Amber: Can someone explain it me?

[Sacrificial Lamb]

Okay, so I keep hearing about Amber. I hear it's diceless (blasphemy! :taz:  ), and you're this godlike being or something. I read some Amber comic books a while back, but I don't remember much. Can anyone enlighten me?

[Seanchai]

Okay, so I keep hearing about Amber. I hear it's diceless (blasphemy! :taz:  ), and you're this godlike being or something. I read some Amber comic books a while back, but I don't remember much. Can anyone enlighten me?

There are two poles, Chaos and Amber, the two "most real" places in reality. Each casts off "shadows" of themselves. These Shadows are worlds or universes unto themselves. Some are like our Earth. Many, particularly those close to Chaos and Amber, are not.

There are men and women who live in Chaos and Amber. Being "more real" than most other beings, they're stronger, faster, smarter, etc., than the denizens of Shadow.

Chaos and Amber, naturally, are in conflict.

Magic exists. So does super science. And there's all manner of unknown out in Shadow.

Characters are generally children of the royal family in Amber. Their blood, when properly activated, conveys the ability to walk out into Shadow and, to a limited degree, manipulate it.

Other powers and abilities include magical artifacts, words of power, constructs (which can be most anything), sorcery and Trump abilities. (Trumps look like Tarot cards, but are really communications/transportation devices).

To build a character, you spend 100 points on four attributes and a bunch of powers and stuff. The attributes are Psyche, Endurance, Strength and Warfare. There are no skills as the characters are extremely long-lived and can learn what they want to know out in Shadow (where time can move faster or slower than at the poles).

It's diceless, so whomever has the most points in an attribute will generally win unless other factors are brought into play. The GM decides if those other factors are enough for the losing side to prevail.

Adventures? They can be almost anything. Literally, everything you can imagine in Shadow pretty much exists. Also, there's a bunch of things you can do involving the plot of the books or their characters. I've played in games where Amber has fallen, where we're in the past playing through the formation of Amber and where a force from another reality is threatening the current one.

There are a few mechanical issues with the game, in my estimation, but on the whole, it's pretty damn awesome.

Seanchai

[TonyLB]

My take (which differs fairly radically in emphasis from Seanchai's, even given the same source material):

There is only one place that is real, and it is the place you grew up.  Everywhere else is fictional, because you chose it ... it's a creation of your choice.  The place you grew up is real, because it existed independent of you.

Likewise with your family:  Everyone else in your life is a function of your choosing them, but your family is more real because they exist in your life independent of your choice.

Because of that, your home is the only thing worth fighting over, and your family are the only people worth fighting against.

Take all of the above and make it as literal as you can imagine, and you have Zelazny's Amber:  Amber is, really and literally, the only real place.  The children of Oberon (your brothers and sisters) are the only real people.  They can and do walk out into the limitless potential of everything that could be and create worlds and peoples to live among, but that doesn't change the fact that the family and Amber are the only real things.

And that's just about it:  Take the most horrible, dysfunctional family week-end you can imagine, where everyone brings up past indignities ad infinitum, and everyone knows exactly how to push each other's buttons.  Add limitless armies of bizarre, sad creatures to fight your battles by proxy.  Extend it into immortality ... awful, lurching family agonies that never, ever end.

Unless, of course, you take the only real escape:  Learn to be a different person ... one who doesn't rise to the same bait, or fall into the same old arguments ... a person who can see the same old family with new eyes.  But that's hard.

'sFun!

[Sacrificial Lamb]

Thanks!

[finarvyn]

From a game mechanic standpoint, Amber is all about conflicts.

Physical, mental, and combat conflicts can be resolved with the mechanic where any player clearly better just wins. If players are close it comes down to who lasts the longest or who has more tricks to throw at the other.

Social and political conflicts are typically role-played through without dice but instead through dialogue until such times where conflict occurs. In that case we tend to default back to the paragraph above.

Having magical abilites, magic items, special powers, etc, all cost character points. Character stats cost character points. Character creation is interesting and unique in that character generation is actually the first potential conflict a player might encounter -- attributes are auctioned off by bidding character points.

The key to Amber is to put together characters and then the players pretty much forget that the rules exist. For example, suppose you were in a parking lot and someone started shoving you around. You don't ask him for his level, but instead have to look at the way he presents himself, his confidence, and how he seems to stack up to what you know about yourself. Then you decide if you should fight or flee..

[SunBoy]

Not much to add, but you really should try it. And one more thing: Amber comics? Would anyone care to ellaborate (sorry about the derailing)?

[JongWK]

This?

[SunBoy]

Google is your friend, right?  Gracias.