Best.
Halloween.
Ever.


One of the most striking effects of this game was the sudden re-ordering of priorities. Personal safety and laws about personal behaviour, particularly traffic laws, became less important, even irrelevant. The concept of private real estate property, in particular, showed itself to be surprisingly malleable, even non-existent.

Early in the game I suggested going through the grounds of a private apartment complex to evade chasers. I went up to the door, looked all around, then headed back. It looked impossible to climb or jump. One of my compatriots stepped up and turned the handle. We were in! Moral: make no assumptions.

I found the most treacherous path to be that between checkpoints 1 and 2. Early on, just after leaving the safe zone, we were scared by nearby chasers. I ran back across the road, smacking my shin right into some construction equipment. On a second attempt, one of our group was tagged and the rest of us were scattered. One chaser ran after me. I ran away from the checkpoint up a slight incline. My chaser, slightly overweight, gave up after about a quarter-block.

Often, when I am frightened, I feel it in my back. This time, my whole back seized up quite painfully. I took off my backpack and laid down on the ground for a few seconds. Having allowed it to run its course, it did not bother me again that evening, even though there were many more scary moments.

I rested half a block up from 3rd and surveyed the situation. I didn't wish to go back down the street I was on and run into the chasers again. After briefly considering the pros and cons, I jumped a chain-link fence into a nearly empty parking lot under the freeway. Dressed all in dark clothes, with a black backpack, I scampered from one freeway support pillar to the next. I made my way to the corner of the lot that was on 3rd but far from the chasers. I saw a parking attendant approach. I figured that the yellow ribbon would help in case I was caught or questioned - what skullduggery could I be up to with a bright marker on my otherwise dark outfit? - but not seeing any regular way out, decided to jump the fence right then and there to avoid the confrontation.

I crossed 3rd, and made my way through an alleyway I never knew existed that followed underneath the freeway. I skulked from freeway pillar to parked car, glancing ahead through the car windshields. There was someone walking about 50 feet ahead of me. I couldn't be sure he wasn't a chaser, but I didn't want to freak him out with my sneakiness. I stayed out of sight till he left, then made my way to a pillar right next to 4th. Trying to see who was on the street without revealing myself, I longed for a periscope. I saw some runners on the other side of 4th, so I crossed and announced myself to them (I didn't want them panicking; I needed them for herd protection). We made our way together around the corner, debating how to make the last block. One of them and I jogged up Harrison and around a donut shop to make it to safety on 5th St.

I found my group again, and the long wait at checkpoint 2 was a bit anticlimactic. I offloaded my backpack to a friend who had been tagged and was now a chaser. Three of us who were still runners took the 27, but got off earlier than most. We made our way from Market to checkpoint 3 by walking behind/with regular people and engaging them in conversation, attempting to blend in, but always alert for the possible need to run.

We made it to checkpoint 3 without a scare, but there we found irate parking attendants who didn't want us on the ninth floor. Not sure whether this was part of the game or not, one of us approached customers, trying to borrow their parking tickets in order to get in the building. At this point one parking attendant started radio-ing in the situation, including details about my friend's appearance. Luckily some game organizers showed up, gave us zipties, and sent us on our way.

I would remiss not to mention the following event, which had nothing to do with the game, but just showed how crazy San Francisco is on Halloween and therefore how well the game blended in. As we left the safezone, we heard someone scream very loudly and fall over their bike. We then saw someone else run across the street and get hit (not very hard) by a car. He got up, continued heading toward the screams, and then turned around and went back. I wanted to run to the safety of a bus shelter, but I also didn't want to be witness to a real problem or crime and not get involved. Just as I went over to ask if everyone was okay, the cops showed up. As best as we could piece together, the bicyclist was either fooling around or genuinely fell over, and the pedestrian who was hit was possibly attempting to steal his bike. With the cops there, I left and joined my friends at the bus shelter.

There we saw that the 38 Geary would take 26 minutes. So instead we decided to go to Market and take the 9. Just as we passed the Apple Store we saw some runners fleeing some presumed chasers. I took this opportunity to run to the island on Market Street. My friends told me later that a chaser almost got me, which I had been completely unaware of. The 9 came quickly, and I looked out in vain for my friends. One was tagged, and one made her way separately to checkpoint 4.

The 9 took me to 11th, which was chaser-free. I had only one block of Harrison to go to safety. I walked halfway down the block, then walked onto the road to look for a good place and time to cross Harrison. At this point a chaser started running. Panicked, I sprinted towards 10th. I faced a red light, and lots of cars driving fast down 10th. A group of people waited in the road at the corner. I yelled, "Excuse me, ladies!" and they started screaming. I ran past them, did a 90-degree turn and ran on 10th next to the parked cars. The packet of cars passed, and I ran across 10th to safety.

At checkpoint 4 I ran into a friend who I didn't even know was playing! My wife, who had separated from me earlier, arrived not much later, and the three of us journeyed together for the rest of the night.

We decided to take a circuitous route to minimize the chances of getting tagged. We left south down Dore, passing a homeless encampment of at least a dozen people under the freeway. We made our way to 16th and Potrero. Seeing that the 22 was not due for 25 minutes, we stopped at Safeway for food and beverage. We really let our guard down, because we felt that we were very much off the beaten track. We ate at the 16th and Bryant bus shelter. For over 15 minutes no nextbus information was available. A Muni driver walked past and suggested that we walk down to Mission and catch the 49. We decided to walk along 16th towards Mission. All of a sudden one of my friends said "there's a pink behind us". I looked, and indeed, a chaser strolled 30 feet behind us, unaware of our presence. We ran to a dark bus shelter. He started running when we did, but he didn't catch any of us. He told us that he had gotten tagged just outside of checkpoint 4, and was making his way to checkpoint 7 to try to catch early finishers. It was a shock to us to realize how close we were to checkpoint 7 and how wrong we had been about being far from "the beaten track".

After he left, we debated what to do. I wanted to continue walking, albeit with greater caution, to Mission. They wanted to walk or take the Folsom bus a couple blocks away before heading to Mission Street. As we were arguing, the 22 bus finally showed up, and we sprinted around the corner to make it.

Traveling on the buses on Halloween was crowded but very jovial. We met so many great people and had fun describing our game. On Halloween in particular, the rules are suspended - people were openly drinking alcohol on the buses without even the fig leaf of a brown paper bag. Again, a great night on which to have JTTEOTN.

We got off at Hayes and hustled to the bus shelter for the 21. My companions wanted to walk the remaining three blocks. I was absolutely against it; it seemed too risky. They agreed, and the bus showed up just a few minutes later. My concern proved all-too-real: a group of chasers walked up the hill past us in the interim.

The 21 took us a block from checkpoint 5; we jogged to the safezone without a problem. The real-life game of Clue there was very entertaining and a highlight of the night. I particularly enjoyed the fact that it was possible to fail this task; winning the journey required more than just running.

For those who weren't there, in this game of Clue everyone had been killed. Each player was, however, dressed up and available to interview, and there were clues (including wounds) on their person and on the dining table. We had to determine who killed whom (6 answers), and who used which weapon (6 answers). Getting 6 right got you a signature and you could go onto the next checkpoint. Getting all 12 right got you a shot of whiskey. Whiskey for me!

Having been warned that a lot of chasers were waiting at Haight and Divisadero, we decided against the initial plan of taking the 21 and then the 24 to checkpoint 6. Instead, we walked to catch the 71. A disagreement on directness versus circuitousness led my two companions to wait on Market across from a bus stop, and me to run to the Haight and Laguna bus shelter. They boarded a 71 and I boarded a 6 with a few other runners. The runners on my bus debated tactics. The bus driver wouldn't drop us off within the safezone, so we decided to get off at Pierce and use safety in numbers to make it the last block. One non-player even volunteered to get off with us and run interference.

We made it without incident, and so did my friends. The haunted house at checkpoint 6 was cool, but a little anti-climactic after the Clue game. The Golden Lady offered to escort people to the 22, but my friends and I grabbed a 6 to take us to the 22, figuring it would be faster and not much more dangerous. At 16th and Mission, we considered waiting for a Mission bus to take us the one block to safety - we saw chasers on their way to the BART - but decided to have some excitement at the end. My friend and I ran at full speed in the street to 17th. It turned out that the vehicle we were running behind was a Sheriff's van! But, probably due to it being Halloween and craziness being par for the course, they just kept cruising.

At Noisebridge we got buttons, beer, and conversation with fellow players. I met someone named Sandwich. For real.