Unabated Amber-Love

[RPGPundit]

The Amber-love Continues Unabated

All my campaigns are doing pretty well right now; some of them are fun for a lark, some of them are really exciting, some are very immersive.

But there's no question that Amber, as an RPG, and certainly this current campaign of mine being no exception, is remarkable.

There's rarely any other RPG where I get players sending me countless emails about stuff they want to do, or questions, or things about their characters.
Players bring me images they've found that they think I might want to use in the game.
Players speak about the campaign with a remarkable level of obsessiveness when we meet outside of a gaming environment.

Players write me just to tell me how much fun they've had.
They have conversations with each other, in character, on chats and then email those conversations to me.
They want to play out scenes with me in between the regular game sessions.

This is why Amber is awesome. It takes a group of regular players and turns them all into goddamned obsessives, drawn in completely to the machiavellian soap opera that is the game. It takes immersion to a completely new level.
In my experience, no other RPG even comes close to this level.

RPGPundit

(August 4, 2008)

[jibbajibba]

Only too true, only too true.

[weilide]

Yeah, once you're infected you never quite get over it. Kinda like mono, but in a good way.

[finarvyn]

To me, the rules are remarkable because they are both simple and comprehensive at the same time. They encourage players to try anything and be anything, but give the GM some behind-the-scenes structure in order to guide the game.

Sure, there is that argument about why Warfare dictates skill at chess and swordplay at the same time (for example) but that misses the point that the player is supposed to come up with a concept to play and the rules work that through. I see all of these high-complexity homebrew games and I just don't see the advantage. :-|