[Amber] Play by Google: Tales from the Testlab

[Sydius Mendoza]

Finally running my first Amber game. After ages of letting ideas simmer on the back burner (re:procrastination), and some time lurking/posting on the forums, I've decided to heed the advice I've been given here, and "Just play the game".

I've been putting together the beginnings of my testlab game. I'll be running a short 3-5 session arc to get a feel for the system and work out what tweaks/changes I want to make before starting a long running campaign.

I have settings docs(I've chosen the 2-3 year imprisonment period of NPiA as the back drop. Eric's reign in Amber), a collection of possible hooks, and a quick-chart for current whereabouts and activities of the Elders in play. All saved to a game-folder on my google-drive.

Within the game folder I have individual folders for each player that only they and I have access to. This is a place for them to riff on character creation, and will eventually become the spot where they will submit any character contributions.

My plan is to run a group of 4-6 players in real-time gaming sessions via Google Hangouts 1-2 times per month.

I'm going to post in this thread here and report on how the game is going for my self and the players, and how well the Google platform is working for the purposes of the game itself.

My confirmed players:

Player 1: Has read the Amber series. Lots of DM/GM experience, highly creative and loves world building. Based in Colorado.

Player 2: Has read the series many times. Lots of D&D xp. Digs the improv and character work of RPGs. Based on Colorado

Player 3: Has not read the series, but has read tons of sci-fi/fantasy. Lots of DM/GM experience. Enjoys writing, and creative problem solving. Based in Minnesota

Testlab Mentor: Old friend that has both played and run Amber games. Agreed to play mentor for the test-lab. Help out myself and the players. I'm saving him a player-slot in the long term game (probably some bonus contribution points as well). What's nice about the arrangement is I have a veteran to help role play out scenes with a big bad, an elder, etc. Based in Washington State

More to come. Still waiting on the last couple invites I have out before we schedule the auction. My plan is to leave about a month between the auction and the 1st session so everyone has plenty of time to ready themselves. Prior to the start of the game I plan for everyone to have created a Google Account for their character. The idea there being a hard line between player comments, and character input. My hope is that this will make it easier for the players to stay in character.

[Croaker]

That's great! Good luck to you, and have fun!

[Panjumanju]

So, how's it going?

//Panjumanju

[Sydius Mendoza]

Finally got my player roster up to 4. Just sent out a email to the group with links to whenisgood.com to schedule a time for the Auction.

Player 1 has already drawn a bead on what type of character he wants. I made sure he knows that this is loose concept only at this point, but did encourage him to continue and build his Auction strategy around the ideas he has.

Player 2 also has a loose build concept in mind and is already working on some of the personality quirks he wants his character to have.

Player 3 hasn't done much yet (By way of interaction with me), but I know he is looking over the rules right now as it is the only frame of reference he has. I'm trying to nudge him towards a magic user. My thought is that not knowing the books might allow him to come up with some really interesting approaches to the magic "system" of the game. He is extremely well read in Fantasy Lit, and a gamer for life, so I have a hunch he will help me suss out what tweaks, if any, I want to make for the long running campaign I have in my head.

Player 4 just got and accepted the invite last night. He is currently 80 pages into his first read of the Amber books. He is an aspiring Fantasy author (HUGE Steven Burst disciple) and long time friend of Player 1. We both play in the online PF game Player 1 is running, so even though we don't know each other very well, we already know we work well together.

Possible Player 5 says he wants to play, but beyond that, is unresponsive. He is a long time friend of myself and Player 2, which is the only reason I've been holding out a slot for him. I'm about to send him a "WTF, Bro?" email to let him know I want him to play, but can't wait around for him if he doesn't communicate.


Thus far I have individual folders for all confirmed players, and each has a blank char-sheet waiting for the players.

The rest of the action on my end is I.T. troubleshooting BS. Last update to Ubuntu 14.04 on my laptop cocked up the "googletalkplugin" ability to start the webcam. If it continues much longer I will just buy a webcam for my Win7 desktop system, but I really don't like getting bested by stupid computer issues.

That's the update for now. I should have the auction scheduled by the end of this week.

More to come.....

[Sydius Mendoza]

So is gaining initial momentum usually the hardest part of getting a Diceless game going?

Seems to be my issue at present. It's probably a function of trying to run an online game more than anything else, but that knowledge doesn't make it any less frustrating.

"Player" 3 has done nothing for pre-game and does not respond to communication. Counting him out at this point.

Possible player 5, has bowed out do to time constraints. He still wants to play in the next game though, and is happy to hear reports from the lab.

Players 1, 2, & 4 are ready for the auction. All of them have char concepts in mind, some personality profiling and auction/build strategy worked out.

I decided to ask the Amber vet I know to be an active player instead of just acting as a "Test-lab Mentor". While I was initially hesitant to take on one experienced player with a group of newbies, it may end up working to my advantage. He gravitates towards Psyche Trump/Sorcerer types, which is an area of the system I'm eager to see in action.

I'm still waiting on player availability for scheduling the auction. If it drags out much longer I may forego the real-time group auction setup and just put the auctions with a combination of email and drive docs. Probably have a separate doc for each attribute bidding. Open to suggestions for length of bidding windows.

**Update: Player 3 finally got at me. He is in. I got a 5 player roster now! On to the auction!

[Artifacts of Amber]

I think it is more a function of on line gaming. I have not done much other than running a PBp in Amber for the last 1-2 months. So not a fount of wisdom or experience but have run Amber for many years FtF.

Your window of bidding really depends on the response times. Doing it live may not be important.

Will you be running NPC youngers as well? If so I have some ideas on how to run it. Mine worked out well. I have a thread not too far down list of my PBP game and how I ran it.

The up side to doing it live , I think, Would be to establish a schedule of game play. That is important to get the habit down of when you will play.Once you have it set to be every tuesday at 7pm or whatever it helps so people don't forget  or whatever.

[Sydius Mendoza]

Will you be running NPC youngers as well? If so I have some ideas on how to run it. Mine worked out well. I have a thread not too far down list of my PBP game and how I ran it.

I had been considering it. I was thinking about Secret bidding a potential antagonist NPC, but that was when I was having trouble exceeding 4 players. Not sure where I land on it now, but I'm always open to ideas....

[Artifacts of Amber]

Well Npc youngers give you a voice in the crowd and also make for interesting relationship among the Players.

I ran the auction by getting an initial bid fopm the PC's, along with the finished youngers (Meaning they did not bid)

Then Posted all those numbers up so people could see where they ranked and having a few NPC youngers helped muddy the water so people did not know who bid where.

It worked fairly well, A blind bid that still allowed the PC's see how they ranked but against whom they did not know. It let them know throwing 50 points for 1st place when the next bid down is 10, a waste of points.

[Sydius Mendoza]

I ran the auction by getting an initial bid fopm the PC's, along with the finished youngers (Meaning they did not bid)

Then Posted all those numbers up so people could see where they ranked and having a few NPC youngers helped muddy the water so people did not know who bid where.

So, you had ranked NPC's that were not part of the bid? Was it Secret Rank or just a firm statement of numbers at time of opening bids?

[Artifacts of Amber]

Just firm numbers.

I don't use ranks as presented in the book. I just use the numbers. It accomplishes the same goal while also maintaining the person who spent 50 in psyche (1 st rank) is a hell of a lot better than a person who spent 20 in psyche (2nd rank). Keeping the ranks does not allow the gm to judge how much better some one is just that they are better. I believe the points should always be worth something just not at character creation.