From the discussion on Shadows of Amber forum on What Kind of Amber Characters Do You Play

My characters are, with only one past exception, always on the side of Amber. They do what they think is right for Amber.

But now, I’m going to make a confession.

I used to play mostly very straightforward characters. More often then not, it was ‘what you see, is what you get’.

But I was surrounded by characters who had so many layers, and so many plots in their heads, that they were sure my character was up to something, no matter what she said or did. I was hailed as brilliant when no one was ever able to figure out what my characters were really up to by the time the game ended. As I didn’t participate heavily in the end game wrap up threads, people were still unwilling to accept that I wasn’t up to anything.

So, the next time there was an end game wrap thread after a game was killed off by the GM, and everyone was coming clean with their plots and plans and hidden stuff, I made up the biggest lie off the top of my head that was so ridiulous, so outlandish, I expected people to laugh along with me.

Only, they didn’t. The believed me and congratulated me on my cleverness once they stopped staring stupidly at their monitors and raising a hue and cry to the GM. The GM and I were both rather taken aback, as neither of us had considered trying to pull off what I was claiming. But it was a cunning idea so we agreed that if he ever ran another game, we would see what we could do with it.

Over time, enough people started accepting that my characters were all just as they appeared to be that there weren’t many characters eyeballing mine suspiciously anymore.

And then, just to see if I still remembered how to build a Ventrue or a Silver Fang, I built an Amber character that even I thought was brilliant in her complexity. No one suspected a thing. “Oh, that’s Theresa. If she says Tempest is straightforward and likes everyone, then she is.”

And, lo, Tempest had people telling her everything, and coming to her for help when the fires of suspicion crept too close. I cackled insanely and Tempest told them everything would be alright. She went behind their backs and got them free from the current suspicion while moving attention to someone Tempest felt needed to be taken down a notch. When Tempest was left standing with the victors among the ruins, people wrote it off as her just being a blameless, paragon of virtue.

The GM and I laughed so hard, and neither of us ever admitted to the cast that Tempest was a devoted follower of a certain long dead Italian, and truely hated every single one of her cousins.

I still, ocassionally build the straightforward, shoot from the hip character that is no more then what she claims to be. They’re easy to play and there’s less to remember to play them. Every once in awhile, I will dust off Portia and bring her back into the active character realms, and that seems to reassure people. “If Portia is still her favorite character, then we can be sure of her other characters”.

On the other hand, I have dusted off Aura more then once and while she has been left alone on the surface, she is not always what she seems. The sweet, fun loving hedonist could never have pulled off the planning of the mass bug out from Amber that she is responsible for in Exodus.

I have rediscovered my inner Silver Fang, my closet Ventrue, and I find I have missed them.

Having a few open book characters in play elsewhere allows me to devote the time and mind power needed to pull off a many layered character. One with nine dozen irons in the fire, who has told so many different stories, whose public persona is crafted with so many layers of lies and half truths, that she sometimes can’t remember what the truth is either.

Granted, sometimes I find them a challange to play. I find myself anxious for The Reveal. Sometimes I have given too much away too early to too many. It’s a behaviour that’s a hold over from my LARPing days, when my circle of friends and in game allies would get together at my house and we would reveal all and bounce ideas off each other over pizza and margaritas in order to better situate ourselves in the world of the game.

So, you can never be too sure anymore. Portia is pretty much what she has always been. Her honesty has always been one of the things that made her so fun to play. But can you be as sure about dear, beautiful Daphne? For the blunt and neutral Petra? For the flightly actress that is Rochelle? What about Circe? Morrigan in her original form? For Cara, singer on the run? Or even Layla?

No, I am glad to say you no longer can be as sure with the same degree of certainty you once could.