In the Amberway Campaign

There are no Elders running around having kids. Don't put anyone in your backgrounds that is very obviously an Amberite.

No one may buy Blood of Amber, or Pattern, or any other cross-shadow power to start off with. The opportunity may come in the future to buy one, but for now the heroes do not even know that such things ever existed.

There are no documents running around, no evidence of any kind, that would indicate that Amber is anything but a fairy story. Remember, the Stranger hunts down Amber by analyzing those fairy stories.

The city of Everway (for those of you who have the game or have seen it) does exist. It is in many ways the center of culture of the Thousand Worlds. It has dozens of SeaWays linking it to other spheres, and who knows how many entrances to the Grand Tunnel, or MoonTrails out in the wood. There are a full dozen chapterhouses of the Wizards' Convention, each one rumored to house a RuneGate. The story behind Everway is another of the campaign secrets.

Names are real world names. Only the Gods have names that are not otherwise words... to take a name that is not a word is to pronounce oneself to be an equal to the Gods... not a healthy thing to do.

Speaking of which... yes, there are Gods. Or at least, that is what the devout will tell you. There are miracles attributed to the gods all the time, but atheists would point out that these miracles never accomplish anything that magic could not. Gods never appear to whole populations unless they intend to destroy them.

1. The Vision Stage

The first step to making an Everway character is to choose five cards from the Vision deck that comes with the game, as parts of the character's background or personality. This system gives characters a lot of depth right from the get-go. Unfortunately, this is a PBEM game and not all players have access to the cards. Our solution was to make our own vision deck as follows:

Write down ten short (around 25-50 words) descriptions of scenes. The scenes should be static, and the descriptions should only tell what can be seen or heard, not what people are thinking or doing. If you have cards (Everway, CCG or others) you may use them for inspiration. At this point, do not write them with a character in mind, just write down interesting scenes. The GM compiles the descriptions and distributes the list to everyone. Then there is a 'deck' of several dozen 'cards' for people to use.

The next phase is the 'Questions' phase. The players and the GM will ask questions based on what you've said already. Also, during this phase, if it turns out that two of the characters are too close together, the Vision can be redone.

2. The Identity Stage

Name - Previously discussed.

Motive - Why does your Hero travel the spheres, do heroic things, find adventure? Possibilities include:

• Mystery: The hero seeks to fulfill some secret or subtle understanding, something others may not understand.
• Wanderlust: The hero wanders with little or no purpose. Perhaps his purpose is to FIND a purpose.
• Knowledge: The hero seeks mundane or magical knowledge.
• Beauty: The hero seeks to experience or share that which is beautiful.
• Conquest: The hero seeks to exercise power, whether for a noble cause or just because he likes to.
• Authority: The hero works for some agency of power, such as a King, a Church, or a Holy Order.
• Adversity: The hero is under some sort of curse or compulsion.

Fortune

• Virtue - Choose a card from the fortune deck to represent your character's VIRTUE. A virtue can be a personal trait, a magical gift, or an aspect of fortune. Among other things, if the GM draws this card in a decision when your character is involved, things will go well for him for some reason.
• Fault - Choose a different fortune card to be your character's FAULT. Again, this may be a personal trait, a magical gift, or an aspect of fortune. If the GM draws this card when your character is involved, things will go particularly badly for him.
• Fate - Finally, choose a card as his FATE. This is your hero's current challenge, where the hero is in his life story. This card is temporary; when he has faced this fate, another card is chosen. When this card is drawn, there is an opportunity for something very special, but not necessarily good or bad, to happen to the hero. There doesn't have to be any particular reason these cards are chosen, but if you want, there can be. The character can know what these are, or he can be ignorant of one or all of them.

3. Intershadow Organizations (Amberway-specific)

Four great organizations control the four types of gates. You can belong to any of them for free if you have the requisite element score(s). The four guilds have a page where you can learn about them.

Next: Now It Starts to Cost Ya - Powers, Elements, Magic

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set of links - cool Everway pages, cool Amber pages, cool related or relatable pages by our participants.