[Amber/LoG&S/LoO] Campaign Building/Mixing and Matching Rules or Settings

[VivianneClaire]

I wish to run a Diceless Campaign, yet can't decide for certain what source to use. Amber is an amazing setting to work with I feel, really drawing me in when it came to how the multiverse works along with its characters and factions... yet both Lords of Gossamer & Shadow as well as Lords of Olympus both have more solidly written rules and powers.

Admittingly out of those two, the latter has a degree of detail and structure to the powers I appreciate while also providing a fun setting that is easier to know/understand as I enjoy greek mythology while keeping the "family" aspect of Amber. Also the way 'magic' is broken up into different powers, Scrying, Greater Scrying, Elementalism, Enchantment, and Glamour instead of just being one big power called Sorcery felt more interesting. That and there is some concern/question of the balance and usability of Sorcery, though perhaps if it has been written with the structure and detail of LoO powers there wouldn't be such. Doesn't help my preferred character to play is a well traveled user of magic and sorcery who specializes in illusions, is over three hundred year old, while also a storyteller and collector of ancient histories, legends, folklore, and mythology. For LoO deciding on powers is much more concise: Immortality, Olympian Magic, World Walking (Olympian Road & Atlantean Road), Glamour, and even Enchantment.

Still, since I was part of the kickstarter for Gossamer Worlds Compendium I would also like to put such a grand resource to use once it is finished and I get a hold of my copy. There is also no question that there is much to work with when it comes to exploring different worlds and adventuring the multiverse. Sighs, all in all the problem is I like things about each of the three roleplays while wishing the best of all three could be combined.

Any advice/suggestions?

[RTrimmer]

You could do Amber with LOO mechanics and magic pretty easily. I'd add some form of Trumps/Icons; so much easier to get the PCs together. For Chaos powers, if you want something close to what they can do in the Corwin books you have to make up your own powers, 'cause Logrus it ain't.

Look at Stuff. Lots of GMs rework it.

What do you want to emulate, if anything? If you want something your favored character would fit into, where people might give a damn about "collector of ancient histories, legends, folklore, and mythology" of mortal worlds, you might want to make said worlds less malleable and eliminate the world-wrecking powers all together. (Most PCs can wreck an empire if they are willing to put in the time and work.) Maybe go with fewer worlds (so much easier to flesh out, maybe some player-defined), or different levels of reality: Cardboard, Enhanced Cardboard (Golden Circle/Common Ground) and Real, = roughly to electronic games, bowling league, real life. Think twice about incorporating Gossamer Worlds where ship/mecha weapons can shoot through moons.... or limit them to Cardboard worlds, where Deadly Damage weapons can one-shot Star Destroyers.

For the family thing with a variety of possible enemies and allies, maybe a Greek Myth NPC base with no Zeus and factions ruled/led by 1-3 gods/titans/Elders/LoGs, with the serial numbers filed off and power level adjusted to fit.

To keep PC power levels near whatever you think the sweet spot is, define a 1-rank advantage win as, 'he's dead, you are half-dead, and it took a while', and an X rank advantage win as, 'one-shot and without cost'. The spread between  1 and X defines how godlike the heavy hitters' Attributes are compared to the PCs How much each rank costs and how fast the xp roll in defines how long it will take the PCs to become godlike.

[JesterRaiin]

Any advice/suggestions?

I can't comment on LoO, since I didn't play the game. If I were to choose between Amber and LoGS, I'd choose the latter because it offers plenty of small, very useful improvements.

For example: each world is accessible via door/gate/portal. There are other ways, but by default each world is a secluded "island" that might be locked, hidden, or even entirely disconnected from the Grand Stairs, rather than a place accessible to anyone who knows how to travel between realities. This changes the dynamics of the gameplay a bit (at least in comparison to Amber), or rather opens the door (ehehehe) to a few very interesting option - each Gossamer world might become safe "only I can enter" haven, or an enormous trap. Some worlds are accessible only via a small door, so there's no way to prepare an invasion, and who knows, perhaps there's a trap on the other side - maybe just a landmine, or a nuclear powered, flame throwing cyber-cerberus.

[finarvyn]

I think that all three (ADRP, LoO, and LoGaS) all have different things to contribute. ADRP is clearly the starting point as it was the original, and it has some of the most helpful advice for how to run a game and what the elements of the game really mean. Both LoO and LoGaS have taken this structure and clarified a few things along the way, and as such in some ways are better written for a novice.

I think that the key is to start with your main concept and see which elements of which gamebook best fit that concept. The three games are essentially driven by one set of rules, so they blend together beautifully.

Any setting which is appropriately cinematic should work fine. Picking the family model for NPCs is a solid one, as shown by Zelazny himself and copied by LoO's use of the Greek pantheon. I've also done Star Wars and Barsoom  and Pirates of the Caribbean versions of ADRP, because they rely on storyline and action over nit-picking details. My next one may be a modern urban supernatural campaign. The point is that the base diceless rules can be applied to may different settings so pick what you like and give it a shot.