Introduction and Background

Trump in Amber is one of the more complex and least described, and in the original rules least cohesive powers. When the original Netbook of Amber version was created it went some way to resolving these issues but, from experience in both playing Amber and running Amber Games it still had a number of “holes” in it.

My current version fixes a number of these “holes”, to the point where characters in my AiRP campaign are capable of starting the game with limited Trump powers.

Since the characters exist in “isolation” knowing nothing of Amber or anything “Amber” related their acquisition of the Trump powers they have must have been through a process of “Self Learning and Discovery”. This article is designed to provide a framework as to the steps that they will have gone through to discover what they know about Trump.

The first thing to note is that Trump capability as defined under my modified “Netbook of Amber” ruleset is structured to allow this.

For example, in the original rules there is an off-hand remark that “to create trump capable of crossing shadow the creator must have the ability to do so” without ever explaining or clarifying this. Under my ruleset you have to have the requisite power and the “Imbue Power” Trump artistry ability. Another example is the ability to know how to activate a Trump and Create a portal. In the books not all Amberites know how to do this, and there is nothing actually in the rules about this, other than by possessing the “Trump Artistry” ability – a 50 point power in the original Phage rulebook. Under my ruleset, any character can be taught how to do this as it’s devolved to a Basic Trump Trick – Trump Portal(3).

The next thing to note is that Trump requires a significant skill in “Art”. In the books Fiona is quoted as saying “The best Trumps are painted with oils, but Acrylic is an adequate substitute”. Now oils in particular are a very difficult medium to master, particularly when we consider that were generally talking about “miniatures”, a typical Trump card in the book being about 7” by 4”. A budding artist discovering trump “by accident” is very unlikely to be painting an oil miniature, but the degree of developed skill with the medium in question is likely to be similar.

In this context, while Dworkin or Fiona or Suhey, could produce a trump using spray cans in a graffiti or street style picture of a suitable size (say 7ft x 4ft) you average novice is unlikely to be able to do so, and is not a route that would lead to the discovery of Trump.

The basic premise of Trump is that it requires significant concentration and attention to detail, which is another element which dictates the “Art” medium; Water Colour doesn’t work, but Oil, Acrylic, Pastel, Charcoal, Pencil, and Pen, either a single media or in combination do, purely because of the level of detail which can be achieved.

The First Trump

The discovery of Trump as a form is going to be accidental. The Character will accidental create a Trump without consciously knowing they are doing so. This is likely to occur at approximately 15 year of age (between 15.1 and 15.5 years) when their art skill first reaches the requisite level. It is also worth noting that such character will have been drawing consistently and incessantly since an early age, and will have this as one of their core subjects at school. Art and Drawing is pretty much all they do!

On the day in question, and it will take them all day (10 to 12 hours), they will wake up inspired to draw their favourite subject, and will produce their best most realistic picture to date, and unconsciously their first Trump Sketch – Note in Game Terms is only a sketch with all that entails.

A word of warning needs to be made here.. it is much better if that first Trump is a “Place” Trump rather than a “Picture” trump. If the first activation of the Trump when it happens puts them in direct Mind-To-Mind contact with the person depicted it is likely to leave the target permanently insane and the Trump Artist, being an Amberite, with a temporary mental instability until they can deal with the consequences of their unintended action.

At the point they finish this first Trump, whilst totally mentally exhausted, they are likely to be “ecstatic” over the piece. Having finished they are most likely to leave the piece where it is, or pack it safely away, and then go and sleep for 12 hours or so..

Activating the First Trump

So the character has completed their master piece, their first trump, and is now thoroughly rested. This means that between 24 and 72 hours have elapsed since they finished the piece. Like all Artists they are going to go back and critically study it, just to make sure there’s nothing wrong with it.

Whilst doing this, concentrating on it…., they are either going to pick it up (most likely) or touch it, and the picture is going start to “go cold”. If they’re holding it they’re most likely to drop it in surprise, or otherwise they’re going to back-off, breaking contact in surprise.. What just happened wasn’t real was it ..

Surely I just imagined it…

Gingerly they are going to return to the picture, but this time they’re going to be more cautious and in doing so are not going to activate it.. it was just their imagination.

However, there is going to be a nagging doubt, and at some point later, they are going to come back to the picture, and handle it in a way that when they concentrate on it, it will start to go cold. Their reaction is likely to be similar, they’ll quickly put it down or back off.

In the same way that curiosity killed the cat they will at some point, persist and cause the trump to fully activate. If it is a “Place” trump they are transported to the place depicted and arrive holding the picture. If it was a person, then there are now in full mind-to-mind contact with that person, and have full access to all their memories and thoughts, most of which are going to be in regard to suddenly having their best friend inside their head. Remember also this is a 2 way exchange as the character will have had no training in restraining or guarding their own thoughts, so the target will know the PC is there, and huge amounts of really, really scary shit (think 10 times your worst scary horror movie moment) will ensue.

I can do it again .. Right?

So they’ve done it once.., they can do it again can’t they?

The simple answer is no.. at least not for a while.

They have no idea “how” they did it the first time, so now they’re going to be trying to do something they have no idea how they did.. This means they’re going to work their way through 8 to 12 pictures, none of which will produce the requisite result. As they fail more times they are going to get more frustrated with failing which makes them less and less likely to succeed. Until they stop trying to do what they did before they won’t actually succeed.. The picture they produce after their “fuck it all” moment will be the next one that works.

The learning cycle

This cycle of failure and success will occur several times before they can reliably enter the right mental state to draw a sketch on demand. It is worth noting that in Game terms we are still talking Trump Sketches”, that take several hours to draw, and have only 2 or 3 uses, which is likely to be the next thing they discover if they haven’t done so already.

The logical step, after they discover a picture can take them to the place drawn, is to have a means of returning to where they started, typically another picture.

Remember they can only draw what they have actually seen, places they have been to in person, therefore, going getting stranded in a place because their “return” picture doesn’t work should be too onerous or life threatening, but it can be as inconvenient as you like…

Durable Sketches

After the failure of one or more of their sketches, they’ve likely to start experimenting more with drawing styles and drawing techniques, including media, and media preparation. The first discovery they will make is that they can alter the actual state of the substrate onto which they draw the trump, in a 2 stage process, prepare the media, draw the picture.

They will also at this point discover the rules about “working on a trump undisturbed” and keeping the media and partly drawn picture close to you until it’s finished.

The first discovery they will make is that they can draw a picture that has unlimited uses.. the Durable Trump Sketch, but that it takes considerably longer to do, about 60 hours of drawing time, about 5 days of elapsed time..What else they discover is down to how willing they are to sacrifice a week’s work.. typical easy discovery is that they don’t get wet when in the rain, when drinks are spilt on them, of when they fall in the bath. After that, things like they don’t catch light if you try to set fire to them with a lighter but do if exposed to more intense heat, they’re almost impossible to cut with scissors or a knife (even a scalpel) but bigger blades that allow more force to be applied will cut them. Additionally this also teaches them that substantial damage to the Trump renders it non-functional.

Full Trumps

The final step to achieving “Novice Trump”, which is the starting limit is to actually work out how to produce a “Full Trump”. Now this is a somewhat daunting task at this level, requiring about 150hours of drawing time, about 2 weeks elapsed time. Getting to this point, whilst a little daunting time wise is not difficult.

The first step is realising that the changes to the underlying substrate are “incomplete” at the “Durable Sketch level”. This will slowly come about as the character creates more durable sketches, so that by the 6th or 7th it becomes readily apparent. It’s then just a question of pushing until no more discernible change is noticed, which occurs about the 120 hour mark, which they should make in 2 or 3 attempts. After that it’s just a case of working until they complete the Trump, which they will most likely do on their first attempt following the preceding discovery.

If they opt to choose to test the durability of the Trump they’ve created, then most things readily accessible to them are unlikely to have any effect, with a few exceptions :- Industrial cutting lasers, high powered cutting tools with diamond blades, Hydrofluoric Acid, Aqua-reiga, etc.

In Conclusion

At this point the character will have the following Trump Artistry skills:- Trump Sketches[10], Novice Trump[10]. However, they will not have the Trump Tricks that would normally be “Free” with them “Sense Trump”, “Trump Defence”, and “Self Identification”. These have to be learnt from somebody who has the skill having been taught it. This means that can usually only learn it from a Trump Artist of sufficient skill. However, there is no points cost in doing so.. it just takes time and practice.

There is also the caveat here regarding “People” trumps. The character should have discovered that a Trump depicting a Person when activated, puts them in mind-to-mind contact with that person. If this occurs after they are used to creating and activating place Trumps, then they have the option of not proceeding with a full blown contact if they chose to. This does mean that the target will have noticed something and ask the character about it, which may have then led to a more cautious train of experimentation, leading to the full discovery of what happens. Or it may result in the character not perusing this branch any further. Any pursuance of the line of discovery which leads to a full mind to mind contact will mean that the target knows the characters secret!