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Ava Jarvis: There and Back Again: A Gathering of Friends Report, Part 3
Everything you needed to know you learned at the Gathering.
Don’t worry about your worthiness to the gaming community. The Gathering of Friends is not about that. Like many conventions, the Gathering is about re-establishing old connections and making new ones. This is the main point.
The other point is, of course, to game your eyes out.
Game designers are just like everyone else.
Except Friedemann Friese.
If you are going to spend all night playing Werewolf, you should take a nap the next day. Werewolf happens at night; you can’t change that. What you can change is when and how you get your 6-8 hours.
It is very comforting to know that there are now a few more places in the world where you could show up on a doorstep one night in dire need of a twenty.
Greg is gregarious. He’s one of the friendliest people you will ever know.
Larry Levy is kind, wise, and has a great beard.
You already know about Rick’s amazing hair.
Party games have redeeming value.
Matthew Monin has a Blue Moon fetish and has managed to create a nigh unbeatable Khind deck. He should never be allowed anywhere near Magic: the Gathering.
Matthew Gray has a beard now.
Carrie Gray states the ultimate truth: you can’t find proper sandals that cost less than $115.
Derk and Aldie are still Derk and Aldie. Except that Aldie can play games now instead of constantly tending the BGG.CON main desk.
It takes a lot of effort to organize and head a convention.
Thanks, Alan!
Steffan O’Sullivan makes for a wonderful king rabbit, drugged out prophet doe, mating-obsessed bird, snuffly bears (male and female), engineering-focused beavers, and narrator of a little RPG session of Bunnies and Burrows.
Time is kept in RPGs by a mechanic known as the GM.
You do not need to ‘detect lies’ on characters in a Bunnies and Burrows game.
This is how to pronounce “Fiese Freunde Fette Fetten”: Fee-sa Fr-oy-n-da Fet-ta Fet-ten. Repeat.
“Dragons of Kir” is also quite fun to say, as in “You must try… Dragons of Kiiir!”.
Tea tree oil is disgusting and can be poisonous in large quantities. But tiny amounts applied carefully with a cotton swab to a canker sore can do wonders.
Average playing time for Find Daniel’s Car: 3 minutes.
Term: gentleman. Definition: Jay Tummelson.
Do not recommend Hefty OneZip freezer bags to anyone who would be less than thrilled with storing Commands & Colors: Ancients blocks in bags with pretty blue flowers.
Eat somewhere other than the hotel.
Get snacks from the nearest supermarket.
Food you cannot finish yourself can always be left out in appropriate portions on the Gathering food table.
From the old Counter issues you bought at the flea market: Tikal was once a Gathering hit, and Jay was so enthusiastic about Torres coming out one year that he improvised a copy of it from spare bits.
To be part of history!
Lord of the Rings with all of its expansions takes up way too much room.
Teaching games is not that hard, although some are harder to teach than others. You just need to keep the phases of teaching clearly in mind:
1. SHORT overview.
2. Go over the materials briefly.
3. Do setup. This will likely be set down again.
4. Explain the game turn in general.
5. Explain exceptions, easiest first.
6. Explain end of game conditions, and victory conditions.
7. Redo game setup for the real game.
These are golden rules.
There is a lot of teaching done at the Gathering.
Rules for the flea market:
1. Try not to get games you won’t need.
2. If #1 fails, try to get games that are small.
3. If #2 fails, try to find a game in an oversize box that you can use to pack the contents of other game boxes into.
Pack a soft duffel that folds up small. Dirty clothes go in the duffel. Games go into the more solid luggage.
Priorities, you know.
Roby Rally is a party game for geeks.
Do not sit down at a prototype just because you’ll feel guilty if you don’t. Make sure it really is your kind of game and that its duration won’t exceed your patience.
Also, do not ignore prototypes just because they are prototypes; if they are far enough along in development, they can be very, very good.
Prize table rules:
1. Spend time before hand to mark where games you want are located, the number of such games there are, and how badly you want them.
2. Do not lose this list.
3. Keep updating the list as the table gets moved and shuffled around.
4. Do not lose this list.
5. If you do lose the list, there’s an official last-minute look-see before the ceremony.
There is a hidden contest at every Gathering. It tends to reward organization, peristence, and diligence.
This year, it rewards Sterling Babcock.
This is how you put away a game that comes in a long cylinder:
1. Put the pieces in multiple ziploc bags, spread out into enough bags so that they can form the core of the tube.
2. Line up the bags along the edge of the roll-up board. Any extra bags that don’t fit along this length should be put to the side.
3. Roll up the board around the bags. Make sure the roll is thin enough to stick into the tube.
4. Remember to stick the rules in so that they roll up inside the board.
5. Holding the board roll carefully, slide it into the tube. If too thick, repeat steps 1-4 until it is thin enough.
6. Any extra bags should be stuck into the tube after sliding the roll down to the bottom of the cylinder.
Storing the cylinder is another matter.
That guy playing the piano in the lobby knows three tunes: something miscellaneous and sad, Memories, and Rainbow Connection.
Do not hang around the lobby longer than you must.
The Last Day:
If you are going on an early morning flight, you are pretty much not gaming.
If you are going on an afternoon flight, you are playing games of short to medium length.
If you are daring, you will play Can’t Stop until the absolute last minute that you need to leave for the plane.
If you aren’t leaving until Monday, you are one lucky gamer and get to play Age of Steam before tucking into the Sunday special dinner.
Three things that will stave off post-Gathering depression:
1) A ride to the airport in a van full of Gathering folks.
Added value: James-Bond-like dialogue between the shuttle driver and the staff back at the hotel as they retrieve a forgotten jacket and read out the right ticket verification numbers in it....
2) Meeting Kevin Nunn and his wife at the airport, unexpectedly.
Added value: enough time for talk and a short game (any game). 10 Days in the USA might just end with a winning hand that looks, ironically, like your multiple flights back home.
3) A five-hour flight home, upgraded from coach to first class by the airline.
Added value: Watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Limosines from the airport cost only a little bit more than taxis.
What the heck.
When you can, ride home in style.
(And don’t forget the ferry schedule.)
Posted by Ava Jarvis on May 4, 2006 at 02:45 AM in Ava Jarvis / 1220
Comments:
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I was *so* that person playing Can’t Stop til the last minute. I’d have been in trouble if I’d actually won my game. That van ride was really amusing, I admit :) I do wonder though if I am the only person that *doesn’t* make a list of what I want on the prize table? To me, the prize table is just Lagniappe. Whatever will be, will be. I usually get something decent that I have trouble fitting into my luggage and I’d probably end up with the same thing whether I made a list or not. You will also be amused to know that one person at the Gathering actually bought a CD from the piano guy in the lobby. I had thought he was joking about doing it until he actually did it. Posted by Anye Mercy on May 4, 2006 at 09:54 AM | #
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>This is how you put away a game that comes in a >long cylinder:
I’ve played that game Ava, mine was called ‘Stowing Dragons of Kir’. I rate it a 2. I might rate it higher the next time thanks to your tips. Were you playing a variant or the same Stowing game? :) As for the piano guy in the lobby, my only concern was when he was on his cell phone while playing. Was he calling his friends to see if they could bring him some different sheet music? I’ve really enjoyed reading your reports from the Gathering. Posted by Kevin Bender on May 5, 2006 at 09:07 PM | #
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