Records of the Low Company

March 30th, AS XXX

• Fourth meeting, held at Melville Keep.
• Attendance was rather small: Alex Listkeeper, Alessandro, and Justin.
• Justin brought the Baronial Boards, and we played a couple of games on them.
• Justin also brought a prepublication copy of Francis Willoughby's "Volume of Plaies", which Alessandro spent much of the evening reading through.
• Alessandro re-reconstructed Tick-Tack, based on Willoughby this time. Willoughby turns out to be much clearer than Cotton, and the game proved to be a fast, fun gambling game. Afterwards, he compared the results with Cotton, and concluded that Cotton was talking about the same game, just very badly.
• Things degenerated into chit-chat around 10pm.

February 30th, AS XXX

No meeting, on account of the fact that the date doesn't exist. (Also, it would have been right before Investiture, and everyone had more important things to be doing.)

January 30th, AS XXX

• Third meeting, held at the Buttery.
• No attendance taken, but fairly well-attended.
• Focus was on Games at the Tables; everyone was encouraged to bring Backgammon sets to play with.
• Most people played from Sallamallah's book. The basic game of Tables from there was a particular favorite; it's easy to remember and play, although it does take a bit longer than Backgammon.
• Alessandro tried to reconstruct Tick-Tack from Cotton, with modest success; we wound up with a game that apparently took forever to play, and was mildly dull. (This would later be revisited in March.)

December 30th, AS XXX

Cancelled on account of snow.

November 30th, AS XXX

• Second meeting, held at Tyndall's house. Didn't take attendance (Rose and Marian weren't present, so I lost the Cooks' Guild Collective Memory of how to do these things). Partial list of attendees, from memory:
  • Justin
  • Tyndall
  • Pryder
  • John de Caversham
  • Richard
  • Stefan Skywatcher (had to leave early)
  • Guillaume Barberouge
  • Eowyn
  • Colin McCenna
  • Alexander Listkeeper
  • Mandisa Washington
  • Probably several more people I'm forgetting...
• Didn't talk nearly so much. People drifted in slowly; once we had critical mass, I did a quick intro, and got people going.
• Colin and Richard taught themselves Rythmomachy, from Sallamallah's instructions.
• Justin and John reconstructed Picket with help and kibitzing from several other people. They played one set together; then several other people joined in, resulting in three separate games of Picket running. Conclusion: it takes a little learning, but it isn't horribly complex (basically a trick-taking game with a lot of cruft at the front), and is rather fun.
• Things broke up around 11pm.

October 30th, AS XXX

• First meeting, held at the Buttery. Attended by:
  • Justin
  • Pryder
  • Steffan ap Cennydd
  • John de Caversham
  • Richard
  • Rose Alessandro
  • Stefan Skywatcher
  • Marian of Edwinstowe
  • Jehan du Lac
  • Aleksander Yevsha (aka Alexander de la Main Gauche)
  • Alessandro (nee Alexander the Storyteller)
• Talked for far too long. Discussed what the Company might want to do, besides reconstruct and play games. Ideas included:
  • Manufacture cards (printing the black lines, and using stencils to fill in the rest).
  • Make dice. (Main Gauche has a friend who pretty much owns the dice market in the US, and could probably make us a passel of wooden dice. Also, we talked about talking to Lucan about molding pseudo-ivory dice out of plastic.)
  • Make coinage. The Poulet Gauche needs coins in order to operate; we want them in order to gamble. Some inconclusive discussion about how cheaply we want to make and sell them, and what the denominations should be.
  Overall conclusion was that most of these projects probably won't be projects of the Company itself, but the overlap will be heavy and we have a vested interest in seeing them happen.
• Decided to stick with the name Low Company (suggested by Marian, I believe), and meet on the 30th. November meeting location TBA; December to happen at the Buttery, as a prelude to Buttery New Year.
• Played Show and Tell with sources.
• Divided into three groups, and played card games. Alessandro, Main Gauche, and Jehan taught themselves Primero (as a sort of test run of the Poulet Gauche instructions). Rose, Stefan, and Marian played La Bete. Steffan, Pryder, Richard, John, and Justin played Bryncir, a Welsh card game reconstructed by Master Brusten de Bearsul.