unforum

[CoffeeJedi]

[SMG3er]

[perfect_autumn]

Jane's pics are up!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/avantgame/sets/1085984/

[Wiser]

[Nos]

So, does anyone know what clues (if any) or anything were in those special decks of cards that were given out as prizes? I don't think anyone's ever mentioned...

[thunderclap8]

query:

Were you given chips at the start to play with? Or were the only ones available whatever you picked up off of graves?

[Ranger D]

[aliendial]

Do we need to have a teammate? (You mentioned couples)

[The Adam]

[Ranger D]

[hmrpita]

At the entrance to the cemetery, I was handed a program with a picture of Lucky on the front, instructions for Tombstone Hold 'Em inside, and a message from Lucky on the back; a piece of paper listing various "Graveyard Games" that were "inspired by Lionel "Lucky" Brown, posthumous founder of www.lastcallpoker.com"; a deck of playing cards that had "Good luck!" handwritten in marker on the package; and 10 poker chips with the original Last Call Poker logo on them. I posted pictures of these items on my flickr, as well as a few from the day--I sure wish I had taken more pictures.

Right after entering the cemetery, Ariock and I ran into Spacebass, who I was looking forward to meeting. We all looked for chips on tombstones and Jokers (BTW, I confirmed with Mr. Brown's representative that a Joker is a tombstone that has your birthday only--your birth year is not necessary). Having already scouted out the cemetery, I wasn't looking all that hard. There were 7 Jokers for me and 4 for Ariock that we knew of, so we didn't feel the need to find more. Two of my jokers were right next to each other, which would have been great if we had USED them.

People kept showing up--ultimately there was around 100 people there. We were given instructions that the people with decks of cards would be the first dealers. It ended up that in our group, we only played one hand of poker before realizing it was past 2:30 and those of us with phone contacts had missed calls on our phones. My contact was Krystyn, who rocked. Unfortunately, we started too late and I was not being diligent in following her instructions to find the correct mausoleum.

We heard that the box had been found so we found the group of people who were following those instructions. There were a set of maps, with instructions and a picture that went with each one (SMG3er scanned and posted them in this thread). As Ariock pointed out, other people were still playing Tombstone Poker. I was on the phone most of the time with Krystyn, following the group around, trying to tell her where we were going and why. I was holding on to too many things, it was noisy and difficult to hear the instructions, let alone repeat them to Krystyn, so I am sure I sounded like an idiot (insert when do you NOT sound like an idiot joke here).

We ended up at the gravesite of Vincenzo Cirimele, who died the day after his seventh birthday. As per Lucky's instructions, we were to place 500 poker chips on the grave, as an offering, and then form a circle around the grave and hold hands. We placed 666 chips, some arranged in auspicious shapes, formed the hand holding circle and, as already stated, sang "Amazing Grace" because that is the song of ARGs, at least when I am involved in them.

Also, as already mentioned, Ariock, with his digital radio, was the only person who managed to get a signal on 101.9. There was also an envelope that I think came from the box with instructions to open the envelope at sunset. At the Globe, where we went directly afterwards for liquid refreshments and everybody wins--nobody wins poker, the envelope was opened and the coded message that Ehsan ended up solving was inside.

My humble advice for future live event players:

Decide what you want to do--play Tombstone Hold 'Em or play the ARG. This is vital for winning one or solving the other because, unless your event is run differently from ours, you will not have time for both. Of course, you can do a little of each, if you are not interested in being the winner or the solver.

If you decide to play Poker--scope out the cemetery beforehand to look for Jokers--remember, the year is irrelevant--it just needs to be someone who died on your birthday.

If you decide to play the ARG--scope out the cemetery beforehand to familiarize yourself with it--print out an aerial photo of it from Google Earth. Get comfortable--stay awhile. Okay--not THAT long. Not YET anyway.

[krystyn]

[rose-not logged in]

Heh Krystyn - i very politely called the cemetery too and asked if they had an online map. Because of this family history I am researching.

Turns out they didn't. Wonder if they got very many odd phone call requests during the game?

[krystyn]

Omigosh, I tried to be as absolutely polite as possible. I paused a few times to let him get out of the call, if needed. I so didn't want to waste his time, and I didn't want my excitement of the game to make him feel rushed.

It was like all the dormant etiquette rules rose to the surface and beat me about the head soundly during the entire phone call.

I wasn't as clever as you, though. I totally admitted that I was assisting some friends in the 'scavenger hunt thingy' going on there that day. Heh.

Even on the phone with Melissa during ilovebees I had a difficult time lying or roleplaying. I just told the truth as much as I could, and did the omission trick on the rest.

[MageSteff]