Where is Amber fandom hidden nowdays?

Timothy · June 09, 2008, 08:40:15 AM

I used to play Amber a lot, pbem style, and with the news of Erick's death I ythought the best was to say thank you to him and deal with my sadness over it is to start an Amber pbp. I went looking for the Amber community...and I can't seem to find anything much. Where do Amber players hang out now? I basically want to see how the game has moved on since the old days (I was playing back in the 90s)

Jason D · June 09, 2008, 10:26:47 AM

Quote from: TimothyI used to play Amber a lot, pbem style, and with the news of Erick's death I ythought the best was to say thank you to him and deal with my sadness over it is to start an Amber pbp. I went looking for the Amber community...and I can't seem to find anything much. Where do Amber players hang out now? I basically want to see how the game has moved on since the old days (I was playing back in the 90s)

This is the official forum, and there's Amberlist, which I haven't been on for around a decade but is apparently still the most direct means of communication for the Amber community.

Arref · June 09, 2008, 10:44:50 AM

Depends on what you are looking for. There's a lot out there.

Google

finarvyn · June 09, 2008, 03:30:14 PM

I hate to place blame anywhere, particularly in light of recent events, but in my opinion the owners of the keys to the Amber franchise really haven't been trying very hard to sell the product.

I believe the "glory days" of Amber were in the decade of 1986-1995 or so. Roger was still alive and producing new Amber books and stories, Erick was starting this new "diceless" phenomenon, and people were really excited about Amber.

Sadly, Roger has been gone for more than a decade. We haven't had a new ADRP sourcebook in 15 years. Amberzine finished 3 years ago. The new Betancourt Amber series was ill recieved and cancelled prior to its completion. GoO took the ball on Amber 2E but financially collapsed before it could launch a product, and the new guys have done nothing since getting Erick's blessing months ago.

As the OP said, look on the web for Amber links. (Half of those in the Golden Circle are dead links.) Go to a Borders or Barnes & Noble and look for Zelazny books. Talk to people who read SciFi & Fantasy books and ask if they know who Roger Zelazny is and/or when they last read one of his books.

I don't know how to bring the magic back. Roger and Erick were the torchbearers for Amber and now that they have fallen it's possible that there is no one ready to fight off the darkness.

This all makes me very sad.

Nihilistic Mind · June 09, 2008, 03:41:13 PM

I was surprised to see 3 brand-new looking 'Great Book of Amber' on the shelf of my local Borders bookstore. I almost bought one as mine is worn out...

With no new product for the RPG, it's tough to convince players to start playing the game. I'm trying to do my part and am running 3 Amber-related games at Phoenix Con Games this week-end to promote the game.

The Amber community isn't growing. The best we can do is to get it concentrated to one place on the web, which is pretty hard since, yeah, a lot of Golden Circle links are dead and it used to be the net-traveler's tool to visiting Amber websites.

But still, AmberCons continue on in various parts of the country. There are ways to join in on all the Diceless fun!

RPGPundit · June 09, 2008, 05:11:33 PM

Well, there's also this forum. It'd certainly be good if we could find and bring more Amber DRPG fans onto here. Remember that this isn't just an RPGPundit project or something, this was the forum Erick officially supported and worked for (right up until a week before his death).

So I think one thing people could do, if they want to honour Erick's memory and help bring up interest and discussion on the Amber DRPG, would be to go around trying to advertise this forum and make sure anyone who's an Amber RPG fan knows that this is the Official place to talk about it.

Meanwhile, as to Erick's heirs; I agree that they're not doing enough. I understand that they've got some serious problems getting the rights from Zelazny's ex-wife (and frankly, if you want someone to blame for the loss of interest in Amber, THAT'S who to blame). But in the meantime, what they should be doing is drumming up interest in the game right now, by creating buzz about the game, by coming on here and posting stuff, by setting up an actual website for Diceless By Design (their company), and providing free supplemental material for the game, etc etc.

That way, if they do actually end up working through all the legal hassles and get to print a new edition of the game, they'll be doing so in an environment where they are already known and supported and where there's already a groundswell of active and eager Amber DRPG fans waiting to receive their product with open arms.

RPGPundit

Nihilistic Mind · June 09, 2008, 05:31:07 PM

I've told everyone I know about this forum, and not just for it's official Amber forum section

I like it here!

Maybe (especially if we want this forum to be the central hub for Amber-related things) we should sticky a links page to other Amber-related sites (even those that are not up-to-date but yet still stand through the internet flow of time). A sort of new Golden Circle or something.

RPGPundit · June 09, 2008, 05:35:16 PM

Quote from: Nihilistic MindI've told everyone I know about this forum, and not just for it's official Amber forum section I like it here!

Maybe (especially if we want this forum to be the central hub for Amber-related things) we should sticky a links page to other Amber-related sites (even those that are not up-to-date but yet still stand through the internet flow of time). A sort of new Golden Circle or something.

I think that would be an awesome idea. Want to get started on it? Start a thread, and I'll sticky it.

RPGPundit

Nihilistic Mind · June 09, 2008, 06:50:05 PM

Thread started. Go through your old bookmarks, folks!

http://www.therpgsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10743

Astraeos · August 17, 2008, 03:53:13 PM

Pundit, Nihil...you two have brought me back out of the woodwork. It's nice to see there are still some fans of the game out there.

Nihilistic Mind · August 17, 2008, 11:29:46 PM

Welcome!

Trevelyan · August 18, 2008, 10:04:53 AM

Quote from: Nihilistic Mind;214298Maybe (especially if we want this forum to be the central hub for Amber-related things) we should sticky a links page to other Amber-related sites (even those that are not up-to-date but yet still stand through the internet flow of time). A sort of new Golden Circle or something.

Maybe we should designate this "Project Kashfa" since the aim is to bring into play some new members of the Golden Circle.

Rel Fexive · August 18, 2008, 02:04:36 PM

Should people just add their favourite sites (or their own sites) to the list themselves, or what?

DaltIsKing · August 19, 2008, 01:32:27 PM

I have a link and it's current,

http://amber.wolfpictures.co.uk/index.php?info=home

These folks have been playing the same campaign for a few years. I think the diaries are first rate and an interesting read. Especailly "John's Tale" check it out.

Nihilistic Mind · August 19, 2008, 09:50:50 PM

Quote from: Rel Fexive;236346Should people just add their favourite sites (or their own sites) to the list themselves, or what?

Yup, add a post with your links and I'll edit them into the main post of that thread.