Pattern Boons, Good Stuff, Bad Stuff and Advancement Points

[sir brad]

OK I have a PC who as just walked the Pattern of Amber for the first time (she has bean a Pattern Adept for a wile now) she has just short of enough Good Stuff to upgrade to a full Pattern Imprint ability, when the last session ended she was at the Core of the Pattern and stated her Wish "Send me to where I need to go with the power to save Amber and all of Shadow" (or words to that effect).

going in to this part of the narrative of my Amber game I decided to end the current threat the characters would need to be in a specific place in shadow with Pattern Imprint, a Pattern Boon (or the fruits of one) and Good Stuff (or a positive Stuff balance across those present). or find the right place in Shadow and Advanced Pattern Imprint.

now the PC is elegable to just get Pattern Imprint, and has worded her wish right (or close enough, the threat isn't that dire yet), problem is when she takes Pattern Imprint she will wipe out her Good Stuff and take some Bad Stuff, is it reasonable to assume that the Pattern will lone her the Good Stuff to save the day considering the Arc is just about to end and when it's done she will have enough AP to have covered her upgrade to Pattern Imprint and leave her with a bit of Good Stuff still?

I personally think it is dramatically right to do and would like to move on to the next arc that has already kind of started, but may come across Munchkinism, goes against my original plan and may set a bad precedent.

the Players are up to plan E or F, and although it may be a pain in the ass to run the arc that far I have plans for when they play through plans up to J or K.

should I just tie up this arc hand out AP and move on, or keep the current major arc running concurrent with the new major arc and the half dozen minor & Personal Arcs I have going?

[finarvyn]

I'd say continue with the current arc, as this directly ties into the request of the player.

She has placed herself in an interesting situation, however, since she is now in danger with Bad Stuff. I'd say play with that. While she might be in the right place to save Amber, it doesn't mean it has to happen right away or that she might not have to overcome some hurdles in order to get to that point in the storyline.

[sir brad]

Well starting next session she will be out of Amber facing the cause of a Shadow Storm or the storm front itself that is masking the approach of a Chaos army on Amber, one ally is elsewhere fixing their last failed attempt to tie up this arc and the other two are under guard in Castle Amber striped of their gear after they got caught trying to get her in to the Pattern Chamber.

the character that's about to Pattern Jump has also just proved that she can match or surpass the average Elder Amberite in Psych Power and Tactics where the others are centuries away from challenging the average Elders in the characters chosen fortes.

Edit: the Character will end up with 1 point of Bad Stuff if the Arc doesn't end at the end of the next seen.

[Panjumanju]

It sounds like she'll be in the right place to do what she wants, but not quite the right *time*. This fits well with getting pattern imprint, and getting a little bit of bad stuff. Moving on to another focus for the general story also works well with her inheriting a bit of bad stuff - moment of triumph, didn't work out.

I'm from the "give players enough rope to hang themselves" school. Don't feel like you have to reward what should be just everyday roleplaying. This may be a set-back from her expectations, but that just helps build to something larger and more grand.

//Panjumanju

[sir brad]

ATM someone in Chaos wants to bring down Merlin and void the Pattenfall Treaty (and perhaps Random wile their at it).

the Major Plot of this (hopefully final) part of the cycle is underway, a Shadow Storm is rolling in on Amber providing cover for a large chaos army and something else.

the new Arc is part of the new cycle, the players have missed their chance three times and failed twice. if I go "Well Sucks to be You" the characters will this time be serving up a fiasco, they will truly have had carnal knowledge of the diminutive canine. and all over one point of Bad Stuff

[Croaker]

Having bad stuff doesn't mean you fail. It means you have a harder time succeeding.

As I see it, you can make things more difficult for your character, without barring her from success.

Alternatively, allow her to succeed, but make her success a double edged sword, or an empty thing.
For exemple, she manage to close the gap in shadow from which the abyss was absorbing reality, yet in doing to, she is tainted in return by its dark power.
She kills the general of the ennemy army, only to learn that, despite being the ennemy army officer, he was an honorable man, and that, once his underlings have taken up reins, they are way more bloodthirsty (if not better commanders) (Think about nankin's sacking). You get the idea

[Tolknor]

I had a major thing going on in my last campaign and it involved a lot of pieces and a lot of things that had to go right.  In the end i thought that the whole scenario was going to make my game either unbalanced, unfair, or unfun.  The repercussions were going to be severe win or lose.  

I had two choices.  Give the PCs help that they might not deserve or have earned, and then take much of it away afterwards.  Or let it run its course and wipe out a big chunks of golden circle kingdoms and much of Ardan, then let the players help the surviving elders clean up afterwards.

I picked choice 3 at the last moment.  I swept the whole situation away.  I let the Chaos side wonder what in shadow and hell the amberites had done to eradicate their unbeatable torrent, let the PCs and the Elders wonder why the unavoidable onslaught had just disappeared, and i had the major powers express complete perplexity.

The players were sure people at the top of both sides were lying to them.

From a GM point of view i had to end something i had let get out of control and i did it in a way to make the powers on both side think something was going on they didn't know about. I left the how it happened hang there waiting till something could pop up that could have managed it and could get credit for it down the road.  As a GM i know there is always someone tougher then the biggest badass on the street.  I just didn't give it a name right away.     It worked out in the end.