This week we played No Boundaries by Marc Hobbs as a group of workers at a failing chain bookstore in an outdoor mall outside New York City. We are prankster Blythe the barista and fill-in storyteller, garrulous Dwight the gift wrapper, slacker Pete the shelver, and bitter Sonja the poetry specialist. We arrive on New Year's Day and wait for the manager to open up and chat about our Eves. Blythe arrives with green hair, having stayed home to dye it as part of her training to be a hairdresser. Dwight is wearing a three-piece suit and tells us about the party at a billionaires mansion. Pete spent the evening whooping it up in Times Square with his surfer buddies. And Sonja complains about how she and her friends were removed from a boat house party where they had every right to be.

In the first part of the year, our corporate overlords decide that we need to add sporting equipment to our stock. Dwight and Sonja end up wrapping a set of golf clubs for a customer who insists that each one be wrapped individually and isn't pleased with our book themed paper. In the lounge, Pete is chilling with Blythe and Dwight when Sonja comes in complaining about the basketballs in the poetry section, but before going back out there, Blythe dyes Pete's hair in the sink. Blythe aids Sonja in selling a bicycle to a customer, even though neither of them know anything about bikes. On a smoke break with Pete and Dwight, Blythe suggests they go together to Hawaii if the store closes down, and all consider their futures.

Red stick figure stands in front of bookshelves loaded with book with section heads stating "Business" and "Failure".
Image courtesy of Less Than Three Games from Itch.io

Over the long summer, the company offers an all-expenses paid trip to New York City to the employee who sells the most membership cards. While Pete is trying to sell a card to a customer, Blythe keeps needling the customer and gets him to write the check to her in exchange for her employee discount. Pete offers to meet the customer out back to sell him some weed. In the lounge, Dwight hears from Sonja rumors about the store: the manager Tall Dave may be leaving, and the higher ups may be catching onto Pete's side business out the back. In a big smoke break out back, everyone is out of cigs after Tall Dave has been replaced by a real ball-buster who is making us all miserable. Blythe convinces us to sabotage the membership card contest to ensure the company has to shell out to send a winner some distance to get to New York.

For the end of the year, corporate starts a partnership to sell Taco Bell in the café, which excites Pete to no end and depresses the rest of us. Blythe decides to incorporate an anti-Taco Bell message into story time and brainstorms ideas with Sonja, who suggests a taco house in Hansel & Gretel or telling the kids about Willy Wonka & the Chalupa Factory. On a smoke break, we all discuss whether that Hawaii idea is real, and everyone promises to support Sonja with Dwight tending bar, Blythe styling hair, and Pete running the store. If we could steal a bunch of books before we leave, it might make opening our own easier.

At the end of the year, the store finally closes, our final workday New Year's Eve. That night Pete holds a pity party with his surfer friends and Sonja joins in, uncertain what to do with herself. Blythe is packing for Hawaii, prepping the stolen books for shipment, and wondering whose coming with her. Dwight decides to live blog the celebrations in Time Square, hoping to outdo the professional announcers and get noticed.