Lords of Amber

[sir brad]

since New years I've off and on bean running a Amber campaign I've called "Lords of Amber", I opened it with a completely Blind Auction, character sheets are completely secret, only the 1st's know their ranks so far everyone except the 1st of Psyche has kept a lid on where they stand attribute wise.

Characters are:

Lena Riley - Ward of Fiona - Parentage unknown (except to Fiona) - Trump Artist, Queen of Good Stuff & 1st in Psyche.
Anna Brand - Cousin from Afar - Daughter of Brand - Shape Shifter, Logrus user & 1st in Endurance.
Boyd - Genius Bruiser - Son of Dierdre - 1st in Strength.
Tamas Sand - Joker of Swords - Son of Sand - 1st in Warfare
Raynard - Enigmatic Conjurer - Son of Eric - Conjurer & Artificer.

all except Raynard (player has had to miss quite a few group games and cancel most of his solos and make up solos) are about to top 150 points and some are about to earn new appellations.

[finarvyn]

Explain what you did with your "completely blind auction."

I assume that you mean that each person submitted bids but that there were no follow-up bids, but you might have meant that you conducted an auction where folks know how many points were bid but not by whom.

[Panjumanju]

A "completely blind auction"  could also mean players were bidding without knowing how many points they had, or how many players there were, or.....under a blindfold?

All legitimate tactics.

But I agree, clarification is needed.

//Panjumanju

[sir brad]

Round one of the auction I announced the top bid but not by who, after that the players submitted secret bids, every one had to submit bids even if it was a repeat of the last round, the round after the amount stopped increasing even if it was the 1st biding against themselves the auction closed.

in the past I've seen this kind of auction go both ways with players going nuts and over biding at every turn, or folks focusing on the end game and husbanding points for powers and extras. this time the players went the 2nd option.

[Artifacts of Amber]

I'd like to hear how you did yours.

I did much the same holding a blind bid and would like to hear how someone else might have done it.

[sir brad]

Every one gets 4 index cards, top left hand corner folks wright their character name and the Att, top right hand corner they write their name.

under their characters name they start writing their bids even if it's 0 and return the cars to me, in between rounds their is the sprooking, new round the cards get shuffled and handed back out the players who strike out their old bid and place down new bids of an equal or higher amount, this goes on until I'm confidant their will be no new bids and we move on to the next stat or after warfare the next part of character gen that is done in secret.

this time around everyone was rather modest since most of them wanted to take Pattern Imprint or concentrate on powers. other times things can get wilder than open auctions if the paranoia and/or Ambition gets a hold of the players, one time I had someone who had over bid their points allocation by 60 points before he got to powers.

[Artifacts of Amber]

I did mine in a similiar manner but did all the stats at one time which it seemed to make it faster.

Mine might be different as I have 5 stats and use 150 points and already had some NPC youngers created that had static bids so they were bidding against them as well. I just told them in general where they ranked, Top, middle high, middle etc.

No one would ever really know until they went toe to toe in that arena so I kept it more or les in brackets. So to be top you had to fairly clearly beat the other bids.

Of 4 players most bid in at least 4 stats and bid heavily with only one player focusing and getting several powers instead of stats. They are all seeing in game how that plays out.

[RPGPundit]

And here I thought it was going to be about some kind of mashup between Amber and LoO...

[sir brad]

Nah, all the characters (PC & NPC) are all to removed from Oberon or disqualified lines to be called Princes, so their Amberite Nobility not Royalty, I should start posting their original stats.

[Panjumanju]

Nah, all the characters (PC & NPC) are all to removed from Oberon or disqualified lines to be called Princes, so their Amberite Nobility not Royalty, I should start posting their original stats.

Careful none of your players visit the forum.

//Panjumanju

[RPGPundit]

Careful none of your players visit the forum.

//Panjumanju

I'd just not tell anyone about posting them, and then consider those who end up finding them here to have a well-deserved advantage for being dedicated enough to look.

RPGPundit

[Tolknor]

I'd just not tell anyone about posting them, and then consider those who end up finding them here to have a well-deserved advantage for being dedicated enough to look.

RPGPundit

I echo that.  I had a variety of things that gave PCs an advantage if they were clever.

In my Geocities webpage i hid links to secret pages.  Since most my players were not tech savvy enough at the time to check source code or read the HTML level of the page, it meant to find the link they had to actually run the cursor over the link.  

Once they found it i let their characters have the secret knowledge usually with some caveat about the source.  A rumor from Dame Margot, overheard in the Library, grumbles from an ambassador, heard in passing at the Sea View Gardens, etc.   Some of these were useful, some false rumors.

As time went by the players told me they got in the habit of searching new pages i added, rechecking secret pages they knew about, and rereading the addendum pages.  Made me snicker that they took the effort.

[sir brad]

Stat time, much has changed since character creation, on the off chance that the players discover the sight I'll only post them at character creation.

Leana Rehe - Ward of Fiona

Psyche: 50 (1st)
Strength: Chaos
Endurance: Amber
Warfare: Chaos

Shadow Pattern Initiate
Trump Artistry
Sorcery

Family Friend: Fiona

Good Stuff: 3

Born and raised out in shadow, originally from an Information Age Shadow. Fiona claims to have found her by chance when the girl was in her late teens.
for want of a better word Fiona abducted her and put her through decades of prospective time trying to teach her the things she would need when she started her time among the Court of Amber and traveling through Shadow, she would live through the years of her post-adolescence each time with altered memories. But each time she would find her way to the Arts, often Graphic Arts playing a major part in her life.

Her Colours are Maroon and Gold, her mark is the Celtic Knot. She is a young woman in her late teens or early to mid twenties, she has fair skin and her hair is said to be chestnut or auburn that is occasionally changed to Maroon by means both mundane or magical. her eyes are said to be both Green or Blue.

Her Trump is starting to be called "the Dame of Wands" it shows her in a gold timed maroon dress reclining on her side with a spread of trumps before her deck in her hand and a stave across her lap, in the background is an artist easel occupied by a work in progress.

[sir brad]

Tamas Sand - Joker of Swords

Psyche - Amber
Strength - 20
Endurance - Amber
Warfare - 25 (1st)

Pattern Imprint

The Shadow Sword - Deadly Damage (4 points)

Good Stuff - 1

Tamas is the Son of Sand, a Prince of Corilaine who is at this time self admittedly ill suited to assume the Throne should succession be forced, he is a wanderer who ply's the trades of Swashbuckler, Commedic Actor, Acrobat, Prestidigitator, Minstrel, Gigolo and some say Thief and Assassin.

Random has officially (and it is rumored truly) forgiven Tamas's  covert incursion in to the pattern chamber and his unauthorized pattern initiation a few years previous as a show of good will to his estranged sister Sand.

Tamas carries "The Shadow Sword" a blade seemingly comprised of efemoral shadows but able to splay open the hardiest creature or armored man, Tamas can seemingly pull the blade from thin air or out of shadow itself.

His Colours are Black, Steel (Grey) and Gold

His Trump is called "The Joker of Swords" and shows him in a romantic Harlequin costumes in a fencers pose holding the Sword of Shadows.

[Croaker]

good one, evocative and colorful.