For those seeking a different kind of fun, the drink and music have attracted plenty of people who prefer to sit in sheltered corners and play their own preferred games. In a sheltered street to one side of the party, dice and knucklebones roll, cards are shuffled, players shout in triumph or groan with their loss. The scent in the air hints that gambling isn’t the only somewhat illicit vice being indulged back here, but who’s going to complain? It’s the Nexus.

For those who just want to learn a new game, most of the players are quite laid-back and willing to show an alien stranger the rules. But anyone willing to wager a little more will find revelers equally willing to indulge them. Maybe a little too willing. There’s something about the atmosphere back here, or the heady liquor being passed around, or the man who hands it to you with a wicked grin and vanishes when you look away…

Oh, but you will have fun.