DIGITAL STRATEGIES

Marcus walked into the campus game room with a thick folder under his arm, feeling more excited than he had about anything in the real world for weeks. He'd spent the whole morning putting together campaign notes about what he was calling "The Techno-Mage Conspiracy". Valdris with some details changed around.

Emma was already there setting up dice, her huge glasses reflecting the fluorescent lights. She looked up and smiled when she saw him.

"Hey stranger! You look excited today. What's in the folder?"

"Oh, just some campaign ideas I've been working on," Marcus said, sliding into the chair next to her. "I was thinking maybe we could try running it sometime."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "You want to DM? That's ambitious for someone who's only been playing a few months."

"Yeah, well, I've got some interesting scenarios mapped out. It's about this powerless teenager who has to help stop a conspiracy between a powerful mage general and a corrupt political advisor..."

"Sounds intense," Emma said. "But you know Derek's been planning our current campaign for like six months, right?"

Before Marcus could answer, Derek burst through the door with his usual dramatic flair, arms full of books and binders. The other players followed behind him. Mike, Sarah, and Jamie.

"Alright, adventurers!" Derek announced. "Tonight we delve deeper into the Crystal Caverns and face the ancient guardian!"

Marcus waited until everyone was settled, then cleared his throat. "Derek, I was hoping we could talk about maybe trying a different campaign sometime. I've been working on this cool scenario-"

Derek stopped mid-sentence while sorting his DM screen. "Oh, you're a game master now?"

"No, no, it's just it might be fun, look, it's got all these innovative elements and-"

"How many sessions have you played with us and now you're some kind of expert?" Derek's voice had an edge to it.

Marcus felt his cheeks burn. "I didn't say I was an expert, I just thought-"

"After our campaign ends," Derek interrupted, "which is unknown since we haven't even got to the Pluto Mountains to face the Atomic Dragon yet."

Mike and Sarah nodded along with Derek. "Yeah man, we've been working toward this climax for months," Mike said.

Emma looked uncomfortable. "Maybe after this session we could get together tomorrow or some other day to hear Marcus's ideas?"

"I've got work tomorrow," Sarah said immediately.

"I have that study group," Mike added.

"Family thing this weekend," Jamie chimed in.

Marcus felt his excitement deflate like a punctured balloon. "Right. No problem. Let's just... let's play."

The session dragged on forever. Marcus tried to focus on his character. A half-elf rogue named Finn. But his mind kept wandering to Valdris. To Alice working late in the Academy library. To Master Thymon's failing health. To the real conspiracy they were trying to uncover.

When Derek finally called it a night three hours later, Marcus packed up his unused campaign notes and walked back to the dorm in silence.

Tyler was at his computer as usual, headset on, talking animatedly to his stream audience. The blue glow from his monitor was the only light in the room. Marcus could hear him getting frustrated with whatever game he was playing.

"Come on, come on! This puzzle is impossible. Chat, help me out here."

Marcus glanced at the screen. It looked like some kind of strategy RPG where Tyler's character was trapped in a maze. The chat was scrolling by rapidly with suggestions.

Tyler noticed Marcus and pulled his chair back. "Dude, you look upset. Come join me. Maybe you can figure this out."

Marcus dragged over Jake's desk chair and sat down. "What's the problem?"

"My character's stuck in this ancient temple, and there's all these traps and guards, and I need to get some artifact, but every route I try leads to a dead end or gets me killed."

The chat was going crazy with advice:

*try the left passage*

*check for secret doors*

*use your fireball spell*

*stealth mode bro*

Marcus stared at the screen, but his mind was elsewhere. An idea started forming.

"Hey Tyler, can I ask your chat something?"

"Sure man, they love answering random questions."

Marcus leaned toward the microphone. "Chat, hypothetical D&D question. How would a powerless teenager help expose a big conspiracy between a powerful mage general and a corrupt king's advisor? Like, how do you catch them when they're way stronger than you?"

The chat exploded with responses:

*you need magic items*

*learn magic yourself*

*make a magic bomb*

*you need extensive prep time*

*organize a militia*

*yeah prep is everything*

*even Batman beat Superman with prep*

*that's not canon*

*Superman didn't want to hurt his friend*

*they weren't friends in the movie*

*he's talking about the comic, idiot*

Marcus watched the chat spiral into an argument about superhero movies while Tyler tried to get back to his game.

"See what I mean?" Tyler said. "Chat always gets distracted. But they're right about one thing. Preparation is key. In speedrunning, in gaming, in anything. You need to know every possible route before you make your move."

Preparation. Marcus sat back in the chair, his mind racing. In Valdris, they were planning to confront Lord Varek and that foreign agent with basically no backup plan. Just walk up and try to catch them in the act. What if something went wrong? What if the agent had magical protection they didn't know about?

"Tyler, I need to use your computer for a bit. Is that okay?"

"Sure, I'm gonna grab some food anyway. Don't mess with my browser tabs though."

After Tyler left, Marcus stared at the search bar for a long moment. His hands hovered over the keyboard. What he was thinking about... it could change everything. In his world, gunpowder existed. Bombs existed. But in Valdris, they had no idea such things were possible.

Was it right to introduce that kind of destruction? But then again, Malachar was already using modern knowledge combined with magic. Maybe the good guys needed every advantage they could get.

He started typing: "how to make gunpowder with medieval materials"

The search results filled the screen. Saltpeter, sulfur, charcoal. Basic chemistry that any medieval world would have access to if someone knew what to look for.

Marcus felt sick to his stomach as he read. This wasn't just academic research anymore. This was planning to bring weapons of war to a world that had never seen them.

But what choice did he have? If Alice and Master Thymon and Tom were going to walk into danger, shouldn't he do everything possible to protect them?

He kept reading, taking notes in the margins of his unused campaign folder. By the time Tyler came back with a sandwich, Marcus had filled three pages with information he hoped he'd never need to use.

"Find what you were looking for?" Tyler asked, settling back at his computer.

"Yeah," Marcus said quietly, closing the notebook. "I think I did."

But as he lay in bed that night, staring at the ceiling, Marcus couldn't shake the feeling that he was about to cross a line he might not be able to come back from.