GMs --- who is your favorite elder Amberite to run as an NPC and why?

[Fightzombies]

Personally, for me, it's a toss up between Gerard, Flora, and Julian.

1.)  Gerard mostly because of what I've done with the character, not Zelazny.  In quite a few campaigns I've explored Gerard, trying to make sense of the "good guy" in Amber.  I don't use him as a dumb jock or simply a muscle bound imbecile.  He can be perceived as both things, but this is a guy who lives with an absolutely deceitful, rotten family and still tries to love and care for them anyway.  Is it because he doesn't know anything else (or nothing else is real)?  Is it because he's loyal to a fault?  Is it because of some special care he received from Oberon (doubtful)?  Either way, Gerard often takes a self-perceived high road:  He admits that he's not the smartest or the quickest, but he is the most honorable and loyal (to the point of rage and displays of brute force).

2.)  Flora because she's the most human Amberite, at least to me.  I play her as pretty, vain, and decadent.  Her personal safety and security is very important to her, and she's not nearly as dumb as she lets on (that's a security measure!).  Pretending to be a non-threat is her standard course of action.  But I always play her as full of surprises.  If pushed to the wall, she can be quite resourceful.  But ultimately she's human.  She just wants to get by.

3.)  Julian because he's a multi-dimensional asshole.  I run him as a bit of a prig, specifically when it comes to those journeying through Arden.  He delights in tormenting youngers with his Arden "rules" and how they've broken them (even if they're likely not aware of the rules beforehand).  The weaker youngers he captures and only releases once promises/info/apologies have been offered.  But all this rulership over Arden is something of an overcompensation, a desire to be perceived as powerful.  Julian is wittier than Gerard, but he's mostly overshadowed by his other siblings, and so he has to get his power from somewhere.

[RPGPundit]

I love Bleys. He's the biggest doublecrossing shithead of them all, and yet he fucks you over with a smile and you end up trusting him again every time.

Caine is almost as cool, but with Caine the coolness comes from the fact that you KNOW he's going to fuck you over, but he finds a way to make it seem like he's your only option. With Bleys, on the other hand, the guy will make you BELIEVE that this time it'll all be different, and you convince yourself that he's really on your side "this time".

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[Uncle Twitchy]

That's the difference between good stuff and bad stuff right there -- I always assign Bleys a lot of Good Stuff and Caine at least a point or two of the Bad. (For this current campaign, I'm not assigning him any -- thanks to Rinaldo...)

My personal favorite is Julian -- for much the same reasons Fightzombies says. Whenever I feel the need to criticize what the players are doing, I have Julian take them down a few pegs... and he's almost always the first Amberite I think of when I'm assigning Devotees.

[gabriel_ss4u]

So hard to pick a favorite...

Fiona gets away with being queen bitch, Gerard gets away with being perceived as 'slower', Caine to me is the ultimate ninja/covert operative. Random is clever and funny, quite the prankster, and Eric is an even bigger asshole than Julian, (especially when I play him in his Cardinal Richelieu persona / Pope of the Church of the Unicorn) Deirdre is tough yet sultry, Benedict learns so much with his silence.
They are all great. I guess Random and Caine are my 2 favorites, with Flora & Fiona a quick next.

GOOD QUESTION

[Croaker]

Dworkin. Mad, unpredictable, sage, aloof... I love him

[Jefferson Krogh]

I <3 Fiona.  I can't help it.  The others play the game; she plays with the game.

[Crimson]

I like Brand. I always get a kick out of the 'Evil Madman'.

[Nihilistic Mind]

I like Brand. I always get a kick out of the 'Evil Madman'.

By 'evil madman', you must mean 'true visionary'

Brand, Dworkin and Oberon... They offer some of the best surprises in my games and are always fun to play.

[PantherShade]

Dworkin & Suhuy.
Are they insane, or very clever?  Is it all an act, or are they really spacey?  Have they tapped into incredible power, or lost it?  Are the events of the past (before Oberon) really as they say, or just something to throw off everyone?

It's great when they cooperate on a project....

[Trevelyan]

Absolutely Random. He has the advantage of being the king, which adds weight to his "suggestions", but when he's chatting to the PCs he can totally relax and talk like one of the guys, so I don't have to think too hard about characterisation or justification. It's perfectly reasonable for Random to say something like:

"I know you don't really want to help me out here, but I'm asking you. I really hope I don't have to order you. And it's not that I don't appreciate the problems it'll cause you, it's just that I can't deal with it myself and there's no one else I trust to do it for me. So be a pal, help out and I'll see if I can't make it worth your while when the job's done."

OR

"You don't know what's going on? Hell, most of the time I don't know what's going on! What do you expect me to do about it?"

When any other amberite would be more enclined to hint at secrets, alude to rewards and so on. Playing Random is a guile free escape from normal Amberite behaviour. Of course, Random can still outright lie, he just isn't cagey about it.

[RPGPundit]

My personal favorite is Julian -- for much the same reasons Fightzombies says. Whenever I feel the need to criticize what the players are doing, I have Julian take them down a few pegs... and he's almost always the first Amberite I think of when I'm assigning Devotees.

Really? I've always played Julian as a deeply repressed little prick who doesn't play well with others.
I mean think about it: the dude spends all of his time hanging around his forest, where he's in ABSOLUTE CONTROL, where he isn't outshined by every single one of his brothers, where his created-minions actually think all his little toys are cool and not a pathetic attempt to cover up for his utter inadequacy, and where there are no women... hmm....

RPGPundit

[RPGPundit]

So hard to pick a favorite...

Fiona gets away with being queen bitch,

Someone, I don't remember who but it might have been Erick himself, gave me some excellent advice on how to run Fiona once: she's a spoiled 9 year old know-it-all who never grew up. Deep down inside, she's still that girl that was always smarter than all her schoolmates and who loved bossing them around. Emotionally, she's not very mature at all, even though she's an intellectual giant.

Gerard gets away with being perceived as 'slower',

I don't think its an act. I think Gerard really is slow, but sometimes manages to convince people that it just might be an act, even though its not. He knows that he can't beat out his brothers at plotting or thinking, but he can beat them at being strong and good, and knows enough about just how utterly paranoid they all are that he can play on that a little to leave them uncertain about just how dumb he is.

Eric is an even bigger asshole than Julian, (especially when I play him in his Cardinal Richelieu persona / Pope of the Church of the Unicorn)

Eric is the exact OPPOSITE of Julian, and thus they are both similar in certain ways, and both characters you love to hate.  One is the social retard, the other is a social-genius.  Julian is the weird kid who never fit in anywhere and took to being anti-social as a result; whereas Eric is the guy who was always popular, always charming, everyone loved him:  parents, teachers, old ladies, young children, animals, and of course the girls. Eric is so utterly charismatic that you can't help but hate him out of envy that (unlike so many of the others) he did "nothing" to earn what he's got, he was just "born with it" (even though in fact that's not true at all, and Charm is as much of a skill that requires practice and training as swordplay or hunting or anything else).

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[Nihilistic Mind]

I lol'ed.

I admit that Julian is the NPC I bring in when I need someone for the PCs to absolutely hate and despise. If Eric is still alive in whatever storyline, he usually does the trick... So does Corwin, once in a while...
Wait, Caine too. And Random of course...

Well, anyway, I can usually portray Julian as being a total douchebag to the NPCs with great ease. It's useful.

[Uncle Twitchy]

Really? I've always played Julian as a deeply repressed little prick who doesn't play well with others.
I mean think about it: the dude spends all of his time hanging around his forest, where he's in ABSOLUTE CONTROL, where he isn't outshined by every single one of his brothers, where his created-minions actually think all his little toys are cool and not a pathetic attempt to cover up for his utter inadequacy, and where there are no women... hmm....

RPGPundit

See, as far as I can see, none of that invalidates my own interpretation of Julian. I see him as the Black Adder (sans Baldrick, Percy or George) of the Amberites -- and his personality reflects that. He thinks he's entitled to more than he has, he lords it over Arden because he can't in Amber, and when he is in Amber, he acts like he's in Arden to overcompensate.

Or, for that matter, he's Dr. Cox on SCRUBS. Again, same thing.

And the reason he's usually my choice for assigning an Amberite Devotee is because a) the younger generation are all scared of him usually -- at least, at first, and b) he's desperate to have someone other than Gérard or Caine on his side... but he doesn't want them to know that he's on their side, because that might show his weakness.

[gabriel_ss4u]

Eric is the exact OPPOSITE of Julian, and thus they are both similar in certain ways, and both characters you love to hate.  
RPGPundit

I agree with your basic idea of Eric, My colored perseption is of the years of my GM playing him towards my NPC - Gabriel, son of Corwin.
He was always a dick to me.
This is why i have that outlook. This is why Gabriel tends to steer clear of him.
Being 1st in warfare in my Gen. Uncle Eric doesn't tend to take it light on Gabriel.

But true, when playing him, his charisma is astounding.