I which Random unleashes his full dinkishness, and our heroes scatter like cockroaches.
Wow. This is late. Sorry.
I've been trying to get a handle on the way the last session went, and it took a long time. By the time I thought I had it, the game was pretty much out of my mind, so I put off the commentary, until we started planning the next game. And Erik beat me with the quotes, the bugger.
So, what went on last session? It's tough to remember it all after letting all this time go past, but I've got the bare bones.
See, over time, all of Random's balancing influences have been removed. With the death of Vialle, Random has lost the most humanizing factor in his life, and has been left just being King, instead of being a person who is King, if you take my meaning. Benedict has abandoned the realm, Gerard is keeping his distance, as is Julian, Bleys is crippled from the effort he put forth in saving people from the Green Pattern, and Flora has faded from the scene. Only Fiona is actively involved in the governing of Amber, and she and Random have never got along well. This leaves him very isolated, and very paranoid.
So, when one of the characters stole close to fifty prisoners charged with capital crimes from the dungeons just before their trials, Random flipped.
It's been kind of fun turning Amber into a police state. Cracking down on all movement in and out, putting nasty squads of guards in the streets, forcing all the player characters to submit to Fiona's mind scans, and making Sinclair the King's hatchet man have all turned the city into a place where most don't want to be. The showdown between Sinclair and Weyland was pretty, as was Weyland's grudging submission to the mind scan and his subsequent threat to the King.
It was a very tense game session, as the players got almost as worked up as their characters. For a while, I was afraid that I'd pushed things too far, that I'd upset the players personally, rather than just their characters. I think I did, a little, but in the end, everyone said that they had a good time.
One thing I've come to realize lately that I thought I'd share. I play a number of different games, and run a few others as well. Never in any game that I have run or played has the GM seemed like as much of an outsider as in Amber. I think that this is largely due to the adversarial GM stance advocated in the rule books, but that's pretty much fallen by the wayside in our game. Sure, we still pay it lip service, but everyone is there to have a good time. Still, the mark of the rule book tone is still on the game, and it sometimes makes me feel alienated from the players.
Another large part is the fact that the Amber GM has to decide the outcome of every action, and must always have a reason for why a character should fail. I get called on it, a lot, and not only do I have to have a reason, it has to be interesting. It doesn't matter if I tell them the reason or not, I still need to have one. This leads to some questioning of my rulings, and again it creates a distance between me and the players.
Anyway, I think that this feeling of being an outsider is what has made this the most stressful game for me to run. It's still one of the most rewarding, but had I known when I started Well.
I can't remember a high point and low point, so screw it. I'm the GM, and I can break the rules if I want.
Okay.
It has been brought to my attention by Penny that the revelation I had about feeling like an outsider during the Amber games has been interpreted as meaning that I am not enjoying the game, and am gearing up to end it. I want to clarify my stand on this, and explain what I was trying to say.
As most of you have probably noticed, I am much more tense during an Amber game than during any other game I run. I don't like that, and the stress was starting to overwhelm the fun. If the game is no longer fun, why should I play? So, I wanted to examine what was making me tense, to try to eliminate that stress from my life so that I could just enjoy the game without stressing about it. The conclusions that I reached are the ones that I outlined in the Commentary.
Now, what does this mean for the game? Does it mean that I want to stop it? No. Does it mean that I think the players need to behave differently? No. It means that I've identified the source of stress, and can therefor try to put it aside and not worry about it. It means that I can relax and enjoy the game without tying myself into knots about it. It means that the game is far more likely to reach the end of all seven sins.
See, once I understand what bothers me, I can evaluate it and decide whether or not it's worth being bothered about. This isn't, so I'm going to stop being bothered. I can get back to just having fun with the game.
Amber is an ambitious game, and it is a lot of hard work. Once this campaign reaches its conclusion, I will probably never run another Amber game. As I say so often, if I had known what I was getting into, I might not have started this campaign.
But I'm really glad I did.
Aside from the fun I have with this game, and the fun I think you guys have, I have learned so much about running games, and playing games, from Amber that I can hardly believe it. The repercussions echo through all my games. It has, I think, made me a better GM and a better player. And it has brought some of the most emotionally powerful moments that I can remember from gaming.
So, I'm not giving up. I'm getting back into it. I hope that works for everyone.
Rick