We found the room and our table. There were a couple people there already and more filed in. However, our GM was nowhere to be found. He eventually did and looked really tired as he announced that the adventure was going to be changed to "Family Business". We all worked for a private investigation firm headed by one Danielle Steele. I played Victor Eglesias, a Mexican. Another guy was our photographer and he was Swedish. There was an Italian guy as well as others who were your generic New York WASPs. It was quite funny as there were a number of different accents being bandied about. We were a ragtag bunch and there was a lot of in-fighting due to racial differences. This was the 1920s and some folks didn't care to have a WOP around. The game started when our secretary got a call. We needed to head into a poor Italian neighborhood to meet with the client. Being a driver, I drove one of the cars over there. I waited outside and got hastled by the local kids who threw stones at me and taunted me in Italian while the others went inside. They had to fend off a gang of greaser thugs but they eventually made it to the client. In a bed and looking sickly, an old woman described how she wanted to find her granddaughter who had left home to make something of herself. The woman had had a dream portending bad things and she wanted to find her. And so we set out.
We made our way to various soup kitchens and churches and found that the girl had become a prostitute. She pulled her tricks at a sleazy hotel so we went there. Ted, the guy behind the desk, wasn't particularly helpful. Since Danielle was with us, he was quite vulgar and the phrase "blow me" or some variation became a running joke throughout the game. The shit really hit the fan when our party split in two after finding the girl. A few of the guys, including my brother, were going back to the hotel to get more info when another car pulled up beside theirs and opened fire with Tommy guns. Their car spun off the street into a tree. Luckily, their assailants sped off and no one was hurt badly. So they went into the hotel to make a call. Carl's character, the heavy, picked up the phone and Ted immediately put his hand down and hung up. This prompted Carl to slam the handset on the guy's fingers which, in turn, prompted some nasty-looking guys to come downstairs. A ruckus ensued and Ted pulled out a shotgun and proceeded to blast Carl. Someone else had the good fortune to kill him instead of me. Meanwhile, Frankie and I were at a speakeasy looking for information. Upon leaving, a brutish bastard approached us wielding a club of some kind and proceeded to lay the smackdown on me. I survived, though.
At the end of the day, we found a sanitarium on the outskirts of the city but we were unable to get in and we ran out of time. We got stuck and were just spinning our wheels despite the best efforts of the GM. Speaking of the GM, his technique was quite different from the last one. There was no getting out of our chairs and running around. A different style, to be sure. He wasn't bad, but he seemed unprepared and tired though he definitely had his moments.
Afterwards I wandered around on my own for a stretch, if I recall. Carl had to head to another session and my friends were all engaged. I don't think I had anything scheduled until that night so I had plenty of time. In my travels, I checked out Cardhalla. Cardhalla is an area where you can build things out of cards from CCGs (Collectible Card Games). Here's some of the constructs:
As I wandered around, I was sure to get photos of folks in costume.
Along the way, I ran into Duct Tape Girl.
I don't recall what the hell I did the rest of the day until 8 or so when I had a seminar on Medieval feasts to attend. OK, I lied. My brother and I headed out after the game to grab some lunch. We tried to grab some Indian buffet as I can only handle so much bar food but they were closed. So we headed next door to a pizza joint. They made a good pie. (I got the super-mega-meat explosion.) It was nice to just be able to hang out with my brother. He and I rarely find ourselves together without other folks around. Either we are together at a family gathering or some other social situation with lots of people around. We chatted about the usual stuff – how events at the con went, what we've been reading lately, good movies to see, etc. After lunch, he went to prepare for an event and I think I went and watched some anime. There's always something to do.
The seminar was again by Dan Myers who had done the one on Medieval clothing but this time around the topic was feasts. I recorded this lecture as well but have not yet offloaded it. The seminar was at the Omni, a 2 or 3 blocks from the convention center and we ended up in a rather small room. I sat in front where I found a woman from Sweden. She, Dan, and I chatted a bit about Swedish cuisine before the lecture started.
I was pleased that Dan didn't rehash much from his seminar last year on Medieval food. He began by talking about the reasons for feasts. There were occasions when one had to host visiting diplomats, for example. And jousts were the NFL of their day so people had to be fed. Dan read off a menu which consisted of 24 dishes served over 6 courses. But there were even larger menus. One book he had found had a shopping list which included 1,000 chickens a day! I can recall a few bits from his lecture. For instance, the upper crust of society didn't eat from plates at feats but rather from trenchers. Trenchers were slabs of dried, toasted bread. Plates would have been a royal hassle to clean. The trenchers soaked up gravy and spills and were deposited in a big collection hoolie and distributed to the poor afterwards. An even less sanitary practice was the re-dressing of animals. Back in the day, they'd skin an animal, roast it, and then put the skin back onto it for serving. Dan related how this wasn't just done to fowl or waterbirds but to a cow as well. They skinned a cow, cooked it, and then slapped the skin back on. Poles were attached to the legs so as to keep the animal upright for serving. Just imagine sitting at your table and seeing this cow set down next to you. Serve yourself! He also told us of a trick that was played. Peacock apparently tastes pretty foul and one book described cooking a peacock and a goose after having skinned them. Before serving, the skins were swapped so that goose skin was on the peacock and vice versa. Telling the lord of the manor was optional.
Another tidbit Dan mentioned was how plates were shared depending on your status. The king and folks of the upper echelon would each get a plate to themselves. Then you go down to viscounts and barons and you find that people at this level of the social strata would get a plate for every two people – it was placed between them. And then further down, three people would share. Along this same line, the household help would eat at the same time as everyone else. Not at the table, mind you, but at the same time.
As I learn more about Medieval Europe, I find that lots of previously held notions get flung to the wayside and my view of the period is really expanding. History classes are all about the kings and battles and the Church. But there was so much more going on. One of the simpler and more obvious notions that has been discarded is about what they ate. There were no turkey legs nor corn, potatoes, or tomatoes at this time as those were introduced to Europe from America. Something I didn't mention in my previous entry about GenCon was a bit Dan said in his lecture about Medieval clothing: the lord of was responsible for clothing his serfs. It wasn't just a case of "You are my slaves now go work the fields and subsists on your own!". The more I learn about the feudal system, the more my view of it being master & slave becomes one of the lord having a stewardship over his serfs. Terry Jones' Medieval Lives also does away with various long-held misconceptions about the lives of your average European in the Middle Ages. Peasants didn't just slave away all day, every day. They were often able to discharge their obligations to their lord after a few months leaving them time to have a social life. (I'll have to watch that episode again.) My history teachers presented this period in the typical manner – as the Dark Ages. The growth of Western Civilization was stunted in this time. Lots of people have been taught this. But, the more I read, the more I look into and learn about the Middle Ages, the more I understand that progress didn't stop. Power structures changed, to be sure, but life went on. Technology progressed. The Orient and the Occident intermingled and things moved forward as knowledge, technology, and goods went back and forth between civilizations. What I like about Dan's lectures and Terry Jones' series was that they give me a micro-perspective of the time instead of the macro-view that history courses do. It's not that the kings and wars and plots by the Church are irrelevant, but they're not the whole story. There were millions and millions of people who had to get up in the morning and go to work. People clothed themselves and there were households to be kept. People went shopping, there were fashion trends, etc. While our world today is definitely different than that of Medieval Europe, some things never change and there are countless analogies between our lives today and theirs back then.
After the lecture, I head to the Marriott where I met up with Charles, Alex, and James for True Dungeon. True Dungeon allows players to crawl through a more-or-less life-sized dungeon. You begin by getting your bag of tokens.
These token represent your equipment – armor, weapons, gold, etc. You are then hustled into the tavern. If you've never played Dungeons & Dragons then understand that campaigns usually start in a tavern so the players can meet up with one another in the story and run into someone who needs to hire folks to find this or rescue that. It's just standard operating procedure. Parties consists of 6 people and we were paired up with a young couple, Gil and Katie(?). Gil had gone through the day before but Katie had never played before. Having been through it, Gil opted to not help solve the puzzles. Once we were gathered together, we headed into another room where we chose our characters. I became a rogue. We were given a brief overview of the system and then sent into another room where we were introduced to gameplay. Fighting was done via a shuffleboard. You put your token representing a weapon or spell into a disc and slide it across a table at a picture of a creature. Various parts of the picture are denoted with numbers indicating that, if your disc lands in that section, that would be your dice roll. Other folks, depending on their class, had other activities. The bard had to memorize some lore and I, the rogue, had to practice opening treasure chests. This involved tracing a pattern on top of a chest with a metal pen. It was like that game Operation. If the pen touched the side of the pattern, it meant I had failed and would more than likely get a poison dart shot into me.
Our time came round and we headed through a black curtain and found ourselves in a hallway. The TD folks did a good job as the walls were textured. Instead of a simple 2D representation of stone walls, they were 3D. The joint was dimly lit and rather spooky. And we had but one lamp. Since I was the rogue, I was up front with the lamp so I could check for traps. There were 10 rooms in all and in each was a different Dungeon Master who would mediate. Speakers hung from the ceiling which added ambiance through music & sound effects. Plus some dialogue as well. This year was the first part of the Escape the Spider Cult trilogy. The second part will be next year at GenCon. To get an idea of what it looks like inside, watch this video:
Going into the first room, the DM gave us the introductory spiel about how we had entered a cellar and the door closed behind us. We could hear it being barricaded. Then we all felt sleepy and passed out. Upon waking we found ourselves stripped of our possessions. The room itself had a large set of metal bars in the middle. On the opposite side of the bars were a couple crates upon which our possessions lay, including my thieves' tools which would allow me to pick the lock on the bars and get to the other side. On our end, there was a shelf full of stuff you'd find in a cellar – crap. Amongst the crap, however, was some rope and a bone shaped like a hook. So I took that and tossed it through the bars trying to snag the satchel with my tools. It took several tries but I eventually got them.
Charles and James had been through TD before – about 3 or 4 years ago when it was first introduced – but the game had come a long way since then. Honestly, just stepping into that first room made me all giddy. It was dark and moody and I'd played many a character in the pen & paper version of the game who found him or herself in this exact situation so it was just a hoot to find myself in that position in TD. Instead of telling the DM, "I search the shelf", I actually got to search it with my own two hands. A couple rooms later, we were confronted with a puzzle and a treasure chest. I attended to the chest while the others tried to solve the puzzle. I got about three-quarters of the way through tracing the pattern when Alex said my name and I lost concentration. Bam! A dart right in the chest. Luckily it wasn't poison. We ran into two more chests and I was able to open both just fine. I probably looked really silly as I was tracing. I constantly moved the lamp around so I could get the most light on the section of the path I was on and I was also lowering and raising my head to get the best view. No doubt, my tongue was sticking out too. We ran into a rather nasty monster in one room and Alex got killed. However, the next room had this bed in it and a riddle which, if solved, could resurrect him. The word "evil" was scrawled on the wall while the bed was a four-poster. Upon each post was a candle bearing one of the letters from "evil". We had to take a scepter and touch each candle to light them in order spelling out the correct word. At first we thought the answer was "live" but that didn't quite fit the riddle. Since it mentioned lifting, we hit upon "veil" except there was debate on whether it was veil or viel. Some of the normal intra-party squabbling ensued but we got it right.
Our party eventually got through all 10 rooms and my rogue got himself a set of masterwork thieves' tools. Ha! And now we have to wait until next year for part 2. It was about 12:30 when we got out and so we headed over to the convention center to meet up with the Chicago contingency.
We found them in one of the rooms on the second floor playing Puerto Rico.
Charles made a quick trek back to the hotel room for booze and cheese curds. The Cheesehead contingency came through!
Again, things wound down around 4AM. Charles and I had an event at 9 so we would again be sleep-deprived. I was amazed at how energetic I was each morning considering I only got 3 or 4 hours of sleep each night. There's just something about hanging out with friends and tens of thousands of other dorks that peps me up. That and I did a lot of walking. And I also want to let the world know that I showered every day at least once. If I had time, I would return to the hotel for another episode of bathing and a change of clothes. There were definitely others, however, who did not take to the bathing thing like myself.
A quick note about some of the area restaurants/taverns. The Ram is a microbrewery and restaurant and is a favorite among folks at the con. The guy who runs the joint is also the Keeper of Ancient Gen Con Lore so the joint is very gamer-friendly. Their beer is quite tasty – better than the stuff at Alcatraz across the street, in my humble opinion. Charles and I met Andrew there on Thursday afternoon. The food is good and, like all micropubs, the serving crew is staffed with hotties who don't wear very much. There was one blonde server with boobs that just had to be fake. I think Andy surreptitiously snapped a picture of her. (You don't think the Great Dane here in Madison only gets applications from hotties, do ya?) I also went to BW3 a couple times. The allure of spicy wings was just too much. That and they have a huge selection of beer. Dozens and dozens with 40 on tap. Check out their beer menu. Unfortunately, there was a paucity of Wisconsin brews but that gave me the chance to taste some Indiana suds. I can highly recommend the Ol’ Woody Pale Ale – it was fantastic.
I was really pleased to find India Gardens. Charles and I managed to hit it on Saturday and it was incredibly nice to get away from French fries and meat stuffed in a bun. And, oddly enough, I bought no food from any of the concession stands in the convention center. They sell crappy pizza and the like but I managed to avoid it all. Well, except for the coffee. As Andrew pointed out during one of our walks, there needs to be a nice coffeeshop nearby. I brought good coffee with me but forgot to bring filters and was too lazy to actually go and buy some. Also of note was that the Hard Times Café had fallen on hard times, apparently, and was closed. It was a nice joint that served steak and several varieties of chili. One place that I have yet to hit is the Rock Bottom Brewery. It's a chain that has various locations, including Milwaukee, but I've never been to any of them. Next year.
Well, so much for the quick note.
