Thanks for the awesome report, Di! this bit might just make it into our weekly testimonials...
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!
Yay Fruit trees! Yay finger painting! Yay Di! We have already decided that at GenCon we are going to implement the rule of giving out the tree after trying three games, but had not been planning to formalize it in the write-up. After reading your description I'm rethinking that maybe we should put that bit formally in the rules... it sounds like it was great for players to know this in advance... Thanks for playing and demoing games with us at Origins! -Kristin 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.
--On July 9, 2006 10:27:20 AM -0500 Di <sudduthd@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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 <*>