Through A Glass Darkly:
Comparing Exalted Fair Folk to 1st Series Chaosians
from the comments:
Since I've met Nuadha, I can attest he's a very creative guy. I have no rational explanation why he's never run across bubble folk or sentient rocks. I don't know his GMs, and truthfully, it astounds that he's never been in an Amber game where strange things are found in shadow.
Such weird things happen in games I'm running—-perhaps my budget for SFX is larger:
It certainly is a result of many trips where it is important that the locals do not take a hard look at the arriving Amber PC. IOW, safety and control are Very Important to most young Amberites and this usually ties over into humanoid cultures.
So the lack. Does it say something about Corwin's imagination as an artist, as opposed to the 'slam bam' give-me-a-shadow mentality of most Amber PCs/Gms?
I think so.
May it say something about the GM's flash-creative impulse?
Yes. It's hard to 'whip out' poetry in an instant. That's something RZ had some flare for. Visuals on demand. This certainly includes weird peoples of shadow.
But to never see it in an Amber game?
That's just... Wrong.
Good list. I like the Library Tree the best.
I've thought about that since, and I have't been in many games that haven't taken place almost exclusively in a few locations: usually Amber, Tyr, Rebma, Arden, Corwin's Pattern and the Courts. It has been very rare that people have had reason to go to shadows they did not already know of and the GMs usually fast-forwarded past the travels.
Thanks for the nod to my creativity. Hopefully, I can put that creativity to use when I do run a traditional Amber game. I think I'll borrow your idea of having a list ready.
Posted October 30, 2003 3:33 PMWe haven't seen a lot of weird shadows yet, but it's mostly because people haven't travelled a lot in Shadow other than when they were looking for trade items. Trading missions don't get you a lot of weird stuff.
Also, people have figured out that Shadow Is Dangerous, and have put a reasonably high premium on safety when they've travelled. The fact that one PC was locked out of Amber for longer than Corwin had been alive may have something to do with that ...
Posted October 30, 2003 3:49 PM'Dangerous' does change your mindset about what you *want* to see.
Posted October 30, 2003 4:59 PMI agree, Nuadha has been deprived.
I haven't had too many random trips deep into shadow in SB...but those that have dared to wander shadows have come across some interesting things...especially a (then) Broken-Pattern PC. I took great delight in describing the shadows he went through...
And then there were the poor Amberite PCs who were travelling through the Black Zone (why is a long story, they were basically looking for Coral) and ran into a shadow very reminiscent of "The Village".
...complete with a ferocious Rover.
That *is* too bad for Nuadha.
When I GM, I try to 'paint' with my shadows as much as possible. PCs who are traveling shadow in my games are typically looking for something with a rather vague focus -- 'A fast time shadow' or 'someplace I can get a big gun' or 'a place where I can get healed.'
*evil grin* Well, now *that* just leaves way too much room for the GM. Fast time shadows tend to be weirdly geometric and stark in my games. Big guns work hardly anywhere other than Mad Max land or Cyber-hell. And Healing Places are rarely populated by humans. After all, since when do humans heal better than they kill. ;)