Re: Commune - Report from a PBM Gathering

From: johnlee@hinterland.fesnet.co.uk (John Lee)

Date: Mon, 20 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Right Commune post part 3

I was hoping to have posted more of these but to be really honest I
just never had the time - there was just too much to be done and
nowehere near enough time to do it.

Well officially Commune part 3 ended somewhere around midnight last
night (Sunday) after one of the most marathon sessions of Face to Face
I've ever had. At the moment a number of us are hanging around here
drinking black coffee, eating lots of toast and waiiting to go home
safely without being worried at being over the limit.

To say I feel completely wasted is an understatement.
Apart from a good few bevvies last night I haven't really touched much
alcohol - most of us have existed on Pizzas, Coffee, Pub food  (the
Carpenters Arms down the road made a good profit from us) and the
contents of a very large chest freezer out in one of the Outbuildings

We played throughout Saturday, followed by all night and most of
Sunday though everything was a lot more laid back compared to the
first day. I remember (vaguely) having a good, lively argument about
the state of the game with the players - followed by the same argument
with the GMs  which  resulted in a lot of good, positive things being
given back to us by the guys.
The games free and a number of long-running players had a major worry
that the commercial/professional look and feel of the game was perhaps
making it more and more viable as a 'semi-professional' game for which
people would have to  pay.
From what it seems our worries are misplaced - the three people
least-willing to charge money are the GMs - themselves - they must be
mad! As an indication of a number of players regard for the game,
about 60% of people voting whether to keep it free or not, decided
that a turn fee should be introduced.
The democrat that he is, the main GM told us that they were discarding
the results of the vote.. (phew, that was a close one) and that we
should all get stuffed and stop dictating how they should live their
lives and what the hell do they want?? Full time GMs??? God you guys
really wind me up at.... etc. etc. Think he was joking.

During other brief periods of calm, I won at Half Life and got
completely creamed at Quake 3. I also spent a significant amount of
time chatting-up the young ladies who were there (failure still weighs
heavy, sigh) and also discussed the merits of performing home made
vasectomies (using two bricks), the nature of the universe, and why
the cheeze on pizza never sticks to the tomatoe underneath and almst
always burns your bottom lip

If I remember rightly, last time I posted I was at the point in the
game where myself and others were stuck on the top-floor with
anti-terrorist troops comingthrough every window and crack in the
floor boards.
Like the cowards we are we surrendered. :-) It's good when a group of
about twenty can agree to 'not dying' so unaninmously.
After what could only be called a very short trial we were all
sentenced to death ... We died quite convincingly, and then the real
fun began..

The game itself was superb. Couched in a game universe we were all
reasonably familiar with, we could carry on with the free-form nature
of the game and not worry about the rules. The joy of being able to
suggest something and soully rely on a GM to say 'Yes' or 'No' somehow
makes the use of dice redundant in my mind.
I learnt a lot about the game - the biggest thing I learnt is that I
know close to nothing. When you play an IF game it is through your own
turns - your own eyes - your own perspectives - When you realise that
other people exist within the same 'scenario' it makes you sit back
and say 'cooool' with annoying regularity.

Well, that was Commune. Apologies for the disjointed nature of things
but I hope you all get at least a reasonable idea - perhaps a snapshot
of what happened. Because of the nature of the game I decided against
blurting out every detail and event for the sake of sparing a lot of
you unnecessary boredom and to prevent existing players learning so
that I don't want them to know.
To answer a couple of emails received, I'm not overly eager to mention
which game it is that we were playing - I think that wanting to join a
game just because it has 'Games Meets' is daft - and the GMs weren't
overly keen on me posting here anyway (well, two at least)

The GOOD Points
A superb game - a good set of GMs who seem almost telepathic in what
they do - a good location where you can turn all the lights out and
believe that there's no-one else within a thousand miles - Good
quality coffee and nice Beer (Becks for the wusses, Budwar for the
men) - Enough variety so your mind never really got badly frazzled - a
goody bag at the end which included three sachets of Andrews

The BAD Points
Too far to drive for me - one of the GMs (he shall be nameless)
insisted on setting off fireworks behind me every time I was close to
getting lucky with one of the women there (bastard) - The beer in the
pub was WARM - the game moved at times too quickly, mainly due to a
lack of time - I've got a hangover

Anyway - I've decided I don't feel very well. I'm going to try and get
some sleep.

Oh, and me and the Dog are now the best of friends. I bought him a
pack of biscuits on the proviso that he'd leave my phone alone - and
he did.
John Lee
"The devils in the Dreaming
He tells you I'm not sleeping in my hotel room alone
With nothing to believe in
You dive into the traffic rising up
And its so quiet
You're surprised
And then you wake."

References

Commune - Report from a PBM Gathering
johnlee@hinterland.fesnet.co.uk (John Lee)
Sat, 18 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Commune - Report from a PBM Gathering
johnlee@hinterland.fesnet.co.uk (John Lee)
Sat, 18 Dec 1999 00:00:00 +0000