A user tries to wrap her head around all the rules and regulations concerning simulation.

Finally at peace after decades of war, the telepathic people of Gaant and the people of Enith can coexist, including a Gaantish military officer and an Enithi nurse. The two had become unlikely friends after being one another's prisoners during the war; they'd bonded over chess, and can now finish their game in peace.

In a near future world, a famous computerized drama director is pushed beyond his artistic limits when a random science fiction writer asks him to adapt his novel for the digital stage—for the alluring incentive of real gold payment.

In civil war-stricken Burundi of 1994, a divorced expatriate posing as a blindfolded chess grandmaster meets another imposter pulling off the same con as him.

A simulacron, who serves as a representative of an alien species, speaks with the US Secretary of Science about their wish to purchase the planet Jupiter. While the Secretary worries about stirring up conflict between the simulacron and another species, the simulacron assures him that no harm will come to Earth, and the two eventually reach an agreement.

Entranced by the allure of real magic, a market boy is appointed court magician for a cruel regent. Only when he begins to lose the things he loves does he realize he was not ready to pay the cost.

A graduate student finds himself embroiled in a strange sort of psychological game after he agrees to write a paper for another well-off student.

When their made-up country suddenly becomes real, three high school friends find themselves in a predicament.

Some time in the distant future, a children's toy inspection agency reviews imported alien toys to make sure they are safe for "Terran" children to use. The inspectors play the three imported games and suspect nefarious intentions from the "Ganymedean" toy makers.

A man recalls his intimate friendship with his former English professor, who resolved to fuel his unsatisfied desire for playwriting during the time they were apart. In their reunion decades later, instead of the brilliant play he promised, the professor shows his former student a disturbing product of his mental instability.