Amber takes good Gms and can turn them into great Gms

[Balbinus]

The above line is taken from Pundit's interview, conducted by Mattermeg.

I don't own Amber, so, what is it about the advice in it that's so important?

[TonyLB]

Hrrnn... I'm deeply torn about Amber.  I think it goes a certain distance, but not far enough (or perhaps too far, depending on whether you think people should come to certain realizations full circle or just by not departing in the first place).

Boiled down to its bare essence, I think that the advice Wujcik puts out is this:  "Players are engaged more when the threats are to their character's soul and love and guts than when the threats are to 'Ye Olde Endangered Village'."

And that's good advice.  But I don't see any evidence (in the book, in my limited play with the man, or in his reputation) that Wujcik realizes that there comes a time when you stop cuisinarting the character's soul for a minute and let the player make something of it.  The rulebook pretty clearly advocates the "Hits just keep on comin'!" school of character-oriented conflict, and I think that's a weakness that gets transmitted pretty easily.

A lot of the great Amber stories I hear happen both because of and in spite of the GM ... because he's provided good adversity, but in spite of his constant efforts to pile on more.

Does that help?

[Mr. Analytical]

Off the top of my head, Amber forces you to learn to improvise.  The fact that the characters can travel, at will, to any possible universe means that you can't pre-prepare locations or even NPCs.

There's also the fact that Amber's mostly run by GM fiat.  There's some combat rules, some character creation rules and pretty much everything else is decided, on the spot, by the GM.

So I'd say it's all about improvisation.

[Gabriel]

The above line is taken from Pundit's interview, conducted by Mattermeg.

I don't own Amber, so, what is it about the advice in it that's so important?

It's practical.  That about sums it up.

It doesn't spend chapters talking about theoretical stuff.  It speaks down to earth about tangible and directly applicable GM issues.

[RPGPundit]

There's more than just one thing that helps to make you a great GM thanks to Amber.

One of the keys to it is the lesson that players actually end up enjoying the game more when their characters are suffering than when their characters are gaining rewards.  Short of killing their characters, the tougher you make it on them the more satisfying it becomes for them when they manage to survive, and sometimes get the upper hand.
Its a lesson that many GMs with the "Exalted" mentality of "lets dump tons of 'cool shit' on the players so they'll like me!" really desperately need to get.

Another part of the advice is that matters is in how to frame NPCs, and how to frame the plotline of a game.  The hint being that RPGs are NOT stories, and NPCs are NOT characters; in the sense that you do not figure these two things out first, and THEN run them through in the way you'd figured out imposed upon your players.
Rather, your plot and your characters will be retro-actively filled in by events as they happen.  When you're a really great GM, stuff that you had no idea was going to happen in the game will appear as though you had planned it that way all along, and like it had been a part of the NPCs plans in the game.

But there's a TON of other stuff in there, everything from describing combat to keeping secrets from players, to making it personal to all kinds of other stuff.  Consider that Amber consists of two books that clock in at 250 pages apiece, and easily 50% of the content of those books is GM advice.  Its like taking a fucking PhD in gamemastering.

And like was said; the advice is PRACTICAL, not the kiddie-shit "how to roleplay" nonsense you see in other books, and definitely not the abstract bullshit nonsense you see from the Theory crowd.

RPGPundit