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Author Topic: Looking for Inspiration  (Read 1066 times)

Chipmunk

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Looking for Inspiration
« on: May 07, 2018, 10:01:52 PM »
SO.... I'm possibly going to be starting an Amber campaign when our current game comes to it's close here soon and I'm looking for help.  I've had a lot of success in a previous Nobilis game so diceless is very attractive to me.

Where I struggle is that the group tends to be more of the cooperative type than the throne war type, and I'm looking for appropriate inspiration in that sort of vein, in particularly things that are not combat heavy. Any suggestions for movies, books, comics, that would be good inspiration for an Amber campaign in that flavor?

finarvyn

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Looking for Inspiration
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2018, 06:35:46 AM »
My current group is highly cooperative as well, so what I would suggest is look for some sort of plotline that you can swipe and reskin and use for your setting.

For example, the new Avengers Infinity War has a group of bad guys searching for several special gems and the heroes trying to defend them against the bad guys. You could flip this and make the heroes the ones trying to get the gems. The key is to tweak the names and such so that the players don't realize where you got the idea.

One of my inspirations tends to be Michael Moorcock's stuff. His Elric and Corum characters are folks who come from a near-extinct race who end up dealing with (and sometimes fighting) supernatural godlike beings. A little harder to do with a party, but some nice artifacts and such to work with.

Even something like the Lord of the Rings, where the goal is to take a magical thing and deliver it to a scary destination. Or, the flip would be to go into a scary place to recover a magical thing.The secret is that in a combative group setting you give the group something to fight over, but in a collaborative setting you give the group a goal to fight toward.
Marv / Finarvyn
Kingmaker of Amber
I'm pretty much responsible for the S&W WB rules.
Amber Diceless Player since 1993
OD&D Player since 1975

Panjumanju

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Looking for Inspiration
« Reply #2 on: May 11, 2018, 01:07:38 PM »
I would suggest, especially when players are coming from more co-operative games, to provide the group with a singular mission (recover this McGuffin from shadow) but have different Elder Amberites give different PCs sub-missions in secret, that may well drive the group apart.

For instance:

Fiona's son is told that the McGuffin is an item of great magical power, and it is too dangerous to trust to the others. Recover it for her.
Eric's daughter is informed by him that this McGuffin is an artefact of Oberon, is connected to a larger system of objects, and could shift the power. At all costs, do not trust Bley's son, because he will want the power for himself.
Corwin's daughter is told by him that this McGuffin is too dangerous to be brought to Amber and should be "lost" along the way.
Etc., etc., etc.

PCs will decide on their own if they want to uphold their parent's wishes, align with other PCs against their parents, or some combination therein. You set it up, it runs itself.

For setting inspiration I'd suggest the 1980s cartoon Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light about post-apocalypse populated by knights, beholden to a wizard in a kind of magical arms-race. The premise is brilliant, and I've run a successful Amber game of it in the past.

//Panjumanju
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edster

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Looking for Inspiration
« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2018, 10:02:41 PM »
Pan's ideas are great as a 'prod' and you could also add a 'carrot' of a special reward given to only one player who can accomplish some special objective. What that objective is may depend on the style of your players, intense 'role-players' might fight over an offered position in the Amber court, the strategic-minded might compete for access to a new power or artifact, number-cruchers might be attracted to a 20 x.p. bonus, as examples.

I haven't tried this idea but it might work: have a time limit on the quest idea that Fin and Pan gave. If you show no mercy during the first few sessions as an appetizer then have the PCs learn that they need to accomplish X before the end of session 6 and if they don't then they will die, or lose their powers, or be cast into a world beyond shadow, then add complications resulting in a need to fight or cheat eachother to progress, they then might develop grudges and rivalries amongst eachother.