Started my new Campaign tonight

[Artifacts of Amber]

Spent first hour and half explaining a thumbnail sketch of amber the universe and recent Amber history to players.

Did a Silent bidding war which was actually interesting as some players did end up biding each other up unknown who was bidding up whom.

Only weird part is almost every one bid something on all the stats. I use five stats and most of them bid in all five or at least 4 of them. Of course doing that only one got top bids on anything which was endurance.

The players were also bidding against NPC youngers I had created.  explaining why only one got a top bid. I don't use ranking so much as compare actual numbers invested in stats.

Have some interesting ideas. Best so far is a son of Julian who chose him ,based on how I described him as sort of a Butthole. He wanted Julian to have castrated him to keep him from breeding. Guess he sees butthole as a slightly meaner word than I did. I plan to make it sort of an Amber thing and have Julian do it using a power instead of physically.

I also have a possible son of Gerard and a Daughter of Random. Last is of unknown parentage but took pattern so is of the blood.

No one took advanced powers, which is good since they are all new to Amber.

Campaign is post first series about 50 amber years of Random ruling. Elements of the second series used but not the plot so should play out. I am excited to be running Amber again.

We'll see how it goes!

Player Characters

Trace - Possible son of Gerard. An athletic outdoorsy type who loves animals. Somewhat Foolhardy. Thinks of himself asa ladies man. Has Pattern and Conjuration as well as second rank Dexterity and Psyche. With a smattering in other attributes.

Caroline - Is of unknown parentage, A polynesian girl who just likes to relax and hang around but who often has an inquisitive mind if somewhat unfocused. Has Pattern and Power Words. Ranked at least 3rd in most things except Strength.

Rhiannon - Child OF Random. Slightly Goth and tech orientated. HAs some Pattern, Shapeshift and Fixed Logrus (technology Focused). Gets along well with dad and adopted mom Vialle as well as Martin. First ranked in Endurance, smatering of Dexterity and PSyche

Kal - Child OF Julian. Trained woodsman and hunter. Likes Animals as well. Has Pattern and Shape shift. Second In Strength, 3rd in endurance and Psyche and a smattering in other attributes.

[Tolknor]

I also have a possible son of Gerard and a Daughter of Random. Last is of unknown parentage but took pattern so is of the blood.

Just a quick note.  Having a player be a child of Random, thus an heir to the throne, might be more trouble then its worth.  

 Might be interesting to have them think they are a child of Random and find out later they are not, or have them be a child of another Elder and find out later, if they play well, that random is the true father.  Fun and games, eh?

[Artifacts of Amber]

Tolknor

"Just a quick note. Having a player be a child of Random, thus an heir to the throne, might be more trouble then its worth. "

Well since Martin would be ahead of her its not an issue.

Also succession rules are not clear, what examples do we have really. Oberon was the first king (in my game) and then Eric "who assumed" the throne then Random. None of which are family earns the right to rule. This was explained to her. May be the line falls back to the elders. I didn't want a new player with that hanging over their head.


Thanks

[Panjumanju]

The order of succession is important to any game - half of the books were about the legitimacy of Eric's claim to the throne versus Corwin's. However, if you're the child of Random or not really should not matter. You are very far down the line, and at that point you're depending on divine intervention.

It was Zelazny's hat trick that brought out the unicorn to choose a King. If the unicorn can pick an Amberite out of the crowd at "random" (and he was the second youngest of his entire generation) and make him King, then the GM has the same resource.

//Panjumanju

[Tolknor]

Tolknor

"Just a quick note. Having a player be a child of Random, thus an heir to the throne, might be more trouble then its worth. "

Well since Martin would be ahead of her its not an issue.

Also succession rules are not clear, what examples do we have really. Oberon was the first king (in my game) and then Eric "who assumed" the throne then Random. None of which are family earns the right to rule. This was explained to her. May be the line falls back to the elders. I didn't want a new player with that hanging over their head.


Thanks

Oh I didn't say its don't do it!  It can be hilarious!  Certainly the succession is hardly a regular thing.   Its gonna be fought over to be sure.  It certainly can get a character in the middle of the mix fast as people play politics with them.   I had Random squash a bunch of player maneuvering by declaring that he had no heir and who succeeded him would rest on the Unicorn's Horn.  That shut the whole family up, especially the PCs who thought they were going to become Crown Prince.   Of course Random was bluffing and figured he had thousands of years to work out the details.

[Artifacts of Amber]

The order of succession is important to any game - half of the books were about the legitimacy of Eric's claim to the throne versus Corwin's. However, if you're the child of Random or not really should not matter. You are very far down the line, and at that point you're depending on divine intervention.

It was Zelazny's hat trick that brought out the unicorn to choose a King. If the unicorn can pick an Amberite out of the crowd at "random" (and he was the second youngest of his entire generation) and make him King, then the GM has the same resource.

//Panjumanju  
Today 01:00 AM


I guess it is important but not relavent right now. I am more concerned about the players being new to Amber without throwing them into the deep end so quickly. It may at some point become very important so we will see.  

As to if it matters that you are a child of Random I guess that depends on the succession rules.  I like to run Oberon as the sort of bastard who didn't set down any clear cut rules so It may just depend on it coming down to a fight. I want the players to be more experienced in Amber before I start that sort of Plot.



Tolknor, that is more the way I would probably handle it. Random's reign is not like any of the previous two reigns. He is more, I guess, Progressive. He has handed out new titles to the Elders to help smooth things out and sharing the power more than Oberon or Eric ever did. We will have to see if this is a good thing or a bad thing

[Croaker]

In Throne wars, I made order of succession one of the things the players could bid for, giving them more legitimacy and more support form the Amber court.

[Tolknor]

In Throne wars, I made order of succession one of the things the players could bid for, giving them more legitimacy and more support form the Amber court.

That's a nice touch.  I would love to run a throne war scenario.   Need to figure out how to do it though since my players are no longer really near each other anymore.  Pity.

[Panjumanju]

That's a nice touch.  I would love to run a throne war scenario.   Need to figure out how to do it though since my players are no longer really near each other anymore.  Pity.

A Throne War is a very different animal.
Having run a few of them at conventions, I find the more auctions you do at the beginning, the better prepared novice players are at entering the world. First I would look to the auctions Erick suggested: Warden of Arden, Admiral of the Navy, and so on. Order of succession, Jewel of Judgement, even "how well did you know Dworkin? (And how well did he train you?)" is a good one.

Still, when these things are set out early it makes actual play more fast and furious, something that I would not want from a more long-term game.

//Panjumanju

[Tolknor]

Still, when these things are set out early it makes actual play more fast and furious, something that I would not want from a more long-term game.

//Panjumanju

I can see the fast and furious side of it.  In my first campaign i had a very difficult time convincing a couple players that the point of the game was not to pick another of the players and attack them immediately and ruthlessly.   Yet this seems to be the point of the Throne War.  Its interesting reading to be sure.

[Artifacts of Amber]

Ran first session and it went well.

Everyone seems to slowly getting the grasp of playing Amberites. Funniest part is they spent most their time in Amber (and the city) and had trouble getting use to everyone being so obedient and helpful. Usually they have to pull teeth in other games and argue to get officials to do things for them or whatever but here they are the royal family and get treated as such.

Doing a murder mystery sort of thing to start off with as Random has asked that they look into some recent gruesome murders at the request of the mayor/constable in town since it seems to be of a possible supernatural origin. Unfortunately the players/characters are not skilled investigators though they have already done/discovered more than the constable has.

Explaining how some powers work in Amber has been fun as well, They are surprised or amazed at the freedom to create or define how things work. For example I asked one player where she was and she said basically I'm out in a high tech shadow learning how things work there at a school and then she asked me if she was a student or not when I told how should I know I didn't find the shadow she did, she began to see how free she was to define who she was in the shadow and what it was like.

So first session report is things are going well. New players certainly revived my interest as I get to let them explore, not only a New world, but a new style of gaming though they did say it was weird not having any dice to roll


As far as the throne war discussion goes, I haven't run one shots before, only ran campaigns here or at Ambercon (So many years ago).

I can see games were auctioning off positions and such would work as long as the game was centralized around those things such as a Throne War in Amber were those positions have more importance.

[RPGPundit]

Sounds really great, congrats!  Please keep us informed how its going.

RPGPundit

[Artifacts of Amber]

Had another decent Session.

The players are seeming to really enjoy dealing with the ongoing plot of a serial killer in Amber.

They have figured out it is indeed a shapeshifter and probably coming in from shadow to do its deeds.

I got to show everyone what a difficult person Julian can be in my Campaign and to also show how Random is as King.

One player (Trace) is really trying to figure things out powers wise which I enjoy though communicaticating some core concepts on how powers work in my game is proving to be a task. Explaining nuances of reality is not easy. He is having fun with that though.

The one player (Caroline) who has been told or has heard her father is Caine is striving to not be like him while being very suspicous of others so I get to comment about how that reminds her of him, that and he trumps her on occasion just to see how she is doing. She is scared / nervous and excited by his calls.

My only issue right now is the secrecy of some characters is limiting how much effort they are applying to the investigation since they aren't using all the powers at thier disposal. Limiting thier choices. I want them to feel a little more free or at least attempt to check things out behind the others backs.

Also introduced a new player who just joined. A chaosian in Amber. Having fun reiteratting how weird it is things are not shifting and changing. He is a Babe in the woods.  After having all the other players spread points among stats and buy only basic powers this player gets advanced shapeshifting and advanced logrus with only a few points in stats. (yes I give them more points than a 100 but also have a 5 stat system.)

Marcuis - Chaosian Delegate sent top investigate events to make sure Chaos does not get the blame without due process. Advanced Logrus and Advanced Shapeshift. Decent Endurance.



So things seem to be going well. Now to compilcate the plot as the murders are reflected in Rebma and ships start going missing along the Golden Circle routes.

Hope you enjoy the blathering

[Croaker]

Well, I sure do! So please, keep this up!

[Panjumanju]

Now to compilcate the plot as the murders are reflected in Rebma ...

Now that's a great idea.
Good job!

//Panjumanju