Meet Derek Reilly. Derek is portly, short-sighted, middle-aged, and has spent his entire adult life in prison for playing Dungeons and Dragons. It's not his fault: it was 1984, the Satanic D&D panic was in full swing, and Mistakes Were Made (by the Laundry).
Derek still pays D&D, after a fashion. He's got postal privileges and runs the camp newsletter: he also runs a play by mail campaign, with a set of mutant homebrew rules nobody in authority has any inkling about.
One day, Derek gets two pieces of very important news. Firstly, Camp Sunshine (the cultist deprogramming centre where he's spent most of his life) is closing for reconstruction in a few weeks. And secondly, a gaming convention is coming to the next town up the road.
Derek is upset—but sees an opportunity. He's had a foolproof escape plan for the past 20 years: he's just …
Meet Derek Reilly. Derek is portly, short-sighted, middle-aged, and has spent his entire adult life in prison for playing Dungeons and Dragons. It's not his fault: it was 1984, the Satanic D&D panic was in full swing, and Mistakes Were Made (by the Laundry).
Derek still pays D&D, after a fashion. He's got postal privileges and runs the camp newsletter: he also runs a play by mail campaign, with a set of mutant homebrew rules nobody in authority has any inkling about.
One day, Derek gets two pieces of very important news. Firstly, Camp Sunshine (the cultist deprogramming centre where he's spent most of his life) is closing for reconstruction in a few weeks. And secondly, a gaming convention is coming to the next town up the road.
Derek is upset—but sees an opportunity. He's had a foolproof escape plan for the past 20 years: he's just never had anywhere to go. Now he decides to go to his first ever convention.
Little does he suspect that he's not the only DM with a very dangerous set of rules converging on DiceCon 16 ...
I enjoyed the premise of the book, and it started out very entertaining. Having played D&D during the Satanic Panic, there were a lot of callbacks to that time that rang true. As the novel progressed, however, the action became vaguer and hand-wavey. By the time of the climax of the action, no tension was left in the plot. You knew everything was going to be fine, it was, and ... what a letdown.
