AMBER DIE III

If you're reading these words, you likely already know of THE ORDER OF THE AMBER DIE and its enduring legend. In my last marathon post, I gushed about all the things that make this role playing family truly magic. This past weekend, I packed my notebook and dice and headed back to the Darklands for 35 hours of play in three monumental days.

Before I can say anything about this experience, I must tip my hat to my fellow players. This family of dwarves (Clan Firecask) has such dynamic flavor, such sincere trust, such teamwork and passing-of-the spotlight. I can only hope they didn't mind my terrible role play and bard-iness. You guys are the best.

In marathon 3 of this adventure path, we reach the halfway point of our incredible journey to find the resting place of our mighty king (a total of just over 100 hours played thus far). In classic AP fashion, it's a long, winding road of violence and diplomacy to find the truth and live to tell about it. Rather than shower you in more amazement, though, I want to zoom in a few clicks on an aspect of what makes playing with OAD existentially rich (besides Pathfinder 2E being absolutely sublime in its mechanical feel). It's two things, really, and they both stem from the same wellspring. Let me 'splain.

For the lucky in this mighty hobby, there is a shared trust for the game's veracity, its substance, its self-contained and self-serious reality. Role played voices are taken with grim sincerity, strange names and distant places are treated as wonders, not oddities to be mocked. Highlight moments for players and their characters are met with cheers and blood oaths, even when turmoil is in play between character types. The world is believed by all present, and each character seen in their best form. This is the trust a great table is built upon.

As our group's bard, I NEED this kind of trust to play my role! I'm not much in combat, but my skill with accelerating or resolving story scenes and get-to-the-next part with decisive role play and daring bravado is essential. This is very hard to do without trust and equity from all present. It isn't that they're being patient with me, they're investing in my side of the game, which deals in emotions, nobility, diplomacy, poetry. This isn't just goofing off or filling air with silly words... it's a part of large scale story play that keeps the bowels of the world moving.

I'm sure you already guessed that OAD has this trust in spades, going in all directions to all character types, even our draconian clan-accountant! What SKY KING'S TOMB has shown me is even more surprising, more illuminating... that this trust is what the embattled world of D&D 5.5 so acutely lacks in recent years. It satirizes itself, making photocopies of its worlds and themes in a play for brand safety. It doesn't often fully dive in, daring new paths, new adventures, new realms and dead-serious treatment thereof. Instead, it keeps things casual, shying away from getting 'too into it.' This trend began with the airtight but self-aware 4th edition, which had great mechanics but almost felt like Deadpool had snuck into the room.

Now before any hackles go up, or you think our group humorless, take note that in this marathon my character got engaged to the queen of the fae. One of our fighters bench pressed a trio of Redcaps. Giant krayfish were played by rubbery fishing lures. We laughed and joked at every turn. And yes, D&D is still D&D, it's the big guy, with a well-earned following and pedigree we all know and love.

By all the gods, though, I can't deny that Golarion, Pathfinder's incredibly rich, ever-expanding, lore-drenched world, delivered through myriad books and, most iconically, Adventure Paths, simply does a supreme job at holding fast to the essence of high fantasy writ large: the trust in itself to take its own mood seriously. To honor every odd word, every weird creature name, every anomalous underground structure, with gravity and depth. The wonders feel wondrous, the distant past has substance and spirit. Nothing has been overdone or acts as satire of modern day. I'm a fan, y'all.

In the hands of a dedicated and tight-knit group like OAD, and of course our GM's emotional intelligence, uncanny music cues, and seemingly infinite homework, not to mention to-the-foot terrain builds by Black Bard Studios, the reality of Golarion is all the more potent.

I hope you can find this kind of trust not only in your group, but in your worlds and adventures. The humor lives outside of the internal gravity. The silliness is the purview of players, not a thing to lure more casual readers. I, for one, can't wait to return to The Darklands, hear once again the eversong of The Court of Ether, or touch the baleful and beautiful stones of Tar-Taargadth.

-Renck Firecask, 6th Level Bard