Game Book 2005
Slot 1 - Friday, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Slot 2 - Friday, 7:00 p.m. to midnight
Slot 3 - Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Slot 4 - Saturday, 7:00 p.m. to midnight
Slot 5 - Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Slot 1 - Friday, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
All Growing Things
GMs: Olof Dahl
Number of Players: 3-6
Game Type: Everway
Game URI: http://web.telia.com/~u31226492/allgrow.html
You will never truly get used to going through a gate; an eternity of coldness and bright light and the sense of falling, falling, falling. When you finally decide that you must be dead, you come out on the other side of the gate, and see the desert that surrounds it. Here and there you can see the dry remains of a tree, but there are no signs of life, only the road that leads away from the gate.
"I've heard about it, but I never thought it was this bad," says Wildfire, who came out of the gate a moment before you did. Sequoia, the giant, sighs but says nothing.
This is a Everway scenario where the PCs set out to retrieve a dangerous stolen artifact. No previous experience of Everway is needed and the game will be run with pre-generated characters.
From the Ashes
GMs: Kris Kunkel
Number of Players: 2-6
Game Type: Amber gaming
Game URI:
The newest Shadow to be given a Golden Circle treaty, Phoenix, has recently lost it's leader, King Justin Govern II, under mysterious circumstances. He endured several weeks of some wasting disease that his healers were unable to identify. As his father's condition grew worse, so did the rumors of Crown Prince Luke's madness. He was even reported to have wished his father's death at dinner the very night the King passed.
Bloody Bill's is full of sailors with stories of a looming civil war as several of Justin's powerful dukes seem prepared to support Prince Bryce, his second son. Privateers flying Bryce's colors are already patrolling the sea lanes outside the capital's port. King Random has decided to send a delegation to 'advise' the young crown prince, and if possible discern the truth behind Justin's death.
"The King is dead. Long live the King!"
Pre-Gens to be provided. We'll be using a diced conflict resolution system based on "Otherkind". No materials or dice needed, all will be provided.
Nine Lives in Amber
GM: Jack Gulick
Number of Players: 3-6
Game Type: Shared World
Game URI:
With most everyone gone off to fight Patternfall against the armies of Chaos, Castle Amber is left in the care of a handful of guards and Prince Gerard. But when Chaos' counterattack is something they can t even see, it will take bold action by the feline population of Amber to save the One True City.
Amber crosses plots with John Wick's Cat (http://wicked-dead.com/cat/) in an exploration of an inexplicably overlooked portion of Corwin s saga.
Trading Spaces
GMs: Deb Atwood, Bridgette Ruggles
Number of Players: 6-8
Game Type: Freeform
Game URI:
It was a rainy day in Amber, and Dad was busy and Mom was busy, and the after a few games of hide and seek (and stuff Random down the laundry chute) the library seemed to be the place to gather. All your siblings in one place. It seems like the perfect place for mischief.
And then you found the Book. It was a really, really cool book, with a dragon scale covering and dark writing on the inside in a language that tickled your tongue. And Benedict said you shouldn't, and Random said of COURSE you should, and Brand said maybe HE should but since you're older you did it. You read it. And then the world shivered and suddenly it wasn't raining anymore.
And it kinda made you wonder what else maybe changed.
GMs will send out information via email to the players prior to the game for character setup. Characters will be young versions of the elders.
Slot 2 - Friday, 7:00 p.m. to midnight
Attitude is Everything
GM: Meera Barry
Number of Players: 5-6
Game Type: Throne War, Over-The-Top
Game URI:
You've been hired to kill the King of Amber.
There are a few problems with this.
1) Who is he?
2) What _is_ going on here?
3) What is it with these fisherfolk?
[You may want to contact the GM on this one.]
You are an old-school classic Chaosian, sworn to The King of Thelbane. You have significant shapeshifting ability but no Logrus. You might have sorcery of some form. In fact, you have 50 points to spend as you'd like (but Conjuring is basically useless in Amber.) You can be from the Court of Lessima, Swayvil, Amblerash, Helgram, or Hendrake, and that will give you an additional ability to be revealed at game time. You also need to identify in specific what kind of pressure the Emperor of the Courts has on you to make you take this particular mission...
Dogs in the Circle ***CANCELLED***
GMs: Bryant Durrell
Number of Players: 2-4
Game Type: Shared World, Non-Amberite
Game URI:
There's a war on; ask King Random. Maybe it's with Chaos, after they assassinated Queen Vialle. Maybe it's with one of his brothers or sisters, gone traitor again. Maybe it's with the Moonriders, come out of Shadow to eat the Pattern. Maybe you don't much care. You are the Unicorn's Watchdogs in the Golden Circle, riding from town to town and from Shadow to Shadow to lay down the law where loyalty grows thin.
Dogs in the Circle is an Amber-themed variant on Vincent Baker's Dogs in the Vineyard (http://www.septemberquestion.org/lumpley/dogsources.html). Where the original game has sin, this variant has treason to the throne. Only eternal vigilance can preserve the tottering power of Amber: you may not be royals, but you know that you're holding the line for a cause that matters.
Characters will be created at the con; character creation rules and setting discussion will be mailed out in advance.
Equalizer
GMs: Michael Croft & Ginger Stampley
Number of Players: 4-8
Game Type: Shared world
Game URI: http://www.whiterose.org/twiki/bin/view/Cons/EqualizeR
"In Flora's shadow, they were called 'the great equalizers'. Equalization is not to our advantage." -- Random, House of Cards.
It has been two months since the armies of Amber left to fight the war in Chaos. You and your cousins, recent arrivals in Amber, have striven to help Gerard manage the chaos left behind. Now the Regent lies gravely wounded, shot by a gun that didn't come from Corwin's armory. Who has discovered the great equalizer? What will they do with it? And whose name does the next bullet have on it?
This game was previously run at ACUS 2005.
Amberites only. 120 points. Characters must be approved by GMs before con.
More Than You Think You Are
GM: Paul Weimer
Number of Players: 4-6
Game Type: ADRPG/Nobilis Cross Shared World
Game URI: http://www.all-roads-lead.net/jvstin/nobleamber/
A visit to Aunt Florimel on Earth for a family picnic is perhaps not the worst thing in the world. However, that strange musical voice in your head, the blacking out, and the waking up in your bed in Castle Amber is the first inkling that thing strange has happened.
Why is Amber now subtly different? Why is She in charge now? And why does she claim suzerainty over you, and why are now your abilities so very different?
A cross between Amber and Nobilis; knowledge of the latter is not necessary but helpful for play. Character creation will be handled in email before the con(please see website for information), as well as pre-gen characters available.
Character creation notes on website.
Slot 3 - Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The Incubus
GMs: Glen Seymour
Number of Players: 3-6
Game Type: Diceless Roleplaying
Game URI:
In 1985 Jerrie Merryman died of the first documented case of DNA Replication Failure.
In 1986, 90 more people died of DRF. Scientists were at a loss to explain why. Kelcey Davis offered $100,000 to anyone that could disprove he had telekinetic powers. No one ever collected the money before his disappearance in 1992.
19 years and 2 million deaths later there are a growing number of survivors. The majority of the survivors have a mutation that acts as a handicap, but there are a few that have tasted power...
Characters are from present day Earth with an alternate timeline. Character descriptions (no points) should be sent to GM prior to con.
The Back Door
GMs: Amber and Richard DiTullio
Number of Players: 4-8
Game Type: Shared World
Game URI:
Your presence here, at the Center of All Things, is meant only as a precaution. Your grandsire, the King, is said to have a contingency for everything. Though, this time some in the family have finally started to whisper their doubts. Did the Enemy not successfully capture Oberon, at least for a while?
Just a precaution- that is what your support is meant to be. Support for the Regent, Prince Gerard.
In fairness, the regency of Gerard surpassed all expectations. It was not until the morning of the second day that he was summoned away under mysterious circumstances. To his credit, the sapphire scaled demons did not crawl forth from the dungeons until that afternoon.
A forgotten weakness has been discovered. An ancient warding has been breached. Now you must brave a place shaped by Dworkin and twisted by Chaos to prevent the destruction of all your family fights to protect.
Characters will be worked out in email before the con. Characters are children of Amberites. 100 point characters. Pattern is optional but basic Pattern is free if taken. A partial power system will be used.
The Mountain of the Sorcerer-King
GM: Michael Curry
Number of Players: 3-6
Game Type: Shared world
Game URI:
Even at the best of times, the life of a mercenary has been a hard one. You have traveled from shadow to shadow, looking for whatever jobs you could find. Often hungry and lonely, you have seen some of the few you've counted as friends die on the field of battle. You've known that one day you too would bleed out the last of your life's blood in some foreign land, dying for a cause you cared nothing about, for a payment that you would never collect.
Perhaps that is why you so were so quick to accept this latest offer, not taking the time to really understand what you were getting into. The payment would be enough to buy a chance at a normal life; that was all that truly mattered. Now you find yourself far from help near the top of this cold mountain, preparing for an assault on the Sorcerer-King himself. At your side are men and women you neither know nor want to know. Men and women who all carry a story similar to your own.
Who knows what the dawn of this day will bring? How will desperate warriors incapable of trust react when their only means of survival is to rely on each other?
The Mountain of the Sorcerer-King uses the rules from Timothy Kleinert's forthcoming game The Mountain Witch (http://www.timfire.com/MountainWitch.html). Rules will be taught, and dice will be used. Part of character creation will take place via email before the con.
Tales of the Regency: A Piece of the Action
GM: Paul Weimer
Number of Players: 4-9
Game Type: ADRPG Shared World Serial Game
Game URI: http://www.all-roads-lead.net/jvstin/totr/
When Corwin, Random and most of the other Elders went to Chaos to prosecute the end of the Patternfall War, Gerard was the sole elder left behind, to manage Amber while his siblings fought for Amber's survival at the gates of their mortal enemy.
What no one imagined was the time, in Amber, it would take for the rest of the family to return. Thus, in the wake of Oberon's death in re-inscribing the Pattern, Gerard has turned to his children, nieces and nephews. Left behind by their parents, it is they, under Gerard's leadership, who must manage and deal with the problems and threats to Amber during Gerard's Regency.
A Piece of the Action
In the aftermath of the rewriting of the Pattern, Amber seeks to restore its ties to Golden Circle Shadows. A mystery and an opportunity, however, has appeared. A hitherto unseen shadow has now moved into conjunction in the Golden Circle. Before the other nearby shadows stake their claims to trade, commerce and knowledge of this new world, Gerard wants you to ensure Amber gets A Piece of The Action.
150 point Amberites. See website for more information.
Slot 4 - Saturday, 7:00 p.m. to midnight
Dragonslayers
GMs: Jennifer Jackson and Deb Atwood
Number of Players: 6-10
Game Type: Shared World
Game URI:
A sinister force, long thought destroyed, stirs from the dark of the Abyss that spawned it; called by a curse of a child of the Blood. The future of a kingdom is at stake. The tide of magic is rising. Will our heroes accept this challenge; will their mettle prove equal to the quest?
The fifth in the series of tales that began with The Breakfast Club. Each is a stand alone adventure. It is not at all necessary to have participated in previous episodes. New and returning players are welcome.
Amberites only. Character details should be resolved with the GMs prior to the convention. 160 points.
Le Cygne: Ghost Ship
GMs: Ginger Stampley & Michael Croft
Number of Players: 5-8
Game Type: Serial
Game URI: http://www.whiterose.org/twiki/bin/view/Cons/GhostShip
The Swan is fogbound in a shallow sea. With nothing to see, there is little to do but forge on and hope the current doesn't dash the ship against rocks. It's hard to tell day from night in the oppressive red-gray fog that clings to everything and leaves a sticky residue on your hands that no amount of washing seems to clear. The entire ship seems grimy and the crew is muttering unhappily.
On the horizon, the lookouts spot a ship. A huge two-master, her sails are down and she shows neither lights nor flags and answers no hails. It is the first contact the Swan has had in a fortnight. Perhaps she has charts or directions to help you find your way.
This is the third adventure in the Swan serial set in the House of Cards Amberverse. Previous adventures were played at TBR 2005 and ACUS 2005. We welcome new and returning players.
Returning players will use existing characters. Pregenerated characters will be provided for new players.
Monsters!
GM: Meera Barry
Number of Players: 5-6
Game Type: Non-Amberite, Post 2nd Series, Horror
Game URI:
"The glass is broken, but there isn't a drop of blood."
"That wasn't his body that broke it."
"But he's sprawled on top of the shards."
"He was drained already." The detective took a deep breath of air and shook his head.
"What do you think?" she bit her lip, thinking.
"Send for the mage." He cut off her disagreement with a look. "This isn't the work of a human."
...for monsters there are. Increasing numbers of them. Guns are rare, and seemingly ineffective. What is the reason for their incursion?
Characters are citizens of a taskforce for the City of Amber (Caine's City Watch) at 35 points. There can be no more than three points allocated to Stuff, nor can there be more than four points allocated to Items. Each character should have a skill they could potentially challenge an Elder Amberite in, and each individual has one unique minor ability, power, or signature item as a freebie. (This is ala the "zero-point power" as described at http://www.whiterose.org/houseofcards/rules/zeroptpowers.html) but otherwise, you are merely members of Caine's City Watch, a Captain of the City Guard, the Dean of the University, the Royal Stablemaster, a Fortune Teller, the Ex-Captain of HMS Impetuous (OK, you can choose your own ship name), or the Owner of a Tavern, on a first-come, first served basis.
Whose Pattern Is It Anyway?
GMs: Karen Alfrey
Number of Players: 4-8
Game Type: Shared world, Elders, Silly
Game URI:
Somebody forgot to refill Dworkin's prescription. Again.
Now the delusions have kicked in and he's whisked you, his beloved and long-suffering grandchildren, off to a well-lit Shadow of his own desire, in front of a live studio audience, where for the next few hours you will be forced to endure the ultimate horror:
You're on a game show.
This system-light excuse for wacky fun will subject the Amber Elders to "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"-style party games. Non-players are welcome to share in the fun as our studio audience.
Characters will be First-Series Elders: Corwin, Fiona, Bleys, Llewella, Flora, Julian, Gerard, Random. System-light pre-gens will be provided.
Slot 5 - Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
ACD: A Tricky Proposition
GM: Deb Atwood
Number of Players: 5-8
Game Type: Series (Campaign)
Game URI:
A month ago Random didn't know he had a daughter. Tomorrow he will bury her.
But first, the family must be brought together in Amber, which is always a tricky proposition. And on this most stressful night, the new King finds solace in the rhythm found beneath wandering feet as he traces steps through the castle. And when a problem arises beneath the silvery full moon, he turns to those he knows he can depend upon. You.
This scenario is a part of the world of "A Common Disaster". Players may play either a recurring character from the game, or pregenerated Amber family characters will be provided.
The Puppies of Tijuana
GM: Michael Curry
Number of Players: 4-8
Game Type: Recast
Game URI:
F***ing sweet. Your new neighbors here in Tijuana don't know enough to keep their pets inside, and the cops don't show up at your door every f***ing time somebody's beloved dog goes missing. It looks like things here are gonna be a lot more fun than they were back in Akron.
A kill puppies for satan (http://www.septemberquestion.org/lumpley/puppies.html) game centering around a family made up of recast Amber Elders. Rules will be taught, but taking the time to check out the kpfs site before you sign up is strongly recommended. The game involves far too much foul language and plenty of things that are very wrong (like, you know, the puppy killing part), so consider yourself warned.
This is a sequel of sorts to "Nine Losers in Akron," but both returning and new players are welcome.
Game uses the kill puppies for satan rules; rules will be taught; pregenerated characters will be provided.
Twice Upon a Time
GM: Meera Barry
Number of Players: 4-7
Game Type: Elders Traditional Humour
Game URI:
Based off (but not identical to) the game run at ACNW 2004.
In a land of green and golden spires and sweeping terraces, wide promenades and decks of flowers, golden and red. A place of temples, palaces, and pleasances...and straw roofs?
I turned over onto my left side and saw the golden visage of a woman in the small bed across from me. I shook my head as she opened her eyes and smiled at me. "That was just right, Corwin. Just right..." she purred, closing her eyes with a satisfied sigh. I reached with my paw to smooth her...wait a second. Paw?
Oh no. It had finally happened. I was a talking bear.
Intended to be light hearted with enough in-references to make a traditionalist laugh.
Characters will be pregenerated, but I would like to have a list of 3 top choices for Elders a player would like to portray. Merlin, Martin, and Dara are included, but Dworkin, Oberon, and the Unicorn are specifically excluded.