Ravenwood Castle - A GWJ Friendly Travel Destination

Nevin73 wrote:

Heheh, should probably also add "Cards Against Humanity" to the library. For late night games, of course.

Edit: That actually brings up a question...how far away is the bar from the library? I know I like to drink beer when I game and I'm sure others might like to as well.

That might be one we keep around but out of sight, offering it only to those that would appreciate it. I can just imagine a 10 year old picking up the game and reading off a card to his mother, oh I bet that wouldn't go over too well.

MonoCheli wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

Heheh, should probably also add "Cards Against Humanity" to the library. For late night games, of course.

Edit: That actually brings up a question...how far away is the bar from the library? I know I like to drink beer when I game and I'm sure others might like to as well.

That might be one we keep around but out of sight, offering it only to those that would appreciate it. I can just imagine a 10 year old picking up the game and reading off a card to his mother, oh I bet that wouldn't go over too well.

"Mommy, what is Road Head?"

MonoCheli wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

Heheh, should probably also add "Cards Against Humanity" to the library. For late night games, of course.

Edit: That actually brings up a question...how far away is the bar from the library? I know I like to drink beer when I game and I'm sure others might like to as well.

That might be one we keep around but out of sight, offering it only to those that would appreciate it. I can just imagine a 10 year old picking up the game and reading off a card to his mother, oh I bet that wouldn't go over too well.

Up behind the counter, wrapped in plastic with a paper bag covering everything but the title. Next to the Penthouse and the condoms.

Nevin73 wrote:
MonoCheli wrote:
Nevin73 wrote:

Heheh, should probably also add "Cards Against Humanity" to the library. For late night games, of course.

Edit: That actually brings up a question...how far away is the bar from the library? I know I like to drink beer when I game and I'm sure others might like to as well.

That might be one we keep around but out of sight, offering it only to those that would appreciate it. I can just imagine a 10 year old picking up the game and reading off a card to his mother, oh I bet that wouldn't go over too well.

"Mommy, what is Road Head?"

"It's the new beer brewed by Tanglebones and Strangeblades for this inn."

I would definitely tag that one with a warning for parents, and suggest a good brisk game of Apples to Apples instead.

But just be aware any game can go down the wrong road with an inquisitive kid. I think I told the story of playing Beatles Rock Band with our youth pastor's family, and his 5 year old daughter's questions about the lyrics of Don't Let me Down.

About halfway through the song, she tugs on his sleeve and asks, "Do what, "Daddy?"

"Uhhhh..... Be his girlfriend. She's really good at it."

"Oh." Back to happily dancing around the room with her own princess guitar, and her mom and me in the corner trying not to choke on the giggles.

It was his fault - he picked the song off the Quickplay list and didn't think about it until way too late.

In what is likely to be a futile effort to regain the thread's rapidly deteriorating ESRB rating, I'll just drop this here.

Apparently the hiking and camping around Ravenwood is the best. Literally.

I'm not sure how legitimate TripleBlaze.com is as the arbiter of all things camping, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless.

Yep futile

My wife and I got out the sets of Dungeon Commander we picked up the other day We spend a little time looking over the minis and reading the rules to get ready to get a game or two in tomorrow hopefully. I like the little minis it looks slick. I also think the lack of dice will make it more strategic.

MonoCheli wrote:

Yep futile

My wife and I got out the sets of Dungeon Commander we picked up the other day We spend a little time looking over the minis and reading the rules to get ready to get a game or two in tomorrow hopefully. I like the little minis it looks slick. I also think the lack of dice will make it more strategic.

Nice! I picked up the Drow set on Sunday, and finally got a game in with my son last night. It was right down to the wire, with me having 4 Morale left, and my whole remaining army right next to his Dragon, with him at 6 Morale (the cost of the Dragon), and I couldn't pull off the moves I needed to kill the beast that turn. I barely held on to the Morale needed to survive one of his turns, but I managed it. Excellent game, and you are quite right - the lack of dice makes the whole game a lot more strategic than most miniature based games.

I am looking up exactly when my next anniversary weekend is and will be reserving! I showed the site to my wife and she is super excited. I am gonna do it on the sneak sneak though. Its not until next march anyway so I have some time to save up.

Cobble wrote:

I am looking up exactly when my next anniversary weekend is and will be reserving! I showed the site to my wife and she is super excited. I am gonna do it on the sneak sneak though. Its not until next march anyway so I have some time to save up.

No worries, I'll help you out with the sneak sneak

Is anything special happening the weekend of Aug 25th or 26th? I'll be up in Cleveland for \raining for 2 weeks and I've already visited the NFL Hall of Fame:)

karmajay wrote:

Is anything special happening the weekend of Aug 25th or 26th? I'll be up in Cleveland for
aining for 2 weeks and I've already visited the NFL Hall of Fame:)

There is nothing on the books but that could be a good thing. We could if anyone is interested have a little an impromptu s&t. Would any other goodjers be interested in coming out to play some board games and socialize on Saturday the 25th? At this point there are still quite a few rooms open if anyone needed a place to crash or they could just stop out for the day.

Sweet! After Teneman's ludicrously generous gift to my sister and the boys, my girlfriend, my daughters and I are going to join them. I will be reporting from the front lines of Ohio's premiere battle fortress, and will bring back any intelligence I can.

It looks like I am gong to be soon reserving a room for the weekend of 12 May (I know I said march earlier but that's only because I am the dumb). We will have to fly in and rent a car. How far away is the nearest airport?

Cobble wrote:

It looks like I am gong to be soon reserving a room for the weekend of 12 May (I know I said march earlier but that's only because I am the dumb). We will have to fly in and rent a car. How far away is the nearest airport?

I'll let Teneman or others jump in because of my ignorance of Ohio at this point, but I believe Columbus is the nearest big airport. It looks like we are about an hour and fifteen minutes or so from the airport provided you are avoiding peak traffic times in Columbus.

MonoCheli wrote:
Cobble wrote:

It looks like I am gong to be soon reserving a room for the weekend of 12 May (I know I said march earlier but that's only because I am the dumb). We will have to fly in and rent a car. How far away is the nearest airport?

I'll let Teneman or others jump in because of my ignorance of Ohio at this point, but I believe Columbus is the nearest big airport. It looks like we are about an hour and fifteen minutes or so from the airport provided you are avoiding peak traffic times in Columbus.

What he said. Unless you fly in your own puddle jumper, in which case Vinton County airport is only a few miles away.

By the way, shouldn't this thread title include "Castle-All?"

carrotpanic wrote:

By the way, shouldn't this thread title include "Castle-All?"

Nice. Get on that OP.

Here is a little cross post from The first inaugural GWJ youth gaming scholarship, COMPLETE! thread.

trichy wrote:

So after talking with my sister and MonoChelli, Jen, the girls and I are joining them on their Ravenwood trip! We're looking forward to it quite a bit, and we're hoping that there might be the possibility that a few Goodjers might find their way there to meet us. I like the idea of Liam meeting a few people from the community that made all this happen.

The trip will be during the kid's spring break, and we will be there October 2 through 4.

So this weekend we completely redesigned our office, and used a good portion of the space to relocate and reopen our long defunct gift shop.

That means we've got a complete building that used to be the gift shop which is available for other uses. That's about the point where MonoCheli learned to be careful making jokes. Based in part on his joke and in part on my eight year old's suggestion, we're turning that building into a dedicated kids play area. Castle themed building blocks, coloring tables, foam swords, etc.

Now all we need is a name for it. So far we've got Kids Camelot, Play Palace, Knight's Corner, or the one I'm seriously leaning towards, the Raven's Nest. We've had such great ideas from the community in the past though, I thought I'd toss it out there for some brain storming and focus group testing.

What should we name our dedicated kids play area?

Paging Rubb Ed, Paging Rubb Ed to the white courtesy thread...

I couldn't think of anything more fitting than the Raven's Nest. I think you knocked it out of the park with that one.

Uncle Creepy's Dank Play Den

Do you have a placed called "The Dungeon" yet, because... that... would be a really bad idea to name it that.

My job has paid for a significant amount of time in which I have tried to come up with a better name than Raven's Nest, but I have failed. I think Kommissar is right and you have a winner there.

(Best I came up with was something like "Little Lords and Ladies Chamber of Fun" which is... yeah.)

Teneman wrote:

What should we name our dedicated kids play area?

Squire's Square, Squire's Section, Jousting Yard. Raven's Nest is pretty great, though.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Uncle Creepy's Dank Play Den

"Hey kids, does this tunic smell like chloroform to you?"

Seriously, though, I just shot my sister a message about the kid's area, and my 3-year-old nephew is apparently vibrating with excitement about getting to run around a castle with a foam sword.

I got nothing, but if you need to age limit access...

Ages Four-tress and over?

trichy wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

Uncle Creepy's Dank Play Den

"Hey kids, does this tunic smell like chloroform to you?"

Seriously, though, I just shot my sister a message about the kid's area, and my 3-year-old nephew is apparently vibrating with excitement about getting to run around a castle with a foam sword.

I gave MonoCheli a September 1st target to have the Uncle Creepy's Play Den of Dankness up and running, at least in beta form.

Now if he doesn't get it running in time he's going to disappoint one of the Awesome Nephew Trilogy. How's that for motivation?

Atras wrote:

Squire's Square

This. Save "Raven's Nest" for something else.

I'd just be a little cautious about foam swords, particularly Nerf foam swords. They have a hard plastic core surrounded by foam. My kid nailed me in the junk with it one day when I was distracted. The sword tip was worn away exposing the plastic core...it hurt a lot. You can put a hurting on someone with those things, if you have a mind to.

Would it be possible to include a catapult to let the little tykes experience flight?

You could name it "Jester's Court" or something along those lines. That would give you an excuse to include a creepy clown.

Castle-themed kids' area?

The Squires' Training Realm
Little Lords' and Ladies' Castle
The Knight Is Young (okay, that's bad, but I had to get it out there)
Edit: Hodor's Hodor Hodor Hodor (Hodor Hodor Hodor)