Snarky Comment 1: News regarding Amber Roleplaying is so goddamn rare that any sort of news at all will be viewed as the damn apocalypse.
A few brief comments regarding the Guardians of Order Amber Diceless Open Forum, paraphrasing Jared Sorensen:
Snarky Comment 2: Now GoO can present Amber in two different, weak systems. Wooee.
Snarky Comment 3: Actually, three.
ANYway.
*cleansing breath*
Now no, you can’t convert the DRPG to d20.
Note, this isn’t about converting the DRPG, it’s about representing the books. As much as any non-rpg-game-based fiction can be represented by a game, D20 can do Amber… if not as well as anything else can, at least well enough.
The books about a swinging seventies immortal with magic powers and a family he gets in sword fights with. The mechanics need to support some relatively undefined magic and cool fights, and d20 can do both.
Were I to run Amber again (no thank you) I’d rather use Trollbabe, but there it is.
Intrigue, style, and NPCs are in the hands of the gaming group. The system’s just not going to have an impact on this.
It can, if you get wrapped up in the window dressing (a perennial argument of mine and Randy’s that starts and stops with my heavy exposure to Champions*), but that’s on the play-group.
* — I’m starting to realize that one best things I ever did for my understanding of Game Design Theory was play lots of Champions and take that mantra “it’s all special effects” to heart. You can see the same thing in Sorcerer (Ron Edwards is a long-time Champions player/GM) with the Demon Abilities — 26 things that should be able to Do Everything — daunting.)