Or The Game, to be more precise. For the past couple of weeks I've been consumed by preparations for the Mooncurser's Handbook beta, which we ran this past weekend. Now comes prep for beta 2 in a couple of weeks, and the Game itself in a month. The beta was tremendously helpful in identifying problem spots, most of which involved timing. Now we need to tweak some clues and revise some segments of the route to try to improve the experience. Response to our biggest gambles was uniformly positive, which is a huge relief-- if they didn't work, we'd have been in big trouble. Even with an imperfect Game, with timing/difficulty issues and with some things missing for logistical reasons, participants had fun and said a lot of positive things about the experience. The real thing will be even better thanks to the lessons learned in this beta and the one yet to come. I'm eagerly looking forward to the day of the event... and to the day AFTER the event when I start to get my life back.
Posted by Peter at July 26, 2005 11:29 AMOnly 28 shopping days left until 8/23!
Posted by: Grubs on July 26, 2005 4:52 PMCould you provide some more info about the clues and solutions?
Posted by: Matthew on July 26, 2005 5:37 PMI am eagerly looking forward to it too... Last night my team spent an hour comparing the subtle differences between 12-person vans and 15-person vans. Speaking of shopping days, though, we've barely started our equipment list, never mind actually acquiring all the items on the fictional list.
Posted by: Steve Dupree on July 27, 2005 12:55 PM15 person van is the way to go. Remove the front bench, giving you much easier access/egress, a place to store supplies, and an interior workspace should one become useful (which it always is at some point during a Game).
A lot of teams in the Bay area just use regular cars (4 players) and minivans, but that just seems nuts to me. Even a 15-person van feels cramped after a while, with all the garbage, coolers, extra clothing, supplies, finished clues, electronics, etc.
Having someone in charge of keeping the van tidy and organized might also be a good idea.
Posted by: Peter on July 27, 2005 1:13 PMThe vans we looked at were almost identical, but the 15 person van had one more row of seats stuffed in the same amount of space. Although we talked about seat removal - if we plan on doing any horizontal sleeping, that conflicts with seat removal in the 12 person van but maybe not in the 15. On the other hand the 15 has zero "trunk" space for seldom-used items, and the seats are less comfortable, and one of the guys at the rental place said the difference in drivability is pretty big (with the 12 being easier to maneuver.)
Obviously in the hour we spent poking at them, we came up with a lot more criteria besides just the above.
Posted by: Steve Dupree on July 27, 2005 1:26 PMTrue, you lose storage space behind the rear seat with many 15-person vans-- you're trading it away for the extra space you gain when you remove the front bench. The back bench becomes storage.
One key will be to pack light. When we go to SF for Games, we stay overnight on Friday for a Saturday start-- so it's a comparable packing requirement to the Mooncurser's Handbook. I fit all my clothes/toiletries for the trip, my headlamp, and my laptop in a single small backpack (think bookbag). Packing as light as possible is essential to maximizing van space.
In the McGuffin Game we didn't have storage space behind the back bench. When we started napping late at night, everything got pushed into the floor space between the back 2 benches. This made getting in and out of the back bench a bit of a pain. But all the open space we gained by removing the front bench was super useful and worth the trade-off.
Posted by: Peter on July 27, 2005 1:51 PMCool, thanks for the advice!
Posted by: Steve Dupree on July 27, 2005 4:04 PMi've driven a 15 person van during a full weekend road rally and had no problems with it. other than needing a longer space when parallel parking i saw very little different about it.
Posted by: dana on July 28, 2005 12:50 AMWe're also going for the 12-person van instead of the 15. Even with that front seat out I think we'll be comfortable enough. I think one difference between our team and yours (Peter) is that your people are somewhat larger than ours (see: paddleboats).
Besides, we'll need that storage space in the wayback for the blowtorch, full scuba gear, and Weber grill that we're bringing.
Posted by: Grubs on July 28, 2005 9:12 AM