Blackshire's Group History - 1987


Meeting at gaming convention

Gary: I think the convention was OrcCon, but I'm not sure. I think it was in February. I remember wandering around and at one point getting in the elevator with two guys, one who was dressed up as a knight. I later find an open gaming table with one guy sitting there waiting for players. He said we need to wait a bit for his friends to return. His name was David Wine. The other two were the ones that I met in the elevator: Richard Greenhalgh (in the knight suit) and Dale Wine. We played D&D and I found out that they played Photon. I did too. We agreed to meet at Photon and also to come over to my place the next weekend to game some more. So, they came over the next weekend, gamed all day, slept over, and gamed the next. I think this is when they told me about some guy named Bill Handel wanting to start a group at the faire. I had been to faire once before, as a field trip in high school, and had loved the faire. So, I jumped at the chance.

Meeting at Handel's place

Gary: This was a really weird meeting. I think that Dave, Dale, Richard and I carpooled up there. I met Bill, his wife Charlie, and also Larry Horne. I think Shawn Crosby was also there. The whole place stank of marijuana, and sitting on a table was a weird glass thing (it was a bong, but I didn't know that at the time). Bill and Larry told us about their idea of starting a military group at faire. They also told us how fun it would be and how easy it would be to get laid.

Dragonwood Faire

Gary: I don't remember much about this faire except two things. One, Larry had apparently volunteered us to be part of night-time security. So, late at night, there we were, marching around in costume carrying our spontoons. Secondly, that was the same weekend as registration for Southern Faire. So, we stayed at Dragonwood faire Friday night, registered the next day at Southern, and then went back to Dragonwood.

Southern Faire

Gary: Charlie made our costumes for the faire. That blue pouch that I wear with my current costume (2002) is my original pouch. I've never had any other.
So we get to faire and that's when things start to go wrong. We find out that Bill and Larry are not, um, "in good standing", shall we say, with the faire. There's no way that the faire will let us start a group, and Bill and Larry are not allowed to work faire. So, we get thrown into St. Helen's, the peasant's guild. I remember Chris Zeda, the costume approver. Her nickname, with good reason, was Darth Zeda. I don't see it in any of the pictures, but I had a wide-brimmed hat like the others. Jerry bought me a huge feather, thinking I'd hate it. I loved it. I used to annoy people all day with it (imagine that!).
Being apprentices, we didn't say much for the first few weeks, except "Aye" and "Nay". Finally, though, someone, I think it was Jerry, came up with something. Those days they handed out colored favors to customers at the gate. Black for nobles, green for peasants, yellow for jesters. We decided that the jesters should entertain us. So, we decided to stop jesters and demand a song, dance or jest from them. If they couldn't think of a jest, we would supply them with one under the condition that they must use this jest if anyone else asks them for one. The one we gave went like this: Say it out loud and you'll get it.

San Luis Obispo (SLO) Faire


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