This an Actually-Will-Play, so Actual Play it is.

This year the Baker family's annual all-night solstice party is a gamefest! Sunset to Sunrise the night of the 21st we'll keep candles lit (to hasten the sun's return) and play Soap, Sitcom, Matchmaker, Pantheon, maybe others! Once Upon a Time! Baron Munchausen! Who knows!

Plus vast quantities of vegetarian Indian food lovingly hand-prepared by yours truly (and I make a mean sweet potato vindaloo)!

If you're in the western Mass area, stop by. I know most of you probably aren't but maybe one or a couple of you are, and you'd be more than welcome.

Email me for directions if you can come!

-lumpley Vincent

Sounds fun! I'm down in Florida so I won't be attending :smile: but hey, drink a toast to me: the 21st is my birthday!

-Marco

Amusingly, there's a town in western MA called "Florida."

When I was in college (in Williamstown), we always appreciated driving by the sign that said "Welcome to Florida" during the winter, when it was sticking up out of snow and often had an icicle hanging off of it.

I presume that you're in the state of Florida.

Feh! I'd love to come, but I'm going down to Baltimore for the holidays with my GF. Dagnabbit.

BTW, Lump -- I used to live in Erving, Mass. Now I'm in, well, duh...it says it right under my name there.

Well damn you for living in MS, Vincent. Sounds like a blast, but I'm a few too many states, and large bodies of fresh water, away to be able to come.

Burn a candle for me!

Toast to Marco, check.
Candle for Greyorm, check.
Damn me for living in Massachusetts, check.

Anybody whose game we play, I'll be sure to write it up!

-lumpley Vincent

Well, the party was a big hoot, but we were mostly not gamers so not much to report. I had Pantheon and Soap all set, but instead we played Cranium and talked and ate. In the wee hours we played a couple of rounds of Matchmaker, because my sister in law is very indulgent, and it was about as much fun as I could ask for.

It was more like an improv comedy game than an rpg. We all pantomimed all the time, we walked around the house and waved our arms, instead of mostly describing our actions. We never used the game's mechanics; in the heat of it, it was just natural to take Cupid's word for everything. Play was all about Cupid following the Lovers' lead, watching what they were doing and what caught their interest, and pushing scenes in that direction.

For instance, in one round Gid and I were the destined lovers, and what we had in common was "we have the same lawyer." So we were always pushing situations in a might-need-a-lawyer direction, talking about our rights and trying to mollify the other so that we wouldn't get sued, that kind of thing. Eventually we ended up arrested for disturbing the peace when I was walking my monkey in the park and ... well anyway. It was fun and y'oughta been there. Cupid didn't, y'know, figure out in advance that we had the same lawyer, she just saw that we were both law/rights-fixated and took scenes in that direction.

I couldn't be more pleased. Actual playtesting changed the game a bit, as it will, especially for Everybody Else in the World. When I get the changes written up I'll let y'all know.

Happy days-getting-longer-again-thank-goodness, everybody!

-lumpley Vincent

P.S. Jared, where's Bedford? Somewhere north of Boston? We oughta get together sometime.