Random as King

[AshenHaze]

When you start at the conventional starting point of Amber, Random is King.  In all three games that I've played that started this way he ended up losing the throne, and only in one of them did the player's care enough to get it back.

For the sake of my curiosity, does Random generally hold the throne in your games?  Or does one of his older brothers snatch it away.

[Lorrraine]

When you start at the conventional starting point of Amber, Random is King.  In all three games that I've played that started this way he ended up losing the throne, and only in one of them did the player's care enough to get it back.

For the sake of my curiosity, does Random generally hold the throne in your games?  Or does one of his older brothers snatch it away.

In my current game Amber does not exist so this does not apply, but I plan to run two Amber games At ACUS and both have Random as King.

Random makes a good starter King. If the PCs really want the throne they have a shot at beating him or supporting some faction to do so. If they like him on the throne he might really need their support to fight off a takeover attempt. If the PCs want to work for the crown he could really use their help. If the PCs want to avoid the crown he will probably leave them alone.

You can build a campaign with a more forceful, adversarial, or demanding monarch, but then things can get railroady fast if you don't watch out. For Sandbox Amber, Random's da Man.

[RPGPundit]

I think in a lot of campaigns Random starts as king because of the novels, and in a lot of campaigns he doesn't end as king because an inordinate amount of campaigns demand that there be some kind of struggle for the throne.

Its just set up for that.

In my last two campaigns, the first of the two began in the Interregnum period with Eric running Amber; he died, Corwin briefly goverened, and then the Unicorn chose a player character, instead of Random, to rule.
The other player characters set out to ruin him. He was eventually deposed but I don't actually remember if anyone was crowned king after him (the campaign came to an end around that time).  I recall that it was Bleys and Fiona making a play for the throne.

In the latest campaign, it began with Random as king, and by the end of it Random had been slain by a player character; most of the Amberites were locked out of Amber, unable to enter (at least for the time being) and said PC was ruling amber, though it was left in a very unstable time and it was implied he might not have really managed to keep the throne for very long.  Certainly, the other amberites were going to get back in sooner or later, and when they did, he'd be unlikely to even keep his head.

RPGPundit

[Malleus Aforethought]

My current campaign is set in the time period between the time Oberon completes the reconstruction of the Pattern and when the Family returns from the battle at the Courts of Chaos. I believe that conically, it was something like 8 years, but due to the vagaries of time flow at the Courts, I figure can easily justify 10-20 years if it suits the campaign. Currently, Gerard is Regent. However, he is being opposed by a son of Prince Eric who claims to be the rightful heir. Prince Ebbas has gained the support of a number of powerful Shadow lords who hope to take advantage of the disarray in Amber without Oberon or any other visible contender. Ebbas has raised an army (and a navy) and has marched on Amber, entangling the PCs who have just arrived (all were raised in Shadow and are new to the Realm of Amber).

Ultimately, I intend to have Deirdre as the Chosen of the Unicorn, as in my version, Corwin sacrificed himself in order to save Deirdre, so Deirdre emerged from the Abyss with the Unicorn and bearing the Jewel. I was originally going to go with a version where Corwin accepted the throne, but I thought there were some interesting possibilities with Deirdre, such as having her declare a century of mourning for her beloved brother.

[finarvyn]

My favorite era is that of Nine Princes where Eric is in charge and others are thinking of taking over, so I usually don't do the "Random as King" thing. I suppose that Random=King would be my second choice, however.

[Sartorius]

I saw an interesting, if rather straightforward, idea for a post-Patternfall campaign:  Random was either in on it with Brand or is in his thrall.  The nub of it was something like "Brand, who had gained mysterious powers in Shadow and Chaos, falls into the Abyss holding the Jewel.  Then 'the Unicorn' climbs out of the Abyss with the Jewel and gives it to Random.  Rrrright."  Brand gains the throne, using Random as his puppet.

[RPGPundit]

Huh. I never really considered the idea of Random being in cahoots with Brand.  It doesn't really add up for me.

RPGPundit