Alternate Amber Themes

[RPGPundit]

So the default Amber is a setting where the default is a sort-of medieval, Amberite culture is vaguely medieval european.

But I've run at least two campaigns where the same characters and setting existed with a different backdrop; in one, it presented Amber as a 20th century fascist state (in an alternate Amber ruled by Brand), and the other was Amber presented as an "oriental" setting (with some heavy wuxia elements).

Has anyone else done any other "alternate" Ambers?

RPGPundit

[TonyLB]

I did a lovely little Victorian/Steam Amber with railways off into shadow, an aging, decrepit but nasty Oberon, and the entire family maneuvering socially and militarily to be in a position to pick up the pieces when he finally cacked it.

[Djoul]

I once had the idea of an space-Op Amber. But it was more of a joke. One guy just asked:"what about aliens in Amber?" and whe ended up talking about it and joking.

[Warder]

Sorry for the thread necro, just got my setings fixed after some bad comp hijinks and I've been checking the older threads. This one was nice, so here is my takes on one alternative(heavily borrowed from other works):
-one-shot, the one that almost always comes up in the tv land if the show is even a bit outlandisch. The Mental ward or Asylum. Many of the other players are here with corresponding character traits(f.e. Fiona is the group therapist, analytical and strict, Gerard is the nice guard who never mistreats the inmates, Bleys is the one inmate who everybody is scared of, Corwin is the brooding Asylum director who really wants to get out of it, etc.) The  question that constantly gnaws on the characters seems rather obvious. Are any of the PC's past lived through experiences real? Or is it just one big lie made up by broken Psyche's and frankly group weaved escapism? And how do they escape back(a pattern drawn in blood, finding the way out of a deadly hot and suddently poisonous sewer system, drawing the correct pictures on the walls, while not agreeing with other PC's interpretations)? Welcome to Amber Hills, the Home For The Mentally Unwell.

[RPGPundit]

Crazy!

RPGPundit

[Croaker]

Yeah, I like it

[weilide]

I did a lovely little Victorian/Steam Amber with railways off into shadow, an aging, decrepit but nasty Oberon, and the entire family maneuvering socially and militarily to be in a position to pick up the pieces when he finally cacked it.

Interestingly enough, in vol. 6 of the collected stories of Roger Zelazny includes RZ's responses to a bunch of fan questions. Among other intriguing tidbits, he mentions that steam tech should work in Amber -- it's just never been done so far.

[Croaker]

Oh please!!! I know steampunk (or rather gaslight fantasy) is in the air, but must we see it in Amber too?

Note that, unless Amber rules vary enough, steam tech shoudln't be very efficient. IRL, it wasn't

[weilide]

Well, here's the quote. It's not canon but it does come from RZ directly, so make of it what you will: "Technological level: Yes, on steam-powered devices. But they have never figured into the narrative. [No, on electricity, just as we use it. It may be possible, but has never been employed, with variant units of conductance, resistance, etc. Must be classified as unknown at this point.]" (373)

In other words, my evil scheme to make steampunk the sole and mandatory Amber setting is one step closer to fruition. All the pieces are falling into place...

[RPGPundit]

So they could make, say, a steam engine, but not use it to power a lightbulb.

That would imply that far from creating a steampunk utopia, steam-powered technology would be far LESS useful in Amber, rather than more useful than here on earth.

RPGPundit

[Croaker]

Exactly.
My fear being, of course, that people'd do just the opposite "en masse", just because gaslight fantasy is the new hype

[RPGPundit]

Yeah, and I do agree its kind of stupid. Anyways, if there was to be a place where that kind of ambiance would make more sense in the setting it would be Corwin's pattern-world, not Oberon's.

RPGPundit

[weilide]

Well, there's something rather romantic-sounding about riding a well-appointed passenger train across shadow...

[Croaker]

Yeah, and I do agree its kind of stupid. Anyways, if there was to be a place where that kind of ambiance would make more sense in the setting it would be Corwin's pattern-world, not Oberon's.

:lol: I think so, too.

I seem to recall someone wrote such a setting somewhere, I just can't recall where.

[baduin]

Some Amber-influenced books

Charles Stross - The Merchant Princes series.

http://www.sfreviews.net/familytrade.html
http://www.christian-sauve.com/2010/05/the-revolution-business-charles-stross/

It takes place in a series of alternative worlds connected by a family with a hereditary ability to travel between tehm. There is a medieval America ruled by them, our Earth and a steampunk world with America as a kingdom.

http://www.mostlyfiction.com/scifi/wright_chaos.htm

John C. Wright Orphans of Chaos, Fugitives of Chaos, Titans of Chaos

A series  based on the Amber rpg game of the author, converted into Greek mythology for copyright reasons. Chaos is the good, or mostly good side here. In addition, Chaos consists of four different paradigms, each incompatible with the others. (All creatures of chaos are shapeshifters, but each paradigm changes shapes in very different ways.) Gods of Olympus are the fifth, most powerful paradigm.  Author spends much too much time explaining the interactions of all the paradigms.