Last day before vay-cay
Wow, writing out and following my agenda was surprisingly... relaxing? Cathartic? Especially since it mostly went according to plan.
I stayed up late on Friday night--late for me in my sad, sad adulthood being 1am--working on the mockup of acousticshadow2's wedding dress (interspersed with brief sessions of FTL). Then I got to the part where I needed to gather the four-odd feet of the full skirt to the 30" of the bodice, and I realized that might require math, and that I didn't have the brainpower for it.
(Note to self--it might be easier, in the future, to gather in four separate sections. Because trying to pull gathering stitches across the six gores of the skirt was, um, fun. Especially when one of the threads had a tangle in it, and I couldn't squish the gathers past it).
But no matter -- I could finish it while EB cooked me dinner.
So I went to bed, and then got up and went to WPI and played Heithur.
I played Hallbjorg Heimirsdottir, a priest of Thor from old society (i.e. Norse). My costuming was ALL THE FUR. I started with the Crocodile coat, but also wrapped my legs with fur and tied them with leather cord I had, and wrapped fur around my waist and tied it with a sash (which Shadows players would recognize as Hahanzi's sash). These additions were good when, 15 minutes into game, the fur coat became way too hot and I had to take it off. It's hotter than you might think on the North Sea! I guess.
Metal adornment is also part of the old society aesthetic, so I wore the silver chunk o' something necklace I got from my mom at the same time I got the Hahanzi sash. Because wired_lizard is awesome, she also brought a Thor's hammer pendant, which she loaned to me, too.
I'm impressed that I managed to pull this costume together entirely with pieces I had lying around! I think it worked out pretty well. I saw sprrwhwk taking a lot of pictures; I hope he got some of me.
So, how was the game? It was quite good! My main plot was a widget hunt, which I am surprisingly okay with. I succeeded at it too. And yet somehow ended the game being struck down by an angry god. Like you do.
It is, I will say, very much an MIT Assassin's Guild game. Not that I have played in a ton of AG games, except tangentially (I've played in a bunch of Steve Balzac games?), but I will say it had a ton of mechanics, and a definite sense of a win and a loss condition for the entire game.
I don't know if the mechanics took away from playing my character? Hallbjorg is kind of meant to be... angst-ridden, but it isn't a something I had much time to roleplay. I also didn't have much opportunity to sample the darker aspects of her personality, for various reasons.
I was also just quite open about everything--telling people about her unique situation, telling people I was looking for certain items, etc. I guess if I wanted to be more confrontational I could have taken those items instead of doing the thing that IS TOTALLY NOT TRADE BECAUSE NORSEMEN DON'T DO COMMERCE, but... meh.
Anyway, I had fun, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. The only thing that gives me pause is the casting system, which I feel didn't work for everyone. Matt, for example, felt like he got a character he really would not have apped for, a type of role he doesn't feel competent enough at.
After that, I got picked up by EB, and went grocery shopping, and went home, where I proceeded to finish Gathering: the Gathering while she made lasagna.
We spent the rest of the evening watching Azumanga Daioh (EB wanted really random anime -- I obliged), drinking wine, and baking cake (the latter partially inspired by the opening song mentioning the "fluffy temptation of wheat").
Oh, and somewhere in there we fit the dress. It needs more work. Another fitting in January.
Our search for fabric the next day was, alas, unsuccessful. We went to Sewfisticated in Framingham and Fabric Place Basement in Natick, but neither really had what she wanted. Sewfisticated had some exquisite Chantilly lace, but only in a brown color that wasn't really suitable for a wedding dress.
We also hit the Natick Mall, going to Wasabi (the kaitenzushi place) for lunch, followed by my Spending Too Much Money at Lush. (It's time for my seasonal pilgrimage to buy Snowcake and Buche de Noel and all the other holiday things I love. They were out of Buche de Noel, and I managed to resist buying Celebrate--I have enough lotion!--but did not manage to resist Rose Jam). Plus Matt's favorite Lush soap (Sandstone) is literally the most expensive one they sell...
Walking around a mall is tiring. Especially the ginormous Natick Mall. I came home and flopped down on my couch with FTL, completely exhausted.
And that was my weekend. Tonight I go home and begin packing for my adventure...
I stayed up late on Friday night--late for me in my sad, sad adulthood being 1am--working on the mockup of acousticshadow2's wedding dress (interspersed with brief sessions of FTL). Then I got to the part where I needed to gather the four-odd feet of the full skirt to the 30" of the bodice, and I realized that might require math, and that I didn't have the brainpower for it.
(Note to self--it might be easier, in the future, to gather in four separate sections. Because trying to pull gathering stitches across the six gores of the skirt was, um, fun. Especially when one of the threads had a tangle in it, and I couldn't squish the gathers past it).
But no matter -- I could finish it while EB cooked me dinner.
So I went to bed, and then got up and went to WPI and played Heithur.
I played Hallbjorg Heimirsdottir, a priest of Thor from old society (i.e. Norse). My costuming was ALL THE FUR. I started with the Crocodile coat, but also wrapped my legs with fur and tied them with leather cord I had, and wrapped fur around my waist and tied it with a sash (which Shadows players would recognize as Hahanzi's sash). These additions were good when, 15 minutes into game, the fur coat became way too hot and I had to take it off. It's hotter than you might think on the North Sea! I guess.
Metal adornment is also part of the old society aesthetic, so I wore the silver chunk o' something necklace I got from my mom at the same time I got the Hahanzi sash. Because wired_lizard is awesome, she also brought a Thor's hammer pendant, which she loaned to me, too.
I'm impressed that I managed to pull this costume together entirely with pieces I had lying around! I think it worked out pretty well. I saw sprrwhwk taking a lot of pictures; I hope he got some of me.
So, how was the game? It was quite good! My main plot was a widget hunt, which I am surprisingly okay with. I succeeded at it too. And yet somehow ended the game being struck down by an angry god. Like you do.
It is, I will say, very much an MIT Assassin's Guild game. Not that I have played in a ton of AG games, except tangentially (I've played in a bunch of Steve Balzac games?), but I will say it had a ton of mechanics, and a definite sense of a win and a loss condition for the entire game.
I don't know if the mechanics took away from playing my character? Hallbjorg is kind of meant to be... angst-ridden, but it isn't a something I had much time to roleplay. I also didn't have much opportunity to sample the darker aspects of her personality, for various reasons.
I was also just quite open about everything--telling people about her unique situation, telling people I was looking for certain items, etc. I guess if I wanted to be more confrontational I could have taken those items instead of doing the thing that IS TOTALLY NOT TRADE BECAUSE NORSEMEN DON'T DO COMMERCE, but... meh.
Anyway, I had fun, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. The only thing that gives me pause is the casting system, which I feel didn't work for everyone. Matt, for example, felt like he got a character he really would not have apped for, a type of role he doesn't feel competent enough at.
After that, I got picked up by EB, and went grocery shopping, and went home, where I proceeded to finish Gathering: the Gathering while she made lasagna.
We spent the rest of the evening watching Azumanga Daioh (EB wanted really random anime -- I obliged), drinking wine, and baking cake (the latter partially inspired by the opening song mentioning the "fluffy temptation of wheat").
Oh, and somewhere in there we fit the dress. It needs more work. Another fitting in January.
Our search for fabric the next day was, alas, unsuccessful. We went to Sewfisticated in Framingham and Fabric Place Basement in Natick, but neither really had what she wanted. Sewfisticated had some exquisite Chantilly lace, but only in a brown color that wasn't really suitable for a wedding dress.
We also hit the Natick Mall, going to Wasabi (the kaitenzushi place) for lunch, followed by my Spending Too Much Money at Lush. (It's time for my seasonal pilgrimage to buy Snowcake and Buche de Noel and all the other holiday things I love. They were out of Buche de Noel, and I managed to resist buying Celebrate--I have enough lotion!--but did not manage to resist Rose Jam). Plus Matt's favorite Lush soap (Sandstone) is literally the most expensive one they sell...
Walking around a mall is tiring. Especially the ginormous Natick Mall. I came home and flopped down on my couch with FTL, completely exhausted.
And that was my weekend. Tonight I go home and begin packing for my adventure...