One other thing I would mention before ending my rather long rant, is that to a degree the GM must be somewhat adversarial with the players. The alternative is a Monty Haul campaign where anything can be had with minimal effort. It might be fun for the players at first, but after a while, they will grow bored. No challenges mean no sense of accomplishment. Of course I realize no one posting on this thread is suggesting that the GM not challenge the players, but powerful items should come at a price. Sure, the Elders are not sitting around just waiting for a chance to steal from the characters. However, there are more dangers to owning a powerful item then just Elder theft. The item itself will likely have side-effects associated with it’s use. The use of an item capable of functioning throughout shadow likely causes small ripples in shadow that are felt by those with the power to perceive disturbances or changes in shadow and those beings can be Elders, Lords of Chaos, powerful shadow beings who have themselves abilities to perceive such disturbances. Then of course, there are the actual Powers themselves, represented by the Serpent and the Unicorn. They set the ‘laws’ in their sphere of influence within shadow and would definitely resent having it’s ‘rules’ so disrupted. The power might in turn manipulate an Elder or one of the other previously mentioned beings to see that the item ceases to be such a disruption.

In the end, nothing is free and the players need to discover this just as we see Zelazny’s characters understanding this.

-ChiefsFan, Amber Diceless RPG Yahoo!Group

Posted with a general feeling of agreement. Guarded agreement, because “nothing is free” isn’t quite the right way to wrap one’s head around things in Amber, I don’t think – but still.

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