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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kookalouris" data-source="post: 4499424" data-attributes="member: 23872">Thanks for the well thought-out replies.  Let me use what time I have tonight to explain a little more.I have run this game once before, long ago on a board far, far away.  Which started out the characters on a world very much like our own and they ended up in a very cool swashbuckling shadow much like Amber so I have a good feeling this time around.  I like what I have heard of character ideas so far.Vertexx, if there hasn't been an Amber game here for a couple of years, then I can say that I will offer the best damn Amber game this board has seen for years (by default)!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />  Of course, the means I will offer the worst Amber game the board has seen in years (bloody logic and semantics).  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />As it turns out, the characters do not necessarily have to start out on the same shadow.  For 'insurance' the orphans may have spread out amongst several shadows.  But within the first week of posting, I hope to have a way for the shadows to connect and for the scattered family to meet each other.  This one event should alone make the characters realize that there is more to the Amberverse and themselves then they ever imagined.  If not, one of their pursuers finding them almost immediately afterwards will be a pretty good clue.  So the game will start with the discovery and awakening of the characters.  The characters will grow evenly throughout the game.Let me expand upon the premise of the story.  These are generalities, the actual character conceptions will dictate the final form of the details.Here are the major groups that make up the game.The Victors:  Whoever they are, they won a decisive war about a generation ago.  They are the vastly stronger power in the game.  Their only limitations is that they haven't completely hunted down all of the Rebels and (if they are the kind of pure Evil types fantasy novels are so fond of, have not YET been able to destroy or corrupt Everything That Is, but they are almost there).The Rebels:  The losers in the great war above, about the only thing that can be said for them is that they haven't ALL been hunted down and neutralized yet.  They lurk in silent, isolated shadows and brood about claiming (or re-claiming) power.The Orphans:  The 'humanized' PCs and their siblings.  The focus of this game.The Watchers:  The guards or guardians of the Oprhans, depending on circumstances.The Seneschals:  The followers and allies that maintained the Homeshadows.  The Seneschals were the surprised hosts of both the Orphans and the Watchers when those two groups were suddenly dumped in thier laps and the Homeshadows were obscured and hidden from those trying to find them.The Homeshadows:  These are the shadows where the game begins, either one shadow or a small group (and in the Amberverse, any finite group of shadows is a small group).  The Homeshadows were secret bases and hideouts during the recent war.  As far as the Seneschals and Watchers know, the location of the Homeshadows and/or the fact that the Orphans are hidden there is still unknown to the enemy.Up to very recently, that was true.  Which will lead to the start of the game...The above game factors are the plot essentials as I see them.  Here are some possible ways the game could use them, depending on player character choices.Option One:  Sympathetic Victors;  the Orphans are either 'humanized' captured Rebels or the children of as-yet-uncaptured Rebels.  The Victors are keeping them isolated and hidden for the following reasons...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Victors are too moral to simply kill the defeated and or innocent.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Victors are keeping the Orphans alive as humanized shields and hostages to discourage remaining Rebels from what they would consider terrorist acts of revenge.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Victors are using the Orphans as bait.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Victors honestly believe that the Orphans can be raised (or re-raised) as 'Victors', rehabilitiated and productive scions in the new Victorious Order.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Victors are manipulating the Orphans into becoming trusting tools of the Victors to help lure other Rebels into a trap.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Any or all of the above...</li> </ul>In this option, the Orphans are treated well and loved (at least it seems that way).  The Victors don't want the Orphans to realize their full potential (at least not until centuries of guidance and training).  Above all, the Orphans would be discouraged from learning any kind of military or political skills, instead encouraged to focus on the Humanities and Arts.However, the Rebels are small in number but individually very powerful.  They will discover the Orphans and try and abduct/rescue them in a lighting raid...Option Two:  Sympathetic Rebels:  The Orphans are Rebel children or 'humanized' Rebel Princes (and Princesses) or even captured Victors, reduced to a helpless and trusting adolescent mortality.  The Orphans are necessarily kept as unknowing children to keep from the powerful magicks that would reveal an Amber-sized soul to the hunting Victors.  The Rebels are keeping the Orphans in this manner so as to keep them alive and able to train for the eventual coup/liberation.  As the weaker army, the Rebels can't afford to lose even one child so all of the kids, whatever their true origin, will become child warriors in the Righteous Rebellion.In this case, the Rebels will teach the kids martial and political skills.  This training will barely be begun before at least one homeshadow is discovered by the Victors' forces, forcing those Rebels and Orphans who survive the initial attack to flee across Shadow, ill-prepared, confused and chased.Between these two options, there are infinite shades of gray.  In history, very few armies have been completely wrong or right, savior or tyrant.  Most wars are simply to some degree my tribe versus your tribe.  Let me know what you think.Whatever is decided above, here's a little more detail on a local level.The Homeshadows were originally, first and foremost, minor hidden bases and strongholds.  They were spartan, dull shadows, never meant to be the incubators of Amberish royalty.  Due to as yet undetermined plot reasons, the Orphans and Watchers were suddenly relocated to the Homeshadows without enough planning or preparation to make the best choice or use of the Homeshadows.  Their saving grace is that they are so backwards and far-flung the chances of them being located or even accidentally discovered are considered remote.The Seneschals were the local staff and army of the Homeshadows, either native converted to the 'cause' or the cause turned 'native.'  No Seneschals expected to be saddled with super children and their super nannies.   And the Homeshadows were made even more remote so the Orphans, Watchers and Seneschals have been stuck on the Homeshadows since their initial exodus to game start.If the Victors run  the Homeshadows, the Orphans are not considered important enough to warrant using a truly useful shadow or Watchers or Seneschals.  The decision to keep the Orphans alive was not a popular one and even the supporters of the Orphan 'project' know it is best that the kids are seen and not heard.If the Rebels run the Homeshadows, then the Orphans, Watchers and Seneschals may be all that is left of the movement and the B-list Homeshadow may be all that is available to the revolutionaries.What does all of this mean?  It means that if the Watchers and Seneschals ultimately mean the Orphans ill, there may be something in the Homeshadows that might work in the trapped Orphans favor.  The reason for two groups of allies is to allow the Orphans a decent chance at guides, no matter how grim their situation.The Watchers could be callously using the children as weapons.  In which case, the decent forthright warrior Seneschals might be the Orphans true allies.  If the Orphans are prisoners, then the Watchers are family retainers and loyal servants pitted against the guarding Seneschal wardens...All of these factors in play allow me easy customization to the group's wishes.  As always, let me know what you think.  I value feedback and like Shadow, all of this is subject to your interpretation...<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Next up, I hope have a cameo from a character you know of an example of one way to make such a character....</blockquote>

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