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This page is a primer for developing your character concept for House of Cards. The information on this page applied for initial character generation; characters must now select parentage and starting location in consultation with the GM. The GMs may have specific parentage or a particular history in mind for new characters.
Character concepts sum up most of the information in the Identity stage of Everway character creation, plus some additional Amber-oriented and game-specific information. Original players had to have this information ready before submitting your character to the GMs before the question-and-answer session. If there's a group Q&A session for new characters, players will have to have this information ready for the GMs in the same way.
The Everway convention is that characters have names with meanings in English. It relies on the Everway convention that everyone speaks the same language throughout the many spheres. While this convention does not formally hold in House of Cards, it may take some effort to find people you can't understand.
The Amber naming convention is that characters have names based on either the time and place of their origin or the whim of their parents.
The GMs particularly favor names that pun on both these criteria (e.g., Ossian, Paige, Reid). The GMs do not favor names that, as an Amberwayer once described it, "sound like someone who got kicked out of their Ramtha seminar for adopting too precious a sobriquet".
Characters are assumed to be the sons or daughters of one of the nine princes or four princesses of Amber alive during the Corwin chronicles. All characters must be of the royal family of Amber; no Chaosites are permitted as PCs.
While NPCs who aren't mentioned on the campaign site may be available as parents, characters who appear only in the Merlin chronicles, specifically Delwin, Sand, Luke, and Coral, are not available. Some younger members of the royal family may be available as parents; for instance, Brennan is Ossian's father and Conner is Raven's father.
Your character may not know who their Amber parent is. In that case, your character is "of the royal blood". Characters of the royal blood may have an elder patron who has helped them walk the Pattern. Those without a patron will need to justify their presence and availability to participate in the game.
If it is crucial to your character's concept that he or she is really the child of a particular Amberite, or really the child of an Amberite other than the one known as his or her parent, you should tell the GMs this as well.
Everway suggests seven possible motives for adventuring characters. Select one:
Your virtue, fault, and fate are three fortune cards that can define your relationship to the universe and the story of your life.
Your Virtue is a positive personal trait, or a positive aspect of your fortune or character. It represents the Good Stuff in your life. Choose a card from the fortune deck. You can use a reversed card if the meaning is appropriate.
Your Fault is a negative personal trait, or a negative aspect of your fortune or character. It represents the Bad Stuff in your life. Choose a card from the fortune deck. You can use a reversed card if the meaning is appropriate.
Your Fate is your current challenge, representing some choice you have to make in life. Choose a card from the fortune deck. Unlike the other two cards, it is normally represented sideways, to show that your character has to choose between the upright and reversed aspects of the card.
If you meet your fate during the course of play, you may choose a new Fate card, which may also mean new Virtue and Fault cards. Defining "meeting your fate" is at the GMs' discretion, but it represents a major change in life like achieving an important goal or accepting that you'll never achieve it.
Write a single sentence that tells the GMs who the character is and what sort of role you expect the character to take in the campaign. For example:
Cambina, daughter of Eric, is a mystic with interest in Tir-na Nog'th and a touch of foresight.
Martin, son of Random, worked for Oberon in the runup to the war, but is still coming to terms with Brand's attempt to kill him and his father's late appearance in his life.
Merlin, son of Corwin and Dara, was raised in the Courts of Chaos with the skills and powers to be Heir to Amber, but doesn't know what he should do in this strange new place now that his father has refused Amber's throne.
You don't need to be really specific about what you expect your character to do in the game. A general description is fine. Nor are you committed to only the role that you describe for your character.
At the beginning of the game, there were three places where most PCs could safely be: Amber, Rebma, and with Benedict's forces at the Courts of Chaos. New characters will generally start in play with one or more existing PCs or with an NPC; their location will be at the GMs' discretion. Player suggestions are welcome.