To be or not to be... dead

[SunBoy]

I had this conversation a few day ago about the supposedly-dead Princes of Amber, and I thought it would be fun to bring forth the topic here. So, when you run Amber in some of the novels era, what about the dead Princes? Did Brand die at the Abyss? What about Caine at the beggining of the second pentalogy? Eric is alive, maybe (I've never really considered this one, actually, his death is too great to be blown)? Osric and Finndo? And what about Oberon? I find it interesting, when the players know about the Patternfall War, etc., to instill the shadow of the doubt about Brand and Caine. What about you?

[Arref]

For immortality to have value, I prefer dead is really dead.

[finarvyn]

I think my take on this would be as follows:

If you bring back someone who was assumed to be dead, it can be a masterful means of deception. Players searching for a behind-the-scenes mastermind probably wouldn't expect it, and their surprise when this individual re-appears could be a lot of fun.

If the plan is to revive dead people as the "plot of the week" it would be overdone and would lose any interest to the players. Death would become meaningless. After all, it's hard enough to kill an Amberite in the first place....

[Otha]

If you like the "dead" princes and princesses, I think the best way to explore their character is to set the game during a period of time when they were active.

Bringing back dead princes is pretty cliche.

[SunBoy]

If you bring back someone who was assumed to be dead, it can be a masterful means of deception. Players searching for a behind-the-scenes mastermind probably wouldn't expect it, and their surprise when this individual re-appears could be a lot of fun.

If the plan is to revive dead people as the "plot of the week" it would be overdone and would lose any interest to the players. Death would become meaningless. After all, it's hard enough to kill an Amberite in the first place....

That's what I meant, of course. Some specific character, not god and his nephews. In my campaign, I wasn't sure yet about Caine, but his son looking for him everywhere sure was fun. And Brand... well, he was dead alright, but slight hint of him possibly being still around were fun for a while, too. And hey, clichè is not always bad.

[Otha]

Personally, I like the plot where a not-dead character is impersonating a dead character better.

That being said, in one of my first Amber games, a not-dead Brand was impersonating a dead Corwin.

[JohnB]

I prefer to put the timeline of the game where the various elders are alive, i.e. well before events of the books take place.

I do tend to keep Osric and Finndo alive in exile rather than dead. Once an elder bites the dust in game though, he/she stays dead.