Mechanics

They are secondary to the story and the characters, however. By mutual agreement, the players and the SG can suspend the rules for any situation where the story might suffer.

That said, it's a pretty rare event. The rules cover quite a lot of ground, but in a very general fashion. Many details are left up to the imagination, which is as it should be. The details shouldn't be argued about: they are there as the content of the story.

The key thing to remember is that the mechanics are purely a way for the players to interact. The characters and the story shouldn't recognise or discuss campaign mechanics at all.

One potential area for change is the method of using points to limit the characters' initial powers: after working out the concept, everyone gets 100 points to build up the mechanics of their character.

The rationale for the points system is that the player characters are assumed to be relatively young and inexperienced by Amber standards, as they are the next generation of Amberites. So they have relatively few powers compared to their elders.

Player characters have the same number of points because they are assumed to have been brought up in the competitive environment of Amber.

If the campaign storyline violates either of these assumptions, then it might be necessary to either change the number of points that characters start with, or to dispense with the concept of points all together.

• Blood Inheritance
• Stuff
• Contributions
• Allies and Enemies
• Story Elements
• Shadows
• Attributes
• Powers

Monday, August 25, 1997 Suhuy

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