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Nov. 22nd, 2003 05:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckUCon actually went fairly well. Scott dropped by the Union on Friday to pick up our registration packet and generally make sure that nothing unexpected had happened with the scheduling for our LARP. (We were sure nothing had-- We know a lot of people working on the convention, and they'd have given us a heads up if something had needed to be changed.)
Saturday, all three of us went into town for a little while. The point then being to show off the baby to all of the friends and acquaintances we don't normally run into elsewhere. Scott bought some game books (The ones I remember for sure are GURPS Monsters and the core rulebook for the Stargate game). Delia seemed to enjoy herself. She even made a friend her own age--
I was looking for a place to sit down and nurse. We were in the room where the board gaming was. There were several tables with extra space, but I didn't want to freak anybody out by inviting myself to their table and baring a breast. Then I spotted a table with two women and a baby. I asked if they minded, and they didn't. The baby was a boy about two weeks older than Delia. After she'd finished eating, the two of them stared at each other and kind of batted at each other's hands. The boy was also fascinated with Delia's chew toy, a large blue six-sided die made of foam that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lunargeography brought back from Origins. His mother commented that she'd been trying to find a full set of similar dice (We later found out from one of the dealers that the line has been discontinued because the manufacturer wasn't willing to make small quantities. They wanted a minimum order of 10,000 sets, and the demand simply isn't that high.)
We went down to the Mug, and I had a Wendy's salad while Scott had a sandwich from Subway. Delia slept. As we ate, we looked over the con book. There wasn't anything that I felt strongly about playing or seeing, so we decided that Scott would take me and Delia home and then return to the con on his own. I was also feeling a bit run down, so I hoped that I'd be able to get to bed a bit early.
Sunday, getting everything packed into the car took a bit longer than we'd expected. We're still not used to the baby paraphernalia. Fortunately, our game was starting later than usual this year (I'd asked for some extra time to set up since I expected we'd need a couple of trips and because I thought it might be good to have time to get Delia settled before we had to deal with a sudden influx of players).
booniverse and her husband, Matt, had volunteered to act as baby wranglers for the event, and I'm deeply grateful to them for it. I don't think we could have run the game otherwise. Well, we might have, but I think we wouldn't have run it well. Delia was actually fairly well behaved even though she was exhausted by the end of the game-- She didn't want to risk missing anything by sleeping.
We had 19 players for 20 characters. Four people who'd bought tickets didn't show up (I took three generic tickets, and we'd sold out before the event started). The plot that I'd had to majorly rework hung together fairly well, but I misjudged the casting a little. I had three characters who needed to cooperate and who ought to have hesitated to do so, but I cast the roles with three guys who knew each other fairly well, and they came together almost immediately.
I hadn't had time or energy to fully prepare for the eventuality of those characters coming together. Basically, two characters when united had unexpected (and undefined powers) while the third character knew they needed to work together and had to convince them of it. I ought to have had a write up of how the process worked and have defined exactly what they could and could not do. But I hadn't. Ah, well...
Saturday, all three of us went into town for a little while. The point then being to show off the baby to all of the friends and acquaintances we don't normally run into elsewhere. Scott bought some game books (The ones I remember for sure are GURPS Monsters and the core rulebook for the Stargate game). Delia seemed to enjoy herself. She even made a friend her own age--
I was looking for a place to sit down and nurse. We were in the room where the board gaming was. There were several tables with extra space, but I didn't want to freak anybody out by inviting myself to their table and baring a breast. Then I spotted a table with two women and a baby. I asked if they minded, and they didn't. The baby was a boy about two weeks older than Delia. After she'd finished eating, the two of them stared at each other and kind of batted at each other's hands. The boy was also fascinated with Delia's chew toy, a large blue six-sided die made of foam that
lunargeography brought back from Origins. His mother commented that she'd been trying to find a full set of similar dice (We later found out from one of the dealers that the line has been discontinued because the manufacturer wasn't willing to make small quantities. They wanted a minimum order of 10,000 sets, and the demand simply isn't that high.)We went down to the Mug, and I had a Wendy's salad while Scott had a sandwich from Subway. Delia slept. As we ate, we looked over the con book. There wasn't anything that I felt strongly about playing or seeing, so we decided that Scott would take me and Delia home and then return to the con on his own. I was also feeling a bit run down, so I hoped that I'd be able to get to bed a bit early.
Sunday, getting everything packed into the car took a bit longer than we'd expected. We're still not used to the baby paraphernalia. Fortunately, our game was starting later than usual this year (I'd asked for some extra time to set up since I expected we'd need a couple of trips and because I thought it might be good to have time to get Delia settled before we had to deal with a sudden influx of players).
booniverse and her husband, Matt, had volunteered to act as baby wranglers for the event, and I'm deeply grateful to them for it. I don't think we could have run the game otherwise. Well, we might have, but I think we wouldn't have run it well. Delia was actually fairly well behaved even though she was exhausted by the end of the game-- She didn't want to risk missing anything by sleeping.We had 19 players for 20 characters. Four people who'd bought tickets didn't show up (I took three generic tickets, and we'd sold out before the event started). The plot that I'd had to majorly rework hung together fairly well, but I misjudged the casting a little. I had three characters who needed to cooperate and who ought to have hesitated to do so, but I cast the roles with three guys who knew each other fairly well, and they came together almost immediately.
I hadn't had time or energy to fully prepare for the eventuality of those characters coming together. Basically, two characters when united had unexpected (and undefined powers) while the third character knew they needed to work together and had to convince them of it. I ought to have had a write up of how the process worked and have defined exactly what they could and could not do. But I hadn't. Ah, well...
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-22 03:27 pm (UTC)Well, it sounds like the game went fairly well despite the little glitches in the intended plot line. :)
no subject
Date: 2003-11-22 06:36 pm (UTC)Oh, and I got your papers. I've read the Harry Potter one. I don't have any really intelligent comments on it, I'm afraid. I do think you're right-- The movie was considerably less rich than the book. The two media are so different that what's strong in one isn't necessarily as powerful or even functional in the other.
I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to read the other paper. Hopefully soon.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-22 04:28 pm (UTC)headacheeffort from here, and I'm always impressed by people who can pull it off. GMing is hard enough...Foam dice: Oh, that sucks. There's a "House of Foam" store in Palo Alto that claims to do one-offs; maybe the dice people should talk to them. In the current lousy climate here, small manufacturers are probably willing to be flexible as heck.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-22 06:23 pm (UTC)The House of Foam sounds interesting. I wonder if they could do dice... Do they have a website? Basically, the main market for the things is gamers with small children. The dice we have (3d6) are very solid and tough, made to be chewed on.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-23 12:15 am (UTC)I'm not sure it's the right type of foam, from the descriptions. But if not them, there must be somebody who can produce a small batch of custom-cut shapes. Fab technology is astonishing.
*thoughtfully does a websearch* *falls over from sheer gamer lust*
http://www.purcifuls-toys.com/semstonpoldi.html - _hematite dice_. lapis dice. tigereye dice. Want. Covet.
http://www.purcifuls-toys.com/16fodisporsi.html - Table-sized dice!
http://www.buncogame.com/bcat2.shtml - Fuzzy toy dice! (page bottom)
*chooses not to follow the link mentioning "In the Dark Erotic Dice"*
Ahem. No chewable baby dice. But darn it, I know at least three local gamer families with small kids, not to mention the family we're going to for Thanksgiving. Will ask around.