And I finally get around to writing up a post about Buckets of Dice. Please note that this is coloured by the events I was in.
Live Action – Funeral for a Don
I was running this, so I’ll let Will Howard (Carlo Galante) tell you how it went:
It was with some trepidation that I showed up to the game, I’d mostly forgotten to preregister for the LARP, and while I’d had my character sheet for a couple of days, it was sparse, and I hadn’t read it that closely. I was to be Carlo Galante, who lives in the shadow of his vicious father-in-law, Frankie.
But the anxiety faded as more people trooped in, and I started to feel there’d be enough people around to make the game go well. We formed into our families, tying ribbon or kerchiefs, ties, to identify our affiliation. Many of us looking out of place in our suits. So here’s the brief story recap.
The criminal underworld was gathered to pay its respects to Don Vito Falcone, who had been brutally murdered. The Italian familia, Falcone, Sabatino, Marconi and Gallante were joined by the two outsiders, the Rileys and the Odessa mob.
We mingled, stilted, odd, finding our way into the relationships of the city, since the old power structure had completely evaporated. And then the revelations started coming out. Christie Riley stood up, and accused Frankie Gallante of the murder of her husband, he denied of course. The resulting vendetta struck the first chord of violence. The second public performance was Bruno Sabatino denouncing Carlo Gallante as cuckolded, followed closely by Ricky Marconi accused of the murder of the Don.
My own experience gelled on Bruno’s denouncement of my own character. I bristled, and I think I surprised my wife’s player by smashing utterly the plastic glass I’d been drinking from. They called it method acting, I call it what felt right for the rage I felt, righteous, that someone would have made up such slander about my wife. Followed quickly by my marching to slug Mikhail Kosov, and publicly declare that the words about my wife were slander.
There were of course, ongoing auctions throughout the night for properties, and we had scored ok to start, but after Frankie’s outing as a snitch, it went downhill. I spent an hour bargaining together an alliance of the other Capo’s against Frankie, to depose him and put me in his place as Capo of the Galante.
In the end, he acceded to demands to step down, his own daughter was against him, and I was thrust into the world of the Capo’s. At about the same point, Andy Maroni and Maria Sabatino were making their love known. Maria was lobbying to be Don, but while I paid the alliance lip service, Ricky Maroni had tried to manipulate me, Bruno Sabatino had accused me of cuckoldry and shamed me in front of the leaders of the city, and Mikhail Kosov had slept with my wife.
It was a foregone conclusion that I would vote for the widow Falcone and betray my word to support Maria.
Well worth playing as a game of backstabbing, betrayal, and political maneuvering. While there being actual defined victory conditions in a LARP was odd, and I think, encouraged some metagaming, the underlying auctions and money aspects were excellently handled. Similarly characters were sparse on their writing, but written with just enough hooks to let everything play out wonderfully.
The Kosov family
Grand Strategy – The Colossus of Atlantis
The various factions of Atlantis vie for power across the four continents of the Old World, trying to simultaneously gain military might, appease the gods, keep the constitution in check, and build their giant brass colossi. This time I was only helping out, so I got a bit of a better view on how the event went.
I got to take the role of Secretary, which meant that I did all the shouting for the Archon in the Assembly. It was a fun role, especially as I was told by Dillon early on that my job was not to enforce the constitution. Large amounts of power, and no responsibility…
The politics themselves were excellent (and almost worth making their own grand strat with), although it was somewhat disappointing that they didn’t affect the map in any way. It was a bunch of fun to watch the teams break the constitution and then realise in the next few turns that, you know, that rule was there for a reason.
Overall, this section of the game was well done. I can’t say anything for the map section of the game, which I never touched after setup, and this was possibly one of the drawbacks of the game – it was effectively two games, where neither section affected the other. Nonetheless, I had a great deal of fun, and at the end of the night the rules changes did affect the Victory Point totals (although I must apologise to the Conservative and Tyrant factions – their second and third placings didn’t reflect the amount of power they wielded in the Assembly or the extent to which they managed to mangle the constitution to their own ends).
Roleplaying
I’m a dirty hippie indie gamer. That’s why for me the highlight of the con was Hamish Cameron’s Dogs in the Vineyard. Vincent Baker‘s classic game of morality and hard choices in pre-Civil War Utah had the party investigating an impending marriage in the village of Nazareth Summit. Lex demonstrated the means by which one may escalate from talking to gunfire as Brother Jebidiah and Brother Cyrus has a disagreement about scripture in a deserted barn, and the session ended with the Dogs heading back to Bridal Falls with a reluctant young man in tow. Perhaps six months of religious training will stop him sinning.
Battlefleet Gothic, run by Jesse
Overall
Buckets of Dice 2010 had a good turnout and, thanks to Rose’s organisational skills, a great selection of games written up and ready to sign up for on the Saturday morning. While I was ready to run a pick-up game if need be, I ended up playing in every session simply because of the quality of this year’s games.
I’d like especially to thank the following folks:
- All of our GMs, for running games. Without you guys, we wouldn’t have a con.
- Dillon, for running another wonderful Grand Strategy.
- Seriously Board and Comics Compulsion, for their support of the event.
- Rose Nichols, for organising the whole thing this year.
Got a great story from Buckets? We’re always looking for stuff to put into Out of Character, our periodical magazine. Email our Publications Officer with your tales. If you took any photos on the night, feel free to add them to our Flickr group.
