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Author Topic: New Amber Campaign Idea : PCs as Items of Power  (Read 797 times)

Nihilistic Mind

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New Amber Campaign Idea : PCs as Items of Power
« on: January 04, 2008, 03:51:53 AM »
Hey,


I've been imagining this campaign (mini-series is more like it) where the PCs would play artifacts amberites can use rather than characters themselves.
It's all very abstract in my head ATM but I thought I'd share this idea with you.

Let's say the artifacts could offer newcomers (to the Great Game of the Amberverse) a certain amount of power in exchange for favors or letting the artifact possess the NPC for a while... things like that.
I'm not thinking of a created artifact as in a Morgenstern or Benedict's agents. More like a Greyswandir or a spikard... A very physical object with a mind of its own.

Another possibility (for a metaphysically flavored game) would be to have PCs as Constructs...

Or, the PCs could play an item/artifact which turns out to be a manifestation of a construct...

Has anyone played around with a crazy idea like that?
Running:
Dungeon Crawl Classics (influences: Elric vs. Mythos, Darkest Dungeon, Castlevania).
DCC In Space!
Star Wars with homemade ruleset (Roll&Keep type system).

Arref

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New Amber Campaign Idea : PCs as Items of Power
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2008, 07:53:52 AM »
Folks have had a lot of fun with this idea at Ambercon US. All kinds of artifacts and constructs have been designed and run.

The 'artifact gang' has even saved the kingdom a few times.

Go for it.
in the Shadow of Greatness
—sharing on game ideas and Zelazny's Amber

Jason D

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New Amber Campaign Idea : PCs as Items of Power
« Reply #2 on: January 08, 2008, 03:32:06 PM »
Quote from: Nihilistic Mind
Has anyone played around with a crazy idea like that?

My scenario "The Swayvill Letters" has been ran at a few cons, and has the PCs all as demons in service to the Lord of Chaos, meddling in Merlin's affairs on Shadow Earth while Merlin was building Ghostwheel.

All of the PCs were generated using Shadow Knight's demon system, and are relatively weak compared to any Amberite (or even some of their artifacts).

The first time I ran it, one of the players watched Merlin go to bed, removing something invisible from his wrist and leaving it over the doorknob. He shapeshifted into a super-thin tendril and squeezed his way through the lock assembly, only to be cut in half by Frakir (serving as door-warden).

Nihilistic Mind

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New Amber Campaign Idea : PCs as Items of Power
« Reply #3 on: January 08, 2008, 11:21:15 PM »
Cool! The lock-picking shapeshifter is the kind of thing I want to run my players through... They've been really creative with situations in my current campaign.

I'm gonna keep talking to my players about it and see what we can come up with.
Running:
Dungeon Crawl Classics (influences: Elric vs. Mythos, Darkest Dungeon, Castlevania).
DCC In Space!
Star Wars with homemade ruleset (Roll&Keep type system).