The much ballyhooed Con report!
Apr. 2nd, 2010 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cyranoLast weekend (over a week ago) I went to AmberCon US for the first time. AmberCon is essentially a weekend crammed full of one-shot role playing games. I'd been to AmberCon NW before, and loved it. (And if you haven't been to Edgefield, then you should make some time to.)
LJ Cut for those who have better things to do....
On Wednesday night, we retrieved ZDashAmber from her much delayed inbound flight, which alas made us far too late for the potluck that night. It also meant that lunch/birthday lunch at Zingerman's the next day was a no-go. But we.... um. Did things, and stuff, until it was time to go check in for Thursday afternoon's preparatory festivities.
I hauled the armoire upstairs, and then did my 'puttering around trying to be useful and waving to the few people I recognize' thing. Packets were distributed, announcements were made, (including a particularly celebratory revival of AmberCan), and then I participated in the Manager's Reception. Between five and seven every evening, there was an open bar. I only managed to participate the once, for some reason, grabbing a shot of tequila as a theme-appropriate imbibement for my first game slot. And then I drank about half of it.
Slot One, All the Myths Were True
First off, any game named after an Abney Park song is good with me. Second, it was more or less Deadlands, with an Asatru slant. I was Charlie Blalock, the hard luck deputy marshal who had come to Deadwood after she had lost her new husband, three brothers, her left leg, and her family home to the War Between the States. (Well. The last one was a grease fire while she was on the lines, but still.) ScaryWhiteGirl's Grendel adaptation was well done, and I had fun despite the lack of Reaver porn. There was enough disturbing sex of other kinds to keep my character in a constant state of shudder, and I think that if nothing else SWG has a new fun NPC for when I am forcibly prevented from signing up for this slot in the future.
Slot Two, Super Villain Team Up: Brain Trust
Everybody was assigned prep work to pick a super villain, any universe. I thought about the raw power that would be brimming over in the room, and promptly asked myself "What D-List villain can I find that even SpiderMan is embarrassed to fight?" It came down to a contest between Kraven the Disco Hunter, Devil Dinosaur, and the RingMaster. By the photo, you can see that Devil Dinosaur won out. This game was a hoot, which I figured it would be, despite the lack of Reaver porn. We all got our tropes on, and we pontificated with much chest thumping. My favorite moment was when General Zod declared himself the new Emperor of Earth, and Electro nervously asked if he'd cleared that with Doctor Doom. About half way through, I realized that the RingMaster was channeling the Monarch, when I noticed that his battle cry was "Oh, Crap!" I got to find out that Bruce Wayne was dead and Batman was a robot before some super hero CIA team hacked my hypnotic hat and made me forget it all. (They also hacked Alfred.) Then we all got transported into a magical mountain where we faced our perfectly aligned foes. Doom got Richards. Mystique got Hank. Electro got a psychiatrist. I got an angry black woman. My battle was very quick. "Give me the damned hat!" "Here."
Slot Four, Supernatural
I had some trouble coming up with a concept here, and ended up with a Buddhist monk who was tied to another hunter because When you save a life you become responsible for it and she'd died protecting him from a snake attack. I also failed on costuming for this slot--I had no orange robes.
It was fun, I was snarky, my charge was snarky, and every plan the team came up with involved getting the ghost killed. Our GM, alas, was nearly dead on his feet from lack of sleep. We got an awesome description of the crappy hotel room, but I didn't feel much in the way of direct threats to the party beyond brooding ominousness. Or Reaver porn.
Slot Five, The League of Quantum Gentlemen & the Terror of the Time Tunnel
Yep, it's a mouthful. And another big crossover. "Pick a character from a universe where they know about time travel." We got the Doctor, Romana, Captain Jack, Dalek Caan, Mister Spock, Daniel Jackson, Jenny Casey from 'Hammered', and Marty McFly. Alas, I couldn't find an orange parka vest in time for the game. This was a project--there were nine PCs, but the GMs kept shuffling us into two different task groups, with lots of crosspollenisation. And no Reaver porn. The plot, as we eventually uncovered it, was that Khan Noonian Singh had captured an Alien queen, and was using her to breed supersoldiers for the Eugenics War that was coming up, and we had been recruited by the TimeLords as junior agents to stop it. I'm hoping that later episodes allow me to use the points I spent on 'guitar'. Plus, Romana totally has the hots for Marty. My favorite quote moment here was when Marty gets the report from Dalek Caan that Khan has captured a queen. (The Khan/Caan thing was a neverending source of amusement. For about two minutes.) Marty blinks at Caan and says "You're kidding!" Caan cannot blink and replies in deadpan Dalek voice "Yes. Ha. Ha. Ha. No." (Also? This is the game where I wore jeans for the first time in many years.)
Slot Six, Boogie Black Ops Magical Girls Omega!
This game uses the 'Best Friends' mechanics, which I adore. Your stats are generated when every other player chooses what stat you are better at than them, which is why they hate you. I came equipped with a magic wand, glitter crayons, and a stuffed pirate bunny with a button that said "The End Is Extremely Fucking Nigh". Reports of 'my face hurts from laughing too much' began half an hour into the five hour slot. My backstory and costume (panty flash!) were apparently very disturbing, but luckily the conversation quickly shifted from "I'm going to kill you" to "I'm going to find your uncles and kill them". I got to use almost all the Japanese I know, and I got to say "I love you, [name] sama! You're so [quality]!" a lot. In the end, I became a Virtual Idol, and the Spirit of Japan, which was totally awesome for me, and Ifurita found The One even if he died soon after that. I think that Neko Kun, Mister Inoku, and her six uncles may show up in some other game.
There was no Reaver porn in this game, but we didn't need it.
Slot Seven, No Colors for You to See
This was my Firefly slot, and apparently a spin off from an earlier Firefly game where the PCs picked a random ship crew and blamed whatever they were doing on that other crew. We were that other crew, chased across the Verse by pissed off people who wouldn't tell us what they wanted or what we'd done. Rajiv Sinha was a mechanic and a failed Companion, my continuing quest to put more Asians into the 'Verse combined with my desire to get some Indians to go with all the cowboys. Thus Raj. Somehow, the game devolved into dirty jokes and getting laid, but we did get a paying gig in--a prison break to save the guy's family. It's the heart-of-gold sort of stuff our team does when they can't get paid for anything else. Plus, our plan involved Jessie taking her shirt off.
Slot Eight, Rebma Confidential: The Big Deep
My very first Amber game. I did not, in fact, have to know much to survive, although it was less Noir than I was expecting. I was a crooked cop/electric eel, and I got to run through the perimeter of a classic Noir story with your traditional Amber edge to it. Mostly? I watched the Bedlo and Calli show. Our awesome ethnic humor duo took the ball and ran with it, and I got to lean back and watch. Which, by that point in the weekend, was okay with me. Luckily, we never discovered the blue theater that was showing Brand's Reaver porn.
The point by point run misses a lot of what really happens at AmberCons. People eat food that's bad for them, drink more than they should, stay up way too late talking and laughing, and generally make themselves useless for the work week ahead. It's pretty awesome. I like the intimacy at the AmberCons I've been to--people know each other, and interact a lot during the year. When Simone went on a ten hour dogwalk this week, we talked about it. And I didn't even have a game slot with her this year. Yay family. Weird, delinquent, dysfunctional family.
LJ Cut for those who have better things to do....
On Wednesday night, we retrieved ZDashAmber from her much delayed inbound flight, which alas made us far too late for the potluck that night. It also meant that lunch/birthday lunch at Zingerman's the next day was a no-go. But we.... um. Did things, and stuff, until it was time to go check in for Thursday afternoon's preparatory festivities.
I hauled the armoire upstairs, and then did my 'puttering around trying to be useful and waving to the few people I recognize' thing. Packets were distributed, announcements were made, (including a particularly celebratory revival of AmberCan), and then I participated in the Manager's Reception. Between five and seven every evening, there was an open bar. I only managed to participate the once, for some reason, grabbing a shot of tequila as a theme-appropriate imbibement for my first game slot. And then I drank about half of it.
Slot One, All the Myths Were TrueFirst off, any game named after an Abney Park song is good with me. Second, it was more or less Deadlands, with an Asatru slant. I was Charlie Blalock, the hard luck deputy marshal who had come to Deadwood after she had lost her new husband, three brothers, her left leg, and her family home to the War Between the States. (Well. The last one was a grease fire while she was on the lines, but still.) ScaryWhiteGirl's Grendel adaptation was well done, and I had fun despite the lack of Reaver porn. There was enough disturbing sex of other kinds to keep my character in a constant state of shudder, and I think that if nothing else SWG has a new fun NPC for when I am forcibly prevented from signing up for this slot in the future.
Slot Two, Super Villain Team Up: Brain TrustEverybody was assigned prep work to pick a super villain, any universe. I thought about the raw power that would be brimming over in the room, and promptly asked myself "What D-List villain can I find that even SpiderMan is embarrassed to fight?" It came down to a contest between Kraven the Disco Hunter, Devil Dinosaur, and the RingMaster. By the photo, you can see that Devil Dinosaur won out. This game was a hoot, which I figured it would be, despite the lack of Reaver porn. We all got our tropes on, and we pontificated with much chest thumping. My favorite moment was when General Zod declared himself the new Emperor of Earth, and Electro nervously asked if he'd cleared that with Doctor Doom. About half way through, I realized that the RingMaster was channeling the Monarch, when I noticed that his battle cry was "Oh, Crap!" I got to find out that Bruce Wayne was dead and Batman was a robot before some super hero CIA team hacked my hypnotic hat and made me forget it all. (They also hacked Alfred.) Then we all got transported into a magical mountain where we faced our perfectly aligned foes. Doom got Richards. Mystique got Hank. Electro got a psychiatrist. I got an angry black woman. My battle was very quick. "Give me the damned hat!" "Here."
Slot Four, SupernaturalI had some trouble coming up with a concept here, and ended up with a Buddhist monk who was tied to another hunter because When you save a life you become responsible for it and she'd died protecting him from a snake attack. I also failed on costuming for this slot--I had no orange robes.
It was fun, I was snarky, my charge was snarky, and every plan the team came up with involved getting the ghost killed. Our GM, alas, was nearly dead on his feet from lack of sleep. We got an awesome description of the crappy hotel room, but I didn't feel much in the way of direct threats to the party beyond brooding ominousness. Or Reaver porn.
Slot Five, The League of Quantum Gentlemen & the Terror of the Time TunnelYep, it's a mouthful. And another big crossover. "Pick a character from a universe where they know about time travel." We got the Doctor, Romana, Captain Jack, Dalek Caan, Mister Spock, Daniel Jackson, Jenny Casey from 'Hammered', and Marty McFly. Alas, I couldn't find an orange parka vest in time for the game. This was a project--there were nine PCs, but the GMs kept shuffling us into two different task groups, with lots of crosspollenisation. And no Reaver porn. The plot, as we eventually uncovered it, was that Khan Noonian Singh had captured an Alien queen, and was using her to breed supersoldiers for the Eugenics War that was coming up, and we had been recruited by the TimeLords as junior agents to stop it. I'm hoping that later episodes allow me to use the points I spent on 'guitar'. Plus, Romana totally has the hots for Marty. My favorite quote moment here was when Marty gets the report from Dalek Caan that Khan has captured a queen. (The Khan/Caan thing was a neverending source of amusement. For about two minutes.) Marty blinks at Caan and says "You're kidding!" Caan cannot blink and replies in deadpan Dalek voice "Yes. Ha. Ha. Ha. No." (Also? This is the game where I wore jeans for the first time in many years.)
Slot Six, Boogie Black Ops Magical Girls Omega!This game uses the 'Best Friends' mechanics, which I adore. Your stats are generated when every other player chooses what stat you are better at than them, which is why they hate you. I came equipped with a magic wand, glitter crayons, and a stuffed pirate bunny with a button that said "The End Is Extremely Fucking Nigh". Reports of 'my face hurts from laughing too much' began half an hour into the five hour slot. My backstory and costume (panty flash!) were apparently very disturbing, but luckily the conversation quickly shifted from "I'm going to kill you" to "I'm going to find your uncles and kill them". I got to use almost all the Japanese I know, and I got to say "I love you, [name] sama! You're so [quality]!" a lot. In the end, I became a Virtual Idol, and the Spirit of Japan, which was totally awesome for me, and Ifurita found The One even if he died soon after that. I think that Neko Kun, Mister Inoku, and her six uncles may show up in some other game.
There was no Reaver porn in this game, but we didn't need it.
Slot Seven, No Colors for You to SeeThis was my Firefly slot, and apparently a spin off from an earlier Firefly game where the PCs picked a random ship crew and blamed whatever they were doing on that other crew. We were that other crew, chased across the Verse by pissed off people who wouldn't tell us what they wanted or what we'd done. Rajiv Sinha was a mechanic and a failed Companion, my continuing quest to put more Asians into the 'Verse combined with my desire to get some Indians to go with all the cowboys. Thus Raj. Somehow, the game devolved into dirty jokes and getting laid, but we did get a paying gig in--a prison break to save the guy's family. It's the heart-of-gold sort of stuff our team does when they can't get paid for anything else. Plus, our plan involved Jessie taking her shirt off.
Slot Eight, Rebma Confidential: The Big DeepMy very first Amber game. I did not, in fact, have to know much to survive, although it was less Noir than I was expecting. I was a crooked cop/electric eel, and I got to run through the perimeter of a classic Noir story with your traditional Amber edge to it. Mostly? I watched the Bedlo and Calli show. Our awesome ethnic humor duo took the ball and ran with it, and I got to lean back and watch. Which, by that point in the weekend, was okay with me. Luckily, we never discovered the blue theater that was showing Brand's Reaver porn.
The point by point run misses a lot of what really happens at AmberCons. People eat food that's bad for them, drink more than they should, stay up way too late talking and laughing, and generally make themselves useless for the work week ahead. It's pretty awesome. I like the intimacy at the AmberCons I've been to--people know each other, and interact a lot during the year. When Simone went on a ten hour dogwalk this week, we talked about it. And I didn't even have a game slot with her this year. Yay family. Weird, delinquent, dysfunctional family.
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-02 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-02 07:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-02 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-03 05:45 am (UTC)RE: LoQGatTotTT: Hopefully you'll get to use the guitar next game.
RE: Rebma Confidential: Sorry if it became the Cali and Bedlo show. I didn't realize if we were hogging screen time. We did have a really good time torturing yours and David's characters.
I am curious, what pulp elements were missing? Even if Calli and I were a little more comedic relief than you usually get, I thought the game had a perfect mix of good, bad and grey....tough guys and weaselly toads. (I actually built Bedlo last year with the idea that most people will play the tough guy detectives and the game needs the informant-type.)
no subject
Date: 2010-04-04 01:09 am (UTC)Do not mistake me. (A) I enjoyed the Cali and Bedlo show a great deal. (B) I am aware that, as a player, I'm not always the star. I got enough spotlight this weekend that I could play supporting in this slot. And I think my adjustments were mostly for trappings and tech level--the themes were *definitely* noir, it was just finding out where the overlap with Amber lay.
no subject
Date: 2010-04-05 05:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-04-05 06:19 am (UTC)