Gaming Weekend
I woke up Saturday morning, cooked breakfast for, well, half the people in the house, then got ready to go to Fandom Cafe to help setup for the June Open Gaming Meet/Balasa. Met up with Jon, Miao, Paolo, Nina, Vic and Nabs, and proceeded to go on a road trip from Cubao to SM Marikina.
What happened next was an epic road trip were, after Pao and Nina left in one car, the rest of us got lost. Turns out none of us had been to SM Marikina before, and we got stuck in traffic (at 10 am on a Saturday morning!) and made wrong turns and had to loop around Marikina Riverbank. Heck, I even tried to figure out a way using the map on the NWA and Marikina City website to figure out a route from our current location using Jon's wireless broadband connection on his laptop, but instead we asked directions from one of the locals instead, which was much more efficient. :P
The venue given to us was on the 1st floor, in the CyberZone area. It was actually a pretty great location - restaurants were accessible, and we didn't get mobbed. The only problem was we were located beside one of the noisiest laptop booths ever. If they only played their music a little less louder, or chose ones that weren't so annoying that would haunt you the rest of the day (we were still singing their songs 6 hours after we left SM Marikina, until somebody finally played the greatest hits of Queen to counteract. Puro earworms. Ugh.)
There were definitely a lot more newbies at this game rather than before, in my perception. It was so fun teaching friends how to run some of the more complex ones. I was also really tempted to join the "Shake, Rattle & Roll"-themed New World Of Darkness RPG ran by Beej, but I opted to continue playing the board games instead.
We played "Krag-Mortha", which always results in everybody in the game ending up in sadistically uncomfortable positions around the board. However, Mark Poa's little sister ended things too early by getting too many difficult consequences landing on her in quick succession. Her tongue got really dried out by the end. XD "Betrayal at the House on the Hill" was, again, a bloody fun mess. Jme, on her first playthrough, ended up evil and killed the rest of the players. XD Sadly, the game is still in dire need of much rules tweaking, and can't be played without an arbiter who's memorized the rules backwards and forwards.
Next time, I want to play "Betrayal..." with both Mark Poa and Rej in it, just to see what would happen. Mark Poa has never lost a board game I've seen him play. Rej always ends up going evil and killing everybody. Whose power is greater? :P
After the day wrapped up, most of us who were still around headed to Fandom Cafe to unwind. We chilled out, had a couple of drinks, watched some Big Bang Theory, had a horrendous experience with McDo delivery, had a couple more drinks, started singing Queen on videoke, and played Left4Dead. Best nightcapper, ever! :D
Woke up Sunday morning... well, afternoon, with a headache, possibly from all the drinking, and parked in front of my laptop until it was time for me to head to Adam's place for our D&D session. Whoot, it's so much fun to have a level 11 wizard. And I'm almost halfway to level 12, too!
Anyway, next OGM/Balasa is gonna be tentatively on July 18. I recommend you guys go!
What happened next was an epic road trip were, after Pao and Nina left in one car, the rest of us got lost. Turns out none of us had been to SM Marikina before, and we got stuck in traffic (at 10 am on a Saturday morning!) and made wrong turns and had to loop around Marikina Riverbank. Heck, I even tried to figure out a way using the map on the NWA and Marikina City website to figure out a route from our current location using Jon's wireless broadband connection on his laptop, but instead we asked directions from one of the locals instead, which was much more efficient. :P
The venue given to us was on the 1st floor, in the CyberZone area. It was actually a pretty great location - restaurants were accessible, and we didn't get mobbed. The only problem was we were located beside one of the noisiest laptop booths ever. If they only played their music a little less louder, or chose ones that weren't so annoying that would haunt you the rest of the day (we were still singing their songs 6 hours after we left SM Marikina, until somebody finally played the greatest hits of Queen to counteract. Puro earworms. Ugh.)
There were definitely a lot more newbies at this game rather than before, in my perception. It was so fun teaching friends how to run some of the more complex ones. I was also really tempted to join the "Shake, Rattle & Roll"-themed New World Of Darkness RPG ran by Beej, but I opted to continue playing the board games instead.
We played "Krag-Mortha", which always results in everybody in the game ending up in sadistically uncomfortable positions around the board. However, Mark Poa's little sister ended things too early by getting too many difficult consequences landing on her in quick succession. Her tongue got really dried out by the end. XD "Betrayal at the House on the Hill" was, again, a bloody fun mess. Jme, on her first playthrough, ended up evil and killed the rest of the players. XD Sadly, the game is still in dire need of much rules tweaking, and can't be played without an arbiter who's memorized the rules backwards and forwards.
Next time, I want to play "Betrayal..." with both Mark Poa and Rej in it, just to see what would happen. Mark Poa has never lost a board game I've seen him play. Rej always ends up going evil and killing everybody. Whose power is greater? :P
After the day wrapped up, most of us who were still around headed to Fandom Cafe to unwind. We chilled out, had a couple of drinks, watched some Big Bang Theory, had a horrendous experience with McDo delivery, had a couple more drinks, started singing Queen on videoke, and played Left4Dead. Best nightcapper, ever! :D
Woke up Sunday morning... well, afternoon, with a headache, possibly from all the drinking, and parked in front of my laptop until it was time for me to head to Adam's place for our D&D session. Whoot, it's so much fun to have a level 11 wizard. And I'm almost halfway to level 12, too!
Anyway, next OGM/Balasa is gonna be tentatively on July 18. I recommend you guys go!