Note: Normally I would link to things/people I see, but most of these folks don’t seem to have a website, so instead I’m just gonna put the full title of the performer/store/thing in italic quotes near the paragraph about them.
I went to a Renaissance Faire for the first time recently! It was pretty neat, and for once, I’m writing about an event before it’s completed, so if anything I write today sounds neat, you can get tickets here, and drive yourself down the Acton Fairgrounds in Acton, Maine.
First though, some photo!
Yeah, uh. That’s the only photo I took. Sorry.
Listen, the idea of cheese divination is one of those things I heard, and it just kinda took over my brain for a bit. Now, I did sit down to chat with the women running the both, who is a cheesemonger by trade, and learn about the history of Tyromancy, but I didn’t get a reading done. I just don’t like getting my fortune told for reasons that are neither here nor there to this blog post.
Still, this is the sorta idea I will absolutely steal for a game at some point in the future.
(Tyromancy by Rachel)
Another great thing I saw, but also don’t have photos of was a performer named Sylvan Farelight, doing slight of hand. Specifically, he was running shell and pea games on a small table. There’s something about slight of hand that I find really impressive, so that was another highlight for me.
(Sylvan Farelight)
I then spent some time just wandering around the fairgrounds. I’ll be honest, while I can appreciate the effort that goes into a lot of this stuff, some of it isn’t for me.
That said, I did see two gamified experiences I was very curious about. One I did get a chance to try, and one I did not.
The one I did try was Treasure Hunt. This was a bit of a cross-faire escape room with various puzzles to solve to collect parts of various clues to solve a larger meta-puzzle.
I will observe that while I did struggle with understanding these puzzles a bit, my friends did not, and it legitimately might have just been the result of not drinking quite enough water that day, and wearing almost all black, and doing a lot of walking and-
Look. It might have been dehydration rather then puzzle design.
The second one was [Okay Look, I’ve emailed the faire to find the name but they haven’t gotten back to me yet, and I like giving credit, so I’m leaving this text here till I can fix it]. This was slightly larger system that seemed to work a bit like a combo of a stamp rally and DND. I can’t comment on the game experience at all since I didn’t play, but the presentation was incredible, and the folks running it were kind enough to talk to me a fair amount about the system, and how it works.
One of the interesting things I do remember asking them was how they solved the meta-progression problem, since this is a game that runs across multiple Renn Faires. They explained that since they’re primarily PVE, everyone can contribute to any given challenge, even if for some challenges, some folks are going to be doing more then others, and also that sharing gear was something that had organically sprung up in the community.
[I Will Update This When I Find It]
Finally, I bought a bunch of 3D printed mini’s that I haven’t started painting yet from The Workshop of Many, and hiked back to my car.
I do want to make 2-ish quick sidenotes on this one. First, the models I purchased were sculpts from Becca_3D. And second, the general “realistic Pokemon” aesthetic I believe is at least inspired a little bit by the work of RJ Palmer. Just a quick “credit where it’s due” thing here.
Overall, this was a fun time, and I probably would have enjoyed it more if I had 1. brought a proper costume, and 2. it had not been a 4 hour round trip by car. But yeah, if I was closer I’d probably go again, and if you want to go, the last weekend it’s open this summer is coming right up.