thoughts. I shifted in my seat, then pulled out my phone to cover my discomfort. Luckily, my naturally dark skin would hide some of my flushing face, if anyone noticed. I could blame a little redness on the warmth of the room.
“Half of that couple is usually the Virgin or the Flirt,” Gwen said. “You’re far more virgin than flirt these days, Dad. Go with it.”
Most people would’ve been shocked at the way Gwen spoke to her father, but I’d long since become used to the fact that they had an unconventional relationship. More like the Gilmore Girls than any father/daughter pair I’d ever met. Considering how my own father faded from my life after marrying the stepmonster, I did my best not to envy them.
“I’ll be the Jock,” he said. “The jock’s always hooking up with the pretty ladies. Maybe the role will give me some real-world practice.”
Gwen rolled her eyes. “You can only dream.”
“Let’s be honest, guys,” I said. “As Gwen pointed out not five minutes ago, I haven’t been on a date in so long, it’s embarrassing. I’ll take the Virgin.”
She shook her head. “Nope. You need to get out of your comfort zone. Be someone you’re not. Get your groove back. Be the Flirt.”
I hesitated. The Virgin felt appropriate. But part of this game was playing a role, and I got tired of always being who everyone thought I was: Quiet Holly, Meek Holly, Holly-Who-Doesn’t-Notice-When-Her-Boyfriend-Steals-Half-a-Million-While-Cheating-on-Her. Maybe Gwen was right. Time to flip the script, get out of my comfort zone. I’d experienced a lot of trouble trusting my instincts over the past year or so; maybe listening to Gwen was the way to go.
“Okay, fine,” I said with more conviction than I felt. “I’m the Flirt.”
“Are you sure?” Cody asked. “Don’t let her bully you.”
“No, she’s right,” I said. “I’ve been sequestered since Lucas and I split up. It’s time to live a little. Broaden my horizons.”
“Exactly,” Gwen said. “You may not be the Flirt now, but there’s no reason you can’t learn to be.”
“Maybe Holly just needs to practice,” Nathan said.
“Okay, fine. Practice.” She looked from him to me and back. “But not on my dad. Ew. You can practice on me, Tyler, and Cody.”
So much for allowing my fantasies to spin out during the game, since I couldn’t explore them anywhere else.
Trying not to look disappointed, I took my character card and reviewed the stats. Players could make their character any gender they wanted or no gender at all. My character possessed high movement, high sensitivity, low intelligence, low strength. I also got a special power: my character got one extra die when rolling for sensitivity. I guess because she was so attuned to people or something. Since I generally sucked at dice rolling, I’d take it. Some people might say you can’t be bad at rolling dice, but they’d be wrong.
A voice sounded from the doorway. “Not to state the obvious, but I do have mad flirting skills. Who am I practicing on?”
Our fifth and final player stood watching us. I groaned to have a near total stranger overhear this conversation. I liked Tyler well enough, but I barely knew him.
Then again, he would certainly be easy to practice flirting on. Tall, which I liked. Close-cropped black hair, beautiful white teeth, flawless dark skin, and a heart-stopping dimple. A little skinny, but what did you expect of an accountant who gamed with all his free time? Yes, a girl could flirt with Tyler easily, and enjoy doing it.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t my type. Maybe he would’ve been, with his quick laugh and classic good looks. Too bad he’d had an enormous crush on Shannon since the day he met her. Being second choice didn’t do it for me.
This conversation increasingly made me want to crawl under the table and hide. As Tyler settled into the final empty chair, I said, “It’s cool, I can flirt online. I swear, I’ll work on it. Let’s play.”
Gwen handed him the remaining character cards, and he did a double take. “Hold up. I hope y’all don’t think I’m going to be Dead Body Number Two.”
“Hey! That’s not what the card’s called,” Shannon called from the other room. “That’s the Nice Guy.”
He read from the description printed on the index card. “‘Smart, liked by everyone, wears glasses, reads sci-fi.’ This character is never going to make it through a haunted house. It’s cool. I’ll be the Virgin. Sorry, Hol. No flirting for you.”
“I’ll live,” I assured him.
Once we’d named our characters, Cody read the next set of rules. To start, we were learning the game mechanic, since we’d use it for each session of the campaign. We’d explore the ground floor, finding rooms and determining the layout for later plays. Upon entering a new room, we’d draw a card. Some of the cards referred us back to the book or to draw cards, and we’d go from there. If we lost the first game, we’d reset, leaving the previously explored rooms on the board. That way, we’d have a better shot at winning the second go. Shannon made special room stickers for Game 1, presumably to ensure we found the most important rooms early on. Or maybe so we didn’t put the game into an unwinnable state from the first session. It would suck to spend a year playing a cooperative game only to realize at the end you’d never had a shot at beating it due to an unknown mistake early on.
Cody pulled out an app on his phone to determine a random starting player, and I wound up with the first turn.
The instructions didn’t tell us how to win the first game, so I figured we’d start by exploring the house. But I couldn’t resist trying out my new character before getting started.
“This house looks so scary!” I batted my eyes at Nathan and put one hand on my chest. “Wherever will I find a big, strong man to help protect me?”
Nathan smiled, but I couldn’t read his expression.
Gwen snorted. “Your role is ‘the Flirt,’ not ‘Scarlett O’Hara.’”
“Valid. I can do better.”
“You’re not using those lines with real guys, are you?”
Although she obviously suspected, I didn’t want to admit I hadn’t met anyone yet, online or off. Largely because I failed to look. I’d never even checked for messages after setting up my profile. “Uh. No.”
Thankfully, Tyler came to my rescue. “We don’t know how long this game will take, so maybe we can work on Holly’s love life after?”
Cody quirked an eyebrow at him. “We? You helping?”
He shrugged. “If Gwen has any say, we’re all helping.”
At this point, I wanted to crawl under the table and die. I thought about excusing myself and hiding in the restroom, but that would only encourage them to talk about me until I got back. Better to change the subject. Grabbing my character’s pawn, I moved through the house to an open space. “Give me a room.”
The sticker I placed on the board told me to draw a card, which directed me to roll to see whether zombies attacked. The mention of zombies surprised me, but well, it was a horror-themed game.
“What do you need?” Nathan asked, passing me the dice.
Our fingers brushed, and a spark shot up my arm. My eyes darted to Nathan, searching for any hint that he felt the same thing.
Still holding the directions, Cody answered for me. “She has to roll equal to or above the total number of players and revealed rooms. We’ve only got one room on the board, so that means six or better.”
“With five dice?” Gwen asked. “Easy peasy, even for Holly.”
I grinned at her. We both remembered how poor dice rolling got me eliminated from the Explorers of Islay tournament last year. After playing about a zillion games, I’d come to accept my bad dice karma. It was a running joke. Usually in cooperative games, I never touched the dice. But this game didn’t allow us to pick who rolled.
“Well, not completely easy,” Nathan said. “These aren’t standard dice.”
He took one back from me, holding it up. The die had six sides, a regular cube, as expected. But the pips didn’t range one through six. Three of the sides were blank. The others sported one or two dots.
“And look!” I held up another die. “They’re all different. This one only has twos and zeros.”
“We’re doomed!” Gwen’s smile took the edge off of her words.
I blew her a kiss and reached for the dice. Tossing my hair in the most flirtatious manner I could, I shook my arms and waved my clasped hands a bit for show, shaking both the dice and my boobs. They’d all see I could flirt. And I almost managed to avoid sneaking a peek at Nathan to see if he noticed.
The dice clattered onto the board, and we all watched as they rolled to a stop. Zero. Zero. Two! One. Zero. Zero.
Oh, no. See where flirting got me? In trying to attract Nathan, I’d managed to catch the attention of some zombies.