2007-09-27: Nerdly Sleepover
by Emily
Nerdly takes Berlin.
This weekend I headed out to DC—I got to hang out with our beloved Clinton R. Nixon, and meet the inimitable Dave Younce, for which I'm glad since I might have missed meeting him all together before he and his lovely family move to England. Though we may see him in our neck of the woods in November—if we're lucky.
We played two games, interspersed with Resistance: the Fall of Man (sic). Crap that is beautiful! And man did I just die and die. Should have spent those years playing the Simpsons patch of Doom in the 90s like everybody else. I'll just never catch up. :)
The first game was a mash-up of the Durham Three's homebrew of Art, Grace and Guts with my recollection of Vincent's new spandangly rules for In a Wicked Age... (the same game in a later stage).
But...with miniatures!!!
It's a slippery slope. My plane was late, so Dave and Clinton wandered over to Daves FLGS. Clinton then succumbed to the tempation to purchase D&D minis. It was all over from there.
Our game was great fun. In our scenario, a young thug out to blackmail the prince of the city ended up saving the prince's morganantic beaux, the daughter of a trapper from being sacrificed by said trapper and another fiendish priest to the chthuloid "protector" god of the city. It ended on a nice cliffhanger, with the prince giving up his throne for the girl—on promise of finding the godthing's stone of power that would open up much more than this small kingdom to his command. Solid In a Wicked gaming.
Apparently, Clinton's Oracle as seen on Abulafia is one of the top hits generators. This reminds me that I should get something like this made for Sign in Stranger. A noun, verb and adjective generator. Colors too!
A bug's eye view of Clinton.
The next day we played Ron's Spione. Now there is a scarily taut little game. We used the (cap) gun I'm holding in the picture above as our marker of who had narration. We used the quick cutting technique recommended in the game to maneuver my character, Issam, to flashpoint in two moves: his wife called him on smelling of cheap Russian perfume—put there, of course, by Clinton's character's wife. His professor working for MI6 had no idea that sexy Tatiana was Issam's handler, who had handled most of town.
Our criss-crossed stories climaxed with a standoff at gunpoint when Issam confronted Tatiana at her home, springing the professor from his cover, and escalating to the professor locking Tatiana in their basement with his hidden Nazi-looted hoard of art.
I want to play this game as soon as I can. After fumbling with the card mechanics for a round or two, we got the hang of it, and the game does exactly what I've been looking at and thinking about for structured freeform play.
Also during the weekend, I got to visit my old friend from High School Meredith, who recommended I see the National Museum of the American Indian in DC, as well as the Library of Congress. If you are going to DC anytime soon, I recommend not missing either of these sights. They actually represent the best of this country and cultures who live on this land. Real, worthwhile monuments to life, knowledge and wisdom, rather than death, war and ignorance.
2007-09-27 21:30:25 Emily
There are more pictures at the Fairgame photogallery.
2007-09-27 21:52:19 Judd
Library of Congress...neat.
A friend told me that among the federal agencies, the Library of Congress has something like the third highest number of armed personel. I'll have to find varification of that somewhere.
Wild.
2007-09-28 02:19:03 Ron Edwards
Whoooooo! Spione! My love and thanks.
Please post about it at the forum, OK?
Best, Ron
2007-09-28 04:41:35 Dave Younce
Thanks for posting this, Emily!
Re: Sign in Stranger generators - I'm totally down with helping you get whatever generator support you want to have on Abulafia, if that's where you want it. When you have some free time shoot me an email and we'll get you going there.
Ron, I started a forum thread about the game, but it's late and so I didn't get past the setup. It was a great game, though. Definitely not my last.
2007-09-28 10:47:17 Clinton R. Nixon
Ron,
Spione was *fantastic* and blew me away.
Dave and Emily! Can I say in public that I love you guys? 'Cause I do.
I have, since this weekend, bought 12 more miniatures. I feel a slight obsession coming on.
- Clinton
2007-09-28 20:16:06 Emily
Clinton: the love is most mutual. :)
And, Ron—totally. This is just the start for me too. I'll add to the thread.
Dave: let us talk. thank you! yay.
2007-09-28 20:19:46 Emily
A friend told me that among the federal agencies, the Library of Congress has something like the third highest number of armed personnel. I'll have to find verification of that somewhere.
For serious?
I got my reader card while I was there. I am now able to access the stacks. That was a hoot.
I suspect that also means they have a file on me now, or an addition if I was already on the books. C'est la vie.