Trashfest 2

I am dead tired. It is a good tired though. It is the kind of tired that lab monkeys get when they electrify  pleasure center so many times that they pass out. It has been a whirlwind of activity until just now. The last guests are on their way home. The last beer bottle has been picked up. The last game has been shelved.

I had made a ton of plans before everyone showed up – probably too many plans. One by one they got stripped away because of time/complications and what was left was just a bunch of fun people who were focused on a good time.  And at the core – that is what the event was.  Everyone was dead set on having a good time.  Amazingly there was no drama amongst us (well except for me- at one point I was freaking out because I thought I had 13 people to get home and cars for only 8.  It was 1 in the morning and my brain had stopped working 4 hours earlier.)

I am so thankful that everyone came down and contributed to a wonderful time. It also makes the experience difficult to describe because the sum is greater than the whole. Everyone contributed to the weird party/gamer environment. It was like camp for F:ATties. I half expected pillow fights and ghost stories around a campfire. Thank God everyone was so easygoing because there were quite a few snafus. Despite little sleep and cramped quarters everyone stayed in good spirits.

Everyone showed up almost exactly at the same time- the one hour I was away picking up BillyZ.  Pete was driving me over to the Marta Station because my wife had the car (the other car broke down Tuesday.) Up until then it was just Chis and me.  Me and Chris. Staring at each other. Chris wondering why I had gotten him down here all alone for a long weekend…

But that all changed as soon as I left the house.  I came back and everyone was milling around trying to figure out who was who. It was like speed dating for F:ATties.  I threw out some games and food though and everyone reverted to game nerd mode.  Years of conditioning has made gamers a well oiled machine. Just put table +food + game and they instantly know what to do.

Once it got late people grabbed a section of floor. I had snagged lots of bedding and sleeping bags but still- that is not too comfortable.  In the future I’m going to highly recommend the $16 air mattresses.

Dave rolled in at 1:30. I felt so bad for him. Atlanta has like 50 roads named Peachtree and 50 more with the word “Ferry” in it.  He probably saw them all.

We woke up every morning rehashing the jokes the night before. Early risers like me would get in a game downstairs at the dining room table while others would stumble in bleary eyed. Because we were carpooling there was a lot of hurry up and wait and people would shoot the shit about comics, games, and geek culture while the stragglers got ready.  It was like reading the forums and I visualized Rick Moranis’ face as JoshLook spoke about Marvel titles he liked.

The clubhouse was already rocking though I was surprised that quite a few locals weren’t present. It was a good thing though because 2/3 of the air conditioning when out. The clubhouse has an annex to it that was nice an cool but it is also all tile and VERY LOUD.  Frank had brought a bit of weirdness Chaosle, which is destined to never be a big hit despite the cool figs and sculptural board.  We spent a lot of time that day bouncing between loud/cool and comfortable/hot. Aaron Tubb and his wife rolled in. He had some amazing games with him and we played a bunch of them. First up was his Thunder Road (with his pimped rules and micromachine cavalcade of cars.) Then we had an extremely entertaining game of Fireball Island.  Fireball Island has moved to my “MUST HAVE” list and I’m already thinking of how I can fabricate a board.

 I got  in a cycle of gaming with Paul Geradi, Zev, Janna Nelson, and Aaron Tubb.  Janna always volunteers to play AT games ever though she is a dedicated Eurogamer. This time I insisted she pick a game- any game and I would play it.  She chose Karnaxis (pronounced karn- AX-Is -then you cross your arms in an X) which is the eurogame equivalent of the game of life complete with tax accountants and insurance policies.  I had set a private goal to myself of never getting a job. It is not part of the game- just something I wanted to do. About half way through the game I was up to my eyeballs in debt and struggling to pay yearly taxes. Suddenly though I had an epiphany- I could use my special powers to blackmail the other players.  I took control of the stock market and threatened to reroll  the stock die (my special power) if people didn’t cough up $5. You should have seen the look on Janna’s face.  Her eyes went hard and her movements went stiff as I racked my fellow players over the coals. Then I bottomed out all the stock then took out the maximum loan and bought $1 stock and flipped it.  We still had another hour left in KarNAXis when everyone realized that I was going to dick them over and had broken the game.

By Saturday the A/C was working again and I was starting to realize I couldn’t pound beers and still stay awake through the day. We broke out Omega Virus, Cosmic Encounter, magical Athlete, Summoner Wars, and Epic Duals (with the Hirst space station.) Mostly though I spent time BSing and ended up killing a lot of time at lunch (Moes) and dinner (Outback Steakhouse.)

By that point I could have spent the rest of the night sucking down brews but instead finished out the evening as the bad guy in Mousquteers du Roy. I love that game and had a great time raking the Launius over the coals.

Sunday we had planned to go to Franks but Frank's grandfather had passed away.  instead I was going to host and had lined up some peeps to come join us. Then at 3 in the morning Will Kenyon called and volunteered to host. He lives right next to the airport and the more I thought about it the more sense it made. We could pop people over to the airport then jump back into gaming. So we all headed down.

The only problem is that he didn’t tell his wife- She was pissed!  That is classic Kenyon. Ida was a good sport though and decided to vacate. After the dust settled we ended up playing Cosmic Encounters and Alien Frontiers.  Both games let me prove what bastard I am though Cosmic went to Chris Tandemieyer (a strange Aeon) who turns out is also a bastard.  After Zev, Paul, and Billy flew out we returned home for some Nexus Ops and Dinosaurs of the Lost World.

Loter, Joshlook and Bernie decided to drive through the night. I felt confident the Loters upbeat teen pop music would keep them rocking the night away though the absence of the Macerana could have possibly been the dealbreaker.

The very last game played by anyone was “Quest for Shan Gri La” which is the Insane Clown Posse’s version of Talisman. Chris was absolutely infatuated by the game. I was just happy to have my character Killnor have a huge posse of homies decked out with 9’s and shotguns. We were jacking juggalos and rednecks left and right, and though we didn’t play the full game, I’m sure I could have taken down the mystic ninja with ease.

 All in all, the whole thing was a ton of fun and a big success. In retrospect I wouldn’t have changed a thing…Well possibly the toilet exploding. That was just nasty.

Steve”Mr. Plumber”Avery