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[dogbitesman]

Even with an election edition looming, there still wasn't the volume of work William was used to. He'd hammered out most of the articles he was writing personally, the layout was mostly done, he'd made a few replacement Ks*, and apart from yelling at his reporters, he could relax a little

Comments

[dishabille_mal]

They occasionally did. Maladicta walked out, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised and stopped by William's set up.

"Sir, do you have a permit?"

[dogbitesman]

"Ma'am, do you have any kind of constitutional basis for your position as legal authority and a zoning bylaw referencing this that would require a permit?" William asked, moving a troll one square and knocking over a troll. He smiled up at her, cheerfully.*

*This being with actual, happy-to-see-you cheer, not the overly sharp kind that came when he was annoyed with someone.

[dishabille_mal]

"No," Maladicta said, "but I have a sword." She grinned a little.

[dogbitesman]

"I have a pen?" he ventured, moving a dwarf.

[dishabille_mal]

She glanced downward and her eyebrows tugged gently together.

"William, are you playing games by yourself?"

[dogbitesman]

William looked down at the board.

"...no one else was around," he said.

"And I don't think anyone else knows how to play Thud!, except possibly Moist," he said.

"And I'm not playing games. I'm recreating them. It's different," he said.

[dishabille_mal]

"Ah," she said, then sat beside him with no regard whatsoever for personal space.

"How does it work?"

[dogbitesman]

There was probably something to say there about his personal space being her personal space anyway, but William had something to explain. This got his focus.

"Well, one player is the trolls - in this rather brilliantly carved set, courtesy of one Mr Lipwig, that would be the Vetinaris - and the other is the dwarfs, or the City Watch." He turned Vimes around so she could see the piece better. "Dwarfs can move as many spaces as they want in any direction, trolls can only move one square. And as you can see, there are more dwarfs."

[dishabille_mal]

"All right," she said, lips quirking at the pieces. She looked up at William. "What's the point?"

[dogbitesman]

William looked down at the board. Then he looked up at Maladicta. "...to beat your opponent through the use of tactical cunning? Do vampires not have board games? I've seen you play chess!"

[dishabille_mal]

She rolled her eyes.

"Yes, William, winning usually is the point. I mean what are the conditions of victory for either team. What are you trying to do?"

[dogbitesman]

"Remove all of your opponent's pieces from the board and be the last one standing," William said. "It's, um, probably descriptive of early dwarf and troll race relations. Er, and later ones, too, actually."

[dishabille_mal]

"Sounds like the general relationship of most species back home," she said, then added, "where 'home' equals the scattered pieces of what was once the Unholy Empire. And you take a piece by jumping over, or taking the space?" she asked.

[dogbitesman]

"Not exactly," William said. "If you're playing the trolls, you take an opposing piece by moving into an adjacent square. And they have to move, even if the dwarf started the turn in an adjacent square. Dwarfs are ... a little more complex. They can only take a troll piece by having an unbroken line of dwarfs aimed at the space occupied by the troll, and they can only do it if there are less squares between the line of dwarfs and the troll than there are dwarfs in the line."

[dishabille_mal]

She was quiet for a long moment, looking the board over, gaze keen. Eventually, she nodded.

"All right. Let's play."

[dogbitesman]

"All right," William said, setting up the 'trolls' around the central block. "Oh, um, and trolls can form lines, too. Then they advance by as many squares as there are trolls in the line, but only to make a capture, never as a normal move." He set about placing the 'dwarfs' around the perimeter of the board.