Can there be too many friends??

Game Day this month was full of hard choices, hard decisions, hard feelings… But in a good way, if that’s possible. Three tables to choose from this time, all full of good friends and friendly faces. How to choose? Go with your heart, hubby whispers. Then instantly gets worried for me, all alone at another table. We sit back-to-back, pass notes all evening long, and reassure each other that we are fine. Funny- all our friends look on indulgently, laughing at our insecurity.

How do you choose where to sit, who to play with? Up til now it’s been which character do I play? How fast do I level, how intensely should I play- monthly, weekly? Game Days, Conventions, Home games… But now I’ve learnt the rules (somewhat), can identify a D20, 12 and 10 from one another (finally!) and have come to feel comfortable sitting in a room full of strangers.

But they’re not anymore! Strangers, that is. I know their faces, some of their characters, and even hang out with some of them. And I see hurt faces left behind at the table I didn’t choose, sad faces when I say goodbye, and find myself looking for faces that aren’t there- and have to chuckle a bit at myself. I know that I can’t please everyone- that would be one big table! So I take a deep breathe, look at my choices, and take a leap of faith…

And then, the unthinkable. I split the party, and go charging off to investigate screams in the distance. My character has found her “voice”- and she’s a freedom fighter folks! She doesn’t take kindly to senseless killing, or stealing, or taking any gruff from the bad guys… and she’s a bit of a rabble-rouser, too! She got into a stand-off  against the big-bad with a friends’ character. That was a hard decision to make- whether to stay with the group, or strike off on our own, to stand up for what you believe in. To behave like…heroes?

Needless to say, I got caught up in the storyline this time. And, I suspect, so did a few other people in the room that night, judging by the laughter, bellows of outrage, surprise, and nervous glances shooting around those tables! All those tables, full of friendly faces.

Level up!

Kingdom Con was this last weekend- a gaming only convention that is in its’ third year here in sunny San Diego. Only it wasn’t sunny until Sunday, since we got a rain and hail storm Friday night! The wind was lashing the hotels’ picturesque palm trees about, and hailstones the size of lentils pounded the windows. The cool part was the fact that the rooms we were set up in had large glass double French doors at either end, so everyone got to see the storm outside! And run outside to roll up their car windows…

So! I played at my first three day gaming convention- and it was glorious! I decided to just play my first-level Sorceress all weekend, which was a good decision since she is now a fourth level Sorceress…but it was hard. At several points in the weekend I was at a different table from all my friends, and I didn’t get to see a few people at all, aside from waving at them from the doorway. But the tables I did sit at were filled to the brim with such wonderful people (okay, mostly wonderful guys- more on that in a bit) that it evened up in the end. So on the one hand, it’s hard to see everyone you want to at a con like this. On the other hand, you meet a bunch of new people- and at the same time get to know a select few a lot better!

Now, back to that little quirk- okay, it’s a big quirk. There were-maybe- 8? or 9? girls at this convention- and that’s counting the wives who popped in to visit their champions occasionally while escorting the little's to the board games upstairs. I didn’t get a proper headcount, but there were dozens of men attending this event. Dozens. Yikes! My husband is so proud of me right now! He’s been giggling  a lot since this weekend, thinking of sweet-innocent-little-me sitting in the midst of big burly Dwarven Fighters and Chelixian what-nots. He says most of them didn’t know what hit them! There I was, too nervous to say a word in role-play at most of my tables, until about an hour into the mod’s and then wham! My mouth starts going and I’m talking smack to a Dwarf who is just spluttering  in disbelief that not only did I sass him into oblivion, I’m an Elf Sorceress and I’m dropping more damage than him! Me! Two years ago my husband couldn’t get me to role-play in front of three other people in a home game to save my character’s life, and here I am today throwing Magic Missiles at anything that even twitches in a dark alley in Cassomir!

Okay- more on the Con later, right now I’ve got to go do some research into Fighters. Now that Eglantine is a level four, I need a new level one in my stable. I know I want to be able to run into a fight and just whack  the big bads in melee, so I’m looking at Fighters and Monks today. Hmm…what’s a girl to do? Fighters or Monks, Fighter or Monks…

Leveling the Devil you know…

That was one crazy-fun-tastic weekend in San Diego! Kingdom-Con 2012 was a rousing success- I completed my goals, met TONS of fellow gamers, made lots of new friends, had loads of fun, survived a weird-spring-winter-hail-and-rainstorm, and even got to see my husband THE WHOLE TIME! Awesome fun, fodder for many follow-up blog posts in the weeks to come. I have to go unpack and do a huge brain dump of all the information, details, hints, tips, new questions, and plain-old-good memories of the past three days, then I’ll be back here this week with lots of juicy details…

Until then, a brief mental image:

An unbroken fighter, a paladin, a cleric, a ranged fighter, a gunslinger and a sorceress walk into a theatre…