Oh, it's hayfever season over here. We just had a lot of rain - which is unusual for Colorado - and the result is a layer of pollen everywhere... ACHOO!
On top of that, the garbage can is on the other side of the table and it was so crowded that it was difficult to walk around the table and get to it.
Here's a copy of the full session report for your reference
----
I tried an experiment in a pirate themed game party. We started with Pirateer. As more folks arrived, we had them join "teams" - really just glorified observers - so they could learn the strategy without re-introducing the rules again.
Pirateer starts brilliantly, but quickly bogs down as players get eliminated and the survivors just can't seem to steer the gold home.
To keep those eliminated from losing interest, I allowed them to "respawn" one new ship which, of course, slowed the game down even further.
In retrospect, I think it would have been better to have the dead folks respawn as "Pirate" (face down) ships, where the game ends in a draw if any Pirate ship seizes the gold (figuring pirates don't need a port to take the money back to)...
The next game was the ever-popular Loot, one of the best games we have for large numbers of because players participate in teams.
At this point, I was starting understand that having a pirate themed game party is a huge draw - with our ranks normally depleted to about 6 people during the summer, we pulled in 11 people.
Many folks canceled other activities in order to come - no easy feat for party animals... and even wore pirate themes!
The downside of the popularity was that it made for a very crowded table. Standing up to get a drink or something was nearly impossible.
After this, the pizza arrived and we retired to the living room for pirate movies.
Here, the disadvantage of a pirate party became evident: you're limited in your selection of games. The natural choice for so many newbies would be something like The Werewolves of Miller's Hollow, but I unaccountably felt guilty about doing such a land-locked game, so they talked me into going with Pacific Typhoon's vaguely naval theme.
In conjunction with a Johnny Depp blaring in the background, there was just too much commotion for such complex rules, and attention quickly wandered and people started to dribble away. The game ended up being a slaughter, as I was too distracted trying to manage the movie and answer all sorts of questions about the rules.
We finished the night by watching Charlton Heston's Treasure Island, a great movie unless you're already tired, confused and pirate-soaked. Nevertheless, two intrepid folks stayed on until the end of the movie, and were richly rewarded by a surprisingly high quality movie.
