Testament to Mediocrity: Gaming: Amberd6

Amber: D6 - Powers

Powers

Blood of Amber
Pattern
Logrus
Trump

Shape Shifting
Sorcery
Conjuration
Power Words

Broken Pattern
High Compelling
Abyss Powers
Other Powers

Blood of Amber

Even without Pattern, the Blood of Amber has a power in its own right, that may serve to protect and guide members of the clan. It is even possible that the power of the blood be shaped in some manner other than that of the Pattern, but that is simply a matter of conjecture. An Amberite who has not crossed the Pattern has a number of dice in Blood of Amber appropriate to their age. It provides protection against some effects, and more importantly, shapes the characters destiny towards greatness and Amber. The more dice, the more insistent the destiny.

Mechanics

Destiny - The character is possessed of a heroic destiny. This is basically GM fiat to cheat to push the character in a certain direction. At any point when a random factor is being determined that could push the character in the "right" direction, the dice of Blood of Amber may be substituted for whatever other deciding factor there may have been, weighted towards the "right" result. Similarly if the character is performing a significant action, the success or failure of which will push him in the "right" direction, the dice of Blood of Amber may serve as bonus dice or penalty dice on the roll. No coincidence is too unlikely for one with the Blood of Amber.
Protection - Any mystical event which changes the essential nature of the target is more difficult against one of the blood. Dice of BoA are added as bonus dice to attempts to resist.
The Pattern - Blood of Amber is required to walk the Pattern. When the Pattern is walked, the Blood of Amber attribute is removed and replaced by the attribute Pattern at half the number of dice the character had in BoA rounded down. If a character attempts to walk the pattern with only 1 die of BoA, they'll most likely die.
Miscellaneous- The Blood of Amber has a degree of unconstrained power to it, and it is possible for that to manifest as any number of random things, such as accidental shadow shifts or alterations to reality. In addition, it is theoretically possible that the Blood of Amber may be focussed some way other than through the Pattern, but for the moment, that is only conjecture.

Pattern

Pattern Grants a prince of Amber the ability to travel through shadow and control the contents of those shadows. It also provides protection against a number of nasty things, both passively and actively. There are no pattern lenses and there is no walking the Pattern of the mind. Nonetheless, the Amberites power over probability is a staggering thing, though it is far more useful at making things happen then making them be or not be. In addition, it is limited by the senses of the prince.

Mechanics

Shadow Travel - Usually, Shadow travel is automatic, provided the prince is in motion. Technically it is done by comparing the shadows resistance to the travelers dice of Pattern, but the vast majority of shadows have 0 or 1 dice of resistance, so it's just no big deal. Some shadows, however, have a greater level of resistance that must be overcome with competing dice rolls. A sufficiently high resistance level can effectively block off a shadow from travel. Resistance may be natural in some shadow, or may be imposed by others with power over shadow.
Shadow travel often makes automatic changes to the traveler and their equipment to suit. This effect can be controlled within logical bounds. It is always easiest to move towards traditional amber armament and garb.
Probability Manipulation - Within a shadow, events may be altered along logical lines. Theoretically, any possible outcome can be achieved, but in practice, the more logical the outcome, and the more depend ant on "chance" it is, the easier it is to influence. If the prince themself (or another shadowwalker) is involved in the event, it is much more difficult to influence. The mechanic is simple, the prince states their desired result, the GM decides on a difficulty, and the prince rolls his dice of pattern, less any dice of resistance in the local shadow. It should be noted that if the prince wants to find an object in shadow, he is best served traveling to where it is most logical. Digging and deciding there's buried treasure there may work, but the treasure may not travel well, or the treasure may have an unpleasant catch. Probability Manipulation does _not_ require movement.
Defense - The image of the pattern is a better defense than the blood of Amber. Against mystic effects which alter the essential nature of the individual, dice of pattern are added to resistance. In addition, concentrating on the image of the Pattern offers similar defense against a wide variety of effects, though listing them off would be cheating. The one drawback of raising patter though is that every die of pattern raised is a penalty die to any non-pattern related actions.
Limitations - While it is easy to use pattern to find things of a certain appearance, it is very hard to control the nature of your target. For example, an Amberite looking for gunpowder may be able to find a grey, grainy powder, but there's no way to be sure it will ignite. As such, the best way to insure that what you find is what you want is to shift shadows until it becomes more logical, then work on it. For example, to find gunpowder, search until you find a shadow that uses muskets, then find an armory and beg, borrow buy or steal a few kegs of powder. The best example for this sort of behavior from the books was Corwin's acquisition of Guns for his assault on Amber. He did not merely find a cache of guns and a load of jewelers rouge, or even a big pile of money to pay for it all. He walked to a shadow of South Africa, spent the day acquiring the diamonds, brought them to a shadow of Avalon where he could sell them for the right kind of rouge, then went to Earth to purchase the guns and have the ammunition prepared. It was a long, slow process, but it assured that the end result worked.
Also note, the ability to make money appear in your wallet is a handy one, but it has it's limits. The amount may be a sizable wad of cash, but it won't be enough to buy a house or a car.

Logrus

First off, no one should have this power. That being said, it doesn't send lenses through shadow, but it can summon stuff very easily, depending on things like specifications, size and proximity. It also allows movement through shadow, albeit more crudely than Pattern, and may also be used to whack things around. While it has some defensive uses, they're less than comprehensive. It is also different for different people. Most tasks requiring the logrus require that it be raised, a process that takes approximately a minute, though minor summons and manipulation can be performed on the fly, with additional difficulty.

Mechanics

Summoning - Logrus is a very useful tool for summoning just about anything. The only limitations upon it are the nature of the item, it's size and the time taken. Starting with a difficulty of 5, add to the difficulty of the task based on the following criterea:
Shadow Travel - A logrus user travels through shadow by reachign through shadow with the logrus towards something specific, then puling themselves to it.

Trump

Trumps are cool, useful, powerful and flexible, but they do have limits. They are resilient, but not indestructible. They also require a major power to do properly. Trump contacts are intially mental, but they can become physical with effort. Trumps also have only a limited effective range.

Mechanics

Drawing trumps - Basically, drawing a trump under a variety of circumstances has various difficulties. The simplest action, drawing a trump of something right in front of you has a difficulty of 10. If it's somethign you're intimately familiar with that's not there, it's 15 and things just go up from there. More time can be spent to add bonus dice, though the time required depends on the motivating force. Assorted tricks, trump traps, non-standard trumps and the like are all doable, simply with higher difficulty numbers.
Power Source - Trumps require a power source of some sort, most commonly Pattern or Logrus. The number of dice the character has in Trump cannot exceed those in the power source. Logrus and Pattern trumps are noticeably different in nature. Pattern trumps are more powerful, more resilient and longer lasting, but they take longer to draw, with the average time incriment being about 4-6 hours (with a bonus die for each additional incriment spent). Logrus trumps are flimsy, and only last for a few uses but are very quickly drawn, only a half hour base incriment. It is _possible_ to do quick, flimsy trumps with pattern, or longer lasting ones with Logrus, but it is very difficult.
It is possible to have minor trumps, based off other power sources (see sorcery, below). The form and mechanic of the device may not resemble normal trumps, and may be looked at in some ways as a specific form or sorcery. The functionality will be the same, save that the trumps will be restricted as much as the source is. As with Major Trumps, the dice in trump cannot exceed the Power source.
Trump Tricks - There are a few things one can do with trumps besides communicate, including observe places through them, spy on trump conversations, and perhaps other things (not trump Defense though, and identifying calls is nigh impossible). Most of those have difficulties based on all sorts of factors like distance, who's being observed, stuff like that.

Shape Shifting

Like Logrus, no one should have this. It's pretty nasty, because while Amberites naturally end up in situatiosn where they're better off than their environment, those who travel with Logrus have no such luxury.

Mechanic

Go away. Shoo. I tell you nothing.
Back to Top

Sorcery

Sorcery comes in a lot of different forms. Any kind of magic you've seen in an RPG or in a book is out there somewhere, and most are playable. The specific mechanics will vary from system to system, but they all fall under this heading. With that in mind, there is no such thing as "vanilla" Sorcery, every sorcerer shoudl have some thematic schtick, even if it's as simple as hanging and preparing spells.

Mechanics

Dice - A sorcerer's aptitude is measured by two things, his skill, or art, and his power source. Both of these are measured in terms of number of dice. Skill in sorcery is bought as an attribute, and the number is based off that. Source is a lot more variable, as it represents the source of power the sorcerer is tapping into to cast his spells. The source also affects the _nature_ of the socerers spells. If their source is some link to pure, elemental fire, they'll have an easier time creating heat and fire affects, and a diffult time creating ice or water effects. Sources are ususally some single thing or location, though other possibilites exist. It is exceptionally rare for a source to be higher than 5 dice, and most that are tend to be highly specialized in nature. Some possible sources include:
- The Magic of Shadow - This is probably the most common source for shadow sorcerers. Their level of source is entirely dependant upon the amount of magic in the shadow they're in, usually ranging from 0d to 5d.
- A Talisman - Something portable, often a staff or piece of jewelry that contains enough raw power to operate as a source, usualy no more than 3 or 4d, though. Some Talisman's also have additional powers or limitations. Powerful Talisman's are greatly prized by almost any sorcerer. Spikards are a unique, (and grossly powerful) form of Talisman.
- A Site - This is a physical location, such as a sacred grove or a well of force from which the sorcerer draws their power. There are two possible ways to do this. First, the sorcerer draws power directly from the site. Since sites often have very high dice, that means a sorcerer is very powerful near their source, but the power diminishes as they move away, especially through shadow. Alternately, the character could draw upon the source and store it somehow, and carry that supply around with them. The problem being, that supply will diminish with use, and will need to be taken back to the source to "recharge." The Fount at the Keep of Four Worlds is a very powerful example of this type of source.
- Pattern or Logrus - Basically, either of these is a pretty powerful source, since they work anywhere and they are potentially immense. They do have some limitations, primarily in that they work best doing magicks that fall at least vaguely within their own bounds. For example, A pattern sorcerer will have an easy time creating spells to make things happen, but a harder time throwing around raw energy and items, while the Logrus sorcerer may be in exactly the opposite situation.
- Other Options - There are other possibilites out there. Gods, for example, might be an appropriate source for a priest character. The dice of source are dependant upon the God's influence in that particular shadow. Other possibilities can also be considered.
Types of Sorcery - Sorcery comes in 3 basic categories, Sorcery, High Sorcery or Pattern/Logrus sorcery. Sorcery is as described here, but depends upon a particular Source, except for Pattern/Logrus. If that source is destroyed, another could possibly be sought, but the Sorcerer may only have one at a time. High Sorcerers (who almost never call themselves that) can make use of more than one source (again, except Pattern or Logrus), though they may usually only use one source per effect. Pattern or Logrus Sorcery is Sorcery that uses Pattern or Logrus as its source, with a value equal to the characters dice inthe appropriate power.
Sorcery and Shadow Travel - Yes, sorcery can be used to move between shadows. The specific mechanic depends on the sorcerer, be it gates, tunnels, ley lines, astral travel or whatnot. It is not as versatile as using a major power, however. Most specifically, Sorcery allows travel to specific destinations, but not to imagined ones, like shadows of desire. Generally, travel to a shadow requires knowledge of the specifics of reaching it, or a link of some sort to the target.
Mechanics - Generally, casting a spell requires a roll for the skill of the caster against a difficulty assigned by the GM. These rolls will often be on a scale of effect, rather than for a concrete number. When appropriate, the GM will then roll for the source and the effect will be resolved. How the caster casts spells has some impact on the dice: For example, a spellcaster who must hang his spells in advance will receive a bonus in casting them, while a sorcerer who can improvise spells or effects, but makes up for it in flexibility. My preference is that most caster be of the hang-and-cast, improvisation-is-slow school.

Conjuration

All right, conjuration is not a power in its own right, but it is a specific subset of Sorcery. For all intents and purposes, a conjuror is a specific type of sorcerer. There migth even be overlap, someone who's sorcerous schtick is Fire Magic might be able to summon fire creatures, but nothing else, or empower a flaming sword, but not a wand of icicles. Where sorcery involves itself with altering the environment and creating effects, conjuration involves the summoning of beings of power to do your owrk for you, or the empowerment of items to the same end. Conjuration is slow business, but one with sizeable rewards.

Mechanics

Skill and Source - These are determined identically to Sorcery.
Types of Conjuration - Again, it's identical to sorcery. It can be regular, high or even Pattern/Logrus, though the last is very rare. It should be noted that Pattern Conjuration is good for empowering items to travel through shadow and the like, but cannot be used to make a Pattern Blade or a Pattern, those are special cases.
Summoning - Ok, first decide what you want to summon, then find an appropriate place to do so. It's hard to summon a Fire Elemental from a beach, much less a water source. Basically, summoned creatures have one attribute, such as Air Elemental, 4 dice. The maximum number of dice the creature can have is determined by the source you are drawing upon. To summon the creature, you roll your dice in Sorcery, and the GM rolls dice for the creature. If the creatture wins, the summoning fails. If you win by more than 5, the creature is summoned, and bound. If you succeed, but by less than 5, the creature is sumoned, but not bound. This can be bad, which is why most conjurors spend time investing in protective circles. Basically, for each 5 points you beat the creature by, you can give it one simple command. One common command is to bind it, either to an object, or to follow you around, so it's on hand for the next command. Creatures may be dispelled by reverseing the process. Various elements can give you bonus or Penalty dice to A conjuring. Most common bonuses include things like truenames, an appropriate source, taking extra time or some material component. Note, yes it is conceivably possible to summon an Amberite or Lord of Chaos, but I assure you, it's much harder than you want to mess with.
Enchanting items - The rules here a re much less hard and fast, because I have yet to think of a system I couldn't cheat within. If you want to create an item, tell the GM, and I'll tell you what you need to do.

Power Words

Power Words are also being absorbed into Sorcery.
Back to Top

Broken Pattern

Ok, first off, broken Pattern sucks. If you can't get real pattern, it's hot stuff, but compared to Pattern it's full of spikes and dangers that make it all kinds of problematical.

Mechanics

Shadow Travel - Shadow travel with BP is slower and harder than with Pattern. The process involves slipping between weak points in shadow, moving towards your desired goal in slides, slips and starts. The biggest drawback is that these weak points tend to take one through all the places one really doesn't want to go for a wide variety of reasons. In addition, all shadows have a resistance two dice higher against Broken Pattern travel, so the minimum resistance will be 2 dice, enough to keep things slow and difficult.
Defense - The imprint of the BP provides no passive protection, though when raised, it provides bonus dice to defense against invasive sorceries and other energy-construct attack.
Tendrils - The power of the flaw may be used to send out tendrils to examine the immediate area. Their primary use is for studying the magic in the vicinity, or as a conduit for a spell. Each tendril may also be used to make a 1d magical attack, or can be combined to do a single attack for 1d per 2 Tendrils. The BP adept can create as many tendrils as he has dice of BP.
The Flaw - The flaw is always with the character, but most obviously when they are travelling through shadow. The exact mechanics of its manifestation is very fast and loose, but any time a BP roll is failed, or, god forbid, comes up all ones, my suggestion would be to duck.
Pattern and Blood of Amber - If someone with the blood of Amber negotiates a Broken pattern, their dice of BOA are converted directly into dice of Broken Pattern, to a maximum of 4 dice, witht he rest kept in BoA. If such a character subsequently walks the Pattern, the dice of BP and BOA are combined and treated as dice of BOA for determining dice of Pattern. Those with Pattern who walk a Broken Pattern can either ignore it, or gain an imprint equal to their Pattern Imprint in Dice, but lose all dice of Pattern until they walk a real Pattern again (at which point they will regain Pattern at full dice).
Sorcery and Trump - Broken Pattern can be a source for Sorcery or Trump (see above) but in either case, the end product will be tained in some manner by the flaw.

Powers

Blood of Amber

Mechanics

Pattern

Mechanics

Logrus

Mechanics

Trump

Mechanics

Shape Shifting

Mechanic

Sorcery

Mechanics

Conjuration

Mechanics

Power Words

Broken Pattern

Mechanics

High Compelling

Abyss Powers

DEAR GOD NOOOO!!!

Other Powers