Odyssey
Thursday evening: Nipped onto site after work. Chaos. Heavy rain earlier in the day had put the build back. The arena was heaps of wood, and the beginnings of a boundary fence. Many tents were not up. The access route was already a quagmire - slippery as anything where people had driven through long grass, and the top layer had turned to soup. Did a quick patrol to finds out what was where, bumped into Gill and Reb dressing some large marquees. Decided I'd better do something useful so gave them a hand. Saw the World Forge physrep that we'd discussed in Norwich a few weeks back and was suddenly more impressed - if that could be made, so could a lot more. Left site, and was delayed by a very nasty accident near Farthinghoe. Got back to the Warwick area much later than planned as a result.
Friday afternoon: Back on site. The arena exists. Player IC tents are sprouting in larger numbers. Not a lot to do until the briefing at 4pm for the arena team. See who's around, chat, circulate. Then "help needed at the G.O.D. desk". The arena team get sent down to help the understaffed (underestimated requirements rather than anyone missing / shirking) desk. Start work. Keep working. No time for the briefing. Two of us get left on desk while the others start the IC side of things, gathering the challenges and building the Arena timetable for Saturday. Start concentrating on the philosopher game admin - first time I've worked with Vince, rather than him being an IC enemy. Admin is behind schedule - and as people are regenerating characters on site, plus there are quite a few gate bookings there's a lot to do. The first PC character casualties start to come in - the game must have started - time in must have passed. Then it's 01:00, and the desk closes for the night.
Saturday morning - 09:30 and the arena team gets together. H in charge as King Minos. Sabrina and I as the two operations team - we decide that she'll run the challengers' gate, and I'll run the defenders gate. Katy Bacon selling fruit to the crowds, Chalkie as weapons checker, Jam & Ciaron as additional checkers, / fight marshalls, another young keen chap as an additional OOC 'briefer' for the players, and as King's champion to provide some entertainment between the big fights. Add to that the OC first aid team at their tent in the corner who would also battle marshall, and one or two other people who would take photos and help swap banners around, and that was the team for our part of the game.
18 fights to get through in the day, there could have been 20, but two challenges have not been made. 8 before a 1 slot break, 10 after it. The 'drowned dead' refs arrive - we'll have two there most of the day, most often Daisy and Paul Wilder, but sometimes Chris and Euan, and then the first team starts to arrive, we need to check them all in, weapon check them, punch their character cards to show they have taken part, give them a safety briefing, record their leaders and priests, get the priests in to introduce the warbands and warm up the crowds and then get the warbands in for the fight. One the fight ended - anything from 30 seconds to 15 minutes - the physicians could come in., we could enforce the 'draw a bead' rules to see who died, as the banners were changed for the next fight. Then, clear them out, get the next lot in, rinse and repeat.
Lunch was taken in the back of the G.O.D. as we quickly assessed how things were going and looked at what could be improved. The OOC briefing was updated, we looked at where things had slipped up, a few safety issues were addresses - then back in. We'd dropped behind time a few times during the morning, but made the time back up, with one or two small changes we could try to keep up better in the afternoon.
...and then it was over. The afternoon raced through, we finished on time, and retired to the tent to add up the numbers, and sit down. A results sheet was compiled, details of which priests had introduced the winning teas and which Gods they were seeking to please collated, and we could relax. By now it was dark, like Friday dark had come unnoticed.
Saturday night's socialising, a brief chance to go to the map room with King Minos, and see the gorgeous job that Gill had done with the great map, while passing on information about the following day's fights. While Sabrina and I had collated priest information, the others had been out with the results getting Sundays challenges, which Katy had put together into a sequence (with a little help from me) which should provide a decent day's fights on Sunday. Rome to open and close the day, with a final fight which could have critical repercussions should they lose on their starting resources for the next 'Annual'. Then a tour of the camps with Minos, quietly measuring up how people were reacting to the game, and admiring the amazing work the players had put into the feel of the camps, and then I was off into the bar, to play the game of trying to stand somewhere where it was impossible to see any of the half-naked Greek wrestlers.
Sunday - rinse and repeat Saturday.10 more combats, more mind games from the players, and a string of interesting casualties. The priests were working harder, putting everything into getting their teams the best start they could - there were sacrifices, berserkers, offerings, heckling and counter-heckling, and larger and larger fights. We coped. We pushed the timings, we turned the fights around to make better use of the length of the arena, we moved the casualty treatment outside when timing was tight, we slid timings to let the Carthaginians to get back from a quest for their fight, and finally, we finished at five minutes to three, ready for the closing ceremony at three. H had no voice left, my legs ached, and Katy had run out of throwing oranges, but we had done it.
Takedown and recovery was good. PD looked after the huge crew well, and I eventually got of site in time for Lunch in Brackley. There are things we can improve for next time but overall 'team arena' came out of the weekend very tired and very happy with how things there had gone.
I gather there was more to the event than that - but apart from seeing a lot of people with silly grins all over their faces, and knowing that it looked spectacular I really haven't got much of a clue what happened.
Friday afternoon: Back on site. The arena exists. Player IC tents are sprouting in larger numbers. Not a lot to do until the briefing at 4pm for the arena team. See who's around, chat, circulate. Then "help needed at the G.O.D. desk". The arena team get sent down to help the understaffed (underestimated requirements rather than anyone missing / shirking) desk. Start work. Keep working. No time for the briefing. Two of us get left on desk while the others start the IC side of things, gathering the challenges and building the Arena timetable for Saturday. Start concentrating on the philosopher game admin - first time I've worked with Vince, rather than him being an IC enemy. Admin is behind schedule - and as people are regenerating characters on site, plus there are quite a few gate bookings there's a lot to do. The first PC character casualties start to come in - the game must have started - time in must have passed. Then it's 01:00, and the desk closes for the night.
Saturday morning - 09:30 and the arena team gets together. H in charge as King Minos. Sabrina and I as the two operations team - we decide that she'll run the challengers' gate, and I'll run the defenders gate. Katy Bacon selling fruit to the crowds, Chalkie as weapons checker, Jam & Ciaron as additional checkers, / fight marshalls, another young keen chap as an additional OOC 'briefer' for the players, and as King's champion to provide some entertainment between the big fights. Add to that the OC first aid team at their tent in the corner who would also battle marshall, and one or two other people who would take photos and help swap banners around, and that was the team for our part of the game.
18 fights to get through in the day, there could have been 20, but two challenges have not been made. 8 before a 1 slot break, 10 after it. The 'drowned dead' refs arrive - we'll have two there most of the day, most often Daisy and Paul Wilder, but sometimes Chris and Euan, and then the first team starts to arrive, we need to check them all in, weapon check them, punch their character cards to show they have taken part, give them a safety briefing, record their leaders and priests, get the priests in to introduce the warbands and warm up the crowds and then get the warbands in for the fight. One the fight ended - anything from 30 seconds to 15 minutes - the physicians could come in., we could enforce the 'draw a bead' rules to see who died, as the banners were changed for the next fight. Then, clear them out, get the next lot in, rinse and repeat.
Lunch was taken in the back of the G.O.D. as we quickly assessed how things were going and looked at what could be improved. The OOC briefing was updated, we looked at where things had slipped up, a few safety issues were addresses - then back in. We'd dropped behind time a few times during the morning, but made the time back up, with one or two small changes we could try to keep up better in the afternoon.
...and then it was over. The afternoon raced through, we finished on time, and retired to the tent to add up the numbers, and sit down. A results sheet was compiled, details of which priests had introduced the winning teas and which Gods they were seeking to please collated, and we could relax. By now it was dark, like Friday dark had come unnoticed.
Saturday night's socialising, a brief chance to go to the map room with King Minos, and see the gorgeous job that Gill had done with the great map, while passing on information about the following day's fights. While Sabrina and I had collated priest information, the others had been out with the results getting Sundays challenges, which Katy had put together into a sequence (with a little help from me) which should provide a decent day's fights on Sunday. Rome to open and close the day, with a final fight which could have critical repercussions should they lose on their starting resources for the next 'Annual'. Then a tour of the camps with Minos, quietly measuring up how people were reacting to the game, and admiring the amazing work the players had put into the feel of the camps, and then I was off into the bar, to play the game of trying to stand somewhere where it was impossible to see any of the half-naked Greek wrestlers.
Sunday - rinse and repeat Saturday.10 more combats, more mind games from the players, and a string of interesting casualties. The priests were working harder, putting everything into getting their teams the best start they could - there were sacrifices, berserkers, offerings, heckling and counter-heckling, and larger and larger fights. We coped. We pushed the timings, we turned the fights around to make better use of the length of the arena, we moved the casualty treatment outside when timing was tight, we slid timings to let the Carthaginians to get back from a quest for their fight, and finally, we finished at five minutes to three, ready for the closing ceremony at three. H had no voice left, my legs ached, and Katy had run out of throwing oranges, but we had done it.
Takedown and recovery was good. PD looked after the huge crew well, and I eventually got of site in time for Lunch in Brackley. There are things we can improve for next time but overall 'team arena' came out of the weekend very tired and very happy with how things there had gone.
I gather there was more to the event than that - but apart from seeing a lot of people with silly grins all over their faces, and knowing that it looked spectacular I really haven't got much of a clue what happened.