Based on a series of books by Roger Zelazny, this system is unique in a number of different ways. Firstly, and most bizarrely, it is a "diceless" system, so leave them at home. They won't help. All those hours of statistical analysis to determine your optimal d10 pairs have been wasted. Go out and get a life.
The diceless aspect works, largely because of the genre involved. Almost all characters will be both immortal and physically superior to normal people. Because of this level of skill and ability, most tasks undertaken will be obviously doomed to success or failure from the start. Either the character knows how to hotwire cars, or they don't. Either they can beat up three random muggers on the streets, or they can't. The GM can usually assess the likelihood of success quite easilly. All that remains is to roleplay the encounter through. Random events occur when the GM decides to have them, otherwise they don't. No dice required. A writer sitting at home producing books or film screenplays doesn't roll dice to decide on the outcome, so why do we do it in role-playing? Don't you trust your GM?
I won't bother explaining the genre in detail, other than to say that events take place in an effectively infinite number of different universes, with varying levels of technology or magic available. Players are strongly advised to read the books, starting with "Nine Princes in Amber". It's not essential to read the books before playing the game, but it will help no end. There are 10 books in total, in two series of 5. They are quite short, and easy to read.
Because of the wooly nature of the system, complicated character sheets and vast skill lists are totally unwarranted. There are 4 stats, and as many skills as the player wishes. The simplest approach is to write down a general character background, and infer the skills from that as play progresses. Characters are as powerful as the players want them to be, on the assumption that a player given enough free rope will eventually learn how to hang themselves with it without too much direct intervention.
There are other novel differences to this system, but the ones given above are the main ones. Rest assured that the system does work, and works very well.
There are two rule books available, costing about £16 each. The first is called "Amber" and is the main rulebook. The second is called "Shadow Knight", and contains additional, supplementary rules. It is almost entirely superfluous, and many people ignore it completely. Don't buy it unless you're wildly enthusiastic, and don't need £16 very much.
You should also posess the books which started it all, although I suppose this isn't absolutely essential. They come in two series of five books each.
There are also a few short stories, which hint at new material. Since Zelazny died in 1995, we're never going to know how these ideas would have turned out. The following is a (hopefully) complete list, together with where they have been published.
There are no commercially available Amber modules, so your GM will have to write their own. This requires a GM with a very good knowledge of the books, or they're in danger of offending players who expect the tone and content of the game to follow the books fairly well.
There is a Rebma supplement under development. It's not finished yet, but it's going places, if we're to believe the writers. Amongst other things, it'll have a description of the Mirrors of Rebma, and a new power of Mirror Wrighting, to explain them, and assorted other magical mirrors that have cropped up in the Amber Chronicles in various places.
There may well be more supplements in the pipeline, including perhaps some alternative approaches to the Magic system. Don't hold your breath though.
Character sheet, in Word6 format.
This is the Original Amber Web site, containing nice stuff and pictures. It's looking a bit out of date now though.
Meera Barry's pages are well worth a look, in particular her list of Amber links which is nicely descriptive.
A general Roger Zelazny page,
with a little bit on the game.
Also a Roger Zelazny interview.
There is an FTP site.
There is also a mailing list. There is no newsgroup, and possibly never will be, as it has been suggested many times before, and the mailing list always wins in the end. To subscribe to the Amber list send "subscribe amber <yourname>" to majordomo@logrus.org. The address for posting to the list is amber@logrus.org.
The mailing list has its own FTP site, which includes a generally useful FAQ. It's well worth reading in its own right, even if you're not interested in joining the mailing list, because it's full of material on the books, that have been researched and discussed over the years. Shame its not HTML though.
There are additional mailing lists for Amber RPG fiction. Send "subscribe amberfic <yourname>" to majordomo@io.com; and Chaos. Send "subscribe" to chaos-request@anarchy.mcit.med.umich.edu.
There are annual conventions in the US and UK, In 2001 AmberCon UK will be on the weekend of 13th-15th July. The cost will be £100 for accomodation (in a shared room) on the Friday and Saturday, with games occuring on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It now has it's own WebSite, or for further details contact ambercon@mitton.demon.co.uk. There is also a postal mailing list, which distributes the list of names, so you can find more Amber players in your area.
There's usually another Amber convention in Edinburgh, called Clan Amber.
Contact the author of this page: Daemonic