What is a line?: A philosophical discussion about a roleplaying game power

Those out there that actually keep up with this little blog of mine will know that I oftentimes reference the roleplaying game of Amber. Those that are just joining us are most-likely unaware of what Amber is so here's a brief summary:

Amber is a diceless roleplaying game. A roleplaying game is a game in which the player takes on the role of a character they created and plays a part in the story the gamemaster (or GM) tells. Most roleplaying games require dice to determine the success of the players actions, but Amber doesn't use dice, but instead a system of numerical value comparisons to determine the victor in a conflict.

It's better explained in my previous articles so...go read those.

Anyway, Mikey, started up his own Amber game on Fridays (mentioned here) and we, the players, have just been given our new, Great Race-equivalent powers.

We had the following to choose from:

• A summoner-type power
• A pyromantic power
• A hydromantic power
• An airomantic power
• An earthomantic power
• The "power of the Unicorn" which, I can only guess, includes healing and whatnot
• The Cyclops power, which I believe is creation and inspiration
• A regular archmage-type power
• The Logrus, which is a chaos power. This one was only available to Wes
• And the Doomgazer power

 In short, Wes took Logrus, Pete took the archmage, Julia took the Cyclops power, and I took the Doomgazer power.

Upon receiving our powers, we each got clues and hints at how to use our various powers. Some clues were fairly obvious, while others were incredibly vague and difficult to puzzle out and define. Such is the way of Mikey and Pete Amber games.

Case in point, the clue I received about how my power works and what I can influence was essentially this exchange:

Mikey: Okay, you get injected with some strange mercurial liquid, and you go unconscious.
Me: Awesome. And ow.
Mikey: You have a dream/vision of a world. It's earth. You're looking at it as if from space. The strange thing is that the lines of latitude and longitude and the political borders that separate countries, but don't actually exist? You can see them.
Me: ...okay...
Mikey: You then know your power has to do with those lines.
Me: Okay. My power involves lines. Got it. What's next?
Mikey: You wake back up at the castle.
Me: Wait...that's IT?!

So...lines. My power has to do with LINES. It wasn't the most direct explanation, but it was all I had to go off of. So, I decided to begin with figuring out what a line can represent. A border, a boundary, or a barrier, right? Good good...that's a start. But how do I manipulate that?  Does the line have to physically exist to utilize my power? Will I have to make the line myself? Or does it include the metaphorical and symbolic lines, like longitude and latitude, that don't really exist but represent something?

Then I began to ponder what actually constituted a line. Does a line LITERALLY mean an extent of length between two predetermined point? Or can I use any plane that can be viewed as a line from a certain perspective? For example, can a plane of clothing or a sheet of paper be considered a line? Can a wall be considered a line? Or a road? What parameters am I allowed to work with?

Well, after some basic experimentation, I came to find that the definition of "line" is quite liberal in Mikey's realm. Walls, clothes, geographical boundaries, all of these fall within my purview as a Doomgazer. I'm thinking it may even extend as far as the lines on a brain or the lines of ancestry, though I haven't experimented with those avenues yet.

I was able to, in my initial use of my power, define the border of the island as a boundary and a barrier against the outside world and anything FROM the outside world that may be trying to get inside. Instantly, my power manifested and shut off everyone else's powers.The explanation behind this was that everyone else was drawing upon the outside sources that their powers came from, and when I made the determination that outside forces were powerless to enter, their power sources were severed.

My next experiment was on a smaller scale, using Pete's clothes as the focal point. I made the assertion that his clothes were a barrier between him and the outside world. The goal of this test was to see if I could shut off an individual's power using just their clothes. The results were...slight different. I was
  successful in using the clothes as a focal point, but I pushed the power too far, making it so that light, air, etc. were not allowed to penetrate.

Pete nearly died because of that one.

It's actually a very fascinating power to have...fascinating to work with. I can't wait to see what I can REALLY do with it.