Noir Amber

[weilide]

To me, one of the most charming aspects of Nine Princes in Amber is that the first several chapters of the novel read like a fairly straightforward noir / hard-boiled detective novel until around the time Corwin finds Flora's trumps and the narrative shifts gears. Still, to a certain extent, Zelazny maintains the tone throughout, at least in Corwin's narration. It's self-evident enough to go looking for campaign inspiration in Zelazny's other fantasy and sci-fi material but have any of you folks specifically set out to draw on noir sources, say the works of Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler? I suppose one might have something set in a 1930's Shadow Earth or some-such but here I am more thinking of the more familiar Amber setting overlaid with a noirish narrative style (narrow alleyways, looming shadows, foggy nighttime chases, etc). I once tried to work out a scenario loosely inspired by The Maltese Falcon in which the PCs are chasing after a Spikard (actually a red herring) or some such but I never really got a chance to get it off the ground...

[RPGPundit]

I have to admit this is one genre crossover I've never personally considered...

RPGPundit

[Seanchai]

Sounds awesome. I'd play.

Seanchai

[Trevelyan]

I've never explicitly considered it before, but now you mention it, some of my more memorable Amber games/stories have incorporated more of that noir element.

[Nihilistic Mind]

During my early Amber gaming days, I remember this one shot game in which we were playing in the GM's 'homebrew system'. The PCs had all lost their memories in an explosion and collapsing building. The GM had us roll from time to time and checking the results against the secret character sheets.

Eventually, this noir adventure turned into the Amber game it really was. It was fun!

I've personally never run a noir Amber, but maybe in my next campaign... Good suggestion!