BRAVE NEW WORLD DEPT.INSTANCING

Wednesday evenings at Hex&Co., board-game café and bar in Morningside Heights, are dedicated to "RPG Encounters," in which fans of role-playing games gather to create collaborative stories over espresso drinks.

- Luis A. Gómez

"I know it sounds counterintuitive, boys, but if we want to rob the train we've got to catch the train, and to catch the train we're gonna have to play hard to get."

On a recent R.P.G. night, Isabel J. Kim-a speculative-fiction author whose first novel, "Sublimation," came out in Junesat at a table in front of a long shelf cluttered with games.