Just how “dead” is Amber?

[Finarvyn]

Just how “dead” is Amber? Think about this:

The last full-length Amber novel came out in 1991 … twenty-one years ago.

Roger died in 1995 … seventeen years ago.

The final issue of Amberzine (most recent official ADRP product) came out in 2005 … seven years ago.

The last Betancourt Amber novel also came out in 2005 … seven years ago. Love them or hate them, at least they were Amber.

Guardians of Order, the company originally hand-picked by Erick to do Amber 2E folded in 2006 … six years ago.

Diceless by Design, the second company hand-picked by Erick to do Amber, acquired the rights in 2007 … five years ago.

Erick died in 2008 … four years ago.

Sadly, Roger’s books are rarely found in new bookstores anywhere. There are no new Amber stories being written. There is very little Amber discussion on message boards any more. Other than the “Lords of Gossamer and Shadow” project, which isn’t Amber but is licensed to use the ADRP mechanic, the ADRP has seen no official support in a very long time. None of this information is new, of course, and I hate being a doom-and-gloom guy on this, but it’s just so frustrating to watch Amber slowly fade away to the point where only old-timers will actually remember one of the great series from a master author. Sigh.

[blinky55]

I suppose many works will find obscurity in our lifetime that we havent known or just checked casually. There are just too many books to know them all. With Amber i expected something more to happen rpg-wise cause it did have all those things u mentioned but it never really took off in other medias. Robert Kirkman spoke he wanted to do something about it and the thread ''Amber is dead! Long Live Amber!'' speaks about that. So i guess we will just need to wait and see, maybe there will be a resurgence, even Dune is getting a new movie.

[thondor]

Depends on us I suppose.
I was talking about it with a colleague over all you can eat Chinese today, and arguably ran a five minute game (illustration of gameplay).
I plan to run a session at a Mini-con at the end of the month.

Love them books, and still have audiobook of the Corwin saga on cassette...

[Finarvyn]

Funny that you would be posting now, as I had an inspiration while surfing the web only yesterday to look for Amber images. Which led me to spend some Google time looking for Amber RPG sites. Which led me to dust off Nine Princes and start reading it again.

And now actual activity at the ADRP boards!

[thondor]

As mentioned up thread, I'm planning to run a one shot at a convention. I knew I wanted to do something with Corwin's pattern. So I dusted off the fifth book read and gave the section around him inscribing the pattern a quick read (ended up reading to the end of course!) Funny enough, I also was sure that I wanted to do something with time going funny particularly in Random's Amber. I was surprised to discover that's there are some time Spirits Corwin meets right before beforehand that give him a silver rose like his emblem. I must have known this somewhere in the back of my head cuz I was thinking of using his silver rose for exactly that purpose of time manipulation in the game.
I'll probably starts another thread about this somewhere else.

[ed]

Did you ever post anything more about your ideas, Thon? I'd read them!

[blinky55]

I would also like to get their gist, the more story sharing the better:)

Oh yeah, there was also that Rebma informal book released into the web. It has this awesome cover, im not sure if im allowed to post it here(cover or the book)?

[thondor]

Mar 26, 2020 15:35:24 GMT -5 ed said:

Did you ever post anything more about your ideas, Thon? I'd read them!

I did share the gist right over here: adrp.proboards.com/thread/152/corwins-pattern-thondors-amethyst-game

I did run a session of this, and thought I wrote down a session summary somewhere, but it seems to have gone missing. . .

A little searching and I did find what I started writing. Will aim to revise and share in that thread soon