Rebma?

[RPGPundit]

You could always just scan those copies you have in a box somewhere, and put them up for download somewhere, for free.

RPGPundit

[Jason D]

You could always just scan those copies you have in a box somewhere, and put them up for download somewhere, for free.

RPGPundit

Except that I don't legally have the right to reproduce or redistribute content provided by the other contributors.

I doubt they'd care, but we did state specifically that we were asking only first publication rights. I don't really like the notion of going back on that promise.

[jonnyX]

Except that I don't legally have the right to reproduce or redistribute content provided by the other contributors.

I doubt they'd care, but we did state specifically that we were asking only first publication rights. I don't really like the notion of going back on that promise.

In the best of all possible worlds, these would be available via the Diceless by Design website as free downloads. Fans who were late to the game get to see them & they'd serve as promo material for the company. Just a thought on how to keep everything legal while providing access to the zine. The IP rights would have passed to Diceless by Design, correct?

IIRC, there was another fanzine that ran for several issues as well; the name escapes me, though.

Hey Seanchai! Just to add to your misery, here's some info on a few other vaporware Amber DRPG sourcebooks:

http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=640
http://www.20by20room.com/2005/04/guardians_of_or.html

Combine those articles with jdurall's list & we get:

Published works:
01) Amber DRPG
02) Shadow Knight

Directly related to Amber-the-Castle and Amber-the-City:
03) Castle Amber
04) Not the City of Brotherly Love

Other "real" realms:
05) Chaos Rules!
06) Rebma
07) Beyonders
08) The Engines of Bright
09) Tir-na Nog'th (implied, since Rebma & Corwin's pattern have their own books)

Shadow:
10) The Golden Circle
11) Herat
12) Texorami

"The Amber Master's Guide to:"
13) Trump
14) Pattern
15) Logrus
16) Shapeshifting
17) Magic

Misc:
18) adventure collection

~sigh~

Depressing, innit? And that's just the stuff Phage was considering. Guardians of Order's plans were a bit less ambitions, initially. They had planned to put out an "Amber v2.0" sourcebook slotted towards newbies and an "Amber Companion" for the oldtimers 6-9 months later. Both would probably have been $30-$35 color hardbacks. There was also some talk of a "tarot-based mechanic," but I know nothing else about it.

Off the top of my head, these would have been neat too:

19) Best of Ambercon
    We're going on, what, two decades now? Surely there's enough stuff from the various Ambercons to generate a sourcebook and/or adventure book.

20) Demons and Constructs and Artifacts (Oh My!)
    Another "Best of.." type book loaded with descriptions & scenario seeds, and maybe more alternate rules and rules tweaks for creating these items (and Shadows too)(and useful/interesting NPCs).

Hey, I'd buy them...

Toss in some articles on Kolvir, the Lighthouse of Cabra, Arden, the plane with the Primal Pattern, the Patternfall War, pre-Chronicles (pre-Elder?) scenarios when Oberon was on the throne... Pelgrane Press has a nice model for how this could be done.

Now that I'm through depressing myself & everyone else, I'll mention that a 450+ page draft of jdurall's Rebma sourcebook seems to have been leaked to the net. A casual Google search won't find it, which is probably why it hasn't gone viral & turned up in numerous online discussions, but it *is* out there. FWIW, I did not leak it, I'm not distributing it, and it is very much worth reading. Happy hunting

~~jX

PS - In the Pyramid article, it's supposed to be "Matt HOWARTH," not Matt HAUER". I would love to have seen that Bugtown DRPG.

PPS - Another thought: Maybe the ransom method could be used to speed up the release of any new Amber material. It seems to have worked quite well for Dennis Detwiller, Greg Stolze, Arc Dream, Pagan Publishing, etc., wrt the Delta Green supplements for Call of Cthulhu. A few years ago even the creators of Delta Green were saying that despite lots of material having been written, it was very unlikely that any would ever been released thanks to the collapse of the traditional publisher/distributor/vendor model & the problems with being paid for one's work. Fast-forward a few years & via the ransom method there's a ton of new DG/CoC material coming out from these individuals and publishers. Links for more info 'cause I'm too lazy to format:

http://web.me.com/drgonzo/Site/Welcome.html
http://gregstolze.com/
http://www.arcdream.com/home.php
http://www.tccorp.com/
http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=140
http://www.danielsolis.com/meatbot/ransom.html

[Norbert G. Matausch]

Sorry to necro this thread, but... Jason, am I understanding you correctly that two sourcebooks have been completed? Is there any way to acquire them, or contact their authors?

Thank you!
Norbert

[Jason D]

Sorry to necro this thread, but... Jason, am I understanding you correctly that two sourcebooks have been completed? Is there any way to acquire them, or contact their authors?

Thank you!
Norbert

You would have to track down the authors. I'm not in touch with many of Erick's original Amber group, other than a few of them on Facebook.

[Panjumanju]

I die a little bit inside each time I think about As Above, So Below was completed, with art, and handed in, but didn't happen.

//Panjumanju

[Jason D]

I die a little bit inside each time I think about As Above, So Below was completed, with art, and handed in, but didn't happen.

Tell me about it. That's a year of work that I'd love to have been paid for. I suspect that publishing it might also have given the line a chance at life, versus dying after Shadow Knight.

Now, I suspect there will never be another edition of Amber Diceless Roleplaying, as the rights to the game and system are split. However, his literary rights are with a new agency, so who knows?

[Delete_me]

Here's hoping someday, somehow, this will see the light of day... against all hope.

[Jason D]

Here's hoping someday, somehow, this will see the light of day... against all hope.

Ultimately, though, I don't think there's enough of a market for it these days, with the books out of print.

Sadly, the only thing that would likely raise the visibility of the IP would be a TV series (which seems stillborn) or films, but that would increase the cost of the license dramatically.

[zircher]

It's a shame given how easy it is to publish books today with better tools, electronic distribution, on-demand printers, and crowdfunding.

[Jason D]

It's a shame given how easy it is to publish books today with better tools, electronic distribution, on-demand printers, and crowdfunding.

If I had any free time at all I'd consider a run at getting the IP licensed and doing a Kickstarter for a core book, adventure book, and tarot deck. I would, perhaps heretically for this forum, move it away from being diceless, and build (or use) a dice-based gaming engine to broaden the game's appeal.

[Delete_me]

If I had any free time at all I'd consider a run at getting the IP licensed and doing a Kickstarter for a core book, adventure book, and tarot deck. I would, perhaps heretically for this forum, move it away from being diceless, and build (or use) a dice-based gaming engine to broaden the game's appeal.

If you ever do get around to that, I will throw money at it, despite my dislike of kickstarters.

[finarvyn]

If I had any free time at all I'd consider a run at getting the IP licensed and doing a Kickstarter for a core book, adventure book, and tarot deck. I would, perhaps heretically for this forum, move it away from being diceless, and build (or use) a dice-based gaming engine to broaden the game's appeal.

That would be awesome, and I know that I would back it. The "dice or no dice" thing isn't a deal breaker for me, but if something like this ever happened I would hope that it would be built on a known RPG system rather than a totally new dice mechanic. In general, I find that if I have to learn (and then teach) a totally new rules set there is a high probability that I will never actually play it.

[Norbert G. Matausch]

I agree, though I still think playing Amber without dice is the single best way to play it.
If Amber 2.0 was published with a dice/randomizer system, I'd hope for a super-simple, extremely rules-light and non-Forge system. I really dislike the metagaming aspects of modern story games.

[Jarrod Stanek]

For those interested, type "Rebma pdf" into your search engine of choice. All I'm saying is... delightful results.