With the roll of some tiny yellow dice, Andrew McMurphy tugged on his shirt collar to cool himself as he declared the professor dead.

McMurphy had been engaged in combat for only a short time, and despite the heat and death, he was smiling with delight.

In between bites of his sandwich, he sent soldiers off to battle and taunted his opponent. The death was a trivial loss - he was just happy to be out of the house for some fun.

"You can only sit in front of a computer screen for so long," he said, tossing the yellow dice again.

McMurphy, a senior at Michigan Tech, played "Warhammer 40,000" on Friday at Fortress Comics and Games Inc., 425 Albert Ave.

Friday and Saturday evenings aren't just for binge drinking and celebrating another completed week of class. Fans of fantasy, science-fiction and role-playing games meet at Fortress and 21st Century Comics & Games, 515 E. Grand River Ave., to talk strategy, play a game with friends or meet people who have the same hobbies and interests. Both stores have open gaming and encourage experienced gamers and newcomers to enter their stores.

Gaming isn't equal to sitting down and playing a video game. The fans of these games instead use cards, game boards or table tops with tiny models to compete in these contests. They plan wars, use strategy and read rule books, which can be 300 pages in length.

The games sometimes follow storylines or have accompanying fictional stories for fans to devour when they aren't preparing for their next match.

Warhammer 40,000 miniatures are even hand-painted by the players. Some of these figures are smaller than a Dixie cup and feature ornate detail.

It took McMurphy eight hours just to paint the clothes and face, which of course include eyes and a facial expression, on only one gaming figure.

Once school or work ends, these seemingly normal shops becomes the destination for many looking to escape the drudgery of a long day by partaking in some heated competition.

About 30 people made their way into Fortress on Friday to use one of their many miniature tables, sit down to a board game or a card game of Magic: The Gatheringor engage in Dungeons and Dragons. The gamers sat beneath posters of Spider-Man and the Teen Titans, hunching over their games, laughing with friends trying to beat one another.

Fortress owner Eric Treanor opened the store because he knew there needed to be something for people who enjoy gaming.

"When I was younger, there wasn't anywhere to go, and if my friends couldn't play with me, then I had no one to play with," Treanor said.

All of that changed once Fortress opened, which features several tables set up with scale models - specifically used for table-top miniatures and a basement set aside for other games including Dungeons and Dragons.

Treanor said people often come from locations as far away as Flint, Detroit, Grand Rapids and Saginaw to use their facilities and engage in tournaments.

"People find a way to make it in to play their games," Treanor said.

21st Century manager Lon Braidwood said since the store opened more than three years ago, an average of 10 to 15 people enter the shop to take part in the open gaming every Friday and Saturday.

The newest game to begin catching on is HeroClix, which has a click dial.

"(The dial) has a set of numbers, the number is where you have different powers and every time you take a hit, you click down," Braidwood said.

Joseph Yang sat at a table, preparing his cards for a game of Magic: The Gathering. The Lansing Community College freshman only had been playing the game for a year but now owns 2,000 cards.

"The friends I used to hang out with introduced me to it," Yang said, carefully laying out his cards. "You're wizards and your cards are your spells."

Advertising senior Nicholas Bowman is an avid Dungeons and Dragons player. Bowman said these activities have had a bad rap but people should be a little more open-minded.

For Bowman, just staying home with friends is more enjoyable than venturing into town for a game.

"It is not limited by the rules like a video game," he said of Dungeons and Dragons. "Use your imagination. If you like games and you like using your imagination then it's perfect."

Shaun Byron is The State News film reporter and the keeper of The Three Keys of Fenteuzler, reach him at byronsha@msu.edu.