It was our very first true blue BaRPG event. The kind people at Roest had helped us reserve table space for at least 10 people, and were keen to see how our game would pan out. Invites sent out, notifications placed on couchsurfing and meet-up networks, and we were good to go! By 17:30 we had set up a table near the entrance, hung up the banners, and had spare packs at the ready. A quick bite to eat later and we met our first couchsurfers to arrive to the event. They were quickly followed by others, as well as avid gamers from the Amsterdam Board Game Meet-up group. By 7pm we had about 20 people sitting at now two different tables, with three packs of BaRPG out, pointing, laughing, running across the bar to touch ridiculous things, and ordering ever more pitchers of Kornuit beer. We even live-streamed the first few minutes on Facebook (check out our page for the video of me explaining the rules to my group!)
We also saw some new amazing moves being played. On my table our group actually exposed what almost became a logic loop in the item cards; A cloak was played to steal a turn, which was countered with a slender glove to steal the cloak, which in turn was taken and immediately replayed using the unknown elixir of bar top spills (you still following? This one stumped us for about 2 minutes and 5 sips as well!). Essentially the player, Marianne, had to immediately play the recovered slender glove on the elixir of bar-top spills, and put that in her hand again. The question became whether that action would then render the slender glove inactive, thereby re-instating the effect of the cloak of douchebaggery. A bit of thought later, the answer was simply ‘no’; the elixir allows you to re-use a used, and therefore discarded item, but it doesn’t cancel the former effect of that item. Nice try though!
Our full 7 player game lasted 2 hours, and Couchsurfer Eishaan took the win with a final, hard 6 roll of the dice, with no one able to stop him with any cards. Epic, haven’t seen that for a long time!
Meanwhile, Phil’s group began an action chain under the Brewids power which was quickly becoming a drinking game of chicken. The first action was to take a sip. The next person added taking a second, longer sip as the next action. And the third person in line made his added action downing the rest of your drink. Surprisingly, it lasted about 6 goes! Fair deakin to that group, pretty epic use of the Brewid! The third group constituted some of our friends who came as well, and knowing the game took other new players under the wing.
4 hours, 4 Pintcess charms, 6 races across the bar, and I-can’t-remember-how-many-beers later we wrapped things up. It was a great night, everyone had fun, and plenty of people took a pack home with them to play with friends. We’re chuffed, and were even asked if we could repeat the event on another Tuesday. Plans are looking like a pretty good yes, most likely in August! We’ll be announcing those on our social channels in due time, and probably live-feed a good hour of gameplay just for kicks! On the subject of social media channels, we’ve passed 100 followers on Twitter!
Next on the agenda, our trip to Cardiff. Our bags are almost packed, we’ve folded a handful of extra boxes for sale to take with us, and the good people at Rules of Play can’t wait to see us unleash mayhem at the Urban Tap House. Neither can we!
Until then, keep questing you fine drunks!
~Johno
