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Went to Boston for the weekend to say goodbye to people. Played games, ate tasty food, saw Mosaic Commons, had dinner in Milford. More below the cut.
Just got back from Boston. After getting to Southport on Thursday, I stayed through Friday afternoon, then drove up to spend the weekend with chaiya and hakamadare. We hung out all afternoon / evening Friday, Saturday the three of us plus their roommateMi (sorry, don't know your LJ, man!) crazybone went over to magid's house for games and hanging out, where we were joined by majes, ifuonlyknew, , C (whose LJ I don't know) Rhya and their friend Ma (sorry, don't know your LJ name either!). From there we all headed off for Bluefin, where much sushi goodness was eaten by all in the company of docorion.
Various games that got placed over the course of the weekend:
We drove out in two cars, talking all the way through the miracle of cellphones and headsets. We walked around, saw the land, saw the common house, talked to a couple of people including dbang, saw Camelot's side of things, and went though an empty Camelot house and an empty Mosaic house.
For both sites, the paint schemes were varied and reminded me a bit of Amsterdam, but I think I would have chosen slightly brighter (i.e., less earth-toned) colors. As to the sense of the places--personally, I'd have to say that the Camelot folks have done a better job with it. Their houses have separated facades to make them more distinct, the sightlines are longer through their section, and the setbacks from path to house are smaller--it promotes a much more communal feeling and seems more friendly (the proof of this is that Camelot is almost entirely sold out while Mosaic still has multiple units standing empty). In contrast, the Mosaic paths are rather twisty, so you don't see all the houses at once, and the lack of separated facades makes the houses seem like big boxes. The Camelot houses have carpeting and significantly more kitchen cabinetry by default than Mosaic, and their bedrooms are larger. I believe the Mosaic house we looked at was still under development, so perhaps the carpeting would have gone in eventually, but the cabinetry was clearly done.
Of course, all of this was easy to spot in hindsight when I'm actually walking through the finished projects. During planning, when we--and I was a part of the "we" that made some of these decisions--were trying to visualize how it was all going to look, it was much harder. Despite my quibbles above--and they really are quibbles--both groups have done an amazing job at a staggeringly hard task, and I salute them for bringing it off.
On a personal note, I'm really glad I went. I now have a feeling of closure about the site and what it would have been like. I still need to get my construction loan paid off at some point, but the emotional side of things is now dealt with.
On the way home, I stopped off at the house of my friend J's parents, in Milford CT. The two parents, plus J, plus his brother had a delicious dinner, looked at family slides, caught up, and I generally got to bask in the cheer of their family. They are really fantastic people--the kind of folks who get described as "salt of the earth". I'm going to miss them a lot.
All in all, this was a fantastic weekend. I'm really going to miss all my Boston friends, but I'm glad I saw you all. To all those I was not able to hook up with this weekend--it wasn't for lack of desire, it was simply that I wanted to keep the group small so that I would actually get a chance to talk to everyone at least a little.
Just got back from Boston. After getting to Southport on Thursday, I stayed through Friday afternoon, then drove up to spend the weekend with chaiya and hakamadare. We hung out all afternoon / evening Friday, Saturday the three of us plus their roommate
Various games that got placed over the course of the weekend:
- majes's new Rise Against Monsters card game which is totally excellent (send me the rules, already!), You play with a couple of normal decks, the various suits have different uses, and it's cooperative--the players are each rulers of various neighboring kingdoms who are trying to keep the monsters at bay long enough to build their castles and not be bothered any more.
- hakamadare's new Newtonian space combat game Colors and Lights which is great except for the movement rules about torpedoes--I'd suggest that torps move like assault ships (non-Newtonian, but vanish after one turn); assume they have big, powerful, but short-lived engines.
- Ren Faire, a silly card game from Atlas Games where the goal is to outfit your character with a complete Ren Faire costume. You accomplish this by buying pieces from Ye Olde Costume Shoppe. In order to earn money, you have to do silly tasks like Privateers ("Talk like a pirate for three rounds"), Jongleur ("Juggle for 10 seconds"), Strong Man ("Arm wrestle another player"), or the dreaded Long Line At The Privies ("Do the potty dance until the start of your next turn.") Most tasks you can either do yourself or inflict on another player. It's silly, and awesome, and lots of fun.
- And, of course, Apples to Apples. As C put it, "it's not that it's the greatest game, it's just that it's ubiquitous." It was fun.
We drove out in two cars, talking all the way through the miracle of cellphones and headsets. We walked around, saw the land, saw the common house, talked to a couple of people including dbang, saw Camelot's side of things, and went though an empty Camelot house and an empty Mosaic house.
For both sites, the paint schemes were varied and reminded me a bit of Amsterdam, but I think I would have chosen slightly brighter (i.e., less earth-toned) colors. As to the sense of the places--personally, I'd have to say that the Camelot folks have done a better job with it. Their houses have separated facades to make them more distinct, the sightlines are longer through their section, and the setbacks from path to house are smaller--it promotes a much more communal feeling and seems more friendly (the proof of this is that Camelot is almost entirely sold out while Mosaic still has multiple units standing empty). In contrast, the Mosaic paths are rather twisty, so you don't see all the houses at once, and the lack of separated facades makes the houses seem like big boxes. The Camelot houses have carpeting and significantly more kitchen cabinetry by default than Mosaic, and their bedrooms are larger. I believe the Mosaic house we looked at was still under development, so perhaps the carpeting would have gone in eventually, but the cabinetry was clearly done.
Of course, all of this was easy to spot in hindsight when I'm actually walking through the finished projects. During planning, when we--and I was a part of the "we" that made some of these decisions--were trying to visualize how it was all going to look, it was much harder. Despite my quibbles above--and they really are quibbles--both groups have done an amazing job at a staggeringly hard task, and I salute them for bringing it off.
On a personal note, I'm really glad I went. I now have a feeling of closure about the site and what it would have been like. I still need to get my construction loan paid off at some point, but the emotional side of things is now dealt with.
On the way home, I stopped off at the house of my friend J's parents, in Milford CT. The two parents, plus J, plus his brother had a delicious dinner, looked at family slides, caught up, and I generally got to bask in the cheer of their family. They are really fantastic people--the kind of folks who get described as "salt of the earth". I'm going to miss them a lot.
All in all, this was a fantastic weekend. I'm really going to miss all my Boston friends, but I'm glad I saw you all. To all those I was not able to hook up with this weekend--it wasn't for lack of desire, it was simply that I wanted to keep the group small so that I would actually get a chance to talk to everyone at least a little.