Is it the "A", the "DRPG" or both?

[RPGPundit]

What is the most important part of the Amber Diceless RPG for you? The part that makes it most appealing?
Is it the "Amber" part, the "Diceless roleplaying game", or is it both equally?

RPGPundit

[Gavken]

For me its definitely the Amber part of it. I could quite happily play Amber with dice mechanics and not feel particularly lost, though the dice mechanics would have to be the right fit for the game.

[RPGPundit]

For me its mainly, by far, both.  However, I can see myself (obviously) doing "Diceless role playing" without Amber; while I cannot see myself ever doing Amber without "diceless role playing".

RPGPundit

[Sydius Mendoza]

Good thread topic.

The "A" is what draws me in. The series has been a favorite of mine sine the first time I picked up Nine Princes in Amber. Zelazny completely blew my mind (still does BTW), and set the bar for what I define as great sci-fi/fantasy writing.

The diceless system is interesting, and at a high level I understand why DRPG is probably the best system for roleplaying Amber. The ranking system reflects the way Amberites compare to each other. Which is the only important comparison that can be made. Nothing compares to a lord or lady of Amber, but a lord or lady of Amber.

[finarvyn]

It's the "A" that attracts me the most.

I've run non-Amber games which were based on house-rule derivatives of Erick's diceless rules mechanic. They were fine, but could have been run using a number of other game systems. The blend of "A" with "DRP" is a nice one, but Amber is the key for me.

I would buy almost any rules set if it said "Amber" on it, much the same way that I bought the "Solomon Kane" books for Savage Worlds even though I don't like Savage Worlds. Sometimes the setting is so cool that I have to buy the book no matter what rules are used.

Just my two coppers.

[Panjumanju]

As much as I love the books, I wouldn't be as interested in the game if not for the rules. Only this set of rules really brings out the setting - I can't think of anything else that wouldn't be something less of an experience. It's the rules-setting harmony that makes me regard it as one of the very best roleplaying games I've ever played.

Like Pundit, I wouldn't Amber without Diceless, but I would Diceless without Amber.

//Panjumanju

[Gavken]

Don't get me wrong I think that the DRPG is a perfect fit for the Amber setting but I could think of other non diceless systems that would do it just as well. Equally I think it would be much harder to do using dice as too much randomisation would spoil some of the core concepts in Amber.

I'm not sure that I would use the Amber DRPG system for other non Amber games though.

[jibbajibba]

Amber was one of my earliest self found fantasy books. I had read LotR etc before but though my mother ot uncle really but when I found Nine Princes in the school library it was a revelation and immediately began to feature in my early RPG play.
So I was in short playing Amber with AD&D rules and then versions of Runequest or self built systems before DRPG.
A mate and I even created our own Amber game that was co-incidentally diceless, though diceless complex as opposed to diceless simple (combat resolved through skill + stacked opposed maneuver) Shadows with a Traveller style hexadecimal defintion that you coudl tweak with Pattern as you shadow walked etc.

The diceless mechanic is perhaps even an over grandious way of describing the rules engine. But the Attribute auction is absolute genius possible the most evocative character design process for any game. The only thing that compares to it at all is the Traveller Career paths system.

[RPGPundit]

Don't get me wrong I think that the DRPG is a perfect fit for the Amber setting but I could think of other non diceless systems that would do it just as well. Equally I think it would be much harder to do using dice as too much randomisation would spoil some of the core concepts in Amber.

I'm not sure that I would use the Amber DRPG system for other non Amber games though.

Well, I hope you find Lords of Olympus sufficiently innovative to give it a try...  That goes for everyone.

RPGPundit