Interest Check-Amber

Started by Empyrean, February 27, 2017, 12:56:34 AM

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Empyrean

Hi everyone.

I was reading through the Amber Diceless books and I was just curious to see if there was any interest in getting a game going here on E. Either with the system or totally freeform. And if so, would anyone be interested in being the GM?

Rook Seidhr

If we use the actual rules, I might be interested in playing—it's one of my favorite games. Can't GM though.

Empyrean

That's one! :) I have no problem with using the actual rules.

Would you be interested in having the GM pick our parents, or should we pick them?

Rook Seidhr

Unless mysterious origins are part of the plot—say, we're all from Shadow Earth and don't know anything about our parentage, and are drawn together by someone who knows the score and is probably using us all as pawns—I would rather pick my own.

Empyrean

Truthfully, so would I. That was one part of the rules I didn't care for.

Any opinion on adding in the stuff from the Shadow Knight supplement/Merlin Saga?

Rook Seidhr

Quote from: Empyrean on February 28, 2017, 11:31:44 PM
Truthfully, so would I. That was one part of the rules I didn't care for.

Any opinion on adding in the stuff from the Shadow Knight supplement/Merlin Saga?
I have never played in a game where my character started with knowledge of Amber but the GM did not allow me to choose my character's Amber parent. In fact, I'd forgotten the rules said that they shouldn't.

I do not care for the Merlin books, and most Amber games I've played in have not treated them as canon. (The Shapeshifting, Logrus and Sorcery rules from the core book are of course inspired by the Merlin novels, and GMs are much more likely to accept those bits than the narrative events of the Merlin books, but sometimes they get thrown out too.) Mandor's a cool NPC, though. As for the Shadowknight rules stuff…I've seen good things and bad things done with Broken Pattern. The rest of it seems to me to be, at best, misguided. (Pay points for a Construct? Knowing that the GM will be using it to screw with me? Usually if I want the GM to use something to screw with me I just accept the consequences of not paying points for it!)

Empyrean

Yeah, I can see that. When I reread the RPG books, I felt like the stuff in the core book was a lot more defined and coherent than the later stuff. The info on the Courts from the Shadow Knight book was useful, and I do like the idea of throwing Mandor out there as an NPC (or possible parent), but the summary of the Merlin saga kind of left me feeling 'meh'. Personally, I'd rather play with all the potential that the end of the Patternfall War leaves.

Incidentally, while I'd like to play, and even have a character in mind, I'd be willing to try my hand at GMing if no one else is interested.

Rook Seidhr

I'm GMing one game right now (on another board) and to be honest that's probably one too many.

Empyrean

Hopefully we get more players then. Even if I do GM, we still need more players.

Cassandra LeMay

I am not sure if I should take up another game, but the opportunity to play Amber is too tempting not to express an interest. As long as I don't have to GM and you fine folks can live with an ocassional slowness in posting I am game.

And for the record: I don't mind using the actual rules and ignoring the Merlin saga at all (even if some of the takes on the elder Amberites in the Shadow Knight rules are pretty interesting). But speaking of the rules, would we do the actual attribute auction? I imagine this could slow down the game start considerably, if handled by PM. We could do a point-buy instead?
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

Rook Seidhr

Quote from: Cassandra LeMay on March 01, 2017, 02:51:19 AM
But speaking of the rules, would we do the actual attribute auction?
I wouldn't, in general, recommend it. It…sort of does what Erick intended? Which was to start everyone out with rivalries. But it's such a pain to actually execute! The only times I've seen it done well were at conventions and used significant changes to the rules.

Empyrean

Well, if I need to GM, how does this strike everyone?

The game is set about twenty to thirty years after the Patternfall War, with the next generation of Amberites and Chaosians coming into their own. There's been a cautious amount of diplomacy and interaction between Amber and the Courts. King Random has assigned Flora and Fiona the task of being primary ambassadors to the Courts, and things are tense but civil at the moment. The Courts have adopted a cult of Amberite worship among some Houses, as they adjust to being the losers in the cosmic war.

Player characters could be the next generation of Amberites, Chaosians, or for the daring, have the blood of both sides in them.

Rook Seidhr

Tempted to play the offspring of Fiona and Mandor…

Also tempted to say "fuck it" and GM. Would probably end in tears and recriminations, but I do have the thirst. The game would be way nonstandard though.

Empyrean

#13
Hehe. The idea I had was for a daughter of Fiona and Mandor too. :p Although, I could probably shift her to being Bleys's kid without too much difficulty. Or maybe even the long-lost kid of Brand, for added plot hooks.

Oh, and no attribute auctions.

How would your game be nonstandard?

Rook Seidhr

Much what I was saying earlier: everyone a youth on Shadow Earth, with no knowledge of Amber or their own parentage (which might not even be of Amber, but would be a bloodline of power from the larger multiverse in some way).

Actually an alternate-history Shadow Earth.

Empyrean

Hm. How alternate the history?

The idea I had in mind was a concert violinist and painter. A very artistic, sheltered and naive optimist.

Rook Seidhr

There has been an ongoing war with vampires, werewolves, body-snatchers and bug-eyed monsters for the last decade. They just…came out of nowhere, decimated the developed world and destroyed many less-wealthy nations. People don't go out at night. Extreme paranoia.

(This is not an allegory of current events, btw, it's an idea from well before the last election cycle.)

PCs would be either high-school juniors at a rather expensive and exclusive boarding school (possibly on scholarship), or college students recruited into a special program (also possibly on scholarship), depending on player preference. An artist/musical prodigy who'd never had to deal personally with the war would fit in just fine.

hiddenwithin

The game sounds interesting. While I played Road to Amber online, I only read a few of the books, and have never looked at the game system itself. It's been years since I've played the online game as well.

Still, it does sound like fun, and if no one minds a sort of new person all the way around joining, I'm certainly game. :)
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Empyrean

Hey, I only played one short-lived game here on E. I'm kind of a newb too, and I'd be glad to have someone else to learn with. :)

Rook Seidhr

#19
As long as you've read Nine Princes in Amber you probably know enough about the universe to orient you to the game I have in mind. You won't get all the in-jokes subtle references, but it shouldn't impair your enjoyment :D (EDIT: you will need a copy of the core book for the RPG but that's available pretty cheaply in PDF form here)

Shall I put up a thread in Players Wanted?

Empyrean

Sounds good to me. :)

As a note, the Shadow Knight supplement contains a summary of all ten books in the series if you haven't read the first book.

Rook Seidhr

#21
Quote from: Empyrean on March 01, 2017, 05:25:12 PM
As a note, the Shadow Knight supplement contains a summary of all ten books in the series if you haven't read the first book.
Actually, now that I think about it, there will be plot points that relate to things that weren't in the first series, let alone the first book—but they will be entirely unfamiliar to your characters, like everything else about the larger multiverse.

If you want the "Aha! So that's what that was about!" experience when they come up, read at least the summaries. If you don't care about that, the first novel (Nine Princes in Amber) should give you a feel for things. (If you have the time, read the first five books; they're really good IMO. The second five, eh. But the first five are great, and they're really short compared to modern doorstop-type fantasy novels—all five of them put together would make about one-and-a-half books of one of today's usual fantasy trilogy.)

(EDIT: I will say that, from a modern standpoint, the way the books treat women is problematic. Note that there are 13 living Princes and Princesses of Amber at the start of the first book, but only the Princes make it into the title. It goes on that way. Still good books, though)

Empyrean

It's partially the reason I wanted to play a Princess who's the daughter of a Princess.


Cassandra LeMay

#24
Looks like I missed quite a bit over the last 24 hours, but, for what it's worth:

I'm not sure yet if I will play in this or not. There are a few things in the setting that don't really agree with me. Not the monsters or not knowing about Amber and Shadow; those are fine with me, if a little different from what I expected.

The two things that might be the dealbreakers for me are, (i) not being able to chose my parent, and (ii) the character age.

I usually find it very difficult to get into the head of a high school student, someone who may still go through his/her formative years. It's been three decades since I went through that, not to mention that the American school experience may be quite different from what I vaguely remember. A few more years of age and I would be fine with it, say a group of university students in their early twenties. But I suppose it may be too late to debate such a change in the setup and allow for characters who are a bit more grown, a bit more mature than high-schoolers? (I wish you had allowed a bit more time for player input on this question.)

As for the parentage, I suppose I could work something out. My idea was to go with a daughter of Flora (based on my GM NPC from our attempt at an Amber campaign some years back), but perhaps the Evelyn Flaumel my character calls mother is just a shadow of the original who "adopted" her and the real Flora isn't even her mother at all?
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

hiddenwithin

I'm sort of with Cass above - I think I'm going to sit this one out. Playing high school students is something I've come to realize I don't enjoy, even when they have supernatural abilities. I've tried it many times on different games, and my interest quickly fizzles out in the end.

Thank you for the invite to look it over though!
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Rook Seidhr

#26
Quote from: Cassandra LeMay on March 02, 2017, 04:33:39 AM
A few more years of age and I would be fine with it, say a group of university students in their early twenties. But I suppose it may be too late to debate such a change in the setup and allow for characters who are a bit more grown, a bit more mature than high-schoolers?
Hmm. The actual plot I have in mind for the game would work fine for university students, say 20 years old, and the key NPCs could be adjusted; I just had all the setting material prepped for high school. If the group consensus is that a university setting is preferable, I can probably figure something out.

Quote(I wish you had allowed a bit more time for player input on this question.)
This is what I'm prepared to run—and when I say "prepared," I mean that I have the information about the school, NPCs, plot seeds, etc., already put together from an attempt to run this scenario on a different board last year. If I were going to come up with something from scratch, I'm not sure how long it would take, or whether I would produce anything at all.

If this is not a scenario that arouses people's enthusiasm, someone else should GM, and I'll play. This is what I've got.

Cassandra LeMay

Quote from: Riveda on March 02, 2017, 05:52:08 AM
Hmm. The actual plot I have in mind for the game would work fine for university students, say 20 years old, and the key NPCs could be adjusted; I just had all the setting material prepped for high school. If the group consensus is that a university setting is preferable, I can probably figure something out.
I would be grateful if we could make the change to a university setting, if it isn't too much trouble for you.

As for my character's background - I am sure we can work something out, and perhaps I just need a bit more time to think about it. While I did call it a potential "dealbreaker", that may turn out to be just a first impression.  :-)
ONs, OFFs, and writing samples | Oath of the Drake

You can not value dreams according to the odds of their becoming true.
(Sonia Sotomayor)

Rook Seidhr

OK. Here's the deal.

  • I have a bunch of prepared stuff for the high school setting that I'd have to rethink and rewrite for a university setting.
  • I have two potential players who definitely would not play in a high school setting, and four who have expressed willingness to do so.
  • I personally prefer the high school setting.
So…Cass, hidden, I'm sorry, but I'm going to go with high school. I hope we can play together at some future date.

hiddenwithin

Quote from: Riveda on March 02, 2017, 04:25:42 PM
OK. Here's the deal.

  • I have a bunch of prepared stuff for the high school setting that I'd have to rethink and rewrite for a university setting.
  • I have two potential players who definitely would not play in a high school setting, and four who have expressed willingness to do so.
  • I personally prefer the high school setting.
So…Cass, hidden, I'm sorry, but I'm going to go with high school. I hope we can play together at some future date.

As stated on the other thread - I'll bow out, and wish the others luck.

Thank you again for the invite! Hopefully a chance to RP together will come along at some point!
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