What does a brewery look like via Magical Sight?

A few months ago, someone on the Warhammer Forums posed a question asking what the winds of magic look like via the Magical Sight skill. There's a couple minor references in passing to it in various 3rd Ed supplements (page 15 of the Tome of Mysteries, and at points throughout Chapter 3 of the Tome of Magic), but the core book and skill descriptions really aren't helpful at all. I made up an answer on the spot, and then promptly forgot all about it. Yesterday someone reminded me it was a really good answer.

Read the original thread, or just the text of my post repeated here: Magic is described as "winds" so I would have it twist, flow, and move. Each order has it's own color, and associated properties, which I would draw in to the description. Bright Order magic flickering like flames. Jade Order magic taking organic shapes, then drifting like discarded leaves falling ever slowly to earth. Amber magic skittering about like a busy little chipmunk, then suddenly standing stalk-still when it realizes it's being watched.  Amethyst magic forming little skulls or ghostly hooded figures, then slinking off to hide in the shadows. Each order has it's own glyph or sigil, too. Some are basically arrows, so they may blow in a particular direction ceaselessly. Others are represented by concentric circles, so they may orbit or linger more.

For the chaos gods, their magic would seem tainted, but maybe not obviously so. One cool way to do it would be to always start describing it as the nearest "proper" form of magic, and then describe how it's been twisted and distorted almost as an after-thought. Or, if you prefer, more over-the-top. Nurgle magic vomits and oozes, or flits about like ghostly flies. Slaneshi magic keeps making eyes at you, and has some hypnotic rhythm to the patterns of its movements. The magic of Tzeentch the great deciever constantly reimagines itself, cycling through colors and forms in a ways that other magic cannot. Magic done by Beastmen seems feral and adversarial, even long after it's casting. Magic of the Skaven hisses and runs away when directly observed. Ork magic bumbles and cavorts in an unpredictable fashion. I'm just making this up.

One thing I would bear in mind is that magic doesn't really create magical energy, so much as it gives form to and strengthens the magical energy that is already there. On the typical city street of the empire, there will be little wisps of half a dozen different winds blowing at any time. The dead rat in the gutter has beads of Amber on its fur, but as time passes they fade and an Amethyst mist gathers about it. The watchman passing by carries an old lantern hanging disused from his pack. It's not lit at the moment, but has been a thousand times before so with Witchsight you can still see it glow or smoke ever so slightly. His coin purse has only ever held brass or silver coins, but when viewed with Magical Sight it may seem faintly embroidered in gold or yellow. Magic blows, drips, and oozes throughout the Old World. Wizards don't walk around with Magical Sight turned on at every single moment of the day, and at least part of the reason is because it would be terribly distracting to do so.
I think. Like I said, I'm mostly making this up.

I wish they'd reminded me of that post a couple days earlier, because in Sunday's game I sure could have used my own advice and descriptions. One of the PCs in my group (Lina the Bright Wizard / Mystic) activated Magical Sight during an improvised scene. She was in a completely mundane place (a brewery), there were no enchantments in play, the location was only mentioned briefly in passing in the scenario notes with no expectations the PCs would find it, we were late in the session, and there was a totally unrelated potential fight scene across town I was hoping to get to before the session ended. So my response was "Nope, Magical Sight reveals nothing. The place is clean."

Technically accurate, but good only in the sense that it didn't slow down the plot any further.  Here we have a wizard, using their signature ability to see wonderful magical things normal people can't. It's a great opportunity to give that PC the spotlight. A chance to remind the players that magic is bizarre and dangerous and permeates everything in the Warhammer setting. A potential moment to be artsy and descriptive and make the game memorable. I squandered those opportunities in the most boring and workmanlike way possible. "No magic here. Move along." Lame.

Here's what I should have said: 
"The brewery is a minor source of raw magical energy of many colors and flavors. Grains and other harvested plants are brought here, softly leaking a thin haze of jade energy that has magically stained the walls and floors in ways that are only visible to wizards. The constant exposure to this energy has made the weeds along the base of the brewery's outer wall grow just a little taller than similar plants next door. After they arrive, the grains are subjected to chemical processes that transforms them. This alchemical distillation has a Gold Order correspondence, and your gifted eyes can spot tiny drops of yellow energy beading up on every dent, kink or seam of the stills and brew tanks.  Faint golden wagon-ruts appear superimposed on the spots on the floor where the wheels of commerce roll out the door with regular shipments of ale and liquor. The place is damp with energy, but all of it raw and untamed, having never known a wizard's hand."

Pointless and long-winded, perhaps, but it would have made for a better scene and a richer campaign world.

Minor The Enemy Within Spoiler Alert:
Because of the gunpowder that had been spilled inside by the villains (which the PCs didn't know about yet) I could have added to the description: "One thing does strike you as out of place. A tiny bit of Aqshy, the whispered potential of future fire, seeping sluggishly under the crack of the door. It winks at you, slowly and longingly, hoping to catch your eye and unleash the inner spark." Not that player characters ever need an excuse to burn things to the ground, mind you, but it might have been kinda cool.

Archive: Alternatives to Merlin's Chaos

Thanks to The Way Back Machine, I was able to locate several more of my old Amber files. I big shout-out to Digital Sextant for showing me this possibility. The following used to be up on Geocities:

Alternatives To Merlins Chaos
If youve checked out my Laws of Magic and Science in Amber page, you might have gotten the impression that I dont particularly care for the second series (a.k.a.: Merlins saga, the last 5 books of Amber, etc)

Thats not exactly true. Theres plenty of great writing in Merlins tale. Zelazny is a skilled storyteller, and, Eric Wujcik points out in Shadow Knight, the second series has a lot of plot and style lessons in it that GMs would do well to learn from. On their own, the books are wonderful. I just dont like them as a continuation of Corwins saga. Heres a demonstration of why:

Corwins Chaos
Chaos, as Corwin depicts it, is incapable of traveling between shadows. In all the years of Oberons reign, we are lead to believe that Chaos never attacked, nor even interacted with, Amber. This version of Chaos needs the black road, the red-heads assistance, and half-breeds like Merlin and Dara to be able to bring an army to the foot of Kolvir.

Its also worth noting that Corwin never describes the tendrils or effects of the Logrus in his 5 books (unless you count Corwins brief recap of Julians vague description of what Caine said Brand used to get the jump on him).

And the only shapeshifting we see in this series is done by Dara, Dworkin and Oberon, only the last of whom seems to have total control over it. In fact, even in the heat of battle Borel, Strygalldwir and the hordes assaulting Garnath each have but a single form they maintain. The armies of chaos are wyverns, faceless women and giant cats.

Merlins Chaos
Then Merlin comes along and says that Lords of Chaos are free to move around in shadow as they please. He describes in detail many powerful uses of Logrus, including destroying whole worlds with Primal Chaos and racking and unleashing flashy spells in the blink of an eye.

He also says that the most common form for folks in chaos is a gargoylish demon-shape the likes of which never appears in the first 5 books. And as if that's not enough, Merlin implies that even the lowliest of servant creatures in chaos is capable of shapeshifting and controlling what form they are in.

Eric Wujciks Chaos
Erics rulebooks closely mirror Zelaznys second series. Heres my experiences from playing a Lord of Chaos in that setting.

So, lets say I want to lay siege to Amber. I get together with a couple of my fellow Lords and Ladies of Chaos. We use the Logrus to first build an army of demons and shadow-soldiers. Then we use the Logrus to whip up a bunch of magic swords and arrows to arm them with. Sure, this takes years, but in theory we have a near-infinite life span, control of time flow, and the backing and support of most of the courts. Then we use the Logrus to haul ourselves over to the Golden Circle and from there use trumps to bring our army to us. Instant invasion, no black road required.

If were really bright, we set up a few personal shadow worlds with Control of Contents, Time and Destiny and use them to lay traps to thin out the Amber royal family first. Then, once actual battle takes place, we make full use of the Logrus, a few Lords in the back using it to summon up reinforcements and unleash some really nasty racked spells while the demons in the front ranks keep those Amber Royals busy. Should some Amberite fight their way through my living wall of demons, I can use shapeshifting to become a unkillable pillar of fire or turn into a dragon and fly away. Come to think of it, a lot of my demons can do that too. So maybe my front ranks should all be in avatar form, pretty tough to kill with a sword.

And lets face it, if Im on speaking terms with any of the Amber royal family, its just to use them as scapegoats and cover. Black roads? Cross breeds? Who needs em?


So How Can This Help My Campaign?
If youre running or planning to run an Amber-based campaign set before the second series, especially one with no Chaos PCs, you have an opportunity to bring the element of surprise back into your game, to twist the players expectations and keep them guessing, or to provide them with a mystery worthy of their best investigative efforts. Or, you could use these in a campaign revolving around the Courts of Chaos as a way to give veteran players a whole new set of powers to explore, and an exciting change from the types of characters they're used to making.

That was a fun trip through through memory lane. You can find more of my old site at web.archive.org. Do a search there for "http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Station/4341/amber/amber.htm", and then hunt from that. As I find time (lots of other stuff to do today) I'll post a few of the better pages from the archive. Not everything there has stood the test of time.

Entropy Mastery

A power I've used in three Amber campaigns, though mostly for NPCs. This was inspired by Tom deMayo's Logrusless Chaos and, of course, the first five books of Amber, aka Corwin's Saga.

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Entropy Mastery
The Courts of Chaos are a place of continual change, a land of no stability and frequent mortality. Death is not merely the great destroyer, Death is a beginning as well as an end. To such transitory beings as belong in Chaos, Death is nothing to be feared, it is instead an opportunity and a force to be controlled. Those who master this power become the Lords of Chaos, capable of unmaking worlds with their will. To our earthly sensibilities, the Courts of Chaos are a dreadfully nasty place to live. Yet, to the Lords and Ladies of Chaos, this is home.

What can this power do? By exerting the power of Entropy, one may cause a gradual state of decline to descend upon a person, place or thing. Further time and energies spent upon the target result in greater distortion and corruption. Exposure to Pattern and order will reverse these affects.

Duration: Unless otherwise specified, the effects of Entropy are assumed to maintain as long as the Lord or Lady of Chaos who invoked them is present. In the event of his or her death, dismissal, or absence, the target will return to normal at roughly half the speed it was corrupted at. (So if it took 3 months to twist and damage, it would take 6 months afterwards to heal) The power does not grant the ability to undo it’s handiwork, so if you go too far, you’ll just have to wait patiently (far away) for your target to regain their health and integrity.

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Basic Entropy Mastery: 20 Points
With Basic-level Entropy Mastery you may do the following…

Degrade Shadows: When Entropy is unleashed upon a world, it causes crops to fail, illness to spread, social systems to break down, and weather to turn foul. After a time, it may seem that the world is coming apart at the seams. Doing this takes a great deal of time and energy, as the damage to the shadow world spreads. The signs and symptoms of the degradation will vary from world to world, but for examples look at the dark caves in Benedict’s Avalon and the black circle in. In game terms, the Entropy master may permanently inflict the world with Bad Stuff. Each point they place in it will take only a few hours if the shadow is on the Chaos side of Ygg, but takes much longer the closer the world is to Amber.

Distort Shadows: After one has broken down the structure of a world, a true master of Entropy may rebuild it in their image, at least to some degree. It will always remain a cursed world, but the nature of the problems will become the province of the Entropy master. Once a world has 3 points of Bad Stuff, you may begin to dictate the nature of the hardships that plague it, and make other subtle alterations upon it. A world with 6 or more points of Bad Stuff becomes very malleable to your whims and desires.

Shroud of Night: When a world is tainted by the touch of Entropy, it begins to grey and fade, the light seeming to recoil from the darkness. As a result, a master of Entropy in a tainted portion of a world with 2 or more points of Bad Stuff may use the power of darkness to conceal themselves. The shadows flit and wrap around them, obscuring their presence. The greater the taint on the world(regardless of whose taint it was), the easier it is for the Chaos Lord to hide within it.

Befuddle Minds: The aura of Entropy tends to scramble the thoughts of mortals. Ordinary shadowlings can be driven mad with just a few minutes concentration. Those with Pattern, Trump, or high Psyche or Endurance can try to resist it, just getting slightly confused or sluggish.

Inspired Illness: Alternately, you may attack the body rather than mind of your victim. In such a case Trump is of no defense, but Endurance is far more effective at slowing or stopping these effects. Used successfully, this may inflict the target with a variety of epidemics and diseases, plus migraines, numbness, epilepsy, cancers, and assorted aches and pains.

Depreciation: The powers of Entropy may be exerted upon inanimate objects even more easily than on people or worlds. Given time, a sword may be made to rust, a roof leak, threads fray, wood warp and splinter, colors fade and food rot.

Summon Feral Beasts: An area tainted by Entropy is bound to be the home of a variety of sick animals. Plague dogs, rabid animals, panicked herds, insect swarms and rodent infestations are commonplace. When in a place with 2 or more points of Bad Stuff, the Entropy master may send out a call for such beasts to attend him. The GM will determine what’s available and how they serve based upon the nature of the place before it’s corruption. At 6 or more points of Bad Stuff in a location or world the Entropy master may pick and choose any monsters they see fit.

Shadow Travel/Black Roads: By degrading the metaphysical edges of a shadow world and breaking down the barriers between worlds it is possible to walk the shadows. In general, a world needs at least 4 points of Bad Stuff to be sufficiently weak for travel out of it. This means you’ll need to pause and weaken your current world every few shadows over that you travel. As a result, this is a painfully slow method of transit, even deep in shadow it can take weeks to cover the distance that a Hellride could do in an hour. On the Amber side of Ygg, this ability is virtually useless. But in the courts of Chaos, where the worlds and pockets of shadow are ridden thick with Entropy this allows for very rapid movement.

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Advanced Entropy Mastery: 30 Points
In addition to the powers granted by Basic-level Entropy Mastery, you may now…

Destroy Shadows: If a world has accumulated 10 points of Bad Stuff, the taint upon it is so strong that a Lord of Chaos may literally unmake it. Such primal disruption takes the form of earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, epidemics and wars, and will progress into rips at the fabric of the shadow. Given a few hours on a world with this strong a taint, you may utterly destroy it forever.

Enchanting: Like the faceless woman did to Corwin, the taste of Entropy may be wielded to influence others actions. This is like Befuddlement, except the nature of the madness or confusion can be dictated by the Chaosite. Given enough time to focus, such brainwashing or mental damage could be made permanent.

Vampirism: At close ranges not only may illness be cast upon a target, but the very essence of life may be siphoned off from them. The psychic vampire finds themselves refreshed while their victim tires and loses the will to carry on. Continued long enough this may heal injuries upon the Chaosite while opening spontaneous wounds on their prey.

Necromancy: Those killed while in a world beset by Entropy may be animated by the Chaos Lord. Such zombies are slow and lack independent thought or coordination, but are useful as battlefield replacements and for the demoralizing effect it can have upon the enemy to see their dead comrades turn against them. The number of zombies available depends on the number of nearby casualties and also the amount of Bad Stuff in the locale.

Trump Disalignment: As a shadow is distorted by Entropy, there will be a tendency for Trumps of it to lose some of their connection. An Entropy master can purposefully accentuate this affect, hiding the world from all attempts to Trump it, unless the artist in question has been there since the world was corrupted.

lord of the living void, a king of chaos

From a campaign hand-out I made for Amber players who were considering making Chaosite PCs.

So you wish to be “a lord of the living void, a king of chaos?”
Being a Lord or Lady of Chaos has it’s advantages, but in this campaign you’ll find Chaos to be a little different from how the main Amber DRPG Rulebook describes it.

The Amber series of novels by Roger Zelazny can be clearly broken into two subseries: Corwin’s Tale (books 1-5) and Merlin’s Tale (books 6-10). These two tales intentionally contradict each other on several points, and this Campaign chooses to follow Corwin’s depiction of the universe over Merlin’s, whereas the rulebooks typically do the opposite.

If you’ve played Amber before, you’ll quickly notice that Shapeshifting & Logrus have been replaced with Dynamic Form and Entropy. This packet gives you the pertinent details on those new powers. Please read these 4 pages fully before the next session of our game.

The advantages of Chaos (& Entropy)

1) Versatility. While an Amberite is obliged to drop half their points on Pattern, the only requirement to be a Chaos Lord is 5 points of Dynamic Form. That leaves you with plenty of points left over for Entropy, Sorcery, Power Words, Trump Artistry, and/or a personal world full of cool magic items.

2) Unpredictability. Your powers and capabilities vary from form to form, and your enemies probably won’t recognize you in half the shapes you are capable of. The former makes you dangerous in combat, and the later makes you dangerous in social settings.

3) Mysterious Creepiness. Entropy is a totally new power, based on Corwin’s Tale, but devised for this campaign. Not only do the other players not know what to expect from it, but the Amberite NPCs will be just as clueless and leery about it too. Keep them guessing, and you’ll reap amazing benefits. Like any Power, Entropy has its weaknesses. Once you’ve figured them out, keep it to yourself. There’s no need to make anyone else aware that you even have a weakness.

4) Allies Everywhere. Over the years, Amber has a made a lot of enemies. And if that isn’t enough potential assistance, Entropy Mastery enables you to summon feral beasts, raise zombies and turn entire worlds against your foes.

5) Resistance to Entropy. Chaos blood shields you from the standard environmental affects of Entropy, including some measure of defense against plagues, poisons, and necromancy.

The disadvantages of Chaos

1) Not Human. Every form a Chaosite has should be clearly inhuman, and preferably something you’d find in a dark fairytale. There’s plenty of examples in Corwin’s Tale, especially in the book “The Guns of Avalon”. As a Chaosian, you cannot have a normal human-looking form unless you also have an Amber Devotee or Pattern Imprint.

2) Possibly Lower Attributes. This isn’t a requirement for a player character, but on average a typical denizen of Chaos has lower Attributes than a typical Amber commoner. You can be the exception to that rule if you’d like, but you should consider keeping at least one attribute at Shadow or Amber Rank.

3) Vulnerable to Pattern. If you’re of the blood of Chaos, you need to be especially careful around the Pattern or items crafted in its image.

4) Lack of Transportation. Let’s face it, Pattern is the best Power for moving between worlds. Being from Chaos, you’ll really want to consider Trump, Sorcery or some sort of magic Artifact or Creature to get you a good method of Transit.

Dynamic Form

Here's another version of shapeshifting I used in one Amber campaign. It's a slightly more detailed version than in my Chaotic Vs Orderly Shapeshifting post, but it's slightly less elegant as a result.

Dynamic Form: 5 Points
You may have from 2 to 12 forms, your choice. More forms allows great versatility, but at the cost of individual forms being weaker.

Dynamic Form is the base Power of Chaos. It’s unpredictable and uncontrollable, but most of the shapes should be surreal or mythological. Think Salvador Dali, Hieronymous Bosch, HR Gieger, and Grimm’s Fairytales. A goat-headed man, a faceless witch, and a shadowy hound are far better Forms than a potted petunia, a salad fork and a killer virus.
Also note that there are no normal humans in Chaos - everyone is a bit distorted and sinister out at the end of the Universe.

Each form must have at least 1 Trigger (see below) and some of your forms will have special bonus Qualities, similar to those on the Artifact & Creature Worksheet. In addition, one of your forms must be designated as your True Form, the others become designated as Alternate Forms.. Full details can be found below.

Triggers: A Trigger is the circumstance that causes you to assume a given form. Most Triggers fall into one of the following categories:
Chemical Trigger: An allergic reaction to certain substances causes you to take this form.
Emotional Trigger: There is a particular emotion that causes you to take this form.
Celestial Trigger: Certain astological or meteorlogical circumstances will cause you to take this form.
Power Trigger: Exposure to (or the use of) a certain power causes you to take this form.
Karmic Trigger: Count on your Good Stuff or Bad Stuff to put you in this form at the dramatically appropriate moment.
* It is important to note that free choice is not a possible Trigger. That is to say the Dynamic Form Power does not allow you to merely shift from shape to shape as you see fit. It is beyond your power to totally control this gift.

3 examples of Chemical Triggers, drawn from films, novels, comics or RPGs....
1)The werewolf who reverts to human form when struck by silver.
2)The vampire who becomes a ferocious monster when they taste blood, but becomes a cowering wretch at the scent of garlic.
3) The scrawny little sailor who fights to the finish when he eats his spinach.

3 examples of Emotional Triggers, drawn from films, novels, comics or RPGs....
1) The irradiated scientist who turns green and bulky whenever someone hurts him.
2) The Viking Berserker who works himself into a rage and becomes a rabid bear.
3) The research subject whose alien-engineered DNA only makes itself pronounced when they are frightened or sexually aroused.

3 examples of Celestial Triggers, drawn from films, novels, comics or RPGs....
1) The werewolf whose form is dictated by the phase of the moon.
2) The alien hero who becomes able to leap tall buildings when transplanted to a world with a different-colored sun.
3) The demon who shows his horns, hooves and tail only when back in the damnable environs of hell, but looks like any other Lawyer when on earth.

True Form: The form you were born in has all your normal Attributes and Powers, but no bonus qualities at all. Your True Form has two default triggers, listed here:
Death/Incapacitation: In the case of Death or Paralysis, or should your soul leave your body, your body will return to your True Form.
Order Exposure: Advanced Pattern and certain Power Words can be used by others to make you take your True Form.
You must create at least 1 extra trigger that returns your character to their True Form.

Bonus Qualities: Individual forms may integrate Qualities from the Artifact & Creature Worksheet. You may select up to 8 points of Qualities from that worksheet, with these restrictions:
1) Your True Form may not have any Qualities, it uses just your normal stats.
2) Each Form may have 0 to 3 points of Qualities, up to 8 Qualities total between all your Forms.

40k - fluff vs mechanics

This was part of another post, and I broke it out to make things easier to reference elsewhere.

Space marines are supposed to be nigh-on indestructible. Even out of their ceramite powerarmour, they have numerous genetically-engineered benefits. They have a second heart, a second stomach, independently-functioning hemispheres of the brain, a third lung and third kidney complete with poison-scrubbers, a fused ribcage, bright-red super-efficient blood that provides instant clotting and scar tissue, super-melanin, special muscle-building horomones, and suspended-animation mucous. What did all that get them? A 1-in-6 better chance of surviving a bullet or knifing than a normal human had.

Chaos compounded that issue. Chaos Marines were thousand-year old warriors who'd experienced the same genetic uplifting that loyal Marines had undergone. They'd already lived 5-times as long as the typical Spacemarine could, engaged in warfare all that time, yet they had the same skill-levels. This would make sense if such skill-levels were the apex of human precision, but no, 23-year-old Imperial Guard Sergeants had the same skill-levels, and Guard Officers surpassed them. They also had the exact same equipment as spacemarines for the first 10 years of the game, despite having no factories for the last 1,000 years. Go fig.

Trusting the setting, 1 Spacemarine should have been as good as 20 Imperial Guardsmen or 16 Orks. Instead, he cost as much as 2-3 of them, and was about balanced at that cost. 1 Chaosmarine should have been as good as 1.5 to 2 Spacemarines - instead they were equal.

Chaotic vs Orderly Shapeshifting

This was one of the aforementioned old Amber pages that has long since vanished from the net...

"Chaotic Shapeshifting
Vs.
Orderly Shapeshifting
A study in Static Form, Dynamic Form and the nature of True Shapeshifting

It seems odd to me that a place so random and crazy that it’s commonly known as the Courts Of Chaos should be the part of the universe where the average folks have the most control over their physiology and anatomy. Shapeshifting as it exists in the rulebooks is a fluid, versatile power all about mastering and controlling the complex chemical reactions and physical structure of your body. So isn’t it a little odd that creatures of Chaos have this highly disciplined skill?
And when you think about it, what kind of shapeshifting do we see in the books? In the first five novels (Corwin’s Saga) there really is precious little shapeshifting done. Let’s count it out:

1. Dara shapeshifts uncontrollably while walking the Pattern.
2. Dworkin, embodiment of the Pattern, intentionally shapeshifts to look like Corwin.
3. Dworkin, as a result of the cyclical nature of his wounds (from the black spots on the pattern) loses control and shapeshifts in to something scary just as Corwin is trumping away.
4. Oberon, one of the greatest initiates of Pattern and order, shapeshifts into Ganelon.
5. Oberon, standing near the Primal Pattern, creates a bird from Corwin’s blood.

Only five major instances, barely one per book. Let's examine them for trends. What’s present in each of those examples? The Pattern. And what's missing that you might expect to find? Lords of Chaos with no Amber blood. Kinda makes me wonder...

Sure, Dara does say that her shapeshifting is a natural talent, a part of her birthright as a Lady of Chaos. But what’s funny is, we never see the various Chaosites in the first 5 books make full use of their shapeshifting. All the tricks that players use in the game - knitting closed wounds, growing wings to escape, taking better forms for combat - none of that stuff is done by Chaos Lords in Corwin’s Saga, and boy does it cost them.

Maybe this means that Chaosites don’t have control of their shapeshifting. After all, what could be more Chaotic? So here’s an alternate system for shapeshifters:

Static Form: 0 points:
This is the default for natives of Amber and most of shadow. Just like you and me in real life, a character with Static Form can’t change what they are shaped like.

Dynamic Form: 0 points:
This is the default for Lords and Ladies of Chaos, the creatures who serve them, and such beasts out of shadow as Werewolves. Any such character will have a large slate of forms they can assume, but little to no control over which shape they are in at any given moment. One you make a character with Dynamic Form, describe roughly a dozen different shapes you want them to be capable of, along with the triggers that send them into that shape. Your GM will have ultimate approval of the shapes and triggers, but here’s a few possibilities…
Emotional Triggers: You could have a form you take when you become angry, and another when you are sad, frightened, proud, aroused, or laughing.
Celestial Triggers: You change with the phases of the moon, the color of the sky, the arrangement of the stars or your proximity to Amber or to the Logrus.
Chemical Triggers: Your forms are determined by your diet, and/or what drugs you imbibe. Watch out for allergic reactions.
Magical Triggers: It’s possible that spells could be created to transform you into a shape of your choice, or hold you in that form once you’ve achieved it. Alternately, perhaps you could have specific Power Words whose purpose is to invoke specific shapes. Check with your GM to get their ruling on the limits of magic to affect shapeshifters.

So which of these [trigger] methods is supported by Corwin’s saga? We really don’t have enough information. Dara’s walk on the pattern could be an example of emotional triggers being struck by the memories that a Pattern walk brings to the surface, but on the other hand, Dara runs a wide range of emotions in the books without ever losing her shape.
I’d figure probably a complex mix of different triggers is involved, more than the casual observer is likely to be able to catalog or decipher. GM's and players will have to work out amongst themselves what sorts of triggers are active in their game, and how complex they want it to be.
In any event, this is a possible explanation of shapeshifting as Corwin describes it: when a Lord of Chaos chooses a battle it’s usually at the time and place that brings out their best form. If not, then they pay dearly for the mistake, like the cats in Guns of Avalon or Merlin’s friend on the skinless horse in Sign of the Unicorn.

Dynamic Form probably doesn’t confer any regeneration on its own since the shifting is so uncontrolled. However, a kind GM might let you give certain artifact powers and qualities to some of your shapes for free, provided you counter-balance them with drawbacks or only put them on forms that are rare for you to enter. Work it out with your GM.

True (Orderly) Shapeshifting: 35 points.
This is the power that Dworkin and Oberon use, and behaves just like in the rulebooks. The pre-requisite for this power is at least 50 points of Pattern. Once you have mastery over primal order, you may learn to develop mastery over your own body. Advanced Orderly Shapeshifting is possible too, with the cost and abilities listed in the rulebooks.

Dynamic Form and the Logrus:
Under this system, there’s no reason why the Logrus even has to exist, especially if you let shapes incorporate powers. Should you choose to keep the Logrus in your campaign, please bear in mind that invoking the Logrus is sure to trigger a flurry of Dynamic shapeshifting in the user.

All text © 2000 by Rolfe Bergstrom, with inspiration drawn from Roger Zelazny, Eric Wujcik, and others - thanks, Collin!"