Amber

The Golden Realm of Amber!

The creation of Roger Zelazny: stories about the one True Center of all Existence and Shadows it casts from the source of the Pattern, and the people who walk therein.

To say that I am a fan of Amber and of Roger is probably an understatement.

I was a fan of the series since the first few books of the first series were published many, many years ago. (I was in college then: I will leave the calculation of just how old I am now for the reader.) I read each book as it came out, and I still have them, the original paperback series in their black covers and the second series, also in paperback. I was a member of an Amber fan club and later collected a number of Amber fanzines and even wrote a couple of fan stories myself. I was involved with the playtesting of the Amber Diceless Roleplaying system and played in a number of campaigns and convention Amber games. I even have several of the illustrations from “The Visual Guide to Castle Amber” hanging on my walls at home, including the trumps of Fiona, Ghostwheel and Llewella and the Lighthouse of Cabra.

And I should note that the preponderance of Amber material on my website here is due in part to my propensity for writing but largely due to the fact that the Amber system and philosophy is very much a story-based system and written stories and supplementary material about the Amber characters not only lends credence and stability to their existence within the campaign but also can add to their story outside the actual campaign sessions. In other words, these stories and materials add to the character development in ways more under the control of the player, assuming the gamemaster accepts them. (From my experience, those gamemasters I’ve played under all enthusiastically enjoyed and accepted what I wrote for the characters.)