The Name of the Game is a fantasy Short Story written by P.N. Elrod (of The Vampire Files fame), published in the DAW anthology book All Hell Breaking Loose in 2005. The story details the misadventures of a succubus bringing her mortal boyfriend to a gathering of old friends in a hotel in Hell.
The Name of the Game provides examples of:
- Abstract Eater: Demons feed off of certain emotions and sins associated with them from the Realside. Succubi and Incubi feed off of Lust and physical pleasure (making them more agreeable compared to others), while demons would harass and possess humans to feed off of the anger and sadness this causes.
- Celestial Bureaucracy: While "Upstairs" and Hell are enemies, it isn't a constant battle for dominance, otherwise the Realside would have been wiped out long ago. The result is closer to this trope; demons are allowed to cause mayhem and Heaven gives mankind the means to fight them off. When there's a case of mistaken identity (like Ralph convincing a Wizard that Irving was the one possessing his niece), angels will come in and vouch for him.
- Cessation of Existence: Contrary to common knowledge, demons who're killed on the Realside aren't sent back to the Otherside (ergo Hell). Instead, they simply stay dead in both worlds.
- Cold Iron: Iron is one of the few things that can kill a demon, though it takes prolonged exposure to kill them. Irving managed to stay alive long enough for Myhr to separate it from him while he was run-through with an iron sword, acting like he had been drugged all the while. It's also proven to be effective on wizards too.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Apparently the forms demons take on aren't a form of shapeshifting (or at least not entirely) and are instead a form of Glamour that doesn't work on each other, hence why Succubi and Incubi are all attractive (and nearly identical) by default, yet find each other physically repulsive.
- Hell: While its implied that the Fire and Brimstone Hell that damned souls suffer in exist, that's just one of many different Circles of Hell that exist in the Otherside.
- Hold Your Hippogriffs: Being demons, sayings with religious connotations are reversed, swapping "Hell" for "Heaven" ("What the Heaven's going on?") and "damned" for "saved" ("Not a saved thing!").
- Little Bit Beastly: Myhr is technically human, but he also possesses cat-DNA, making him borderline Cat Folk in appearance and mannerisms.
- Peeve Goblins: There exists a race of demons called car key gnomes.
- Take That!: The Boogieman is a Perpetually Protean demon who's forms are increasingly scarier than the last "like Michael Jackson."
