Played a game, which was nice. On Thursday evening last week, after a day of retail exercise with the charming Emma-Jean, I went to the
rpgMeetup’s inaugural DMies award night. Twenty-odd people turned up in semiformal wear and were pleasant company, which was nice. Things which happened to me include: Alex and I beat all comers at the pool table; I won a Best DM Exploit award for naked party in the brig of a pirate ship in a coliseum and a Best Setting award for the Othermoon Institute; and I had a lovely chat to Princess Shy which was all too brief. Everybody thought it was totally brilliant and should happen again in one form or another. Afterwards some people unsuccessfully attempted to go for coffee, but we were too late.
Friday I started out browsing around the stalls at
Cancon before heading over to the nerdfarm to listen to the
JJJ Hottest 100. Emma and Gavin also visited and games were played such as
Thurn and Taxis and
Ticket to Ride. I went to Cancon, again, during the weekend and bought many dice:
some polyhedral dice and
some ten-sided dice (for
Ars Magica). Dave bought some
Ebberon books at the
Mil Sims auction, he wants to use the setting with another system, and caught some
Mage Knight undead miniatures which we will use for Eagon’s undead minions in
World’s Largest Dungeon. Simon caught AEG’s
Guilds sourcebook which may never be used for anything. Many other people I knew were there, they waved hello and then vanished into the crowd.
Also on the weekend “Team Bubblehearth” was brought into the
World of Warcraft. Dave, Jimbo, Linda, Simon and I have created a group of
blood elf characters for the new
Burning Crusade expansion. We have been exploring the new game areas, together and separately depending on who is online when. On Sunday night, after a great time killing bad things, we sat around in an inn exchanging witty banter and performance enhancing drugs, which was great fun.
On Monday evening I joined John, Peta and Shy for Peter’s play-by-phone
Ars Magica game. Peter is in Sydney and runs the game using
Skype and
PmWiki. Everyone was simply lovely and it felt good. The session was about John’s companion (
Bertrand, the grog captain) leading a small army to recapture a castle for a dispossessed covenant, so the rest of us created grogs (Anseau, Henri and Phillipe) and marched off to battle. Discovering our foe had learned of our intention to besiege them Bertrand sent a pair of spies (
Màili, the Welsh archer, and
Olivier, the weird urchin) to infiltrate the castle posing as peasants fleeing our approaching army. Using inside information provided by the captain from the dispossessed covenant they opened a secret passage which allowed our strike force to enter and open the gates for the rest of the troops. We won! With the storyteller present only as a flashing blue speaker box there was not a lot of scope for sundry chat, except when the connexion dropped out which it managed to do at dramatic moments with uncanny frequency. It was different to have everybody attending to the story for the whole session and I think it will encourage a “story focussed” style of play, which is nice.
Last night Dave, Jimbo and Simon ploughed on with the
World's Longest Corridor, discovering new lows in AEG's mapping and descriptions including a "square" room which was twice as long as it was wide. The climax of the evening was a
drider wielding a variety of magical weapons, disguised as a
demon in a magic circle, suspended over a lake of lava. In the text read out to the players the book described the drider instead of the demon he was disguised as, and it suggested he would fight for five rounds and then tell the adventurers they were judged worthy to join the driders (as if!). In the end he lasted 6.2 seconds and Gruk has a new keen flaming greatsword. Earlier the party had found a well-equipped forge so there will be a brief period of armoursmithing next while Eagon outfits his raised
chimera skeleton in fire resistant studded leather. I expect characters without forge-based craft skills will do some reconnoitering, and if any
drow get in the way it will be their own fault.
The bear is a comedian.Muppet Labs has a new piece of the set for the upcoming season. The new flat looks okay but it was poorly constructed; it works well enough as long as Beaker remembers to duck. After this season it can be reconstructed in a better way. On the other hand, as Gonzo suggested, we could get Scooter to ask his uncle who owns the theatre for more money and hire “emergency chickens” to do it immediately. Kermit said it’s not broken so don’t fix it, which Fozzie took as a challenge. He says it may not be broken but it can be fixed in time for rehearsals, which started yesterday. Of course, there will be no money for chickens. Beauregard, who built the thing, is quite busy fixing sets he built last season. It will be me who has to fix it.
These things happen to other people,They don't happen at all in fact.She's an Angel - They Might Be Giants
The people I know move house and change jobs and buy the latest [insert nouns] and visit doctors and create art and travel and grow. Some write about it in cyberspace (like this) and some don't. I would if I did those things, but I haven't been so I don't. Instead, I'm happy; but it doesn't make good copy: "I saw a movie*, which was nice".
Meanwhile, have some joy. I hope it can make a difference.
And me? Well, I just stay out of their way.The J Song - Sesame Street
*Pan's Labyrinth.
Lovely friendly weekend.On Friday I spent the evening with various combinations of Alex, Andy, Bela, Dave, Emma, Felicity, Jimbo, Mark, Shy, Simon and Steve; at King O'Malley's, a carousel, a Korean restaurant and Gus's Cafe. On Saturday afternoon at Dobinson's we set a new crowd record for Meetup (sixteen). Then I visited Borders with Alex, Emma, Gavin, Mark and Paul before Emma, Gavin and I met Dave, Fiona, Jimbo and Simon to watch
Casino Royale. After the movie we ate at Wagamama which was tasty fun. On Sunday Emma ran her Christmas Game at the Pancake Parlour for Alex, Gavin, James, Mark, Paul, Shy and I. James and Shy went home but the rest of us watched
Samurai 7 at Gavin's house. Gosh I enjoyed my weekend!
Still happy.Work is approaching the time when all the idle slugs cry and palm off their share onto people with a sense of duty (or guilt); slightly delayed by the holiday period, and subsequently more severe as the idlers return to the stuff they didn't do before they went away. The sadd part is watching the people with the authority to make it work fail to do so. Again.
On the other hand Emma is in town so I am watching a billionty more movies than usual, most recently
Babel which was a classic piece of "not as good as the book". (I assume there is a book.) There were seven players at the Dangerous Wayfarers game on Saturday and they slew a dragon (but only after it had killed two of them). Most of them said they are looking forward to the next game. Peter sent me a message about a spot in his
Ars Magica game, and Dave is talking to a few indie game fans from Meetup with an eye to playing some of those. Tomorrow Emma and the Nerdfarmlings return to the
World's Longest Corridor. Lots of fun, much more than work. Have some yourself.
