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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4576202" data-attributes="member: 58197">There are mechanics involving auctions and the like, but Amber makes a point of not including any random element in the rules.&nbsp; No dice, no cards, no nothin'.&nbsp; You might be thinking of the Trumps, but those are an in-game element - a deck of magical cards with which Amberites can communicate and travel.Back to the original topic, I'll add that it is not necessarily a bad idea to have a heavily pre-plotted campaign.&nbsp; My most recent campaign arc ran on a pretty well-defined set of rails, and the players seemed fine with it.&nbsp; All three of the big climactic scenes came off as I planned them, and both I and the players were very happy with two of them.&nbsp; (The third one, I felt, worked less well, but that wasn't because it didn't come off as planned - the plan just wasn't very good.)Nevertheless, it was not like writing a book.&nbsp; During adventure planning, I spent a lot of time trying to get into the heads of my players; to see things from their perspective and consider things they would be likely to try.&nbsp; (First rule of adventure planning: Anything you expect the PCs to talk to, they will attack, and anything you expect them to attack, they will talk to.)&nbsp; And then I had to keep in mind the fact that they would undoubtedly come up with things I hadn't thought of or planned for, and be ready to improvise on the fly......actually, that kind of is like writing a book, for me.&nbsp; The characters in my books are always doing things I didn't expect, too.&nbsp; Sometimes they trash my original plot in the process, and I have to come up with a new one in the middle.&nbsp; Maybe I'm arguing the wrong side here.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 4576202, member: 58197"] There are mechanics involving auctions and the like, but Amber makes a point of not including any random element in the rules. No dice, no cards, no nothin'. You might be thinking of the Trumps, but those are an in-game element - a deck of magical cards with which Amberites can communicate and travel. Back to the original topic, I'll add that it is not necessarily a bad idea to have a heavily pre-plotted campaign. My most recent campaign arc ran on a pretty well-defined set of rails, and the players seemed fine with it. All three of the big climactic scenes came off as I planned them, and both I and the players were very happy with two of them. (The third one, I felt, worked less well, but that wasn't because it didn't come off as planned - the plan just wasn't very good.) Nevertheless, it was not like writing a book. During adventure planning, I spent a lot of time trying to get into the heads of my players; to see things from their perspective and consider things they would be likely to try. (First rule of adventure planning: Anything you expect the PCs to talk to, they will attack, and anything you expect them to attack, they will talk to.) And then I had to keep in mind the fact that they would undoubtedly come up with things I hadn't thought of or planned for, and be ready to improvise on the fly... ...actually, that kind of is like writing a book, for me. The characters in my books are always doing things I didn't expect, too. Sometimes they trash my original plot in the process, and I have to come up with a new one in the middle. Maybe I'm arguing the wrong side here. [/QUOTE]

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