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mikeknWell, Pennsic is over for another year. I can't say this was a great Pennsic, but it wasn't a bad one either.
I spent my days in the games tent (as expected) with the occasional break for food or shopping. I taught three scheduled classes, and a few unscheduled ones, plus taught games to anyone who stopped by the tent and could be talked into learning. Among the popular games this year were Tarot, Fanarona and Go as well as the basics (Chess, Alquerques, Nine Men's Morris, Mancala and the Tafl games).
Didn't make it to any kingdom courts this year - EK court was at the same time as a Teen Night that the Middle was hosting. I had offered to bring and teach period games. It went pretty well, all the games got played and I even managed to teach a few people new ones. None of the teens I knew showed up (even the ones who said they would). Weird sight for the evening was a group of them sitting in a circle on the floor passing around a bunch of issues of Shonen Jump (Viz). They lent me an issue to check out the Go based manga - Hikaru no Go - which I had been told about earlier in the week.
Made it to a few meetings (officers, brewers, silver crescent), but didn't come away with anything particularly useful. Skipped a few meetings I thought about crashing - had enough to do without getting involved in other offices. I did end up having what's becoming my regular chat with the regional seneschal and the kingdom exchequer.
Thursday was my day off - sort of. I taught my class at 10 AM and then again at 1 (cause it had been listed incorrectly at that time). After those were done I headed back to camp to take a nap before we needed to set up for the EK Allies War Party. We got a bit of a late start, but still had most everything in place before anyone showed up. Unfortunately the weather was acting up at this point and kept a lot of people away - plus I'm not sure how well in was advertised in the first place. Of the 80+ gallons of booze the guild made, we only tapped into 15 gallons of beer and went maybe 5 gallons of mead. Not sure how much of the cordials or wine were drunk but it didn't look like much. The King and Queen had some extra mead from a gift they got a southern region war camp, so we also used some of that (another 5-10 gallons of mead). Highlight of the evening was watching the Prince and Princess play Quarters with blueberry mead. Hopefully I'll be able to get a hold of some of the beer I made which was not opened. I'd like to see how it turned out in the end.
What else... ah, yes - shopping! Didn't actually get much shopping done, but you wouldn't know that from the amount of stuff I brought home. My biggest purchase was 65 pounds of honey (48# cranberry honey and 17# heather honey) for some future meads. I also pick up some crossbow bolts, fencings gloves, fencing armor, a new grip and pommel, a few t-shirts, a few CDs, a book of puzzles with a Canterbury Tales theme and a Tarocco deck.
Most evenings were pretty cold, and I without any warm garb tended to turn in early. I did get to hang out much with the rest of the camp, let alone anyone else. There were several people who I knew were there but I never saw, or only saw briefly. Over all, beyond the games tent, not a very social war for me. Didn't get to see any battles. Didn't do any archery, fencing or take any classes. Didn't even make it down to the lake this year, usually something takes me down there every year.
Like I said, not a bad war, but not a great one either.
I spent my days in the games tent (as expected) with the occasional break for food or shopping. I taught three scheduled classes, and a few unscheduled ones, plus taught games to anyone who stopped by the tent and could be talked into learning. Among the popular games this year were Tarot, Fanarona and Go as well as the basics (Chess, Alquerques, Nine Men's Morris, Mancala and the Tafl games).
Didn't make it to any kingdom courts this year - EK court was at the same time as a Teen Night that the Middle was hosting. I had offered to bring and teach period games. It went pretty well, all the games got played and I even managed to teach a few people new ones. None of the teens I knew showed up (even the ones who said they would). Weird sight for the evening was a group of them sitting in a circle on the floor passing around a bunch of issues of Shonen Jump (Viz). They lent me an issue to check out the Go based manga - Hikaru no Go - which I had been told about earlier in the week.
Made it to a few meetings (officers, brewers, silver crescent), but didn't come away with anything particularly useful. Skipped a few meetings I thought about crashing - had enough to do without getting involved in other offices. I did end up having what's becoming my regular chat with the regional seneschal and the kingdom exchequer.
Thursday was my day off - sort of. I taught my class at 10 AM and then again at 1 (cause it had been listed incorrectly at that time). After those were done I headed back to camp to take a nap before we needed to set up for the EK Allies War Party. We got a bit of a late start, but still had most everything in place before anyone showed up. Unfortunately the weather was acting up at this point and kept a lot of people away - plus I'm not sure how well in was advertised in the first place. Of the 80+ gallons of booze the guild made, we only tapped into 15 gallons of beer and went maybe 5 gallons of mead. Not sure how much of the cordials or wine were drunk but it didn't look like much. The King and Queen had some extra mead from a gift they got a southern region war camp, so we also used some of that (another 5-10 gallons of mead). Highlight of the evening was watching the Prince and Princess play Quarters with blueberry mead. Hopefully I'll be able to get a hold of some of the beer I made which was not opened. I'd like to see how it turned out in the end.
What else... ah, yes - shopping! Didn't actually get much shopping done, but you wouldn't know that from the amount of stuff I brought home. My biggest purchase was 65 pounds of honey (48# cranberry honey and 17# heather honey) for some future meads. I also pick up some crossbow bolts, fencings gloves, fencing armor, a new grip and pommel, a few t-shirts, a few CDs, a book of puzzles with a Canterbury Tales theme and a Tarocco deck.
Most evenings were pretty cold, and I without any warm garb tended to turn in early. I did get to hang out much with the rest of the camp, let alone anyone else. There were several people who I knew were there but I never saw, or only saw briefly. Over all, beyond the games tent, not a very social war for me. Didn't get to see any battles. Didn't do any archery, fencing or take any classes. Didn't even make it down to the lake this year, usually something takes me down there every year.
Like I said, not a bad war, but not a great one either.
