Ernest sifted through the grocery bags in his kitchen, preparing for his weekly game night with his friends. He was very excited about the game tonight, because he just got a new game from the mall he wanted to try out.
He found it in a new shop that had opened in the mall. It was a sort of curiosity shop, full of odds and ends both ancient and modern. He was poking through an aisle that had statuettes of fantastic creatures when the old man startled him from behind.
"May I help you find something?" the old man had asked all of a sudden, making Ernest jump a foot into the air, nearly breaking a nice vase.
"No, thanks. I was just looking around," was his answer. The old man seemed to see right into Ernest's soul.
"Looking for what?" the old man insisted.
"Anything interesting or exciting, or maybe something that could make playing games with my friends a bit more interesting."
"I have something that is all of those things." The man gestured Ernest over to a different shelf. When he came over the old man pulled a box down off of the shelf. "This is the Game of Change. It's a board game, but it offers so much more than any other game you've played. Its players learn to deal with change, whether it's for the better or the worse, and they will learn to make the most of their strengths and overcome their weaknesses."
Ernest took a look at the box and was a little intrigued, but a lot skeptical. The old man's sales pitch seemed a little too corny. But he had been looking for a new game to play on game night; the regular playing card games were fun, but getting old.
"How much?" he asked.
"How about $20," the man offered.
So Ernest had fished a twenty out of his pocket and went on to finish the rest of his shopping.
And now it was Friday night and Ernest couldn't wait for his friends to arrive. He filled some bowls with various snacks and set out some cups and bottles of soda. When he was finished he went over to his living-room coffee table to set up the game.
The box was square, dark gray, with no words or pictures on it. Only a symbol of a 10-pointed star (two opposite facing, overlapping pentagrams) overlapped with three circles adorned the top center of the lid. Ernest pulled the lid off and was struck by the musty smell of too many years without use.
He pulled the board out and unfolded it, and placed it on the coffee table. It had a large spiral track that went clockwise from the outside to the inside of the board. The circle in the middle where the track ended had the same symbol as the one on the lid. As the track circled inward it passed over the art of plains, forests, mountains, valleys, a lake, and even what appeared to be outer space as it neared the center. The track was divided into squares of primarily four colors: green, red, blue, and yellow. There was a space outlined to the side of the track which was apparently where to place cards.
Included in the box were several nondescript pewter figurines to represent the players, three normal dice, and the instructions. Ernest pulled out the instructions and leaned back in the sofa to read them while he waited for his friends to arrive.
The general rules were the same as any other board game: roll a die to determine who goes first, play continues to the left, roll 2 dice and move your figurine along the track, first to get to the end wins. The only unusual basic rule was that play continues to the right, rather than the left as normal.
The color descriptions are what confused Ernest though. Green squares are changes that have to do with animals. Red squares are changes that have to do with the body, but not with animals. Blue squares are changes having to do with the mind. Yellow squares do a number of miscellaneous things such as give bonuses or penalties, allow extra changes or the removal of changes, or give a player an item, among a plethora of other possibilities. There are a few white squares, generally placed right in front of obstacles that require something specific to pass. White squares give a random change from any other color square. For each turn a player stands on a white square waiting for something to help them move on, they are subject to a new change.
The instructions went on to say that when a player gains a change, it will often have a visible, tangible effect on the game. This effect will only be immediately known by the changed player, though the other players will often figure out what the effects are through observation. As an example, if a character is changed into something that is particularly speedy, they may be allowed to roll three dice rather than the normal two. In this example, only the recieving player will know they can roll three dice, but as soon as they do, it becomes apparent to the other players.
Ernest was confused because he couldn't figure out what the game meant by "changes". There was nothing to indicate when a character was changed or how. There weren't even any cards included with the game, despite the space on the board made for them.
As he was contemplating this the doorbell rang. He ran to answer it and found it was his girlfriend Rhonnda. Rhonnda was a very pretty young woman of 19. She had a slim body and beautiful face, with straight, shoulder-length, black hair and light brown eyes. She stood 5'4" and was in good shape, though she was not a highly athletic girl. She was a normal sensible girl, not too much of a bimbo, but not too serious either.
Ernest was a pretty average young adult himself at 20 years old. He stood 5'9" and was only slightly thinner than average. He had wavy, sandy blonde hair which had grown out a month or two too long, and dark blue eyes.
Behind Rhonnda a car pulled up and out stepped Doug and Jeanne. The two were also boyfriend-girlfriend. Doug was tall, at 6'1", with dark-colored skin and dark hair which was short and curly. He had a wiry build with long arms and legs which served him well on the basketball court. Jeanne was also an athlete, her school's second best long distance runner. She was 5'6" and thin, with a well shaped butt and thighs which drew many looks. She had light brown hair down to her mid-back which she wore in a long ponytail, and beautiful emerald green eyes.
Art was last to show up. At 21, he was the oldest of the group. Art was a football star in high-school, standing at 5'11" with a very solid build. At his prime it seemed like nothing short of a bullet train could hit him and make him step back. That was before he broke his leg. He was on his way to his team's last game, the state final, when he had a terrible car accident. The wreck had left his leg badly mangled. Somehow the doctors had rescued it from amputation, and though he had a lot of reconstructive surgery on it, the leg was twisted for good, so Art had a little trouble walking and could barely run at all. His football team lost the final that night.
But Art was a strong lad, despite his setbacks he remained constantly optimistic. He had had many girlfriends throughout high-school, but after he started going to college he had only a few. He had recently broken up with his girlfriend, which is why he arrived alone.
Ernest let them all in and they all chatted for a bit, until Rhonnda asked, "So what game are we playing tonight?"
"I found this new game in a shop at the mall," he replied. "It's a board game, but it looks pretty interesting."
"A board game?" Jeanne asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, I know, board games are too simple for you, but this really looks like it might be fun. Let's give it a shot, and if we get bored we can just stop and play something else."
"Hey, it's sure to be a fine game if Ernest picked it out," said Art.
"Come on over here and I'll show it to you." Ernest called them over to their usual game space in the living-room, a nice sized coffee table with two couches on opposite sides. Ernest sat down and Rhonnda sat next to him on his right. The rest sat on the opposite cough with Doug and Art on the ends and Jeanne in the middle.
Ernest proceeded to explain the rules to the group.
"So you're saying that when you land on a square of a particular color, your character changes, but there's nothing to show what that change is?" Jeanne was arguing. "Sounds like you should bring this game back and get your money back, cause it's missing something. Doug back me up here." She nudged Doug with her elbow.
"Yeah," Doug added. "We could just play some more poker."
"None of the rest of us has any more money, you sucked it all out of us last week. You're the only one whose good at poker," Ernest rebutted. Doug just shrugged and smiled.
Art was toying with one of the pewter pieces in his hand during the argument, and now just set it into the box marked "start". "C'mon, it's no big deal, we can roll dice and move pawns without all the particulars," Art said.
He was about to go on but suddenly he stopped talking. He was staring at his figurine. "What is it?" asked Rhonnda.
"Look at my piece," he said.
"Whoa, that's pretty weird," said Ernest. "The piece looks just like you, Art. Did it look like that before?"
"No, it looked like the rest, just a nondescript pawn."
Rhonnda picked up a game piece and set in the start box, and her own piece changed to look just like her also. "That's so weird! How does it do that?"
"Maybe there IS something more to this game than we thought." Ernest said, taking a look at Jeanne, who stared blankly at the game piece.
"There has to be some explanation." Jeanne picked up a figurine and looked all over it, feeling it to see if she could mold it like silly putty. She had no luck. Rhonnda tried to pick her piece off the board to look at it closer, but the piece seemed stuck to the board.
Ernest, Doug, and Jeanne each placed a figurine onto the board, and like the others, they changed to match their characters. Once all the players had pieces on the board a shimmering light glowed in the space that was where the nonexistent cards should go. A card appeared, face up, in the space. On it were words that said "All pieces are set, each player please roll one die to determine who will go first.
"What the hell?" Doug verbalized for all of them.
Jeanne said, "It must be in the board." She picked the board up off the table, the figurines and the card stayed attached to the board as she did so. "See, this board is pretty thick, there must be mechanisms inside that are controlling it. Strong magnets to hold the pieces to the board, a card dispenser, that explains it." She seemed satisfied.
"So is it OK to play now?" asked Ernest.
"Yeah, this game has piqued my interest now," replied Jeanne.
They all rolled for turn order. Ernest ended up rolling a 6, he was going first.
"Alright!" he exclaimed. "Let's get this game started." He picked up two dice and shook them in his hand, then rolled them onto the board...