The Saturn Game Author:Poul Anderson On an eight-year long voyage to Saturn, one of the more popular ways for the crew and colonists to pass time is becoming involved in psychodramas, a verbal-type role-playing game. But when a team of four people from the spaceship lands their smaller craft on Iapetus, one of Saturn’s moons, to explore the terrain, the terrain reminds three ... more »of them so strongly of the Tolkien-esque fantasy that they have spent countless hours creating and imagining, that it begins to affect their judgment and discernment. Bad decisions start to cascade as fantasy impinges on their exploratory mission on Iapetus. The fourth team member warns them:
"You played the game, year after year, until at last the game started playing you. That's what's going on this minute, no matter how you rationalize your motives."« less