Through a Mirror Darkly

Character Creation Page

• The Five Rules of Amber
• Character Creation
• Contribution Points
• Powers
• Allies
• Items
• Shadows
• Constructs
• Parentage
• Example Characters/Examples of Play
• Useful Links

The Five Rules of Amber:
 

1. If the GM tells you something is a bad idea, unless someone is controlling your mind to make you believe that, it usually is the GM's desperate effort to keep you away from suicide.
2. Rule #2 is knowing when to take the risk anyway.
3. Trust no one.
4. You have to trust some people, because going it alone is usually suicide.
5. If you're even slightly unsure about if you can do something or what's going on, ask me, as incorrect assumptions are a quick road to annihilation.

Character Creation

All players will recieve 100 character points.   This link jumps to the Contribution rules, which can get you extra points.  You can sell down attributes, if you're feeling suicidal.

All players must be Amberites, although you can buy Chaos connections or Chaos blood if you really want it. You don't have to buy Pattern, but I'd rather strongly suggest it.

If you haven't played Amber before, I suggest you check out my auction page before continuing.

Amber uses four basic attributes, which are discussed in detail on my Attributes Page.

The Attributes

• Endurance: This attribute determines how much damage you can take and how long you keep doing stuff before you pass out. In the canon, Corwyn is the king of Endurance.
• Psyche: This determines your force of will, charisma, and magical aptitude. Many powers' effectiveness is determined by your Psyche. Fiona rules here.
• Strength: This combines your ability at unarmed combat and your physical strength. It also measures athletic prowness. Gerard is king.
• Warfare: Fighting with weapons, games of strategy, leading and organizing armies. Benedict is the master.

• Human (-25)--The ability of a completely average real world human
• Chaos (-10)--The ability of exceptional real world humans, average Chaosians, and below average Amberites
• Amber (0)--The best real world human who ever was, an above average Chaosian, or an an average Amberite
• Ranked (1 or more points)--Better than any real human.  Entering levels of skill found only in anime, comics, books, and movies.

Contributions:

Maximum of 30 points for Contributions plus Enemies (detailed in the Allies section).

Ten Point Contributions:

• Keep and edit a workable log of each session.
• Produce a trump per week of real time
• Write up an in-character diary of game events

• Stories about your past
• Writeups of frequently used locations and shadows
• A handful of individual trumps all at the start of the gam

The Powers

A brief introduction to the major powers can be found here.

• Pattern: 50 points
• --Advanced Pattern: 25 points more
• Broken Pattern: 10
• --Broken Pattern Adept: 15 points more
• Shapeshifting: 35 points
• --Advanced Shapeshifting: 30 points more
• Logrus: 45 points (Plus you need Shapeshifting)
• --Advanced Logrus: 25 points more
• Trump Artistry: 40 points
• --Advanced Trump: 20 points more
• Power Words: 10 points (Buys you five power words)
• --More Power Words: 1 each
• Sorcery: 15 points
• Conjuration: 20 points
• --High Compelling: 5 points more
• --Advanced Conjuration: 15 points more

Pattern is the fundamental power of the Royal House of Amber.  It is the heritage of King Gendo.  Anyone who buys Pattern is automatically an heir to the throne and a child of Gendo by one of his wives or mistresses.   Pattern gives you several nifty benefits:

• Walk the Pattern and teleport to anywhere in all of creation.
• Hit your enemies with Blood Curses (at the cost of ten points of Bad Stuff)
• Travel through Shadow to anything you can imagine.
• Manipulate probability
• Use the Pattern to shield yourself from other Powers

• The closer you get to Amber, the more slowly and less effectively it works, except for when used to protect against other Powers
• It's not very fast, and you need to be able to see and to move freely in order to use it.

You can upgrade your knowledge of Pattern to learn some of the more obscure arts of Pattern.  This enables you to:
 

• Move more swiftly through Shadow.
• Mold Shadows quickly to become whatever you desire.
• Walk the Pattern in your mind, then use the image of the Pattern to:
• Scry through Shadow to find things without leaving your chair.
• Teleport yourself to those locations by force of will
• Study things through the Pattern lens, to see if they are of Amber or Chaos or Shadow or whatever.

The Pattern casts reflections of itself through Shadow.  Those reflections gradually become imperfect, enabling those not of the blood of Amber to walk them...but they also don't work as well as the real thing.  Broken Pattern gives you several nifty benefits:

• Walk the Pattern and teleport to anywhere in all of creation.
• Hit your enemies with Blood Curses (at the cost of ten points of Bad Stuff)
• Travel through Shadow to anything you can imagine.

• If you walk the Pattern, it doesn't aim very well in sending you where you want to go.
• When you travel through Shadow, you hit all the worst places, and everything tends to go horribly wrong.

You can upgrade your knowledge of Broken Pattern.  This enables you to:

• Move more swiftly through Shadow.
• Mold Shadows, although they never quite work out right.
• Hang Spells on the Broken Pattern
• Evoke the Dark Veil, through which you can see Magic, Logrus, and the other Powers more clearly
• Summon Broken Pattern Tendrils, which can be used to project magic or establish Psychic contact or examine things from a distance with the Dark Veil.

Shapechanging can be learned by any PC, Amber or Chaos, although it's rare in Amber and common as rocks in Chaos.  It is a prerequisite for learning Logrus.  It enables you to:

• Assume three basic forms:
• Human form (Your natural body for Amberites)
• Demon form (Your natural body for Chaosians)
• Avatar Form (A force of nature for Chaosians, an animal for Amberites)
• Heal your wounds by shape shifting them shut.
• Alter your features to impersonate others or disguise yourself.  At this level, disguises as others tend to be not quite perfect.
• Shapeshift Persona:  Become someone else, gaining their abilities and a perfect impersonation.  This is very dangerous, however, because if their psyche exceeds yours, or you're too tired, you'll take on their persona completely and lose your identity until you change back.
• Automatic Shapeshifting:  You can set yourself to shapeshift automatically to respond to sudden changes in your environment, like it bursting into flames.  This is dangerous because you may slip into Primal Form and begin acting entirely on subconscious survival instincts.

• The more you shapeshift, the more you exhaust yourself.
• You can mess up your own mind using it.

You can upgrade your knowledge of shapeshifting as well.  This enables you to:

• Carry out perfect impersonations
• Disguise your aura so high-Psyche people can't see through your impersonation with their powers so easily.
• Turn into animals
• Create extra limbs.
• Conjure Creatures from your own blood

Shapeshift other people

Those who have the Blood of Chaos (Free at character creation if you buy Logrus at that time) can walk the Logrus.  Those who also possess Shapeshifting actually survive walking the Logrus.  The eternally shifting Logrus grants powers to those who walk it:

• Walk the Logrus and travel anywhere.
• Summon and control Logrus Tendrils.  You can call up the image of the Logrus and use it to smack people around.  This is dangerous if you hit a Pattern Wielder, who will give you a nasty shock.
• Break off Logrus tendrils and shape them into simple, not very bright servants.
• Hang spells on the Logrus.
• Use the Logrus as a lens to study things and see how they work.
• Reach through Shadow, find things with the Logrus, and pull them back to you.
• Reach through Shadow, find somewhere you want to go, and pull yourself there.
• Fill yourself with the Logrus, to defend against other Powers.

• You go mad the first time you walk the Logrus.
• It works poorly near Amber.
• It tends to respond explosively when encountering Pattern.

You can upgrade your knowledge of Logrus as well.  This enables you to:

• Use the Logrus to scry through Shadow.
• Use the Logrus to summon, bind, and shape Creatures of Chaos
• Mold Shadows into the forms you want.
• Summon Primal Chaos if you want to make a mess and risk annhilation.

Trump Artistry: 40 points

Trump Artistry is the knowledge of how to create Trumps and use them most effectively.  Trump Artists are rare but powerful.  To create Trumps which reach across Shadow, once must either have Logrus or Pattern, or must have the Blood of Amber or Chaos.

• Create Trump Sketches, which only work once but can be worked up in 30 minutes to an hour.
• Create permanent Trumps of anyone you know well, or have gotten a psychic impression of.  You can also create Trumps of places you have been.  This is easiest if you are in the place or have the person handy to model for you, and harder if you don't have your model handy.  This takes hours to days, double or triple the time if the subject isn't present for it.
• Try to create a Trump of something based on psychic impressions gained from other people.  This is very slow, and very, very unreliable, almost always connecting only to a shadow of what you were seeking.
• Learn various Trump Tricks:
• Sense Trump:  You can sense the use of Trump near you, and you can study Trumps to figure out what they do.
• Trump Defense:  You can use a Trump of yourself to 'Trump yourself', filling yourself with the Power of Trump, which will help to protect you from psychic attack or other Powers.
• Trump Caller ID:  If you have a trump deck handy, you can use it to identify who is trying to Trump you.  You can also tell who made a particular Trump card, if you know them or have seen other Trumps by the same person.

• Trumps take time and materials to make.
• They get lost easily.
• It's difficult to impossible to use them in combat.
• Anyone with Amber Psyche or above can easily defend themselves against involuntary trump contact, unless they get mobbed by a large group of Trump users.

You can upgrade your knowledge of Trump as well.  This enables you to:

• In creating a card, you can burn the image into your brain, so you can contact that person without needing to have the Trump yourself.  This only works with people, and using that image is fairly exhausting.
• Create Trumps which activate very rapidly.
• Create Trump traps which trigger when looked at or touched, and send the involuntary user somewhere they won't like.
• Create disguised Trumps whose appearance masks their true nature or destination.
• Create etched trumps which take forms like weaving, engraving, etc.
• Trump Spying:  Use a trump of a person to monitor their surface thoughts.
• Trump Blocking:  Jam someone's Trump so they can't be Trump contacted.

Power Words: 10+ points

Power Words are words of power which produce simple magical effects fueled by the user's Endurance.  They work anywhere, but using too many of them will tire you out.

• The first ten points gets you five power words.
• Additional power words cost one point each.
• Available Power Words:
• Burst Of Magic, Burst of Psyche, Burst of Strength, Burst of Speed, Chaos Negation, Defensive Luck, Induce Euphoria, Induce Fear, Light Strobe, Lifeforce, Magic Negation, Neural Disrupt, Pain Attack, Pattern Negation, Process Surge, Process Snuff, Psychic Disrupt, Resume True Form, Shade, Spark, Thunder, Trump Disrupt, Weaken Structure

• They're not very powerful
• They tire you out.

Sorcery is the art of creating and casting spells.  More details can be found on my sorcery page.
 

Conjuration: 20 points

You can create something from nothing, molding Shadow into the forms you desire.  This level of conjuration allows you to create items with any of the 1-4 point values on the Throne War Items Page.
 

• Basic Conjuration:  Use magic to shape shadow to give it a bit of power.  Items are conjured instantaneously, but are extremely fragile and easily dispelled by others or by travel through Shadow.
• Conjure Shadow Shape:  Shape a shadow object into what is desired.  The enhancement takes about an hour, but it will fade away after a while (several days out in Shadow, less time near Pattern, more time near Chaos).  It also instantly vanishes if moved across Shadow.  This is also vulnerable to being dispelled.
• Empowerment:  An shadow object can be temporarily implanted with magical power.  Attunement takes a half-hour, each point of a quality adds ten minutes, and each point of power adds an hour.  While vulnerable to dispelling, it is not easily broken by Shadow Travel.
• Complex Conjuration:  A Conjured Shadow Shape can be designed to be permanent within the Shadow it was created in.  This takes one hour per point.  Any attempt to dispel the conjuration must cross the Psyche of the conjurer.

But it does have some flaws:

• Conjuration is generally too slow for use in combat.
• Conjured items can be dispelled by the use of Sorcery, Logrus, or Pattern against them.
• Conjured items only actually work in Shadows that support the principles they're based on (Your conjured magic wand won't work on Shadow Earth, your conjured gun doesn't work in Amber).

High Compelling enables you to 'conjure' geases and compulsions into beings, in order to try to control their minds.  You can also plant geases on objects, which will then compel whoever meets some set condition.  This requires a victory in a psyche battle to succeed.

Advanced Conjuration (aka Conjuration 2.0):  High Compelling + 15 points

You can upgrade your knowledge of Conjuration as well.  This enables you to:

• Conjure more quickly
• Identify Conjured items and who made them.  Especially handy for tracking down someone who tried to High Compel you.
• Conjure items with 8 point qualities.

Buying Allies and Blood Ties

Blood of Amber: 6 points

You are a child of Gendo, but you have yet to walk the Pattern.  This gives you a claim on the throne without the need to spend the full 50 points for Pattern.  You can walk the Pattern during the game if need be.  If you buy Pattern at character creation, it comes along for free.

Blood of Chaos: 2 points

You have the heritage of Chaos in your veins.  You can learn Shapeshifting and walk the Logrus, but Pattern Blades will do bad, evil, nasty things to you.

Minor Noble or Merchant Ally: 1 point

A major merchant or a minor noble has taken a liking to you and will generally help you.

Amber City Contact Network: 3 points

Instead of one big ally, you have a network of contacts all over the City of Amber.  None of them are very important, but collectively, they add up and they know what's going down in the most real, most important city in all of creation.

Court Ally: 3 points

One of the Court Officials or major Court Servants likes you and will support your plotting.

Chaos Ties: 5 points

A House of Chaos thinks you're just cool and will tend to support your plots, but keep in mind that most Amberites react adversely to Chaosians and their friends...  This does not convey Blood of Chaos; they can like Amberites too, even if it's rare.

Golden Circle Ally: 3 points

One of the Golden Circle kingdoms supports you and your plots. They're not so powerful as a house of Chaos, but they're also less likely to alienate the population of Amber if you come to power with their backing.

Cousin Alliance: 4 points

One of your NPC cousins has taken a liking to you and generally is willing to support you in your plots, plans, and intrigues.
 

Amber Devotee: 6 points

One of the Elders really, really likes you and will do his or her best to protect and guide you.  Of course, the nature of Amber being what it is, this may or may not be your actual Amber father or mother, and they may act like they hate you publically, so that no one can tell they like you, but having an Elder watching out for you rarely hurts.

Enemies:

Any of the Allies can be reversed to become an enemy, which gives you points.  You can take up to ten points of enemies.

Example:
Bob is creating a character named Allistaire.  He wants nine points of enemies, so he takes:

• Hostile Elder Amberite: 6 points
• Golden Circle Enemy: 3 points

Item Purchase Costs

The system for constructing nifty widgets, magic weapons, servitors, horses and everything else has its own section.

You will find those rules here on the Items Page.

Items bought with Character Points become virtually indestructible.  Even if the Pattern and the Logrus team up and eat the item, you will eventually be able to either duplicate it or get it back.  Only your death can lead to its permanent destruction.  It is possible to have it stolen, though.

You can have lots of stuff not paid for with points, subject to GM approval.  Such items will tend to be ephemeral in one's life, however.  Still, it's easy for Amberites to get money and buy nifty toys.

Shadow Purchase Costs

You can purchase an entire universe of your own design if you so desire.  By spending points on a shadow, you gain control over it and can define it to your liking.  It can be your playground, your refuge, your fortress, or your prison for your enemies. Spending points on a shadow also makes it more Real, thus making it harder for your enemies to tinker with it, and makes it part of your legend, and thus nearly impossible to permanently destroy without killing you first.

Shadows have three aspects you can buy up. The first one is obligatory (Location), while the other two are optional.  Taking the most expensive property for Defenses and Communications Barriers properties gives you all the benefits of the cheaper options as well.

Location

• 1 point: Somewhere in Shadow. You're simply somewhere out in the great reaches of Shadow.
• 2 points: Golden Circle. You're pretty close to Amber, which makes your shadow more 'Real'. Alternately, you're in the Black Circle near Chaos.
• 4 points: Primal Plane. Your shadow is infused with Reality in some manner, such as possessing a Broken Pattern, which makes it very resistant to manipulation by anyone but you, its owner.

• 1 point: Communications Barrier. You can prevent other powers reaching into or out of it or both. (Such as one where people can use Pattern to get in, but not OUT)
• 2 point: Restricted Access. It can only be accessed at certain places or by knowing a specific 'key' of some kind.
• 4 point: Guarded. Any intruders have to get past some sort of guardian.

• 1 point: You can reshape the contents of the Shadow very quickly at will.
• 2 point: Alter time flow. You can speed up or slow down the flow of time in your shadow.
• 4 point: Control of Destiny. You can 'move' your Shadow around Shadow, placing it in the path of those moving through shadow.

Patty decides she wants to have her own Shadow.  She decides to model it after seventeenth century France as seen in the Three Musketeers.  She names it Aquitania.  After considering her choices, she decides it's a place her character mostly goes to for fun, so she doesn't want to sink a lot of points into it.  She spends a single point, making it a Personal Shadow.

Melvin is creating a prison shadow used by his Amberite, Mandrake.  He takes the following properties:
 

• Location:  Personal Shadow--1
• Defenses:  Guarded--4
• Control of Contents: Alter Time Flow--2

Constructs

I am not allowing constructs during character creation because I'm still trying to really figure out how to properly moderate them.  If you try to build one in play, we'll work something out.

Determining Parentage:

The GM will determine who your Amber parent was, depending on your abilities, appearance, and amount of good or bad stuff, but I'm always open to suggestions.

Example Characters and Examples of Play

For some examples of what can be done with 200 points, you can find some sample characters on my Throne War Sample Characters Page.  For some examples of how various things are played out in practice:
 

• Combat Examples
• Powers Examples
• Non-Combat Examples

Other Links on this Site

• John's Amber DRPG Front Page
• Chronicles Pages
• Rules Pages
• Throne War Front Page
• Through A Mirror Darkly Front Page

• Through A Mirror Darkly Setting Page
• Through A Mirror Darkly Places Page
• Through A Mirror Darkly Cast Page
•  Through A Mirror Darkly Player Character Page
• Through A Mirror Darkly Amber Government Page
• Through A Mirror Darkly History Page
• Fun With Trumps:
• Through A Mirror Darkly Trump Gallery
• Trump Fortunetelling Page
• Trump Interpretations