Importance of the Auction

[Panjumanju]

I'm going to express an unpopular opinion among Amber Diceless devotees. If a campaign of Amber Diceless does not start with a character creation auction, it missed the point.

It seems like most Amber groups prefer a point buy structure with all characters on their own little islands not having a thing to do with each other unless the GM ties them together. I violently disagree with this approach, only because the auction offers so many benefits to establishing character relationships, expectations, and beginning the plans and cabals that will eventually form.  I can't imagine starting off a campaign without one.

I assume the objections to this are practical? (Like, it's too hard to organise?) I'd love to hear some thoughts.

//Panjumanju

[thondor]

I tend to agree that using the auction is a great way to start.
The last few times I ran, I had only three players, so I included a couple NPC "siblings" in the auction to enliven things.

We also did a character map (a little like Smallville RPG but with no mechanical impact) with relations to each other and some of the elders. Each player character ended up with about 3 connections to other characters. Generally this help increase rivalry and tension between characters.

[ed]

I like to auction for the rivalry between players but I also find that players tend not to want to be competitive no matter how much provoking I try to do.

Another good thing about an auction rather than blind points buy is that the players will be able to keep spending more inline. In the game I started a while back with the blind spending of points we had in almost every ability 5 players with spent points 5-20ish then one player spending 50! (I gave them essentially 160 points to start). If they had used an auction the same person could have comfortably taken first by spending 20 points less, giving them more to use on powers or other abilities. Just wasted points for them. As GM I like it (mostly).