Well, Glasgow is bidding fair to have a beautiful autumn. As much sun as clouds most days for more than a week now. And today I wore a T-shirt walking to the QM. At first it was a bit strange because everyone else I saw was still wearing coats and scarves. Just about the time I was beginning to doubt that the day was actually warmer and to wonder if I had simply acclimated at last, I saw a stream of about five people who, like me, were carrying coats or sweaters but were down to wearing short sleeves. So the earlier people must have just been going around in disbelief that it could possibly be short-sleeve weather in October in Glasgow. One of the folks at church, though, said that many people book their holidays for this time of year since the weather is often more reliable now than in summer.
I'm back in the same spot as last time...well one window over. This is actually and even nicer view since the Boyd Orr building is now completely blocked from view while the fine old eighteenth/nineteenth century tenement-houses-turned-faculty-offices have come into view down the lane. And the tower and the lovely autumn trees are still centrally framed.
I have mixed reviews of GUGS last night. As I predicted, Ron and I showed up just a little too late to hear the announcements and descriptions of the campaigns starting up. Since at this point everything is starting up fresh (do they never have campaigns carry over from year to year I wonder?) they at least had sign up sheets with brief descriptions. I'm not sure sign up sheet would be the best method for filling all types of games. As a GM I think I'd prefer some informal interview processes for some games with the chance to scare away anyone who seemed like they would be more disruptive than otherwise. Oh well, as I'm not ready to run my game, it was a moot point. However, this means most people inclined for a campaign will have one by the time I get going, so I probably won't have much choice in players either.
Anyway, it turned out that the game I signed up for the GM was not actually present yesterday. Nor does anyone seem to know him. This is discouraging. But his description sounded interesting and the only background that sounded more appealing was being run by a GM I can't stand (I shan't even hint at why, not knowing who will eventually read this). I wish I had heard the descriptions though as most of the written ones were just one liners or even just “Torg” or the like. I'm sure the GMs would have rambled a bit more in person.
Well, seeing as I had no game for the night, I demanded board games. Eventually the person with the GUGS locker key showed up. (I think it rather foolish that we have only one set of the keys. We are role players after all, and not renowned for...practical considerations. The very fact that I now have the keys rather than Johanna who got them from Alan just emphasises my point.) This meant that I got to go up to the GUGS locker for the very first time ever! Very exciting. It was in the laundry room which I never would have guessed, though it makes sense now that I think about it. Just about all the other rooms are subject to being completely monopolized by one group or another and if the lockers were in such a room you would have to forgo getting at your stuff all too often or else disturb some other group. The laundry room on the other hand is always open. So we went to the locker, which was cool enough, but when it came down to it, it appeared I had a choice of: Settlers of Catan, Puerto Rico or Gang of Four. Now this was a hard choice since all three are very subject to phenomenon whereby those who have played often can almost always win against newcomers who don't fully realize the full implications of the rules. Because of this, I chose the one I am most familiar with, Settlers, in the hopes that I would not be entirely slaughtered. I have played at Red House several times (though many of those games ended, if not quite in grief and recriminations, close enough) and in Glasgow maybe once which is at least better than my twice with Puerto Rico and one time with Gang of Four. Johanna and I did have fun playing around with a pair of nearly-useless Spiderman walkie-talkies on the way back down with my loot. Nearly-useless because their range is such that by the time you are out of normal earshot, the walkie-talkies are out of range too! Still, some minor hilarity ensued anyway.
However, on returning to the other folks whose campaigns were not starting that day, Settlers was met with an “oh, no, not Settlers” by one, and from Louise, “I've got one question for you, Erica: have you got wood for sheep.” The proper response may have been, “I haven't got any wood at all” but I contented myself with rolled eyes. I don't know about the rest of the world over where Settlers is played, but in Scotland that joke is very well worn by now.
Anyway, there was a good deal of sitting around doing nothing till at last Brian pulled out Fairy Tale, took half an hour convincing the other guys that their manhood would not be in any way impaired by playing such a girly-looking game and we finally played that—I did pretty well, but Louise won it hands down. After that I was dispatched to go bring down Puerto Rico. Louise tried to tell everyone she had never played before, but seeing as she had used this ploy back when I had never played before (and then proceeded to beat the rest of us into the ground) I exposed her and then was left with the job of explaining the game to those who actually hadn't played before and warned them all that the game was really gang-up-on-Louise. As such, we won. One of the first-timers did win, disproving my standing theory about these games, but I think this was at least partly because we were all concentrating on keeping Louise from carrying out her nefarious mechanations.
Well, I would get to work but the QMU wireless is still not working. Hmm. I did put in for life-time membership today. I guess it goes up before the board which only meets on the last Monday of every month, so I've got a bit of a wait.
Ooh! Breaking news! My thesis-article-thing is still in the book collection! The contract is still in negotiation. My but these things really do take a long time. But considering how long I took to finish up my contribution, that was all to the good.
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