Powers

General information, Places, and the Very Structure of Reality (i.e. Game Rules)

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Wyvern
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Powers

Post by Wyvern »

Pattern is the top of the heap, of course. Known abilities of its initiates include large-scale shadow travel plus near-immunity to other powers (including sorcery). All known initiates of Pattern are human; a PC could technically play a half-human with the Blood of Amber, but such a character would not have walked the Pattern prior to game start.

Logrus is a term that might be known to a few of the more inquisitive Elder Amberites. For this setting, however, the power of Chaos is explicitly Shapeshifting - and that is a power that is known in Amber, albeit always in lesser forms. Examples include the werewolves of Felwood, Selkies in Rebma and the Isles of the Sun, certain forms of unstable abomination in the depths below Dwarrodelf, and so on and so forth.

Trump is very much a secret of the Amber royal family. Dworkin is missing secretive, and if he taught anyone the secrets of his Art (*cough* Brand *cough*), they have - by and large - kept those secrets to themselves. On the plus side, this means that most PCs cannot be attacked via Trump, as there is no-one around to draw cards of them. On the minus side, this means that most PCs won't have access to Trump decks of their own, as there is no way to create new decks and the supply of them is quite limited.
Note that this doesn't mean that PCs can't have some level of Trump Artistry, though how you got that would present a significant plot-hook; however it's worth noting that even Brand doesn't know how to replicate the invulnerability of one of Dworkin's Trump decks.

If there exists a fourth (or fifth, or whatever) Greater Power, such is even less well known than Trump.

Lesser Powers are where things get interesting; they include lesser forms of the three Greater Powers, various forms of Sorcery, and really just about anything else anyone can come up with that might "break the rules".

Three important points on Lesser Powers:

1: Any Power that functions across shadow has a Source. In some cases the Source is obvious - Pathfinder abilities depend on Pattern, a sorcerer might gain fire powers from a pact with a Dragon (capital 'D' versions only), a Collegitat Mage draws power from certain mystic construct(s) at the center of Ceridus. In other cases, less so; a siren might gain sonic powers from her heritage, and never know exactly what her bloodline's powers were connected to.

2: Permanent enchanted items that can function in more than one shadow are pretty much not a thing. The Iron Dragons are unusual and extraordinary artifacts. Again, a PC can start game with one of the rare exceptions... but may be hard-pressed to defend their ownership of such a thing.

3: One person can only maintain one spell (this includes most forms of active Power effect) at a time. An experienced sorcerer with a familiar can work around this a bit - having their familiar maintain one effect (typically something defensive). Attempts to retain multiple familiars tend to backfire badly.
Wyvern
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Re: Powers

Post by Wyvern »

Actually - quick question here - do people want Dworkin to be around or not? I could see a potentially interesting game where Oberon is missing, but Dworkin is still puttering around with experimental steam engines...
Wyvern
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Re: Powers

Post by Wyvern »

I'm still not sure if I want there to be a Broken Pattern in the traditional sense - it's a bit tied to Logrus as the eye-and-tendrils thing. There will, however, be flawed shadows of the Pattern out there, each granting a specific Lesser Power; for example, the "mystic construct" in Ceridus is almost certainly a shadow-pattern that grants access to force-based sorcerous power. (Where do their archmages get their attunements to frost and fire? Good question! I have a few ideas, but no definite answer yet.)

Note that the powers of a Collegitat mage, while they will function in whatever shadow the mage finds themself in (typically excluding Amber itself), do not inherently grant any ability to traverse shadow. And this is typical; some Lesser Powers will allow shadow travel, but most won't.

For another example of a Lesser Power: Pathfinder. This has been mentioned in a few places; it's a lesser form of Pattern-attunement that crops up in a small percentage of the natives of Amber, and a much larger percentage (rumor claims 100%, but rumor may not be accurate) of those who are descended from Oberon but have not yet walked the Pattern.
Pathfinder grants the following abilities:
  • Traverse shadow to a place you've spent some time in or otherwise have a strong connection to. This always includes Amber, even if you've never been there and/or don't even know it exists.
  • Seek a specific person or item you have a strong connection to, no matter where in shadow it may be. (But this use does require you to know precisely who or what you're looking for - trying to use Pathfinder to find the father you never met is an exercise in futility, for one example.)
  • Use either of the above while leading a small group of people through shadow, or a single small vehicle, typically limited to about six people (plus six horses) or, at its upper limit, a single train car.
  • Work with other Pathfinders to transport proportionately larger groups or vehicles; a typical steamship in Amber's navy has a crew of around 120, of which at least 12 should be Pathfinders. (Side note: The Iron Dragons do not require Pathfinders to function, though the dragon lines do employ a number of Pathfinders for security and maintenance tasks.)
  • Hellride as the first two items, reaching the destination quickly, but acquiring a Doom, and unable to bring more than you can carry with a single horse or small canoe.
  • With some experience, be able to make general guesses as to what sorts of rules your current shadow functions under. A Pathfinder who's never been to a high magic shadow, for example, won't immediately recognize one when they reach it.
  • Adjust equipment you bring with you to function in whatever shadow you find yourself in, if the item could be made to function without overt changes - for example, a Pathfinder carrying a rifle with Amber-grade gunpowder can rely on that firearm working basically anywhere; one with cheap locally-made powder can still rely on it anywhere outside of Amber itself, but a Pathfinder with a wand of fireballs or a digital watch will find it quickly starts failing once carried out of its home shadow.
  • Wander to a random destination, at the cost of a doom - if you let the Pattern guide your steps, you end up with a plothook.
Wyvern
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Re: Powers

Post by Wyvern »

Some Sources:

Pattern: is, obviously, the Source for both Pattern and Pathfinder powers. Exists in Amber, Rebma, and Tir'na Nog'th. Pathfinder requires a very strong connection to Amber, and is typically only available to those who grew up in Amber, or those of royal blood. Pattern requires royal blood, period, full stop, end of story.

A Trump Deck: can be used to Source a bit of cryptic divination, or perhaps to draw upon the merits of those depicted, in addition to its normal uses for travel or communication. Simply owning a trump deck is very weak as Powers go - you still need an aspect for it, but it does not cost refresh. Note that the aspect for this should never be just "A Trump Deck"; go with something like "Brand's Favor" or "Purloined Trump" (with the aspect description including a bit on who/where you purloined it from) or the like. An aspect that establishes your character as being publicly acknowledged as the blood of Oberon can often justify possession of a trump deck as well - though this can be a bit of a double-edged sword, as it may also be enough to justify your card being present in every Trump Deck out there...

An Iron Dragon: probably not a good Source for a PC given the way these machines (and the Powers they can manifest) are tied to the Lines, but an Iron Dragon can still Source some impressive pyromancy and ferrokinesis and - in the hands of an expert - even 'jump tracks' off the Dragon Lines and onto more traditional rail lines farther out in shadow.

Mistwyr: There's obviously something here - or perhaps someone - that Sources a dark and chaotic power. It leeches out into the surroundings, spawning twisted creatures; not all of them are shapeshifters on a personal level, but the overall species of the region are ever-changing. Whispered rumors describe a Wall of Scales around the center of Mistwyr, as if some monstrous serpent coiled there...

Yggdrasil: A mountainous tree a mile high, said to grow somewhere far to the north of Kashfa, Yggdrasil suffuses its surrounding shadow with energies promoting health and fertility; a Sorcerer attuned to it can heal wounds, bless crops, and call up plagues (of locusts, or rats, or actual disease - rampant growth is not always a good thing). It is (generally assumed to be) the reason that Kashfa - and especially its southern valley of Eregnor - has the best farmland among all of Amber's allies.

The Infinite Stair: A tower in the wilds of Irralith, reaching up to claw its way through the sky, the Infinite Stair is one of the handful of Lesser Powers that supports cross-shadow travel - though its connections are all but arbitrary and difficult to use to get to anywhere specific. A Sorcerer of the Stair has power over portals, locks, and secrets, able to open or seal passages and compel truth - or lies.

The Maze of Glass: The centerpoint of Ceridus, the 'glass' is actually invisible planes of force, sharp-edged and slowly moving in a complex spherical knot. Learning to navigate it safely is the chief obstacle to attunement to the first of three elements taught to Collegitat Magi. (Well, that, and having the necessary resources and political pull to secure permission to make the attempt...)

The Arc: A small steel casket purported to contain the first lightning bolt to fall from the perpetual storm that swirls around Balcone. Attunement is a complicated and expensive affair involving massive bleed-off mechanisms, careful impedence matching, and other arcane assemblies - and still has a 30% fatality rate. Those who survive are marked with lightning scars, from which they can draw forth the raw power of the Arc. Most such sorcerers augment their power further with devices; electricity on its own is destructive and difficult to control.

The Necropolis of Thamett: Located in the desert wastes far from the Lifeblood River of Wahi-Samskra, the Necropolis Sources power involving cycles, time, and the Sun - though common belief places it as a citadel of undead and necrotic decay, presided over by the cold-eyed skeleton of a once-majestic Sphinx.

The Jade Gardens of the Heavenly Emperor, May He Live Forever: Outsiders - even visitors from Amber - will only hear of this place when listening in on natives who think they are alone. It seems to be some sort of seat of power for the Jade Empire, somehow enforcing Order and Efficiency and Piety - the words used translate to at least one of those three - on the operations of that massive polity. Exactly what this translates to in terms of usable Power - or if it even is a source on par with the others on this list - is not clear.

Stygia has no (known) Source... But some locals develop a sort of tactile telekinesis that lends itself well to mechanical prosthetics - or outright power armor. As this ability does function in other shadows, it's definitely a proper Power, but there's no obvious way to acquire it if you weren't born with it.

The Burrowing Dark: A dwarven nightmare, the Burrowing Dark is an almost-parasitic power that infests the creatures of the deeps below Dwarrodelf. It eats light and life, gnaws holes through solid stone and warded steel alike, and leaves the minds of those it takes shattered and incomplete. Entire cities have fallen to its power, and only Oberon's kin have been known to stand unscathed before it. Direct attunement is il-advised at best, but some heretical cults have managed to achieve some degree of control over a tiny fraction of its power, learning to cloak themselves in shadows, cloud the minds of their observers, or outright disintegrate locks and other small objects.

Runic Contracts: A local 'power' of Dwarrodelf, magically binding contracts underpin much of the dwarven social structure. It is unclear if these are a proper Power, however, as few dwarves are inclined to leave their home shadow in the first place. Common wisdom for visitors says to be very careful what you sign regardless - even if you can break an agreement by leaving the shadow, that doesn't necessarily mean the power will let you make the attempt.
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