Guardians of Order
What was the publisher of Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game from 2004 to 2006?
Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game The Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game is a role-playing game created and written by Erick Wujcik , set in the fictional universe created by author Roger Zelazny for his Chronicles of Amber . The game is unusual in that no dice are used in resolving conflicts or player actions ; instead a simple diceless system of comparative ability , and narrative description of the action by the players and gamemaster , is used to determine how situations are resolved . Amber DRPG was created in the 1980s , and is much more focused on relationships and roleplaying than most of the roleplaying games of that era . Most Amber characters are members of the two ruling classes in the Amber multiverse , and are much more advanced in matters of strength , endurance , psyche , warfare and sorcery than ordinary beings . This often means that the only individuals who are capable of opposing a character are from his or her family , a fact that leads to much suspicion and intrigue . History . Erick Wujcik offered to design an Amber role-playing game for West End Games , who agreed to look at his work . Wujcik intended to integrate the feel of the Amber setting from the novels into a role-playing game , and playtested his system for a few months at the Michigan Gaming Center where he decided to try it out as a diceless game . West End was not interested in a diceless role-playing game , so Wujcik acquired the RPG rights to Amber and took the game to R . Talsorian Games , until he withdrew over creative differences . Wujcik then founded Phage Press , and published Amber Diceless Role-playing in 1991 . The original 256-page game book was published in 1991 by Phage Press , covering material from the first five novels ( the Corwin Cycle ) and some details – sorcery and the Logrus – from the remaining five novels ( the Merlin Cycle ) , in order to allow players to roleplay characters from the Courts of Chaos . Some details were changed slightly to allow more player choice – for example , players can be full Trump Artists without having walked the Pattern or the Logrus , which Merlin says is impossible ; and players psychic abilities are far greater than those shown in the books . A 256-page companion volume , Shadow Knight , was published in 1993 . This supplemental rule book includes the remaining elements from the Merlin novels , such as Broken Patterns , and allows players to create Constructs such as Merlins Ghostwheel . The book presents the second series of novels not as additions to the series continuity but as an example of a roleplaying campaign with Merlin , Luke , Julia , Jurt and Coral as the PCs . The remainder of the book is a collection of essays on the game , statistics for the new characters and an update of the older ones in light of their appearance in the second series , and ( perhaps most usefully for GMs ) plot summaries of each of the ten books . The book includes some material from the short story The Salesmans Tale , and some unpublished material cut from Prince of Chaos , notably Corals pregnancy by Merlin . Both books were translated into French and published by Jeux Descartes in 1994 and 1995 . A third book , Rebma , was promised . Cover art was commissioned and pre-orders were taken , but it was never published . Wujcik also expressed a desire to create a book giving greater detail to the Courts of Chaos . The publishing rights to the Amber DRPG games were acquired in 2004 by Guardians of Order , who took over sales of the game and announced their intention to release a new edition of the game . However , no new edition was released before Guardians of Order went out of business in 2006 . The two existing books are now out-of-print , but they have been made available as PDF downloads . In June 2007 a new publishing company , headed by Edwin Voskamp and Eric Todd , was formed with the express purpose of bringing Amber DRPG back into print . The new company is named Diceless by Design . In May 2010 , Rite Publishing secured a license from Diceless by Design to use the rules system with a new setting in the creation of a new product to be written by industry and system veteran Jason Durall . The project Lords of Gossamer & Shadow ( Diceless ) was funded via Kickstarter in May 2013 . In Sept 2013 the project was completed , and on in Nov 2013 Lords of Gossamer and Shadow ( Diceless ) was released publicly in full-color Print and PDF , along with additional supplements and continued support . Setting . The game is set in the multiverse described in Zelaznys Chronicles of Amber . The first book assumes that gamemasters will set their campaigns after the Patternfall war ; that is , after the end of the fifth book in the series , The Courts of Chaos , but uses material from the following books to describe those parts of Zelaznys cosmology that were featured there in more detail . The Amber multiverse consists of Amber , a city at one pole of the universe wherein is found the Pattern , the symbol of Order ; The Courts of Chaos , an assembly of worlds at the other pole where can be found the Logrus , the manifestation of Chaos , and the Abyss , the source or end of all reality ; and Shadow , the collection of all possible universes ( shadows ) between and around them . Inhabitants of either pole can use one or both of the Pattern and the Logrus to travel through Shadow . It is assumed that players will portray the children of the main characters from the books – the ruling family of Amber , known as the Elder Amberites – or a resident of the Courts . However , since some feel that being the children of the main characters is too limiting , it is fairly common to either start with King Oberons death before the book begins and roleplay the Elder Amberites as they vie for the throne ; or to populate Amber from scratch with a different set of Elder Amberites . The former option is one presented in the book ; the latter is known in the Amber community as an Amethyst game . A third option is to have the players portray Corwins children , in an Amber-like city built around Corwins pattern ; this is sometimes called an Argent game , since one of Corwins heraldic colours is Silver . System . Attributes . Characters in Amber DRPG are represented by four attributes : Psyche , Strength , Endurance and Warfare . - Psyche is used for feats of willpower or magic - Strength is used for feats of strength or unarmed combat - Endurance is used for feats of endurance - Warfare is used for armed combat , from duelling to commanding armies The attributes run from −25 ( normal human level ) , through −10 ( normal level for a denizen of the Courts of Chaos ) and 0 ( normal level for an inhabitant of Amber ) , upwards without limit . Scores above 0 are ranked , with the highest score being ranked 1st , the next-highest 2nd , and so on . The character with 1st rank in each attribute is considered superior in that attribute , being considered to be substantially better than the character with 2nd rank even if the difference in scores is small . All else being equal , a character with a higher rank in an attribute will always win a contest based on that attribute . The Attribute Auction . A characters ability scores are purchased during character creation in an auction ; players get 100 character points , and bid on each attribute in turn . The character who bids the most for an attribute is ranked first and is considered superior to all other characters in that attribute . Unlike conventional auctions , bids are non-refundable ; if one player bids 65 for psyche and another wins with a bid of 66 , then the character with 66 is superior to the character with 65 even though there is only one bid difference . Instead , lower bidding characters are ranked in ascending order according to how much they have bid , the characters becoming progressively weaker in that attribute as they pay less for it . After the auction , players can secretly pay extra points to raise their ranks , but they can only pay to raise their scores to an existing rank . Further , a character with a bid-for rank is considered to have a slight advantage over character with a bought-up rank . The Auction simulates a history of competition between the descendants of Oberon for player characters who have not had dozens of decades to get to know each other . Through the competitive Auction , characters may begin the game vying for standings . The auction serves to introduce some unpredictability into character creation without the need to resort to dice , cards , or other randomizing devices . A player may intend , for example , to create a character who is a strong , mighty warrior , but being outplayed in the auction may result in lower attribute scores than anticipated , therefore necessitating a change of character concept . Since a player cannot control another players bids , and since all bids are non-refundable , the auction involves a considerable amount of strategizing and prioritization by players . A willingness to spend as many points as possible on an attribute may improve your chances of a high ranking , but too reckless a spending strategy could leave a player with few points to spend on powers and objects . In a hotly contested auction , such as for the important attribute of warfare , the most valuable skill is the ability to force ones opponents to back down . With two or more equally determined players , this can result in a bidding war where the attribute is driven up by increments to large sums . An alternative strategy is to try to cow other players into submission with a high opening bid . Most players bid low amounts between one and ten points in an initial bid in order to feel out the competition and to save points for other uses . A high enough opening bid could signal a players determination to be first ranked in that attribute , thereby dissuading others from competing . Psyche in Amber DRPG compared to the Chronicles . Characters with high psyche are presented as having strong telepathic abilities , being able to hypnotise and even mentally dominate any character with lesser psyche with whom they can make eye-contact . This is likely due to three scenes in the Chronicles : first , when Eric paralyzes Corwin with an attack across the Trump and refuses to desist because one or the other would be dominated ; second , when Corwin faces the demon Strygalldwir , it is able to wrestle mentally with him when their gazes meet ; and third , when Fiona is able to keep Brand immobile in the final battle at the Courts of Chaos . However , in general , the books only feature mental battles when there is some reason for mind-to-mind contact ( for example , Trump contact ) and magic or Trump is involved in all three of the above conflicts , so it is not clear whether Zelazny intended his characters to have such a power ; the combination of Brands living trump powers and his high Psyche ( as presented in the roleplaying game ) would have guaranteed him victory over Corwin . Shadow Knight does address this inconsistency somewhat , by presenting the living trump abilities as somewhat limited . Powers . Characters in Amber DRPG have access to the powers seen in the Chronicles of Amber : Pattern , Logrus , Shape-shifting , Trump , and magic . - Pattern : A character who has walked the pattern can walk in shadow to any possible universe , and while there can manipulate probability . - Logrus : A character who has mastered the Logrus can send out Logrus tendrils and pull themselves or objects through shadow . - Shape-shifting : Shape-shifters can alter their physical form and abilities . - Trump : Trump Artists can create Trumps , a sort of tarot card which allows mental communication and travel . The book features Trump portraits of each of the elder Amberites . The trump picture of Corwin is executed in a subtly different style – and has features very similar to Roger Zelaznys . - Magic : Three types of magic are detailed : Power Words , with a quick , small effect ; Sorcery , with pre-prepared spells as in many other game systems ; and Conjuration , the creation of small objects . Each of the first four powers is available in an advanced form . Artifacts , Personal shadows and Constructs . While a character with Pattern , Logrus or Conjuration can acquire virtually any object , players can choose to spend character points to obtain objects with particular virtues – unbreakability , or a mind of their own . Since they have paid points for the items , they are a part of the characters legend , and cannot lightly be destroyed . Similarly , a character can find any possible universe , but they can spend character points to know of or inhabit shadows which are ( in some sense ) real and therefore useful . The expansion , Shadow Knight , adds Constructs – artifacts with connections to shadows . Stuff . Unspent character points become good stuff – a good luck for the character . Players are also allowed to overspend ( in moderation ) , with the points becoming bad stuff – bad luck which the Gamemaster should inflict on the character . Stuff governs how non-player characters perceive and respond to the character : characters with good stuff will often receive friendly or helpful reactions , while characters with bad stuff are often treated with suspicion or hostility . As well as representing luck , stuff can be seen as representing a characters outlook on the universe : characters with good stuff seeing the multiverse as a cheerful place , while characters with bad stuff see it as hostile . Conflict resolution . In any given fair conflict between two characters , the character with the higher score in the relevant attribute will eventually win . The key words here are fair and eventually – if characters ranks are close , and the weaker character has obtained some advantage , then the weaker character can escape defeat or perhaps prevail . Close ranks result in longer contests while greater difference between ranks result in fast resolution . Alternatively , if characters attribute ranks are close , the weaker character can try to change the relevant attribute by changing the nature of the conflict . For example , if two characters are wrestling the relevant attribute is Strength ; a character could reveal a weapon , changing it to Warfare ; they could try to overcome the other characters mind using a power , changing it to Psyche ; or they could concentrate their strength on defense , changing it to Endurance . If there is a substantial difference between characters ranks , the conflict is generally over before the weaker character can react . The Golden Rule . Amber DRPG advises gamemasters to change rules as they see fit – even to the point of adding or removing powers or attributes . Reception . In the June 1992 edition of Dragon ( Issue 182 ) , both Lester Smith and Allen Varney published reviews of this game . - Smith admired the professional production qualities of the 256-page rulebook , noting that because it was Smyth sewn in 32-page signatures , the book would always lie flat when opened . However , he found the typeface difficult to read , and the lack a coherent hierarchy of rules increased the reading difficulty as well . Smith admired the Attribute Auction and point-buy system for skills , and the focus on roleplaying in place of dice-rolling , but he mused that all of the roleplaying would mean GMs have to spend quite a bit of time and creative effort coming up with wide-reaching plots for their players to work through . Canned , linear adventures just won’t serve . He concluded by stating that the diceless system is not for every gamer : As impressed as I am with the game , do I think it is the end-all of role-playing games , or that diceless systems are the wave of the future ? I’ll give a firm “No” on both counts.. . However , I certainly do think that the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game is destined for great popularity and a niche among the most respected of role-playing game designs . - Allen Varney thought the Attribute Auction to be brilliant and elegant , but he wondered if character advancement was perhaps too slow to keep marginal players interested . He also believed that being a gamemaster would be tough work . Proceed with caution . Varney recommended that players need some familiarity with the first five Amber novels by Zelazny . He concluded , The intensity of the Amber game indicates [ game designer Erik ] Wujcik is on to something . When success in every action depends on the role and not the roll , players develop a sense of both control and urgency , along with creativity that borders on mania . Loyd Blankenship reviewed Amber in Pyramid #2 ( July/Aug. , 1993 ) , and stated that Amber is a valuable resource to a GM - even if he isnt running an Amber game . For gamers who have an aspiring actor or actress lurking within their breast , or for someone running a campaign via electronic mail or message base , Amber should be given serious consideration . Community . Despite the games out-of-print status , a thriving convention scene exists supporting the game . Amber conventions , known as Ambercons , are held yearly in Massachusetts , Michigan , Portland ( United States ) , Milton Keynes ( England ) , Belfast ( Northern Ireland ) and Modena , Italy . Additionally , Phage Press published 12 volumes of a dedicated Amber DRPG magazine called Amberzine . Some Amberzine issues are still available from Phage Press . Reviews . - Challenge #65 ( Oct. , 1992 ) - White Wolf #31 ( May/June , 1992 ) - Shadis #10 ( Dec. , 1993 ) - Casus Belli #70 ( July 1992 ) References . - Review External links . - The Official Amber DRPG and Erick Wujcik Forum The Official Amber DRPG and Erick Wujcik Forum