Best Games I Have Played: Amber

This is double geeky.  We have here a roleplaying game based on a series of sf/fantasy novels by Roger Zelazny.  Still I had a hoot playing it, and in playing it I got to relive the pleasure of the books which were one of the best series of that time.

Amber was based on the conceit that we of earth are something of an illusion.  We are a shadow.  Of course, if there is a shadow there must be something real casting it.  That real place is Amber.  The royalty of Amber have the power to travel into the shadows and come back.  This is extremely powerful ability because if you are willing to go far enough into the shadows you can find almost anything.  The trouble is, that there is on the "other side" the polar opposite of Amber.  It is Chaos, and Chaos casts its own shadows and has its own royalty.  To say that Amber and Chaos don't get along is putting it lightly, though to be honest the royalty of amber is its own greatest enemy.

With that background you start the game of one of the new generation of Amber's royal family.  All the characters of book act as sort of older brother/sisters, foils, and mentors.  The genius of the game lies here in making your characters.  Amber is a diceless game.  So, instead of rolling stats players enter into an auction for the various characteristics.  Bids are made, there are counter bids, and eventually some one will, for example, come away with "Best fighter."  That means, he will win in a fight.  You attack him and you will lose.  At least if you attack him physically.  It totally changes the nature of play when you know the rube to the left putting cheese puffs up his nose can clean your clock.  You have to out think him.  Of course, some one won the bid for "Best Thinker," and so on.  Amber is a game of finding that subtle edge.  Alliances are very important, and sometimes running is the very best solution.

Certainly a far cry from, "I cast magic missile and then make my 'getting rolled in a tavern' saving throw.