Forever Amber?

[Nightbreeze]

I think I'll be keeping the character that I already created, making him the son of an Aristocratic family that moved to the mainland. Substitute the playing football with visiting via airplane the island, to see how is everyone.

He is above normal human intelligence-wise (several times first world student in mathematics at high school, reads a lot, many interests), and slightly above average in phisical abilities (think the average good high school football player). He has good looks, but no particular abilities in handling girls: he starts pretty honest and trusting, although this will probably change, as he is not a fool.

 

[kookalouris]

Character creation rules: First draft...

OK, the long awaited character creation rules, my apologies for not getting these (or any posts) to you for a couple of days...


I realize that some of you have already made great character descriptions and these rules are for any newer players who might yet show up.

You don't need to know the rules and/or make the actual characters if you don't want to. I will be happy to make the character for you. For those that want and don't have the rules (certainly not required for this game), you can get both books, Amber DRPG and Shadow Knight, from DriveThruRpg for about $12 each.

OK, to work...

Characters in the Amber DRPG are based on points spent. A character with more points spent should be more powerful and capable than characters with less points spent.

For scale, a standard human is practically at 0 points, a typical starting Amber character is about 100 points and Corwin, for example, is set to about 300-500 points depending on which version of Corwin you wish to play.

In THIS game, the characters start out at effectively 0 points and then, at game's end, will end up roughly at the same level as each other (100 points unless the players agree on some different level).

So for this game, you first decision is to decide on how many points your character HAD.

For example, Character A could have been a 500-point Shadow-busting demigod before magical reduction and Character B might just have been a newborn Amber infant about to age normally into 100 points of potential. The game will start with both characters at effectively 0 points and end with both characters able to use 100 points of potential. Character will end the game beginning to reclaim her full 500 points of potential (and 100/500ths of the way there) and character B will just have grown into his first 100 points worth. Both characters will be EFFECTIVELY equal but one is born into power while the other is reborn back into grace.

So my first question is how powerful do you want your characters to have been? Pick a number 100, 200, 500 points? Doesn't really matter except to flavor your character. If the players can all agree on a number, then the game might end with each of them at that same number. Otherwise, the game will end with each character at about 100 points of themselves (which may just be a fraction of their former power).

In most Amber games, characters start the game with their points spent. Simple abilities and powers are bought outright. Comparitive stats (that is, stats used in competition with other characters) are bid for by each player with whatever points they have remaining until the ranking of characters in whatever given stat(s) are determined.

In this game, the bidding is delayed until such time as a determination is actually NEEDED.

For example, let's say the game begins with no players actually committing any points whatsoever. A few posts in, a wizard sent by the Victors attempts to compel the PCs to surrender using a spell. This would normally be resisted with the game stats of PSYCHE.

At this point, I would allow the PCs to bid points in PSYCHE, with the following rules.

Once the points are bid for a stat, they are spent for that stat So choose wisely. If the players wish, I will allow a re-bid.
You may bid as often as you want and as much as you have allowed in any given contest, until you won't or can't spend any more points for this encounter.
You can react to another character's bid until again, you won't or can't spend any more points. The bidding ends when all those spending have spent all of the points they are going to.
To save time, you may declare that you will bid to win up to a set maximum of points. And you will only spend the points necessary up to your stated maximum. eBay veterans will be familiar with this system.

When the game starts, you will only be allowed to bid so much and only on some things. You might have your superhuman abilities but you won't have your truly supernatural powers at game start, for example. By the later stages of the game, the kid gloves are off and you can bid all that you have on whatever you can afford.

Concerned? Don't be. I realize that this entire game is an experiment and I am not out to kill you all. The first few weeks of the game is mostly interpersonal and intellectual challenges where shrewd playing will easily outdo sharp bidding. Also, the game does not set PCs against each other at least in the beginning (it's not necessarily that you are friends but, together, you have greater enemies. There is an old proverb, "Me against my brother, me and my brother against my uncle; me, my brother and my uncle against the world").

At this point, I see two approaches to character-building.

The first: Make a PROVISIONAL 100 point character and bid towards that incarnation as quickly as the game allows. I won't hold you to your initial conception if you bid otherwise. This approach is a good idea for those players who are pretty sure what they want in a character.

The second: start with a description of your character as a (seemingly) mundane teen and bid from there as the game progresses. You may end up with some unexpected and unforeseen choices in your character (which is not a bad thing).

For those ready to spend now, let me get to the specifics.

You may spend your points on whatever you could in a normal Amber game, there are no general restrictions on what you can buy. Due to the powerful magicks hiding you, how much of your potential that you can actually USE at game start is a different thing.

nuts and bolts:

Your bids in attributes are primarily relative to each OTHER. The character start the game with a purely HUMAN level of ability, then they quickly move to CHAOS and then their true AMBER level of proficiency. In general, the character with, say, the highest STRENGTH amongst the characters will tend to have the highest STRENGTH still as the characters move from HUMAN, CHAOS and AMBER levels of ability.

powers:

Powers cost the most in an Amber game. Pattern Imprint, even at its basic level costs 50 points. I suppose it is possible for a child of an Amber prince to be without this power but such children are not in Zelazny novels. Pattern Imprint is pretty much the basic ability to warp shadow, hellride and be immortal. This is not required, at least one player might not play a true child of Amber, but whether to have this power or not is probably the biggest point decision you will make for your character.

Magical capabilities, Personal Items and Shadows are also available for purchase but they won't be fully usable at game start. In fact, the character may not be fully aware of these capabilities. For example Greyswandir, Corwin's sword, might appear to teenage Corey as a favorite pocket knife that always seems found after being lost.

You may 'buy' a friend, an ally from Amber or Chaos. Most likely, this will one of the few family retainers that managed to escape the Victor's predations. The friend will be particularly devoted to you but may start the game reduced like the PCs.

You can suggest Good and Bad Stuff for your character. You may offer to combine with other players on such things as allies, items, shadows and the like. Where possible, that will make the shared aspects either cheaper for each PC or more powerful.

Player contributions are gratefully accepted:

The usual diary and/or Amber stories would typically be covered by your posts. But for players who want to add maybe a side story or extra information beyond what the game requires, let me know...

Poetry would be welcomed as well. It would be cruel for me to inflict my poems on others so I would be happy to accept other submissions.

Trumps can be descriptions or actual pictures. Trumps of your characters DO exist but your PC's won't know about them at game start.

In general, 10 points for each player contribution up to a max. of 20 points.

the skinny;

You characters may start the game with 20 points spent if they WISH. You don't need to spend any. You may get up to 20 more with player contributions. Whether you can use what you spent at game start depends on what you have bought. The more fantastic (for Shadow Earth) the characteristic, the less accessable it will be at game start. Attributes should work at least as comparision to the other PCs.

As always, time is against me and I will stop here. I will add more later and I consider this a draft. Let me know what you like or don't like.

 

[Vertexx69]

I would suggest and ending lvl of somewhere around 300-500 points, that we might have some measure of actual powers by the midway point of the game. If we only play to 100, thats like starting a D&D game at zero and quitting at lvl1 before we actually get to use any of the material that makes this a game instead just cooperative story telling about a group of normal teenagers, set against some distant fantasy backdrop that doesn't really affect us. Please don't make this be "Not Another Teen Blog 2: The Rich Kids..." as the fun of Amber was always the infinite possibilities of the shadow universe.

 

[Thanee]

Agreed, though I would go with just 200, because 300-500 is really quite a lot.

Once the points are bid for a stat, they are spent for that stat So choose wisely. If the players wish, I will allow a re-bid.
You may bid as often as you want and as much as you have allowed in any given contest, until you won't or can't spend any more points for this encounter.
You can react to another character's bid until again, you won't or can't spend any more points. The bidding ends when all those spending have spent all of the points they are going to.

A question... normally, you can only bid when your bid is higher than the highest current bid. Is that so? Or can we just "bid" (or set) any attribute level we desire?

For example... at some point in the past, someone has set Strength to 30 and is now the strongest. Later in another situation, one with Strength of [A] wants to raise it (i.e. to 10). Is that possible? Or would that one have to go to 31 at least?

And how does this part figure in...

In general, the character with, say, the highest STRENGTH amongst the characters will tend to have the highest STRENGTH still as the characters move from HUMAN, CHAOS and AMBER levels of ability.

...if we do not even know who is the strongest yet, or does it change all the time, after each new bidding for the same attribute?

I only really see this being possible (unless the ranks shift around, that is) when everyone has made a character and is working towards that goal (i.e. option 1 from the following).

The first: Make a PROVISIONAL 100 point character and bid towards that incarnation as quickly as the game allows. I won't hold you to your initial conception if you bid otherwise. This approach is a good idea for those players who are pretty sure what they want in a character.

The second: start with a description of your character as a (seemingly) mundane teen and bid from there as the game progresses. You may end up with some unexpected and unforeseen choices in your character (which is not a bad thing).

The first probably makes more sense overall, but the second certainly has some appeal.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Nightbreeze]

Hmm....here is a provisional character (not 100 points build, I am making this just as a general reference)

Psyche: Bid to be very good at it
Endurance: Bid to be good
Strenth: don't bid
Warfare: don't bid

Sorcery
Personal magic items, named and numbered (around 30 points)

Eventually Design attunement and other goodies.

 

[Vertexx69]

Agreed, though I would go with just 200, because 300-500 is really quite a lot.

Well you have to consider that PbP takes way longer than a tabletop version of this game (which already takes ages ;p). At 3 posts a week, it could very well take 6 months before we are considered "starting level" amberites. If it takes longer than that to say every single thought that could possibly enter a "normal" teenager's mind, then we have other issues we should be dealing with . I have yet to see an "active game" even last that long here on enworld. This site is wonky enough without 4 people's real lives getting in the way of this hobby. So by setting a higher goal, we might be able to keep everyone interested longer.

[sblock=Provisional Character] (I remember next nothing about the game system.) Starting 20 points in yellow

Psyche: 5-20
Endurance: 5
Strength: 5
Warfare: 5-10 (theres more than 1 kind of warfare- social, psychological, etc.)
Goodstuff: (1) 2
Shapeshifting: 10-20 (advanced?)
Conjuration: ? (don't remember the price. There several different types, but I have 20-25 points left over)[/sblock]

 

[kookalouris]

Hmmm, 'teen Amber,' eh? We could form an eternal boy band. Corwin could be the dreamy but sullen one. (sorry, couldn't resist )

OK, I actually have some spare time. I hope to put it to good use...

A couple of questions I forgot to ask a couple of posts ago.

Where do you want the Island? Modern travel and communication plus the wealth to use them means you aren't really far from anywhere in the Quiet Earth.

So the questions is really one of local color (or maybe colour). Whether a climatic battle takes place in a 'indian graveyard', ring of Sarcen stones, or a tropical lagoon is up to you.

I can think of roughly three rough choices.

New England Summer Colony/Fishing Town: This choice has the advantage of being the closest to the Amber novels, which started in New York state.

European Island, especially near France/Scandainavia/British Isles: Zelazny based the Amber Chronicles on Celtic and Norse mythology as much as anything else. And Europe is one of the few places where I can accent the ancient and medieval.

Paradise Island: An island of tropical beauty, perhaps in the Carribbean or the South Seas. A place where people go to escape the mundane. Like the game, a deliberate choice of exile.

I remember that Deuce Traveler is from Hawaii and Thanee is from Germany so I realize we have a cosmopolitan group. The Island will be fictional but I will base it on real suggestions.

Also, do you want this game to be your character's first exile? This may be the latest in a series of of narrow escapes, the last of a series of different shadows, tounges and faces.

Next up, some more character creation notes...

Thanee, you don't have to bid to beat the strongest. You can actively bid to, say, remain second in STRENGTH but still stronger against your enemies. In short, you can bid as little as you wish as well as as much as you have left.

The early part of the game will have you starting at HUMAN levels of ability, then CHAOS, then fully AMBER. These progressions will happen as plot devices. Until you reach AMBER level, the different points you bid in each attribute help rank you relative to each OTHER. If you have a higher STRENGTH than character B at game start, it will be higher than B when you are 'merely' human, then chaotic, then the normal Amber level players are probably used to (that is, unless B bids more). Let me know if this answered your questions.

Short answer, don't worry to much, just bid to your conception of your finished character and things will take care of themselves...

 

[kookalouris]

OK, let's get to actual character notes...

Here is what I need from each of you.

Current Name:
Current Age (from 13-17):
Current Family (you can simply make up a clan, if two or more players want to have their characters from the same family, let me know):
Description: This is up to you. I don't want to stifle your creative instincts and if I need more info, I will ask. The general rule is that the more you give me, the more I can use for you. The character descriptions I have up to now are fine.

Some things I can use for the description:

Your apparent life up to now:

Other characters in your life: Feel free to make up some other family members, friends, enemies and acquaintances. I will attempt to work them in. If you have actually BOUGHT an ally, this is where you might describe them (if they are part of the exile).

How you rate in terms or social standing and general ability to other peers: This lets me know what you can do and hints at your attitude towards others. As far as I concerned, you can be the best or luckiest that is humanly possible.

Physical Description: Beyond being a teenager, it is up to you. (Hint: Your face and form can have changed over the ages, not just counting your sudden 'youthing.').

The rest is generally optional.

Your character's true past, which you can reveal to the players, just to me (via a message), leave undetermined for now, or up to me to some degree. You can be freely related to a Zelazny character if you wish. Should you be a actual royal descendant, you may want to suggest your once and future personal symbol and trump. You can bend continuity if there is no real objection.

You may spend your beginning points if you wish. If you have an idea of how much you want to spend, go ahead and spend to your max. If you want to bid competitively and reactively, let me suggest that you take it slow as we bid until no one bids anymore. If you want to bid secretly, message or email me.

For what it is worth, I don't see the first part of the game being a struggle BETWEEN player characters. The later part of the game is up to you but I don't plan to particularly pit you against each other. As both secret and competitive bidding will take a little more effort than simply bidding outright, I ask that you only use these methods if that is the method you wish to play.


Next up, Llewella as an example...

Copyright prevents me from posting Llewella's character stats from the book. But this version of 'Lily' is inspired by them.

Assuming the extra points from her trump and description gives 40 points, roughly 1/5 of the 200 point version.

So,

PSYCHE: 9
STRENGTH: 7
ENDURANCE: 3
WARFARE 7

Total: 26 points

The rest of Llewella's points are unspent because the only other things the 'official' 200 version of Llewella has is power words which she won't really start the game able to use (or even knows about). But another player might add an ally or an item.

Current Name: Lily Ellen D'Amberville (the Aristocratic family, more on them later).
Current Age: 17
Current Family: The D'Ambervilles
Description: Lily is one of the older children of the D'Ambervilles. Quiet and seemingly aloof, the green-eyed girl spends most her time in solitary pursuits. Her one passion is the ocean around her and she excels in swimming and all things nautical.

Previous Life: Llewella, Princess of Amber became part of the exiles and rebels after some as yet unrevealed conflict. Whether she volunteered or had no better option is yet to be told...


I will try and start the game on Sunday but the first week will be at a slow enough pace that others can take a week to join...

 

[Nightbreeze]

Current Name: Steve Jennsen
Current Age (from 13-17): 17
Current Family: Jennsen. The Jennsen are a "cousin" to one of the aristocratic families of the Island (if any aristocratic pc is willing to be that cousin family, I will happy to accept the link). They transferred to the area between Chicago and New York around the first half of the 19th century, and since then made their fortune on wall street, and formed some storical companies on the American business landscape (think JP Morgan or successful companies which later were broken by antitrust laws). The family became quite branched, but they stay together and gather once per week if possible. The main branch (of which Steve is the heir) is relatively famous among the social elite for the fact that when the heir reaches the age of 18, they suspend their funding for schools, and when they finish the bachelor degree, the family suspends any funding, until they prove themselves as capable of managing money (which requires at least 10-15 years). Of course, the family is willing to lend money. As for now, Steve has been surpassing the standards, but his father things that he is too honest. Being honest is not bad, as an ethical behaviour is good for the long run and for the reputation, but he fears that his son is going to be disillusioned quickly if he gets into the vicious business without preparation. Hopefully, Harvard, with the bunch of elitist bastards that make a great part of it (father's personal opinion), is going to be a good preparation

Description: Same as before. I will probably expand it later, or in the first post of the game.

Other characters in your life:
Father: Famous businessman, heads a consulting company. A real mentor for Steve, has shaped him.

Mother: Successful Wall street broker, has retired 8 years ago in order to be better able to raise Steve's three sisters, aged 9-11-13 respectively. As a result, they are more linked to her than Steve, but he is not a stranger anyway. It's just that where in the "serious" part of life Steve was mentored by the father, they are mentored by both mother and father, which may be better or worse.

Relatives
-perhaps one of the PC as cousin
-A sweet 17 year cousin girl which swings the innocent Steve around as she wishes, manipulating him freely. He is not so naive as to not realize it eventually, but she is sweet and nice, so he doesn't mind. She is an islander
-Another 2 cousins, one male and female, one on the mainland and another on the island (the combinations up to the DM). Both of them are jealous of Steve: the mainlander because he dislikes the supposed advantage that Steve, as heir of the main branch, has on him. The islander dislikes Steve because his/her parents don't allow him/her as much freedom as Steve apparently has.
-The (grand?)mother of a very distant islander relative, who wants to marry him her daughter.


How you rate in terms or social standing and general ability to other peers: Extremely smart and usually very popular. Smarts, combined with a "nice guy" look, athletic ability above the average and family/money, make him somewhat of a celebrity. His father forced into his skull the fact that he has to avoid being arrogant: self deception and not-cool and objective judgment are the worse enemies of a successful man.

Thus he is generally honest, nice, puts somewhat too much faith in other people, especially relatives (yes, I know, bad thing for an amberite or chaosite ). A little bit aloof sometimes, but otherwise socially capable. Doesn't go out of his way to be liked by people or to be popular, however.

For the true past, let what I already pubblished be true, and be known by all watchers/guardians and thus, after a while, Steve itself and the other PC. I may pm you something.


I don't want to oppose other players, so I don't really care for bidding. Of course, I am not particularly opposed to it either: I'd like to ensure being the first-psyche.

First 20 points: 11 psyche, 4 endurance, 1 warfare, 4 in good stuff.

 

[Vertexx69]

I thought good stuff costed 10 point each. But if it only costs 1 each then I want 10