July 2004, St. Louis
St. Louis.... I was going to start with, "it was a hot and sticky weekend", but it wasn't. It was a cool and somewhat grey weekend.
This year, as in years past, we started by taking over the lobby. The hotel did not really like this at all, but what else is new. Any ways we quickly were moved to the conference room, which worked out extremely well, as we could drink, play our various games and just have a place to hang out without interrupting the Bible Group that was also in the hotel. For the most part, people just hung out at the hotel. Though a small group, led by Hobbes did get to see the Cardinals play and another group went to the horror known as Dave & Busters. (I say horror as I heard the service was just downright awful. I'm glad the group I was with got lost).
You know you are an addict when 1) you bring a laptop to the OMP, 2) you are mudding from the OMP via a wireless connection. Yes, you heard me right. The great thing about this was, Polaris set up a webcam and shouted the link on the mud so that people could see the party in action.
Like years past, everyone always likes to hang out and play various games. This year we had the following:
Phase 10, Munchkin, Settlers of Catan, Articulate, Axis and Allies, Risk, and of course, UNO.
Once again we had a big parking lot with plenty of space, so we decided to do Dog Punting.
While it was a low turn out, it was definitely a lot of fun. After that we ran inside for the Uno Tourney. We had a record 35 people join in, what a lot of fun.
The main attraction... The OMP.
Like every other year we politely asked everyone to leave the room so that setup could begin. The door prizes had to be brought down from Pistil's room and the registration
table set up.
Once this was done, the line started coming in. First stop was with Pistil and Tensor to submit your VAF.
Next was Sorcha with the tickets and Vraal with the "stuff". Once you were done there you headed over
to Nanook and Vryce to get a shirt, Takamori and Stalin were also here and there doing their share.
Once everyone was in, the food started arriving. While we had pizza again, we also had subs from
Subway. Though they forgot a big thing regarding these, they didn't cut them. So handy Valletta to the rescue, she grabbed a plastic knife and went to town.
Once food was done with, Tensor explained how the tickets and buckets would work this year. I didn't think
the buckets would be a good idea, but I'll admit I was wrong and Tensor was right, as he is always right. ;) Anyways,
he went over step-by-step what to do with each piece of the ticket. Though some people outsmarted him.
They wrote their names on the tickets, thus making life much easier. After this it was time to start the
Scavenger Hunt. While there were only three teams this year, they were bigger then in previous years. There were also more physical/photo options, thus making it truly a fun time.
The last main part of the party.... the Door Prize Raffle. This year there were some
really awesome prizes. From DVD Players to a brand new Dell. Truly one of the better OMP prize table in history.
The last bit of news... there are now only four people who have been to every single OMP.
Are they addicted? Crazy? or just dedicated? You decided. They are : Pendras, Sorcha, Tensor and Vryce. Who will
the next one off the list?
Coming soon, Guild Pics and names of all who signed the boards.
Pictures:
Special thanks to all of the players and wizards who worked hard to make this a success. Some people have continued to contribute even after the event by posting their party pictures for online viewing:
If you have any pics or stories that you would like to submit, please mud mail Vryce.
