Happy September, everybody!
It's been a while since I posted about using characters from Roger Zelazny's other fiction as NPCs in an Amber Diceless roleplaying game. In my original post on this topic, which provided my game stats for characters from Zelazny's Dilvish the Damned stories, I explained how I'd assigned a group of NPCs from Zelazny's fiction to beginning player characters as 'shadow allies' in a particularly fun Amber crossover campaign. Subsequent posts on this topic have shared my write-ups of characters from the novels Eye of Cat and To Die In Italbar, and from Zelazny's short stories, "Mana From Heaven" and "Kalifriki of the Thread." Today I'd like to share game stats for characters from Zelazny's classic science fiction novel, Doorways In the Sand, from that same campaign.
Doorways In the Sand is one of Zelazny's more experimental novels, which makes it an interesting read for reasons which have nothing to do with characters or plot. Each chapter in the book begins with a cliffhanger ending, followed by a flashback to how its characters survived the previous chapter's cliffhanger. Fortunately, the characters and plot in Doorways manage to hold their own, making it more than an empty exercise in writing novels with a somewhat backward narrative structure.
If you haven't read Doorways In the Sand, there are spoilers ahead.
If you haven't read Doorways In the Sand, there are spoilers ahead.
Fred Cassidy [141 Points]
PSYCHE [Chaos Rank]
STRENGTH [Chaos Rank]
ENDURANCE [Chaos Rank]
WARFARE [Human Rank]
Dr. M'mrm'mlrr, Psychic Plant [20 Pts]
* Godlike Psychic Combat Ability
[16 Points]
* Immense Vitality Vines [4 Points]
Charv & Ragma, Intergalactic Cops
[30 Pts]
* Combat Training [1 Point]
* Rapid Healing [2 Points]
* Confer Healing Power [10 Pts]
* Named & Numbered Alternate
Forms/Shapes [2 Points]
* Named & Numbered Quantity
[*2 Pts]
Specius Implant Artifact [146 Points]
* Ancient Extinct Race Shadow [1 Point]
- Personal Shadow [1 Point]
- Unique Quantity [*1 Point]
PSYCHE [Chaos Rank]
ENDURANCE [Chaos Rank]
WARFARE [Human Rank]
Dr. M'mrm'mlrr, Psychic Plant [20 Pts]
* Godlike Psychic Combat Ability
[16 Points]
* Immense Vitality Vines [4 Points]
Charv & Ragma, Intergalactic Cops
[30 Pts]
* Combat Training [1 Point]
* Rapid Healing [2 Points]
* Confer Healing Power [10 Pts]
* Named & Numbered Alternate
Forms/Shapes [2 Points]
* Named & Numbered Quantity
[*2 Pts]
Specius Implant Artifact [146 Points]
* Ancient Extinct Race Shadow [1 Point]
- Personal Shadow [1 Point]
- Unique Quantity [*1 Point]
* Specius Consciousness Manifestation [144 Points]
- Extraordinary Psychic Sense [4 Points]
~ Implant Psychic Quantity [10 Points]
- Psychic Barrier [4 Points]
~ Implant Barrier Quality [10 Points]
- Regeneration [4 Points]
~Implant Healing Power [15 Points]
- Alternate Form/Shape (Alien Star-Stone) [1 Point]
- Flux-Pin Connection [*3 Points]
* Psychic Sensitive Construct [1 Point]
Fred Cassidy is a self-professed acrophile (a lover of high places) who has taken up the hobby of climbing tall buildings. Fred is also obsessed with not graduating from college, since the generous allowance that his wealthy uncle left to him terminates as soon as he receives a degree; as a result, he's spent the last 13 years changing majors and doing everything possible to postpone graduation. When Fred inadvertently acquires a star-stone artifact containing the entire knowledge and memory of an extinct alien race-- and when he later goes through a Rhennius machine, capable of inverting and reverting forms of matter-- the star-stone becomes a part of his consciousness, manifesting itself through Fred's personality. Along the way Fred makes allies of several powerful aliens who were initially intent on acquiring the star-stone for their own races-- Dr. M'mrm'mlrr, a psychologist and powerful telepath who looks like a large potted plant, and Charv and Ragma, two small alien law enforcement officers wearing animal suits to preserve their undercover identities; Charv typically takes the appearance of a kangaroo, while Ragma disguises himself as a wombat or large dog. At the story's conclusion, the alien star-stone agrees not to intrude upon Fred' s consciousness without his permission, and Fred agrees to serve as a sort of intergalactic ambassador and living supercomputer for the extinct race which created the star-stone.
Uncle Al Cassidy [-60 Points]
PSYCHE [Human Rank]
STRENGTH [Chaos Rank]
ENDURANCE [Human Rank]
WARFARE [Human Rank]
Doctor Merimee [10 Points]
* Exalted Psychic Combat Ability [8 Points]
* Named & Numbered Forms & Shapes [2 Points]
Uncle Al Cassidy, Fred's mysterious benefactor, turns out to be very much alive towards the end of the novel. Once the events revolving around the alien star-stone had been resolved, the reclusive billionaire decided to go into business with Dr. Merimee-- an alien psychic who been posing as Fred's university advisor-- as proprietors of an extraterrestrial cat-house. Uncle Al's role in any game should be more akin to a worldly advisor who 'talks to people and hears things' which might turn out to be of benefit to Fred and the player characters.
- Extraordinary Psychic Sense [4 Points]
~ Implant Psychic Quantity [10 Points]
- Psychic Barrier [4 Points]
~ Implant Barrier Quality [10 Points]
- Regeneration [4 Points]
~Implant Healing Power [15 Points]
- Alternate Form/Shape (Alien Star-Stone) [1 Point]
- Flux-Pin Connection [*3 Points]
* Psychic Sensitive Construct [1 Point]
Fred Cassidy is a self-professed acrophile (a lover of high places) who has taken up the hobby of climbing tall buildings. Fred is also obsessed with not graduating from college, since the generous allowance that his wealthy uncle left to him terminates as soon as he receives a degree; as a result, he's spent the last 13 years changing majors and doing everything possible to postpone graduation. When Fred inadvertently acquires a star-stone artifact containing the entire knowledge and memory of an extinct alien race-- and when he later goes through a Rhennius machine, capable of inverting and reverting forms of matter-- the star-stone becomes a part of his consciousness, manifesting itself through Fred's personality. Along the way Fred makes allies of several powerful aliens who were initially intent on acquiring the star-stone for their own races-- Dr. M'mrm'mlrr, a psychologist and powerful telepath who looks like a large potted plant, and Charv and Ragma, two small alien law enforcement officers wearing animal suits to preserve their undercover identities; Charv typically takes the appearance of a kangaroo, while Ragma disguises himself as a wombat or large dog. At the story's conclusion, the alien star-stone agrees not to intrude upon Fred' s consciousness without his permission, and Fred agrees to serve as a sort of intergalactic ambassador and living supercomputer for the extinct race which created the star-stone.
Uncle Al Cassidy [-60 Points]
PSYCHE [Human Rank]
STRENGTH [Chaos Rank]
ENDURANCE [Human Rank]
WARFARE [Human Rank]
Doctor Merimee [10 Points]
* Exalted Psychic Combat Ability [8 Points]
* Named & Numbered Forms & Shapes [2 Points]
Uncle Al Cassidy, Fred's mysterious benefactor, turns out to be very much alive towards the end of the novel. Once the events revolving around the alien star-stone had been resolved, the reclusive billionaire decided to go into business with Dr. Merimee-- an alien psychic who been posing as Fred's university advisor-- as proprietors of an extraterrestrial cat-house. Uncle Al's role in any game should be more akin to a worldly advisor who 'talks to people and hears things' which might turn out to be of benefit to Fred and the player characters.
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