all the world's a board, and all the men and women merely pieces

[livingdeadgirl]

WHO: anybody!
WHERE: Total Recall Games and Hobbies
WHEN: Saturday, May 6, 12-9 pm
WHAT: Free board game day! Despite some of the game pieces being bigger than we are.
WARNINGS: Shenanigans and an adorable puppy

Total Recall is a mid-sized game and hobby shop situated in a strip mall in Tisse, between Wag the Dog (a puppy obedience school) and Road House Pizza (which is also a bar in the evenings. the bar does not deliver). I can neither confirm nor deny that all the other stores in this shopping center are also named after movies.

Anyway, about half of Total Recall's floor space is devoted to retail, selling board games, card games, figurines, role-playing books, and (for some reason) hand-crocheted hats. The other half is an open space with tables and chairs, perfect for playing the stuff from the retail half. And for today's event, somebody actually built a little motorized elevator out of K'nex that they can roll from table to table as needed! It feels rickety as hell, sure, but it'll easily hold something as light as you.

There's a wide variety of games set up to play, and they rotate new ones in every few hours. There's Settlers of Catan, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Clue, Sorry, the Game of Life, Apples to Apples (to be swapped out for Cards Against Humanity after 5:00), and lots more. If you can think of a game, they probably have it (so feel free to insert your own).

One notable exhibit is Crossbows and Catapults, which is a game where you shoot actual projectiles across the table trying to knock down your opponent's wall. It goes without saying that this is probably super dangerous for tiny people to play, as they've got quite a bit of force to them, but hey, hashtag YOLO amirite?

Before you go, there's a couple of specific points where gameplay gets interrupted:

1. Food time! Somebody ordered a large pizza from next door, and fortunately they're sharing, since it's easily big enough to feed everyone in the store. Since actually getting to the pizza is a production and a half, they call rotating time outs table by table, serving the pizza from a picnic blanket in the center of the room.

2. Down, boy, down! Remember the obedience school next door? That didn't stop being a thing or anything. Anyway, a large, rambunctious puppy has escaped from class (can't imagine how) and decided to come in here and see what all the hubbub is. Fortunately, he's adorable and friendly and wouldn't dream of hurting a hooman, even if they are chew toy sized! Less fortunately, he really likes pizza, doesn't understand that the game pieces are where they are for a reason, has a lot of slobber to distribute, and might not be fully house trained yet (hence the obedience school). He's just excited!! and wants to play!!!!! but it gets very disruptive very quickly, especially since he can absolutely jump up onto the chairs and tables. His owners will be by shortly to try and get him back, but they're not gonna be able to wrangle him on their own...

Other than that, though, it's a fun, laid-back day of board games. Go forth and enjoy!

Comments

ota

[skald]

a
[For whatever reason, Tuuri is trying to play Pandemic. It seemed like a fun idea at the time; they can walk around on the board as their characters (even if they have to jog back and forth to draw cards or add disease cubes), it's a collaborative game instead of a competitive one, and she was really excited to play as the Researcher... except she didn't count on Pandemic being hard.

(She's also pretty opinionated on how other people should play, considering it's her first time playing.)

Anyway, it's the end of her turn, which she's spent less-than-strategically trying to remove individual disease cubes instead of working towards a cure, and it's time to draw for infections. She pulls her first card, looks out at the board, and sighs.]

Shoot, Madrid just had an outbreak. Could you add the disease cubes?

b
[This pizza is the most beautiful thing she's ever seen. Totally worth getting all the way over here.]

This was the best idea ever. Do we just... bite into it? Because I will just bite into it. [Is that sanitary? Does she care? Nnnnope.]

c
[The puppy bounding around the room is cute at first. From a distance. When he jumps up on the table and starts gnawing on the pieces of Ticket to Ride: Europe, though, that changes things. Not least because there's like 500 pieces in Ticket to Ride.]

No, stop! Bad dog! That's my route to Copenhagen!

[She tries to get one of the fiddly little pieces out of his mouth, only for the puppy to lick her in the face instead.]

a

[frisyr]

Madrid just had an outbreak?!

[ Oh man, they are fucked. They are so fucked. Emil stands there with his head in his hands at first, unmoving, and then pulls a piece over to hold his spot as he goes to add the disease cubes as requested. ]

Okay, but we're gonna have to come up with a strategy before we do anything else. If anything hits Paris, we're basically done.

[livingdeadgirl]

[hi guys Player 3 here! Ami the Quarantine Specialist is over in South America somewhere, but she goes to move the Outbreak counter.]

Shoot, I'm sorry, guys. I got hyperfocused on Yellow Fever over here, I guess. [Yes, they did name the diseases. And actually they're very close to curing Yellow Fever! But Bubonic Blue has a way of sneaking up on you, apparently.]

[skald]

Why? I mean, it's bad, but...

[She looks up at the board, sees the abundance of blue cubes scattered across western Europe-- oops, Paris has 3 now too, so if Paris blows, first Madrid again and London will break out too... and then so would Algiers, so the blue disease would get spread into north Africa and Istanbul... and so would New York?? They'd lose the game immediately.]

O-oh. Oh, shoot, you're right. I didn't realize disease could spread so quickly. Okay! Um, I know we want to cure Yellow Fever, but I think the entire world may die if we let Europe stay how it is... Can either of you get to Paris quickly?

[b]

[clear_eyes]

[The one to answer Tuuri is not a human, but a small, flying animal that looks like a plush dog. He's currently marching on a bit of pizza, a long stream of cheese trailing from his mouth to the piece of pizza in his hand.]

Do it do it! This is the best thing I've ever eaten!

[A few feet away, Rachel looked up with a start, before laughing nervously.]

Sorry about him. Uhm, but he's right. It is pretty good.

[skald]

Wh...

[She is more than happy to believe that this pizza is delicious, but her brain is shorting out now that she's face to face with... a flying talking stuffed animal?]

Is this another horse thing?

[clear_eyes]

[Raquel just stares blankly, mouth still full of cheese.]

I'm a puppy, not a horse.

[Rachel laughs nervously.] U-uhm. Sort of? He showed up earlier in the week at my house. He didn't replace anything though...

open!

[flowrite]

i; mille bornes

[How many of you have ever heard of the game Mille Bornes? Yeah, I didn't think so. It's a card game about taking a road trip, and it's possibly the lamest, boringest, Frenchest thing ever. Except for French people, and then it's awesome.

The cards are almost as tall as Fai, but he's still struggling to flip through them with something like fondness, because he hasn't played this game since he was a kid. One of the cards slips out of his grasp, and the skinny blond goes down on the tabletop with a Hazard: Flat Tire card right on top of him. He doesn't even care, he's just laughing.]


ii; BATTLE CHESS

[Look, Fai's seen Battle Chess in movies and such. He doesn't necessarily consider himself a geek, but there's something appealing about wandering through a classy, carved wood chess set and only being a little taller than the pieces.

There's absolutely no way this will ever work. They'll never get enough people together to pull off a full game. Fai wanders aimlessly across the board toward the black side, eyes the bishop, and gives it a solid kick. And then howls and jumps up onto his other foot because okay that actually hurt. In his jumping and flailing he manages to topple over a rook, which comes crashing down... toward you?]

Look out!!

ii

[true_noir]

[It was helpful that someone had excellent reflexes thanks to Retrospec, or whatever else was going on. When the rook came crashing down, Chloe rolled out of the way, her cloak flapping in the process when she came to her feet again. It was starting to roll in the direction of the pawns, which led to another sommersault to make it to safety before it finally came to a rest there.

She stood, dusting herself off and shook her head.] I am unaccustomed to chess being so ... hazardous.

[flowrite]

[Meanwhile, after bumping into the rook, Fai comes to rest laying back on the board with his arms around a knight and the bishop he'd tried to kick over a minute ago. He gapes as the stranger dashes out of the way of the falling piece, and winces as she has to duck out of the way a second time before finally coming to rest a short distance away.

By this point he's pale (paler than usual) and guilt is written plain across his face.]

I-- I am so sorry!

[true_noir]

[She laughed and dusted herself off before hopping up on top of one of the pawns that hadn't collapsed. As she squatted there, her cloak flowing over the back and body positioned almost like a gargoyle there, looming down at him with a grin, she couldn't help but find the amusement in this.]

Oh, don't worry about it. Simply a way to get the blood flowing, yes?

i

[clear_eyes]

[Rachel had been watching Fai for a moment. She liked card games, and she didn't know this one, so she was pondering whether to come over and bring it up... when he ended up pinned underneath it. Worried, Rachel scrambled over to him.]

Are... are you alright?! Here, let me help get this off of you!

[Wait, is he laughing?]

[flowrite]

[Yep, he's definitely laughing.]

Ah, hello there! Oh, thank you! [He grins at the offer and starts trying to push the card up far enough to wiggle his skinny butt out from underneath it.]

I'm alright though, I promise! It's only a card.

[clear_eyes]

Ah... my apologies. [Rachel bows her head a few times.] I thought you ended up trapped under it.

... Uhm, I don't suppose it'd be too sudden to ask what game this is?

ii; hi are you sick of me yet

[crushcard]

[ It's not just computer games that he's interested in - tabletop, board, everything in between. Comes with the job. Which is why he's at total Recall even though he knows intuitively that being shrunk down means that most games will be almost impossible to play. It doesn't really matter.

At their height, the chess board almost looks like a real battlefield, and for this particular board, not all the pieces are in their neat rows - the board is set up in the middle of a game, some of the pawns out of place on both the black and white sides.

So when Fai yells a warning, Seto ducks behind a pawn as quickly as he can, watches as the rook piece narrowly falls and misses him before it rolls across the board and then off the edge of it onto the floor.

He exhales. Pokes his head out from behind the pawn and after making sure that he's not about to get killed by yet another rogue piece, steps out. ]

... If you wanted to play, you just had to ask, Fai. [ It's... supposed to be a joke. Or what is supposed to be the equivalent of teasing, in Kaiba-language. ]

judging by my stupid grin when i got this notif earlier, probably not ;)

[flowrite]

[Likewise, Fai ducks behind the bishop when the rook goes crashing down, and it's only after the piece falls off the board completely and he hears the familiar voice that he peeks back out again. Kaiba?

Oh god, somehow Kaiba was the last person on Earth Fai was expecting/hoping to see today. Mostly because the last time he saw the guy, Fai was very, very drunk and very, very clingy. He's pretty sure he doesn't even remember all of what happened that night, but he knows how he gets when he's drunk. So he probably flirted with Kaiba non-stop.

Crap.

Fai grins sheepishly and takes a step out from behind the bishop.]

Ah, but I thought it would be more original to throw giant pieces at you! Someone has to keep you on your toes~

i'm glad, you're not getting rid of me so easily

[crushcard]

[ Don't worry, Fai, he's not going to bring up the Drunk Incident (yes, there was a lot of flirting, yes, you did give Seto a mini-crisis). Well, unless you bring it up first. So that settles it, I guess??

He's already moving behind another pawn, using most of his body weight to move it two spaces forward. Fai's probably not seeing him do so unless he's already taken a step out from behind the bishop. ]

And what would have happened if I had been crushed under your rook? [ A grin follows. ] It's your move. [ Ok so maybe it's slightly cheating when Fai has lost one of his rooks off the board, but hey, an advantage is an advantage and besides, chess is a war game, is it not? It's been a while since he's played. ]

Open!

[true_noir]

Food)
Eating pieces of pizza this big was... an experience. She had the piece that she'd been given on paper towels, or part of one and was trying to get through it, but messy was a bit of an understatement. If anyone happened to look on, she shrugged in their direction. "Hardly dignified, but it is delicious, no?"

Catapults Away!)
Dodging pieces as they were flying across at the walls sounded on the one hand hazardous, and on the other hand it sounded like a very good way to practice her new found abilities, so Chloe decided to opt in on this little game. At least for one round. Besides, it was a good way to work off the pizza. However, there was an important point that needed to be addressed first.

"I have never played this... how is it done?" Not that it didn't seem simple enough, but still seemed best to check.

Chess)
Ok, so the idea of actually getting everyone to play chess as pieces was a little bit of a pipe dream, one that involved far too many players. Nevertheless, Chloe rather liked the game, so she sat next to one of the pieces and waved across to the white side of the field and whoever was there.

"I am not moving over to that side," she said in an accented tone. "So I believe that it is your move first, yes?" Despite the advantage to white, she liked playing as black and reacting to others. Besides, this whole thing was going to be hard enough to move around with pieces as big as them.

ota

[clear_eyes]

[i]

[Rachel was a hobby enthusiast, so the idea of a free board game day was attractive to her, even with the whole thing about things being giant right now. She came bright and early, interested in seeing what was going on, with her small, floating, puppy-like companion eager to find out what what "board games" were all about.

But what to introduce to Raquel first? She figured it'd be best to start with something less complicated. And her new partner had shown an interest in browsing all the information on her phone...

Ah, she had an idea.]

Is anyone interested in helping me teach my little friend here how to play Scrabble? He's uh... he's new to all this.

[ii.]

[Pizza. It was greasy, cheesy, and full of more carbs than Rachel tended to eat in a month. And at this scale, a single slice was more than some whole pies Rachel had seen. But... well, it was a party, and Rachel had gotten more flexible.

She'd settled for a piece of the end of a slice for both her and Raquel, split halfway between them. Raquel seemed to enjoy it, especially in regards to the cheese and how warm and stringy it was. Rachel couldn't help but laugh as he scarfed down on it, before looking around for anyone who might be sitting nearby. With a smile, she'd try to make a greeting... this whole socialization business was steadily getting easier.]

Uh, hey! I'm Rachel. Nice event today, huh?

I

[onceandfuturemascot]

[Alice is going to stop and stare for a moment at the floating...being when she comes in later.]

...is there a polite way for me to ask what he is? I don't really think so but I don't think I can just not ask, either...

Re: I

[clear_eyes]

Ah, well. He's Raquel. He's a dog, sort of! Who can fly. And talk.

[Raquel laughs.]

I was part of Rachel's past life! I came from Retrospec!

[onceandfuturemascot]

Huh. A living th...living person coming from this stuff? That's amazing and really worrying at the same time.

[She leans in and addresses Raquel.]

Sorry if I'm weird about this, but you're telling me that what we're getting from Retrospec comes from a past life?

OTA

[onceandfuturemascot]

[Alice needs a break from the pure, unfiltered shenanigans that constitute her life right now, and she can't think of a better way to do this than board games.]

[And by board games, in this particular case, I mean clambering up onto a table with Settlers of Catan set up and strutting across the randomized island hexes like a miniature Nike surveying her conquests.]

[Not that that comparison is what she's making in her head or anything. Ahem.]

I think...

[She paces along the edges of several hexes, then nods to herself.]

My first settlement's going here. Let me just grab the piece...

[Fortunately the little houses aren't too awkward to lift, but whoever her opponent is is going to be in for a show when she starts having to draw cards as long as she is tall.]

[true_noir]

Perhaps it would be best...

[The voice came from on top of one of the little mountains. It was that nice, colorful set with the raised material to make it look more like mountains and hills and the like. Chloe sat there in front of her own white piece, situated somewhere next to some clay and wood.]

For us to find something smaller to represent these commodities? I think it might get a little cumbersome otherwise, no?

[onceandfuturemascot]

[Alice looks carefully at the Grain card she's going to be picking up for the placement of her original settlement.]

I don't know. They're not heavy so much as awkward...