Sunday, May 29, 2005

Tales From the Inn

About thirty fanthusiasts turned up last night for TSFS’s Fantastic Inn. The setting was very appropriate: an old dungeon with stone walls and a very medieval feeling.

People sitting around at their tables

The evening was very informal and also “fantasy light”—I’m sure a purist scadian, or even a medieval-oriented larper with no sense of humor would definitely not approve. But that wasn’t the point. The point was to gather together and have fun in a setting a bit different for everyday life.

People sitting at the table, eating and drinking

There were a couple of programming events during the night; maybe a bit too few. I think there could have been some event to start the evening as the guests arrived and get them in the mood. Now, people came in, got some food, and started talking about the same things they usually do when they meet. Of course, role-playing medieval guests wasn’t the goal of the evening, but still, I was left with a bit of a feeling of arriving in a middle of a normal pub meeting (albeit with more people), only dressed funny.

Johanna and Kirsi asking Tolkien trivia questions

There was a fiendishly difficult Tolkien quiz—or at least it seemed to be impossible to the mere mortals, although the few Tolkien-wizards present seemed to know the answers to every question. Except the last one… (“When is Orlando Bloom’s birthday”—and that one got also quickly taken care of.)

Anniina singingThere was also some singing. Pictured here is the more pleasant version. The singing together part I wasn’t that keen about. Fortunately, there was another room with wonderful machines capable of producing sounds that completely drowned the “singing”. The music was good and appropriate for the setting, ranging from folk rock to soundtracks of fantasy and historical movies.

I had a good time, and others seemed to be enjoying themselves too. The big challenge for the organizers would be to manage to attract some new blood to these events, too: almost everyone present was either at least a semi-regular at the pub meetings or member (or former member) of the TSFS board. You’d think that with the popularity of Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings movies, this would be just the kind of an event that could attract new fen to join the merry crowd.

additional photos

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