I am intending to run a variant Amber campaign in which the PCs will be the sons and daughters of the Amber royal family, ages roughly 14-20, who are attending The Queen Faiella Academy for Young Persons of Breeding. This institution, part finishing school, part university, and part military academy, was founded for the purpose of educating the young hostages, er, princes of the royal houses of the Golden Circle kingdoms. It also educates the children of the Amber nobility, and more recently, the children of rich merchants of Amber, of military officers, and finally the children of the Amber royal family.
The time is in the middle of Eric's golden age, a time of peace and stability, sufficiently long after Oberon's disappearance that Eric's regency is accepted and even applauded. Long enough for the elders to chose to have children, and for Eric to convince them that the next generation must be raised as Amberites. This in no way precludes the parents from trying to influence the sort of Amberite their son or daughter becomes, of course. There is no contact with the Courts of Chaos, at this time, and the GM reserves the right to make Chaos completely different, if indeed it exists at all. Naturally there are no guns in Amber, and no electricity or electronics. Indeed, there are no known shadows any further advanced than about 1970 or so.
The school was originally built outside the city of Amber, but since then the city has grown to reach the grounds of the school. Since the grounds are fairly extensive (think Stanford), venturing into town is possible, even casual, but not accidental.
Classes include history (the glories of Amber), sciences (maths, including trigonometry and navigation, as well as some medicine), law (international), art (painting and sketching), music, military science (including practical fieldwork), and for the royal family, family history (which is a monthly lecture by one of the elder amberites). Also included are a variety of physical fitness classes and activities, and leadership is stressed throughout. It is an institution designed to indoctrinate, train, and educate the next generation of leaders of Amber, its treaty kingdoms, and its military, while instilling loyalty to the crown of Amber.
The school consists of about 600 students, the faculty, adminstration, and servants (personal servants are discouraged but not forbidden). The student body is divided into five classes, seniors, juniors, sophomores, freshmen, and the first class, which consists of students of all ages deemed too young for the freshman class. While educated at different levels, the first class is administratively grouped together, and beneath the notice of upperclassmen.
As a military academy, the students are termed cadets, and are ruled over by a student cadet-captain, cadet-subaltern, and cadet-ensign. There is a school uniform, dove-gray with variously coloured facings, cuffs, and collar, depending on class, and numerous brass buttons. The women's uniform is similar, but with a floor-length skirt, and a jacket with shorter tails.
The school colours are the colours of Amber, green and white, and the school's symbol is a crowned unicorn's head surrounded by a wreath.
There are three terms (strange, traditional names to be determined) and a summer break, during which the whole school goes out on maneouvers and camps in tents. There are generally two week breaks between terms, long enough for Golden Circle kids to visit home.
PCs will be the kids of Amberites or other children attending the school. As children, PCs will not be vastly superior to mortals, and the scale of attributes is approximately the same as for the other students. Amber parents will be chosen by the GM, based on character writeups. I'll take suggestions, and you can tweak the writeup after you know who the parent is, of course. Basically I want a veto option, and if you want to be a Corwin kid, you'll have to produce a very good explanation.
PCs will be built on 100 points. There will be no auction, though character sheets will not be public knowledge. Attributes will either be [-10] (total wuss), or be ranked 0 or higher. In addition, since the attributes are very general, each attribute will have a number of specialties, that will give a small bonus to the appropriate attribute in the given circumstances.
The number of specialties will depend on the highest value of a given attribute. (I.e, if lots of points are spent on Athletics, there will be more skills for Athletics, since that what the campign is interested in.) For creating a character, assume two specialties per attribute. Also, for every two full ranks above [0], you can have an additional specialty for that attribute, if you also assign a deficiency, which works just like a specialty in reverse.
There will also be two generic specialties that don't match any attribute, but are things the character can do well or is noted for. You can also have a third generic specialty if you take a generic deficiency.
Specialties for the attribute Sorcery will be a little different: In addition to specialties you get a number of spells at the beginning of the game, to be worked out with the GM. You can still take an additional specialty (ex: fire magic) if you take a deficiency (ex: control spells).
There are four attributes:
There are two pseudo-attributes, Stuff and Popularity. They can range from +10 to -10.
Powers: There are two levels of Pattern for PCs, available only for Amberites, of course. There is a minimum requirement of [0] in all abilities to walk the Pattern. No PCs will have the ability to draw Trumps. If you want some other wacky power, talk to me. The answer will probably be "No", though.
If you want items, talk to me, and I'll assign/negotiate a cost. Be reasonable, you're playing kids after all.
There will be 10 point bribes for such things as writing session logs, managing the campaign website, artwork, etc. Not for bringing food, locale, or other non-game specific contributions.