All Fantasy, All of the Time

The Faire: The past weekend I went to Scarborough Faire for the first time a few years. As per usual it was a ton of fun. They have some incredible food there (a lot of people really dig their turkey legs). I had a rogue sandwich (a brisket like sandwich), a spinach pocket (think creamed spinach inside a pastry) and of course the very traditional Renaissance fare: the root beer float. I also looking at all of the shops that have a ton of handcrafted items. What red-blooded American male wouldn't want to take a gander at the swords there?

I watched a couple of shows. The highlight being The One Flaming Idiot, who does a really funny show. He used to be part of the Flaming Idiots, a trio who left a few years back to take their show elsewhere. The other two left the show to pursue other employment. There was also Don Juan and Miguel. Which Don Juan had a walking cast, which he also had the last time I was there.

Which brings me to the part that is a little bit sad. I've been going to the Faire for about 20 years now, and there are so many of the people involved who are doing it then who are still there now. These people just travel around from festival to festival to put on their acts, and some of them are looking pretty haggard. Who knows how long they were performing before I even went there. Something these guys are looking pretty haggard now. I can't imagine it is very easy life to maintain. I can't imagine doing one of their acts several times a day on the weekend in full Renaissance gear in May in Texas. I was burning up wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

Still it is a lot of fun. Some friends even bought some contraband alcohol there.

RPGing: Well for the first time in 8? 9? 10? years I am slinging dice again in a RPG (role-playing game). My all-time favorite was and always will be Champions, but my friend running the game wants something a little bit easier to play as he is getting his wife to start playing. So, for the first time in about 15 years or so I am actually playing Dungeons & Dragons. The 4th edition rules which is quite a bit different from the last time I played (which was second edition or so).

From what I have seen the changes are for the better. More hitpoints for the players is always good of course. Magic-users in general start out a lot more robust. They were fairly useless in the early levels and I am glad to see they have buffed them up. Also every class just gets a lot more utility which I like.

I also liked the program a friend of mine had to creat the characters. It had all of the texts, plus stuff from the magazines to aid in building you character. Pretty sweet.