[AmberZine] When Good Stuff Happens to Bad People

[belabor]

Question followed by answers.

[Panjumanju]

Let me see if I can look it up and get back to you.

//Panjumanju

[belabor]

Appreciated.

[Panjumanju]

So, bad news - that article is in AmberZine number 7, and I don't have that one. Everything I can find online about it says it was just a discussion of good stuff / bad stuff. You could try hunting down the author, Jack Gulick, although I have no idea where you'd start.

Unless someone here with more AmberZine issues than I have wants to weigh in?

Good luck.

//Panjumanju

[belabor]

Everything I can find online about it says it was just a discussion of good stuff / bad stuff.

Yes, that's precisely why I'm looking for more detailed information. As far as I know AmberZines included mostly campaign diaries and such, while this article seems interesting as a pre-internet era system analysis.

[Evermasterx]

I read a few of them and the more interesting and valuable thing (for me of course) was the answers posted by Eric to the questions sent by the readers. As usual very inspiring.

[RPGPundit]

I elaborate quite a bit about Luck (the equivalent of 'stuff') in Lords of Olympus; quite a lot of that was at least an indirect product of interactions with Erick Wujcik.

[finarvyn]

So, bad news - that article is in AmberZine number 7, and I don't have that one.

I have the whole run of Amberzines and just need to remember to do this when I'm at home. I'll try to get to it ASAP.

[finarvyn]

I came across some references to this article and it inspired my interest. However, Amberzine is pretty much out of reach for me. Could someone familiar with it summarize this article's main points, please?

Okay, here's the scoop. It is in Amberzine #7 and while it's a 5-page thing that makes it pretty short since Amberzine is in digest size.

The intro (written by Erick, I assume) says "an essay questioning the validity of the link between Stuff and character personality -- the idea that good and evil are somehow linked to luck."

In reality, much of it is a campaign-log style story.

Pages 7-8 are story.

Page 9 starts by noting that good stuff equates to good guy according to the ADRP rulebook, then asks if this fits Amber where lots of selfish characters also seem lucky. Gives some examples.

Page 10 tries to build a case that Stuff and good/bad ought to be seperate mechanics in Amber.

Page 11 ties it all together by discussing the motivations of the characters in the author's own short story that led off the article.

I guess it comes down to how each GM wants to run Stuff. Bottom line is that the article is short and doesn't deliver as much BAM! as I'd hoped for in re-reading. If you want to buy Amberzine #7 for its general content, go for it. On the other hand, don't buy it just for this one little article.

[belabor]

Thanks.

[Cinniuint]

I thought that good stuff meant that you were lucky and perceived as good. Bad stuff meant you were unlucky, distrusted, distrustful, and had a tendency to perceive the world inaccurately.

Good characters could have either. Bad characters could have either.

Mandor, Luke and, I think, none of the elder Amberites had good stuff.

Jurt, obviously, and Jasra, had bad stuff. I think Flora had zero stuff.

Of course, all this just leads to a slightly different question:: how do you get characters that have bad stuff and charm, or good stuff and yet are jerks?

[sir brad]

A little bit of Bad Stuff gives you that Bad Boy/Girl air, too much and you are an A-Hole

[Cinniuint]

Oh yeah! And one friend for each point of good stuff, one enemy  for each point of bad stuff.

[RPGPundit]

If there's one thing I've consistently ignored in the Amber rules it's that idea about good stuff = good guy/bad stuff= bad guy.

[sir brad]

Conciser this Good Guys with Bad Stuff, just from Cinema I can think of two

Detective John McClane (Die Hard)
Ash J Williams (Evil Dead)

both are at times charming Asses who bad things keep happening to, especially McClane their lives are Blessed with Suck, despite being heroic good guys.