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This Golden Circle site owned by Michael Phillips.

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Mike's Amber Page

My Links to Webcomics and Stuff Welcome to Amber, the one true city on the one true world. This page is mostly a tool for my various Amber campaigns. It is always under construction, but is unfortunately rather like government roadwork. You can look at it and see something that is in the middle of being changed, and watch it every day for a month. Nothing happens. Then one morning you wake up and there is a new interstate going in the general direction of Albuquerque, which would be fine, but you are 2000 miles from Albuquerque and have no desire to be there. Meanwhile a bunch of drunken pre-engineering students have invaded your room and microwaved a copy of the I Ching that you are borrowing from your friend. You know the friend I'm talking about, the guy with 20,000 books, all of them in mint condition, the one who reads a book and the spine isn't even cracked. This is the nature of the construction of this page. � Now, where was I? Oh, yeah, Amber. For those of you who don't know what Amber is, go away, what are you doing here you loser freaks, go look for your porn sites somewhere else, this is not an Amber Lynn page, it never has been, and it never will. For the rest of you, you know, the literate ones in the crowd, first I'd like to apologize for all of the freaks out there looking for an Amber Lynn page and thus tying up precious bandwidth, especially for those of you using modems (shudder.) As for what Amber is, Amber is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the Shadow Caster. I'd assume that anyone who is here probably knows what Amber is, but maybe not.

The Amber universe was created by Roger Zelazny (1937-1995), one of the greatest authors of modern Science-Fiction. He's the author of many short stories such as A Rose for Ecclesiastes, which I'd suggest you find in its graphic novel form, and of novels dealing with humanity to a background of it's myths. Eclectic is perhaps the best word for Zelazny. The one string that runs through all of his stories is the egotist hero. From Corwin to Jack of Shadows, from his mutant detectives to the college student who won't graduate, they are all some of the most egotistical people this side of Lazarus Long.

With his Amber Chronicles Zelazny tackles a universe of the vastest scope, on par with the reality of Doc Smith's lensmen series. He opens the book with an innocuous scene: an amnesic awakes in a hospital and escapes in order to find out who he is. From the beginning the protagonist lies and cheats as if it is an instinct. The story goes on to take place in an incredible and vertiginous universe, without distinction between imagination and reality. He builds a world both vast and complex, and though the Earth is the initial setting of the first novel, it quickly becomes one shadow among the infinite.

This is how Corwin (the Protagonist of the first 5 books) describes the Amber universe :

" Now it is written that only a prince of Amber may walk among shadows, though of course he may lead or direct as many as he chooses on such courses. We led our troops and saw them die, but of Shadow I have this to say ; there is Shadow and there is Substance, and this is the root of all things. Of Substance, there is only Amber, the real city, upon the real Earth, which contains everything. Of Shadow, there is an infinitude of things; Every possibility exists in somewhere as a Shadow of the real. Amber, by its very existence, has cast such in all directions. And what may on say of it beyond ? Shadow extends from Amber to Chaos, and all things are possible within it. There are only three ways of traversing it, and each of them is difficult

If one is a prince or a princess of the blood, then one may walk, crossing through Shadows, forcing one's environment to change until it is finally in precisely the shape one desires it, and there stop. That Shadow world is then its one's own, save for family intrusions, to do with as one would. In such place I dwelled for centuries.

The second means is the cards, cast by Dworkin, master of the Line, who had created them in our image, to facilitate communications between members of the royal family. He was the ancient artist to whom space and perspective meant nothing. He made up the family Trumps, which permitted the willer to touch his brethren wherever they might be. I had a feeling that these had not be used in full accord with their author's intentions.

The third was the Pattern, also drawn by Dworkin, which could only be walked by a member of our family. It initiated the walker into the system of the cards, as it were, and at its ending gave its walker the power to stride across Shadows.

The cards and the Pattern made for instant transport from Substance through Shadow. The other way, walking, was harder. "

For a more detailed look at the Amber Universe, read the books. Last time I looked, they were avaliable at Walden Books as a set for about $20 US.

The Amber universe was adapted in a role-playing game by Eric Wujcik (Thank you, thank you, thank you.) And for those who don't know what a role-playing game is... go away. No, it's part tale and part theater, as each participant plays the role of a character and reacts according to the personality of his character to the situations this character encounters. The game is run by the GM or Game Master who describes the characters surroundings and situations and plays the role of all the people the player's characters can meet, and tries desperately, though not always successfully to ensure the playing universe is vaguely coherent.

(You, the one, yeah, the asshole player who's laughing at that one, why don�t you try dealing with half a dozen of your most psychotic friends trying at every moment to mess you up while keeping everything coherent.) As a RPG, Amber is relatively unique (and hold on before you yell at me) in that it uses no dice to simulate random chance. The GM gets to decide the results of actions. This plus the entirely open universe make Amber more a game of story telling than of hack and slash (though that is not to say that there is never any combat.) Unlike previous open worlds (gurps, Amazing Engine, et al.) Amber is somewhat easy to run with out having a setting predesigned. Cyberpunk worlds, Fairy tales realms, Wonderland, in Amber it is possible to meet Arthur on an alternative Earth or to find a place extracted from a Ron Dahl book. The only limit is the imagination of the player, no matter how. But then, if there are no limits, how much fun is that? The pcs (Player Characters) are almost immortal, have an access to a vast range of powers, and can find everything in Shadow. How do you challenge them?

The Amberites are not alone. The Courts of Chaos are always there to counter the power of Amber. (Zelazny didn't set Amber and Chaos as being good and evil he merely has them as two different aspects of the universe.) Also Amber is above a game of intrigue. Everything is centered on the complex games between the members of the family. Plots are the mother's milk for most Amberites. Seduction is a game. Treachery and political manipulations are the common diversions. This doesn't mean that you are always going to play Machiavellie's mentor, as it is possible to play a naive character in Amber, though when the whole group decides to do that, or even worse, all but one do, the game can be a little slow.

Now on to my page.

If you want to see the index go here (sorry, its not accurate at the moment.)

If you Wanna look at my Campaigns� well, you can't

Some Quotes from various Amber Games.

A little stolen info on the Amber DRPG (Sorry, I can't remember who I lifted this from or I'd acknowledge you.)

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