Halloween in Tuscany

Friday Events: Awoke early today worried about performance. This morning we were to try 'Killer Breakfast' here at Lucca. This is our signature event at conventions: a game that we play usually with an audience of over a thousand people at Gencon each year. But this is a performance of satire ... and my mind was filled with misgivings on how it would translate in Italian ... especially since I do not speak the language practically at all. Comedy through translators? It sounds (even as I write it) like an idea absolutely ripe for disaster. So I awoke at 5:30 am and worked on Thursday's blog entry and tried to think my way through what the event would be like.

Laura and I got ready for the day, went downstairs in our hotel ... the lovely and quaint Universo ... to ask about where we could have breakfast. The staff at the desk were surprised: didn't we know that there was a dining room next to the lobby where we could have a breakfast that was included with our room? No, we had not known, but were grateful for the incredible baked free-range eggs, fruit, yogurt (actual yogurt, unlike in the States) fresh breads, cheese and juice.

We then went back to the room, gathered up our HUGE amount of needed materials for the event (computer backpack, camera case and large rolling bag filled with the t-shirt prizes and various props we use for the event and headed out into the rainy street. We felt and probably looked like upscale homeless people but we have notices that people here in Lucca often wheel around such suit cases through the cobblestone streets.

We got to the event early and were fortunate to have BOTH of the translators there to help us. One of them would translate my words for the audience and players ... the other would translate the player's responses to me. We got a late start after some technical difficulties and the show opened with our tribute to Gary Gygax, who passed away earlier this year.

To our wonder, the audience broke into spontaneous applause for Gary. They all knew who he was and all understood what the tribute was about. It was an incredible moment in which we realized just how far reaching our influence can be as these people cheered his memory from half a world away.

Laura said before the event not to worry about it because these people were there to have a good time and that they wanted us to succeed. She was absolutely right: despite the fact that the timing of the jokes was completely off and the pacing of the show was much slower than either of us were use to it turned out delightfully. Laura and I sang our opening song with gusto entirely in English but the audience clapped in time to the music, sang when they could and in the end not only applauded but thunderously stomped the tent boards beneath us. It was amazing. Our t-shirts were a huge hit as prizes and there were times when I actually understood the responses from the players before the translation. It was also FAR more work than I was used to doing at this event ... and it normally about kills me. Not only two hours of improv but improv in a language I barely understand left me soaked in my own sweat and completely exhausted.

Laura arranged for us to have lunch back on the wall at the 'stables' restaurant we first ate at here in Lucca so that we could have some quiet and a place to sit down. It was perfect. We had a lovely lunch and then returned to our hotel for a quick change of clothes and then back to the convention for our last two events of the day.

The first was an appearance with Luca Giuliani, the translator of the Dungeons and Dragons books into Italian. It turns out that he is a literature professor here in Italy with some very enthusiastic views on role playing as a social phenomenon and its cultural impact. His English is marginally better than my Italian but through our translator we began having a rather interesting conversation. He suggested a format for the presentation of the 'Thanks Gary: a tribute to Gary Gygax.' The pointed out that we should try to avoid making this a seminar about the Hickmans or Dragonlance but keep it focused on the contributions of Gary. I quite agreed and we went onstage.

Then Luca Giuliani proceeded to open the event and asked us a few questions about Gary Gygax but then started asking us questions about our own works, Dragonlance and how we came into gaming. I kept steering the conversation away from us and back to the topic of Gary but he kept addressing us and asking us about our own work.

After the seminar we went to the Armenia booth -- our Italian publishers ... for a scheduled signing. We were exhausted after so long a day and despite the really wonderful fans that stopped by, we were relieved when it became time for us to leave.

The original restaurant that we had been scheduled for was not available for the evening, so our hosts booked us into a place called All'Olivos. It was down a back street east of the central square in the town but turned out to be very classy place. I had a seafood dish that included prawns and shrimp. (Yes, in the United States they are considered the same thing but not here ... they are both crustations but otherwise widely different critters.) We noticed a number of costumed children visiting the shops in the evening ... apparently their practice on Halloween. Otherwise it was a quite evening.

We picked up a pair of Coke Zeros on the way home at the local Gelateria and then retired for the night. It was an exhausting day but the next day (which we thought would be lighter) shaped up to be long as well ... a number of interviews were added to the schedule which fills up our time.

Musings: Everywhere we go in the town, visitors keep asking Laura ... in Italian ... for directions. There must be something about my beautiful wife that looks local Italian. It is interesting, however, that in France people always ask her if she is French. I apparently have a very European looking wife.