Even the big turnout at the campout the night before didn't prepare me for the sheer number of people who showed up the morning of the game.
I asked Joe for a prediction on how many kills he would get, and he said, "101." Incidentally, his costume (which was a tabard with an oversized version of the Ring Game score sheet on it) was designed by yours truly and made by Bob Hill (obligatory plug for Men of the Cloth). I made sure that I duplicated the typos and little errors on it, and even scanned and replicated the "stegosaur" stamp that Lynn uses when she finishes checking people in. The back of the tabard reads "If you're reading this, you've just been bounced by the Menace. Sit down for 20 minutes." The headwrap reads "Menace—1,000 points" and has an image of the movie Balrog on the sides. Joe and I each received 15 costume points, which makes this the first time I've ever had two fifteen-point costumes in the same game.
Given that there were 205 players to get checked in, I think Jeff and Bill and crew did a great job. I expected the game to start an hour late, but they managed to get everyone whipped through quickly enough to only have to delay a half-hour. My plan, which I shared with Megan, was not just to get the record for most captures. It was also my intent to scout out the Evil forces at and around Mt. Doom and then hopefully find the Good army to report on what I'd seen. Megan tried to give me some misinformation, but I knew it was misinformation so I told her, "no, don't tell me anything!"
I asked Shan to make her traditional pre-game prediction, and she asked me to get back to her later. I unfortunately got caught up in other things and didn't catch her again. She told me at the party that the reason she hesitated was because her instincts were telling her to say Good would win, but the evidence of the massive crowd of Evil players was making her second-guess herself.
There were fifty-seven White Hand orcs. I frankly expected more of an outburst when I had Joe tape me giving them all the finger (Todd's becoming a bad influence on me, obviously).
Speaking of bad influences… After I was done shooting the music video, I took over the web-site photo-taking from Shanda (thanks for all the help, Shanda!). One of the groups I photographed was the Dunlenders, and I had them do the "Braveheart salute." Much to my surprise, they repeated the salute during introductions!
When he was introduced, Joe announced that he was "giving out hugs today!" and demonstrated on Alex, who was playing a very swishy Corsair of Umbar.
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©2003 Jack A. Barker. All Rights Reserved.
