the Fierce & the LintKing's Amber Bits

Things I liked:

1. The Quiz was a neat idea, I think. If I hadn't been running such a [Fear and] Ignorance game, where the players didn't know anything from the start, I could have polished the questions to help quite a bit in character creation, especially given a pre-generated start. (I could see myself using this again if I need (for some reason) to choose parentage or the like.) I also think the players were well-matched to their pregens, which I think was mostly luck, but also at least in part helped by the quiz.
   
2. I think I presented my clues appropriately. I wish I had gotten them preprinted (I left them at work, apparently) because I like to feel they're set up right, and the players have the reassurance that I do have "a plan." (To keep the "trust matrix" high on a mystery, I want my players to know that I'm not reacting purely to their actions, but to the event-as-written.) You do have to still react to the questions they ask: sometimes that gives more information "out of order" as it were, so I think it is a careful balance to keep.
   
3. Players were there to play. I know I made it difficult for them (there's a lot to process in a new cosmology) but I felt everyone was being challenged and was able to interact as much as they'd like.
   

Things I didn't like:

1. I don't know if I underlined the case sufficiently for the culprit. I think after explanation it did show up to be the moral choice I thought it would be. ("You had every reason in the world to let Oberon inside. The question is, did you have every right?")
   
2. I didn't hit the NPCs as well as I would have liked to; Benedict came across a little too much as a puppet, but he knew better than to fight. He recognized a Doom. I should have placed it farther away from Amber/people; it was only to introduce the Corwin red herring that I moved it there anyway.
   
3. I needed a few more anchors, and I should have jumped on the symbology a little harder. It came across a little more vague than I wanted it, even with it being a matter of memory.
   

Slot Two: Hobbestown
Given the GM, I was extremely happy to play in this Dogs in the Vineyard game. I actually enjoyed it for a variety of reasons, including getting the opportunity to really see how it plays. All in all, I think it went well and I definitely want to play in an Amber-oriented one at some point, but I don't know if an average con slot is going to be long enough for anything more than three players.

Slot Three: Bluebeard's Honour
This went about the way I thought it would, and I had too little time to bring in all of the plot elements I had wanted. This one I had "talked myself through" on the way home. The kick to it was the idea that the wives of the King of Amber were not killed, but transformed, and where a woman resisted, their children were killed in tithe. Vialle was being targeted, and

Slot Four: A Symphony of Memory and Motion
Hee hee hee. I was right.

Slot Five: The Silver Glass

Doing character creation before the convention, via list, allowed for some strong previous relationships between players. It also allowed me to preview some unorthodox powers.

I should have had some specific questions for while I was going over individual's abilities for the other players to handle, maybe something like "player bingo" or something.

Everyone had a piece of the puzzle.

I had to drop a whole bunch of intricacies and make it a much simpler puzzle, even given the amount of time.

I need to clone myself next time if I have that many people to handle, or enlist a co-GM.

Slot Six:
I took this slot off in order to snuggle with my lovebunny the LintKing.

Slot Seven: Jurisfiction
I had lots of fun playing but felt a little lost given an unfamiliarity with everything I _could_ do. Still, any time you can make a romp through a Really Bad Fantasy Novel into a major motion picture opportunity to delve into disturbed psyches you should be having a good time. Still, it was definitely entertaining, and we had some of the best players, I think, for the roles.