The Non-Euclidian Staircase

Slot 1 -- Tall Tales of Pattern and Shadow -- Here I GM, or at least in theory. Because this game uses "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" as its system, I don't actually do much except explain the game and facilitate. The storytelling was unpredictable and quite entertaining, with a large enough list of participants to give everyone plenty of time just listening and giggling. This simple, infinitely repeatable game concept remains something I can drop into any con I need to and expect a good result. Nice to have this in my toolkit. And congratulations to Lou Evans, voted the best talespinner in this play of the game.

Slot 2 -- A Simple Task, Well Rewarded -- I met Richard DiTullio at AmberCon earlier this year (as mentioned here), and I looked forward to this chance to game with him again. Low-point characters (a favorite of mine, as it limits the mess of powers that sometimes happens in convention Amber gaming) and a straightfoward, well run adventure made this a nice game. Welcome to AmberCon GMing, Richard! This was a quality debut.

Slot 3 -- Nine Losers in Akron -- Michael Curry brought the dark, twisted humor of kill puppies for satan to a low-class, no-taste recast of the Amber royal family. Satanic low-lives torment domestic animals in service of darker powers and control of the family. Well, I was playing Eric and so control of the family was a bit deal to me. Lots of disturbing, reprehensible behavior.

Slot 4 -- My Life with Corwin -- Following Michael's use of an indie RPG for a recast was my own similar effort. I have to admit I wasn't quite as prepared as I hoped to be, and was less than totally familiar with the system I was using, My Life with Master. I didn't send character generation advice in advance of the con, so time was used getting that done in the slot. I made a couple wrong rules callings (one of which I just discovered looking at the errata on the web) and had some problems in timing... MLWM is a tricky game to fit into a convention timeslot, and I miss-estimated timing, making the endgame unreachable. I was helped by great players and I hope there was creepy fun had by all. I know I'm hoping to run this again now that I think I've found my MLWM-legs.

Slot 5 -- The Jewel of Zhong Kui -- Michael Curry GMing again, this time using the Success system to re-create an episode of Jackie Chan Adventures (I was playing El Toro, masked wrestler supreme). We were all a little punchy and giggly from the weekend, but a nice little story occurred despite us. Lots of catch phrases were employed, and when the game ended early, we had some nice post-con conversation until the others started coming in from their games as well and the weekend came to its inevitable end.

TBR is always a good con, with some clever and unique gaming. This year, we added to that a chance to meet Ginger and Bryant face-to-face, and even game a bit with Bryant. We must do more of that!

Now it's time for me to start thinking about AmberCon North in Toronto this September.