A board game, of course!

"It's a board game, and you don't have to talk so loud, we're all right here!"

Caitlyn once again making it abundantly clear who the buzzkill of the evening is gonna be. Tucked away neatly be her feet is what at a glance seemed to be an old wooden box. Bringing it up for all to see, it was in fact ..an old wooden box.

Just the box itself demanded attention. With it's old, almost rusted handles, and clearly aged wood, the group couldn't help but collectively wonder just how old it was.

"This thing looks like it holds the black plague or something.."

If not for the fact that Troy was the one to tell that joke, a couple more than Barbara might've laughed at it. The poor boy clearly wasn't in the best of company, as exemplified by the glares he got just for opening his mouth. Barbara failed to see why her daughter had such a sudden shift in attitude towards the boy, considering that they'd been quite close growing up, though mostly due to their houses proximity to one another.
She didn't believe her beloved daughter to be a vain bitch that judged and ruined peoples lives simply on the basis of them being "a little different". Sure, Troy's life wasn't ruined. But it wasn't exactly on rails either. With almost no friends, he experienced daily **** in the form of bullying. God knew he only accepted the invite because Barbara had seemed so genuine when approaching him on the sidewalk a couple of days back.

"So ..where's the game?"

Sabrina asking tauntingly, she wasn't actually stupid. Quite the contrary. Both her mother and sister were amongst the sharper tools in the shed, and she didn't lag far behind herself, though she didn't utilize that intellect nearly as much. If not for the untimely, and unplanned pregnancy of Barbara, she most definitely would have fetched a better job than her position as a nurse at the local hospital. Now, many years and one successful daughter later, her second daughter seemed to be headed for an underwhelming life, at least career wise. But Sabrina never cared for any of that. She wanted a nice and easy life, with plenty of time to enjoy herself. With her good looks and nice body, a modeling career or even that of an influencer wasn't too far away.

"It's right here."

Despite her insanely dry personality, Caitlyn had a surprising knack for showmanship. Dramatically, she opened up the box, slowly pulling out it's contents. In addition to the expected, folded game board and figurines, there were an assortments if dice, colored cards and of course, the manual. One white one, a bronze, one silver, one gold, two purple, two blue crystal ones and a ominous, crimson die to top it off. Exactly why the red die came across as scarier than the others was hard to pinpoint. Be it because it perfectly replicated the texture and color of fresh blood, or because it seemed to be faintly glowing. Either way, it seemed as though it was worth keeping an eye on.

"What's the deal with the dice? There are really many, and only one of them looks normal."

With the exception of the white die, all the dice appeared to be uneven. Like they wouldn't be fair at all. Surely they couldn't offer a fair chance at landing on all six sides. They didn't pose the traditional six eyes either, most of them stopped at three, having a varying mix of one's, two's and three's on their sides.

"Let me read the manual first, I'll get back to you."

While Caitlyn was busy reading through the oddly pristinely kept instructions, Harry positioned the board neatly in the middle of the coffee table which sat at the center of the group. He also lined up the dice, one after the other, just underneath the game. Lastly, he handed out a figurine to each of the future players. Luckily, there were exactly seven pieces, just enough for each of them.

"Right. So, the manual say's that the white die is the "play die". We're to roll it each round and move our pieces one tile per eye. The other dice should be positioned like this:"

Being flipped around by Caitlyn, the instructions displayed an image which appeared to be the boardgame. It had dice positioned at seemingly random intervals on the empty tiles along the board.

"As for what they mean.. The bronze, silver and gold ones are all optional pickups, each offer one additional modifying effect with varying severity. They also add extra distance points, meaning you can pick them up for the "penalty", but get extra distance on your next turn.

"Seems simply enough.."

Camila chimed in.

"The purple dice are **** singular use ones, and make you swap one random change card with that of another player, also chosen randomly. The blue ones, or aquamarine as it says in the manual, are the opposite of the metal ones. If you land on an aquamarine die, you either have to roll it and go back as many spaces as it says, or take an additional modifier effect."

"The hell is a modifying effect anyway?"

Having heard the word a couple of times now, Sabrina was getting impatient due to the lack of an explanation surrounding it's meaning.

"Doesn't say. All it says is that while you get a change card, a random modifier is listed, the player then has to decide whether they want to continue with the game or chicken out. By chickening out you essentially concede the game, leaving the remaining players to finish on their own without you."

"So the point of the game is to continue playing? I don't really see how that can be any engaging, but whatever."

"Don't blame me, the guy who sold it to be promised it would be "an enchanting experience", whatever that means. Obviously it has to be entertaining somehow, he didn't strike me as the type to lie just to make five dollars."

"What about the last one? The red one. You didn't say anything about that."

With a helpful reminder from Sam, Caitlyn continued her explanation of the game.

"The crimson die is a unique item which can be picked up only on the first tile of the game. Unlike the metal dice, it isn't a one time use type of thing. It's an optional pick-up which lasts for the remainder of the game. It adds a one or a two to each subsequent throw the player performs for the rest of the game, but adds a varying modifier to any picked up cards along with it."

"Sounds kinda OP, no?"

Troy, as one would expect, was a videogame geek. Hearing about a unique item which ultimately would add permanent distance to all your throws didn't really seem fair. Sure, the requirement for picking it up was getting a shit-throw on the first round, but that didn't really balance out the impact it could have over the course of what he'd counted to being 29 tiles.

"I'm not familiar with that expression, but it does seem powerful if that's what you were referring to. Now, on to the tiles. Each color represents a different cornerstone of our life. Red represents the mind, or very consciousness. Yellow is our vanity, or more specifically, our faces."

"Doesn't vanity mean something like ego or pride?"

Troy was getting a bit excited. It wasn't like any game he'd seen before. The prospect of having to figure out the terms of the game and adapt to win was fun, but always difficult because most games were already known and had established "metas" and so on.

"Ego, pride, or even narcissism. Ever heard of Narcissus? Basically a guy who fell in love with his own reflection."

"Right.. Gotcha."

"Next we have the green tiles, representing our vessels, or the body, in stupid terms."

Caitlyn shot her younger sister a glare, openly judging her for picking the easy route in life, never being the one to utilize her gifts.

"Lastly, there's the blue tiles. Blue represents your clothes and style. With other words, the way you choose to present yourself amongst others."

"Cool. But how does any of this apply to the gameplay? I understand how the colors represents different parts of us, but I don't get how there's any gameplay loops besides rolling to move."

"That's what I'm struggling with understanding myself. This just seems like a game of snakes and ladders with cards for some reason. We'll just have to play to find out I suppose. I'd say it's in order to let the birthday girl start?"

Caitlyn looked over to Sabrina, who was giving a nod of approval.

With every die now positioned by the helpful hand of Troy, the only available one was the white one. Sabrina reached out for it and prepared to set the game afoot.

Bit of an updated board. Naturally, this came with an updated set of rules. Given how the game features a whole bunch more modifiers than previously, I've gotten rid of the mechanic where a player would receive something additional if they landed on the same space as someone else. Apart from that, I hope this chapter served well to inform you of all the new variables.