Buckets of Dice 2015

This weekend I attended Buckets of Dice, a roleplaying convention held in Christchurch, New Zealand.  This was my second time attending - I previously attended in 2013, and this year I was keen to offer attendees a chance to play my new game Wicked Lies & Alibis as well as Harvest,  an EPOCH scenario from The Experiment Continues.

Attendance at Buckets has increased significantly since 2013, with more than 90 folks attending this year, playing in tabletop RPGS, the two large LARPs, the Grand Strategy and board game offerings.  I only attended 3 rounds this year due to other commitments.

In terms of organisation, my impression was that the size of Buckets has now outstripped their current  arrangements (for example people had to ask an organiser which games they had been allocated, creating an unnecessary bottleneck and workload, and scoring and nominations were not in rooms, nor were there rubbish bins in rooms) but the 'con also had some other great innovations - a code of conduct printed in the schedule booklet, free fruit for all attendees, and an attendee pack which included a notebook and pencil for all important note taking!

Round One - A Night to Remember
I had pre-registered and selected 4 picks of games I wanted to play, however the organiser had apparently not received this, so I hadn't been allocated a first round game. There were just two first-round games not full so I picked one at random to play; A Night to Remember which used Urban Shadows (a supernatural/political hack of Apocalypse World).

As a side note, when I attended Buckets in 2013 I noted just how popular the Apocalypse World hacks are with Cantabrians - this enthusiasm seems undiminished two years on, with a great many AW hacks on offer at Buckets including a mega-dungeon (world).

I was playing a mortal, Lewis, who hustled on the streets selling replica handbags, while also dealing in information about the supernatural events in the city. As it turned out the game was to be a largely political summit with the players each representing a faction and negotiating with one another and several NPCs to try and broker a peace in amongst the supernatural factions.  Lewis was not the best choice for this setup, as the game soon became a standoff between the demon-affiliated character and the others (which included an angel, hunter and ghost). 

Although I was less than convinced about the execution of the main activity of the game (player negotiation across the table without any specific information or knowledge to enable this to be a good reflection of the character aims) the game did reach a suitably dramatic and definitive conclusion in line with the GMs expectations.

Round Two - Wicked Lies & Alibis
I had a group of enthusiastic players for this game, and they did a great job of bringing the complex cast they created to life. They selected High Stakes as they liked the premise of a murder mystery aboard a Zeppelin, so began a tale of intrigue and deceit. 

The cast included Ge-Ge a beautiful actress and her secret lover Reginald (a banker who was financing the fascist movement in Brazil).  Karen a French politician who was secretly married to Father Willard, a catholic priest, while also having an affair with Amelia Jones, a German film director.  As you might imagine with such a group of suspects, accusations mounted swiftly, while there were also plentiful alibis provided by those engaged in romantic entanglements.  Ultimately, it turned out the Ge-Ge had dispatched the victim in a fit of rage, and she was arrested - taking the opportunity to pose for photos from the gathered press before being led away.

We completed the game in  two hours and as there were still two hours remaining in the round I gave the players the option of playing a second case, or getting an early dinner and having time to get ready for the flagship LARP.  They wanted to play again, so this time we played A Knight in the Maze, a classic British country-house murder.

Clearly in the swing of things, the players wasted no time getting stuck in; the cast for this case included Lady Matilda who was having an affair with Helmut the German gardener.  Helmut's sister, Victoria a textile industrialist (who was adopted at birth and raised in Britain) was also present along with Elizabeth, a young and recently impoverished woman who was cousin to the victim, and Dr. Weston a Texan medical doctor with a love for guns.  After a tense series of exchanges and revelations it was revealed the Dr. Weston was the murderer, and in his riveting confession he outlined how Sir Richard (the victim) had wronged his momma back in the U.S. and richly deserved the justice had had administered.

It went very well, and I think the players had a good time (several purchased copies of the game afterwards) - I know I had a lot of fun.

Round Four- Harvest
I didn't attend the LARP, and the next morning I found that had four players for this EPOCH scenario (the fifth being a no-show following a late night at the LARP).  They swiftly created compelling stories for their characters, an unlikely group of friends; Wylie a wild party animal in High School had nearly died in an OD and reformed his life, while Frank and James had kept their high school rivalry alive with James a semi-professional athlete, and Frank a competitive body-builder.  Finally Andrea, a shy and bookish member of the group, clearly had feelings for Frank, and it was revealed this had ultimately led to a shocking murder prior to the scenario beginning.

The game went very well with the characters experiencing a series of unsettling events at the seaside town of Hudson's Point in the lead-up to a harvest festival.  The escalating tension finally erupted, and only Frank and Andrea made it out alive, the tragic sacrifices of their friends enabling them to  achieve a total victory and ultimately a happy ending.

Overall I had a great time at Buckets, it's a neat 'con and well worth attending; as tabletop events diminish in Wellington and Auckland, Buckets is rapidly becoming a major RPG event and one of the few NZ events with a good range of tabletop offerings.

Buckets of Dice 2013

This weekend I attended my first ever Buckets of Dice, a roleplaying and boardgaming convention held in Christchurch, New Zealand.  I had been wanting to get down to Buckets for a while, but this year, the opportunity to combine a trip to the ‘con with family commitments and also showcase EPOCH, was too good to pass up.

The organisers were also nice enough to list me as a ‘special guest’ and promote both my EPOCH scenarios and have me facilitate a panel discussion on game publishing.

I understand the ‘con attracted around 50 registrations, although that included both board-gamers and roleplayers.  Initially it proved a little tricky to find the venue, nestled amongst the sprawling University of Canterbury campus, but thankfully there were many chalk arrows which helped guide me to the right place.  The people I spoke to before, during and after the ‘con were all very friendly, and made me feel very welcome, and it was good to see, and catch-up with some familiar faces from Kapcon.

Round 1 – EPOCH: Hard Time
I initially pitched 4 EPOCH scenarios before the ‘con, and brought the full catalogue and offered the players the choice of any scenario they wanted.  After some discussion the popular vote was for science fiction, and Hard Time was the preferred option.  Some interesting characters were generated, although many of the characters on this run began as hackers – however, as the game went on the characters became more involved with the fiction until they determined that two of them had been responsible for Project LAZARUS, which had unleashed the source of the horror on all the prisoners. 

I love it when players do this kind of thing through flashbacks because I think it really enhances the mesh between character and scenario, while bringing in new ideas and fresh twists.  Of particular note in this run was one character played the Hero twice (through taking back a second Hero/Zero card after winning a ballot) so ultimately doomed their character to elimination in the last challenge through selfless sacrifice.

Panel on Game Publishing
Much like the discussion that took place at Kapcon, this was a round-table discussion about lessons, pitfalls and opportunities involved in self-publishing role playing games.  Attendance was light, but there was some clear interest, and enthusiasm for exploring the new opportunities that the current market offers.

Round 2 – The Company
I signed up for this game as it was one of the few with free spaces following round 1.  The game used Apocalypse World (which seemed to be extremely popular with con-goers – almost all the other games on offer used AW or an AW hack).  However, there was a neat science fiction twist – the game was set on Pluto in a highly bureaucratic civilisation which imposes crippling taxes on its people (the setting was borrowed from a 1977 Dr Who story called The Sun Makers).  I played a skinner called Dodge and spent most of my time trying to keep the other characters from coming to blows, while seeking some escape from the tedium of a system which charged a daily breathing tax.

We spent a fair bit of time on trying to acquire the finer things – probably half an hour trying to leverage enough funding to purchase an apple, before delving into who was really pulling the strings of the company.  The scenario ended with a bang when we confronted the inhuman villain behind the scenes and ignored his warnings, pressing a button which doomed the entire civilisation.  It was a fun time, although I think Apocalypse World wasn’t an easy mesh with the aims of the scenario.  Given the complexity and detail of the setting, I think pre-generated characters with embedded knowledge and agenda might have provided stronger direction to fulfil the GM’s vision for this scenario.  Equally, an investigative system like BRP or Gumshoe might have better supported the characters attempts to find clues and interact with the Company hierarchy. That said, I had fun and really enjoyed the other players take on their characters.

Round 3 – EPOCH: Hard Time
I was ready to run almost anything, except Hard Time again.  However, on day 2 when I put it to the players they were again keen on science fiction, and had heard good things about the run of Hard Time from the day before – so away we went!  This run had some characters who took really different directions, leading to some rich flashbacks and some intense in-character confrontations.  There was a Prison Break style story, with one character being sent to rescue another inmate, only to discover at a crucial moment that the other character was an android replacement… 

Another of the characters was a space pirate, previously abducted by aliens, while yet another was a clone who had rejected his corporation-specified genetic programming.  This character led to many trailer worthy moments including his memorable refrain: “How can this fu*king sh*t get any fu*king worse?” Really, really great fun, with another suitable epic ending. 

Overall I really enjoyed my time at Buckets of Dice, and if the opportunity presented, I’d definitely go again.  I also enjoyed introducing EPOCH to new players and seeing how folks interacted with the game in their own ways.