Silvercon - random happy thoughts
Hurrah, people actually listened. We didn't get a single silver cake knife/'silver wedding' rose bush/silver-plated tray/glass goblet with '25' engraved on it.
My eldest son and his partner, with amazing inspiration, gave us a copy of 'The really nasty horse racing game'. I played this twice over the weekend and it's a great game for a group of friends when you want to relax and have a good laugh. It is, needless to say, a game about horse racing. You have six horses and can win prize money in six different races and you have four cards that you may play over the course of those six races to nobble other horses.
However, the true scope of the game became clear when Henry WON a race and promptly played a 'stewards inquiry' on himself. That one decided he was innocent of cheating, so he played a SECOND one. The second inquiry found him guilty, disqualified him from first place, and the horse that he'd bet all his money on suddenly came in first!
I loved having a chance to get to know Jonathan, my new brother-in-law better. My sister isn't a great gamer, but it quickly became clear that Jonathan is. I think he was playing a game within five minutes of getting into the house and he blended in wonderfully with all my other friends. Gill just relaxed and enjoyed her book and watched people play, joined in occasionally, and sewed a new hat for Jonathan. My main memory of him is as a brilliant charades player, and also as the person who set the most impossible words for other people to guess (we've never heard of most of his favourite bands). I think miming 'Vincent Black Lightening' was the worst one I got landed with. Black lightening was the work of seconds, but 'Vincent' took a while. I eventually got 'vin' by miming French wine.
Loads of different games came out over the weekend. I got a chance to play some that I haven't done in ages. We put too many people in the Credo game though. (It really is for four players, but we had eight) This meant that councils never got called as the player with the emperor rarely had a majority for what he wanted and the game dragged badly. I'll remember that for next time. Ilove Credo as a game - you play members of the Council of Nicea and each player has to defend a number of Christian beliefs of the period while co-operating to write the Nicean creed. I just love the role-playing that sometimes ensues. "I tell you, there are *two* gods, one good and one evil. How else can you accout for evil in the world?"
I was still happily defending the dualist heresy half-an-hour after the relevent article had been deleted from the creed.
And the son is ONE substance with the father. So, there. (If anyone is familiar with the period, there were some very bloody disputes over what would look to many of us like extremely nit-picking points)
Playing 'Articulate'. I love word games of almost every kind, though I'm not that good at Scrabble. 'Articulate' proved to be be fun for several reasons, not least of which was watching Dave and lizblackdog. They'd never met before and the first turn or two of them as partners were disastrous with very few words being guessed. Then, somehow, they got into their stride. Liz would give what seemed to me like a tough clue, Dave's eyebrows would do a small dance up and down and the right answer would pop out, time after time. Dave in turn would give the most amazing rambling clues and Liz would pick an uneeringly correct answer out of them. It was almost telepathic.
dougs and I were doing pretty well, but although both teams made it early on to the finish line, we were finally beaten by team 3. Kelvin and Carrie (whom you might have expected to do fairly well together as they're a couple) were floundering badly, but 'Affordable' Graham came along and reinforced them and suddenly they clicked as a team and the words started flowing.
The finish line stops all teams as you can't cross it until you've won one word against all other players and that was tricky as it was almost impossible to think of a clue that your partner might get before everyone else!
Although,team 3 won, I really enjoyed the whole thing (though I'm ashamed of my son who thought 'cockney' was a northern accent!)
A minor joy for me was seeing how friends from different parts of my life blended so quickly into groups and enjoyed playing games together. And also, how much the old Delenda players enjoyed seeing one another after so long.
It was also mildly entertaining to see how rapidly certain friends with overlapping interests managed to discover their common interests! Though I'm not sure that the front lawn is the best place for BDSM conversations...
The weather stayed glorious all weekend. Hot, but completely draining. We set up a gazebo in the back garden and did a lot of gaming out there as well as indoors. I got in a couple of good walks with Dave, Gillian and Richard and converted Dave to the appeal of nighjars (they were performing particularly well Sunday night, though the glow-worms refused to put in an appearance)
People dropped in and out all weekend. Some for three days, some for just a few hours. So many people whom I love, all enjoying playing games and socialising with one another. Who could ask for more?