The Great Big Amber Character Idea Thread

[RPGPundit]

One of the qualities of the Amber game is that you can play a huge variety of characters, from a literal infinity of possible worlds.

Let's analyze first, what things will generally be conventions for most Amber games:

1. Your characters are princes of Amber, sons or daughters of an Amberite prince, whether they know it or not.  Or, alternately, they are Chaos Lords, sons of one of the Noble Houses of the Courts of Chaos.

2.  If your campaign is an Amberite Campaign, then your character has to be human. But in a chaos campaign, or if your character is a shapeshifter, he might not look human at all.

3. If your character was raised in Shadow, he was demonstrably "better" at just about everything he did than anyone else he was with growing up. This also meant he was almost certainly "different", whether this difference was treated with awe and worship or with scorn and repudiation, and whether or not he knew his true origins.

These are the things that largely define characters at the start of the creation process.
Beyond that, its largely dependent on the GM's ideas for the game, and your own whimsy.

So lets hear some ideas for odder Amber origins, characters that would be different than the standard "grew up in Amber/chaos, knows who he is" business. Either he doesn't know who he is, or he does but wasn't raised in the conventional way... what kind of characters could you come up with?

RPGPundit

[Lawbag]

Because any character you create for Amber will either be a pale shadow of any exisiting Amber characters or being a variation on Amber characters, it doesnt hurt to play a character who is perhaps the archetypical stereotype.

Each campaign is a whole set of characters, an "Amber Next Gen" if you like, then there will always be a demand for variations of the original "crew" of Zelazny´s characters.

On a slightly different note, Id like to know what Erick´s credentials for making an Amber game are, over and above being the creator of the only workable, and enjoyable, dice-less RPG.

[JongWK]

Your character was raised in isolation: a research lab, a cell, a closed shadow, whatever. You only know what your progenitor wants you to know. Culture shock aplenty.

[RPGPundit]

On a slightly different note, Id like to know what Erick´s credentials for making an Amber game are, over and above being the creator of the only workable, and enjoyable, dice-less RPG.

I'm not sure what you mean here... do you mean his credentials for running an Amber campaign? Only that he's a rumoured to be a really excellent GM and, well, he designed the game.

Or do you mean the credentials for being the guy who wrote Amber, or why his opinion should be taken more seriously than other RPG writers on matters related to Amber?  Well, only that Erick had a personal friendship with Roger Zelazny, and Zelazny explicitly approved of Erick for writing the RPG of his book series.  Given how completely protective Roger was of Amber (to the point that he EXPLICITLY stated that he never wanted anyone else to publish any new novels in the Amber universe), that sounds like a pretty incredible vote of confidence.

I mean, Roger was friends with freaking Neil Gaiman and Michael Moorcock, and he specifically stated that these guys were NOT allowed to write Amber stories.  But he allowed Erick to make the Amber RPG.

RPGPundit

[Otha]

The weirdest game I ever heard of was where the PC's were artifacts; Greyswandir, Morganstern, Frakir, etc.

[Lawbag]

I'm not sure what you mean here... do you mean his credentials for running an Amber campaign? Only that he's a rumoured to be a really excellent GM and, well, he designed the game.

Or do you mean the credentials for being the guy who wrote Amber, or why his opinion should be taken more seriously than other RPG writers on matters related to Amber?  Well, only that Erick had a personal friendship with Roger Zelazny, and Zelazny explicitly approved of Erick for writing the RPG of his book series.  Given how completely protective Roger was of Amber (to the point that he EXPLICITLY stated that he never wanted anyone else to publish any new novels in the Amber universe), that sounds like a pretty incredible vote of confidence.

I mean, Roger was friends with freaking Neil Gaiman and Michael Moorcock, and he specifically stated that these guys were NOT allowed to write Amber stories.  But he allowed Erick to make the Amber RPG.

RPGPundit

Thats just what I was looking for. Knowing Erick has written some very impressive supplements and games over the years, the fact that Roger himself gave his endorsement to Erick is good enough for me.

[finarvyn]

Just to add a thought to Pundit's post, you might have an interesting time if you google Erick's name and find out some of his game designs. In addition to the ADRP game system, Erick is the author of other RPGs such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (based on the graphic novels of the same name) and Recon (a soldiers in wartime RPG), as well as the Mystic China supplements for the Palladium RPG and probably other products which escape my memory at the moment.

In the case of Amber, it's true that Roger himself okayed the ADRP project and gave it his blessing. I consider ADRP to be one step removed from canon and as official as we are ever going to see other than Roger's own work.

In addition to this, Erick has put together some very innovative non-Amber scenarios for convention play -- games involving alien invaders, time travel, and other interesting topics. Having played in his games has been a wonderful experience and shows me that Erick clearly has a neat mind and a great way of expressing his ideas. Now if he would just publish a little faster...

[gabriel_ss4u]

Wow, great info RPGPundit, didn't know the extent of the story on Morcock & Gaimen's exclusion, I like both their works immensely.

to your thread Q:
If it's so that Dworkin mated w/a primal creature (Unicorn), then theoretically, an Amber character doesn't have to been Humanoid, but could be mated w/ whatever the PC would be allowed by GM to fit in the storyline, I'd guess.

Perhaps Oberon fancied some alluring beast too.

I don't see it,but it would be interesting to hear some character ideas on it.

[Uncle Twitchy]

I mean, Roger was friends with freaking Neil Gaiman and Michael Moorcock, and he specifically stated that these guys were NOT allowed to write Amber stories.

And Steven Brust. Brust fairly recently recounted yet again how he and Neil Gaiman asked RZ if they could write any stories set in the Amber universe and RZ told them no.

And if anyone could write like Roger Zelazny, it would be Neil Gaiman and Steven Brust.

[Otha]

So how the hell did Betancourt get permission?

It's a crazy world.

[nomad]

So how the hell did Betancourt get permission?

It's a crazy world.

Betancourt got permission from Zelazny's Estate, Burst, Gaimen and the others are respecting Zelazny's wishes.

[Trevelyan]

I mentioned it in the other thread when this this came up, but the only comment I've ever seen regarding Roger's "hands off"policy towards Amber is this one made by Neil Gaiman:

"Well, I remember Roger talking to me and Steve Brust. We'd just
suggested that if he did an anthology of other-people-write-Amber-
stories that we'd be up for it (understatement), and he puffed on his
pipe, and said -- extremely firmly -- that he didn't want anyone else
to write Amber stories but him."

It's not clear from that excerpt whether they were talking about writing an Amber anthology while Roger was still alive or compiling a posthumous collection. Could it be that Roger was only averse to other authors messing up his setting while he was still around and considering the alleged third series?

Are there any other sources which clarify the situation?

[Uncle Twitchy]

I'm pretty sure it was on his LiveJournal blog that Brust recently mentioned this. He's pretty open to questions if you want to contact him and ask him directly through e-mail (dreamcafe.com is his personal website). He's always answered any questions I've sent his way.