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Role-Playing Games |
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A list of recent updates to this page and my various character web pages is available for those who are interested.
My favorite game is the Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game. Based on the Chronicles of Amber written by Roger Zelazny, it is a very open system, which can lead to either incredibly good games, or incredibly bad ones, depending on the skill of both the GM and the players. I'm currently playing in one FtF game and one PbEM game, both of which I enjoy immensely.
My only FtF Amber game currently is John
Schleick's "New Blood, Old Wounds," in which I play
Lorian, daughter of Corwin and Moire. It meets monthly, more or less,
depending on everyone's schedules. Lorian's a bit of a tomboy, always
looking for something exciting to do. Naturally, this gets her into quite
a bit of trouble. She eventually became Queen of Rebma, and was
blood-cursed by Llewella in the process, which made her life very
interesting for a while. It's been a lot of fun playing her as she grows
into her new role.
My
Amber PbEM game is "Brotherly Love," run by Diana Probst. The game takes
place in Amber, just after the death of its latest ruler, Hazard, daughter
of Rinaldo. I play Kenric Induma, a Moonrider of Ghenesh who had recently
come to a different Amber as part of a delegation from her homeland. Upon
learning that her father was an Amberite, she walked the Pattern, and
wound up in the Amber of the game. She's still trying to figure out how
to return home. This is, in fact, the same character that I played in "A
Common Disaster," right up until she walked the Pattern.In the past, I was in a number of other FtF Amber games, as well as quite a few PbEMs. Alas, these games were all eventually cancelled by their GMs. In their lifetime, though, some of them generated quotes that have to be seen to be believed. If you don't believe me, check out the quotes section. In order of appearance, they were:
Joe Klein's "Courts of Change," my very first Amber game, in which I
played Garth, son of Julian. A near mirror-image of his father in both
appearance and attitude, he utterly despised Chaosites, which made for
some fun interactions. We started writing down character quotes towards
the end of the campaign's run, which later inspired me to do likewise in
several other games. I still play Garth periodically at conventions.
"Outrageous Fortune," run by Wendi
Strang-Frost, my second-longest campaign to date. It ran for seven
years, or 142 sessions, which is pretty damn impressive whatever way you
look at it. I played
Ariana Vetch, daughter of Mirelle. She was a very un-Amber character,
in that she tended to lead with her heart, the result being that she wound
up in situations most sane people would avoid. She ended the game married
to a Chaosite Head of House and had nine children (two of them adopted),
and five grandchildren. The game tended to be a bit of a soap opera, with
lots of angst, but we had a good time. Ariana was only the second Amber
character I ever created, but she lasted among the longest and is easily
my favorite.Eric Todd's unnamed game, where I played Allysandra, Trump artist daughter of Fiona. The game didn't last very long, but Allysandra later became the prototype for Melanie in "Ghosts and Shadows."
Joe Saul's unnamed game, in which I played Kara e'Kieron, a Dragaeran assassin. Born a Dragon half-breed and abandoned early in life, she later discovered that she had Chaos blood but the game ended with her parentage still undetermined.
Andrew Inman's first campaign, in which I played Gwendolyn of House Barimen. Gwen was my first attempt at playing a Chaosite, or so I thought. Gwen later learned that her paternal grandfather was most likely Oberon, so it turns out that she was an Amberite after all. She was also related to Vialle in some manner through her mother, but the game ended before the exact relation was determined. Two aspects of the character turned up in later games: Gwen had a sister Lilith, whose name I borrowed when creating a new character for Andrew's second campaign. Gwen also had an alternate form that she used when she first came to Amber, a female with red hair and green eyes who went by the name of Melanie. I later used that physical description and the idea of being known by the false name of Melanie in "Ghosts and Shadows."
Joe Klein's "Courts of Change: The Next Generation," which was a continuation of the original "Courts of Change" game, set about 200 years after the events of the first campaign. Many of us played children of the original PCs, although not the PCs we'd played. It was a neat idea, but unfortunately the game died young. I played Catherine, better known as Cat, daughter of Sebastian, granddaughter of Fiona (although there were rumors that Sebastian's Amber parent was actually Brand).
"Ghosts and
Shadows," which was run by Mer Haskell. I played
Melanie
dur Kaedric, daughter of Brand. Actually, her true name was Miranda,
but very few people ever knew that. By the time the game ended, she was
Queen of Chaos. I guess blood will tell. :) After cancellation, the
game lived on rather briefly over e-mail as "Shadow
Rising."Andrew Inman's "Pain-O-Rama" fest, in which I played Corwin's daughter, Lilith, briefly Regent of Amber. There was a running joke in the game that she and Fiona's son had been switched at birth, since she had red hair while his hair was black. I've never organized her diaries into a nice, neat web page, but if you're interested in reading them, the directory containing them can be used as a rough table of contents. This game spawned one of the more famous collections of Amber quotes that I know of.
My first repetition of a character actually began in a PbEM called "Chaos
Rising," run by Matthew
Richardson. When he was forced to end the game, he invited me to join
its monthly companion FtF game, known as "Queens of
Amber." I played
Melanie Chanicut, a variant of the character I played in "Ghosts and
Shadows." Her background changed quite a bit, of course, but her
appearance and attitude were the same. She became the Avatar of the
Spindle at the end of the game (basically the equivalent of what the
Unicorn is to the Pattern), surpassing how far even I thought she'd manage
to get. She was probably the most truly machiavellian of my Amber
characters, and the most challenging for me to play.
After "Queens of Amber" ended, Matthew started another Amber game called
"Patterns of Memory," which originally was set in the Courts of Chaos
after the defeat of Amber. I played Miranda
Barimen, daughter of Brand and Jasra, or so she thought. She adored
her father, and had a love/hate relationship going on with her mother that
proved rather interesting. Part way through the game, Matthew pulled the
rug out from under all of us when Miranda and her husband were forced to
repair the Pattern, and the entire world...changed. In the new history
Amber won the war, but at a very dear cost. Given that the PCs were all
from Chaos, this didn't made them very happy. Miranda was probably the
most affected by the change, in that she went from being the daughter of a
Duke, and heir to a major house of Chaos, to being so hated in Chaos for
her connection to Brand that she was forced to seek asylum in Amber from
King Corwin - who just happened to be the man who turned her father over
to Chaos to be executed. Needless to say, her life was not fun for a
while. I have to admit, this was the most unexpected plot twist I've ever
gone through in a game - and Matthew was planning it since the game began!
None of us had a clue. In another innovation, prior to the history
change, several of us played an NPC central to one of the other players in
addition to our own characters. I played Lillian
Succat, twin sister of one of the PCs.
My
last game GMed by Matthew was "Ordinary World," a
far-future Amber game. My character was Noriko Ono, or Nori for short, an
inhabitant of a pretty dark cyberpunk-type Shadow who eventually made her
way to Amber with her gang. Their presence wound up causing a great deal
of consternation among the native inhabitants, who were used to a far less
violent life. There was an AI directing Nori, who at one point revealed
that she was one of a series of clones created for a time when Amber would
need people who could fight again. The game ended soon after that
revelation, so it was never fully explored."The Second Coming," run by Chris Bickford, in which I played Morgana, daughter of Corwin. Morgana started out as a character I created for Chris' Ambercon games, where she developed an unfortunate reputation for returning unscathed from missions, even when those who accompanied her did not. I say unfortunate, since that just encouraged Random to keep sending her on more missions, much to her dismay. Naturally, I decided to use her when Chris started up a PbEM. Sadly, he had to end the game just when things were getting really interesting, due to lack of time.
"The Powers That Be," a mostly PbEM run by Connie Culpepper with an FtF
session that was run at Courts of Chaos Con 1999. I played Sabrina,
daughter of Delwin, a sheltered, gossipy, somewhat spoiled Daddy's girl.
Think Cher in the movie Clueless. She was just starting to get
mixed up in some rather dangerous plotting when the game came to an
end.
"Sharper Than a
Serpent's Tooth," run by
Scott Nolan. The PCs were children of a man named Aurelius who all
grew up separately in Shadow, with no knowledge of Amber or each other. I
played
Jillian Roman, an FBI agent on a Shadow much like Earth, who was only
just beginning to realize that something unusual was going on.
Unfortunately, the game ended after five years, before she ever learned
about Amber or anything beyond her Shadow. It was one of my favorites,
and I still harbor a hope that the GM will come back to it one day."Seven for a Secret," run by Sarah Kindred, née Wishnevsky, better known as Sarah Bear. The game began as what was intended to be just a one-slot game at Ambercon 2000 where we all played pregenerated PCs. We didn't follow the path the GM expected, however, and by the end of slot we all agreed that we were having such a good time that we wanted to continue it over e-mail. I played Catlin, third daughter of Oberon and his first wife, Cassandra Adair. Cat was a talented warrior, but not all that competitive, the sort who plans for the worst but does her best to enjoy life when she can. She spent most of her time trying to avoid the plots of her mother while being a mentor to her younger half brother, Benedict. In case you hadn't guessed, this was a game that took place rather early in Amber's history. Sadly, the game died after a just few months.
"Deadwood," run by Wendi Strang-Frost. The game took place
in the Old West of an Earth-like Shadow, just after the Civil War, and
none of the characters had any knowledge of
Amber or each other. I played Ehawee,
a 15-year-old Oglala Lakota girl whose life was turned upside-down by the
manifestation of her shapeshifting abilities. When the game ended, she
was in Chaos, just starting to work out her origins. This was my second longest-running PbEM game, at four years, and another game I wish was still going.
"To Reign in Hell," also run by Sarah Kindred.
This was a post-Patternfall game, but one where Patternfall turned out
differently from the books. As Sarah put it, "Think grim. Real grim." I
played Juliana,
namesake and daughter of Julian, and even though the game ended only a
year after I joined, she's stuck in my head. Enough so that, since the
game's demise, I've played her a few times at conventions. One day I hope
to find another PbEM to run her in."A
Common Disaster," run by Deb Atwood. The game took place in Amber, not
long after Patternfall. I played Kenric Induma, a Moonrider of Ghenesh
who had recently come to Amber as part of a delegation from her homeland
and discovered that Benedict was her father. Sadly the GM canceled the
game shortly after this revelation.In addition to Morgana, I have a few other recurring convention characters worth noting:
In Simone Cooper and Joe Saul's "Baby-sitter" series, run at many an Ambercon, I played Lt. Catherine "Cat" Flaumel, naval aviator and daughter of Evelyn Flaumel, AKA Florimel. The original premise for these games was that all of the Amber elders dumped their children on Shadow Earth, as kind of a mutual non-aggression pact. Since none of the children had Pattern, it made a very effective playpen. Florimel, much to her dismay, was put in charge of keeping an eye on the kids. Naturally, we managed to get into all sorts of trouble, and the series has long since moved away from Earth.
In "Blaze of Glory," a
convention series run by Sol
Foster, I play Lorianne, sort of a Shadow of my "New Blood, Old
Wounds" character, Lorian, at least in personality. She's a bit of an
adrenaline junkie, but then again, you pretty much have to be to serve on
Bleys' elite guard. Much to my surprise, she's wound up the one in charge
on all of the missions so far.
In the
"Men in Green," series run by Wendi
Strang-Frost, I played Agent M, a member of Caine's elite group of
operatives. M started off kind of jumpy, but being partially fey and
suddenly thrown in amongst a bunch of undead will do that to you. She was
later "conditioned" to better handle those sorts of situations, and now
looks kind of like Rambo, if he were a 5'5" tall woman with blond hair and
pointy ears. :) The game was inspired by the cartoon series "Men in
Black" and Sol Foster's "Blaze of Glory" game mentioned above. With "Men
in Green" on indefinite hiatus, I've also played M in J.P. Brannan's "On
Her Majesty's Secret Service" series.
In "Ill Met in
Amber," a convention/e-mail game of "swashbuckling noir" run by Chris
Kindred, I play Madeline
Dumas, niece of Lord Bayle, noted wine merchant, and secretly an agent
of Amber's Secret Service. She acts far more uptight than she really is,
just to make her true occupation seem all the more unlikely. Alas, her
identical twin Genvieve, who is in the same line of work, sometimes
overlooks the importance of maintaining a cover, which has caused all
sorts of...interesting consequences.
In a similar vein, but with much more swashbuckling and much less
noir, is another convention game of Chris Kindred's, "When the Queen Says,
'Go and Die.'" I play Marcel Delmar, a Musketeer in the service of the
Queen of France. Which sounds pretty straightforward, except that Marcel
was born Ariele. She originally disguised herself as a boy and joined the
Musketeers while looking for her missing brother Damien, but she kept the
ruse up even after he was found, finding that she rather liked life as a
Musketeer. The whole series takes place when Corwin was still wandering
around France with amnesia, and Flora was there enjoying the scenery.
Naturally both have turned up in the game, although amazingly, they
haven't run into each other...yet.In Sara Mueller's "Out
of..." series, I play Ariana
Sawall-Barimen, daughter of Mandor, and granddaughter of Julian
(through her mother). The series originally began as a one-shot called
"Out of the Woods" that Sara ran at AmberCon Northwest 2001, and then
again at Gen Con 2002. I often
recycle old characters for such games, just modifying the old character's
points and history such that they'll fit into the game instead of coming
up with an entirely new concept. It allows me to revisit characters I
haven't played in a while, and saves me from having to come up with
something entirely new for a game that's only going to last 4-6 hours.
Well, everyone enjoyed the game a lot, so Sara ran a sequel called "Out of
the Frying Pan" at ACNW 2002 that managed to integrate those of us who had
played "Out of the Woods" at Gen Con with the people who'd played in it
the previous year at ACNW, without having to modify what either group had
done. And we all had such a good time at that game that Sara decided
continue the series, running "Out of Darkness Born" at ACNW 2003, "Out of
Heaven's Hands" at ACNW 2004, and "Out of Time" at ACNW 2005, plus some
e-mail stuff too. So like "Ill Met in Amber," this became both a
convention and an e-mail game, and I got to play my favorite character
again. Having somewhat wrapped things up at the end of "Out of Time," I'm
not sure if Sara will still be running this at ACNW 2006, but I'm
hoping!
In
"Gillian the Vampire Slayer," a game based in the Buffy universe after the
destruction of Sunnydale, I played Jessica Pierce, a freshman at the
University of Michigan on a gymnastics scholarship. Jessica's life was
forever changed the first day of classes, when she was kidnapped and a
strange symbiotic creature merged with her. She spent much of the game
trying to figure out just what it allowed her to do - not to mention
coming to terms with the idea that vampires and demons were real.
I've
often found Champions to be horribly complex when it comes to character
creation, so I've rarely ever played it, preferring the simpler mechanics
of systems like V&V. My most recent stab at it was "Great Things,"
which was run by Wendi Strang-Frost.
I played Claire/Sylvia Van Horn née Darby AKA Static, who started
the game with total amnesia. This turned out to be a lot of fun, since
both she and I had to discover both her powers and her identity as she
went along, while trying not to make too big a mess out of things. Given
that she blew up a building her first time out, and then was brainwashed
by the major villain, she wasn't terribly successful at the latter part.
Sadly, the game came to an end when Wendi began drawing minicomics and no
longer had time to run it.
Amazingly enough, I've played in a diceless game that wasn't Amber.
That game used the HAAFCST system created by Sean Frost, and took place in
the world of Steven
Brust's Dragaera series. The game ran for a
little over four years, not counting a year's hiatus, and it's amazing
just how much trouble a Dzur, a Lyorn, an Iorich, an Athyra and a Tiassa
managed to get into, without even trying hard. I played the Dzurlord
Denara, Viscountess of Denara, Viscountess of Ehren, and Lieutenant in the
Dragon Guards, Red Boot Battalion. Quite a mouthful, eh?"Outcasts," was run by Wendi Strang-Frost, based in Wendy and Richard Pini's Elfquest universe. I was playing a young Wolfrider named Willow. Unfortunately, the game ended before it really began, due to Wendi lacking the time to run it.
Back
when I was still in college, I played in several enjoyable V&V games
run by Bryan Cassidy. They were truly modeled after the four color comics
world, complete with issue titles, annual editions, and the traditional
campy dialogue. We all had a blast. In the first game, I played Jason
Forrester, teenaged former street punk and reluctant member of "The
Chosen." Think anti-hero. Still, when all was said and done, his heart
was in the right place, and in true hero fashion, he never actually killed
anyone.When The Chosen's run came to a close, Bryan decided to try running a game in which we all played super-villains, instead. I came up with Allison Williams, AKA Bad Medicine. She was a doctor who'd had her medical license revoked for treating the wrong man at the wrong time. She wound up working for a Mob boss on his team of villains (known as "The Enforcers"), since it was the only way she could still practice medicine. She didn't fit in real well with the rest of the team, having moral objections to many of their activities. Unlike Jason, she actually killed several people, which wouldn't be all that notable in a super-villain game, except that they were all members of her own team who were trying to kill her. To this day, I'm amazed that she managed to survive so many sneak-attacks.
If you're interested in more Amber stuff, I maintain a page of Amber links that you can peruse at your leisure.
Check out the Head of Vecna story for a truly hysterical tale of just how stupid a D&D group can get. It's hard to believe it really happened, but that just makes it funnier.
What D&D Character Are You? Find out, courtesy of NeppyMan!
I Am A: Chaotic Good Elf Bard Ranger
Alignment:
Chaotic Good characters are independent types with a strong belief in the value of goodness. They have little use for governments and other forces of order, and will generally do their own things, without heed to such groups.
Race:
Elves are the eldest of all races, although they are generally a bit smaller than humans. They are generally well-cultured, artistic, easy-going, and because of their long lives, unconcerned with day-to-day activities that other races frequently concern themselves with. Elves are, effectively, immortal, although they can be killed. After a thousand years or so, they simply pass on to the next plane of existance.
Primary Class:
Bards are the entertainers. They sing, dance, and play instruments to make other people happy, and, frequently, make money. They also tend to dabble in magic a bit.
Secondary Class:
Rangers are the defenders of nature and the elements. They are in tune with the Earth, and work to keep it safe and healthy.
| Big Eyes, Small Mouth |
Buffy the Vampire Slayer |
Champions | Dragaera | Elfquest | Palladium | Planescape | Super-Villains | World of Darkness |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Balance of Power" | "Gillian
the Vampire Slayer" "Slaying Solomon" |
"Great Things" | Sean Frost's game | "Outcasts" | "The Dominion of Man" | "Sense of Adventure" | "Villainy" | "The
Kingdom of Lost Children" |
| Ambercon | AmberCon East | AmberCon North |
AmberCon NorthWest |
The Black Road | Courts of Chaos Con |
Gen Con | U•Con |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
VIII (1997) IX (1998) X (1999) 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010  |
1998 |
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 |
1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 |
2000 2002 2003 |
1999 |
1998 2002 |
2002 2003 2004 |
wanderers have perused these writings since March 23, 1998.
Back to Kris' nightmare
The Trumps of Ariana, Lorian/Lorianne and Melanie are the work of Wendi Strang-Frost and are © by her. Please contact her before reproducing them in any fashion. For more examples of her art work, check out her web page, her online comic "Johnny Public" or the "Wavedancers" story in Elfquest.
The Trump of Jillian Roman is the work of Kris Fazzari, and is a combination of several images. The woman depicted is an unknown Max Azria model. If you have any questions about the Trump, feel free to contact me.
The Trump of Juliana is the work of Kris Fazzari, and is a combination of several images. The woman depicted is actress Claudia Black. If you have any questions about the Trump, feel free to contact me.
The Trump of Sabrina is the work of Kris Fazzari, and is a combination of several images. The woman depicted is actress Charisma Carpenter. If you have any questions about the Trump, feel free to contact me.
The picture of Jessica Pierce is the work of Kris Fazzari, and is a combination of several images. The woman depicted is actress Kristin Kreuk. If you have any questions about the picture, feel free to contact me.
The picture of Madeline Dumas depicts actress Madeline Stowe. The picture of Miranda depicts an unknown W model. If you have any questions about these pictures, feel free to contact me.
The Trump of Garth was drawn by Steve McFarland and colored (badly) by me.
The pictures of Noriko Ono, Kenric Induma, Ehawee, Agent M,
Marcel, Static, Denara and Jason were created by me using the incredible
program. Give it a try with your
character!
Amber DRPG is © by Phage Press, based on the Amber books by Roger Zelazny.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG is © by Eden Studios, based on the TV series of the same name.
Champions RPG is © by Hero Games.
Elfquest RPG is © by Chaosium, Inc., based on the Elfquest comics by Wendy and Richard Pini.
HAAFCST system is © by Sean Frost.
Palladium Fantasy is © by Palladium Books.
Planescape is © by Wizards of the Coast.
V&V RPG is © by Fantasy Games Unlimited.
World of Darkness RPG is © by White Wolf Publishing.
All text on this page is © 1997-2011 by Kris Fazzari.
Last modified on February 18, 2011 by Kris Fazzari.
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