Post Pennsic Post

[mikekn]

Time again for the annual post-Pennsic post.

The weather was some of the best we've had in years. Numbers were only down a little, but it seemed a lot less crowded then the past few years.

Camp
Eldenwood was a little smaller this year, but then so was everyone else on our block. We had enough space that our block got a new group and single camping. riversol joined us this year for his first Pennsic. He could only stay for half the week, but he was a great addition to the camp and seemed to have a good time. Now we need to talk more of the Philly Gamer folks into coming (starting with notshakespeare and arieya, cause we think you'd have a good time)

Monday night, complexated set up her glass bead making stuff and taught a few of us how to make bead. Very cool - I made two beads, not the greatest in quality, but by the end I had a good idea of what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong.

Classes
I attended one class this year - "Rithmomachy as a Teaching Aid" which had some interesting information, but seemed incomplete. I'm hoping the teacher will do a follow-up class next year after she's gotten a chance to do more research and play the game a few times. I missed all the other classes I had hoped to take.

I taught two new classes this year, both were games for which I did the reconstructions (woot!). The Four Player Backgammon went very well, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. There are a few questions I'm going to try and look into about it, but overall the rules I have work well and I think it is a nice addition to the games we know and play.

I learned that Gleek is a very hard game to teach to a large group (I had 18 people), but complexated was able to lend a hand. The game isn't hard once you get the hang of it, but parts of it are pretty different to what folks are used to in modern games. I've started to look at other reconstructions and figure out where mine differs from them (and then try and figure out why someone might pick one interpretation over the other). I also need to write a cheat sheet for it.

The last class I taught was Losing Loadum, a repeat from last year. Still lots of fun :)

Games Tent
The Games Tent went very well this year. Our larger (20x30) tent gave us enough space to spread out a bit so we were never really crowded like in previous years. There was enough space for the classes and to have folks still gaming at some of the other tables. All the planned classes took place and once again we opened up Friday to teaching and playing Go all day. complexated even got talked into teaching one of the Tarot classes, so that Istvan could have a break :) As always, we need more teachers and more volunteers. Our new hours seemed to work pretty well. I only spent two nights "after hours" letting folks finish up a game (as opposed to last year when it was almost daily).

As is my norm - most of the visiting I got to do with folks were when they stopped by the tent to say hi, play a game or just hang out.

SCA History Display
The third not-quite annual SCA History display took place on Monday. The Midrealm historian was unable to attend this year and some folks from the West had trouble getting a hold of me (email issues), so I put together an expanded version of the EK 40th Anniversary display and with complexated and riversol's help we set up a nice little display. One gentle stopped by and loaned us her photo album which goes back to Pennsic 4, so that was pretty cool. (Though I failed to get her name - bad historian). yew_hall had stopped by earlier and dropped off some more scribal/Carolingia(?) calendars, so now we have much nicer collection of them. We made some more good contacts and may be getting a hold of more cool stuff soon. We were interviewed for the Pennsic Independent and many people took pictures (which I hope they post somewhere, 'cause we didn't get any pictures ourselves).

Game Gnight
Galen wasn't teaching any classes this year, and seemed to have a good set of volunteers working with him, so I only helped out during Midnight Madness. (Still earned a little loot from him - Pillars of the Earth and its expansion).

Shopping
This year I went into Pennsic with a short list of things to get. Amy picked up a haversack for me before I got there. I got my annual t-shirt on the walk back from parking the car. I bought a pair of "Bear paw" shoes from Revival, some Efenwealt CDs and a new Known World Map. I wore the shoes a few days to start breaking them in - the joke was that I was upgrading my garb from the ground up. Next year socks! (actually Amy picked up a pair of socks for me this year)

Concerts
My new activity this year was to catch a few concerts and shows. I got to see a nice Efenwealt Wystle concert and pick up his new CDs. Missed i Sebastiani, but caught i Genesii. Attended Forbidden Pennsic, but got there too late to get seats. We decided to watch the opening bits and then head out, but wound up standing there for the whole thing. Very fun show. I'm hoping some or all of it will show up on-line.

Households
No household activities this year - lots of folks were unable to attend this year. I did get to see shadowpony become protege to Mistress Eleanor (woot! and thanks for inviting me!). (Though I don't think anyone has told kiena_s that her new protege sister came with a step-brother ;) )

Curia
Made it to Curia this year. Lots of interesting topics, not all of them going the ways I expected them to. I got to see some awards created, some laws changed and some interesting discussions. I should have taken notes....

Things I should have done but didn't
I would have really liked to have been at EK court for the presentations about Master El, and to see some friends get awards, but that just didn't happen.

Overall, one the best Pennsics I've had in a long time.