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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
And here I thought it was going to be about some kind of mashup between Amber and LoO...
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.
Quote from: sir brad;646607Nah, 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
Quote from: Panjumanju;646687Careful 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
Quote from: RPGPundit;649127I'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.
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.
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.
good one, evocative and colorful.
Anna Brand - Cousin from Afar
Psyche - Amber
Strength - Chaos
Endurance - 35 (1st)
Warfare - Chaos
Shapeshifting
Logrus Mastery
House Support
Good Stuff - 2
The other child of Brand and his Chaos Bride Jasra, far less human in her childhood years than her brother Luke, Anna was was the unfavorite child who was abandoned to the care of her relatives in the Courts of Chaos and not infected with the madding venomous thirst for revenge as was Luke. she was born a shapeshifter but showed little in the way of her fathers gifts, with no active patron and no readily apparent powers she soon found herself forgotten and invisible, as she matured and was raised to be a minor house functionary, she was witness to many confidences and over time intrusted with others, she did learn where the bodies where buried (many times literally) and where the shovels where kept. As she kept her mouth shut and never played her hand she became much liked and trusted earning her many passive patrons in her house.
After Merlin became king of Chaos he made it known that he thought favorably of her for her efforts to help reestablish her brothers (and the new kings friends) standing in their house. Merlin has placed her in Amber to prevent Jasra from pressing Brands Inheritance on Luke's behalf and making herself it's executor, allowing Random a brake on any plots she may be planing with Brands Legacy.
Anna's colours are Brown and White or on occasion Brown and Green with Gold, being a shapeshifter Anna has many forms and when it takes her fancy she can and dose appear as an extremely attractive member of either sex, she dose however prefer to go about in the form of an unattractive, manish looking young woman (on occasion she may look remotely handsome if your in to that sort of thing), her specific description changes often (some times in the same afternoon).
Anna has no Trump in the Amber deck and no known Trump in the Chaos deck. some among Chaos may have a trump of her Chaos form but it is yet to be identified, and it is believed that she has not fully matured yet and may not have yet developed a stable Human Form.
Game has bean going on for a little over a year now, off and on, as it looks like it will be kicking back in to high gear I thought I'd give a vague update.
Leana Rehe still the queen of good stuff and Psyche, she can match or beat the low Psyche Elder Amberites and give some of the high psyche types a run for their money if she plays her cards right, she's stopped putting points in to Psyche since no one will challenge her on that front, she's "ambered" all her stats and even thrown a few points hear and there to little effect in the grand scheam, she's picked up some power words and other magical tricks, some very interesting things to do with Trump and proper pattern.
Anna Brand, still the leader in Endurance has thrown some serious points in to all her stats, picked up a few power words, "Shadow" Pattern and advanced shape shifting and a hand full of artafacts (Trump Deck, Magic Sword ect)
Tamas Sand, for a wile gave up his first in Warfare but has got it back, he was dueling for a first in Strength but gave that up quickly when he realized it had cost him his 1st in Warfare, a few points in to other stats, a magical trick or two and a good supply of Good Stuff.
Boyde's player had to drop out for a bit but is back now, he's still the first in Strength, he has a nice collection of artifacts and a few power words up his sleeve, he's mostly just bean throwing a few points in to stats.
Raynard, our most errant player, though he hasn't formally dropped out he's missed more game play than the character that did, Conjurer, Summoner and Artificer. he's had less and less to do with the main campaign, the other players are treating him like a wildcard, he's stumbled across many secrets and places of power in his travels collecting the materials for his artifice.
Going through some archive boxes and found the Auction Cards and original GM's character sheets for this campaign, what a difference between 100 pt characters fresh from auction and 200ish point characters a year on. you don't see much difference between 100 & 150 points. partial powers get turned in to full powers, attributes get rounded out or emphasized and any new tricks are fairly minor. But at 200 pts noticeable differences in attributes can be seen advanced powers are picked up and all new powers are acquired as well players have created custom abilities of their own. You over look that kind of stuff when the characters have bean slowly developing over a number of adventures.
well now I've found them again I'll post Boyd and Raynard as they where at creation
Boyd - Genius Bruiser
Psyche - Amber
Strength - 25 (1st)
Endurance - Amber
Warfare - 20
Pattern Imprint
The Black Sword - Combat Mastery, Alternative Form (5 points)
Born to Dierdre out in Shadow during Corwin's time as an exile on Earth, raised largely in secret by his mother during their travels. he first took The Pattern covertly in Tir na nOg during Eric's Reagancy. out in shadow he has had centuries to receive a very Amberite education from Swordsmanship to Medicine (that he showed high aptitude for) to time on various forms of ship. he would have many Weapons Masters including his uncle Benedict during his time in the Shadow of Avalon. though of fair strength for an Amberite of his age and an apt warrior he has also spent decades studding various sciences and philosophies and even many forms of Shadow Magic (even though he has little gift for true magic) he has an intellect easily as strong as his body and as sharp as the Black Sword given to him by his mother during the patternfall war.
A tall broad shouldered and highly athletic man he looks like a very masculine less fair version of his mother with blackest hair and piercing blue eyes their is also enough of a resemblance to Corwin that it would be very difficult to not recognize them as close relatives. His colours are Deep Midnight Blue and Bronze, though he also takes his mothers colours of Black and Silver or combines them with his own.
His Trump shows him in black breaches and midnight blue bronze trimmed sleeveless doublet shirtless with bronze trimmed midnight blue braces.
Raynard - Enigmatic Conjurer
Psyche - 10
Strength - 10
Endurance - Amber
Warfare - 10
Pattern Imprint
Conjuration
Raised in Ambers outer provinces by his farther Eric, when his father could find time away from his duties as Reagent Eric was the best father a son could hope for, they would fence, ride and hunt together, Eric would help him with his studies and impart what wisdom he could upon the boy, but he was too often away and for too long. The boy grew in to a stoic loaner of a man found of quite contemplation and his experiments.
Introduced to court at his fathers coronation feast, that night he walked the pattern for the first time, when he reached the center he said "I am leaving now so you can reap what you have sown this day" with that he disappeared in to shadow and would not return to Amber till after the Patternfall war.
His Colours are Tan and Steel (Grey), Raynard is an attractive young man who vaguely posses traits of his farther, uncles and grandfather, he has tan skin and grey hair and eyes. his Trump shows him in breaches and smiths apron standing in some kind of workshop.