Cottington Woods and other weekend stuff
I wasn't sure I'd make it to Cottington Woods this weekend to play a particular role for them. They asked and I wanted to do it, but it appeared that real life was going to make that an impossibility. I did have to do a few things before going like weekend chores all combined into Friday night, Saturday morning weigh-in at the weight loss center with Monique, weekly grocery shopping and putting away, Elijah's soccer practice, but this still let me get up to the event for Saturday late afternoon through game end on Sunday.
What I did (that's not secret) on my Cottington vacation:
- I went out as Talsyn, the king's bard, friend and long time adventuring partner. This was a really fun role and I love interacting with PCs as him. Beside the RP aspect of it and collecting rumors and promising information returns, I got to encourage a few performances which is a highlight for me. There are some really talented people at this game and I like letting them entertain me. I also got to play some flute and recorder duets with Greymalkin, the cat. She didn't have her flute, but I had my flute and recorder with me so she sight-read a couple of duets and then I got to play flute for Ruby so she could dance.
- Vigo and Talsyn did a story mod telling of one of the exploits of the Company of the Hearth, using the PCs as living props like they used to do in "Whose Liine Is It Anyway". John and I had a rough version of the story, but we were making it up and trading between each other as we went along telling the story. It featured the future king, Aaron Farraway and Matt did a nice job playing along with it. The PCs were awesome as props.
- Various other "crunchy" roles that were good for getting in claw practice, demon possessed wolf, vampire minion, tree, giant ant and bat. I've got to say, I especially loved being a bat. It was not a powerful critter, but it had a fun mechanism and Alysha made us bat wings that were just awesome. It was fun to help Alysha set up the mod and assist in the finishing touches. I wish it could have entertained more than 6 NPCs because it was really just a fun encounter. Oh, and having Vigo there "narrarating" the story was quite entertaining, even if as I passed him he mentioned there being this one "really old bat". :-p I truly enjoy my good-natured verbal sparring with John; keeps me on my toes.
- The final encounter to end game showed me that I'm still capable of stage fright. I haven't felt that in about 30 years. I loved the whole idea of the encounter and I had a blast doing it, but my hands were cold and clammy, I was shaking a bit, my throat was really dry (not a good thing to tell a story and sing a song). I knew I was in trouble when I started the song about a step and a half too high, something I do when I'm nervous. I was panicking over that, but it came out ok anyway.
There are some amazing people on CW staff that do a ton of work behind the scenes. Jayson, Karin, Sarah and Haldin (oh and guy who did NPC food who I'm totally blanking on his name :-( ) were incredible. They are sort of invisible unsung heroes. I totally appreciated them. There were some preety cool NPCs that I'd never met that were a lot of fun to just hang out with. The NPC experience there was very entertaining for me. That's not to say there weren't issues; every game has them, but I really enjoyed being there.
Sadly, I had to get out of there as soon as game ended. I had no time to stay and socialize because I was conducting a rehearsal in my home at 6:00 that night. Still, a very fun time and with any luck I can sneak in another partial event to see the wedding through to its conclusion.
What I did (that's not secret) on my Cottington vacation:
- I went out as Talsyn, the king's bard, friend and long time adventuring partner. This was a really fun role and I love interacting with PCs as him. Beside the RP aspect of it and collecting rumors and promising information returns, I got to encourage a few performances which is a highlight for me. There are some really talented people at this game and I like letting them entertain me. I also got to play some flute and recorder duets with Greymalkin, the cat. She didn't have her flute, but I had my flute and recorder with me so she sight-read a couple of duets and then I got to play flute for Ruby so she could dance.
- Vigo and Talsyn did a story mod telling of one of the exploits of the Company of the Hearth, using the PCs as living props like they used to do in "Whose Liine Is It Anyway". John and I had a rough version of the story, but we were making it up and trading between each other as we went along telling the story. It featured the future king, Aaron Farraway and Matt did a nice job playing along with it. The PCs were awesome as props.
- Various other "crunchy" roles that were good for getting in claw practice, demon possessed wolf, vampire minion, tree, giant ant and bat. I've got to say, I especially loved being a bat. It was not a powerful critter, but it had a fun mechanism and Alysha made us bat wings that were just awesome. It was fun to help Alysha set up the mod and assist in the finishing touches. I wish it could have entertained more than 6 NPCs because it was really just a fun encounter. Oh, and having Vigo there "narrarating" the story was quite entertaining, even if as I passed him he mentioned there being this one "really old bat". :-p I truly enjoy my good-natured verbal sparring with John; keeps me on my toes.
- The final encounter to end game showed me that I'm still capable of stage fright. I haven't felt that in about 30 years. I loved the whole idea of the encounter and I had a blast doing it, but my hands were cold and clammy, I was shaking a bit, my throat was really dry (not a good thing to tell a story and sing a song). I knew I was in trouble when I started the song about a step and a half too high, something I do when I'm nervous. I was panicking over that, but it came out ok anyway.
There are some amazing people on CW staff that do a ton of work behind the scenes. Jayson, Karin, Sarah and Haldin (oh and guy who did NPC food who I'm totally blanking on his name :-( ) were incredible. They are sort of invisible unsung heroes. I totally appreciated them. There were some preety cool NPCs that I'd never met that were a lot of fun to just hang out with. The NPC experience there was very entertaining for me. That's not to say there weren't issues; every game has them, but I really enjoyed being there.
Sadly, I had to get out of there as soon as game ended. I had no time to stay and socialize because I was conducting a rehearsal in my home at 6:00 that night. Still, a very fun time and with any luck I can sneak in another partial event to see the wedding through to its conclusion.