Amber not using ADRP

[JRC]

Oh dear, I m going to sound like a real party pooper.

I think your idea is great, however (Sorry) the current sketch you have described is more in line with a good board/card game and not an RPG.  It could be really good for an RPG if the balance is there.  My concern, perhaps unfounded, is that somebody will create a character they want to play, then when it comes down to the cut and thrust they are always hamstrung because other players are hoarding all the cards they need.  This would be very frustrating and make for a poor RPG. This of course assumes there is only one deck shared amongst everyone, if each player has a personal deck then I have no problem.  There could be no problem with only one deck depending on how well and efficiently it is recycled.

I would love to now if this has been play tested and how well it worked.

Game mechanics is really difficult to get right and I really like your idea

[jibbajibba]

Oh dear, I m going to sound like a real party pooper.

I think your idea is great, however (Sorry) the current sketch you have described is more in line with a good board/card game and not an RPG.  It could be really good for an RPG if the balance is there.  My concern, perhaps unfounded, is that somebody will create a character they want to play, then when it comes down to the cut and thrust they are always hamstrung because other players are hoarding all the cards they need.  This would be very frustrating and make for a poor RPG. This of course assumes there is only one deck shared amongst everyone, if each player has a personal deck then I have no problem.  There could be no problem with only one deck depending on how well and efficiently it is recycled.

I would love to now if this has been play tested and how well it worked.

Game mechanics is really difficult to get right and I really like your idea

If you could only horde 1 card (maybe 2 if you had a particular skills) and had to repick the rest for each scene. That might work.

[warp9]

I'll always remember one email conversation with Erick. His opinion was that People playing Amber with dice had not understood what Amber was about. I agree...

I'm not a big fan of randomness in most games I play. And I tend to see things as skill being more important than mere random chance.

That being said, there are all sorts of ways to work a game with dice, some of them being much less random than others. For example, d20 produces a more random result than a  3d6 bell curve. The relative bonus between different stat levels is also a big factor.

Basically, I don't have a problem with playing Amber with dice, as long as the element of randomness is kept to a reasonable limit.

[finarvyn]

I've often considered using the card system from Castle Falkenstein's supplement "Comme Il Faut" to run an Amber game. I'll have to dust off my copy and check to see what suits they use.

[Jason D]

Oh dear, I m going to sound like a real party pooper.

I think your idea is great, however (Sorry) the current sketch you have described is more in line with a good board/card game and not an RPG.  It could be really good for an RPG if the balance is there.  My concern, perhaps unfounded, is that somebody will create a character they want to play, then when it comes down to the cut and thrust they are always hamstrung because other players are hoarding all the cards they need.  This would be very frustrating and make for a poor RPG. This of course assumes there is only one deck shared amongst everyone, if each player has a personal deck then I have no problem.  There could be no problem with only one deck depending on how well and efficiently it is recycled.

I have a half-dozen RPGs on my shelves that use cards as randomizers. Among them include the SAGA versions of Dragonlance and Marvel Superheroes, Castle Falkenstein, Lace & Steel, Psychosis, Deadlands, and a few others.

I believe that all of them use a shared deck.

I don't own them, but Dust Devils, Aces & Eights, and a couple of other Western games use card decks.

I've seen homebrew games that use multiple personal decks, and they were inevitably disasters.

I would love to now if this has been play tested and how well it worked.

The rough mechanics were playtested with some friends. They're derived in part from extensive experience playing those games listed above, as well as a rune-based game I am working on (which has also been playtested extensively).

Game mechanics is really difficult to get right and I really like your idea

I have a little bit of experience designing, playtesting, and writing for games, including Amber, A Game of Thrones, Battlestar Galactica, Conan, Silver Age Sentinels, Dragon Lords of Melnibone, Supernatural, Serenity, The Lord of the Rings RPG, The Laundry, two shipped MMORPGs (one of which has over eight million users), and four canceled MMORPGs (canceled for money reasons, not design).

[RPGPundit]

I ran one  campaign where I did character creation via  a random process using cards.

Apart from that I've never run Amber with any non-random system.

RPGPundit

[Croaker]

I have a little bit of experience designing, playtesting, and writing for games, including Amber, A Game of Thrones, Battlestar Galactica, Conan, Silver Age Sentinels, Dragon Lords of Melnibone, Supernatural, Serenity, The Lord of the Rings RPG, The Laundry

That laundry... Any relation to Charles Stross works?

[Jason D]

That laundry... Any relation to Charles Stross works?

Yes.

[Croaker]

GREAT!!!