benlehman

Anyone going to AmberCon NW: Is there anything you want me to run?

Thinking about Misery Bubblegum, S/Lay w/Me, Shooting the Moon, Polaris ... other thoughts? I can run basically any "indie game" plus, of course, Amber, but I figure people will probably have plenty of that already.

I'm going to do two of these. Any thoughts on which ones would be great.

The Drifter's Escape:
Men walkin' 'long the railroad tracks
Goin' someplace there's no goin' back
Highway patrol choppers comin' up over the ridge
Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge
Shelter line stretchin' round the corner
Welcome to the new world order
Families sleepin' in their cars in the southwest
No home no job no peace no rest

--Ghost of Tom Joad, by Bruce Springsteen

Tone: Serious
Players: 2 or more
Setting: America
Adolescent Friendly: Depends on the adolescent.

Tonight, somewhere in America, a homeless drifter blows into town, looking for a place to sleep or a warm meal or just a stop on his way to God knows where. But this town will present the drifter with unexpected danger and unexpected opportunity. Confronted by a choice between two evils, the drifter must choose, find his own way, or escape.

We will generate the characters and setting in play. No familiarity with the system is required. A certain amount of improvisational skill is helpful, however, you can get by without it.

One player will have a more central role. This will be voluntary, depending on who's feeling like it at the time.

Polaris
Which I won't give a description of here.

City in Amber

Players: 4-12
Setting: Amber, with adjustments

This game has the set-up of an Amber Throne War: the king has been gone for some time, it looks like he's not coming back, and his children are beginning to jostle each other for power. Where it goes from there is somewhat up to the players. The GM is prepared to roll with the punches. If you all get together in the first hour, elect a king, and start doing his (or her) bidding then it will be about creating a new order. If you all go for the throat, it'll be about back-stabby politics. If someone decides to destroy the world, or finds something else that wants to destroy the world, it'll be "everyone team up to face the giant existential threat." Everything is pretty open, we'll see how it goes.

No canonical elders, although I may borrow names for dead / missing siblings. The cosmology of the game will be roughly the "Nine Princes in Amber" cosmology, so there's not necessarily Chaos, not necessarily Avalonian gunpowder, and so on.

Characters will be flat 100 points. There will be slight modifications to powers. First in each attribute will receive special privileges over that realm of conflict. Further, be aware that the GM is not immersed in the culture of Amber fandom and ADRPG players, so his understanding of powers and cosmology may be different from yours.

Depending on number of players, we may conduct attribute auction / character creation / shared background creation before game, or just at the con, before starting play.

Short Games
Basically a large number of games none of which take more than an hour or so to play. S/Lay W/Me, Clover, Mars Colony if I can get a copy of it, Misery Bubblegum, and so on.