Ambercon US
We've never been to Ambercon US before - as opposed to Ambercon NW - for mostly monetary reasons. We've never really been able to afford more than one trip to the US each year. (Also the amount of holiday would be a little prohibitive as well.) But this year, thanks to COVID and the power of virtual cons, we managed to attend the con slots that fit within our time zones. (The slots that went on to 4 or 5am would have taken some acclimation time of moving our body clocks.)
So, in the end, we got to attend 3 games (though one game carried over two slots).
There Someone in my Head...
The basic setup is that we've all retired from the family game of politics and infighting, and retired off to our own perfect worlds. And then your doubles turn up, and start turning everything upside down. My character was basically a teenager in Amber terms who had a massive argument with her mother and surrogate big sister, ran off to find her own world where she could play (basically) King Arthur, then as she grew up over the next almost two centuries, had a chance to discover that she wasn't really interested in just playing the wandering hero, and that she could build, liked doing that, and also wasn't really suited to lead so much as direct. Certainly at some point, she meant to go back, but never really got around to it. Then her double, a version of her with all the subtlety of a brick armed with automatic weapons, turned up.
She was less than impressed.
This was... an alright game. Some of the problem was the slow start - often a problem with Amber con games in my experience - where we all started in separate places and had about half an hour of setup with each player before the game really began. With five players, that's two and half hours, more or less, and the game was only six hours long. So, as well as leaving most of the players nothing to do for a third of the game, that took up almost half the run time. On top of that, the game went in a very powers based way, helped by the fact that 3 of 5 players were built that way. I mean, I think I got to one main thing, and mostly discussed theories about what was happening for the rest the time. (It turned out that an alternate Amber was invading out reality.) This wasn't completely the GM's fault - there was warfare based stuff going on that we could have gotten in, and she did make a few attempts in that direction, but still, that didn't help.
Exeunt Florimel, Welcome to the Family Feud
This was a sequel to the game from last ACNW and... it was not a great game. Rather than have our characters actually do anything - especially considering part of the setup is that we all owe a queen a big favour - we spent a large chunk playing out how various NPCs teaching us how to use our new powers, with little threat and even less point. We didn't actually affect anything, and the only fallout was the slim effect our choices had on our characters. Which we'd already played for one game. The one saving grace for me was that it was during this segment that my character did the one semi-notable thing she achieved all game - saving a random group of water nymphs from a tyrannical river king. But it wasn't particularly hard. After we finally got past that, there was some stuff that only really affected a couple of other characters, and my character just wasn't the sort to get involved in that. And even if she had, there would have been literally no stakes for her apart from whether she lived or died, and she wasn't going to die.
The only good thing was that, being online, I could check out for large sections and no one would notice, which... Um.
The GM is talking about running a sequel, but we're currently not planning on playing again..
Boundaries of Infinity
The setup for this game was that there was a weird area of the far multiverse which had infected an explorer somehow, making them weak and confused. Teams from the various important courts were assembled and told to investigate.
The one real saving grace of the con. Even though various characters started off in different places, we started off in two groups, and the GM was very good about cutting between characters and keeping everyone engaged, even when we split off individually briefly. We were briefed with a clear aim, and it was basically cooperative, so it felt like we were always pushing towards something.
My character was a diplomat who actually turned out to be stunningly useful for her mystical skills, which I really wasn't expecting when I designed her. Checking out the explorer psychically and mystically revealed vital information about the infection. (And, despite getting immediately checked out, meant that she got infected way earlier than the other PCs. Whoops.) And being the best in the party with mystical sight was an unexpected gift that made me far more useful.
My only real regret is that the personal entanglements that I'd tried to set up - they were exes from different courts whose relationship had ended badly - never really featured onscreen, despite the GM being more than willing to have some set up there. Ah well. It's a problem with con games - you never know how personal interactions will pan out.
So, in the end, we got to attend 3 games (though one game carried over two slots).
There Someone in my Head...
The basic setup is that we've all retired from the family game of politics and infighting, and retired off to our own perfect worlds. And then your doubles turn up, and start turning everything upside down. My character was basically a teenager in Amber terms who had a massive argument with her mother and surrogate big sister, ran off to find her own world where she could play (basically) King Arthur, then as she grew up over the next almost two centuries, had a chance to discover that she wasn't really interested in just playing the wandering hero, and that she could build, liked doing that, and also wasn't really suited to lead so much as direct. Certainly at some point, she meant to go back, but never really got around to it. Then her double, a version of her with all the subtlety of a brick armed with automatic weapons, turned up.
She was less than impressed.
This was... an alright game. Some of the problem was the slow start - often a problem with Amber con games in my experience - where we all started in separate places and had about half an hour of setup with each player before the game really began. With five players, that's two and half hours, more or less, and the game was only six hours long. So, as well as leaving most of the players nothing to do for a third of the game, that took up almost half the run time. On top of that, the game went in a very powers based way, helped by the fact that 3 of 5 players were built that way. I mean, I think I got to one main thing, and mostly discussed theories about what was happening for the rest the time. (It turned out that an alternate Amber was invading out reality.) This wasn't completely the GM's fault - there was warfare based stuff going on that we could have gotten in, and she did make a few attempts in that direction, but still, that didn't help.
Exeunt Florimel, Welcome to the Family Feud
This was a sequel to the game from last ACNW and... it was not a great game. Rather than have our characters actually do anything - especially considering part of the setup is that we all owe a queen a big favour - we spent a large chunk playing out how various NPCs teaching us how to use our new powers, with little threat and even less point. We didn't actually affect anything, and the only fallout was the slim effect our choices had on our characters. Which we'd already played for one game. The one saving grace for me was that it was during this segment that my character did the one semi-notable thing she achieved all game - saving a random group of water nymphs from a tyrannical river king. But it wasn't particularly hard. After we finally got past that, there was some stuff that only really affected a couple of other characters, and my character just wasn't the sort to get involved in that. And even if she had, there would have been literally no stakes for her apart from whether she lived or died, and she wasn't going to die.
The only good thing was that, being online, I could check out for large sections and no one would notice, which... Um.
The GM is talking about running a sequel, but we're currently not planning on playing again..
Boundaries of Infinity
The setup for this game was that there was a weird area of the far multiverse which had infected an explorer somehow, making them weak and confused. Teams from the various important courts were assembled and told to investigate.
The one real saving grace of the con. Even though various characters started off in different places, we started off in two groups, and the GM was very good about cutting between characters and keeping everyone engaged, even when we split off individually briefly. We were briefed with a clear aim, and it was basically cooperative, so it felt like we were always pushing towards something.
My character was a diplomat who actually turned out to be stunningly useful for her mystical skills, which I really wasn't expecting when I designed her. Checking out the explorer psychically and mystically revealed vital information about the infection. (And, despite getting immediately checked out, meant that she got infected way earlier than the other PCs. Whoops.) And being the best in the party with mystical sight was an unexpected gift that made me far more useful.
My only real regret is that the personal entanglements that I'd tried to set up - they were exes from different courts whose relationship had ended badly - never really featured onscreen, despite the GM being more than willing to have some set up there. Ah well. It's a problem with con games - you never know how personal interactions will pan out.