What The Fluxx! - Inconceivable

I realise that with each word I type, how much I have missed writing.  Far too many things and people were allowed to get in the way of the things that I wanted to do but mainly, sorry to go all Yoda, I was afraid, so afraid of completely sucking that stopped me from taking the plunge.

Eventually I began to face these fears and then, one day I watched the most excellent Adventure Time with my daughter and Jake said:

So inspired by Jake the Dog and Finn the Human and buoyed by my recent promise to myself to do more all the time, here I am. And here is Tabletop…

My brother is an awesome dude, when he was a kid he was a pustule on my right buttock but as he has matured in age he has become not only a great brother but a best friend. Usually when he introduces something new to the mix, I tend to listen. He knows me enough to know what I would like and hate and so when he wanted me to try some ‘Tabletop’ I paid attention as he showed me the Will Wheaton’s series.

He did the best thing as he knows I have a little geeky love for the Wil not- only-formerly-known-as-Wil-Crusher but for his work on Stand by me and The Big Bang aka my real life but not half as funny and I am not Penny or Amy. As much as I am a huge geek, I had my own ideas about Dungeons and Dragons and the whole Tabletop thing. I’ll be absolutely honest, a part of me was like, “Seriously…..errr D&D….really” Tabletop to me meant D&D, and for me was a game that some folks took waaaayyy too seriously. It tended to end up with someone killing some other players parents whilst rolling for Initiative or whatever, combined with strange dice and the inevitable harassed neighbour who says that they were very quiet kids until that unfortunate business and, oh look movie of the week etc. So a little bit of media induced baggage then?

Bruv did the best thing…he ensured that I watched the Gloom episode of Tabletop which just happened to feature Amber Benson (Tara from Buffy…..how is this woman not aging?) and I watched as the game unfolded. He allowed me no time to dismiss anything. Any preconceived ideas I had, pretty much evaporated in a few minutes of watching.

Gloom is a tabletop game where each player has a family of 5 and the aim of the game is to spin a tale to degrade their self-worth, aided by cards in the deck and then shuffle them off the mortal coil. Opposing players will do their best to boost your families’ self-worth and fend off the despair that you keep piling on. That’s essentially it. It struck me because, I love a good yarn and this was an opportunity to work out those muscles and tell a twisted tale driving a character to a Carrie White like demise.  I was initially a bit nervous about it but eventually we mastered Gloom, Fluxx & Pandemic.

In the heady euphoria, he decided to expand and take this out to a wider audience and with a little help from myself, we had our first Tabletop event on 30^th June in a pub in the heart of London. Dare I say that mighty fun was had by all, 11 of us all together, including the wonderfully talented GreatEscapist  who can really spin a debauched tale or 2. There were times when I am sure that the pub in question regretted allowing us to play with shouts of “NerfHeader!!”,”Is that the Zombie Syphilis strain taking out Chicago?” “I f*&kin knew it was HIM!” and of course, “We’re all dead!” The best thing was the way that after some initial reluctance, everyone had a damn good time and no-one was harmed…much…a few came very close to having cards shoved where the sun shineth not but the outcome was a hunger for more.

So here we are, planning more events like this and thoroughly enjoying ourselves in the meantime. If anything, I wonder why the hell I didn’t give this a go a long time ago. In honour of Tabletop, today’s recipe is a dedication to the 30^th June, courtesy of the awesome folks at the The Drunken Moogle. I have no affiliation with them but by God if I did….well this would probably be a blog about my descent into drunken debauchery…hmmmm I wonder???

Jace, the Mind Sculptor - Magic: The Gathering cocktail - Courtesy of The Drunken Moogle

Ingredients:

½ oz. Hpnotiq

1 oz. Blue Curacao

½ oz. Bacardi 151 (or any overproof rum)

1 oz. Sweet & Sour

Orange peel

Directions: Add ice and water to a Martini glass to chill the glass. Add all ingredients to a mixer glass with ice and stir well. Dump the ice out of the Martini glass and strain the drink into it and garnish with an orange peel.

Note: This is the 2^nd blog of mine that features booze….but then again this blog is called Lock in at The Bronze!