Pattern
Check out the revamped Pattern powers!
The Great Pattern of Amber is a blue-white glowing spiral shaped
pattern on the floor of a dungeon room under the palace of Amber. It
is said that if anyone not of royal blood steps onto it, they
instantly die horribly. However, if one of the blood of Amber walks
the length of the Pattern (a demanding task, both physically and
psychically), they gain great power over Shadow.
Modifications and Changes:
What I did: I removed the 'Pattern Teleportation' power entirely. It
is my feeling that this is the single most-prone to abuse power given
in the Amber DRPG, and I see no indication of its availibility in the
Zelazny books. The powers associated with the Pattern Lens are, in my
opinion, more than enough reason to purchase Advanced Pattern powers,
without the Munchkin-like ability to teleport.
What I would do if I were doing it over again: While in this version
of the power, I left Basic Pattern alone at 50 points, I'll probably
change that the next time I GM. While I do think that there should be
a fairly large point commitment to a basic Pattern ability, I think
I'd prefer to see it at about 30 or 35 points, and then I'd seperate
out the ability to Shadowwalk towards things which weren't
specifically defined (that is, you could, with the 30 point version,
walk towards 'Uncle Bleys,' but you couldn't Shadowwalk towards 'The
owner of this sword' or 'The solution to my problem'). Pattern Defense
might also leave the basic ability.
Basic Pattern
requires: Nothing
costs: 50 points
As the description in the AmberDRPG. It is considered (under the
current system) to be relatively trivial to use all these powers
immediately following the first time one walks the Pattern.
Pattern Sensing
requires: Basic Pattern
costs: 5 points
This is the same as the power given under Advanced Pattern in the
DRPG. However, it does not include the power to create a
Pattern lens. Pattern sensing can only show you areas you can
currently see with your own eyes.
Pattern Lens
requires: Pattern Sensing
costs: 7 points
As the book.
Altering Rules
requires: Basic Pattern
costs: 3 poitns
Altering the rules is as the book describes. In this case, we are
speaking solely of temporary changes to Shadow, which disappear as
soon as the Pattern Initiate stops concentrating.
Editing Shadow
requires: Altering Rules
costs: 5 points
Permenant alteration of Shadows, including the ability to bar an area
from Trump or casual Shadowwalking.
Shadow Pockets
requires: Editing Shadow
costs: 2 points
As the book.
Shadow Erasure
requires: Shadow Pockets
costs: 3 points
To make this power fair, I usually require it to take some time and be
obvious to those in the Shadow. That is, no 'nuking the site from orbit.'
Exalted Powers
Some exalted Pattern abilities my PC's and NPC's had:
- The power to materialize their Pattern Lens briefly.
- The power to pump Pattern energy through their Pattern Lens.
- The power to cast spells through their Pattern Lens.
- The power to make mental contact through a Pattern Lens.
- The power to make multiple simultaneous Pattern Lenses.
This is a rework of the Pattern Initiating powers originally published
(and copyrighted) by Phage Press. The original work on this page is
copyright 1998, Epoch. Permission to copy, but not distribute, this
material for personal game purposes only is granted.
Comments or questions can be directed to the maintainer at msulliva@wso.williams.edu