Slot 1: (Friday evening 7:30pm until late)
1/1 Extra Londinium – A Theft of Ravens
GM: Dave Collis
Description: Based on the world of the Folly, Luscinia and London’s waterways.
The Ravens at the White Tower are going missing and whilst losing one might be considered unfortunate after the second disappeared the press got wind of things and now its a thing. Next thing you know you’ll have some Murder Death Cultists prophesying the end of days.
Characters: 10pt Character system in a word document on the Discord channel or from me by email awfully easy really.
Players: 3 – 5
1/2 Burning Coal
GM: Vivek Das Mohapatra
Description: https://platypus.pepperfish.net/~vivek/burning-coal-intro.html
Characters: No hard restrictions but the GM reserves a right of veto. Each game tales place in the same game world but is independent. Events in earlier games may influence later ones, in that they change the state of the game world, but they are not direct continuations.
Players: 3 – 6
1/3 The Helgram game
GM: Trish Hart
Description: The Helgram Game is a mission-style team-based game set in primarily in the Black Zone, based out of the Helgram Zócalo, the major area of “civilisation” in its particular region of the Black Zone. The Zócalo is a base and port of call for traders, refugees, businessmen, diplomats and travellers from a hundred Shadows. Pretty much anything you might care to buy is available in the Zócalo somewhere, and it’s often wisest not to ask where it came from.
Characters are Members in Good Standing of House Helgram, on their first assignment for the House, The PCs work for Duke Jowan, the Helgram Representative in the Black Zone, based in the Zócalo. They may occasionally be asked to undertake tasks back in the House proper, or the Courts, but the focus of the game is the Black Zone. This is a team-centred game, not one for lone wolves.
Setting: The first series happened as written, ending with the War Between the Powers. In the years that immediately followed, Amber occupied the Courts until a peace could be brokered between them. This was achieved about three years later, and was made possible because, much to everyone’s surprise, King Swayvill and King Random get along.
Preference will be given to returning characters from any iteration of the Helgram Game.
Characters: Characters will have been born either in the last days of the Bleys as Grand Duke or since Ian Cushing-Helgram became Grand Duke. They will be no older than 40, and probably somewhat younger than that. Characters are built on 65pt with the basics of shape shift (inherent crisis management plus the basic four forms), or 75pt without. All stats start at Chaos. Full character creation rules can be found here: https://helgramgame.org/character-creation/.
Players: 6
1/4 That summons thee to heaven or to hell
GM: Pete Marshall
Description: When: About now.
Where: a Shadow of London, very similar to our own, magic works but is largely unknown to the populace.
What: the characters work for an investigation agency that mostly has insurance companies as clients. Occasionally you get referrals from the police for some of the stranger cases. One (or more) of the PCs is contacted by a Police Inspector they know, who would like them to look into his current case as he believes his senior officer is railroading the lead suspect.
Characters: PC’s have 25 points to spend on stats, stuff and magic. Powers are limited to a form of magic (Somewhere between 5 & 15 points. More details later). While a character’s current job is insurance investigator, they started out doing something else and this will determine what skill areas they have and who their contacts are. (Example an ex-Doctor will know people in the healthcare field, an ex-cop will know cops & crooks etc.)
Changes from standard Amber are
1) Strength also covers melee weapons.
2) Because you’re human, skills are relevant, as you haven’t had centuries to learn everything. For every two points spent on the 4 stats list a skill that you’d like that wasn’t part of your old job or a skill associated with your old job that you’re much better at than most.
Stats will start at human so no selling down.
Game is primarily horror and is decidedly gory.
Players: 5 – 6
1/5 Hostile Territory
GM: Simone Pharoah-Metcalf
Description: While dealing with the plague, poisonings, riots, Chaos agents, hellhounds and the land kraken, Random may possibly have not been paying enough attention to events in the Golden Circle. There was a bit of a pirate problem developing in Deiga, and he sent some agents to fix it, but they seem to have run into some trouble, and may be in need of some assistance.
Characters: You are Random’s trusted agents. Whether you got here on your own merits, or because someone else engineered it, you have apparently proven your loyalty to the Crown and are now well-placed to capitalise on the situation.
Characters could be career military, explorers, sneaky bastards or other interested parties. Some minor powers and abilities available. Character creation details will be sent out later.
This is a sequel to the previous games run at ACUK, but new players are welcome.
Players: 6
1/6 Knight Moves
GM: Alan Wake
Description: King Oberon is missing, presumed dead so Eric is regent, ruling Amber alongside his queen Sonja. The city is besieged by enemies and you are about to be sworn in as Knights of the Garter, personal bodyguards to the king before his planned sally forth to destroy the Chaosian foe. There’s one catch; you are the children of his rivals, the brothers and sisters that question his right to rule. Where do your loyalties truly lie?
Characters: PCs are children of the elders. 50pt characters free Pattern. No Trump, creatures or artefacts. Partial powers available, details from the GM.
Players: 4 – 6
Slot 2 (Saturday day 9am – 5pm)
2/1 Everyone dies at the end
GM: Richard Cunningham
Description: King Random is dead, murdered, some say, by his kin. In his place, a weary Regent struggles to hold the Kingdom together against the tides of dissent and strife. Visions of Doom abound; the End, the seers pronounce, is nigh. Can Fate be defied? Can disaster be thwarted? Or will the strength of the Blood of Amber fail, and all go down into darkness?
Characters: Slightly tweaked generation rules (I will send notes out to participating players). All characters will be of the Blood of Amber.
Players: 4 – 6
2/2 Amber – The Morning After The Night Before
GM: Anna Jenkins
Description: Say what you like about brother / uncle (delete as applicable!) Random, he does know how to throw a good party. It’s been a couple of years since Patternfall and things have settled down to a new tempo in Castle Amber. Random has increasingly relaxed into his new role as king of Amber and of late has thrown some really impressive parties. Last night’s for example featured enough exotic beverages to have made everyone’s heads swim and you’re not quite sure you remember the entire evening, although you do have vague recollections of an argument at some point last night – still, hardly an Amber family gathering without one…
…as you wake up your first awareness is of the sounds of shouting and doors opening and running footsteps. Then you heard the sounds of screaming. You go out into the corridor where all around you relatives are emerging from their chambers and heading towards the source of the disturbance…the King’s chambers. Inside Random is rocking in the centre of the floor, covered in blood with a bloody knife in his hand. In the bed, drenched in blood and clearly dead is Queen Vialle.
The guards explain to the gathered family that they heard a scream and broke in only to find Random next to Vialle with the knife in his hand. Random is taken into custody, still apparently in shock. No-one can quite believe he would do this, but the guards are adamant no-one else had access to their suite.
You have your own reasons for wanting to be part of the investigation and you’re determined to be included so you petition to be allowed to investigate along with some of your other relatives who you imagine also have their own interests driving them to participate.
Characters: In addition to the usual stuff, explain what you might have argued with Random about (if only you could remember) and why you want into the investigation
Players: 3 – 5
2/3 Pax Britannica: The One That Got Away
GM: Alastair Johnson
Pax Britannica (Latin for “British Peace”) is the period of relative peace in Europe and the world (1815 – the present) during which the British Empire has become the global hegemonic power and has adopted the role of a global police force.
“We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.”
William Ewart Gladstone, British Prime Minister
Description: It is the year 1872 and Britain is riding high with its technology and industry delivering advances in military prowess as well as for the economy. The power of steam, advances in clockwork and creation of difference engines have delivered not just economic changes but also social and environmental ones too, even resulting in flight. But there is no room for complacency though as other countries and empires seek opportunities to advance their various causes usually at the cost of others.
For various reasons which are unique to each character, you are working for the Government, in particular Viscount Lord Melbourne (nephew of the Queen’s first PM). You have been chosen because of your exceptional if not unique abilities and prowess which Lord M, as he is affectionately referred to, puts to use when complications arise that “require a certain degree of secrecy and tact”.
You will be briefed on your mission by Lord M on a strictly need-to-know basis.
Huzzah!
Characters: New and existing characters are equally welcomed. Characters are truly exceptional shadow dwellers that can be found in the fictional literature based in that period, or alternatively from your own imagination. Full character creation notes are available here: character-creation-notes-for-pax-britannica/
Players: 6
2/4 Wonders will never cease
GM: Jason Pickering
Description: Most people like to think they have a pretty good idea on what the World is about today, but you are one of the ‘Gifted’, one of the mystical few who know the truth. That fact that the World is only one of many, far from being secure, with powerful threats from both without and within.
It falls to you and other like you to defend this Earth from these threats, occasionally teaming up with the other ‘Gifted’ when required however reluctantly.
You may not like the other ‘Gifted’ or care for the way they use their gifts, but you are all linked somehow and it is through this link you feel the passing of one of your kind. How did this individual meet their end and does the same fate lie in store for all of you?
Characters: Characters are ‘Gifted’ Shadow Folk who can wield magic. Details of character generation will be sent out once game allocations have been finalised.
Players: 5 – 6
2/5 Night Watch Amber
GM: Diana Probst
Description: Once more, the King’s Bodyguard will be keeping the peace, whether the peace wants to be kept or not.
Characters will be members of the bodyguard or will have some reason to be seconded, possibly a reward, more likely a punishment. Under Captain Benedict they will try to avoid the various political crises that the Princes of Amber try to load on them and each other, and attempt not to answer the question of whether Prince Bleys was drunk when he did that hilarious thing with the hatstand, or whether any ambassadors were offended.
Prince Bleys may not appear in any plot. Your ambassador may vary. Please do not feed the Gerard.
Characters: PCs will be designed on a homebrew system, so contact the GM beforehand.
Players: 6
2/6 The monk’s cowl
GM: Andy Ransom
Description: This is a Dee Sanction game.
Henry Denny, the leaseholder of Waltham manor, sends word of some monstrous threat harrowing travellers passing through Waltham Forest.
John Dee sends the Agents to the market town of Waltham Abbey. As one of the favoured hunting grounds of the Queen, the Agents must resolve the matter with haste.
The Dee Sanction is a game of supernatural investigation set during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
No experience of the game is required and this game is not linked to the previous game I ran at ACNI 22.
The game will start at 10 am.
Characters: Some notes on the game, please read carefully.
The game has nothing to do with Amber or any Amber connection.
The game is not a history lesson, if minor historical inaccuracies will annoy you this is probably not a game for you.
The game provides a method of random chance using a deck of cards. It will be diceless but not without chance, if you want a fully deterministic gaming experience this is probably not a game for you.
The game will use Tarot cards, if you have strong feelings about the Tarot and wouldn’t want to see it used in a game this is probably not a game for you.
Everyone else welcome, character creation is simple (there are 3 stats and a handful of other choices to make) and full info will be provided before the Con.
Players: 6
Slot 3 (Saturday evening 7:30pm until late)
3/1 The tomb of the lost prince
GMs: Natalie & Shadow Amery
Description: Tales are told of a quiet and unassuming valley in a distant and seldom visited shadow in which a hero was laid to rest. In some, they are a scion of Amber; in some they were the wielder of a powerful artifact whose like has not been seen since.
A decade after the end of the Great War, you are being sent to explore the Tomb and find out once and for all what lies within.
If there are enough players there will be two separate groups with different goals who may eventually interact with each other but the focus of the game for each group will be solving their own puzzles and passing their own obstacles.
Characters: Characters must be agreed before the con. 50 point characters with partial powers and a cap on points spent on powers. Players will choose to hail from Amber or Deiga which will unlock some additional choices. Full information will be provided once game choices have been finalised.
Players: 3 – 10
3/2 The Shipping Forecast
GM: Dave Collis
Description: Something strange has been happening in Shadow, in all honesty something strange is always happening somewhere in Shadow. This though is different. The atmospherics for want of a better term are all wrong what’s needed is some sort of barometer for Shadow or perhaps even better someone or someones to look into the matter and deal with it.
Characters: 100pt Characters LoGaS or Amber DRPG no advanced powers, stuff capped at +/-5, no artefacts or similar above 4pts. Yes you can use LoGaS and Amber yes this may be considered a cross over but then again who is to say that the infinity of Amber does not contain Gossamer and Shadow or indeed that amongst the vast array of Gossamer Worlds there isn’t an Amber? Will post on Discord a brief questionnaire for you please respond to it or if you choose not to use Discord email me as the ref directly
You need to think how you are getting to the modern day UK and why you might be listening to Radio 4 on a damp wet night at very early in the morning. If players would like to have known each other’s characters that’ll be tagged in the questionnaire, you never know you may have an unexpected ally out there.
Players: 4 – 6
3/3 Burning Coal
GM: Vivek Das Mohapatra
Description: https://platypus.pepperfish.net/~vivek/burning-coal-intro.html
Characters: No hard restrictions but the GM reserves a right of veto.
Each game tales place in the same game world but is independent. Events in earlier games may influence later ones, in that they change the state of the game world, but they are not direct continuations.
Players: 3 – 6
3/4 One for sorrow
GM: Herman Duijker
Description: As the days grow shorter, you have noticed more and more crows appearing in the city of Amber, first one, then two. One cannot help but wonder at their presence. Some see them as harbingers of doom, while others believe they hold the secrets of the universe within their black feathers.
King Random, recently returned from a long journey away from the City, offers a reward for any information on the corvids, but has expressly forbidden any harm to be done to them, nor can they be captured.
There might be some coin to be had…
For more info, see https://ambercity.obsidianportal.com/
Characters: You will be playing “normal” people living in the City or Castle of Amber. 50 points, no Pattern or Logrus, no exalted powers, no constructs, “0” point level for stats is Human.
More info will be provided before the ‘Con.The variant rules I’m using can be found at the site above.
Players: 3 – 6
3/5 Aurellis ACUK
GM: Tim Hart
Description: It has rolled round to spring 2012 game date now, and it’s difficult to keep track. Random is King of Amber. Everybody knows that, right? Lots of people just helped kick an invading Uberon out of Fiona’s ancient Castle at Điện Biên Phủ.
But, hang on – there’s that recent proclamation, from Benedict, King of Amber, And let’s not forget all that recent fun and games with Queen Jade of Amber.
And should we even mention Thelbane. Obviously, King Mandor and Queen Hera rule. Except what about King Osric? Or King Merlin? Or King Graeme? Or Co-Queen Juno?
Yep. Definitely difficult to keep track, in this long running campaign in the multiverse that goes wrong occasionally. Well worth knowing what is around that blind corner, before you turn.
Characters: New characters are created via a quiz, before the con. Returning players welcome, either with an existing character, or a new one.
Players: 3 – 7
Slot 4 (Sunday 10am – 6pm)
4/1Pink fluffy unicorns
GM: Linda Cottrell
Description: A mystery is uncovered when a stranger gives a gift that Grand’Mere won’t talk about. That would be strange enough, but now the gift has gone missing, and Grand’Mere would like some help.
Characters are cute, friendly unicorns in a shadow of Amber strangely and sweetly like My Little Pony. This is meant to be a light, comedic Sunday game with the potential for lessons in friendship & magic.
Characters: Players can develop their own characters, adopt MLP characters, or be something else altogether, as long as they have a legitimate reason to participate, such as being a household pet, magical accessory, etc.
Players do not need to be familiar with My Little Pony.
Players: 5
4/2 Taking back control
GM: Richard Cunningham
Description: In the aftermath of the disastrous Patternfall War, House Hendrake has announced that it intends to secede from the Courts of Chaos. In a desperate bid to prevent Hexit (as it has swiftly and inevitably become known), Thelbane has dispatched a delegation of key members of the nobility to the Ways of Hendrake to resolve this crisis. YOU will be these delegates (or, possibly, their Hendrake counterparts). This will be a game of intrigue, double dealing, assassination and lies. Lies. LIES!
Characters: Characters will be largely pregenerated, tailored based on Player expressed preferences. Talk to me…..
Players: 6
4/3 Welcome back to Blandings!
GM: Mel Mason
Description: It’s time to return to Blandings – after a summer spent in the South of France (or somewhere similar). But things seem a little different … Is the walk up the hill from Blandings Parva to the Castle a little steeper? Or perhaps a lot steeper … And why is the very successful restaurant – Mandor’s – suddenly closed? Why is Aunt Flora using a rather generously sized handbag as opposed to her usual clutch purse? And what is keeping Brinkers so busy?
And that’s even before we mention the incident on the train from Paddington. …
Characters: 100 point characters. Stats are Eccentricity, Sport, Tenacity and Money – all will be explained for any new players. The characters are children of the Blandings version of Amberites (except that Fiona and Flora are Aunts). Mirelle and Random Threepwood are too young to have adult children, so also out. Players will also have a special free skill for this game – this time they can choose ONE Amberite skill, adapted for the real world – i.e. one could be Never Get Lost. No Pattern walking though.
Players: 8 – 12
4/4 “Answer the question, grave robber.”
GM: Ythamar Pharoah-Metcalf
Description: You are an “archaeologist”, sent to check out a new tomb that’s been discovered. Of course, you and your new teammates will have varying motives – from wanting to protect the rich history preserved in time, to collecting the most interesting/valuable items, to selling whatever you can get your hands on to the highest bidder.
To most this may seem like a boring job but you’re not just any archaeologist, you work for the “Guild’s Society for Historical Excavation and Preservation.” With your special (read:shady) skills you can handle jobs that are too dangerous for others because whoever built these tombs was either really paranoid, powerful, rich or just wanted to mess with people long after their deaths. (Or most likely, a combination of all the above)
Now you’ve heard from your co-workers that some of these jobs can get pretty wild. I mean really, rolling boulders, snake pits, zombies, ancient gods, don’t they know that sort of thing only happens in media?
Still, behind puzzles and traps your treasure awaits.
Setting: Earth-like world that has magic.
Low magic – Anyone can learn it in the same way that anyone could (theoretically) become an engineer or a doctor. You could do it but most people don’t for whatever reason – lack of interest, too much studying, no time.
Tech level – While phones and similar communication devices exist there is no internet.
Some things are done using “magitech” – magic and tech both used in the same device – these devices are normally made by magic-engineers.
Characters: Name
Apparent Age and Physical Description – build, hair colour, eye colour, any missing limbs Background – Anywhere from a paragraph or two to a page or two.
Stats: Rank Strength, Endurance, Psyche and Warfare from 1 to 4 (1 = best, 4 worst.) then you have 10 points to spend on them, any stat can’t have more points that any stat ranked higher than it. Skills – e.g. knowledge of ancient runes, can start fires with magic You get one free skill, any additional skills are paid for by a weakness. – e.g. chronic illness, bad luck, missing limb(s)
Note: Weaknesses may have varying degrees of effect depending on how powerful the skill it is paying for is.
Skills and stats should reflect each other.
Players: 4 – 6
Descendants of Amber
GM: Andy Ransom
Description: You always knew you were different, special in some manner, but you didn’t know why until you were contacted by a mysterious stranger calling himself Ghost. He told you that you were not alone, that there were others like you and what’s more there were also people hunting you!
The game is based on Shadow Earth (at least 99% of the time) and is relatively low powered. Yes PCs are extraordinary, but they are not superheroes, there will be no leaping tall buildings in a single bound or flying over the city in your mechanical suit.
Note this is a new scenario and while it will build on the events of previous year’s games, no previous knowledge is required, new players are welcome but preference will be given to returning players.
Characters: Characters are all of the blood of Amber but grew up on shadow Earth with no knowledge of Amber or shadow. Powers and abilities will be limited to those you could have inherited or learned while growing up on Earth (basically no Pattern/Logrus/Trump or Shadow travelling abilities).
Full rules for character generation will be provided to new players before the Con.
Players: 6
AmberCon UK 