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Along Divers Ways (Amber)(Deprecated)

"Along Divers Ways" is a Play-By-Post adaptation of my "Adventures in Role-play" introduction to Amber Dice-less role-play.

It's setting is non-canonical in the true sense of Amber but is set in an Amber Universe approximately 5 Amber years after the "Keep of the Thirteenth Hour" Events, which in turn occurred 5.5 years after the End of the Pattern Fall war.

It's been 5 years, Amber time since the repair of the Pattern failed. Shadow storms rage across Shadow making it's traversal either difficult or impossible, cutting off and isolating huge swathes of Shadow, including, amongst others, all the Golden Circle States, the Central belt around Yggdrasil, and the Courts of Chaos.

The campaign non-canonical in that I've changed all the names - I just hope I can remember who is who (or don't slip up and use the wrong name).. Those familiar with Amber shouldn't have much difficulty working out who is who.

Character Concepts and Creating Characters
Characters will initially know nothing about each other, generally originating on different Shadow Earths, and probably nothing about Amber, The Courts or anything else Amber related (there are reasons why some characters may know about some things).

The campaign is designed for people who know nothing about Amber, the Amber Multiverse(Shadows), and/or dice-less Role-play. If you're familiar with the canonical Amber background, as per the 10 books, then you're welcome to play just don't assume that what you know is true, happened, happened as per the books, or anything else.

I have a questionnaire that will enable you to develop a character concept. Your concept will then be translated into your actual character, in terms of their starting "Stats", "Skills", and "Abilities". Character creation is very much a dynamic process. Certain abilities have the potential to impact your parentage and your parentage can have a considerable impact on various elements relating to your family history. There are also certain elements that in the "pre-campaign" events phase. How each character reacts to these has a bearing on later campaign events

You will need to read the background information relating to character generation here:- Adventures In Role-play.
Please do not use the questionnaire on the website it's designed for FTF and Online campaigns.

If you're interested in playing then copy and paste the Questionnaire below into an rMail and send it back to me.

My general response to the questionaire is to ask a whole series of questions.. it depends on how expansive or cryptic your answers are..
I use WeTransfer and links via PM to send your character sheet. Once you have the draft character sheet you will need to adjust your sub-attributes as to how you would like them subject to the relavent constraints (I just arbitraly divide the points evenly), then send it back to me in the same manner. As rMail doesn't support attachments this is the only convenient means to pass character sheets around..

In terms of the character you will be playing you grew up upon a version of Earth in this century so would be familiar with more or less everything you are – depending upon the selections you make below. Your character will be aged 18-21 when the campaign starts (Monday 29th April 2013) so should have a data of birth between 1st October 1992 and 31st March 1995.

One thing I really need to stress at this point is that whatever your choices you know you are “Different” to all your peers.
This has been the case since you were first able to recognise differences between you and your classmates - generally around the age of 5 or 6 years of age. Depending upon your selection preference for Intellect, Fitness, Health, and Competitiveness below depends on exactly how different. For example if your first choice is Intellect you can maintain a grade B/6 in whatever subjects you chose without expending any effort.. if you expend a reasonable amount of effort you can get A*/9s but nowhere like the effort your peers are expending to get the same grade. If you’re first choice is Fitness you are in the top 5% of athletes worldwide over short distances pick Health and that changes to long distance. Even if these are not your first choices you are considerably better than “average”.. trying not to stand out too much is actually one of your main problems and has been your entire life.

In terms of rules, the set I use can be found on my website Shadowlands near the foot of the page. I use a sub-attributes and partial skills rule set developed from the Netbook of Amber, which means characters follow a much more typical role-playing path in terms of developing skills, powers, attributes, and acquiring items of worth. There is also generic Amber background information there should you wish to read it.

Additionally on the Adventures In Role Play page are 4 additional resources, other than specific element of Campaign Background.
The first of these is a work through of the questionnaire to generate a character.. it may help you.
The second of these should be read *if* you want to choose the "Magic Cards (Trump)" option. This is the "How to Discover and Teach Yourself Trump" page. It is relevant to any character who wants to have this as their option.. you should adapt this to the specific circumstances of how your character discovered things.. especially if you went to interesting places.
The third is 'Chaosites are Everywhere' if you want shapeshifting then you specifically need to read this.
The last resource is a more detailed difference of the effect of the Rodian war between 'Mizzurian Earth' and 'True Earth'. I'm working on a more elaborate write-up of what happend on 'True Earth' in reference to Yellowstane et al..

Q:- The rules look complex.. Do I need to understand the rules to play?
A:- No. As we get into the game, the elements you need to know about will all become clear in the context of their use. All you need to start with is a character concept.

Q:- Do I need to know anything about Amber to play
A:-Simple answer is no. The campaign is designed to introduce people who know nothing about Amber to Amber. You'll learn all you need to know as the campaign progresses, and those that think they know about Amber will have to "unlearn" what they thought they knew in light of new evidence.

Q:- How "normal" were you expecting the characters to be?
A:- Normal to the point where they go out of the way to not attract attention to themselves. Irrespective of this you have "Amberite" genes, so the character is in the top 5% of the world population for everything for your age group (Intellect, Strength, Agility, Speed, etc). If you assume no deviation from current reality imagine how much "attention", mostly unwarranted from "Military and National Security sources", this would attract (ala Marvel's "The Gifted") if your true abilities were to become known to them. This would probably also be true of any "modern" Shadow Earth. It's probably also worth reading the "So What is Amber" page on my website.

Q:- How close to regular Earth should our home shadow be?
A:- In a way that's also down to you.. as long as you assume history is roughly the same on your version of Earth until about 1952 (The Cuban Missile Crisis). The further you deviate after that the more interesting things become.. so if there is no (or a very different) "Silicon Revolution" there may be no or a very different "Mizzurian" on your version of Earth, so your invite to the Expo when you get it might be completely meaningless to you. What ever version of Earth you decide on, the effects of the "Rodian Wars" will have happened. Exactly how devastating they were to your Shadow Earth is again down to you. For example, no Los Angeles then potentially no Mizzurian, and again potentially no Expo, so potentially again a meaningless invite. Note there is a very specific version of Earth in the game. It is the one the books are set in. It got hit really badly by the events of the Rodian wars as it was considerably more "Real" than any other shadow earth. On this Earth, Yellowstone Erupted, the whole of the Pacific fault slipped by 1m, Los Angeles is pretty much gone, the whole "Ring of Fire" blew its top, including some of those really interesting undersea volcanoes, the Tenerife volcano slipped into the sea, and then the "black Road" happened.. if you chose to come from this Earth then life has been really, really, really difficult, even in those places that got off relatively lightly...

Q:- Will our characters have had a chance to walk a Pattern or have other shadow movement ability prior to game start?
A:- Simple answer is no. The campaign is design to introduce people who no nothing about Amber to Amber so they won't know anything about this.

Q:- Do we pick our Amber parent or are we just suggesting?
A:- No your actual parent is random, sort of. I have a list that was randomly created, from which the next entry gets allocated to the characters as they are created. What if anything you know of them, depends on who it is and your family and sibling status, which may actually lead to some interesting dynamics, if you don't actually know the truth of your conception (and yes this did happen with one of the characters when I ran this the first time with the group I play with online).

Q:- I don't like your Education Choices, Can I pick something different?
Yes, Apprenticeships,hands on work experience learning, and school of hard knocks are also applicable. Just discuss what you want to do, especially if you're not going the 'University' route.
I did have one player who wanted to play a Trump Artist, who grew up on the streets with no actual fixed abode, no bank account, and no Social Security/Tax Status. The problem is that they failed to account for all of the costs associated with obtaining the art supplies they would need to perfect their skill or the need for a secure place where they could work undisturbed whilst they created their Trumps. I offered them several options as to how they could have their cake and eat it as it were. But in the end they didn't play.. I still have the character concept as she's actually a really cool character.

Remember No matter what your start in life Amberite ****always**** rise to the top..