Amber DRPG

It occurred to me several weeks ago that the old Amber crew have been through a lot. So much so, that the slightest idea of another storyline brings about more and more ideas of Total Annihilation of Chaos, Amber and Shadow.

And I just don't really want to do that anymore.

It's been done twice already, and if you read the second series, you know that this means that it has actually been done at least three times. However, nothing that is less expansive and threatening than Total Destruction™ can really be a challenge to the last group of characters. So, then I am stuck with a quandary. Either I can finish up the Next Big Destructo-story (being the "Spikards" storyline), or I can try something new, unexpected and insanely unpredictable.

Guess which one I chose?

Good guess. But I chose the other one. I'm sick of destroying everything. Now it is time to see exactly how boundless the ADRPG© system can be, especially since we are all now familiar with some of the concepts and have at least a fundamental (fun & mental?) knowledge of the system. That is one of the reasons I really adore this system--it gives me one hell of a chance to stretch things any way I want, and it also gives you the ability to do whatever you want with your characters.

Now, I know some of you are going to say, "but everyone in Amber is human-ish, and everyone in Chaos is a Demon/Shape-shifter blah, blah, blah..."
Not anymore, bub.
Now we are going to try something totally different and off the wall. Something that will really stretch the limits of the game and really bust the glazing out of that window of disbelief.

ARE YOU WITH ME?!?!

Okay, if we are going to do this, we are going to have to set down some basic rules. Now, don't worry too much, because in ADRPG©, rules are made to be flexed. However, these are going to be the main, standard, unflexible (or damn near) rules of this game:

The Rules:
1. This is not the other campaign. There may be no Arvid, no Daphne, no Maximus. The ruling classes may be different. There may not even be a Corwin, a second Pattern or a Random for that matter. You probably won't even know which NPC's are around. I may very well put in Finndo and make Llewella the Queen of Chaos.
2. This campaign has absolutely fuck-all to do with the books. What Patternfall Wars? You mean someone actually saw the Unicorn?! I thought she was a legend!
3. You will not all be Amberites. You will neither all be Chaosites. You may very well be some poor schmuck whose car swerved the wrong way while Random and Martin were racing cars through Shadow and got sucked into some other place that you don't recognize. You may very well be a Demon from Chaos. It is all up to YOU. I am putting few restrictions on this campaign.
4. Everything about your character is totally Top-Super-Secret-Squirrel. The only things any of the other players should know about your character when they start are what they look like, how they are dressed and eventually their name. That's it. I don't want anyone saying, "Okay, X, since you have Sorcery, why don't you cast Y on Z?"
5. Your characters will be limited by what and who they are. That is, if you are a normal Shadow being, then you will not be able to walk the Logrus or the Pattern. If you are an Amberite, you will not be able to walk the Logrus, and if you are from Chaos, you will not be able to walk the Pattern (unless your mommy or daddy have Oberon genes in them, which will be bloody unlikely).
6. Concepts First. No concept, no character. I don't care if you bid all your points in something; you get dick if you don't have a concept. And they must all be submitted SECRETLY. That is going to be the big trick--keeping things a secret. (See Rule #4) This means that I don't want you shouting over everyone's head on a Saturday, "Hey, I have a great idea for my Amber character! I want it to be the child of Fiona and Charlie Tuna!!"
7. All concepts have to meet with my scrutiny first. This is to make sure that none of you smartasses tries to do the above example.
8. Because of the way this is going to work, everyone must have a list of skills and abilities to go with their character. I don't give two shits and a flying jizzbomb if you are 800,000 Shadow Earth years old and have studied under Dworkin; it doesn't mean you know something or know how to do/use something. I would suggest that the skill list include any weapons you might be able to use as well. Again, what if you pick up a boomerang? You think you can use it properly? I sure don't.
9. This is going to count for everything. If you don't write it down, you don't get it. This means that if I give out 40 points of Good Stuff to everyone and you don't write it down, that means that you don't get it. I call this the "It's Amber--what do I need to bring my Character Sheet for" Rule. (Also known as the Don't Piss Me Off, Elliot Rule)
10. What I say as GM is Fucking Gospel. Fuck the Rulebook, fuck the Newsgroups, and mostly, Fuck You for arguing.
11. No bitching, whining, complaining or any other kind of ruckuss just because you decided to play Stat Mini/Maxer and your character's personality is about as interesting as flat Sprite©. Two words for you: TOUGH TITTY. If you don't like the way you made your character, then that is your fault.
12. Another JGKV rule will be enstated here: You say it, you do it. There may be times in this next campaign where Time is a factor, and you may have to make a snap decision. People who sit around on their thumbs and debate will get fucked hard and raw at these times. Also, this will cut down on smartasses who say things like, "I Trump Brand and smack him around Psychically," and then retracting it. You say it, you do it. Period. If it is a really, really stupid idea, I may give you the consideration of asking three times.
13. This game is all about having fun. Anyone found not having fun will have to clean my bathroom with their tongue.

With that out of the way, let's get down to making some characters in secret, shall we?

I'm not totally positive how long this process may take, all said. It may take a week, it may take a month or two. The only thing I want is secrecy. Even Player Knowledge is out of the question. It may ruin the flow of the game--it would be like going with your mom to shop for your Christmas present, and then having to look surprised when you open it.

Perhaps as a little helper, I should explain my concept. That is, the concept of the campaign.

The idea is simple, you are a bunch of beings from different parts of Shadow, some Amberites, some Chaosites, some regular Shadow-dwellers, and you have a task set before you. Success will most likely put you all back where you came from or open up new venues for that character's existence. Failure will most certainly mean death. As always in an Amber game, I expect everyone to come out clean in the end (because Amber is my HAPPY game), so don't worry too much. Just don't do anything stupid.

So, how is this all going to work? Well, everyone will have the same basic stats as before: Strength, Psyche, Warfare and Endurance. You will rely more on your scores than on your Ranks this time, as the Ranks can be misleading. The most important part about the Stats is that you should make sure that they fit your Concept. A feeble old man would not have an Endurance of 25, and a big, dumb barbarian wouldn't have a huge Psyche and a Warfare that Chihuauhas would laugh at. Remember that Stats aren't everything in ADRPG©.

The same basic powers will be available, as will Artifacts. Now, I'm going to point this out again, because for some reason, people didn't hear me last time:

So, Let's Get Cracking!
First off, I will start by listing and explaining, just for clarification's sake, the Abilities. This is the order they will be on your sheets (Yes! I have actual Character Sheets!).

ABILITIES
• Strength. This is base physical strength and physical ability. It is also the stat you refer to when you are fighting hand-to-hand.
• Psyche. This is your base Psychic strength and ability. Although it is really no measure of how intelligent, wise or mentally "with it" you are, the more intelligent and bookish types tend to have higher Psyches. It must be something they just practice up on.
• Warfare. This is how good you are with weapons, tactics and strategy. This means that it governs everything from hacking off a limb with your sword to shooting a laser rifle to beating that guy in the park at Chess. Any kind of fighting with any kind of weapon other than your hands, feet, head and other body parts is based on Warfare.
• Endurance. This is how well you put up with things, as well as how well you recover from wounds. This also governs how long you can hold your breath, stay underwater, etc. Endurance is not how easily you can get hurt or how well you resist being cut with a sword, axe or broken piece of plate glass. Flesh cuts like flesh, no matter how high your Endurance. You may be able to keep from bleeding to death easier than most, but that doesn't mean you are impervious. Remember, even Corwin had his eyes burned out of his head.

Next, let's talk about Powers. You probably won't be running rampant with Powers in this game, since they are all kind of expensive. However, the game isn't about who has what power, it is just an added little extra that makes the game more interesting.

POWERS
• Broken Pattern Initiate (10)
• Conjuration (20)
• High Compelling (Conjuring + 5 (or 25))
• Logrus Mastery (45) [Prerequisite: ShapeShifting, as well as having to be from Chaos]
• Pattern Imprint (50) [Prerequisite: You must be an Amberite, or have Amber blood in your veins]
• Power Words (10) [This will give you 5 Power Words. You may only take this once at this point]
• ShapeShifting (35)
• Sorcery (15) [This will give you 5 spells as well]
• Trump Artistry (40) [Prerequisite: Must be from Amber or Chaos]

As far as Artifact Creatures and Personalized Items are concerned, the basic rule is that you can only put a power into an item/creature that you already have. So, if you don't have Trump Artistry, you can't put something Trump-based in an Item. You can increase its speed, strength and whatever else still, but unless you have that power, you cannot put a power into an Item. Them's the rules. This also goes for people who make a Construct. Remember that Constructs are stationary in Shadow, and most of the time, you aren't in a position where it is useful.

Personal Shadows are going to be a bit of a point of contention, so I will put down the following Shadow rules:

1. You don't have a Personal Shadow (or Shadow Fragment, or Chaos Way) just because you are from Chaos or Amber.
2. Just because you live in a particular Shadow doesn't mean that it is your personal Shadow. I live in Tonawanda, that doesn't make me the Mayor.
3. Having a Personal Shadow means that you are in charge for some reason, and it is usually because you are seen universally as a god/goddess/godling. You can be King of the Foozball Men of Shadow Horq, but that doesn't make you universally recognized as a god.
4. Owning a Personal Shadow is a big responsibility. It doesn't mean that you just kind of own this neat little piece of land that you use for vacations in the late summer. Being recognized as a quazi-diety, your people expect things out of you. And I won't take "But my Shadow is uninhabited," as an argument. If it is uninhabited, then it is uninhabitable, and you are going to find that out the hard way.

So, what kind of characters/beings can you be?

• Amberites
• Amber Subject (or Minor Noble)
• Chaosites
• Chaos Demons
• Shadow Creatures
• Shadow Sorcerers (Sorceresses)
• Poor, lost Shadow Being
• Any combination of the above.

Don't forget about Good Stuff and Bad Stuff, either. It never hurts to have points in Good Stuff; and you can always cash in on Bad Stuff...

So, now that we have guidelines, let's talk real turkey about Character Creation.

Everyone is going to start with 50 points. Everyone.
Whether you are from Chaos or Amber or Shadow, you will start at 50pts. This is just enough to give an Amberite Pattern Imprint, but not to go crazy on stats. However, there will be some problems:

1. If you play a Shadow Being, and you do not put any points into a Stat, it will default to Human Rank. If you want it to be Chaos or Amber rank, you have to say so. The good part about having a Stat default to Human rank is that you automatically get 20pts in Good Stuff.
2. If you play someone from Chaos, and you do not put points into a stat, it will default to Chaos Rank. If you want it to be Amber Rank, then you must mark it as so. It doesn't mean that you have to spend any extra points. However, like Human Rank defaults, you automatically get 10pts in Good Stuff if you let a stat default to Chaos Rank.
3. If you are an Amberite, you will not have the nice little out of being able to cheat the 50 points and take Broken Pattern Initiate. Broken Pattern is now going to have some ill effects on Amberites. Oh, the same goes for Chaosites, only they get the wonderful pain of dying in big flashes of blue fire and lightning because they are touching a Pattern.
4. Shadow characters will not be able to walk the Pattern, nor the Logrus, because they will basically eat them alive. The Pattern will burn you up in a matter of nanoseconds, and the Logrus will burp loudly after you enter the cave.
5. Trumps will only be available to people from Chaos and Amber, and you will have a limited number of them. The only people with full Personal Trump Decks will be those with Trump Artistry. Trump Decks are available as Personal Items for 2pts

Well, I have two answers for you. The first is Take the Stat Points and Run. You get 10 pts for Chaos Rank and 20 for Human Rank. Do the math yourself.

My second answer is simply this:
Would you like to take some points in Bad Stuff?

GM's Note:
Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I put the limit at 50 points, figuring that playing a Shadow being would mean that your character is (perhaps unwittingly) remarkable in some way, shape or form from other Shadow beings of their type. It is also to keep such silly ideas as a Shadow being with a 40 Strength from appearing, and to keep the gap between Amberite, Chaosite and Shadow-dweller relatively small. Also, the lower the points I have set for Characters, the less powerful I have to make the NPC's and villains. An adversary created to fight a group of Human-rank characters would be absolutely shredded against a 100-point Amberite, and a normal threat to an Amberite would be damn near catastrophic to someone from Shadow. I had to kind of level the playing field a bit, all said. So, I kind of made it so that the characters are kind of weak for Amberites and Chaosites, but powerful for Shadow-dwellers. A 50-pt Shadow-dweller is really something to be reckoned with back in their own Shadow.

Any points left unspoken for, I will put into Good Stuff. Anyone who accidentally goes over their point limit will end up with Bad Stuff. Them's the breaks.

1. Concept. You can email it to me or write it out on paper, I don't care. I will take no oral/vocal submissions. I don't care if you sing it as an Aria, you must submit this in writing (as it will become part of your character's background, as well as implemented in the story).
2. After approval of the Concept, you can start with your stats. First, start with the basics: STR, PSY, WAR, END, and whatever powers you may want. I am not allowing anyone to start with an advanced form of any power.
3. Send in the first sheet. Make sure you have all your points pre-calculated, even for any Artifacts or Constructs.
4. Await further instructions. I believe that most of the characters will only take one or two attempts, since most of you know the system.
5. If you have a(ny) Personal Shadow(s), I want a description. Detailed as possible, if you don't mind. Remember, Amber is not a Stat-Based game, so anything with little or no description kind of falls flat. I also want full descriptions of any Personal Items (even if it is as simple as, "A black, silk opera hat with a white band.") or Artifact Creatures (" A black cat" doesn't work, but giving it a name and some kind of special markings, even if it is just that it has a particular kind of meow is just fine).
6. Receive the Final Copy from me. This will be a typed version of your background, as well as any added background I may give you, an official (!) Amber DRPG© character sheet and a sheet for any Constructs/Items/Creatures. Again, these will be in big, sealed envelopes. You will most likely not be given your Rank in stats.
7. After the first game, I want your first Wish Lists. If you don't give me a Wish List, then your points will be lost to the wind.

Your final background will also tell you of any NPC's you may or may not know. Remember that not everyone will know the same people, so keep it on the QT for as long as you can. Who knows, you may be a Shadow being who just happens to be friends with Fiona or Bleys in another form.

Here is a good example of how I would like the Stat submissions to look:

50pts (+30)
• Str: C (-10)
• Psy: 5
• War: A (0)
• End: H (-20)
• Sorcery (15)
      Spells: Call Lightning, Personal Teleportation, Lava Burst
• Power Words (10):
       LifeForce, Assume True Form, Magic Negation, Logrus Negation, Neural Disruption.
• ShapeShifting (35)
• Broken Pattern Initiate (10)
• Artifact: Magic Wand. Able to Rack and Cast N&N Spells (4)
• Good Stuff: 1

As you can see, this character would be pretty screwed, although he would be rather good at his magic abilities. I kind of made it a point to show how I want the Amber/Chaos/Human Ranks denoted. If there isn't a rank, then I will assume you want it set to the default, which will be Chaos Rank for Chaosites, Amber Rank for Amberites and Human for Shadow Dwellers. If you want to make a character who is all Chaos-Rank stats so that you have extra points for other things, then that is fine as well. Everyone is going to have to make certain sacrifices here and there for these characters, and that is kind of the point. You may have Shape Shifting and Logrus Mastery, but you have to sacrifice a stat or two in order to do so (actually, it's only 80pts, so you only need to take 3 Chaos-Rank or one Human and one Chaos). Someone from Amber may have Pattern, but they must sacrifice a stat or take Bad Stuff in order to have anything else.

For convenience's sake, you can email me your submissions here.