Looney Labs Rabbits Mailing list Archive

[Di <sudduthd@xxxxxxxxx>]

What a difference a year makes!!  Last year I arrived at my first
Origins knowing that I loved Fluxx but didn't know much of anything
about anything else Looney-ish, and was pleased to discover the lab and
learn about more of the games.  THIS year I was delighted to be a
Rabbit and really be a part of things!  It made me SOOO happy to
be able to be a Fruit-Tree Rabbit!!  

Our group arrived late-ish Wednesday evening so I only stopped by the
lab for a few minutes to say hello and pick up my packet of
stuff.  All the FUN, for me anyway, started Thursday, when I
arrived at the lab for a 2-hour demo slot.  I played a bunch of
games with a bunch of people, lots of Treehouse, Fluxx (all versions),
Aquarius.  I also learned that time works "oddly" in the lab, fun
tends to mar the perception of passing time, and I discovered later
that it had been something more like 4 hours of constant
demo-ing.  What fun!!  I spent much of my Thursday in the
lab, which was a BLAST, and had a ton of fun making a sign for Kristin
at the very end of the day.  Fingerpainting!  Wheeee!!  

Friday I was pleased to help out with the Teacher's Hall Pass program,
helping to hand out goodies to some of the arriving teachers, then
playing Simultaneous Treehouse with 2 groups when we got to the
"gaming" part of the program.  After a few games of Treehouse
there were inquiries into Family Fluxx so another game broke out! 
It was a wonderful program, all the teachers seemed to REALLY enjoy the
games, and I saw at least a few later in the weekend in the lab so
YAY!!  As a bonus, on my way out of that program I stumbled across
Andy vs. Everybody and passed another lovely hour.

Friday's demo-ing in the lab was again wonderful, and again fun, and
again I have almost no memory of what I played or with whom. 
Essentially it was "anything I knew how to play with anyone who wanted
to play a game" as per normal.  Would this report get boring if I
mentioned again that I was having a LOT of fun?

Saturday was my first session down in the booth and WOW does that place
HOP!!!   Robin was out shilling in the aisles and my
Treehouse table was NEVER empty!!  Not only that, but the table
was large enough that I was almost constantly playing two simultaneous
games.  Often with large enough groups of people that we had to
play several games so they could all get their Fruit Tree, I'd get one
group up-to-speed on the rules, then play them multiple games while
bringing a 2nd group up-to-speed on the other half of the table. 
All the groups were great!!  I have to say that it was an
EXHAUSTING couple of hours down there.  TONS of fun but I've no
idea how those of you who were there All The Time held up.  2
hours was about my limit!

Thank you for the chance for the backrubs!!  After days and days
of sitting and gaming my back was killing me and it was *wonderful*
getting a backrub!  I adored the chance to hang at the lab with
all the incredibly fun people, watching people get excited about the
games and ask and ask for chances to play more and more games was just
delightful!  I adored meeting everyone, and wish I'd taken more
time to play with Carol over at Rabbit Crafts!  I also learned
that I need to pay a leeeetle more attention to the schedule before
volunteering for a demo-schedule as I kept missing fun events like
Fluxx prelim tournaments and the like.  (I'm sure I would have
SUCKED at Zendo as I rarely get a chance to play, but though I was in
the lab at the time I was otherwise busy)

At some point Saturday night I realized that it was almost over and was
really, really wishing for Just One More Day.  Alas, it was not to
be.  My last experience at Origins on Sunday was another 2-hour
slot in the booth, which was busy though not *quite* as frenetic as
Saturday.  Somewhere along the way this Fruit Tree went through a
"Grafting Process" and suddenly, though at heart I was a Fruit Tree, I
found myself with bits of Pine and Palm as well, so I was a "get any
tree you need here" Rabbit.  That was FUN!  Thankfully the
gamers kept me sane as at least THEY knew which trees they needed!
 

I couldn't begin to count how many games of Treehouse I played over the
weekend.  Almost every person wanting a card played at LEAST two
games, many of them three games.  To the *rare* person who
complained about multiple games I said, "I said I'd teach you how to
play, I didn't say I'd flagrantly play to lose, though I promise not to
be cutthroat about it!"   I did institute my own personal
rule, however.  Anyone who played three games with me who didn't
manage to win on their own, received their tree card anyway.  It
was amazing to me how many people Really Really Tried Hard in that
third game to Win their card rather than just be "given" it.  By
far the majority of "third games" ended up in a legitimate loss for
me.  Across the entire weekend I managed to give out 44 Fruit Tree
cards, and about a half-dozen each of Palm and Pine. Perhaps I played
200 games of Treehouse?  One mark of an excellent game is being
able to play something like 200 games across 4 days and not end up
having a violent aversion to ever playing that game again.  In
fact, I'd not been planning to attend GenCon but I had SO much fun at
Origins that I'm trying to work out my schedule to go to Indy next
month!  (Not sure yet if I'll make it, though)

If I have any regrets it's that I didn't take enough time to learn more
about the Icehouse games.  I arrived at Origins this year knowing
Treehouse and Zendo and nothing else about the pyramids.  Over the
4 days I managed to get in one demo-game of IceTowers and had Volcano
explained to me and confusedly watched part of one game.  Oh
well... I'll learn eventually.  For a "regret", that's not so bad!

Very, very much looking forward to next year!!  

Di  <*>