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And then I rolled TWO SIXES!*
More often than not, I do not get to go to the social events to which I am invited. Frankly I am pleased and astonished that anyone still bothers to invite me at all. Today I was *determined* to make it to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
leecetheartist's birthday gaming thingie down in Mt Claremont, and lo (and behold) I got there. And played a game of Pirate Cove. In the process I learned a thing or two.
Primarily, think very very carefully before you ask me how any game went. If I have sufficient brains to face the prospect of learning a game, then I have sufficient brains to process and recall a lot of information about the game. I may not be the quickest off the mark to figure out the best strategy at the table, but boy can I remember a tonne of factoids, patterns, rules and relationships later. Which should come as no surprise, given that I actually extract complex and novel information from people for a living. Extract it, process it, and regurgitate it.
It's the regurgitation bit you need to worry about here. Fortunately for everyone except my folks, I went home via my folks' place and discovered that I'd picked up far more about the game than my performance at the table would have suggested. And I talked about it. At length. Fortunately they're retired and have a lot of time on their hands. And actually, they told me about some of the games of their childhood which was pretty interesting. But if I had sat down this evening to record my experiences of the afternoon, I'm sure there would have been regrets all around.
So, to keep to generalities: I had fun. I decided to dispense with any attempts at (and associated pressures of) role-playing, and just let my natural piratical bloodthirstiness come out without any attempt to flavour it with perceived appropriateness. The AAAHHHHRRRR-ing was kept to a minimum. Avast!
I was snarky, greedy, focused, churlish, and manupulative, but still (I hope) reasonably polite. I may or may not have startled my tablemates with my ferocity, but I figured that normal rules of conversation don't necessarily apply. Saying to a new acquaintance "I don't like your face; I think I'll attack you" seems, in hindsight, a little harsh. I found it very liberating; I hope I did it right.
I must now embark on the struggle to remember which social rules apply at what time. I wonder when I'm due to meet a new non-geekish person, for whom I feel compelled to act "normally". That doesn't usually go well.
That said, I quite often say to developers things such as "If you touch that code one more time I swear I will break your arms and legs" so it looks like the workplace is covered.
So, Happy Birthday Leece, and thank you for waiting so patiently for me to keep my gaming promise. Thanks toratfan and firvulag for assistance rendered. And thank to Mr Yellow for a long and glorious campaign of mind melding. You may have created a monster, and I will continue in my efforts to reintegrate with gaming society :-)
(*) At no point in the afternoon did I actually roll two sixes. Maybe a six and two fives, which was overkill, because I only needed two throws of five or above to take out all of my opponent's cannon. Oops, there I go. Told you so.
leecetheartist's birthday gaming thingie down in Mt Claremont, and lo (and behold) I got there. And played a game of Pirate Cove. In the process I learned a thing or two.Primarily, think very very carefully before you ask me how any game went. If I have sufficient brains to face the prospect of learning a game, then I have sufficient brains to process and recall a lot of information about the game. I may not be the quickest off the mark to figure out the best strategy at the table, but boy can I remember a tonne of factoids, patterns, rules and relationships later. Which should come as no surprise, given that I actually extract complex and novel information from people for a living. Extract it, process it, and regurgitate it.
It's the regurgitation bit you need to worry about here. Fortunately for everyone except my folks, I went home via my folks' place and discovered that I'd picked up far more about the game than my performance at the table would have suggested. And I talked about it. At length. Fortunately they're retired and have a lot of time on their hands. And actually, they told me about some of the games of their childhood which was pretty interesting. But if I had sat down this evening to record my experiences of the afternoon, I'm sure there would have been regrets all around.
So, to keep to generalities: I had fun. I decided to dispense with any attempts at (and associated pressures of) role-playing, and just let my natural piratical bloodthirstiness come out without any attempt to flavour it with perceived appropriateness. The AAAHHHHRRRR-ing was kept to a minimum. Avast!
I was snarky, greedy, focused, churlish, and manupulative, but still (I hope) reasonably polite. I may or may not have startled my tablemates with my ferocity, but I figured that normal rules of conversation don't necessarily apply. Saying to a new acquaintance "I don't like your face; I think I'll attack you" seems, in hindsight, a little harsh. I found it very liberating; I hope I did it right.
I must now embark on the struggle to remember which social rules apply at what time. I wonder when I'm due to meet a new non-geekish person, for whom I feel compelled to act "normally". That doesn't usually go well.
That said, I quite often say to developers things such as "If you touch that code one more time I swear I will break your arms and legs" so it looks like the workplace is covered.
So, Happy Birthday Leece, and thank you for waiting so patiently for me to keep my gaming promise. Thanks to
ratfan and firvulag for assistance rendered. And thank to Mr Yellow for a long and glorious campaign of mind melding. You may have created a monster, and I will continue in my efforts to reintegrate with gaming society :-)(*) At no point in the afternoon did I actually roll two sixes. Maybe a six and two fives, which was overkill, because I only needed two throws of five or above to take out all of my opponent's cannon. Oops, there I go. Told you so.