The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen · 12:45am Nov 17th, 2013
Another thing I do that might be practicing writing is to play a game by James Wallis, The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen.
You can buy this game, but you don't need to. The rather long rulebook is just meant to entertain and get you in the mood. The 2008 edition is apparently different; the description says,
The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen contains full rules, more than two hundred adventures ready to be played, mechanics that replace dice and pencils with money and fine wine, and many insults against the inhabitants of various nations, but principally the French. This expanded edition is a facsimile of a suppressed volume originally published in 1808. It contains additional rules for playing in an Arabian style and a complete supplementary game, 'My Uncle the Baron', designed for children, the inbred, and those who are very drunk.
But all you need to play the game are a stack of pennies and imagination. Each player chooses the persona of an 18th century person, and by "person" I am of course excluding those of common birth, those lacking land or station, and the French. Introduce your personas to each other. Give each player a number of pennies proportionate to their rank (or all equal, if you are one of those democratic agitators). Then one player turns and says to the player on his left something such as, "I have always wondered, Baron, why your family crest portrays a rabbit and a herring," or, "I have heard that in Kurdistan there is a cult of assassins who worship a giant gold statue of you," or, "Can you tell us how it came to pass that in the battle of Terzoupolis you commanded both of the opposing forces, and had to pay yourself ransom for your own release?"
The player asked the question begins telling a story. Other players may interfere with the story by saying, perhaps, "But how did you bring a battalion of Sherpas through the Ryder pass, when it is said that the mountains on either side are so tall that the pass is in complete darkness except for one minute at midday, and Sherpas refuse religiously to travel in the dark?" The challenging player pushes forward some number of coins, and the storyteller must either give the challenger in equal number of coins, saying, "No, sir, you are misinformed", or else take them and work the challenger's point into the story.
When everyone has told their story, each player uses their coins to vote for one or more stories of other players, and the player given the most coins wins.
I don't know whether playing this helps you as a writer, but I think writers are better at playing it than most people. (That isn't hard, since most people simply refuse to play.) The most entertaining time I spent playing that game was at a science-fiction convention with a room full of professional fantasy and science fiction authors.
I fucking love that game! Being believably ridiculous is pretty much how I go through life.
That sounds... very fun, actually. On-the-fly storytelling through the characters of eighteenth century ladies and gentlemen. Yes, now I just need to rope in some
poor foolsgood friends.Is it true, Baron Bad Horse, that you not only bested two score professionals, but escaped the convention with thirteen new hats?
...Never heard of the game before now, so I probably did it wrong.
Are you interested in a bout of this game, Bad Horse? We could do it over Skype, or IRC. In fact, I think I'll make a chat channel just for that!
With your help of course, because I don't know how to use IRC except for existing rooms.
This sounds like something I'd try to play seriously with my friends, before they'd naturally devolve it into orgies and barely concealed innuendo...
But then again, this is supposed to emulate the nobles of time past...
The movie gave me one of the very few dreams I remember, which was easily the second weirdest nightmare I have had. It involved small children, icebergs, one of those hideous deep sea lure fish (who was unreasonably suggestible), and friendship.
I was dragged kicking and screaming to watch the movie when it was in theatres here in the US. It would have been the late 80s or maybe early 90s, and my mother thought I needed some culture. The only thing I really remember about the movie was that he just wouldn't die.
Maybe I should watch it again. I might appreciate it more.
Also, that sounds like a really fun game. Oh, if I still hung out with the steampunk kids back in Ann Arbor . . . .
I would play the shit out of that game, if anyone needs another player...
You know, I've always wanted to try that one. It sounds like absolutely magnificent
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No, sir you are--
--no! It can no longer be kept a secret. It's time the world knew! I've had the details given to me by a trusted associate, whose name I cannot possibly divulge, except to say it is one regarded with uniform respect and admiration in all the courts of Europe.
Baron Bad, I've been given to understand, not only bested two score professionals (not one of them French--a true gentleman would not count a victory in a battle of wits against an unarmed opponent) but also won such admiration from several crowned heads of Europe who were in attendance--incognito of course, but simply everyone knew--and such was their respect for his proficiency with the cutting remark and the sharply stabbing question, that they saw fit to give him extraordinary gifts including, it is said, an exquisite tricorn of black sable, decorated with jet and obsidian.
All admired this truly extraordinary hat, when a rival--a small bitter man who was not French, for all that everyone suspected it--made an indiscreete comment about how only that gifted hat saved the good Baron from ignominy. You see, the Baron had arrived to the convention hatless which, this was, remember, during the time of Prince Gumpert's Obligatorischehuttragenschaft policy, which meant that appearing without some sort of hat was the height of gauche and possibly punishable by forceful bissonomy. This was not to fault the good Baron, or to imply any stain on his character, he had started off his trip to the convention for scientific romance wearing a perfectly serviceable black silk hat of fine manufacture, but lost it in Barcelona during an abominable affair with the one-eyed circus knife-thrower, the panther, and the Bishop's niece. The world--alas!--is not yet ready to hear the details, but I can divulge that parts of Montjuïc still smell faintly of vanilla.
Well, such an insult could not stand unchallenged, and Baron Bad Horse challenged all comers to play once more, but this time using their hats as stakes. Well, few were willing to risk ignominy--not to mention bissonomy--especially against so skilled an opponent of the Gentleman's Game, but since no Frenchmen were in attendance, all accepted gladly. The battle was joined, and the standard of play was such that it is said that nothing in Europe had equaled it since. By the evening's end Baron Bad Horse was the only one to be wearing anything on his head at all, even though he had been forced to wager away two corners of his magnificent hat. However, such was his personal charm, the glory of his victory, not to mention thirteen brand new hats he held at his side as trophies of battle--latter he would have them bronzed and mounted--that the new look was immediately copied and even to this day the particularly rakish and fashionable are known to sport this 'unicorn' style.
Or so I heard it. You'll have to forgive my imposition here, but the good Baron doesn't like to talk about this event. Understandable, of course, utterly understandable. Even the most bloodless recital of the bare facts of the matter would sound as the most extravagant hubristic boast, after all, and Baron Bad Horse is nothing if not modest.
God, I'm going to have to find this rulebook now.
Games like this are quite silly, but amusing.
1513454 Yeah, let's try that! I think by voice. if we did it in chat, you'd mostly be watching one person type a story. I don't know why that should be more boring than listening to one person tell a story, but I think it would be. Probably there's some way to do that in Skype. I don't know how well it will work without eye contact, but it's worth a try.
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1514244 We could try it tomorrow. I'm deathly tired now.
1514251 Oh, I didn't mean now. Tomorrow could work, if we can organize that quickly. I'm on Eastern time, free from noon on.
1514254 Great! Eastern for me as well, and I'd have to see about making a Skype account. I don't think I have anything to do from noon on, but don't hold your breath.
Things tend to bite you in the ass when you're trying to have fun...
1514251 Oh, man, I just found out this weekend is Comfy Con! I want to watch the 4pm & 5pm panels tomorrow.
Oh man, I love this game, if you can play it in the right frame of mind with an equally witty crowd. I ran a game several years in a row at Further Confusion. The best part is when later players' stories start incorporating callbacks and mythology from earlier stories and you get this amazing worldbuilding riffing going.
If you want to start a little friendlier and more structured and then work your way up to the free-for-all of Baron Munchhausen, look up the card game Once Upon A Time, which uses cards and is fairy-tale themed but is fun for all the same reasons.
BH, if we ever meet in person at a con we'll both have to bring our rulebooks and get a Baron game going.
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But Baron Ghost! (pushes a coin forward) Your recounting, sir, is marvelous and I cannot fault it for truth. But is it not also true, sir, that you were at this convention yourself to witness these events; and in fact a participant in the winner-take-all round in which Bad Horse won the hat of every gentleman present … and yet you left the convention that afternoon with the long-lost crown of Prince Gumpert upon your head?
1514244
I, sir, am as they say; down. However, I feel I must forewarn you that I am a storied alumni of that most elite and hallowed band of brothers; the Harshwhinny is Best Pony group.
Have you ever watched Tabletop, Wil Wheaton's online TV show where he plays board games with entertainment personalities? It's amazing to see how much more interesting and fun board games are, especially storytelling ones, when the people involved are professional storytellers or actors.
1514325 Curses!
Eh, just pop a PM at me when you have time to play.
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I'd love to get in on that. I'm on Mountain Time, but I can get up early, and should have the whole day free.
1514260 The panels are all recorded and put on YouTube, so I can skip it and put it on my to watch list and then never watch it.
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Today, then? I should warn you I'm... not in fact very good at this game. Someone like shortskirtsandexplosions would excel at it.
To do this, you need to create a Skype account, then post your Skype username here, what time is good for you (leave an hour or two open), and an email address to make notifying you easier. Then (important step) add badhorse43 to your Skype contacts list.
Whoever wants to organize a call needs to create a group and add all the usernames to his contacts. That sends a request to each person, which they have to reply to before he can add them to the group. Once he's got all the replies, he can call the group.
This would probably work better as a video call, but I ain't got the video set up. This would probably work better as a video call, but I ain't got the video set up.
badhorse43, badhorse43@gmail.com, 3 to 10 pm eastern, preferably 5pm or later
1515595 And I'm on right now.
1515595 Today, I'm not available until 8pm eastern at the earliest. (I have another rpg today
)
jmartkdr@gmail.com, skype: jmartkdr m
Skype: stargazer-the-terrible
And I just go my mic out!
Skype: horsemumbler
Available today from now till 8:00 eastern, and again after 10:00 eastern.
1515852 Edit: I'm now available most of the day.
1515595
Skype name: Fuzzyfurvert; 092080casey@gmail.com
I'm on now, but I won't be rightly available until 7pm EST
This sounds like it would have been fun. I doubt I'd have been any good at it[1], but it would have been fun.
[1] Also, skype issues, vis linux. I understand they can be worked around but I feel that may defeat the point.
1513871
Exactly how many words did you have to introduce to Firefox typing that? I ran across a fair number of perfectly pedestrian words mine didn't know when I added it to the archive. (Which reminds me, I should bookmark your other collection of such words, just for convenience. Guess I'll have to go find that.)