How Important are Complex relationships to your Campaign?

[RPGPundit]

In my own games, I would say that 90% of all my campaign's action is based on the complexity of interactions between the elders and the PCs.  To me an amber game is all about byzantine relationships, feuds, conflicts and interactions between the dysfunctional family.

How do you keep track of these relationships? Any handy aides out there?

RPGPundit

[gabriel_ss4u]

LOL!
Keep track?
I dunno.
When it comes to GMing, I seem to remember alot more of what my NPCs do than what I remember my character does.
The NPCs seem to flow for me, I'm good @ matching the right NPCs to the PCs that would interact best with them, be they friend or foe.
I depend on the player notes as well as mine, but for all my charts and records, I have no real set way to track PC/NPC interactions other than me own brain.

However, I agree totally with you. It is the interaction between these august personas that drives the real passion of the game for me.

[Uncle Twitchy]

I keep cheat sheets for each NPC that give a simple one-or-two sentence "how this person feels about that person" entry. For example, in my current campaign, my sheet for Benedict has the following:

Bleys
There’s something wrong here. Bleys is to be watched.
Caine
He is gone.
Corwin
Could still prove to be troublesome.
Fiona
Untrustworthy.
Florimel
Inconsequential.
Gérard
Simple. Needs to get over being mad at Random.
Julian
Pompous, insecure ponce.
Llewella
Pleasant but inconsequential.
Random
Needs discipline.
Martin
Needs discipline.
Merlin
Needs medication.
Dalt
Troublemaker. Will need to be dealt with some day.
Coral
Seems to keep Rinaldo in line.
Rinaldo
Seems competent, but there’s something smarmy about him.
Keyton (PC - Bastard son of Random and some Chaosite -- pre-Vialle)
Random better have him on a short leash.
Sophia (PC - Gerard's eldest daughter)
Has potential. Reminds me of Deirdre, only innocent of scheming.
Thomas (PC - Son of Oberon posing as Bastard son of Random and Amber baroness -- pre-Vialle)
Too cocky for his own good.
Teagan (PC - Gerard's youngest daughter)
Has potential… to be another Flora.
Bernard (PC - Bleys's son)
Much potential in this one.
Nadia (PC - Deirdre's daughter found by Flora on Earth)
Who?

[jibbajibba]

Never run a game where I use any of the elders apart from Oberon and Dworkin.
Don't tend to like games where the PCs have to play second fiddle to uber NPCs never used Bond in in the 007 RPG, never had Aragorn turn up in Merp.
Create a generation of PC and NPCs from the same number of points aim for a dozen siblings ish and if I can't track the relationships between 12 objects, Oberon and Dworkin in my head what sort of GM would I be I mean its only 182 pairs for goodness sake..
Oh and the relations are the game. Sure I have 5 backstories one of which will destroy the universe but they are just settings to allow the realtionships to play out

[gabriel_ss4u]

I like yer method Uncle Twitchy, simple, without that White Wolf feel, think I'll use it too.
(Back to more writing)
I have a list of Chaos Houses and I use a White wolf sounding list stereotypes about what each house thinks of the others - this is for helping NPCs understand where their House thoughts lie.
(I love double entendres!)

(Thought I lost MY GM BINDER with all my stuff, but it's at a friends --- whew.)

[Trevelyan]

I make it up from start to finish based on what the players respond to.

Taking a leaf out of Zelazny's book I start by having elders wandering around doing their thing. I might have two or three chatting in the library and suddenly changing the subject when the PC walks by, or perhaps there is an awkward silence between two previously friendly elders over dinner.

The players either latch on to something and start hypothesising or they ignore it. If I like their ideas then I'l use them, albeit with the odd twist, and if I don't like their ideas but they are clearly interested in the elders then I'll make something up.

If they don't care two figs that Cane and Julian aren't chatting over dinner then I'll pass it off as the result of Caine beating Julian at chess that afternoon and won't worry.

There is no point in developing detailed plots if the PCs don't care about them.

[Rob Lang]

It's about 80% important as much of the story is driven from the relationships the characters make with NPCs and each other.

I use relationship maps to keep track who likes who. Nothing simpler than a load of names in boxes with lines connecting them. The players keep track using contact cards, which are playing-card sized bits of paper with the name of the NPC on and some space to write history or events as they happen.

[Nihilistic Mind]

I take notes of PC to NPC interactions. Keeping scores, mostly, not unlike what the elders can be found doing in their pastime.
I do most of my NPC to NPC work on the fly, unless it's important to the plot, in which case I'll just know, or write it down ahead of time.

In my last story arc I created a genealogical tree of how certain PCs and NPCs were related with notes on how they reacted to each other. It was very possibly the most complex relationship chart/background that I had to come up with for a campaign, and I couldn't have done without it. It helped create a very real and enjoyable experience for the players and myself, and I plan on doing that again.

I have found that the more conflict driven the story options are, the better the campaign turns out, so I keep track of those things I need to remember that may just be background things.

I try to keep my notes sort of loose so that I can complicate or simplify things when necessary. It's all gotta be fluid somehow.

[Arref]

In my own games, I would say that 90% of all my campaign's action is based on the complexity of interactions between the elders and the PCs.  To me an amber game is all about byzantine relationships, feuds, conflicts and interactions between the dysfunctional family.

How do you keep track of these relationships? Any handy aides out there?

Agreed. 90%

I find that as long as the PCs are driving the game, they keep track and flag me with their responses and assumptions they bring to each NPC relationship.

IOW, I can respond to each PC intonation and PC bias by comparing it against the NPC agenda. I have a mental list for NPCs very like what Uncle Twitchy did above.

[multipleegos]

With complex relationships, the game practically runs itself. In fact I go out of my way to make the interplay between characters (PC and NPC) complex. I have cheat sheets like Uncle Twitchy but instead of the WoD-esque list of impressions I write down their major motivations instead. That way I can see when a conflict of interest arises.

[Uncle Twitchy]

I do the motivations at the top of each NPC character sheet, which I lay out exactly like the sample characters in the books -- "Current Objectives" and all that.