Fred Fosswell smiled as he looked around the convention center floor. Everything had gone well so far, and now was the time for his two tournaments. He hoped that he could build enough out of this weekend of marathon gaming that people would come back next year for another round.

If it failed to catch on, his convention would die despite anything else he could do.

It was time to call things to order with the booths closing for the day, and the panels slowly dying down. Once things started, he didn't want the fans to just walk away from what was going on.

He walked to where the public announcement mike had been set up. The five game masters that had agreed to run their games on the RAIL tables stood in a group, talking about other games they had run. He nodded to them in passing as he crossed the convention center.

At the other end of the center from where the five gaming tables had been set up, stood the RAIL dueling arena that had been set up for the alternate card system. A hundred people who liked to duel each other with cards had been asked to sign up to test that.

Fred grimaced that not all of the duelists would be able to duel at the same time. The system could only hold so many at a time. Once one of the fighters went down, a replacement would be sent in.

Fred checked the mike, wincing at the feedback. He noted that all eyes that he could see were on him. It was time for him to make his announcement and let things get started. When everything was over, he could look back and see what could be improved.

A bigger arena capable of actually holding a hundred players was already on the list.

“Hello, everybody,” said Fred, wincing at the distorted echo of his own voice. “I would like to thank everyone who came out for the first day of the convention, and for all of the industry people who came out to hold panels and talk with their fans.

“Now is the time for the RAIL games to start on this side of the center, and the RAIL Duelists to take their places at the arena on the other side of the hall. So the five game masters and their players and the hundred duelists should take their places at this time.”

Fred watched as the people he could see with the special badges started moving where he directed. He nodded.

“I would like to thank the participants of the games and the battle royal for testing the equipment,” said Fred. “Whomever uses twenty Quest cards, and his players complete all of the tasks, wins the five thousand dollar grand prize. Game masters, remember to be specific on what the completion condition is. If the condition isn't met, the card can't be discarded for a new one. Please draw your hand as soon as you are ready to begin.”

He glanced at the big screens that showed what was going on at the game tables. The players were settling in and making sure their characters were ready to go. The game masters had notebooks and screens in front of their seats as they got ready to start their adventures. Markers danced on the tables as the players filled in their character slots.

“The First Annual Overton Battle Royal will be refereed by Brad Milton,” said Fred. He nodded at his umpire taking his position by the arena table. “All of his decisions are final. There are two prizes to contest for during gameplay. One is the last man standing. Whomever survives the battle royal gets five hundred dollars.

“The other prize is for the number of wins. The duelist who defeats the most opponents gets five thousand dollars.”

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Fred waited for some of the exclamations he could hear to die down before he went on.

“The system is designed to match you against any other opponent who is loaded in next to you, so you could be fighting more than one opponent at a time. Be aware of that, and try not to be caught off guard.

“Any opponent that is defeated will be ejected from the arena so the next player can be loaded. The loading will be at random, so you'll have to be ready to go at all times.

“Brad will handle any interpretation of the rules that can't be handled by the arena. If you have an objection, he will be able to time out the current game until a ruling can be handed down.”

Fred looked at the screens set up to show the dueling arena. Gray markers indicated preliminary placement of the first duelists on a white plain. When things started, the arena would change to suit the duelists and what they summoned.

“One more thing before we get started,” said Fred. “I want all of you to have fun with this. We couldn't have done any of this without you.”

Fred cut the mike and started walking the floor. He smiled as things started at each of the tables. He idly wondered which of the five game masters would hit the twenty card mark first. They had a hand of five to start, and a new card for each one discarded. He expected the adventures to go well into the night, and into the next day.

His own experience had been about forty eight hours of intermittent play during testing. He admitted that he was bad at adventure design, so experts should do better than he had unless they drew things out, or their players were just bad at what they did.

As long as they had fun, they would still be good spokesmen for the RAILs.

The battle royal should take less time in his opinion. Even with a hundred duels being fought one after other, the players would be working hard to win either of the two prizes he had set up.

He would love to watch everything going on, but he felt it was better to wander the floor. If the system crashed, he needed to be ready to jump in and get it restarted before the groups, duelists and onlookers lost interest.

He didn't want them to think his tables were useless because of a glitch that could be fixed with a new breaker, or reset.

A sound went out of the crowd. He looked around. One of the duelists had already taken one of his opponents with some kind of angel. He looked at the board set up to show the standings. The loser had been slotted in last place as the first duelist knocked out of the arena.

He nodded. That was faster than he had expected, but duelists were quick draw fighters just like gunslingers from the old west. Names should be going up on the board in droves as the weaker fighters were knocked out by better decks.

Fred turned his attention to the closest gaming table. He should have warned those players they could be knocked out of their games if their characters died. He shrugged. They should know enough to be cautious with money on the line.

He couldn't remember if any of the game masters were killers. He hoped he hadn't set up a TPK in front of a crowd. He would never hear the end of it if he had.

He decided that there was nothing he could do about that either. If a GM killed his group, he couldn't complete the quests and get the money. Luck and the players would deal with that for him.

The players seemed to be having fun as their markers moved across the five tables.

Fred admitted he couldn't keep up from where he stood on the outside, but things were happening. The table tops changed to echo what was going on in the adventure. That part was working as well as he thought it would.

He looked at the Arena screen. The ground had changed to echo the effects of the duelists calling on their powers to deal with their enemies. He winced at what looked like a lava flow in action. Two more fighters went on the board in a blaze of cascading molten rock.

Their replacements loaded in on dry land away from the unnatural disaster, with space between them so they didn't know they were close enough to fight if they wanted. Instead they moved away from each other without knowing how little a gap they would have had between them when they started calling protection and offensive measures to them.

Fred nodded as others prepared to take the newcomers on.

He should get a lemonade while he waited for things to get to a midpoint.