Further details on the games I mention below can be found here.

Slot 1: Sons of Liberty
GM: Jack Gulick

Since this slot took place on the afternoon of the 4th of July, it was particularly appropriate that we were playing a session of Josh Roby’s Sons of Liberty. It’s a game which is described as “a roleplaying game where the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen play Dynasty Warriors during the American Revolution.”

None of us had played Sons of Liberty before (except perhaps the GM), and that may have effected some of the decisions we made while setting up our characters. I played Thomas Payne (who flies around on an ornithopter), and the other players chose Abigail Adams, Rachel and Grace Martin, The Marquis de Lafayette and John Stark. The actual adventure itself was created using a madlibs style form that resulted in some pretty odd objectives.

As for the system itself, I think the problem I (and some of the other players) had with it was that the card game aspect often got in the way of the storytelling. In order to play the most advantageous combinations of cards (something all of the Patriot players must strive to do in order to defeat the Tories) we had to come up with some rather contorted actions to match those cards, which led to ignoring the things that our characters might actually have done in a given situation.

Despite that, I think everyone had a good time, and the over-the-top Revolutionary War setting certainly was fun.

Slot 2: Nine Princes in Spaaace: Star Patrol vs. The Moon Baron
GM: Carolyn Lachance

This was the second installment of a game that takes the Amber archetypes, sets them in the world of serials (such as the original Flash Gordon films), and uses Spirit of the Century as the system.

I played Rick Random, the eternal sidekick, who was actually shockingly competent in a variety of useful skills. He also said, “Golly!” a lot.

More so than the last time we played, I think SotC got in the way, mainly because the GM was so disenchanted with the idea of actually playing through the combats that we mostly avoided them. This resulted in the game being rather short.

Slot 3: Fortune’s Fool: Jumping at Shadows
GM: me

This was the third installment of my pirate zeppelin game, which uses Spirit of the Century as a system. Or at least it did this year. If I run another round of this game next year, I’m probably going to switch to something else, as I’m apparently just not cut out to run SotC. I think the idea of Aspects is great, and I don’t have a problem with being a player in a SotC game, but there’s just too much crunch hidden under there for me to be able to run it effectively.

The session itself involved pirates, airships, ninjas, the Royal Air Navy, clockwork armor, and a giant steam-powered robot! It seemed like everyone had a good time, which is the point, really, though I wasn’t entirely happy with my efforts.

Slot 4: Roanoke: The Other Side of Fear is Freedom
GM: Jennifer Jackson

An interesting take on the fate of the Roanoke colony, using Clint Krause’s Wushu-inspired Roanoke system. The players go into things knowing that the colony is doomed, with the only question being the manner of its end.

In this game I played Cecily Barton, a 14-year old girl who was in an arranged marriage with a much older man, and was also pregnant by him. She wasn’t entirely happy about this. The other characters included the son of one of the colony’s leaders, a transported criminal, and two natives.

I enjoyed the fiction we created, but wasn’t entirely enamored of the Roanoke system, perhaps in part because sections of it seemed under-explained in the rulebook. Still, we managed to save the majority of the colonists, thanks to the brave sacrifice of Ezekiel Finch. Apparently even criminals can be redeemed in the end. My character didn’t even end up being burned for being a witch, which was good, since she in fact wasn’t one. She did, however, get to hit a demon with a stick.

Slot 5: Nine Princes in High School
GM: Jack Gulick

It was the third or fourth time I’d played in this game where Teenagers from Outer Space meets Amber, and it was as silly as ever, despite the amount of meetings and office supplies that ended up being involved in things. I once again played Caine, leader of the Pirate Club, who triumphed despite having his ship burned. By “triumphed” I mean that he got a new one, as he wasn’t really much help with the actual plot. Fortunately, there wasn’t very much plot anyway.

That was my con for this year. It was great seeing both those folks that I only see at TBR and those who I see more frequently, and I hope everyone will be back for TBR 2009. Next year will be the 10th anniversary of The Black Road, and likely my fourth year as con chair.

Let’s see, right now I’m basically just playing in one monthly D&D 3.5 campaign (which has been going on for a few years now), with an occasional session of a D&D-like fantasy homebrew. To paraphrase someone else, you game with the gamers you have, not the gamers you wish you had.

Last weekend was Ambercon U.S., and it was the third year in a row of my not attending. Somehow it seems like longer. I think it’s probably unlikely that I’ll be going again, but it’s not impossible.

The Black Road 2007 is now about three-and-a-half months away (registration is still open), and so far it’s looking like this year we’ve got enough GMs that I’ll only need to run two games. Which is kind of a shame, since I’d like to run three! The ones I’m likely to actually run are another installment of Fortune’s Fool (my pirate zeppelin game using Spirit of the Century), and a game of Best Friends (the details/setting of which I still haven’t decided on). The one I’m unlikely to run, despite wanting to, is a session of In A Wicked Age.

That’s the status of my gaming at the moment.

[For those who might be wondering, this year I'm running a pirate zeppelin game using Spirit of the Century rules and also running a game of Afraid.]

Right now we follow the standard Ambercon method of having people sign up for their games well in advance, but I’ve come to realize that this may discourage some new people from coming to the convention. With that in mind, I’m keeping a close eye on how a semi-scheduled thing works out for this year’s Camp Nerdly to see if it might be something that we could adopt for TBR 2008.

For this year’s con though, I’m considering having a Games On Demand type thing in each slot (in addition to the scheduled games), which would basically mean people showing up with shiny games and deciding what to play.

Any input on either idea is welcome.

Dreamation 2007 (January 25-28) was apparently quite a blast. I really need to make it to this (and/or Dexcon) one of these years.

Forge Midwest 2007 is working on preparations for this year’s con (which looks like it’ll happen in April).

Registration for the first full-fledged Camp Nerdly (a weekend of gaming and fun at a campground in Virginia with mostly SG folks, May 4-6) is now open.

The plan for the Forge booth at GenCon 2007 (August 16-19) was announced, and it seems like it may result in indie games being more spread around the dealer room.

Oh, and don’t forget about The Black Road 2007 (June 29-July 1) too!

Personally, when I play prefer a mix, as I’m more at ease socially if there are at least one or two people that I know, but playing with people I’ve never met (or only know from online) means getting to experience new styles of playing and new perspectives on games. When I GM I prefer the balance to lean more toward people I know, as I’m more comfortable running a game if I’m at least somewhat familiar with the players.

The thread’s also got interesting points about getting to know the people you’re playing with, so it’s well worth a read.

For me personally, TBR is likely to be the only Amber-related con I attend next year, as I’m not currently planning on going to ACUS, ACNW is the same weekend as World Fantasy Convention, and ACN is still dead.

I’m sure he’d also appreciate any other help you might be willing to offer.

Ginger: TBR after-action report

Carolyn: TBR: The Roundup

Paul: TBR 2006 Part I (Travel, Social) [plus more in later posts]

Christine: My experience at TBR

Deb: A quick writeup for TBR

Mel: Part 3: Friday 30th June 2006: The Black Road begins [plus more in later posts]

[Edited to add -- ]

J.P.: TBR 2006 to Date

A mysterious patient named Carl Corey (aka Corwin of Amber) has escaped from a private hospital, and it’s up to the local branch of InSpectres to figure out what happened.

The game was set in 1970, the same time as the events that start off Zelazny’s Amber series, so we skipped most of the dot com era business culture when setting up our franchise. The cast of characters included a retired secret agent (my PC), a former circus performer, an absent-minded professor, the professor’s niece/assistant, and a woman who was based on a character from a BBC spy show I’d never seen.

It was everyone’s first time playing InSpectres, and we had a fun time, but I don’t think it was quite what I was expecting from reading either the rules or actual play reports. No one ever actually used the confessional, and our game generally didn’t involve the level of player authorial control that I’d thought it would. Of course, I didn’t step up myself, and it’s not like I had a bad time, so I’m not actually complaining.

Slot 2: The Shab-al-Hiri Roach
GM: me

Ever since the first playtest reports appeared on The Forge, I’d been looking forward to The Shab-al-Hiri Roach. I bought my copy of the game as soon as it was released, and TBR was the first chance I had to play.

I had six players for this one (including myself), and though none of them had played The Roach before, all of them had played other indie games (such as Dogs, MLWM, PTA and The Mountain Witch). Character creation went smoothly enough, with half of the PCs ending up in the History department, and some of the characters started things out with relationships that promised some interesting scenes. We set a few boundaries (such as no non-consensual sex and no children appearing in any scene), and we were off.

Things started off a bit slowly, as we all got a feel for the rules, but having two of the characters get Roached with their first cards made it feel like we got right into the thick of things. This ended up being the sort of Roach game with plenty of drinking, debating and politicking, and not a lot of over-the-top bloodshed and overt horror. I didn’t think it was a problem, but I’ve gotten the impression from reading about other people’s games that only having one or two deaths is the exception. Instead there was a lot of talk of grants and position, one philandering husband (whose wife was another PC), and far too much subtext and golf talk. Because of time constraints we only played four of the six Events, but that seemed to be plenty for everyone, as having so many players meant we could get a lot of scenes into each Event.

The dice were cold for a couple of players (including me), and the cards didn’t help, so we were out of the running fairly early on in things, at least as far as winning went. Neither of us purposely took the Roach because of this, and in fact everyone in the game who ended up Roached did so because of a card. Both of the characters who were enslaved at the start of the first event managed to shed their Roach during the game, and they ended up with the two highest reputations. I guess it should come as no surprise that the best way to win is to Roach up early and then be fortunate enough to get rid of the Roach before the game ends. There was actually a possibility that the second place player could have overtaken the first place player during the last Event, but that would have required a conspiracy among all of the other players that didn’t really make sense for the characters, and we decided that would be a little too close to jerk-like play.

So, that was our game, light on details. I could go on and on about some of the fun things that happened during play, but instead I’ll just say that there were plenty of great moments and each and every player contributed to making them happen. I think The Shab-al-Hiri Roach is a real winner of a game, and I’m glad it lived up to my high expectations.

Slot 3: Dogs in the Vineyard
GM: Bryant Durrell

This was my second time playing Dogs in the Vineyard, and it definitely had a different tone than the other game had. This time around none of the three Watchdogs ever drew their gun (or any other weapon), but we managed to lose one Dog as a result of fallout from a ceremony and nearly lost another. Still, we saved the town from sin, as the King of Life intended, and Dogs is still quite awesome.

Slot 4: Soul of the City
GM: Carolyn Lachance

I’d played using the Nobilis system once before, at Ambercon North, in a game that was set in Amber. Soul of the City instead used the actual Nobilis setting, which is….well, confusing. There’s a lot going on, and I found much of it to be hard to absorb, both as my character and as a player. This meant that, despite Carolyn having done a fine job of explaining the mechanics of the game, I spent much of my time feeling rather lost and just tagging along with the players whose Nobilis experience meant they had a clue. I was left thinking that the setting might just be too overwhelming to be used effectively in a con setting where there are going to be Nobilis neophytes playing. Having said that, I also think that I didn’t do a very good job of being responsible for my own fun, and it wasn’t actually a bad way to spend a slot. I just made rather poor use of the interesting character that the GM had created for me.

Slot 5: Fortune’s Fool: The Ebony Hand
GM: me

There were pirates. Yar! There were zeppelins, which are always a good thing. There were mad scientists, talking gorillas, and lightning guns. There was much buckling of swashes. There was also a poorly used diceless system that the GM (meaning me) probably won’t use if he runs a sequel to this game next year. A couple of the players (Bryant and Jack) suggested trying Feng Shui instead, which strikes me as a good idea. Still, everyone seemed to have fun, and that’s the important thing.

So, that was my con. My thanks to everyone who helped out, whether they were on the con committee, ran a game, or just came and shared a good time with us.