Doom

The RPG system maintains a set of counters known as Doom Counters. A doom counter represents the state of something — for instance, how well one of the Great Houses of Amber is performing its mystical Duty.

Doom counters are normally hidden. Each such counter has a set of pre-requisites to see. To check if you're aware of any doom counters, type +doom

Certain actions can change the value of a doom counter. Some possibilities are:

  • Writing a token using a doom gift (marked with the doom powerbit)
  • Using a doom gift in a +compare or +challenge
  • Undertaking certain other RPG actions utilizing doom gifts
  • Unsealing certain sections of certain packets

The staff can also manually change the value of a doom counter, and may do so in response to flagpole actions and the like.

Doom counters can be used as pre-requisites, which means that certain gifts, lores, and packet sections become available or unavailable depending on the level of particular dooms.

One of the things this enables is another form of indirect conflict — characters who are trying to prevent a particular outcome, or bring a particular outcome to pass, working in opposition to one another, without necessarily facing off vs. one another. It is also a mechanism to allow such conflicts to sprawl across the game, and using doom as a pre-req lock creates some incentives for players to want a doom counter to swing one way or another.

If you have a plot for which you would like a Doom Counter, please +submit a GM request explaining it, and we can discuss it — Doom is a general mechanic, not just for staff plots.

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