Amber Rules FAQ
Below are some questions we recieved about the rules which we
will clarity here and revise the main body of rules to reflect:
Q1. What if we have 2 characters, one (Mr. Weak) with Strength-Joker and
another character with Strength-Blue who is wounded (Mr. Wound).
Mr. Wound is arm-wrestling Mr. Weak. Mr. Wound has a strength of Blue-3 but
is wounded for 1 point so his effective strength is Blue-0. Mr. Weak should
ordinarily lose but what happens in this case? Also how do wounds
affect the King cards? I.e. Red-King wounded vs. Red-7? Who wins?
A1. In these cases, the Joker (or King) won't automatically lose (or win).
In the case of the Blue wimps, Both are considered to be at Blue-0 and
it goes to an Endurance test. In the case of the Wounded Red King, he
is assumed to be at Red-5 (Red-King = 10 minus 5 for the wound) and
will thus lose out to Red-7.
Wounding falls under the category of Modifiers and thus it modifies
the typcial order of conflict resolution.
Q2. Also in group combat there are 3 Blue Amberites attacking 1 Red
Amberite, do the 3 have an effective strength of Red or Green? The
applicable line in the rules is "Characters who are working with the
main character who are equal in Color Band add 1 Color Band to the
main character." Is that 1 Color Band _each_ or one color band total?
A2. That should be one color band TOTAL. So if the main character was
Blue, 2-additional Blue-Rank amberites couldn't shoot him up to Red.
Additional teammates of the same rank only add +5 to the main character's
score. So if you had the following team:
Blue-8
Blue-5
Blue-Joker
Their combined score as a team would be Green-13. Blue-5 would
raise Blue-8 to Green-8 and Blue-Joker would add another 5 points to
Green-8 making him Green-13.
Q3. What about people attacking one person using two attributes? i.e. A
group of 6 people is attacking a person using combined strength and
psyche (3 using strength and 3 psyche). What happens? Call a GM?
A3. Yeah, call a GM. But you can be pretty sure that such a horribly
overpowered person is probably going to lose. The one saving grace
would be a powerful magic item or a weapon. If the victim in question
has a high Warfare and a machine gun, he's going to mess up
everyone's day. He's still probably going down, but he's going to be
taking lots of people with him.
Q4. When someone switches an attribute in combat, for the free attack by
the other player I am assuming that no exchange of cards occurs when the
other player wins? Also, what if the switching person is being attacked
by a Joker? Then it is an attack by a Joker on a value of 0? Who wins?
A4. The free attack is just that. No cards will change hands. If
the switching player is attaking a Joker, the Joker will win since the
attacker isn't really defending himself at all. The orignal set of
rules didn't address this properly and will be changed to reflect this
situation.
Q5. Also what is the definition of lesser power for the Pattern rule:
"you will effectively be immune to mental attack by lesser powers"? Lower
color band? Same color band? Same color band, lower attribute value?
If I am a Red-8 and holding the pattern, can Fiona break in?
A5. Lesser powers refer to mental attack by powers of lower "rank".
So when you have Pattern to mind, you are effectively invulnerable to
mental attack via Trump, Logrus or pretty much anything else.
Powers that can be "brought to mind" and used to stave off mental
attacks include Pattern, Logrus, Trump and Advanced Trump. Sorcery can
be used to create a spell effect that is similiar. When using these
powers to hold off a raw Psyche attack, the contest automatically shifts
to Endurance (how long you can keep the power in mind vs. how long they
can keep up the attack).
Note that it will take a few rounds of concentration (about 3) to
bring any of these powers to mind and while maintaining them, you
will be pretty much unable to defend yourself against Strength or
Warfare (i.e. people get free shots at you).
Q6. Finally you might want to discuss the care & feeding of trump. How
one gets through, what attacks are valid through a trump, different
types of trump (place, person), etc.
A6. As described in the Amber series of books, Trump cards are
Tarot-sized cards inscribed with the portrait of a person or place. By
concentrating on the image of a Trump, you can achieve a couple of
different effects:
If the Trump shows a person, you can make mental contact with that
person regardless of where they are. If the recipient
acknowledges your contact the two of you can talk to one another. If
the recipient refuses you'll have to enter into an Psyche battle to
make contact. In game, this works by summoning a GM and telling him whom
you want to contact. Then he'll tell you to stay where you're at and
look like you're thinking hard. At some point (depending on how far
away your caller is), the GM will tell the recipient that he's getting
a Trump call (no caller ID unless you have Trump or Advanced Trump powers).
If he takes the call, you can talk, if not, the GM will get back to you
and tell you no one is home. If you want to push it, the GM will run
a Psyche battle. If the recipient doesn't want to be contacted, the
caller's Psyche is reduced by one Rank during the subsequent Psyche
battle. If the caller makes contact, they may launch a Psyche attack
to do actual mental damage to the target at no penalty.
If the Trump shows a place, you can use the Trump to move through
Shadow to the place depicted on the Trump instantly. It does take about
5 combat rounds to focus on the Trump enough to make the trip, during
which time you can't be doing anything else. So it's a poor way to escape
combat, but a great timesaver when you want to get through Shadow to
that destination in a hurry.
Note that while some people will have Trump or Advanced Trump
as powers, anyone can use Trumps in the methods described above.
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Sibling Rivalry, an Amber LARP for Intercon 14 by Tom Russell and Mike
Caprio. Comments about this Web site should be sent to tick@sidehack.gweep.net.
Last modified on 03-05-99 by tick@sidehack.gweep.net