Role Playing

Maggie strikes a deal with her college-aged son: she'll be more social if he is too, and the compromise leads her, under the alias Bogwitch, into an online gaming guild led by a warm, upbeat healer named Otter. Otter is actually Aiden, a fifty-year-old man using the guild as an escape from caring for his aging mother while his brother settles into a life with Aiden's ex-fiancée. Bogwitch assumes Otter is a college student; Otter assumes Bogwitch is an octogenarian — and when the mismatched pair finally meets face to face, their easy virtual friendship has to survive the shock of reality.

Cathy Yardley tells an emotional midlife rom-com about two guarded, grumpy-and-sunshine gamers finding real connection behind their screens.