AmberCon North

Amber. The one True World, of which all other worlds are but Shadows. Shining. Eternal. And deadly&

Ambercon. The one True Amber DRPG convention. Of which all other Ambercons are but Shadows. Or are they? Ambercon can be pretty intimidating, not to mention difficult to get to if you live too far away from Michigan, so there are other Amber conventions all over the US and the world. Many of them, like Ambercon North, are well worth checking out.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, the Amber series of novels were written by the late, lamented Roger Zelazny, and Phage Press put out a wonderful, diceless role-playing game based on the series. A better explanation is to be found at http://www.wyrdrune.com/acnw/acnwSite/aboutamber.html if you’re curious. The Amber DRPG was one of the earliest commercial role-playing games to dispense with dice, and its advice for diceless play is still classic.

Ambercon North is the Amber DRPG convention for those who live in the Great White North, Canada. I’d like to say first of all that if you’re from the States, like myself, one of the best fringe benefits of Ambercon North is Toronto. It’s a wonderful city, beautiful and diverse, and downtown Toronto, where the hotel for Ambercon North is located, is within striking distance of some of the best food I’ve had in my entire life. I’ll miss the sushi most of all. My only complaint was the traffic&

Ambercon North has taken a few years to mature, but it’s aged well. The hotel was converted from an apartment building, so everyone had their suite with a kitchenette (plus the convention organizers offered cheap “crash space” in the rooms rented specifically for the con), and people generally played in their rooms, providing an intimate, cozy atmosphere that many gaming conventions lack. Early on, Ambercon North dispensed with the banquet that’s a traditional part of Ambercon US, which means there was more time for actual gaming, and Ambercon North is a lot more affordable than it’s ancestor. A big bonus for people, like me, who’d rather grab some sushi and keep gaming anyway.

This makes Ambercon North the best Ambercon by far to go to if you’ve never been to an Ambercon before; you get the most for your gaming dollar, and there is no sacrifice in the level of quality in terms of the people running the convention or the players. It’s a smaller convention than Ambercon US, so it’s less dizzying, but there is still more than enough there to keep a veteran coming back again and again.

Anyone who has played with the Amber diceless community knows that you’re dealing with some of the most dedicated, hardcore, entertaining and colorful roleplayers around. And I’m not saying that just because I’m one of them. Ambercon US is over a decade old, and when that many dedicated Amber players get together anywhere to do nothing but play Amber all weekend long, the results can be pretty interesting. For just a sample, go to http://www.ambercons.com and check out the games being offered at the different Ambercons (the Ambercon North site is http://acn.ambercons.com). The players at Ambercon North were (and are) no exception; the level of intensity did not go down just because we had crossed the border.

So what about the games? In general, the Amber DRPG is a game that can support different genres, a large amount of tinkering both in terms of system and setting, and is easily adaptable for live-action play, and all of it was available at Ambercon North. If I had any complaint, it would be that it would be that it was difficult to choose from among the presented options. Games ranged from the epic to the comedic, and included such genres as Japanese animation, cyberpunk, and Cthuloid horror. What can you say about a convention that generates quotes like: "I had an amulet that would heal me but would render me impotent. Since I was a British man, though, it never came up."

There wasn’t a game I was in that I didn’t enjoy, and I didn’t hear any complaints from anyone else, either, which is high praise considering how finicky gamers can be, especially Amber players. Oh, there were the usual hiccups with the hotel staff and parking and making sure everyone knew where to go, but all in all, Ambercon North stands out as an example of the right way to run a gaming convention – affordable, small, intense and intimate -- and most glitches were easily smoothed out by the hotel or the convention organizers. Don’t let anyone fool you& Ambercon North is just as Real as its US counterpart, not merely Shadow.