:: Zelazny :: [polish] :: sparks that fly from the ironsmith's hammer ::
::. Friday, May 31 .::
On Shadow and Substance from the Empire of the Gleaming Banner pages is a brief GM primer for a con game I ran through three Ambercons (I didn't go this year).
But I'm going to try and condense this into some kind of shorthand chart to address the question below. Meera is talking about it also here.
My first draft: filled in partially, you can imagine where the blanks would be for Attribute contests and such. GMshadowandsubstance
MaBarry's Amber Bits An Amber GM has a lot of control over the effects of attributes and statistics, and not all of them are very good at explaining the set of assumptions that go into their personal design.
This is a question I'm going to be thinking about. I'd like to solve this. eTrump me with any suggestions of what things your GM really needs to tell you as you figure a character for a con game.
With suitable kudos to Mr. Nimoy and his autobiography I Am Spock
I Am Not Arref Mak
Let us set the record straight, since it may be important to you. I am not Arref Mak.
Arref Mak was a historian, philosopher, and scholar of the Museum of Magic in the country of Helm of the dimension of Nerth. Arref was a magician of startlingly meager talent. Arref was an old man of modest beard and sunny disposition, who liked his oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon and a single pat of butter. Aha, you see, I know a lot about Arref, for I am the fella who created him.
That’s right. He’s a fictional character. A roleplaying character.
Arref was fond of quotes (quoting himself as his favorite author), and had barely a lick of practical field experience. He did have an insatiable curiosity about ancient history, particularly the history of things "better left interred". The history that people wanted buried was like catnip to him.
Though he rarely left the Museum. Arref was an eclectic scavenger of information. He pestered and paid the adventurers of the frontier to hand over tales and tidbits of their travels. Then he would retreat to his library and speculate, analyze, and attempt to fit together the true tapestry of events of the past.
He knew the whole story was not truly written yet, for he had not written it. Though he had his charm, you might say that Arref was a bit of a fool for his work, his interests.
Back in the foggy years when I first climbed on the Internet, there were many things said about how the Internet would make use of your digital footsteps in that strange realm. How the information would be used of your passage; even to how the strange flickers of identity you could correspond with would try to take advantage of you.
It was a phantom world with unknown dangers.
So as a favor to my Reason-For-Living and myself… I decided to explore that phantom world in the guise of my old friend, Arref (it helped that his name seemed to have no searchable references already present.) I knew Arref was just the sort of person to make friends easily and explore new things ruthlessly.
You see, among his other qualities, Arref never knew when he was in over his head. No bit of information could intimidate him, no dark mystery was too frightening, or could really lead to horrible consequence. He was fearless in the way that children are.
So there you have it. I set the record straight at last. I am not the man that Arref was. I am merely a pretender. But some day… perhaps I will be as fearless.
Pattern? What Pattern? - Ambercon North - by Edwin Voskamp this was a simple character page I worked up for Ambercon North. I can't say if the 'descriptors' concept worked well or not, but I think of descriptors as the first step to meta-Attributes. How does the character think about their own Abilities?
Most of my con games will now include this concept; certainly as a way to give the GM an idea of how you see your own character. Or the beginning of a shorthand discussion of how I see your character using their Attributes. A descriptor should indicate something that the character desires to be 'expert' at...something that others may not even be interested in would be perfect.
In practical gameplay, a descriptor would give you a "bump up" ranking.
Ideas 1. Only a "blowout" contest is decided in a single shot, as if by surprise.
2. Minimal contest decisions are three moves for dramatic and game decision reasons. For example, pitting your amberite Psyche against a human might be from one to three moves for you. Fiona deciding to take you down likewise involves three moments of decision unless you really make wrong moves and help her.
3. Every Attribute has a chance of some kind against another. Sometimes, the worst thing you can do is fight your opponent based on what you should do, or on what your best Attribute is. That's exactly what they've planned for. Instead, wonder if you can conquer superior Attribute by switching events to another Attribute.
4. When you make a plan for Attribute use, stick with it. Out of those minimal moves you get, you've wasted the ones you don't think have worked, and aren't likely to come from behind if you switch to something else.
5. There is Strength as an Attribute, and there is Strength as a meta-Attribute. Likewise for each of the four Attributes, and in rare cases, Stuff, the secret fifth Attribute. In some cases, Elders will fox you with meta-Attributes. It's a quirky example, but think about Obi-Wan and Darth Vader. Obi has decided what the battle is about, what needs to happen, and what is really at stake in the big picture. Obi defeats Vader (and ultimately the Emperor) by switching the contest to meta-Endurance over Warfare.
"If you strike me down, I'll become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."
This prompts Vader's arrogance and confidence in his skills to do exactly what Obi needs to tip the balance and push Luke into solid opposition to the Dark Side and a protected path headed for Yoda.
Interested in your feedback. (ps: Stuff is the fifth Attribute because it functions as a tie-breaker and filters information gathering whereby you make decisions about Attribute use)
From the Amber Mail list by way of House of Cards Log: Does anyone require some sort of Trump Initiation? If the power is as valuable as Pattern or Logrus, shouldn't there be some sort of similar trial?
IMC there is a distinct initiation for every Artist. It has not repeated once since Dworkin brought his theories to bear on Trump training. The Art in Chaos has no such initiation. Neither does it in the far-flung reaches of Shadow.
Good theme to comment on a blog: inspired by the Amber Mail List:
Top Five Things to Fix in the Amber DRPG:
5. The tone of GM "screwing the players". This needs clarity and wisdom applied. This is a diceless game, we can't start off the damn thing by starting a "lose-lose" scenario with the players.
4. Better examples and theme to Sorcery and Conjuration. Examples of play, by way of the canon, and alternate expression of how effective sorcery is against typical play. Keeping Sorcery clumsy and yet special is important.
3. Throw out the Advanced Power Packages and replace with item lists assembled by themes. Give the GM some idea of how to arbitrate advanced powers...more importantly, make most advanced powers acquired within the story of the game.
2. Sliding scale of real-world assessment of Amber/Chaos Attributes. Put some examples into the Attributes section, allow for everything from Amber being 120% as effective as human ...to Amber being the greatest ever example of skill. Somewhere in here, expand the examples of Attribute vs Attribute choices. How can Strength beat Psyche? What are the smart ploys for Warfare vs Strength?
1. Modify Items, Creatures, and Demons so that they are story elements instead of player crutches. Tweak the system to show flexibility and style, since everything that pulls points from the character weakens them in head-to-head play with other characters.
