The weekend starts here......

[waywardh]

.... actually it doesn't. It's just finished (*sob*), but in the effort to kid myself that I'm not back at work I'll bibble on about it here.



Friday night saw a visit from smells_funny, who dropped off some CoC books he had, in case they could help me with my evil machinations for the game on Sunday.

Then, after depositing the Funny Smell at Asda, Biggest and I headed to Stevenage. We had dinner at Frankie and Bennies - which was yummy, then we went and saw the 11pm showing of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

We liked it, it was very enjoyable, it was a good film. There were bits of it that didn't feel quite right, but then that's usually the way when films like that are made. It was still a v. good night out and I really enjoyed it.




Saturday saw us having a lie in, and then a drive into Finsbury so I could go to Leisure Games and buy a few more CoC books. Then after having lunch in the garden I flomped on a blanket in the sunshine and constructed my plot out of all the ideas I had in my head.

Occassionally I had to stop to look stuff up on the net, and print out information, handouts, b/w pictures of people that the characters looked like etc. Eventually retreated inside to the sofa and carried on. Paused to see Doctor Who - Woo! Daleks!

Then stuck on films I had seen before, so I could half watch them and still plot. Watched French Kiss (with Kevin Kline & Meg Ryan) which always makes me laugh, then the Blues Brothers, which is fantastic.

Went to bed quite late.




Sunday started off with me once again sat on the sofa surrounded by paperwork, character sheets, books, and wearing my Cthulhu slippers that Elvis bought me for my birthday last year, and ploughing into preperation again.

Stuck on the Rocky Horror Picture Show (to add to the weirdness, and because it was the first time I had seen it or even fancied seeing it since my days of going out with the GHT), and was statting up characters when Andrew (Dan's older brother) came round for a visit.

I like Andrew, he's a nice chap who I only tend to see during visits to Dan's mums, so without considering how much extra work it would cause me I invited him to play also.

So cue the frantic reworking of plot to incude an extra character (this was Ralph btw - so I am glad I did do it). When tadeous turned up he can attest to the amount of prep I was doing, as I was still working when he got there.

In fact I was also still going when all the players did turn up, and we ended up starting at 6 instead of 7.




*apologies to the Dead Kennedys.

So, armed with everything I'd done, I dished out mostly blank character sheets to Dan, Andrew, evilgood, woodbrook, mab69, tadeous, starfish_slayer, and sack_boy, described the opening situation and set them going.

For most of it I admit I wasn't sure how it was going to end. In my mind there were 3 possible solutions: 1) All die, 2) Most die, some rewarded for their faith, 3) Find a solution in where most live (hopefully).

Option 3 was the one they went for, but it all went Pete Tong at the end when Andrew's character killed Simon's therefore freeing the bound Byakhee which promptly killed everyone else.

A shame they all died, but I suspect that is the nature of Cthulhu.

In brief what had happened was that Simon and Emma's characters were evil cultists and had been doing a ritual to sacrifice Amanda's character so they could go an join Hastur's faithful on Aldebaren. Lex's character interrupted the ritual, which caused the widespread amnesia and the weirdness to follow.

I think it went well. I was convinced it was going to fail abysmally and that I'd been waaay to ambitious with my ideas - but it didn't. It actually went well and the players roleplayed it all wonderfully.

Moments I particularly loved were: Andrew's character suddenly saying to Amanda's "I know why I don't like you! You're my sister!"

Ralph's heroic moment (this followed shortly after Mike rolling an automatic failure on his San role and Lex had managed to pass all of his).

Cheryl's ill thought out words of "Well just kill her."

Dan's poor soap salesman really going off the rails and being the first to find a gun.

Lex's calmness in the face of danger.

Simon's reactions to everything, and all the chats we had in the kitchen.

Andrew and Lex dicussing if Lex's character was suitable to date Amanda's - just prior to doing the ritual to stop the world ending.

The explanations for all the weirdness - aeroplane glass, reinforced steel doors, drug use, bad hangovers etc.

In fact all of it. It was top! My thanks to all the players for making it that way.

See the next entry for more Cthulhu stuff.




This was nice. I enjoyed seeing my Dad and Linda, but suspect it wasn't the best of moves. I am currently feeling really down about my Mum - the 4 year anniversary of her death is tomorrow you see - and several things that happened there, really made me unhappy. Am still down today, but am functioning ok, so no need to make a fuss.

Watched Galaxy Quest before heading to bed.



So yes, a good weekend. Shame it's over.