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Author Topic: Rewriting the Merlin Series . . . Needing inspiration!  (Read 1485 times)

Artifacts of Amber

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Rewriting the Merlin Series . . . Needing inspiration!
« on: May 28, 2013, 11:25:40 PM »
I am running a post first series campaign.

There are a lot of elements I like from the Merlin series but a few I don't. So I want have him in my campaign on his own adventures that would allow the players to see things, other than what is directly involving them are going on.

So I started thinking about what I wanted to plot out for Merlin.

And of course I was hoping you would help.

The things I don't like in the Merlin series

Undershadow
Sentient Primal powers
Merlin ending up on the Throne on Chaos.
Pattern ghost as agents of the Pattern, but like them as a concept of an effect of the Pattern


Things I do like

The Characters for the most part
The Merlin / Julia Relationship
The Fount
Over protective Dara / Hovering Mother concept.
Ghost Wheel
Spikards


So with those in mind where would you take the story / plot. Remembering details are not crucial since this will be only glimpsed, most likely, by the players.

Panjumanju

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Rewriting the Merlin Series . . . Needing inspiration!
« Reply #1 on: May 29, 2013, 11:36:53 AM »
Our likes and dislikes lists are pretty much the same. I can't tell you what to do rewriting it, but I can suggest additional changes:

Jurt: I was always upset that he seemed like such a joke. There was no threat in him searching out Merlin when he was so easily thwarted, even when Merlin was half-awake.

Ghostwheel: Forget giving the old, polar powers sentience, I feel Ghostwheel should have been the climax of the whole thing, as it (perhaps losing its sentience?) became the guardian of Trump, which everyone wanting Trump Artistry would have to essay.

Thematic Focus: Not everyone will agree with me in this, but I think Corwin did more with just Pattern than Merlin did with all the powers in the book. It would have been much more interesting to me if Merlin just had the Logrus and Shape Change. My reasoning is this:
- Luke was a good character, and a good example of Trump artistry. Not everyone needed to have Trump Artistry.
- The Pattern was really already covered in the Corwin cycle...and Merlin never used it! He pattern-walked once or twice, but really if he needed to get anywhere he trumped. Frankly, Luke used pattern more effectively.

//Panjumanju
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RTrimmer

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Rewriting the Merlin Series . . . Needing inspiration!
« Reply #2 on: May 29, 2013, 08:26:36 PM »
"The things I don't like in the Merlin series

Undershadow
Sentient Primal powers
Merlin ending up on the Throne on Chaos.
Pattern ghost as agents of the Pattern, but like them as a concept of an effect of the Pattern"

I mostly agree. Not so much with Pattern ghosts, particular ones of living people. Maybe as a Pattern trick -- your ghost shows up after you die as either as a animate Curse or Blessing.


"Things I do like

The Characters for the most part
The Merlin / Julia Relationship
The Fount
Over protective Dara / Hovering Mother concept.
Ghost Wheel
Spikards"

The problem with Ghostwheel without sentient Powers (which I hate) to hound him is that then it's Ghostwheel's multiverse and everybody else just lives in it. Without the Pattern and Logrus upgrades -- and how did he get away with that? -- he's not as bad but still a too-frequently-available personal wish machine for Merlin to use as a crutch.

Spikards are as bad or worse. Everybody not armed with a spikard is more or less bringing a rubber knife to a plasgun fight. The noirish feel of the Corwin books and first couple of Merlin books is blown all to hell. Merlin points his finger and wins, limited only by his desire to not splatter his mum and uncle all over the walls. Suspense is limited to whether or not Merlin allows his opponents to live and perhaps retain a bit of dignity.

You can make both Ghost and Spikards Bad. Ghost now figures that Merlin is his bitch and the ancient powers the spikards draw upon wake up/ get loose/ start sending out psychic spam.


One of the things I didn't like was that most Lords of Chaos were wimpy and boring. Also that the Chaosian succession was so very orderly that you could map it out to triple digits. No, "Your candidate is very qualified -- but look again at the forces our candidate brings to the table." The easy assassinations made me think that no House really wanted the throne. They laid the white elephant of being an heir on some expendable and/or annoying person and gave him or her crap security.

Another is that, if dozens of enemy Chaos Lords had Merlinian Logrus, usable in Castle Amber itself, and Trumps that worked in Amber, how did they lose the war?

Artifacts of Amber

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Rewriting the Merlin Series . . . Needing inspiration!
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2013, 12:32:01 AM »
"Jurt: I was always upset that he seemed like such a joke. There was no threat in him searching out Merlin when he was so easily thwarted, even when Merlin was half-awake.

Ghostwheel: Forget giving the old, polar powers sentience, I feel Ghostwheel should have been the climax of the whole thing, as it (perhaps losing its sentience?) became the guardian of Trump, which everyone wanting Trump Artistry would have to essay.

Thematic Focus: Not everyone will agree with me in this, but I think Corwin did more with just Pattern than Merlin did with all the powers in the book. It would have been much more interesting to me if Merlin just had the Logrus and Shape Change. My reasoning is this:
- Luke was a good character, and a good example of Trump artistry. Not everyone needed to have Trump Artistry.
- The Pattern was really already covered in the Corwin cycle...and Merlin never used it! He pattern-walked once or twice, but really if he needed to get anywhere he trumped. Frankly, Luke used pattern more effectively.

//Panjumanju "


Yeah Jurt was sort of the Loser of which all others are but a Shadow. But I don't Mind him for being that niche.

I think Ghost wheel as a concept is cool but as to what extent or ability to gain power would have to be addressed.

Merlin didn't use Pattern much in my mind because he more or less grew up with shapeshift, logrus and Trump. Pattern was just to prove he could do it. He was Corwin's son. Before that all you had was Dara's word. For what it is worth.

It did make Trump artistry more common but I like trump artistry so it plays to my likes :)




RTrimmer

The problem with Ghostwheel without sentient Powers (which I hate) to hound him is that then it's Ghostwheel's multiverse and everybody else just lives in it. Without the Pattern and Logrus upgrades -- and how did he get away with that? -- he's not as bad but still a too-frequently-available personal wish machine for Merlin to use as a crutch.

Spikards are as bad or worse. Everybody not armed with a spikard is more or less bringing a rubber knife to a plasgun fight. The noirish feel of the Corwin books and first couple of Merlin books is blown all to hell. Merlin points his finger and wins, limited only by his desire to not splatter his mum and uncle all over the walls. Suspense is limited to whether or not Merlin allows his opponents to live and perhaps retain a bit of dignity.

You can make both Ghost and Spikards Bad. Ghost now figures that Merlin is his bitch and the ancient powers the spikards draw upon wake up/ get loose/ start sending out psychic spam.


One of the things I didn't like was that most Lords of Chaos were wimpy and boring. Also that the Chaosian succession was so very orderly that you could map it out to triple digits. No, "Your candidate is very qualified -- but look again at the forces our candidate brings to the table." The easy assassinations made me think that no House really wanted the throne. They laid the white elephant of being an heir on some expendable and/or annoying person and gave him or her crap security.

Another is that, if dozens of enemy Chaos Lords had Merlinian Logrus, usable in Castle Amber itself, and Trumps that worked in Amber, how did they lose the war?


Yeah I think Ghost wheel will have to be toned down and not Grow quite so much. A childlike god.

Spikards are much the same, They tie in to my Primal Sources power set as a Portable Primal Source that can draw from other spells stored on Primal sources. I Sort of have those figured out as a Power with cost. and Limitations. They will not be quite what Merlin had but seem like tthat at first. Merlin never had to deal with the consequences of his uses of them. In my game it would e addressed. I like them because I have a place for them, Power wise, Already.

Yeah the that whole succession BS is why I didn't like it. It was way to cut and dry. Amber order of succession was muddier and it had a handful of possible candidates. Chaos would have to have thousands. I thought it made Chaosians seem pretty weak as well.

My Idea of the Pattern fall war was only a few Chaos houses actually tried it was not all of Chaos. Also With Logrus it felt weird and scary near Pattern and put some fear in the Chaosians of how it would work. Merlin is use to the weirdness or has less cause he has both. It comes done more to me making up excuses that are plausible than any real, definitive answer.

Thanks this helps some. Still have to set down and write out some sort of rough plot line. I think it will be what I follow up the present plot with perhaps. My Merlin is on Shadow earth just starting at his job after school so I have some time to plan it out.

Any other ideas?

Croaker

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Rewriting the Merlin Series . . . Needing inspiration!
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2013, 09:30:19 AM »
Well, I don't have much of a problem with sentient powers, especially if they're a mask for someone or something else.

In a way, they're already here in corwin's saga. The Pattern and Dworkin are one and the same (and dworkin is sentient, right?), and we have the unicorn, who is kinda an avatar of the pattern, and which is sentient enough.

So if you have a problem with Pattern vs logrus, maybe think dworkin vs suhuy. Or scrap the war althogether.
Maybe the powers, per se, aren't sentient, but, for exemple, Dworkin is so close to the pattern that it reacts to his every wish, even unconscious ones, making the distinction quite hard to make.

The Spikards are, IMO, at least as problematic. Making them drug-like (addictive, and fatal in the end) is a very first step.
 

Sydius Mendoza

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« Reply #5 on: May 31, 2013, 10:38:19 AM »
Quote from: Croaker;659114
The Spikards are, IMO, at least as problematic. Making them drug-like (addictive, and fatal in the end) is a very first step.

Following that rationale, you could use Spikards as the reason your campaign doesn't follow the Merlin cycle.

The Spikard does such a massive mind-fuck that Merlin as a narrator is suspect. And you have the option as the GM to frame that however you want. Did he lose it at the end? Was his entire story a constructed memory injected by the Spikard(s)? It leaves you with many interesting places to take him as an NPC as well. Is he a thrall of Mandor and Dara? Did his duel with them fry his mind? Was his journey through "Undershadow" really Merlin suffering from a psychotic break?

Using this as the framework, you can cherrypick from the Merlin cycle while being in no way beholden to it. The sky is the minimum, infinity is the limit.
« Last Edit: May 31, 2013, 10:41:49 AM by Sydius Mendoza »
When did ever a dragon die of a serpent's poison?

Panjumanju

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Rewriting the Merlin Series . . . Needing inspiration!
« Reply #6 on: May 31, 2013, 11:55:42 AM »
Quote from: Sydius Mendoza;659125
The Spikard does such a massive mind-fuck that Merlin as a narrator is suspect.


I really like the idea that the reason why everything is going so well for Merlin once he gets the spikard is because this is the drug's influence. His cake walk through a battle or two can be read as hallucination - who knows what actually happens?

This is tempting me to re-read the Merlin cycle and see if this can all fit together.

//Panjumanju
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Rewriting the Merlin Series . . . Needing inspiration!
« Reply #7 on: June 05, 2013, 01:24:33 AM »
I can understand why some people don't like Jurt; but the whole point of the Amber series is family relationships. And Jurt is that idiotic younger brother, who keeps trying to one-up you and never quite manages it, and maybe fucks up his own life in the process of that obsession.  To me, its one of the best written parts of the story.

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Sydius Mendoza

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« Reply #8 on: June 05, 2013, 08:50:33 AM »
Quote from: RPGPundit;660023
I can understand why some people don't like Jurt; but the whole point of the Amber series is family relationships. And Jurt is that idiotic younger brother, who keeps trying to one-up you and never quite manages it, and maybe fucks up his own life in the process of that obsession.  To me, its one of the best written parts of the story.

RPGPundit


I think this is a reason why people hate him so much. He's well written. You're supposed to hate him, maybe even pity him. And I agree completely about family relationships being a core theme in the series. To me it always seemed that the Corwin cycle was focused on "Daddy issues", where as the Merlin cycle was "Mommy issues" for sure.
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RTrimmer

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Rewriting the Merlin Series . . . Needing inspiration!
« Reply #9 on: June 06, 2013, 07:40:23 AM »
I think that part of Jurt's problem is he's the Spare to Merlin the Heir in the Place Our Tool on the Throne of Amber plot. He looks a lot like Merlin, who looks a lot like Corwin (or Eric). Ergo: another son of Corwin.

Artifacts of Amber

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Rewriting the Merlin Series . . . Needing inspiration!
« Reply #10 on: June 06, 2013, 10:05:00 AM »
Thanks for the replies.

I'm still trying to plot it out. Sort of doubt it will be the players plot line but want it to run concurrent with theirs to give the world some depth, like they aren't the only ones "adventuring" / Plotting in Amber. Or in some cases the only victims.

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Rewriting the Merlin Series . . . Needing inspiration!
« Reply #11 on: June 11, 2013, 01:52:26 AM »
Quote from: Sydius Mendoza;660096
I think this is a reason why people hate him so much. He's well written. You're supposed to hate him, maybe even pity him. And I agree completely about family relationships being a core theme in the series. To me it always seemed that the Corwin cycle was focused on "Daddy issues", where as the Merlin cycle was "Mommy issues" for sure.


That's about right. He's an intentionally dis-likeable character.
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