Tried an experiment this time with my new campaign. I work at a printers as a graphic designer, so I've colorized the Kucharski trump drawings in Photoshop and printed Trump decks for my players. What I had each person do this time was draw their parent from the decks. Everyone got one draw plus an additional draw for each Zelazny-based Amber campaign I've run (this being the third, so the three who've been in the previous two got three draws). I reserved the right to veto any draw.
So what I ended up with were: two daughters of Gérard, one daughter of Deirdre, one bastard son of Random, a son of Oberon who has been raised as though he were Random's bastard son (so the one thinks the other is his brother), one son of Eric, one son of Brand, and one son of Bleys (and one player who hasn't drawn yet).
Interestingly, this fits in with a number of the storylines I have planned (particularly the two daughters of Gérard, since I've decided that since Random and Vialle have granted Rinaldo protection, Julian and Gérard have withdrawn from the Castle -- they still patrol the seas and Arden, respectively, but live in the city, so Gérard uses his daughters to keep tabs on what Random is doing).
The other really interesting coincidence is that the players of the children of Eric, Brand and Deirdre have not read the books... so it will be really easy to have them each be raised in Shadow and brought to Amber as part of the early campaign.
If anyone's interested, I'll post my coloring jobs on the Trump drawings.
[Edited to add] Oh, and I chose to do this before the Attribute Auction, which will be Tuesday, in order to let those who have read the books plan the designs for their characters and subsequent backstories accordingly.
I've done this same thing many a time.
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