Spoken Truths - Amber PBM

[jibbajibba]

It was suggested on another thread here that Stuff had so many elelments that the game might like to handle them differently. I read the posts, was unconvinced by the idea of attritional Stuff (or was that ablative stuff, welll whatever).
I didnt; liek the idea of stuff being used to denote phyical attractiveness because amberites are all beuatiful, 'because Dworkin drew them that way ' .
However, I did think that spliting stuff into luck and reactions might work.

So .... You can have a total of +/- 10 in Stuff but you can split this between two flavours of stuff. Reactions and Luck. Each work as you would expect and mirrors the standard stuff rules in the game.

+/- 10 is both the total and the maximum for any single stat.

I will express it as Reactions/Luck  so -2/-1 or even -2/+2

As an aside I tend to have luck influcencing micro and macro level so in my game Merlin woudl definitely have luck bad stuff as from a macro level just about everyone was out to get him. But from a reactions perpective he has reactions good stuff as most people he meets seem to like him well enough. so make him a +2/-3 stuff guy.

[Logos7]

Did you want the first round to include all the stats , or one at a time. Should i be submitting my bid for just strength or all the stats.

Thanks

[jibbajibba]

Did you want the first round to include all the stats , or one at a time. Should i be submitting my bid for just strength or all the stats.

Thanks

All the stats in each round. Otherwise we will still be bidding in November

But a fair and reasonable question.

So far so interesting. The format makes for some interesting bids

[Stormwind]

Another question for you jibbajibba, something that recently occurred to me:

Do Oberon's Chaos spawn get to take positions in the Sanctum if they have sufficient political influence?

[jibbajibba]

Another question for you jibbajibba, something that recently occurred to me:

Do Oberon's Chaos spawn get to take positions in the Sanctum if they have sufficient political influence?

Yes they would. There are some caveats here. Basically the Sanctum positions are permanent and so the holders need to be resident in Amber. If that is the case then PI can secure a postion.

The way the sanctum positions will be determined is like this

i) All those players who have a PI score get to select a Santum position if they wish. We start with the highest socre and work down.
ii) Once all players with a PI score have selected then any other players who want a position can nominate themselves for it. Then all sanctum holders can vote (blind) for all the candidates.
iii) I will then assign some key NPCs to roles.
iv) I will leave some roles free and players with High PI can put their allies forward for positions. If ther eis a conflict we will do a vote.
v) I will fill any remaining positions.

Remember Dukes and Masters in the Sanctum do not get votes only Wardens get votes (so you can't fill the lower orders with stooges to push your plans through).

I will put a definitive list of positions and responsibilities on the site in the next couple of days but it will vary very little from what is htere already (names and responsibilities of some masters and dukes will be all that changes)

[jibbajibba]

Okay i am calling time on round 1. If you didn't get a bid in in time sorry but need to press on.
Will PM everyone with the relevant bid results and next sets of bids in by Saturday 8th.

[Locathus]

Wow - I was surprised that the top Psyche bid was so low...maybe it is time for me to make a mentalist?  

[gabriel_ss4u]

hey... lets not start auction hyping on this thread, start a separate one for that please.

[Locathus]

I suppose I could - I was mostly trying to get some chatter in this thread - it's been spooky quiet recently.

[jibbajibba]

Hehe it has been quiet.
This week I am travelling - have my blackberry but the blackberry web protocol is crap and I seem unable to post PMs so just get those round 2 bids in and I can still answer any forum question.
SunBoy that was just a typo the answer is 34.
We have our last PC name as The Git is playing Tristram.
What I would like posted here are some history bits. The ones on the site are the kind of thing. They can be single events longer tales and you can colude and post shared ones. All decent stuff gets extra points so start posting. Don't worry about continuity I will edit tweek and fit together

[Xenon]

ok, i can think of some history here.

The Winter Famine

One year (about a century ago) the crop in amber was very poor due to an infestation of pests, and the harvest in the rest of the golden circle was not that much better. food prices rose, as there was simply not enough grain on the market. Even castle Amber felt the impact, which reduced their larder considerably.

Gregory and one of his brothers (any volunteers?) acted to solve this problem once it was clear that there would not be enough food in the city to feed everyone. Gregory headed out into shadow, and then contacted his brother by trump. through the trump, they moved sacks of grain from shadow to Amber quickly, enough to stave off starvation. Gregory then pulled his brother through into shadow, and the two of them brought a large cargo of grain to amber, one by cart and the other by ship.

While the winter was well remembered for the poor selection of food, there was enough grain for all to eat, avoiding the worst problem of the winter. The winter frost killed off the pests that had ruined the harvest, which seemed to have come from a much warmer shadow.

not all invaders from shadows are armies, some are only insects, but they can cause great harm all the same.

[Logos7]

Caleb hunched over the forge, the town had been abandoned for about an hour now, ever since he had come down from the mountain. It was the first time Caleb had come down from the mountain in ages, and he had scared the slight and little folk of this mountain valley beyond their ken. They knew of a mountain spirit, known for its strength, and had made regular sacrifices to it.

This had kept Caleb, feed and clothed for centuries. In return he applied his knowledge of mountains and forests, clearing dead falls, channeling off rain slicks, and in general being alone.

But now he had an idea, And Caleb squated over the tiny iron forge with his hammer in hand, not quite sure how to proceed. Caleb knew nothing of smithies or metallurgy, but taking a bar in one hand, and the hammer on the other, he used his strength, strength far beyond mortal heros and especially beyond the little folk and started working the metal. As his Hammer blows warmed the metal ,Caleb remembered his years on this mountain, and before that.... The Daring Feats he had done, as a god in the flesh, the kings wives he had slept with, the monsters he had defeated, the wisemen he had befuddled.... All except one.

The Hammer settled into the rhythmic pattern, its noise scarce heard by Caleb, but sounding out a terribly beat to the villagers. They said the mountain itself was angry, that thunder came from its anger and was punishing the village. That a angry and vengeful god had awoken...

The metal was hot, but Caleb did not care as he began folding it , at times with his hammer, at times with his bare hands. He had gone to befuddle a wiseman, as he was wont to do when he was younger, and the wiseman had befuddled him. "If you are god, what are you a god of? A god of Arbitrary values, of arbitrary deeds, of arbitary things. A real god would have to be of permanent values, permanent deeds, permanent things. Show me what you are that is not arbitrary, and I will call you a wiseman, until then, no matter how strong, keen, or wicked you are, you are no more than the sum of opinions of the people, a wind amoung empty minds, a drop of water in an ocean of chaos. "

This had bothered Caleb, because he wanted to say that what he fought for was good, that what he accomplished was deserving, and that what he lived threw was real. But he knew the lie on his tongue as soon as he tried to speak it, and thus he went up the mountain, and talked with the old man until he died. He had kept and taught and spread the man's thinking for a time, until eventually, like the man said, He could keep no more, Teach no more, and spread no more. He thought about this for a long time, there was something, he was sure of it. the proof was himself, it was in his blood, his immortal nature, his godlike strength, surely these things mean something.

The Hammering stopped. "This is what this means, this is it" Caleb stood holding a puzzle box, made out of cold wrought iron.  Following the intricate turns and twists of the puzzle box, Caleb saw that this was not just an arbitrary pattern, but the pattern...

The small people of this small mountain town returned towards dark, Their homes were in one piece, their town saved, but they felt the absence. The Mountain God was gone, they knew it. They still left sacrifices, but small things, things not to appease a vengeful god, but to remember him by.

[SunBoy]

He was laughing now, his back against the wall, his feet on a stool. His studio was littered with half-finished origami figures and papers covered in all kinds of scribbles: partitures, strange formulae, to-do lists from a few years ago, strings of numbers covering many lines, weird diagrams... Constantine, prince of Amber, mad scientist of a thousand shadows, looked at his old battered violin and felt a small nag of frustration obscure his joy.

"Whatever", he muttered to himself, "it doesn't matter if I can't play it. What does matter is that it can be played, and that means I got it right this time!" He laughed contentedly again, puffing on his pipe.

He had spent the last three months looking for athe answer to the problem, and he had finally found it. He had double proof already. If Elaine was able to play it, and it sounded right to her, then the math was perfect. Of course, the "musical test", as he liked to call it, was secondary... he didn't understand that much about music. "But the numbers add up, at last!".

His smile turned to a wicked grin remembering Charlie. Well, Charles Strawski, PhD, to be exact. "Ha! Twenty eight years looking for that solution, eh? No starry-eyed youngling with high ambitions could find it, right, Charlie boy? Ha. Tosser"

He placed the sixty-four pages of formulae on his work bench and nailed a piece of toilet paper in the door, to act as a reminder to get it to the campus the next morning. His working pipe tasted like ash by now, so he put it down and started to fill a fresh one, a beautiful epume-de-mer pipe, carved in the shape of a unicorn's head. His victory pipe. He lit it slowly, notching his proverbial belt. Three hundred and forty six "unsolvable" equations in the last three years, almost every one of them from different shadows. Three hundred and forty five frustrated geezers (this was the second time he bested Charlie).

He checked his wrist watch, tapped it slightly on the side until it showed the right shadow, and smiled again.

"Alright. Tonight, wine and sleep. Tomorrow, I can probably still beat Nakamura to that nasty progression of the refraction angles depending on the isotope thingie..."

[jibbajibba]

Due to my recent forays the city of Amber will this year be mostly based on Dubrovnik.
Historywise - was really looking for public stuff that would be known to the people of amber and form part of the legend, you know defending the vale of garnarth against the moonriders ..... But these are great and will be asigning points once I get access to PMs again

[Stormwind]

@jibbajibba: Were you just looking for 'public stuff' known to the people of Amber, or would stuff known to the people of the Courts be appropriate as well?