Trump Application

[Gavken]

If I were to run Amber then the thing I would want above all is a Trump application that players could install on their PC with an IM client. Players could then contact each other (or GM NPCs for trumps they own) and plot between themselves in downtimes between sessions.

The GM would be able to grant new trumps (as they were gained by a player) and trump abilities (if a player developed one). Additionally the GM would have a log of all the conversations between players so he could see all the plotting going on.

As most of my players also have laptops in the gaming session then they could also use it to plot during game time.

Now I can see a few pitfalls with this approach, but what do the dedicated Amberites on the board think of such an idea?

[Evermasterx]

If I were to run Amber then the thing I would want above all is a Trump application that players could install on their PC with an IM client. Players could then contact each other (or GM NPCs for trumps they own) and plot between themselves in downtimes between sessions.

The GM would be able to grant new trumps (as they were gained by a player) and trump abilities (if a player developed one). Additionally the GM would have a log of all the conversations between players so he could see all the plotting going on.

As most of my players also have laptops in the gaming session then they could also use it to plot during game time.

Now I can see a few pitfalls with this approach, but what do the dedicated Amberites on the board think of such an idea?

I think it seems a good idea. How do you manage someone spying or blocked comunication (like in a barred shadow)?

[jibbajibba]

For my online game (Spoken Truths see thread)
I used a Wiki with the ability to customise access control in each thread. The Players initiated trump contacts between each other and those threads were only visible to them , to me and of course to anyone that I wanted to give access to.
It seemed to work really well.
Of course the issue with an internet based game is that player A inititiates a trump call to player B who is out on vacation  for a week...

Overall though I thought it worked pretty well but the other players will have opinions so you can ask them on the thread.

I also built a trump app for the PCs to do readings ... here
http://www.jibbajibba.com/amber/trumpreading/

In the past I used a chat server to run trump readings but the asyncronous nature of play meant it wasn;t too useful.

[Gavken]

> I think it seems a good idea. How do you manage someone spying or
> blocked comunication (like in a barred shadow)?

If a player was in a blocked shadow at the end of a session the GM would be able to set the player to blocked via the GM interface.

Players who were not online would send a not answering response to the Trump person.

The problem I have with this all is advanced Trump powers like Trump spying or forcing a Trump call. I suspect that I would need to tell players that if that want to do that they would need to do it during a session.

[frivminiclip]

Nice app thanks works for me now.

[RPGPundit]

This is a neat idea, but as others have mentioned would take a lot of oversight and careful planning and attention.  I know that my own players (in any of my campaigns) would have gone absolutely apeshit with this.  Of course, in Trump conversations there would be a lot of times when I as the GM might have to interfere in some sense or another, possibly causing a lot of effort and delays in this sort of concept.

RPGPundit

[Brent Not Broken]

I think you can get most of the way there (at least, in all the ways that matter to me personally) with something like Skype. I do a lot of games online these days over Skype, with one or more "main" text channels for the game (depending on how split up the players are at any given time), a channel for OOC chatter, and smaller channels as-needed for side conversations, like Trump calls. These side-convo channels are just the people talking, plus the GM.

I'm not sure I see a need for a GM ability to control who players are allowed to contact at any given time, or to be able to cut off access to players in Trump-blocked Shadows or whatever, but that's a trust issue that differs from group to group and is currently going pretty well for me. (The only reason I put the GM in private conversations between PCs is to be in the loop, and so occasional curveballs take everyone by surprise. If the GM's only around when some NPC Trump Spy is secretly listening in, or when some PC needs game mechanics adjudicated [like, say, preparing to fire a nasty spell down the Trump connection or whatever], the GM's presence is a giveaway unless it's a normal, all-the-time thing.)

I'm really not sure I'd try for something like this in a gather-'round-the-table game. I try to keep computers and smartphones out of those because they're notorious distractions, and I think if players need to scheme privately "over Trump", they're probably better off just stepping out into the next room for a moment. Trump conversations have always seemed more to me like face-to-face conversations than anything else (despite the distance, you can literally just reach out and touch someone if you like), and it seems silly to represent them as text-based chat when everybody's already in the same room and face-to-face conversation is an option.