Shabbat Shira, and some gaming

[cellio]

This week was Shabbat Shira, when we read the part of Exodus about the song at the sea. (The word "shira" means "song".) On first Fridays we normally have a family-oriented service early and then the regular one later; this time, we decided to make a big deal out of Shabbat Shira, with lots of singing and dancing and participation, and make the service earlier to accommodate the families. They were predicting 200, maybe 250 people.

The sanctuary holds 450. We had about 500 people. They were standing in the aisles; parents were holding kids in their laps; some were in folding chair that were hastily brought in and wedged into various places. Everyone was surprised.

The music was great! For the last six weeks or so our cantor has been teaching some new songs, hoping to build up a core of people who know them, and that worked. (They were all easy (IMO) and fun.) And our congregational choir participated. And the new youth choir (seemed to be 8- to 10-year-olds, mostly) participated on a couple songs. And they distributed a bunch of tambourines and other small percussion instruments throughout the congregation. And there was a very good klezmer band that added a lot without taking over. (Gotta find out who they were.)

Plans for dancing got bagged after one song, because the aisles were filling up with people. (People kept trickling in throughout the entire service.)

Ironically, we did not actually read the song at the sea (or any Torah) at that service. Normally we read Torah on Fridays (also Saturdays), but we gave the time over to music instead. I think this is also more consistent with what they do at that family service most of the time -- no Torah there either. This was fine with me, actually; I think if we're reading Torah on Saturday mornings the need has gone away for doing it on Friday nights. (There wasn't always a regular morning service here.) But it's part of the Reform culture to do Friday-night readings, so that probably won't change and I don't really mind.

Saturday morning the turnout was small for our minyan (15 people). I suspect this was due to a combination of challenging weather and the big party the night before; we definitely have people who will come for one service but not both. Of the 15, three were new. One left before I could talk with him; one is a gentile thinking about conversion; and one is a visitor from Israel. I spent some time talking with this last one; she was walking in the same direction I was, so we walked together. She grew up in Pittsburgh and made aliya; she is back here for a year and currently staying with relatives. She works in the tourism industry over there, so things have been rough for her for a couple years.

She invited me to her family's for lunch but I already had a pot of food going, and also plans for the afternoon. Her relatives will be away next weekend, so I invited her for then. It turns out that her kashrut standards are stricter than mine, so we talked about ways to make her comfortable. (I'm not unused to this problem; my kashrut standards aren't as high as I would like. Casualty of the marriage. But anyway, I know how to cook "really kosher", and I have a stash of utensils and stuff that can be brought to bear on the problem.)

In the afternoon I got together with ralphmelton and several others to play our first game of My Life With Master. I thought it was interesting, and not as creepy as I expected it to be. Part of that was that we spent time learning the rules and then establishing the characters; it did start to get creepy at the end (when we had to suspend the game due to time constraints). I'm pretty happy that the final scene we played, when the creepiness really started to happen, was one of mine; I had been dubious about my ability to role-play in a horror game. But deliberately planting a nightmare into the mind of an innocent townsperson turned out to be easier than I thought it would be.

We bumped into some situations that we weren't sure how to resolve within the rules. I think our judgement calls were sound, but we're also going to send some email to the author.

I'll have more to say about the game later, but it'll take me a little while to get it written up. The game was not without humorous moments; on the contrary, at one point lorimelton walked into the room and asked why, if we were playing a horror game, we were laughing so much. Best funny quote that I currently remember, directed toward dvarin's engineer character: "You set the house on fire to impress me?!". (Maybe you had to be there.)

Comments

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

So, the well-meaning but disastrously incompetent guy with no common sense is enough of a standard character in stories (where he is always tolerated, probably because of his great ability to kick off plot) and is similar enough to my actual character that it seemed a good idea to run in that direction. Setting the house on fire while trying to impress the clockmaker was a convenient lie, but I could see him actually doing it for that reason as well.

The problem with this that I see is that continuing in this vein, I might be going around being silly while you all go around being horrific. Well, silly and pitiful, so maybe it'll work out. I'm not sure I'm actually suited for the genre--mainly I snapped at the chance to play because the complete lack of complex mechanics forces more roleplaying than I usually do.

Re:

[cellio]

The problem with this that I see is that continuing in this vein, I might be going around being silly while you all go around being horrific. Well, silly and pitiful, so maybe it'll work out.

Well, you can get gradually darker along with the rest of the group. You could also be cultivating a veneer of "harmlessness" as a decoy, so that when you strike you'll be that much more effective. That's what I assumed you were doing, anyway.

I'm not sure I'm actually suited for the genre--mainly I snapped at the chance to play because the complete lack of complex mechanics forces more roleplaying than I usually do.

I'm playing for pretty much the same reason. I was a bit unnerved by the genre, but I think it's working well and I like the role-playing focus. I'm not very good at role-playing, and this gives me an opportunity to try to improve without constantly stopping to consult rulebooks, spell lists, dice, etc.