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In which I pull no punches: the TCon 25 post
Thursday morning I woke up super early and went to the airport, and flew to Roanoke. I got to ROA to find two text messages waiting, "I can't come pick you up" and "false alarm, I'll be there in half an hour" from Adam. So, minor wait, and then Adam and James came to get me. We got lost in Roanoke and then went home.
Thursday night, Adam decided he wanted red hair. Candle mixed up some Henna, which is essentially corrosive mud. He stuck it in Adam's hair, but it was decided that this wouldn't have enough of an effect since it's pretty hard to lighten hair, so another attempt would be made with bleaching Adam's beard first. This was a lot of fun to watch... It had a minor effect, not much, and peroxide did even less. We couldn't leave it in that long because it would evaporate, and the fumes would go up his nose. He managed three minutes, which was pretty impressive, I thought. After that, we played Betrayal At House On The Hill, which I htought was very good and I want a copy of. Sadly, way out of print.
Friday, I met Adam and James at Rivermill, and we played darts. I am actually halfway good at darts, at least good enough to hold my own with Adam and James, who themselves aren't very good either. After this, we went to Beholder's Eye (Elchfest and Yuggoth Cultures acquired) and thence to the con.
The con was, well, what I was expecting. It was about Invisifest-sized, and some of the people I wanted to see weren't there (Dave and Kayla, Nathan). I don't think I played much that night, maybe just Joe's cat-in-the-sack game? Oh, and Quo Vadis and Streetcar and Attika. Afterwards, I went to the Canterbury House where James lives, and we played Betrayal a couple more times, and Ace of Aces.
Also, I should mention: we had a deployment at work that I wold have gone to if it weren't for this con. I'd been doing a lot of overtime recently preparing for it, and was expecting to be called about it. I was, once, Friday, and then checked my email Friday night to see that everything went perfectly, and it was done. So that was good, even if I later learned that it wasn't strictly (or remotely, in fact) true.
Saturday, woke up and went to the bus stop, only to be called by Emily who picked me up and we went to breakfast at Boudreaux's. Went and bought too many truffles at the chocolate shop afterward, along with some little cayenne pepper chocolates. Went to the con afterward, played Imperial, then dinner at Zeppoli's, and then back to Candle's house for a sort-of party. There were people sitting around talking, but they weren't really people I wanted to talk to (I'm sure they were nice people, but I didn't know them well) so I played games in the dining room instead.
After everyone left, Candle and Adam and I "played" The Ungame for maybe four hours? Until 6 AM. It was, um. With the right group, it works. I think Candle thinks the "right group" is people who will take it seriously and open up to one another. I think the right group is people who can laugh at themselves doing something ridiculous, and acknowledge that playing The Ungame is ridiculous.
Sunday, I didn't really intend to go to the con at all. I eventually got bored though, and caught the bus up there just in time to see people off, and meet Adam, James, and Chris Everett. We returned to the place of darts, flung some for a while (I so need a dartboard), and then went off to the C-House again. Played games for a bit, and went to meet Candle at the Southern Something.
Now, one of the things I desperately wanted to do on this trip was make a pilgrimage on Sunday afternoon to The Homeplace. I had been visualizing that roast beef for months, thinking about throwing a Foxtail around that yard, watching the sunset over those mountains... It was going to be so wonderful. Candle, on the other hand, insisted that there was a place in town that was about as good, and much more convenient. I was unconvinced, but finally relented when Sunday was cold and rainy; Homeplace would not have been fun, it would have been wet and miserable.
I will give it this: the roast beef was excellent. Possibly even better than Homeplace's. Everything else was, well, sort of not great. Plus, most of the people who went to the Saturday party also came to this dinner, so it was a table of people I never knew that well (although I was on the end that had James and Candle, so that was fine). Dawn and Dan and Stephanie were there too; seeing Dan is sort of awkward for me, and Stephanie is tiny and loud and irritating. Hopefully she will be cool when she grows up, but she isn't yet. So that whole thing wasn't as good as it could have been, but what it could have been was not to be.
Monday, Adam and I hung out and talked about code and played games, then I rode the bus to the airport and flew away.
General impressions were, strange. At home, I am never more than arm's length from something hooked to the internet (even aside from my phone). I have instant access to a car, and am surrounded by people to whom connectivity and transport are considered obvious necessities. Living along with Adam's life for a weekend was a bit of a culture shock. Candle and Adam apparently decided a few months ago that internet at home was too much of a bother or something, and so they don't have it. GSM service at their house is nonexistant, and also nonexistant at McBryde (which is new, by the way, my T-Mobile phone used to work fine there). Adam of course has no car, so we were walking or busing everywhere. Things that I would have considered normal, like checking my email or going a mile to eat breakfast, were huge hassles, or considered morally bankrupt by Adam, or both. So that was a bit odd. I sometimes forget, staying with Adam and Candle, that the whole town isn't crunchy-granola crazy.
The con itself, I'll go ahead and say, I'm not going back to unless they get a hotel. It's not so much that the con was un-fun as it is my fun didn't require a con. The people I saw the most of live in town, and I saw them mostly at their houses. The con was a hassle to get to (everything was a hassle to get to, no car), it didn't have really anything happening except Spiel and Main Programming (which I have no interest in), and the whole club now has a sort of vibe I dislike.
On Saturday night I took a wander around to see what I could see. I counted 22 people in Spiel, 44 in Main Programming (not counting people on stage), and like four in other places, two of whom were security. The only other room that even had a light on was the art show, which was unlocked and had two people in it, but when I asked if I could come in and look around (it was a bit after closing) I got a very rude "NO! GO AWAY!". Now come on, the door was unlocked, you're in here anyway, I'm not bothering anyone. There's just no reason for that. If you insist on being a robot, you can at least be a polite one.
Security this year was run by the "Dorsai Irregulars", which I initially had no problem with, and it sounded like a good idea. Unfortunately, in practice, I found the whole concept lacking in awesome. The security people in general were rude and surly (ordering James and I out of the building when we were just trying to find one of THEM to lock the door to the Spiel room with OUR STUFF in it), and I am frankly uncomfortable with the idea of security being run by people I don't (transitively) know. Maybe this is unreasonable, but the Blacksburg Extended Group is sort of a weird bunch, and I think it's better that we police ourselves. The security people seemed by and large to take the whole thing too seriously.
Worrisome, though, was Spiel. Every time Spiel was mentioned since I got there, it led (quickly!) to a bitch-fest about people in it. This is normal, but the direction the bitching took was not: most people I talked to think the club has turned into a bunch of clones of David Wilson and Andrew Mike, and strongly dislike this. I remember when I sent out an email about David and cleared a lot of the air (once every five years, I'm allowed to do something tactful. It's my quota), but nobody seems to be doing that, or willing to, or interested in. Some of the people are apparently actually proud of being annoying sociopathic dweebs (I mean other than Adam here). It's apparently a problem. At least one of the problem children I noticed at TCon, but I forget her name (J-something? Jane? Jill? Who knows) and I can see where I'd not want to game with or near her.
After going to Origins, I was very proud of Spiel for one reason: my gamers bathed. It's sort of disappointing that that's no longer the case, and I see no way to fix it.
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also, i would say that there are several new spielers who are awesome, but, sadly, they were quiet or you did not have the opportunity to game with them or else they had activities that conflicted with tcon.
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