GM advice with Veteran/Newbie PC group

[Nihilistic Mind]

Hey guys (and girls),

I have two players who have been playing with me for a while and I am starting a new campaign involving them and three people who are unfamiliar with Amber.

If you have advice or would like to share past experiences with mixed-groups, please do so.

The good thing is that the three people in question are not new to RPGs and I expect a fairly smooth transition since their gaming style does not seem to differ much from my regular group.

I think it makes for a nice thread though

[Trevelyan]

I'd recommend to the three new-to-Amber guys that they read the books, and in the meantime fall back on the old ploy of having them grow up in Shadow with no knowledge of their heritage. That or waking in a hospital with amnesia, but I'm sure I've read that one somewhere before...

[Nihilistic Mind]

I'd recommend to the three new-to-Amber guys that they read the books, and in the meantime fall back on the old ploy of having them grow up in Shadow with no knowledge of their heritage. That or waking in a hospital with amnesia, but I'm sure I've read that one somewhere before...

Lol, Yup, that's about where I wanted to start. I was even thinking about the three of them waking up in a blasted room, their memories shaken (not stirred) by a recent explosion. They could start with a trump deck or two, etc.

One of the players said they played it before and didn't like that the system lead too easily to powergaming (OH GOSH!), and I admitted that with the right GM/Player base, that problem solves itself.

And yeah, reading the novels. That's why by now I should have bought a second "Great Book of Amber". I usually loan the small paperback individual books, but I sometimes have to loan both sets at once.

[gabriel_ss4u]

Ideaer;
have the 2 experienced players find out that 'someone' will come, someone who will herald the (whatever), then have 3 of 'them' show in scenario, time to let the 2 experienced ones try to figure them out, guide them in the hope of guessing which one is 'the key', and observe the power factions assemble.
Hitting them with non-stop adversaries in the beginning will produce a 'sink or swim' feel that will likely draw them together, but ya never know. In such an environment the new guys will catch up fairly quick. They'll learn the caginess/intrigue of the experienced players soon enough.

Just an ideaer.

[weilide]

Apologies from reviving a thread that would probably not fog a shaving mirror, but I had a twist on the old "awaken with amnesia" chestnut that tickled me. I like this best if the player is an experienced gamer who has no knowledge of Amber canon, probably with a character with an abundance of good (or possibly bad) stuff. It would be tricky carry off, but it makes me laugh.

You awaken uncomfortably, with no memory of your life nor any knowledge who you might be. You seem to be face-down in a small pool of saliva on a desk strewn with papers. As you prop your head up in your hands the door across the room opens tentatively and a worried-looking man in some kind of renaissance costume peers in at you. "Random, my liege," he says. "Are you well? You were meant to meet with the ambassador from Kasha some twenty minutes ago…"

[SunBoy]

Yeah, that could be fun. Now, are you thinking of letting him actually be Random, or something on the lines of shapeshifting or sorcery? Because, you know, he created his character...

[Schattensturm]

Yeah, that could be fun. Now, are you thinking of letting him actually be Random, or something on the lines of shapeshifting or sorcery? Because, you know, he created his character...

Did he? After all he can be king!

:respect:

Well, at least until Bleys finds out about his amnesia...

[weilide]

Yeah, I agree you have to honor the player's character generation decisions. I think this works best with someone who has perhaps some strong personality ideas but relatively little biography, which makes sense if they're new to the Amberverse. As for actual points, attributes, etc, they remain as the player has determined –– whether this is because the PC is a "ringer" set in Random's place or the real Random somehow physiologically "reset" is an interesting thing to determine through gameplay.

In a sense this brings me to another point, which is to say, what elements or character generation should be out of a player's control? Given that the GM already determines parentage, I tend to he or she should also have final say over  hair and eye color, as well as the PC's birth name. Of course there are always hair dye and color contacts, and naturally the characters can go by whatever name they choose, but when their parents are around it gets complicated… ("That's his name! Henry Jones, Jr! 'Indiana' was the dog's name…")

[Croaker]

I let the PCs determine their appearance and name.

If a PC was amnesic, he'd get some points assigned by me, with a slight bonus, and usually bad karma.
Also, I let them have logrus gifts, such as frakir or mandor's ball, but they could only invest points in it: I created the item, again with a slight bonus.

[SunBoy]

I tend to do it backwards: sometimes, hair and eye colour gives me the idea for parentage. Not always, of course, and stuff play a bigger part, as do backstory, but it can be a factor.

[weilide]

When taking the tack above I generally let stuff determine name, appearance, parentage. I once ran a game in which none of the PCs, who had spent their lives on Shadow Earth, knew anything about their Amber heritage. The players chose their Earth names but not their Amber birth names. It was pretty amusing watching the players trying to second guess who their parents must be as they learned their true names. One guy playing a redhead was dead-certain that his PC must be a son of Brand after he learned his name was Mordred…

[gabriel_ss4u]

The amnesia idea gets old, not to mention it's a bit harder for a player to luv his charatcer when he's not sure who he's playing... IMO.

Anything can exist in Amber.
Let the inexperienced players create a character based on some storyline they do love. My 1st Amberite was son of Elric, as I knew those books really well, and my GM did too, so it fit in with Chaos and I had no idea who my mother was in Amber.
(Amberite bitch wouldn't claim me, I suppose mixed blood of Chaos & Amber is frowned upon by the current crown.)
This allowed me to create a C. with rich background based on Moorcock's world, but still fit in easily with Amber.

[Xenon]

a very fun approach, throw out the cannon elders! throw out the setting if need be! the PCs are the children of Oberon (or whoever you use), and can infight and deal with threats from shadow. give em a good setting blurb to get em interested, then play! removes the need to know what who said to whom whenever

best game i played had all of us as children of the queen, and 'Amber' was sci-fi. i found remnants of old patterns in shadow, and learned in time that the cycle of the pattern changed over time, a new replacing the old every so often. was a 'distant future' kind of game, where cannon elders were lost to the mists of time.

[weilide]

I'm always so reluctant to dispense with the elders because they're such an integral part of what I loved about the books…

[Croaker]

I didn't in "normal" amber play, but I did in PBEM. The feeling was different, but I think I'd do a game without the elders if I'd play again.
IMO, the feeling is different: Having the Elders gives a "merlin" feel, while dispensing with them gives more of a "Corwin" feel.