Crime of Rebma

[Panjumanju]

I got my copy of Lords of Gossomer and Shadow in the mail two days ago, and without commenting much on the game - because it is not the focus of this post - I found it much easier to read in paper than I did as a pdf, and knocked off most of it throughout yesterday.

It's Jason's afterwards that upset me. I had no idea the Rebma sourcebook was actually finished before it didn't happen. It had ART? It was that far along? I thought it was an incomplete thing, not a fully-complete-stuck-at-the-printer thing! And with the rights hell that is Amber, will we ever seen this entirely complete (and happily, paid for) product? I'm feeling the cruelty of the multiverse on this issue - we should have had two souce books.

Oh, and making a double-book that flips in the middle to share with Tir-na Nóg'th would have been brilliant. Just fantastically brilliant. I'm so sorry this didn't happen...and further to that I'm sorry that Rebma DID happen and it STILL won't happen. It's a to the entire system of Amber Diceless, and I'm very upset about it.

//Panjumanju

[Jason D]

Thanks for the kind words about the project. (One of my two industry heartbreaks.)

Here's a thread where it's discussed in some detail: http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=12720&

and here's the thread where I posted the cover: http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=14836&

[Panjumanju]

Thanks for the kind words about the project. (One of my two industry heartbreaks.)

Here's a thread where it's discussed in some detail: http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=12720&

and here's the thread where I posted the cover: http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=14836&

The cover looked great.
The proposed print run breaks my heart.

For a game that was so successful, in its own strange way, to spawn international conventions based singularly on the playing of that one game, conventions that continue when the game has been out of print for nearly 25 years, I feel like we (as a fan base) were all quite cheated out of official content. But then again, Amber fans are the weird of the weird - the diceless in a diced hobby. There cannot be much market-share in that.

It isn't a mystery where the fault was - in as much as it was anyone's fault, that these releases didn't come to fruition. These things do happen. Life always gets in the way. However, I blame the barbaric complexity of American intellectual property rights laws that we cannot, as a community, have accesses to the material that would allow the hobby of Amber Diceless specifically to grow.

I hope Lords of Gossamer and Shadow can, in some ways, do what Amber Diceless failed to do, and allow the whole thing to grow to its potential.

No pressure.

//Panjumanju

[Jason D]

However, I blame the barbaric complexity of American intellectual property rights laws that we cannot, as a community, have accesses to the material that would allow the hobby of Amber Diceless specifically to grow.

I don't know if it's a particularly complex issue.

If I recall correctly, it was shopped to WEG, Palladium, and R Talsorian by Erick. When none of them went forward with it, Erick licensed it from Roger Zelazny himself, forming Phage Press to publish it.

Erick transferred or sold the line to Guardians of Order, who sold some t-shirts but otherwise didn't do much with it.

Guardians of Order was sold to Sword & Sorcery (a part of White Wolf), but the rights to ADRP went to Diceless by Design.

The Zelazny estate, to the best of my knowledge, has had little to say about the transfer of the game rights from one company to another. I think if any of the rights-holders had made public, "good faith" efforts at a 2.0, we would have a much different story.

Personally, if I had the bandwidth and the rights, I'd happily devote myself to making ADRP 2.0, and bringing at least half of those projects into print.

I'd update the core rulebook, probably with full-color art and high-end production values.

I would then do a second sourcebook akin to Shadow Knight, but it would also incorporate material from the short stories.

I'd (perhaps heretically) publish a Trump deck and include with it rules for how to use the cards in play.

I'd finish the adventure book Cort Odekirk and started, and then do the Castle Amber sourcebook Doug Hulick and I started. (Both of these projects were abandoned when Rebma foundered.) I'd probably expand the latter to include the City of Amber, for good measure.

I'd rewrite Rebma and publish it as a duo-book with Tir-Na Nog'th, under the original title of As Above, So Below.

Then it would be an epic campaign book and some other fun bits, a steady stream of content aimed at invigorating interest in the setting and appealing to the existing loyal fan base.

I can dream, though.

[finarvyn]

Oh, Jason, how I wish you had the rights to Amber. Your vision of ADRP 2.0 sounds a lot like what I would have imagined.

[RPGPundit]

Yeah, what might have been...

On the other hand, this past year and a bit we've seen the biggest gains in publishing related to the diceless system in over 15 years.

RPGPundit

[Jason D]

Yeah, what might have been...

On the other hand, this past year and a bit we've seen the biggest gains in publishing related to the diceless system in over 15 years.

RPGPundit

True. No need to be maudlin when there are now two new diceless RPGs with (assumedly) plans for active support.

[finarvyn]

Oh, I don't mean to be negative. It's just that Amber (the setting) is just so darned cool...

[Jason D]

Oh, I don't mean to be negative. It's just that Amber (the setting) is just so darned cool...

Oh, that comment was primarily directed at myself for dwelling on what might have been, or what can never be.

[RPGPundit]

Oh, I don't mean to be negative. It's just that Amber (the setting) is just so darned cool...

Oh I agree; but for the moment inaccessible.

Mind you I might be biased, but I do think that "multiversal Greek Mythology" is a pretty damn good substitute.

[Jason D]

Oh I agree; but for the moment inaccessible.

I suspect that the reality is that we'll never see another official Amber-based RPG using the diceless rules developed by Erick Wujcik.

If someone manages to get the go-ahead from the Zelazny Estate to do another game, they'll likely pair it with a new game system or something existing and popular.

I've kidded Fred Hicks over at Evil Hat that it'd be nice to see a Fate/Fudge dice set in a amber/shadow/chaos color scheme.

[RPGPundit]

I suspect that the reality is that we'll never see another official Amber-based RPG using the diceless rules developed by Erick Wujcik.

I suspect that you're right, which is very unfortunate.

RPGPundit