Editing Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game (section)

==Reception==
Steve Crow reviewed ''Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game'' in ''[[White Wolf (magazine)|White Wolf]]'' #31 (May/June, 1992), rating it a 4 out of 5 and stated that "It is undoubtedly a game for experienced gamers. While I would not recommend ''Amber'' to novices, it is a must buy for experienced gamemasters and players looking for new challenges."<ref name="WW31">{{Cite magazine |last=Crow |first=Steve |date= May–June 1992|title=Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game |magazine= [[White Wolf Magazine]] |number=31 |pages=61–64}}</ref>

In the June 1992 edition of ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' (Issue 182), both [[Lester W. Smith|Lester Smith]] and [[Allen Varney]] published reviews of this game.
* Smith admired the professional production qualities of the 256-page rulebook, noting that because it was [[Smyth sewn]] in 32-page [[Section (bookbinding)|signatures]], the book would always lie flat when opened. However, he found the typeface difficult to read, and the lack a coherent hierarchy of rules increased the reading difficulty as well. Smith admired the Attribute Auction and point-buy system for skills, and the focus on roleplaying in place of dice-rolling, but he mused that all of the roleplaying would mean "GMs have to spend quite a bit of time and creative effort coming up with wide-reaching plots for their players to work through. Canned, linear adventures just won't serve." He concluded by stating that the diceless system is not for every gamer: "As impressed as I am with the game, do I think it is the 'end-all' of role-playing games, or that diceless systems are the wave of the future? I'll give a firm “No” on both counts...  However, I certainly do think that the ''Amber Diceless Roleplaying Game'' is destined for great popularity and a niche among the most respected of role-playing game designs."<ref name=dragon>{{cite journal|last=Smith|first=Lester|author-link=Lester W. Smith| date=June 1992 |title=Roleplaying Reviews|journal=[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]|publisher=[[TSR (company)|TSR, Inc.]]|issue=182|pages=97–99}}</ref>
*Allen Varney thought the "Attribute Auction" to be "brilliant and elegant", but he wondered if character advancement was perhaps too slow to keep marginal players interested. He also believed that being a [[gamemaster]] would be "tough work. Proceed with caution." Varney recommended that players need some familiarity with the first five "Amber" novels by Zelazny. He concluded, "The intensity of the ''Amber'' game indicates [game designer Erik ] Wujcik is on to something. When success in every action depends on the role and not the roll, players develop a sense of both control and urgency, along with creativity that borders on mania."<ref name=dragon />

In Issue 65 of ''[[Challenge (game magazine)|Challenge]]'', Dirk DeJong had a good first impression of the game, especially the information provided about the Amber family members and their various flaws and strengths. However he found that "The biggest problem with this endeavor, and its downfall, is the nature of the conflict systems. First, they are diceless, really diceless, and don't involve any sort of random factors at all, aside from those that you can introduce by roleplaying them out. Thus, if you get involved with a character who's better than you at sword-fighting, even if only by one point out of 100, you're pretty much dead meat, unless you can act your way out." DeJong also disagreed with the suggestion that if the referee and players disagreed with a rule to simply remove it from the game. "I thought the entire idea of using rules and random results was to prevent the type of arguments that I can see arising from this setup." DeJong concluded on an ambivalent note, saying, "If you love Zelazny and the Amber series, jump on it, as this is the premier sourcebook for running an Amber campaign. [...] Personally, I just can't get turned on by a system that expects me to either be content with a simple subtraction of numbers to find out who won, or to describe an entire combat blow by blow, just so that I can attempt some trick to win."<ref name="challenge65">{{cite magazine|last=DeJong|first=Dirk|  date=October 1992 |title=Challenge Reviews|magazine=[[Challenge (game magazine)|Challenge]]|issue=65|pages=85}}</ref>

[[Loyd Blankenship]] reviewed ''Amber'' in ''[[Pyramid (magazine)|Pyramid]]'' #2 (July/Aug., 1993), and stated that "''Amber'' is a valuable resource to a GM - even if he isn't running an ''Amber'' game. For gamers who have an aspiring actor or actress lurking within their breast, or for someone running a campaign via electronic mail or message base, ''Amber'' should be given serious consideration."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sjgames.com/pyramid/sample.html?id=370|title=Pyramid: Pyramid Pick: Amber|website=www.sjgames.com}}</ref>

In his 2023 book ''Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground'', RPG historian Stu Horvath noted, "There hasn't been an RPG quite like ''Amber'', before or since. Bold though it was, the game didn't do very well commercially. The lack of dice became a flashpoint of controversy, with dice enthusiasts dramatically swearing off the game. That's a bit ridiculous, but it does get at a key hurdle ''Amber'' face: People ''like'' rolling dice. They've been doing it for thousands of years and a significant part of the appeal of RPGs is giving dice, often in sparkly colours, a toss."<ref name=mahg>{{cite book| last = Horvath| first = Stu| title = Monsters, Aliens, and Holes in the Ground| publisher = MIT Press| date = 2023| location = Cambridge, Massachusetts| pages = 229| isbn =9780262048224 }}</ref>