So What Is Amber
A description of Amber from an RPG Perspecive

Describing Amber to anybody not familiar with the books is actually fairly difficult for lots of reasons. If we looks at the books then you could describe Amber as the tale of the struggle for the throne of Amber after the notional death of Oberon, the long standing King of Amber. Except that is a vast simplification, and doesn't really give any hint as to why it's so different as setting to any other.

If you know the books then you could say they are a parallel to the stories about Faeries, or specifically the Fae, and the Ceili and Un-Celie courts, where Amber or Amberites are the Celie Court and the Lords of Chaos or Chaosite) are the Un-Celie court, except that does hold true within the books.

You could also from looking at the books say that Amberites are Gods or Demi-Gods, and Chaosites are Demons, but that implies a whole lot of things that again just don't hold true.

So from a RPG setting perspective what is true and useful, and what isn't.

There is a very famous quote about Amber that very much holds true, at least in any game which holds in some way close to canon, "Any world or Universe, whether it can support life as we know it, or life as we don't, or no life at all, or holds to any of the laws of reality as we know them or not, that can be imagined, exists somewhere in Shadow".

As a concept this is one of the key features of Amber.

The second is, that there are various means of crossing through Shadow, some quick, some easy, and others neither. Exactly how this is done very much depends on whether you have access to any such means or even know it is possible, and that depends on your heritage, and the "setting", which in this case how you "GM" has set things up and what sort of game they're intending to run. A game for players who are inherently familiar with Amber and the rules will be very different to one where the players know little or nothing about Amber and what is and isn't possible.

So let’s look at "Heritage", and return to some of those concepts about that I said don't strictly hold true. Within Amber there are 3 groups of people, Amberites, Chaosites, and "Human", where "Human" means any humanoid intelligent life form that is neither an Amberite or Chaosite, and depending on your GM and the setting, and how they interpret things, God, Demi-God, Demon, Devil, Angel, or other notionally "immortal" lifeform that appears in humanoid shape. Within my campaigns you’ll find a lot more besides.. so don’t assume.

Within the rules Amberites, those people who specifically have "Blood of Amber", meaning they are a direct descendant of Dworkin (don't specifically worry about who he is, other than that he is Oberon's father, and don’t worry about him either), are notionally the most powerful, and are normally what the Players play.

Please note the caveats here. Depending on you GM and the setting, Amberites, even the "Elder" Amberites may not be the most powerful entities around, and sometimes by a very long way. This is especially true in my campaigns, Amberites are not Gods!

Notionally "below" the Amberites you have the Chaosites, and the closest descriptive tag that may be applied to these is "Demon". This does not mean they are "evil". The same range of goals, ambitions, and morals that exist within the whole of humanity as we know it exists within the Chaosite population. Note also the "notionally below" statement. High Ranking Chaos Lords can easily give any Amberite a run for their money and can defeat most of them in the right circumstances.

So what else do you need to know from an RPG perspective?

Firstly magic exists, and there are a number of forms, some more powerful than others, some which work in some shadows and some which don't. Whether a Shadow supports the use of Magic in any form, and how powerful it may be is a function of the Shadow, and can be turned on or off with one of the "True" powers.

Secondly, Amberites, and Chaosites for that matter, even as young adults, are much more powerful than humans, although some "elite" humans can compete with them. For example, an "average" Amberite would struggle to beat Usain Bolt at his peak, losing by perhaps half a second, but that same Amberite could also run a 1500m against the world’s best and lose by a similar margin, or run a 10,000m in a similar manner. They could also maintain a "B grade under the UK A-Level system" without particularly trying. Chaosites are generally not as good but no slouches either.

Where Chaosites have the advantage over Amberites is that they are all natural shapeshifters. Now what this means exactly depends on the game setting, but under default rules they have 2 "natural" forms, one human and one "Demon", and the demon form has some natural armour, and an ability to do more damage. This is not to say, that Amberites cannot shapeshift. They can learn the ability but they are never as good at it.

Before I get to the "True" powers there is one other specific power that exists within the game. This is Trump, and again this power must be learnt. Those with "Trump" ability and one of the other powers, including Sorcery(one of the forms of Magic), can do lots of interesting things, if they have a trump of the place they want to go, or the person they want to talk to.
As with Magic, Trump may or may not work in any given Shadow, and like Magic can be turned on and off in a shadow.

So the "True" powers are where the real abilities of the Amberites and Choasites lie. One is restricted to Amberites, and the other to Chaosites, although if you have the right parentage and the right attributes, have both "Blood of Amber" and "Blood of Chaos", you can in theory acquire both. Again, this is all very GM and campaign specific, even if the base rules allow it.

The True Power for Amberites is "Pattern". Only those with "Blood of Amber" can set foot on it a live, but you have to "walk" it in its entirety to gain access to its power. Having the right Pattern skill allows the fastest movement across shadow, and is the least disruptive form of crossing shadows.

The True Power for Chaosites is "Logrus". Only those with "Blood of Chaos" can "Assay" the Logrus, but you need to be a really adept shapeshifter before you can even attempt it, and not all those who do come out alive, and/or intact. Logrus has some advantages that Pattern doesn't, and can be used, if you have the right skill, to smash openings between shadows, allowing you to move between them. It is one of the more destructive methods of traversing shadow, but not the most destructive.

Amber, has potentially the most depth of any system, and in theory what you can do is constrained only by what your GM will allow and what you can conceive. It is a game where player goals are in a lot of ways key, and certainly once you get into the system, it is very much the players who govern what happens, both in terms of how a given problem is solved/resolved or not, what the consequences of that may be, and how the future of Shadow pans out. It is also a game where what you get out of it is directly proportional to what you put into it.

There is no concept of "XP for treasure", treasure and wealth are completely(well comparatively) meaningless in Amber - read the “Cash, Coins, and Economy” page on my website if you want to know more. Experience in Amber comes in the form of "Character Points" (CP). Everything in Amber is bought with CP. CPs are awarded for "Playing in Character", achieving "Character Goals", and "furthering the Story". CPs can also be gained for other things - see the section on "Gaining more points" on the "Creating Characters" page on my website.

There are also no "Classes" or "Stereotypes" or “Archetypes” within Amber. If you're not familiar with the system then creating a character can be daunting.

It's why for my introductory campaigns(Adventures in Roleplay) I have a questionnaire.. it allows you as a player, with my help to create a "Character". As with everything Amber, who, how, and what you play are all down to you, although that is constrained by the setting - at least initially. There are also 4 examples of how to create characters, based both on different "Genres" on my website. One of these demonstrates how to convert from an existing Archetype (character) in another system, and one of the others is how to create a character from a pure concept.

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