Players will take on the roles of retainers to the ruler of Amber.
This could be any of the canonical Kings or Regents: Eric, Corwin, Gerard,
Random, or Oberon, or, in an alternate history setting, any other Elder.
Or something stranger, should the GM feel up to it.
Your character will have been paid for out of an Elder's bountiful
character points--but don't get cocky. If you get killed, he gets his
points back.
From a roleplaying perspective, this means that your characters will
never (consciously) work against the King's interests, but neither will
they be mindless drones. The King will by and large trust the characters
to carry out their assigned tasks creatively and effectively on their
own--from his point of view, if he has to do all your thinking for you, he
might as well have spent those points on his own Attributes.
If you can put together a good story behind the skillset you want your
character to have, I'm likely to grant it. Elders get around, and there's
no reason their retainers should be limited to jobs like "Castle Guard" or
"Courtier," though you should feel free to play either of those. A game
that consists entirely of illiterate bat-dragon tamers from Shadow Xandrel
is likely to have limited plot options.
You may build your own character, subject to GM approval, or the GM
will generate one for you.
Choose 3-5 areas in which the character has a working professional
knowledge. The characters have not had centuries in Shadow to pick up
skills the way Elders and their children have. Broad categories are
fine.
Characters are 0-point, and are required to have at least one Attribute
at Amber.
As an example, this could be a character with three Attributes at Chaos
(-10) and one at Amber (0), with 30 points of Powers or Items.
To approximate the granularity of the Ranking system, your Attributes
may take any value between -25 (Human) and 5 (Amber + 5). Bear in mind
the Attribute requirements for the Powers you wish to take.
Allowed Powers are Power Words, Broken Pattern, and Sorcery, Conjuring,
and High Compelling.
(Note for 'The Card Cheat' players: Since the
game is set in Amber and environs, the Initiate level of Broken Pattern is
not allowed--the power has no utility in this scenario. Mastery is still
permitted.)
Items are also allowed, subject to GM approval. (Hint: if your item
stands a decent chance of beating you in a fight, you're not going to get
it.)
Stuff is capped at 1 point in either direction.
Trump Artistry is not allowed. However, all characters have a
Trump of the King--who is probably more interested in the Trump's safety
than in the character's. (After all, servants can be replaced. A Trump
in the wild is a liability.) Additional Trumps or Trump sketches are
allowed, per the purchasing rules in the Artifacts and Creatures section,
with a reasonable explanation of how the character came by them.
The difficulty of establishing outgoing Trump contact ranges from
trivial for Amber Psyche, to nearly impossible for Human, as does
maintaining the contact with Endurance. Incoming Trump scales similarly.
A character with Amber Psyche will have no difficulty accepting a call,
whereas one with Human Psyche will be left with a pounding headache.
Fortunately, Arden produces plenty of willow bark.