I'd heard of previous Journeys but at the time they didn't compel me. Now it's maybe a different era in my life. I feel like I've done enough standing-around-and-drinking for a lifetime; the opportunity to do anything else is a treasure.



My bike exploded on the way to Embarcadero, so we got to the signup late. They said they'd given out six hundred waivers and that was it. I'd been looking forward to this all month, so I took a long moment to hold my head in my hands in shock wondering if I could work off any of the disappointment by going home to play Borderlands. After all the legit Runners had left, they kept giving ribbons to anyone who wanted them, but not manifests. We ribboned up, and a short distance into the route my companion finagled a manifest from another Runner. Thusly my night un-ruined itself.

The road to One, particularly Second street, was paved with Chasers on the sidelines, likely just to freak people out. As far as game-theory goes, it's probably a bad idea for too many to get tagged early on, because any ruthless player-Chasers you create might tear apart the big crowds or start camping at later checkpoints too early. 'Course, every player could turn whenever they want, so I don't know how much control Staff have over this. We didn't see a single chaser on the route from One to Two, the stortest hop of the night.



Things fell apart after Two - Chasers caught us in a long alleyway and we bolted different directions. On my own, I was disoriented and didn't keep good watch. Got spotted by some Chasers while crossing the street (six of them one of me), and despite some deft maneuvers around cars that were waiting at Fourth and Howard, I was handily outran. As a consolation, my purser gifted me Skittles. Since we only had one manifest between us I met back up with my companion and handed it over as a neutral party before adopting my orange ribbon. He got tagged coming back from Three.



We made it to Four and Five as Chasers, enjoying the moment and looking for targets of opportunity. Five in particular seemed like it would be pretty easy to lock down by four to eight pairs of ruthless Chasers, but that wouldn't be any fun. Some contact ensued, but my legs were no good anymore. Heck, they're still sore a day after.

Lurking back to the Mission from Five we had basically stopped playing, which unfortunately missed us an amazing target of opportunity. A pack of Runners were lingering nonchalantly at Market and Valencia, while we waited on the traffic island for the same signal. I hadn't realized any Runners might be ascending from Hipster Valencia, as we'd basically taken Market all the way into Hayes. There was a fun moment when we noted each others colors and they took off with a quickness, crossing Market at Octavia before I could close any distance with them. This might be what it's like to be in a street gang.



I'd like to comment on is how dangerous this thing can get around busy streets. When being chased, the wrong kind of self-preservation instinct comes in and makes you want to leap out into the street - I did it, and I forced others to do it. I think we were all pretty aware, but I'm glad I didn't do any drinking before or during play.

At the same time, I think the presence of danger, literal and imagined, is what makes this game what it is, and made this one of the most memorable experiences of my life. If you asked me to recall some salient details about the previous day at work the notes I could give would be fuzzy, but I have memories burned into me of each chase that will stick for a while.