TheRPGSite

Fan Forums => The Official Amber DRPG, Erick Wujcik, and Lords of Olympus Forum => Topic started by: RPGPundit on November 21, 2008, 02:08:26 PM

Title: Rebma?
Post by: RPGPundit on November 21, 2008, 02:08:26 PM
We don't have all that much canonical information about Rebma as a place.  What do you guys make of it?
Is Rebma a carbon-copy of Amber only with seashells, or is it more than that?
Aside from Moire, are there any Rebmaite natives? Can full-blooded Rebmaites survive for unlimited times out of water?

Is the whole place very alien and different and nautical themed, or is it just a regular place with an undersea twist?

How important is Rebma really?

And why on Earth did Erick originally want the first non-series-related sourcebook for his game to be Rebma?

RPGPundit
Title: Rebma?
Post by: darciesdaddy on November 22, 2008, 10:17:42 PM
Wow, this is a really old thread, but, since I dealt with this in my game, I thought I'd toss in my thoughts on it.

Rebma is a reflection of the Amber in the water.

Tir-na-nog'th is a reflection of Amber in the clouds. (forgive me if my spelling is wrong, I didn't have my books handy to look it up.)

What nobody knows is that there is another reflection, in flame. Since my players never got around to looking for this one, I never nailed down exactly where it was. I was planning either on the other side of the "planet", reflected through the flaming core, or on the other side of the Sun. Or someplace else, depending on what would be the most interesting in the game. The only thing I was sure of is that it wouldn't be in the first place the players looked.

Now, the big change from what most people expect: Amber is the Primal Pattern reflected through the stone of Mount Kolvir. What most people don't realize is that, if you walk the Pattern of Rebma or Tir, you can transport yourself to a REAL place just as solid as Amber, only under water (Or in the air, or flaming, depending on which Pattern you walk.  This is why Llewella spends so much time in Rebma.  Unbeknownst to her siblings, she rules an undewater realm just as real as Amber on the other side of the Pattern.

In the "real" Rebma, Amber is just a shadow cast on the cliffs, and Tir is much the same in the air. The result is that the Primal Pattern is reflected four times, in Earth, Fire, Water, and Air, with 4 seperate realms.  And in each of these realms, the others exist as reflections.

These realms are separate from each other, eventually 'merging' into the normal shadows somewhere outside their respective "Golden Circles." Anyone who has walked the ' real' Rebma or Tir Patterns could Shadowwalk to their realms, if they realize they exist. If you wanted to walk from Amber to the 'real' Rebma, you would have to travel beyond the Golden Circle, and turn around, attuning yourself to the Rebma pattern on the walk back.

Of course, Oberon would have been aware of this, but kept it from his children, because he knew that the four realms would no doubt the squabbling siblings would soon have them at war with each other.

I know it's not canon (although you can't find anything in the books that definitively disproves it) but it sure tossed a twist at my players they weren't expecting. (Especially when they found Dierdre with an army of Valkyries in Valhalla, behind Tir's Pattern. )
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on December 01, 2008, 04:36:28 PM
I can shed some light on the matter, as I wrote the Rebma sourcebook for Phage Press.

Quote from: RPGPundit;268407
We don't have all that much canonical information about Rebma as a place.  What do you guys make of it?
Is Rebma a carbon-copy of Amber only with seashells, or is it more than that?
Aside from Moire, are there any Rebmaite natives? Can full-blooded Rebmaites survive for unlimited times out of water?

Is the whole place very alien and different and nautical themed, or is it just a regular place with an undersea twist?

How important is Rebma really?

And why on Earth did Erick originally want the first non-series-related sourcebook for his game to be Rebma?

RPGPundit

The Rebma I designed was much, much more than Amber with seashells. It was the undersea counterpart to Tir-na Nog'th, and as such had a great deal of importance. Moire was apparently powerful enough that she could offer sanctuary to Amberites fleeing Eric's wrath, and that says something about her importance.

Rebma had its own weird sort of magic based on mirrors, its own royal family and twisted history that had nothing to do with Oberon's family.

Since the city of Amber is approachable through two paths - land and sea, it would make sense that Rebma is as important as Arden in considering the defense of the realm.

Your mileage will vary about how important that stuff is.  

It was never, never, ever planned as the first non-series book to be published by Phage Press, and what I pitched was only half the book I wanted to write.

I'd co-established (with Cort Odekirk) a fanzine called Trump Call that was the first such 'zine about the Amber DRPG.

I pitched Erick a book called As Above, So Below that would have been a flip-book covering Tir-na Nog'th and Rebma. Erick wanted to do the Tir book himself, so I did Rebma.

While working on Rebma, I got pulled off when the original manuscript for Shadow Knight proved unpublishable, and I worked on several pieces of it. Other Amber books that were in the works before I'd even heard of the ADRPG were as follows:

None of those books (except for maybe Don's and Carol's) were ever completed. There were a few others that came up as well. I was the only author of that whole batch to turn in a publishable manuscript.

On Trump Call, we did six big issues, before Cort published an article about using playing cards in character generation. Even though it was written by a guy who was a part of Erick's gaming circle, Erick called Cort up on the phone to yell at him about publishing it, saying it was a violation of everything that diceless gaming was all about. Cort shut down the zine with the next issue, and refunded all subscription monies.

Once I finished Rebma, Erick changed his mind utterly about what he wanted from the book, despite having approved the manuscript and having seen it come in week after week. (He'd assigned it to a different editor, who was working with him.) Erick told me later he'd even laid it out, then decided that he just wanted something different. There was some other rough stuff going on in his life at the time (the death of a beloved aunt from cancer, if I remember correctly), and he just couldn't work on Phage Press stuff any more. Erick apologized at least a hundred times for never publishing it, but at least he paid me some (about half) of what I was owed.

I've still got a file with all of the art done for Rebma, containing some new Kucharski Trumps, some stuff by Matt Howarth, another author whose name I didn't recognize, and stuff by the Shadow Knight comic strip artist/writer.

I admired Erick greatly, and considered him a friend. He was, and will always be, one of the great RPG designers, and a hell of a great person to be around. I learned a ton from working with him, and in a way he mentored me in the pen-and-paper industry, but in all honestly, he wasn't the easiest editor to work with. He drove me crazy with back-and-forth rewrites, and needing stuff added and rewritten at an insane rate. I was literally FedExing floppy disks of material I'd written for Rebma overnight every other day while it was in final development for a MUST BE OUT THE DOOR BY THE END OF THE MONTH deadline. This was previous to Erick having email (he wouldn't get it), so I was sending these disks full of revisions and new stuff 3-4 times a week for what must have been hundreds of bucks a month in fees (fortunately, I was using his account). I kept saying "Erick, you're a computer guy through and through... why not just get email?" but he didn't want it. So I have sheafs of typed letters from Erick from those days.

When I hear horror stories about bad freelancer experiences at Palladium, I get a curious sense of deja vu.  

I know that's not likely a popular opinion to voice here, but I can only speak to my own experiences.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: boulet on December 01, 2008, 10:24:16 PM
Quote from: jdurall;270551
The Rebma I designed was much, much more than Amber with seashells. It was the undersea counterpart to Tir-na Nog'th, and as such had a great deal of importance. Moire was apparently powerful enough that she could offer sanctuary to Amberites fleeing Eric's wrath, and that says something about her importance.

I completely agree with this line of thought. I wish Rebma and Moire had a little more exposition in Zelazny's books, so it wouldn't feel like "Amber with seashells". An angle I was pondering was how Amber pretty much incarnate a European archetype (I know inside Zelazny's fiction, it's actually Amber hat shaped Europe but bear with me). So it could be interesting to assign other real world cultural aspects to Rebma and Tir Na Nogth.

Quote from: jdurall;270551
Since the city of Amber is approachable through two paths - land and sea, it would make sense that Rebma is as important as Arden in considering the defense of the realm.

Mmmmmh in a way I can see how it makes sense but I can't remember any implication of Rebma in Amber's military affairs. Is my memory failing me ?
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on December 02, 2008, 12:56:21 PM
Quote from: boulet;270603
So it could be interesting to assign other real world cultural aspects to Rebma and Tir Na Nogth.

I went with a mix of Celtic and Greek influences.

Quote from: boulet;270603
Mmmmmh in a way I can see how it makes sense but I can't remember any implication of Rebma in Amber's military affairs. Is my memory failing me ?

Rebma facts!

- Brand, I believe, spent time in Rebma
- Llewella is from Rebma, and she's Moire's sister (some non-canonical sources state incorrectly that she's Llewella's mother)
- Martin is from Rebma, and technically heir to the throne should Moire die
- Luke/Rinaldo mentioned (though my memory is spotty) spending time there
- Random spent years in Rebma in exile
- Vialle, the Queen of Amber, is Rebman
- Eric contemplated making Moire an offer of marriage
- Moire has immense fondness for Benedict
- The stair down to Rebma is named Faiella-bionin. Eric/Corwin/Dierdre's mother was named Faiella.

There's never been an explicit mention of how Rebma plays into Amber's sea defense, other than Corwin noting how his sea-battle with Eric's navy was sending bodies down that watery way to Rebma.

However, an undersea kingdom parked offshore of a land-based kingdom would naturally be a huge factor in their naval activities.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Dr_BadLogic on December 02, 2008, 02:18:30 PM
Moire is concerned, when Corwin plans to invade Amber, about the strife that will be reflected within her own realm.  I forget if anything is mentioned about a reverse relationship,but if there were one, there'd be plenty of incentive for both kingdom's to stay on each other's good side.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Seanchai on December 02, 2008, 05:16:24 PM
Quote from: jdurall;270551
Other Amber books that were in the works before I'd even heard of the ADRPG were as follows:

  • The Engines of Bright - Erick's "Corwin's Pattern" campaign book
  • The Beyonders - Don Anderson's huge campaign setting
  • Not the City of Brotherly Love - a city of Amber sourcebook
  • The Amber Master's Guide to Trump - written by Michael Kucharski, which was to be the first of many such guides about each power
  • Chaos Rules! - Erick's alternate core book based on the Courts of Chaos
  • Carol Dodd's Golden Circle sourcebook
  • A Castle Amber sourcebook (to wash the stain of the Visual Guide out of people's brains)
  • A sourcebook about the block city of Heerat
  • A collection of adventures
  • A Texorami sourcebook


Why? Why would you do this to us?

Seanchai
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on December 02, 2008, 06:15:19 PM
Quote from: Seanchai;270761
Why? Why would you do this to us?

Just setting the record straight when folks wonder why Rebma was thought of as the first big expansion, and to clear the air about what was going on behind the scenes at Phage Press.

I cannot tell how many times I've been asked "What the heck was wrong with the book that they couldn't publish it?"

The reality was that after Shadow Knight, Erick's heart wasn't in it any more. I don't think he'd have published Rebma, or any other book, in any state.

It's a pity. I'd love to take another whack at rewriting it with the experience I've got now... but I don't know for certain that anything will happen with the game.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Seanchai on December 03, 2008, 11:59:09 AM
Quote from: jdurall;270775
Just setting the record straight when folks wonder why Rebma was thought of as the first big expansion...


Yeah, but me want. Me want!

Seanchai
Title: Rebma?
Post by: RPGPundit on December 03, 2008, 03:53:56 PM
That's fascinating, Jason. Thank you for your honest history of the events, and setting the record straight.

I don't think Erick would have particularly wanted us to deify him, and certainly, he must take at least some of the responsibility for the fact that in the over-a-decade period that he was running Phage press, no new sourcebooks were produced.

We can keep dreaming that someday, some version of some of these ideas for what would have been awesome sourcebooks can come to light.

RPGPundit
Title: Rebma?
Post by: finarvyn on December 04, 2008, 12:37:45 AM
Quote from: jdurall;270551
I'd co-established (with Cort Odekirk) a fanzine called Trump Call that was the first such 'zine about the Amber DRPG.

On Trump Call, we did six big issues, before Cort published an article about using playing cards in character generation. Even though it was written by a guy who was a part of Erick's gaming circle, Erick called Cort up on the phone to yell at him about publishing it, saying it was a violation of everything that diceless gaming was all about. Cort shut down the zine with the next issue, and refunded all subscription monies.

At one point I owned copies of all 6 issues of Trump Call, but my wife threw them out by mistake. (We were very close to violence when this happened. :() Do you know if there is any place one can still obtain copies?
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on December 04, 2008, 10:07:15 AM
Quote from: finarvyn;271102
At one point I owned copies of all 6 issues of Trump Call, but my wife threw them out by mistake. (We were very close to violence when this happened. :() Do you know if there is any place one can still obtain copies?

Not a clue.

I've got mine, buried deep in some magazine box in the garage, and when last I saw Cort, some eight years ago, he mentioned he'd given his last copies away to a fan.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Croaker on December 04, 2008, 10:24:52 AM
Wow!
Now, that's kind of him o_O
Title: Rebma?
Post by: boulet on December 04, 2008, 10:28:40 AM
Any chance that this material is made available as pdf for a few bucks ?
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on December 04, 2008, 11:05:16 AM
Quote from: boulet;271165
Any chance that this material is made available as pdf for a few bucks ?
I'm almost entirely certain the answer is no.

I don't know if Cort has any of the original files from more than a dozen years ago, and if I recall correctly, we only asked for first publishing rights for articles and artwork.

As it's also based on an IP and an RPG which we didn't own, it's a very grey area selling content supporting it. We charged exactly enough to cover printing and postage costs, and I think Cort was actually a bit out of pocket on each issue.

Back then things were much looser. Now, not so much. The concept of unlicensed "for sale" content based on established IPs is, I would argue, a thing of the past.

I've given some thought to posting the stuff I wrote on a personal website, for free, but there's only so much time in the day and I'm barely able to get the things I get paid for done.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: RPGPundit on December 04, 2008, 12:52:47 PM
You could always just scan those copies you have in a box somewhere, and put them up for download somewhere, for free.

RPGPundit
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on December 04, 2008, 01:11:06 PM
Quote from: RPGPundit;271199
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.
Title: Rebma (and more)
Post by: jonnyX on February 23, 2009, 05:06:37 PM
Quote from: jdurall;271202
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 (http://dicelessbydesign.com/) 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 (http://www.pelgranepress.com/) has a nice model for how this could be done. (http://www.pelgranepress.com/seepagexx/violetcusps.html)

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," (http://www.matthowarth.com/) 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
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Norbert G. Matausch on January 30, 2019, 08:21:28 AM
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
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on January 30, 2019, 08:59:11 AM
Quote from: Norbert G. Matausch;1072833
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.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Panjumanju on January 30, 2019, 10:44:24 AM
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
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on January 30, 2019, 10:56:14 AM
Quote from: Panjumanju;1072839
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?
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Delete_me on January 30, 2019, 02:44:56 PM
Here's hoping someday, somehow, this will see the light of day... against all hope.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on January 31, 2019, 04:51:16 AM
Quote from: Tanin Wulf;1072866
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.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: zircher on January 31, 2019, 08:42:49 AM
It's a shame given how easy it is to publish books today with better tools, electronic distribution, on-demand printers, and crowdfunding.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on January 31, 2019, 09:12:07 AM
Quote from: zircher;1072934
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.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Delete_me on January 31, 2019, 09:32:15 AM
Quote from: Jason D;1072935
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.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: finarvyn on February 02, 2019, 09:20:31 AM
Quote from: Jason D;1072935
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. :(
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Norbert G. Matausch on February 04, 2019, 04:17:47 AM
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.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jarrod Stanek on February 05, 2019, 11:33:19 PM
For those interested, type "Rebma pdf" into your search engine of choice. All I'm saying is... delightful results.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: finarvyn on February 06, 2019, 06:27:21 AM
Quote from: Jarrod Stanek;1073581
For those interested, type "Rebma pdf" into your search engine of choice. All I'm saying is... delightful results.
And then use paypal to send Jason $10. You know that the author of that book posts here, right?
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Delete_me on February 06, 2019, 10:38:48 AM
...I have beheld a thing of beauty that was not meant for mine eyes.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jarrod Stanek on February 06, 2019, 11:07:31 PM
Of course I know he posts here. He's posted on this very thread. I was... bringing it to his attention should he want to take legal action. That being said, I have never flipped out over ANY game book EVER, as much as I did when i discovered this. I will gladly send him him $10!
Title: Rebma?
Post by: finarvyn on February 08, 2019, 06:29:30 AM
Quote from: Jarrod Stanek;1073727
Of course I know he posts here. He's posted on this very thread. I was... bringing it to his attention should he want to take legal action.
Fine, as long as that was your intent. I misread "For those interested, type "Rebma pdf" into your search engine of choice. All I'm saying is... delightful results." to read something less altruistic. I'm not sure I would classify advertising illegal downloads of a product as "delightful" but maybe that's just me.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: zircher on February 08, 2019, 08:29:40 AM
Could also have been referring to the Revised Amber rules that were also called REBMA.  That was an enjoyable read.  Plausible deniability and all that jazz.  :-)
http://amberway.free.fr/REBMA1.pdf (http://amberway.free.fr/REBMA1.pdf)
http://amberway.free.fr/SORCERY.pdf (http://amberway.free.fr/SORCERY.pdf)
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Rogerd on February 08, 2019, 06:27:24 PM
If there were any more powers they might be cool to know......or have access to.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jarrod Stanek on February 08, 2019, 09:44:39 PM
Quote from: finarvyn;1073918
Fine, as long as that was your intent. I misread "For those interested, type "Rebma pdf" into your search engine of choice. All I'm saying is... delightful results." to read something less altruistic. I'm not sure I would classify advertising illegal downloads of a product as "delightful" but maybe that's just me.

Yes, I "illegally downloaded" this book. But let's be perfectly clear here. We're talking about a 25ish year old book that was never even released. If I could have legally purchased it, I would have readily done so, but that is not the case. The Rebma sourcebook got me excited about Amber again, after feeling like I had nothing new left to GM. Its a fantastic book and Jason did an amazing job.

Jason, if you feel you deserve any kind of compensation, please feel free to contact me. I mean it. I will gladly Paypal you money for this work and your hard work. Its a shame I couldn't have purchased the finished product decades ago.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Delete_me on February 10, 2019, 12:29:43 AM
Quote from: finarvyn;1073918
I'm not sure I would classify advertising illegal downloads of a product as "delightful" but maybe that's just me.

Given that it's unpublished, there's a lot we'd need to know about how it got up there, the contract for its writing, and the original licensing contract for Amber from the Zelazny estate before you could really say, with certainty, that it's illegally up there. It MIGHT be up there legally, it might not. It's hard to tell without a lot more information.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on February 11, 2019, 03:17:07 AM
Quote from: Jarrod Stanek;1073727
Of course I know he posts here. He's posted on this very thread. I was... bringing it to his attention should he want to take legal action. That being said, I have never flipped out over ANY game book EVER, as much as I did when i discovered this. I will gladly send him him $10!

His paypal account is jasondurall at gmail.com :)
Title: Rebma?
Post by: zircher on February 11, 2019, 08:42:26 AM
What the hey, I'll toss a tenner in the tip jar as well.  Good karma and all that.  :-)
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on February 11, 2019, 09:33:42 AM
Quote from: zircher;1074299
What the hey, I'll toss a tenner in the tip jar as well.  Good karma and all that.  :-)

Thanks!
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jarrod Stanek on February 12, 2019, 09:22:50 AM
Quote from: Jason D;1074281
His paypal account is jasondurall at gmail.com :)

Done and done! :D
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Panjumanju on February 13, 2019, 03:30:26 PM
Quote from: Jarrod Stanek;1074537
Done and done! :D

Same here. Except sending from another country sure does suck. Between paypall's fees for sending internationally, and their bogus currency conversion charges, I had to send $17 Canadian to make $10 US. I wanted to send $20 USD...oh well.

Jason Durall, if you ever make it a few hours north of Toronto, I'll take you out for lunch.

//Panjumanju
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on February 14, 2019, 05:45:13 AM
Thank you guys so much. This is quite touching.
Title: Rebma?
Post by: real_blueznl on September 19, 2019, 04:16:54 PM
Haven't been on this site for ages (and haven't been playing much role playing games for the last 20 years or so)... But I re-registered again, just to post this.

I stumbled over some file called Rebma, from an unknown origin, without any artwork. Well, I did find the cover, so that's covered (ouch, poor pun).

It's a pity the (Amber) system more or less disappeared (though you can still buy it as a PDF, I believe).

Anyway, reading it now and enjoying it. Jason, if it's the one you wrote (no way I can confirm that) then all I can say thus far it's pretty much in line with the previous books. Someone, somewhere, probably put an old copy online and / or stripped the artwork.

Oh well. 25 years later and such.

Any other projects you are currently involved with?
Title: Rebma?
Post by: Jason D on September 20, 2019, 03:18:10 AM
Quote from: real_blueznl;1104933
Haven't been on this site for ages (and haven't been playing much role playing games for the last 20 years or so)... But I re-registered again, just to post this.


I haven't been here for a long while, but the thread alert told me about this strange necromancy. :)

Quote from: real_blueznl;1104933
I stumbled over some file called Rebma, from an unknown origin, without any artwork. Well, I did find the cover, so that's covered (ouch, poor pun).

It's a pity the (Amber) system more or less disappeared (though you can still buy it as a PDF, I believe).


No one is super-happy about the game being gone. The system itself lives on in Lords of Gossamer & Shadow, but the Amber IP license is, I believe, still tied up with the television series deal and an (IIRC) an unresponsive literary agent.

It is still available via pdf by Diceless by Design, who unfortunately do not have the ability to produce any new Amber material for the line.

Quote from: real_blueznl;1104933
Anyway, reading it now and enjoying it. Jason, if it's the one you wrote (no way I can confirm that) then all I can say thus far it's pretty much in line with the previous books. Someone, somewhere, probably put an old copy online and / or stripped the artwork.


That's probably it. It was apparently ready for press when Erick has a crisis of confidence about publishing anything, and basically killed the line, begrudgingly completing the Amberzine subscriptions and releasing nothing but t-shirts.

Quote from: real_blueznl;1104933
Any other projects you are currently involved with?


I'm the line editor for RuneQuest/BRP with Chaosium, working on the next wave of books after the award-winning core book set, and am also (hypothetically) editing a new edition of Dark Conspiracy once the publisher's insolvency issues are handled. I am also the line manager of Conan from Modiphius, working on the third wave of books for that game line. I'm going to be editing another big line game line (solely as a consulting editor, not a line manager) for Modiphius, but can't talk about it yet.