Have you ever played Amber?

[MerricB]

We made characters once, but that was as far as we got.

I think we figured out how to "power game" character creation -- cooperate. We worked out what everyone wanted and rigged the bidding so we could all get what we wanted and still afford pattern walking and other goodies.

Basically, if you are co-operating with the other players, you're not playing in the spirit of Amber. In our games, each player becomes a generator of plots, rather than the GM being the one to lay down the adventure.

My birthday game was great fun - I replaced one of the PCs with a Chaos Shapeshifter, unbeknownst to the rest of the characters. Sarah had great fun playing her - she took down Adam's PC, and then Adam played the character for a bit.

There was a great confrontation between Chris (ranked 2nd for Warfare) and Shapeshifter Adam. Adam was unranked (Amber) for Warfare, and so Chris thought he had the upper hand - unfortunately, the shapeshifter used Sarah's stats, and so was ranked 1st! Chris went fully offensive even after receiving a blow (and a hint not was all as it seemed), and - with his bad stuff - took a fatal wound.

Eventually the shapeshifter took down three other PCs, with the other two retreating from Amber (which was wrecked) until they were able to raise a big enough army in Shadow to destroy it. Having control of the Jewel of Judgement was a big feature as well.

The other really nice bit was when Sarah stole the Jewel... only to discover that for the second time in a Throne War, Adam had made a fake which she'd been fooled by. She couldn't believe that bit.

A great time was had by all.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

It is one of the few games I've gotten to play instead of run, but it was well over 14 years ago. All I remember is that with a creative mind, the Logrus (sp?) is really abusive.

Logrus is right!

The problem with Amber is that the game relies very heavily on the DM being the arbiter of fairness - the rules won't do it for you (and in certain cases aren't well presented. Is Trump Artistry really worth 40 points?) One of the reasons I was so receptive to the depth of rules in 3E was because of my experiences with Amber; I prefer hard-and-fast rules to moderate conflict.

However, if you have a trustworthy and fair GM, Amber can be awesome; it just relies a lot on their judgement.

Cheers!

 

[Squire James]

Oddly enough, with all the plotting going on in the Amber books the whole gang cooperated against common foes quite a bit! A lot of the suspicion just seemed to fizzle out near the end of the first series, and by the second series the "elder Amberites" were basically all bosom buddies.

The RPG actually encourages a lot LESS cooperation than actually existed in the books. The game definitely puts a lot of pressure on the GM to be both fair and unfair at the same time!

 

[coyote6]

Basically, if you are co-operating with the other players, you're not playing in the spirit of Amber. In our games, each player becomes a generator of plots, rather than the GM being the one to lay down the adventure.

Well, in our brief play (the half of the session not spent on character creation), we were more-or-less scheming against one another, if I remember right. But yeah, it wasn't really anybody's favorite thing, so that was the only time we ever played.

 

[TarionzCousin]

A lot of the suspicion just seemed to fizzle out near the end of the first series, and by the second series the "elder Amberites" were basically all bosom buddies.

I disagree. Commentary behind an sblock for those who haven't read the series yet.


Spoilers
[sblock]The end of the first series culminates in a war threatening to destroy all the Amberites. Most of them come together, but not all. The early antagonist Eric is dead. Caine does not cooperate with anyone, content to do his own thing in secret until the very end. And Brand is completely on his own side, opposed to everyone.

In the second series, Caine gets killed early on. Brand is already dead. Corwin isn't scheming for the throne any more. Every Amberite still alive has sworn fealty to Random. Most of the elders in the second series are either uninterested or absent.[/sblock]

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For some reason, I just felt the urge to run Paranoia! set in the Amberverse...

 

[Gentlegamer]

I was to play Amber years ago, but the group never got past the bidding. We had our own real-world Amber conflict fighting and shouting insults at each other during the bidding. LOL

 

[Asmo]

Nope.

Asmo

 

[Zelda Themelin]

I was to play Amber years ago, but the group never got past the bidding. We had our own real-world Amber conflict fighting and shouting insults at each other during the bidding. LOL

Lol. That's very reason I call it arguing amber. Bidding system is... so bad... so... so bad. Fun way to get into pvp mood. Paranoia should have bidding system.

Interestingly end result of bidding still causes arguments during game. And doesn't help if gm kinda helps his/her (yes both did that) favourite people to get better stats and personal plots etc. Amber is just the system to cause that kinda behavior easily. Both dm's do that in other games, so no worries, it need more that system to cause it.

So Amber is excelent game, if you like manipulating other players, not so much characters, but the players.

 

[Squire James]

I disagree. Commentary behind an sblock for those who haven't read the series yet.

I still maintain that, for an extended royal family of 14 or 15 children from a variety of parents, they got along really well! Of course there were exceptions... otherwise there would not be much of a plot. Compared to the Wars of the Roses, for instance, things were rather subdued here (or would be, if most of them couldn't crush entire worlds on a whim).

In the Amber RPG I participated in, we once had an interesting game about how a sci-fi setting interacted with the Amber universe. I mean, if someone could find a way to make gunpowder work in Amber, someone could eventually figure out how to bring in a starship or three...