A Game for Amercon UK 2005
GM: Herman Duyker
BACKGROUND
It is a hot, brooding summer in Amber City. In name, King Random
rules from the Castle high above the crooked streets and alleys
on the lowest terraces, but in fact, he has not been seen since
the last of the winter snows.
Tomorrow is the feast of Midsummer, and all the town is preparing
to add to the festivities... or are they? And why are there so
many guards at the gates to the Upper City?
The idea ( "premise" ) of this game is that all of you will be
playing the "normal" people living in the City of Amber (or
perhaps in the Castle, or serving in the Royal Navy or on the
Merchant Fleet, or you're one of Julian's Rangers, or you're
just some beggar in the street (but then again... you're the
beggar of which all other beggars are but a shadow), or you're
a minor noble, or... you get the point.)
This tale starts off in the City of Amber; more specifically,
it starts off in the Lower City, in the Dock district, close to Bloody Bill's (which is a bar, for those of you who haven't read *any* books but the first five).
This is essentially a horror-mystery story. Inspiration comes from several sources: reading a number of Medieval "whodunnits", some Call of Cthulhu, a sniff of Shakespeare, some Edgar Allan Poe, Fritz Leiber's Lankmar, anything by Neil Gaiman, and even a bit of Terry Pratchett's Ankh-Morpork; watching a bit of Cadfael, Buffy, Angel, Se7en, Dracula, Neverwhere [the BBC series], Underworld, Spooks, X-files, and probably several others. There's probably also some musical inspiration...
CHARACTER CREATION
1. Characters are built on 50 points; max +5 points for Contributions, to be arranged before the 'con.
2. Attributes start off at Human rank (0 points; this is slightly below average for the general populace of Amber.) Chaos rank is 10 points, Amber is 25, but you can spend as many or as few points as you like.
Stuff is limited to 5 points either way.
3. Powers available are:
- Trump Artistry (30 pts)
- Shapeshifting (30 pts)
- Sorcery (15 pts)
- Cantrips (10 pts).
No Advanced Powers are available. Trump, Shapeshifting
and Sorcery can be bought partially (see subsequent notes).
4. Creatures and Artifacts
See the variant rules below.
RULES VARIANTS
Stats
1. Psyche
A high Psyche is useful for: Driving the various Powers; resisting psychic attack; sensitivity to emotions of those of (much) lower Psyche; sensitivity to nearby psychic "presences" and raw emanations of power. Psyche (combined with "stuff") might also be useful as a measure of how "sane" your character is.
2. Strength
In my games, Strength is as much a tie-breaker in melee combat as Endurance, so Warfare types should not neglect it. Otherwise, as defined in the Amber DRPG rules.
3. Endurance
As per Amber DRPG rules. The use of any of the Powers will be quite draining, so Power adepts should think of keeping at least some points back for this.
4. Warfare
as per Amber DRPG rules
Stuff
Stuff mostly governs blind luck and little else - it has very
little to do with personality, charisma etc.
Trump Artistry (30 pts)
Largely the same as the DRPG rules. Trump artists may have their
Trump Deck as a Personal Item, which they will be able to find
again if lost, as per Creatures and Artefacts (q.v.).
This costs no additional points.
Trump can be bought partially in three stages, with each stage
being the pre-requisite for the next.
Trump Sketches (10 points)
(Novice level - requires a ranked Psyche)
Allows the artist to create very basic Trumps. Trumps sketches
are usually only good for two or three uses if used for
communication only, and only one use if used for transportation.
After this they literally burn up. If unused they tend to lose
their power after a couple of days. They are harder to use
than more permanent Trumps and are limited in range.
At this level, it takes several hours (an absolute beginner
might take a day or longer) to produce a sketch. The artist
can also identify incoming Trump calls by sensing the activity
in the caller's Trump. This requires them to (a) possess, and
(b) be able to touch the Trump in question.
Temporary Trumps (10 Points)
(Initiate level - requires Trump Sketches)
Allows the artist to create more permanent Trumps which can be
used by other people. Temporary Trumps fade to uselessness
after a couple of weeks if unused, and last about a week if
used solely for communication. If used for transportation on
a regular basis, they burn up after a couple of days.
At this level, it takes several hours to create a temporary
Trump, but less than half an hour to produce a Trump sketch.
The artist is not only able to identify incoming Trump calls
as above, but can also sense (again by touch) Trump energies
in other constructs (physical or non-physical) and in people.
Full Trumps (10 points)
(Adept level - requires Temporary Trumps)
Allows the artist to create fully-fledged, permanent Trumps which
can be used repeatedly by other people without running out.
At this level full Trumps take several hours to create, temporary
Trumps take about an hour, and Trump sketches can be knocked off
in about five minutes. The artist no longer has to touch an
object or person in order to detect Trump energies in them,
although they do have to be standing very close to them, and
they still need to finger through their Trump deck to identify
incoming callers. They can also detect the aftereffects of
Trump usage (e.g., they can tell if someone has recently
Trumped in or out of a room), although bear in mind that the
residues of Trump activity tend to fade quickly.
Using Trumps
The higher your Psyche, the faster you can complete a working
Trump. Trumps have an effective range, also based on the user's
Psyche. The higher your Psyche, the easier it is to Trump long "distances". Also, in order to force a Trump contact on someone,
you need a fairly significant Psyche advantage over them. Forcing
difficult contacts is quite tiring (as is creating a Trump in the
first place), so Endurance is also a factor. The first level of
contact over a Trump link is mind-to-mind - you can see and
converse with each other, but not touch. Physical contact
requires a bit more effort, especially if one of the parties
resists such a move.
Shape-Shifting (30 pts)
Slightly changed from the Amber DRPG rules, in that there is no
avatar form per se, and certain abilities that often get treated
as part of Basic Shape-shifting (such as major internal
reorganisation, elemental forms etc.) are relegated to the
Advanced version (unavailable in this game). Shape-shifting
is a power that can be discovered or developed without a teacher,
so you can keep it a secret.
The basic elements of shape-shifting are as follows:
Shape-shift Wounds (10 points)
(Requires Chaos ranked Psyche and Endurance)
The ability to heal minor wounds closed in seconds or minutes,
and to speed up the healing of major wounds. Does nothing for
fatal wounds, unfortunately, but can tip the balance between
life and death in borderline cases. This is fairly instinctive,
requiring relatively little conscious control.
Daemon Form (5 points)
(Requires Chaos ranked Psyche and Endurance)
The ability to change into an armoured, combat-oriented form,
invariably daemonic in appearance. This is a natural, fairly
instinctive form, and the change is a fairly quick one, taking
only a few seconds.
Animal Forms (5 points)
(Requires Chaos ranked Psyche and Endurance)
The ability to change into pretty much any kind of animal. Does
not automatically give you complete control over the form's
abilities (such as flight) - these will still have to be
practiced and mastered. The more familiar you are with the animal
in question, the easier it will be to imitate it.
Shape Body Parts (5 points)
(Requires Animal Forms or Daemon Form)
The ability to shape various parts of your body, for instance to
grow claws, fangs etc. Also allows you to redistribute your body
mass, so as to make yourself taller or shorter. With some care,
it is possible to enhance your senses so that you can track
scents or see in the dark, but it is usually more effective to
turn into an animal that can do these things instead.
Facial Features (5 points)
(Requires Animal Forms or Daemon Form)
The ability to mimic the features and coloration of others.
The better you know the subject you are trying to imitate, the
more accurate this will be.
When buying partial Shape-shifting, the minimum expenditure
is 15 points.
Attribute Requirements
As above. A higher Psyche allows you to change shape more
quickly, and to mimic other forms more precisely. It also
allows you to learn new forms and master their physical
abilities more quickly. Repeated shape-shifting is a drain
on the character's stamina, so in the longer term a decent
Endurance is also important. You also need a minimum of
Amber Rank Strength in order to fly in any winged form.
Other details about Shape-Shifting
Your clothes and immediate personal possessions tend to change
with you, although more bulky items like swords or backpacks do
not (unless they possess some kind of shape-shifting themselves,
or you have paid points for them). Shape-shifting involves more
than a mere physical change, it seems. On the other hand,
shape-shifting tends to conserve mass - you can only increase or
decrease your size and mass by up to 50% either way.
Sorcery (15 points)
This replaces the Sorcery and Conjuration rules from the Amber
DRPG book.
Basically, it involves the ability to collect and manipulate the
magical energies local to a Shadow to create structured magical
effects, which are limited largely by the confines of the
immediate Shadow, the energy available, and the amount of time
and effort you are willing to put into your spells and
enchantments. The rate at which you can gather magical energy
depends on your Psyche and the local magical ambiance (it is
always faster with a high Psyche and a high magic level), while
how long you can keep gathering it depends on your Endurance.
The power also includes the ability to sense and analyse
magical phenomena - such sensitivity is also Psyche-dependent.
Sorcery can be bought in two stages:
Novice (5 points)
(Requires Chaos ranked Psyche)
Allows you to sense magical energies, and to contribute to
magical rituals. You can perform simple rituals on your own,
but the ritual will take longer than that of an adept, and the
results will tend to be temporary and will leak magic like
mad. You can in theory mess with other people's magic (like
working out how to defuse a warding), but you should probably
avoid trying to do this if you have Bad Stuff.
Adept (10 points)
(Requires Novice)
Full-blown ritual magic as described in the rest of this section.
Time Limitations
The big difference between this Sorcery and Amber Rulebook
Sorcery is that you cannot hang spells. All spells take time
to cast, varying from just a couple of minutes to hours or
even days, depending on the scale of the ritual. Spells that
manipulate existing materials and forces generally take less
time than spells that play about with physical laws. There
are ways of speeding things up a bit (other than by buying
more Psyche), which involve the use of artefacts, such as
magical accumulators which can gather the magical energies
for you, or magical foci which can be used to provide
shortcuts during casting. However, even these will rarely do
more than knock about a third off the casting time, and are
not always easily portable (see below). It may also be
possible to speed things up by drawing on local Power
sources, if such exist, or by drawing on your own psychic
energy (again, see below).
Spell Effects
The effects of spells are generally limited to the area in
which they are cast. Spells are also normally "line-of-sight"
things, in the sense that you must be able to see or otherwise
pin-point the target of the spell before you can cast it. Even
with things like scrying or summoning rituals (which can
sometimes reach beyond the confines of the immediate area), you
still need something to focus on (usually an object connected
with the target of the spell, or failing that a very good
psychic impression of the target).
Enchantment
Enchanting an object (or a place) is not simply a matter of
making a few mystic passes over it - you frequently need to
spend more time preparing the ritual (collecting the right
materials, researching the most advantageous conditions,
performing preliminary rituals etc.) than conducting the main
ritual itself. A simple enchantment (e.g., making a sword
sharper and tougher) might take hour or so. A major enchantment
(like creating a permanent transportation portal) would take
days.
Resistance to magic
Magic is weak compared to any of the major Powers (Pattern,
Trump, Chaos Powers). A touch of Pattern energy is usually all
it takes to disrupt or dispel any spell or enchantment. Real
people (like Amberites) also have a certain resistance to magic,
which means that casting invasive spells on them requires a
reasonable Psyche advantage. It also means that you cannot
enchant them either (enchanting an intelligent Shadow being is
possible with a Psyche advantage). Items containing a Real
Power can only be altered or manipulated magically if you are
already able to combine magic with that Power. Which you
currently cannot.
Foci and Accumulators
Generic terms for magical tools used by sorcerers and
enchanters. A focus for a ritual has the overall "shape" of the
ritual "hardwired" into it, saving the user time in the last
stages of casting. It does not substitute for the casting of
the ritual, but allows the user to take shortcuts. The
disadvantage is that foci are specific to particular kinds of
ritual (e.g., summoning, warding, weather control, teleportation
and portals, scrying etc.). If you use a focus, you will need to
specify which type of magic it is specific to. An accumulator
constantly draws in magical energy, allowing the user to
concentrate more on the shape and form of the spell than on
gathering energy for it. (Accumulators tend to be drained when
moved from Shadow to Shadow, and even when moved to another
magical Shadow will still need time to recharge). The most
powerful foci and accumulators are often locations rather than
artefacts - a stone circle, an altar, a sacred grove etc. - and
so are not very portable. It usually takes days or weeks to
enchant a focus or an accumulator.
Specialisation
You can, if you wish, specialise in a particular style of magic,
such as necromancy, mind-control magic, scrying, daemonology,
control of the elements, etc. etc. This is basically a character
thing, reflecting the character's interests. It does not mean
that you are necessarily bad at other aspects of magic, only
that other specialists may be more knowledgeable in areas
where you are not. In game terms, it simply means that you
will know about your area of specialisation, and will find
it easier to analyse and create new spells of that type.
Specialisation gives you no benefits in terms of casting
times etc.
Using Sorcery
I intend to run this power in a fairly freeform manner - tell
me what you want to try and do, and I'll tell you whether you
think you can do it, and if so, how long you think it'll take.
Within the limitations stated above, you can create pretty much
any spell you want - there is no need to provide me with a list
of spells, although you may want me to OK any ideas you might
have. Also, a brief word on magical tactics: Flash-bang or
combat-oriented spells are impractical - no self-respecting
target is going to wait 5 minutes for you to wind up a
lightning bolt to throw at them. This does not mean that
sorcery is useless in combat - you just need to plan ahead.
A more practical ritual would be one that summoned up a small
storm, which you could then manipulate to cast lightning where
you wanted it. This would still take up to 5 minutes to wind up,
but at the end of it you have an offensive ability continuously
on tap.
Cantrips (10 points)
Replaces Power Words from the Amber DRPG Rules. Cantrips are
brief "mini-spells" that take about a second or two to cast, and
which have brief, small-scale effects. They cannot create things
out of thin air, nor can they affects targets which are out of
sight. They also cannot have lasting magical effects (so you
cannot have, for example, warding Cantrips). They can be cast on
people, but this always requires a Psyche advantage for them to
work (you cannot get round this by using "True Names", as is the
case for Power Words). The good news is that for your 10 points
you get not five but as many as you like, up to a reasonable
initial limit (say a dozen or so), and you can learn new ones
during the game without paying more points.
Cantrips do not depend on local magical energies, but are
powered internally by the caster, and so they can in theory
be cast in places were magic does not work. However, they are
considerably easier to use in magical areas.
Available Cantrips - Since they are a form of magic, Cantrips
cannot affect major powers, so a number of the old Amber DRPG
Power Words (e.g., Pattern Negation and Trump Disrupt) are not
available as Cantrips. However, the remaining Power Words are
available, including:
| Psychic Defense |
Pain Attack |
Light Strobe |
| Psychic Disrupt |
Process Surge |
Spark |
| Neural Disrupt |
Process Snuff |
Weaken Structure |
| Lifeforce |
Shade |
Thunder |
| Burst of Psyche |
|
|
Creatures & Artefacts
Items and creatures are no longer built up from separately costed
qualities and powers, but are bought outright, on a sliding scale
of costs reflecting the power and utility of the item/creature.
When you pay points for an item or a creature, it becomes bound
to you as part of your personal "reality".
Since there are no longer any hard and fast rules for Creature/Artefact creation, anything that you come up with will probably
be subject to negotiation. Basically, think of the artefact or
creature that you want, decide what it can do, and spend what
seems to be the appropriate number of points (see below). I'll
then suggest any changes that I think might be in order. In
general, I'm not wild about standardised, generic items -
ideally, they should be personalised, idiosyncratic things with
a history behind them, so that it makes some sense why they
should have become part of the character's "reality". So a few
words about them in the background would be nice. Giving them a
name helps.
You can use the "named and numbered" multiplier (only) if you
want a group of similar items / creatures (for any number up
to 12). The exception to this is an item that is made
up of a number of separate parts, but which can only really be
used together (i.e., a pair of matching swords would have to be
bought as "named and numbered", but a set of stones used for
scrying could be bought as a single item).
Costs and Examples
Cost
1 Artefact A well made item without any unusual properties
(e.g., a weapon, suit of armour, sailing ship,
etc.), or an otherwise mundane artefact with some
supernatural aspect (e.g., a self-filling
hip-flask)
Creature An ordinary animal - a fine specimen, perhaps, but
with no unusual abilities (e.g., a horse, cat,
hunting hound, raven, velociraptor, dodo, etc.)
2 Artefact An item with some unusual property (e.g., a
supernaturally sharp sword, armour that repairs
itself, a self-reloading cross-bow that generates
its own ammunition, an unnaturally fast ship, a set
of intelligent lock-picks, a flying carpet, etc.)
Creature An ordinary animal with some unusual ability
(e.g., a supernaturally fast horse, a telepathic
cat, a velociraptor with super-sharp teeth and
claws) or a supernatural creature (not too
powerful) such as a griffin or a wyvern.
4 Artefact An item with a number of minor but unusual
properties (e.g., an ultra-fast ship that is
resistant to cannon-fire) or with one major power,
(e.g., a scrying mirror, a sword that can summon
storms, a magical focus or accumulator) or the
ability to transcend the limitations of Shadow
(e.g., a gun that works in most - if not all -
Shadows, a compass which can guide movement
through Shadow, etc.).
Creature An animal with a number of minor but unusual
abilities (e.g., a telepathic and invisible cat,
or a bullet-proof horse that can breathe fire) or
with one major power (e.g., the ability to
shape-shift, to use magic in some limited way, or
to move through Shadow under its own steam) or a
reasonably powerful supernatural creature (e.g.,
a minor daemon, a small dragon).
8 Artefact An item with a number of major and minor powers
(e.g., a super-sharp flaming sword that is also a
magical accumulator) or with one particularly
potent power (e.g., a mirror of teleportation)
Creature A creature with a number of major and minor
abilities (e.g., a fire-breathing hell-hound able
to move through Shadow) or some powerful
supernatural creature (e.g., a major daemon,
dragon, etc.).
Creatures and Artefacts of Power
Creatures and items with magical powers will tend to have
limited, specialised abilities (e.g., a cat that can start
fires, or a gauntlet that can shoot lightning bolts by
pointing). Items with any real power (Pattern, Trump etc) will
not be available to Player Characters - a Pattern blade like
Corwin's Greyswandir could be bought in theory, but would
probably be a 16 point item, and so (I'm afraid) is out of
your price range. The only exception is the Trump Artist's
personal Trump Deck (free with Trump Artistry). Creatures
with Pattern, Trump or Real Chaos powers do exist, but you
cannot pay points for them. They are called NPCs.
Allies etc.
Allies, Friends or Devotees can be bought as in the main
ADRPG rulebook. Note that "Chaos devotee" might have little
use in this variant setting. And remember: it's always a
good idea to have an ally (or a friend) in the City Guard.
Note however that these people are still NPC's with their
own agenda's, and that having paid points for them do not
make them "yours".
