We've decided to open the game to the general public on Monday, September 10th. That's basically a week away. The game is opening on the storyline that we originally planned for the Prologue -- the invasion coming up the Black Road, the events that come just before the end of The Guns of Avalon.
We're tooling up quickly for the Prologue playest on The Road to Amber, which starts later this week.
The big news, so to speak, is that we've finished the bulk of our RPG system documentation, which you can find on our wiki. (It'll be summarized for the game's news files soon, but the wiki's definitely the best place to read it.)
A lot of building has been done, but we could still use more help from anyone who wants to lend a hand for a room or two.
Also, we're happy to discuss character concepts at this stage. Feel free to drop by: roadtoamber.com 6250
Thanks to the efforts of a number of people, we're pretty close to having the Amber City entirely desc'd. We can still use more help doing the palace and the countryside and other places, so if you'd like to pitch in, we'll be grateful for the help.
We're also pretty close to having all our code done, so at this point, the infrastructure's reached playability.
To that end, we're about to start running our Prologue -- a playtest. This will be a limited number of players, for manageability, but if you're interested, log on to roadtoamber.com 6250, +request yourself a body, and +mail the staff about participating. We're aiming to start Prologue activities next week.
We expect to open fully during the first week of September -- i.e., that's when we'll pick up IC play from the end of The Guns of Avalon.
Address: roadtoamber.com 6250
Home Page: http://roadtoamber.com/
Wiki and Forums: http://wiki.roadtoamber.com/
LiveJournal: 
roadtoamber
You are welcome to log into the game as a Guest, and look around.
Use the command +request character = email address to get a character. The password will be emailed to you.
You are also welcome to peruse our wiki, and start and participate in discussions on our forums. Please note that the game is still very much under construction, and many things are subject to change. Things are in a fluid state, since we are still in the midst of designing as well as implementing. Comments are welcome, are as questions, but there may be many questions that we will respond to with "we don't know yet".
If you'd like to build, log on, create a character, and either choose an area of the game that you'd like to desc (the grid is laid out already), or propose a new location idea to a staff member. If you choose to desc already-gridded building, you'll be delegated the rooms you pick. All builders are welcome, whether you'd like to just do a room or two, or want to build a lot.
We are currently taking pitches for noble houses of Amber, as well as Golden Circle kingdoms, and are allowing these to be claimed immediately so people can go ahead and build them.
You are also welcome to log on and discuss your ideas for characters (whether personal or feature) with other players. Multi-player collaboration is strongly encouraged. Moreover, we are currently taking feature applications, although no decisions will be made on these until the game opens for roleplay.
We have a strong respect for anonymity. We strongly discourage asking other people about their identities (if you ask, don't be surprised if the reply is "I'd rather not say"). Whether or not you want to tell someone else who you are is up to you.
Note that the staff also has highly limited visibility into who you are, so don't expect them to know who you are unless you tell them. (Unlike other MUSHes, sites and email addresses are normally hidden from the staff, and email sent to the staff will be anonymized. The staff has access to a command which shows which characters are logged on from the same sites, but not what sites they are, for cheating prevention.)
I'll post the login information on Monday. We'll be welcoming everyone who wants to help build or wants to do some conceptual work on a major setting anchor (a major noble house, Golden Circle shadow, etc.).
Here's what's been done in the last ten days:
Building:
(Notes are short blurbs intended to be a guideline for what's in a location, as a guide to people doing descs.)
Code:
We've also been writing a bunch on our wiki (address will be posted publicly on Monday), and doing a bunch of setting development on the staff's private wiki, so we're keeping very, very busy...
TinyTalk, Episode 8: Interview with Amberyl
Among other things, I talk about the design of the new game.
Chaos has attacked and been repelled by the guns of Avalon, but Amber's rule, claimed by Corwin, remains in contention. Dara has walked the Pattern and proclaimed that "Amber will be destroyed!" And though a Death Curse remains poised to strike, Eric has not delivered it; spending his life force, leaching it away into the Jewel of Judgment, he is a shattered man, bedridden and soon to die -- a state's hero in repose.The reconciliation between Eric and Corwin, if it exists, is not a public affair -- yet. Speculation abounds, and the Regency still technically remains in Eric's name, though Corwin carries out its duties as fits the popular consensus. It is rumored Eric seeks to name an Heir before he passes with his Curse on his lips -- and at any rate it is certain that that heir is not yet his brother Corwin, for we would have heard of it by now.
And what of Amber herself -- the city, the lands, and Arden beyond? In many places it is a smoking ruin, a warzone gone dormant. Civil unrest is common, and fear touches the eyes of those who walk the streets. War is not a clean thing, and Chaos was not repelled cleanly; agents within the city abound, cloaked and daggered, while fresh horrors worse than any of shadow now stalk the wilds. Julian's armor tarnishes further each day with a new ichor of some dire Chaotic beast.
But even with the uniting influence of a common foe, Amber's native politics remain heated as always. The fresh ravages of war have put strains on Amber's noble Houses like none other in recent memory; in some cases, Houses squabble viciously over the scraps of once-whole things. And with the Regency in quiet contention, the old balance of power -- once respected by Eric (though some would say he played it like a fiddle) -- is poised for an upset in the face of Corwin's brash, fresh, unconventional ideas.
We live in interesting times.
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My good-bye, thank-yous, and an explanation are now posted on the
amberchronicles livejournal:
Read
on.
I'll leave pointers to my forthcoming new Amber-based MUSH on this journal, and want to reiterate that I've really liked playing with all of you, and hope I'll see you all around.
If you're interested in helping build, leave me a comment on this post, and I'll contact you with an address when I feel I'm ready to handle builders, probably in a week or two.
