Sorry for the silence everyone...I've been integrating myself into life here in cold Minnesota...trying to do a few SB turns, and other things. The days are packed...today for example, we took Scott out for a birthday dinner.
Anyway, without further prelude:
A treatise on my experiences within and about the 2003 Edition of the Ambercon US held in Livonia, Michigan, United States.
General Comments:
The hotel is still in the process of their renovation plan, but the main thrust of those reservations were on the closed fifth floor. The place as a whole was fresher and newer than before. The rates were significantly lower, much to my delight. The downer was that Felicia cracked a tooth on a hard airplane pretzel en route, and so she wound up missing the first slot. That was not fun. Otherwise the experience was pleasant in the hotel, except the tendencies for the card keys to demagnetize...at least once a day.
Slot 1: "It's a Mad Mad Mad Chaos": GM: Me
This is the game that wasn't. Originally conceived by Fe and me as a thematic sequel to the first game that Karen, Felicia and I ran, we wound up with two people signing up, a third signing up later, and only two people actually showing up, one "my shadow" for the con, Mike Levay. With Felicia's tooth problems, I was left, in essence to run a game for two players on short notice, because she had most of the idea (and alternate idea) in her head.
So...I came up with a quick and dirty scenario involving a "Story" based shadow that Merlin had created for his own bemusement, and had wound up trapped in. Mike's PC had a fiancee, so I had his fiancee as part of the first, larger team to get Merlin back...and fail. I threw a lot of references and the like into the story, including part of the endgame from the old Infocom game Enchanter.
It was fun, but only lasted 3 hours. A very light diversion to be sure.
Slot 2: Ad Amber Per Astra II. GM: Me
AAPA has turned into a serial game, thanks to the first two games, and will return next year. This one was far more wide spread than the first, which took place, as you recall, entirely in Finndo's little trapped shadow. In this one, Random wanted to ascertain where Finndo's siblings were and what were they doing, and so pressed the PCs into service.
Most of them anyway. Bridgette returned with her relatively unknown PC "Calico", and she soon mixed herself up into the party, and Jenn (Djinn) came in with a new and unknown PC of her own, Agian. Again, Agian got mixed into the party and soon everyone was looking for how to find Osric, and Asharia.
The play was interesting and fun, I only regret that with a four hour slot, there was simply not enough time for the PCs to handle both elders. In the end, all of the PCs went to find Asharia, only to discover here in the middle of a Pattern like design, in a shadow influenced by too much RA Salvatore. And Osric? As far as the PCs can tell, he is not only alive, but very much functional in a Golden Circle Shadow called Antioch...the obvious hook for next year.
It was very funny to watch Jenn, Bridgette, and Deb (who had not really blossomed in the first game) to get together and heterodyne like mad together. I enjoyed the group, even the player who wanted to use the questionable 15 year old Amberite...he brought a far more reasonable PC and integrated into the group well.
Slot 3: Rites of Passage. GM: Deb Atwood
My one and only ACUS campaign, the adventures of Cadmus continue! Cadmus learned some disturbing things about his parentage, mainly that thanks to advanced bioengineering, he seems to have five bloodlines in his parentage, 2 male, 2 female, and one uncertain. He doesn't know who those bloodlines are, but the person who "requisitioned" his creation is not a redhead at all like he thought (despite evidence in the shadow to the contrary).
It turned out to be Florimel. And this wasn't even the most disturbing thing to happen to him, with the shadow-wide disasters, and his unsettling and inadvertent visit to Tir.
Cadmus is definitely as curious as a cat, its come through free and clear this time around.
Slot 4: To Scape the Serpent's Tongue. GMS: Deb Atwood and Bridgette Ruggles
An idea birthed by the two GMS I have actual characters for these days...how could I not try and sign up for the game? It was a blast, a lot of fun and I don't want to spoil the plot or the "nature" of what was really happening. It reminds me of the old Faces of a Stranger that way. Needless to say, a game based on a Midsummer's Night's Dream is guaranteed to have some laughs and a lot of good quotes. I played Lysander, not the normal person you'd think I would choose, but given the choices (based on quotes from the play that Deb and Bridgette sent via email), it was the most logical, even if it wasn't the most cerebral of characters.
Posted by Jvstin at April 3, 2003 8:15 PM