New Powers for the Amber DRPG.
Glamour is the power to create intricate illusions; illusions that can be seen, touched, heard and smelled. Glamour is most often found in relation to Faerie or the Little People. A creature with Glamour can disguise their person, or appear to change shape. Depending upon how this is run Glamour may require a Psychic superiority to work on someone which would make it difficult to use on most Amberites unless one was very skilled. Often the drawback to a character with Glamour is that they begin to lose track of what is real and what is illusion. Sometimes they even create imaginary friends for themselves and forget that their friend is an illusion. This can lead to all sorts of mental disorders. Glamour is usually found closer to Chaos than Amber.
Important Attributes: Psyche, and Endurance
Recommended Cost: 10 to 20 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
The Grove of Winds rest on a large wind-swept plain. An island of calm amidst the worse Shadow Storms in Pandora. It appears to be a vast maze of plants in motion. There is a constant wind blowing at random throughout the Grove. Some one from Amber or the Court may realize that the Grove take the form of a near-stable Logrus or a barely stable Pattern, depending on who's doing the looking. Negotiating the maze is difficult and very dangerous. A ranking of chaos in endurance is required to move around in the maze because of the ever-changing strength of the winds and the forces of the Pattern and Logrus moving between the walls. A ranking of chaos in psyche is necessary to hold onto your sanity as the Grove tests your sanity. Success in negotiating the maze has its rewards though. Travel though the maze changes the person. In the center of the maze is a vortex of Shadow-storm spawned wind. Entry into this vortex grants the person some power over Shadow.
5 pts. Summon Wind
5 pts. Ride the Storm.
5 pts. Move the Storm.
5 pts. Wind Ride.
5 pts. Winds of Change
Summon Wind- The basic power the Grove grants you is the power to summon wind. The greater the strength of the wind the longer it will take to build.
Ride the Storm- At this level of power the initiate can enter the edge of a Shadow storm and travel within without the dangers of being changed or banished by the storm.
Move the Storm- One with this level of mastery can influence the path of the storm he/she is riding in. Control is never complete, but this will get the storm to move in the general direction you wish.
Wind Ride- It is now possible to shift shadows. Wind riding is dependent on wind. The more wind you generate the faster you can shadow-shift, but the faster you go the more hazardous your trip. A light breeze is like the Royal Way, slow but steady. A light wind is the standard method of travel, but occasional gust will draw you off course. A gale will be like hell-riding, but the chances of you ending up where you want to go are very remote.
Winds of Change- With a little wind and enough time, probabilities can be changed. Similar to the Pattern version but takes a little longer and not as reliable.
Important Attributes: Psyche, and Endurance
Recommended Cost: 5 to 25 points.
Contributor: Marc Craven
Hedge magic is a group of amusing little magical abilities that aren't really as powerful as Sorcery but are generally considered more obnoxious than Power Words. Usually Hedge magics can last about as long as a GM is willing to put up with them or until they run into a real Power. Either way they can be fun for players and GMs alike.
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Dowsing
Commonly thought of as a less effecient and rather imprecise meathod of finding sources of water, Dowsing as a power can be so much more. What if you could Dowse for anything that came to mind instead of just water? You'd be able to find your lost keys or your long lost Uncle Biff. That's just small potatoes though. Think about it on a grand scale. The ability to find anything you can imagine if it exists, within the limits of your home shadow of course. The drawback to this power is that Dowsers can often lose track of time and place if there not careful.
Important Attributes: Psyche
Recommended Cost: 5 to 10 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
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Evil Eye or Hexes
The evil eye allows a character to put a little version of a blood curse on another individual. Something like, "May your food always taste like ash!" usually followed by a throwing gesture or a freaky stare. In game terms this puts the equivalent of 1 point of bad stuff on the target character. And the curse only creates the effect is was designed for such as the example above. The given example would only make the target's food taste like ash. The drawback to this power is that the user must also take a portion of virtual bad stuff until the curse is lifted. If the GM decides that the curse they threw was worth 5 points then both the caster and her target gain 5 points of virtual bad stuff until the curse wears off.
Important Attributes: None
Recommended Cost: 5 to 10 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
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Second Sight
Second sight is a little like having a Pattern Lens. A Pattern lens that you can't control and that activates at inconvenient times. Second sight allows a character to detect spells, the occassional Trump call, and sometimes see future events that might happen. The only problem is that it isn't reliable. It is, however, a great way to get clues from your GM.
Important Attributes: None
Recommended Cost: 0 to 5 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
Landholding is a limited version of Shadow ownership. The landholder has complete knowledge of the land which he holds. If you want to know what kind of potatoes to plant on that south-facing hillside with the rather alkaline seep, he can tell you. He knows how many dung beetles are presently occupying the manure heap outside the keep's stable, and who is responsible for the fact there is one so close to the lord's living quarters. Like Julian in Arden, he knows when anyone or anything enters his holding from outside, and may well have a general idea as to the negative or positive attitude of an intruder, or even motives, though that depends on relative psyche levels. The landholder may be able to parcel out knowledge of his holding to others, if the holding is large enough to warrant that. In the case of a really large holding, this may be a very good idea, since there is so much information available. The landholder will not make errors in picking 'vassals,' unlike a lord who chooses a disloyal subordinate - he can't. However, a landholder will not necessarily be loyal to a superior who is not himself a landholder, since the good of the holding is paramount. The greatest danger to the landholder, at least initially, is simply the amount of information available. Until he manages to set up some sort of automatic, subconscious method of sorting and collating information and a system for identifying high priority items, he runs the very real dangers of insanity, and of ignoring something important. (Damn! Caine's screwing around in my Shadow, and I realized it too late, because I was seeing the cook's third helper through childbirth!) Further, the landholder has all this information flowing in all the time - no days off, and little uninterrupted sleep.
Important Attributes: Psyche, and Endurance
Recommended Cost: 10 points and up (depends on size and value of the holding, and whether the landholder can pass on the knowledge to subordinates)
Contributor: Paula Schneider
Lycanthropy is a limited form of shape shifting that is often, but not always, not entirely under the control of the person possessing it. People afflicted with the "curse" of Lycanthropy are forced to change into a animal of some kind during nights of the full moon. The most common animal for this curse is, of course, a wolf. There are also accounts of Lycanthropy as an ability that is controlled by its possesser. In this case the person with this power is able to change into the form of a wolf or half-man half-wolf at will. In either of these cases, Lycanthropes are usually immune to the effects of all weapons that are not made, at least in part, of silver.
Important Attributes: None.
Recommended Cost: -10 to 15 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
When I say martial arts I'm not talking just about Karate or Tae Kwon Do, I'm talking about the kind of martial arts that involve focusing your Ki or Chi to create what some would consider mystical effects. Such as leaping to the top of a three story building or increasing the strength of a blow. There are innumerable possibilities. Possible ways to run this include varients on Sorcery or Power words.
Important Attributes: Endurance. Maybe Psyche or Strength.
Recommended Cost: 10 to 15 points and above.
Contributor: Will Rotach, Erik Purins, & J.A. Dettman
The powers of the mind can be powerful and varied, as many science fiction and fantasy authors can attest. These are just a few that we like.
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Astral Projection
Astral projection is the ability to send some part of your being or essence outside of your body. In effect creating a kind of ghost-like presence. In Amber terms this can be described as the ability to seperate your Psyche from your body. This would allow a person or creature to accurately and more safely spy on antagonists, or to scout dangerous territory. The value of being a bodiless Psyche could be endless. Just think about how much time a charcter would spend being paranoid while trying to figure out what those weird Psychic blips are.
There are however the dangers. Anyone with a suffieciently high Psyche would be able to tell if there was another Psychic presence in the room and they might be of the shoot first, then do an autopsy school of thought. There is also the danger to the person's body. Left unattended the body of a Projectionist is completely defenseless.
Important Attributes: Psyche & Endurance.
Recommended Cost: 5-10 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
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Aura Reading
Aura Reading is the ability to detect and, with experience, glean information from the low level energy field of another living creature. All living creatures, depending upon the GM's point of view, exude this energy field which, when read, can tell the reader about the emotional and spiritual state of the viewed. What good is that, you say? That's up to you to figure out.
Important Attributes: Psyche
Recommended Cost: 0-5 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
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Prognostication
Prognostication, or Seeing into the Future, is the ability to see future events before the occur. Who would have thought, right? This obviously has its uses without any further explanation. However there are drawbacks. People who can see the future often become obsessed with changing these events for various reasons, which of course leads to various philisophical problems like causing the aforementioned events to take place because you attempted to change things, or the inability of the prognosticator to change the events that they see, or the simple fact that just because you saw it doen't mean it will actually happen. Time is funny like that, and you also have to take into account the GM's mean streak. This is a great plot hook power.
Important Attributes: None.
Recommended Cost: 0-5 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
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Psychometry
Psychometry is the ability to learn information about an object by touching that object. Examples include: who last touched the object, how long ago they were in contact, how they felt and where they were. Powerful Psychometers are even capable of sensing this kind of information by being near an object. This comes in very handy for detectives, or bounty hunters.
Drawbacks to Psychometry include: powerful psychic traces can cause sensory hallucinations, the onset of multiple personality disorder as the Psychometer imprints parts of personalities that they have read from objects, and powerful Psychometers often relive strong experiences that they read from an object, such as the pain of a dying man while touching the murder weapon.
Important Attributes: Psyche.
Recommended Cost: 0-10 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
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Telepathy
Telepathy is one of the easiest powers to translate to Amber, and perhaps one of the most powerful. Telepathy is the ability to communicate directly mind to mind with one or more other people. The Amberites can do this you say, but can they do it without skin or eye contact or without a Trump?
Telepathy isn't powerful enough to work across shadow barriers, but it is very useful against those Amberites who think that they can just waltz into a shadow and start pulling information out of the mind of the natives.
Important Attributes: Psyche.
Recommended Cost: 5-10 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
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Telekinesis
Telekinesis is the power to move objects with your mind alone. Depending on a character's Psyche telekinesis could have many applications. Think about the the fight between Luke and Vader in The Empire Strikes Back. How useful this power is also depends on what a character is allowed to do with it. Can I only move objects that I can see or can I affect materials on the atomic level? This, of course, assumes that the shadow you're in believes in atoms.
Important Attributes: Psyche.
Recommended Cost: 5-15 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
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Telemutation
Just another fancy name for shape shifting, this is the power to change the shape of someone's, yours or another person's, body by force of will alone. This particular power could range in strength from a set of named and numbered alternate forms to true Shape Shifting.
Important Attributes: Psyche & Endurance.
Recommended Cost: 10-35 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
In many ways religion can be fundamental part of the powers in a Shadow environtment. In fantasy Shadows you may have powerful clergy members throwing around mighty god-bestowed spells, in another the PCs might find themselves in direct conflict with one of the local deities, or perhaps the players find themselves between a rock and a group of religious fanatics. Those fanatics may not have powers but the only thing between them and Heaven is a PCs sword. Faith can move mountains even without spells, my friends.
Deities
Alright, so let's look at this in cosmic terms. A Shadow Deity isn't really all that tough. Sure, sure, on their home turf they can control the very fabric of reality, accomplish feats of incomprehensible power, and basically anihilate your average Amberite without a great deal of trouble if they are so inclined. Of course, outside their home Shadow they're not much to look at. For those of them that keep a humanoid body they might survive for a while despite the fact that they are suddenly mere or nearly-mere mortals. Those deities that keep a more vaporous form would probably just go *poof* but there you are.
"So what's the big deal?" you say. "These guys are pushovers compared to the Pattern!" Shadow gods have an close relationship to there Shadow. Now let's think about all of the neat things that someone can do with a Shadow that they supposedly own. Gee, I can decide which powers work here, control the timeflow and the entire contents of the Shadow itself. Hmm, now think of an entity that can do that instantaneously, without working up any brainsweat, and who doesn't like some annoying Amberite recruiting their gullible followers for some other silly cause. That's a Shadow god; they can get mean, good luck.
Important Attributes: None.
Recommended Cost: 0 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
Vampirism is a form of immortality that requires its possesser to drink the blood of other creatures to continue their existence. Vampirism comes with several advantages and disadvantages. Vampires are essentially as immortal as any Amberite, have a limited ability to shape shift, have powerful psychic abilities, and tend to be much more powerful than your average shadowling. The disadvantages of Vampirism vary but in general vampires are hurt by sunlight and silver. They can't enter a "holy" place or cross running water, and they don't like garlic all that much either. Sucking blood is just a fact of life for vampires, look at it as you will. Vampirism can also be look at in different ways. If vampirism is a racial trait for some shadowlings, then I exspect that some sort of social or environmental rules have arrisen to take care of the status quo, and the natives are probably used to it. On the other hand, if Vampirism is a curse then where did it come from? There will probably be plenty of rumors and legends about the curse of the undead.
Important Attributes: None.
Recommended Cost: 0-15 points.
Contributor: J.A. Dettman
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