So in most of the novels, Martin comes off as a very naive little dweeb. He's a constant victim, and even though in the second series he seems to start developing a bit of a backbone, he never really does anything.
Of course, you can always argue that he actually does things behind the scene... I've seen Amber players like this, that have made a virtue of being seemingly innocuous, friendly, and not particularly a contender for anything, but are actually doing some hardcore scheming and screwing the other players behind the scenes.
I remember one player of mine in a throne war mini-campaign who played a guy who was basically a public servant, and spent almost all of the game doing the best act of being neutral and disinterested possible, always making it look like he was willing to very non-committaly go along with wherever the wind was blowing, only to have him set up the plot that would lead him to wipe out all the opposition in the end game.
So is Martin like one of those players, or is he really as retarded as he looks?
RPGPundit
Well... not actually retarded... but not a big player at the time of the novels, that's for sure. He's very young, in amberite standards, and he does claim he wants to see the world... I sort of picture almost every amberite doing it for a few centuries, before getting bored with non-real thingies and then coming back home to try and make a place for him/herself.
But I do play him a little... nerdy?
As you've seen in my current campaign, I play him as very naive... at least at first.
RPGPundit
I played him as a beginning PC might.
Thinking himself very smart and powerfull (the cyber-version, with all kind of toys), yet somewhat naive and inexperimented compared to elders.
The poor guy doesn't fit the competitive family trope, that's directly out of the canon. I think he's got a place as a misfit in the broad picture of generalized feuds. When I try to imagine how he feels I can't help but think of his experience as a victim as central and spreading consequences all around :
1 - Even if Brand is now dead it doesn't change the fact that in his view the family is fucked up. Sure he's more comfortable around his dad and Gerard but it doesn't compensate the paranoia. Oh and even daddy hasn't got such a clean slate : he caused his mother to die of despair, though Zelazny never explored this fact.
2 - Not only has he been the victim which doesn't help to access the status of adult in the eyes of uncles and aunts, but his blood almost removed Amber from the map. Let's had some guilt to the frustrating victim image.
3 - Maybe his escapism is the only way he found to avoid the "poor Martin" syndrome. I know I would be pissed off if I inspired pity to my own family.
So sure you can tag him a retard because he's not playing the game when he's got real chance for the throne (on the paper at least). I personally find a form of balance in his demeanor by contrast with the very dominating personalities among the princes. OTOH Martin presents potentials to become a badass who could one day say "it's payback time" in a very psycho way. Yes Fiona and Bleys, I'm looking at you.
Martin, colombine style? This could be fun. Push his buttons one time too far... Question is, who did this, and why?
I see him as the only member of his generation for years and years until Merlin and the others show up. So he doesn't grow up with the sibling rivalry like the other characters in the books and so doesn't have that competitive streak like the others; he is much more powerful than normal people but insignificant to the elders so doesn't need to do much. But in a game where he has a boatload of cousins or siblings he would develop a different personality. I'll say this because I have been playing Martin as my PC for close to a decade now.
Huh, that might be a topic for a thread all on its own. Which 'minor' characters in either of the two courts would make for good PC characters?
Ten years is a pretty good run, so is your Martin totally an Amberite ass kicker by now?
The game is huge and I joined a few months after the others so there was 10+ PCs already playing. I chose someone from the books to keep the number of new names down.
He isn't too powerful; the GM is kind a stingy with xp.