Items Embedded with Pattern or Logrus for Amber Diceless Roleplay

Roger Zelazny's books don't explain everything.  One thing that I've always been curious about is the creation of the Pattern-swords, Greyswandir and Werewindle.  In our game, we speculated that perhaps these items had been created when they were carried by the owners the first time that they ever walked the Pattern, creating a unique type of artifact.

This would make the Pattern-swords strange relatives of Merlin's strangle cord, Frakir, and Mandor's steel balls, which Merlin says were created in a similar manner when their respective owners carried them when they first walked the Logrus.

Embedded with the very essence of Logrus or Pattern, these special kinds of items should be freely available to anyone with Pattern or Logrus ability.  However, they can only be created at the following times:

1. At character creation.
2. On the first occasion when the character walks the Pattern or the Logrus (though points must be paid for the item in advance).
3. If the GM allows it because of special, campaign-specific circumstances.

Furthermore, characters should be limited to one Pattern or Logrus item each, although they can create that item in "Named and Numbered" quantity by paying the appropriate cost multiplier.  For example, Mandor had several steel balls, but they all serve essentially the same function; they are all a focus for Mandor's spells.  An item created in this manner must also be light enough to be carried, and it cannot be a living creature (although it may, like Frakir, exhibit signs of personality after being created).  Furthermore, I'd personally discourage players from having both Logrus and Pattern items, although this is up to the GM.  Other than this, there really aren't any limitations, except for the imagination of your players.

Pattern and Logrus items created in this manner are different from items created using the "Artifacts" rules from the rule book. Even though those rules allow for items containing Pattern or Logrus, these rules cover a different type of item altogether.  Items created by a character on his or her first time around the Pattern or Logrus have special qualities in my game.

If the GM chooses to allow it, players might also be able to build items embedded with Trump, Broken Pattern, or the Abyss, although I've never allowed this in my game.

1. DEVELOPING THE ITEM'S CONCEPT

Items created when a character walks the Pattern or Logrus for the first time tend to reflect that character's personality. For example, Merlin's strangle cord, Frakir, is as intelligent as it is unique-- two words which also describe Merlin's intellectual, freewheeling attitude. Mandor, the consummate magician and sorceror, has several steel balls that seem capable of enhancing any spell which he casts.  Both Brand and Corwin chose swords for their first trip around the Pattern; as different as these two brothers were, this says volumes about them, doesn't it?

There are two different starting points for developing an item: by choosing what sort of item it is, or by imagining the type of effect that the item produces. Concepts should be developed with the character's personality in mind, regardless of which approach is used.  Here are two examples from my game:

Brother John's character, Josiah, was originally conceived of as a trickster,

a rogue character who defies convention and always seeks to bend the rules.

Brother John decided that this his personal item would be a foxtailed cap.  Since

caps, like other types of apparel, have something to do with appearances, Brother
John chose for Josiah's cap to have something to do with Josiah's appearance.

Vickie's character Deborah was an aristocratic seductress, raised by her
Confederate mother to be a debutante and Southern Belle. Whatever her personal

item's form, she felt that it should assist her somehow in influencing the actions and

beliefs of others.  Another player suggested a choker necklace with a heart-shaped

locket (very Postbellum, indeed); this item came to be infamous in its own right

over the course of that campaign.

Once the concept has been formed-- either by starting with what the item is or focusing on what the item does, and taking the character's personality into consideration-- it's a simple matter to build the item to suit.  Which leads us to step two...

2. BUILDING THE BASIC ITEM

The next step should be familiar to Amber players: turn to the "Artifacts" section of the basic rule book, and get to work!  If the GM is using Shadow Knight, the player might be allowed to build this item as an Implant (GM's option, of course, but I'd be firm about not allowing players to build constructs for their Logrus and Pattern items... and rest assured, experienced players will eventually ask!).

It's very likely that players will develop item concepts which the rules don't explicitly allow for; creative interpretation of the rules is the key here, but the GM should be prepared to invent new qualities (and to assign appropriate point costs for them) if asked.  Let's return to our previous examples to see how this might work:

Brother John is concerned about Josiah's foxtailed cap; he's decided that it should

be able to sprout legs and move around as needed, and he also wants it to

make him invisible and/or change his appearance at will. This is no problem, the GM

decides.  The cap is built with Limited Shape Shift (4 Points) and Confers Power on
Wearer (10 Points).  The GM has ruled that invisibility is one of the forms that Josiah's

cap confers upon him, although the effect is more of a blurring than true invisibility.

Brother John also picks Sensitivity to Danger (2 Points), allowing the cap to
warn him of potential threats.  This adds up to a grand total of 16 Points.

Vickie's concept is a bit trickier... She wants for Deborah's choker locket to influence

and manipulate the feelings of those around her.  There really isn't an Artifact power

listed in the rules that covers this particular situation, so the GM decides to

get creative. First, she decides that the locket will be Able to Mold Shadow

Stuff (2 Points), which means that it can cause shadow creatures to be

more favorably disposed towards Deborah. But what about the other

player characters, or major NPCs-- can't Deborah's locket influence them at all?  The

GM decides that Deborah's locket is a focus for her own High Compelling

abilities! The GM reasons that this should probably cost about 10

Points, and that the locket will temporarily boost Deborah's Psyche whenever she tries to Compel others. Vicki also wants to be able to communicate with her locket,

and for it to be capable of reading the minds of others (this is Extraordinary

Psychic Sense, costing 4 Points). These abilities also add up to 16 Points.

Some new Powers which have been developed for Embedded Items in my game include:

Lesser Focus (10 Points).  The item serves as a focus for one of the character's lesser powers (Power Words, Conjuration, etc) and will boost the appropriate character statistic by roughly as much as one ranking (e.g., Chaos to Amber, 3rd ranking to 2nd ranking, etc). The lesser power which this item affects must be defined by the player at the time of its creation.

Greater Focus (20 Points).  The item serves as a focus for a major power (Pattern or Logrus). It functions exactly like a Lesser Focus, above, except that the item temporarily boosts the use of whichever greater power created it.  The item will not be able to boost the character's attribute ranking against its opposite number, however (i.e., a Logrus item won't help against Pattern, or vice-versa).

Gateway to Source (20 Points).  The item serves as a conduit to its point of origin: the place where it was made. This might be the Primal Logrus, or it might be the Pattern of Rebma, but the exact location never changes. This conduit allows the player to teleport to that location, provided that the source of the item's power (either Pattern or Logrus) works in the shadow where the item is located.

Usable At Distance (10 Points).  One of the item's powers may be used or controlled at a distance; the character need not actually wield the item personally.  The wielder must, however, be in the same shadow for this to happen. The owner of the item must specify which of the item's powers this quality is assigned to; the item may not "confer quality/power on owner" across distance.

Usable Across Shadow (25 Points).  One of the item's powers may be used or activated as described above, only across shadow. The same limitations given for Usable At Distance apply here.

The above list is in no way intended to be all-inclusive; I just thought I'd try to throw in a few examples from our campaign. GMs are encouraged to be somewhat liberal when interpreting the rules for Embedded Items, though; these items should be located somewhere between 'normal' Artifacts and constructs on the general scale of power.

3. RECEIVING THE 'EMBEDDED' DISCOUNT

By now you're probably asking, "What's the big deal?" After all, aside from the slightly elevated power levels which can be attained using these item creation rules, there really isn't much difference between items created using those rules and the rules here.  In fact, constructs are probably more cost-effective than Embedded Items, albeit a lot harder to control.

The answer is simple: There's a discount. All items created using these rules cost only one-half the normal sticker price. For you math majors out there, that amounts to a 50% discount!

Embedded Item (*1/2 Points).  The item cost is discounted by 50% because it was created when the character first walked the Pattern or Logrus. Any fraction or remainder of points spent should be rounded up to the nearest whole number.  The character may only have one of these items (ever) and must work with the GM when creating or designing the item.

Returning to our previous examples for just a moment, then, we see that both of the items we were constructing will have a final cost of 8 points each.

4. PROCEED WITH CAUTION

Wow! You mean to tell me that I get an artifact with slightly elevated power levels because it is embedded with the Pattern or Logrus, and that I only have to pay half the normal point costs for it?  This sounds too good to be true!

Actually, it is too good to be true. You see, there's a reason that some Amberites, like Benedict or Gerard, didn't opt to create a Pattern item when they first walked the Pattern (at least, not that we know of!).

There's a danger involved.

Corwin says that walking the Pattern disassembles you and then puts you back together again. Merlin says that this shared experience is what created both Frakir and Mandor's steel balls.  Merlin also says that he shared a special bond with Frakir because of this.

Remember when  Merlin found Greyswandir in the shrine to his father?

Here's the deal:

DISADVANTAGE OF CREATING EMBEDDED ITEMS

Embedded items can be used to control their creators.  Possession of somebody else's Logrus or Pattern item gives you a degree of power over them.

If you're ever engaged in a Psyche struggle with them, you may treat your own Psyche as being one rank higher (Chaos to Amber, 3rd rank to 2nd rank, etc).  Any ties resulting from this temporary boosting of Psyche will always favor the one in possession of the other's Embedded Item.

When you've got somebody else's Embedded Item, you can use it to track them through shadow.  It can be used to establish a psychic link, just like touch or eye contact.  Any power words used against the creator of an Embedded Item always function at maximum potency, whether you know the target's name or not.

GM's are encouraged to think of other ways to penalize players who carelessly lose control of their Embedded Items; players are encouraged not to advertise their Embedded Items' existence during role-play.  Remember, there's a huge discount on Pattern and Logrus items created using these rules; there should be a proportional amount of pain and suffering should a character ever lose possession of one.