in the Shadow of Greatness: IMC :: Vendetta
Arref talks about the role of Vendetta in an Amber roleplaying universe and the risks and rewards of having such strong fare in your campaign's fabric.
Vendetta has come up in SB, but mainly as an aspect of NPC versus NPC conflict that the player characters have witnessed, and influenced.
The timeline, for one thing, in SB has influenced this. Rather than the 50 years since Caine's death, it has only been about 10, and thus Caine's NPC daughter Cyllene is definitely at crossed swords with Rinaldo over her father's death.
She has not *acted* upon it, for reasons ranging from "Revenge is a dish best served cold" to the "entangling alliances" problem that Arref presents.
Consider. If Cyllene were to murder Rinaldo, it would lead to a domino effect. As Arref points out, Amberites don't generally kill Amberites. It's too dangerous, and a can of worms that, once opened, leads to a lot of problems. Despite her anger at Rinaldo, Cyllene realizes this.
Few of the PCs have that sort of visceral reaction to other characters as in SB, although such conflict has occurred. And the consequences of that reaction are part and parcel of the game. But taken too var, Vendetta leads to Throne Wars and other consequences (as Ginger points out in the comments to Arref's post)
I'm not much for Throne Wars or such consequences. They can be game-wreckers.
Posted by Jvstin at February 12, 2005 9:28 AM