Editing Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game (section)

==History==
Erick Wujcik wanted to design a role-playing game based on ''Amber'' for [[West End Games]], and they agreed to look at his work.  Wujcik intended to integrate the feel of the ''Amber'' setting from the novels into a role-playing game, and playtested his system for a few months at the Michigan Gaming Center where he decided to try it out as a diceless game.  West End Games was not interested in a diceless role-playing game, so Wujcik acquired the role-playing game rights to ''Amber'' and offered the game to [[R. Talsorian Games]], until he withdrew over creative differences.  Wujcik then founded Phage Press, and published ''Amber Diceless Role-playing'' in 1991.<ref name="designers90s">{{Cite book|author=Shannon Appelcline|title=Designers & Dragons: The '90s|publisher=[[Evil Hat Productions]]|year=2014| isbn=978-1-61317-084-7}}</ref>{{rp|111–112}}

The original 256-page game book<ref name="amberdrpg">Erick Wujcik ''Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game'' (Phage Press, 1991) {{ISBN|1-880494-00-0}}</ref> was published in 1991 by Phage Press, covering material from the first five novels (the "[[The Chronicles of Amber#The Corwin cycle|Corwin Cycle]]") and some details – sorcery and the [[Logrus]] – from the remaining five novels (the "[[The Chronicles of Amber#The Merlin Cycle|Merlin Cycle]]"), in order to allow players to roleplay characters from the Courts of Chaos. Some details were changed slightly to allow more player choice – for example, players can be full Trump Artists without having walked the Pattern or the Logrus, which [[Merlin (The Chronicles of Amber)|Merlin]] says is impossible; and players' [[psychic]] abilities are far greater than those shown in the books.

[[Image:Shadow Knight.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Cover of ''Shadow Knight'']]
A 256-page companion volume, ''Shadow Knight'',<ref name="shadowknight">Erick Wujcik ''Shadow Knight'' (Phage Press, 1993) {{ISBN|1-880494-01-9}}</ref> was published in 1993. This supplemental [[wikt:rulebook|rule book]] includes the remaining elements from the Merlin novels, such as Broken Patterns, and allows players to create Constructs such as Merlin's [[Merlin of Amber#Ghostwheel|Ghostwheel]]. The book presents the second series of novels not as additions to the series' [[Continuity (fiction)|continuity]] but as an example of a [[Campaign (role-playing games)|roleplaying campaign]] with Merlin, Luke, Julia, Jurt and Coral as the PCs. The remainder of the book is a collection of essays on the game, statistics for the new characters and an update of the older ones in light of their appearance in the second series, and (perhaps most usefully for GMs) plot summaries of each of the ten books. The book includes some material from the short story [[Amber Short Stories|"The Salesman's Tale,"]] and some unpublished material cut from ''[[Prince of Chaos]]'',{{citation needed|date=January 2012}} notably Coral's pregnancy by Merlin.

Both books were translated into French and published by [[Jeux Descartes]] in 1994 and 1995.

A third book, ''Rebma'', was promised. Cover art was commissioned<ref>Stephen Hickman's [http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=14836 ''Rebma'' cover art]</ref> and pre-orders were taken, but it was never published. Wujcik also expressed a desire to create a book giving greater detail to the Courts of Chaos.<ref name="pyramid">{{cite journal|title=Shadow Knight (Preview) and Interview with Erick Wujcik |url=http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=640|access-date=2006-05-29|journal=[[Pyramid (magazine)|Pyramid]]|volume=#6|last=Blankenship|first=Loyd}}</ref> The publishing rights to the ''Amber DRPG'' games were acquired in 2004 by [[Guardians of Order]], who took over sales of the game and announced their intention to release a new edition of the game. However, no new edition was released before Guardians of Order went out of business in 2006. The two existing books are now [[out-of-print]], but they have been made available as [[Portable Document Format|PDF]] downloads.<ref name="pdf">[http://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/2222/Diceless-by-Design ''Amber DRPG'' books] at DriveThruRPG</ref>

In June 2007 a new publishing company, headed by Edwin Voskamp and Eleanor Todd, was formed with the express purpose of bringing ''Amber DRPG'' back into print. The new company is named ''Diceless by Design''.<ref name="dicelessbydesign">{{Cite web|url=http://dicelessbydesign.com/|title=Amber Diceless Role-Playing - Official Website of Amber Diceless Role-Playing|website=dicelessbydesign.com}}</ref>

In May 2010, ''Rite Publishing'' secured a license from Diceless by Design to use the rules system with a new setting in the creation of a new product to be written by industry and system veteran Jason Durall.  The project '''Lords of Gossamer & Shadow (Diceless)''' was funded via [[Kickstarter]] in May 2013.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lords of Gossamer & Shadow|url=http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/937759598/lords-of-gossamer-and-shadow-diceless-role-playing|work=Kickstarter|access-date=19 August 2013}}</ref> In Sept 2013 the project was completed, and on in Nov 2013 Lords of Gossamer and Shadow (Diceless) <ref>{{cite web|title=Lords of Gossamer & Shadow|url=http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/119779|work=DrivethruRpg|access-date=27 November 2013}}</ref> was released publicly in full-color Print and PDF, along with additional supplements and continued support.