Merrie Talys...
Apr. 6th, 2008 09:53 pmOf the Mad(e) Men (and women) of Ostgardr Gotham.
After a Bureaucratic FusterCluck a few weeks ago which involved:
--Requests less than a month before the event for the signature/return of a contract which, as far as my mailbox was concerned, was never sent but, when re-sent, was dated October 16.
--Repeated assurances that the event site (with which the group has a long and mostly positive history) has always accepted the insurance certificate which Corporate makes available to groups free of charge, rather than the one which costs $50 and takes a minimum of thirty days to acquire (or not, for a $100 late fee).
--A $115 parking citation for me, incurred while faxing said insurance certificate to the event site, which the site representative immediately deemed insufficient. (:::::singing::::: "I... <3 New Yooooork...") (I lack the graphic skills to draw a vertical heart with a diagonal slash through it...)
--Aaaaaand the event's co-steward fronting the cost of procuring the Speshul Snowflake Site Sertifukit.
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Anyway, after that stuff, the week before the event was busy but drama-free. I came up with twenty-four different behavioral "assignments" with which attendees would be dissuading our tax collector (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
darklilli ) from collecting those taxes or even staying around Gotham. The challenge with these assignments was to make them not only silly / crazy-looking, but to ensure that the person being given the assignment would not respond with "I can't do this" or "I'm not doing that." (Allowing people to trade reeeeeally objectionable assignments covers a multitude of sins...) I bought vaguely parchment-ey printer paper and rolled the assignments into mini-scrolls, all mixed together in a wooden box.
Various games were discussed and decided upon, including a "bean-bag" toss (actually, a cheese-bag toss with mini Baby Bels) with a rabbit-hole target to comemmorate the Fools who hired a hare to deliver their rent money to the Lord of the Manor, and Cheese Bocce (there's a Gotham story of a man who tries to roll his cheeses to the market for sale, telling them "I'll meet up with you there"), along with some historically-informed pastimes like a Gurning Contest, Foot Wrestling and Jingler (which is sort of like Blindman's Bluff in reverse--one person wears bells and everyone else is blindfolded and trying to catch hir).
I temporarily cannibalized my wooden clothes-hamper frame and stretched linen over it for the rabbit hole, and recycled a white rabbit mask which, unfortunately, tends to lack sufficient cohesion to be worn over the face any longer. Cheesecloth bags were simple to make. Why cheese instead of coins? Well, Ostgardr is after all the land of happy simple cheese farmers...
Bocce balls were made and stuffed. I was using such scraps as I had on hand, and realized halfway into my manufacturing that a total of eight balls were needed. Therefore four of the balls, for one person/team, were red (like Edam!) and the other four, for the other team, were...NOT red. (One was dark green, two were black/yellow/blue parti-colored, and one was plaid. "As you can see by the discoloration of the wax, some of these cheeses are no longer fit for anything BUT playing Bocce..."
As has been written elsewhere, we came to realize that this event would be under-attended for the site rental cost. Our Viceregals were most encouraging that we should go ahead and do the event anyway, and it turned out to be a lovely, relaxing affair for those who attended. I hope it was a chance for people who had to be quite busy a week later at Coronation to have some fun.
Archers came, and "every able-bodied man" fulfilled their requirement of shooting at the butts. Of various creatures 8) The foolish assignments went off very well--there were several bouts of foolish behavior precipitated by cries of "Oh, no! It's the tax collector!!!" I did have one person read his assignment ("Try to eat your hat. Or someone else's."), point to the leather-trimmed brown felt bowler on his head and announce in bass tones, " I just BOUGHT this hat!" He then proceeded to pantomime salting and eating (or failing to eat) his helm. Later that day the Tax Collector would judge his performance to be the Most Foolish and he won a bag of folly bells. Burly Scot and Tiny Lass introduced some gamers to a variant known as Cross-Country (Cheese) Bocce through the various rooms of the event (outside was still pretty muddy..). During the delicious and fun feast (highlighted by The Entremnet Of The Escaping Peahen), tales and songs and a gurning contest (the winner won...a hood...) diverted the feasters. A knight who has recently begun playing again in Lions' End told a...most enlightening tale from the early days of Pennsic.
Everyone pitched in to clean up (including Lions End's new seneschal, who only arrived on-site as feast was ending, garbed up and promptly started cleaning. She is awesome -- I predict the Canton is in good hands).
The site was cleaned and locked up by 10 pm. It was a good day.
After a Bureaucratic FusterCluck a few weeks ago which involved:
--Requests less than a month before the event for the signature/return of a contract which, as far as my mailbox was concerned, was never sent but, when re-sent, was dated October 16.
--Repeated assurances that the event site (with which the group has a long and mostly positive history) has always accepted the insurance certificate which Corporate makes available to groups free of charge, rather than the one which costs $50 and takes a minimum of thirty days to acquire (or not, for a $100 late fee).
--A $115 parking citation for me, incurred while faxing said insurance certificate to the event site, which the site representative immediately deemed insufficient. (:::::singing::::: "I...
--Aaaaaand the event's co-steward fronting the cost of procuring the Speshul Snowflake Site Sertifukit.
----------
Anyway, after that stuff, the week before the event was busy but drama-free. I came up with twenty-four different behavioral "assignments" with which attendees would be dissuading our tax collector (
darklilli ) from collecting those taxes or even staying around Gotham. The challenge with these assignments was to make them not only silly / crazy-looking, but to ensure that the person being given the assignment would not respond with "I can't do this" or "I'm not doing that." (Allowing people to trade reeeeeally objectionable assignments covers a multitude of sins...) I bought vaguely parchment-ey printer paper and rolled the assignments into mini-scrolls, all mixed together in a wooden box. Various games were discussed and decided upon, including a "bean-bag" toss (actually, a cheese-bag toss with mini Baby Bels) with a rabbit-hole target to comemmorate the Fools who hired a hare to deliver their rent money to the Lord of the Manor, and Cheese Bocce (there's a Gotham story of a man who tries to roll his cheeses to the market for sale, telling them "I'll meet up with you there"), along with some historically-informed pastimes like a Gurning Contest, Foot Wrestling and Jingler (which is sort of like Blindman's Bluff in reverse--one person wears bells and everyone else is blindfolded and trying to catch hir).
I temporarily cannibalized my wooden clothes-hamper frame and stretched linen over it for the rabbit hole, and recycled a white rabbit mask which, unfortunately, tends to lack sufficient cohesion to be worn over the face any longer. Cheesecloth bags were simple to make. Why cheese instead of coins? Well, Ostgardr is after all the land of happy simple cheese farmers...
Bocce balls were made and stuffed. I was using such scraps as I had on hand, and realized halfway into my manufacturing that a total of eight balls were needed. Therefore four of the balls, for one person/team, were red (like Edam!) and the other four, for the other team, were...NOT red. (One was dark green, two were black/yellow/blue parti-colored, and one was plaid. "As you can see by the discoloration of the wax, some of these cheeses are no longer fit for anything BUT playing Bocce..."
As has been written elsewhere, we came to realize that this event would be under-attended for the site rental cost. Our Viceregals were most encouraging that we should go ahead and do the event anyway, and it turned out to be a lovely, relaxing affair for those who attended. I hope it was a chance for people who had to be quite busy a week later at Coronation to have some fun.
Archers came, and "every able-bodied man" fulfilled their requirement of shooting at the butts. Of various creatures 8) The foolish assignments went off very well--there were several bouts of foolish behavior precipitated by cries of "Oh, no! It's the tax collector!!!" I did have one person read his assignment ("Try to eat your hat. Or someone else's."), point to the leather-trimmed brown felt bowler on his head and announce in bass tones, " I just BOUGHT this hat!" He then proceeded to pantomime salting and eating (or failing to eat) his helm. Later that day the Tax Collector would judge his performance to be the Most Foolish and he won a bag of folly bells. Burly Scot and Tiny Lass introduced some gamers to a variant known as Cross-Country (Cheese) Bocce through the various rooms of the event (outside was still pretty muddy..). During the delicious and fun feast (highlighted by The Entremnet Of The Escaping Peahen), tales and songs and a gurning contest (the winner won...a hood...) diverted the feasters. A knight who has recently begun playing again in Lions' End told a...most enlightening tale from the early days of Pennsic.
Everyone pitched in to clean up (including Lions End's new seneschal, who only arrived on-site as feast was ending, garbed up and promptly started cleaning. She is awesome -- I predict the Canton is in good hands).
The site was cleaned and locked up by 10 pm. It was a good day.
