Good spirits

Friday night wasn't like my usual gaming sessions. The other players were TC, LPO and two fellas I'd never met: their old friend LJ, visiting from interstate, and LPO's big brother T. Instead of convening at SC and LC's place (a mite difficult in their absence!), we met at LJ's rented digs in the city. These were inside a huge former woolshed(?) that had been converted into several floors of apartments, each with its own fenced front yard. The crazy-cool part was that these "yards" were *inside* the building, so you stepped out of the lift to find yourself on a suburban street...in Toy Town.

While waiting for T. to materialise, we played the card game "Citadels", the object of which is to construct eight different types of medieval building. The trick is that your social position - and special ability - changes each turn. So you might go from being the king to a lowly thief. There's a synergy between particular buildings and characters that results in extra income (gold) and other benefits. It's also possible to hinder your opponents' progress in various ways. Assassination's probably the funnest as it nullifies their turn. When our fifth player arrived, I'd accrued the most points and was declared the winner.

"Citadels" was followed by the fantasy wargame "A Game Of Thrones", based on George RR Martin's "Song Of Ice And Fire" series (the first four books of which I heartily recommend...just don't mention the fifth). It's basically about amassing armies on land and at sea, assigning them orders, battling your rivals and conquering their cities. But due to the limits on resources, diplomacy is always required lest you find yourself fighting on multiple fronts. There are also event cards to play and auctions to determine who ranks higher in certain spheres. Oh yeah, and occasionally the Wildlings will invade from the north, forcing the players to team up temporarily (or suffer the consequences). TO and I were the only "AGOT" newbies and I think that's what lead us to forge an alliance that remained unbroken until the other three admitted defeat on turn eight (out of a possible 10). TO was in an unstoppable position, his bro' had been crippled, LJ was about to be, and either TC or I looked like finishing second. For those who've read the novels, I played House Lannister. Sir Jaime, aka the Kingslayer, was my MVP.

Our final diversion for the night was Texas Hold 'Em Poker - four $10 buy-in knockouts. I decided to abandon my naturally conservative play style and put into practice what I'd "learnt" watching literally hundreds of hours of televised tournaments. It worked amazingly well! In the first game, it came down to TC and I and we agreed to split the $50. In the second, I nearly made it to heads-up again, but was trapped by TO (I had two pair, he had an unlikely full house). I missed the third game after volunteering to make a booze/snacks run so I could escape the cigarette smoke for a while. In the fourth, it came down to LJ and I and we happily split the cash.

While I've concentrated on describing the games (and my freakish success), a lot of other silly stuff was said and done during our 10-hour session, as always happens when a bunch of blokes get boozy. Looking back, one thing I can hardly believe is that TC convinced the group to attempt a seance. Since we didn't have a ouija board, he used a kitchen knife to cut a sheet of paper into little pieces, then wrote the letters of the alphabet on them and arranged them around the edge of the table. Two more scraps marked "yes" and "no" were placed within. We dimmed the lights and joined hands as TC requested any good spirits present to speak with us. Then we placed our right index fingers on a tumbler in the centre of the table. Can you guess what happened next?

That's right. The glass moved erratically and everyone accused their neighbour of doing it. Then we had another go, watched each other closely and it no longer moved. People started complaining about how it wasn't a proper seance like the ones they'd performed as teenagers and the whole thing degenerated into farce. At some point, a giant pentagram was made out of toilet paper. However, I believe the effectiveness of this magical barrier may have been compromised by us repeatedly reaching beyond its boundaries for spirits of a different sort. The kind that come in a glass.