What is this Amber thing anyway?
(copied from the ACNW webpage)
"Amber DRPG" is based on a series of books by the late Roger Zelazny. If you're not familiar with Zelazny he was a literary genius who led the "new wave" of science fiction in the '60s and '70s.
This game system is unique in a number of different ways. Firstly, and most bizarrely, it is a "diceless" system, so leave them at home. They won't help.
The diceless aspect works, largely because of the genre involved. Almost all characters will be both immortal and physically superior to normal people. Because of this level of skill and ability, most tasks undertaken will be obviously doomed to success or failure from the start. Either the character knows how to hotwire cars, or they don't. Either they can beat up three random muggers on the streets, or they can't. The GM can usually assess the likelihood of success quite easily. All that remains is to roleplay the encounter through.
Random events occur when the GM decides to have them, otherwise they don't. No dice required. A writer sitting at home producing books or film screenplays doesn't roll dice to decide on the outcome, so why do we do it in role-playing? Don't you trust your GM?
I won't bother explaining the genre in detail, other than to say that events take place in an effectively infinite number of different universes, with varying levels of technology or magic available. Players are strongly advised to read the books, starting with Nine Princes in Amber. It's not essential to read the books before playing the game, but it will help no end. There are 10 books in total, in two series of five. They are quite short, and easy to read.
Because of the wooly nature of the system, complicated character sheets and vast skill lists are totally unwarranted. There are four stats, and as many skills as the player wishes. The simplest approach is to write down a general character background, and infer the skills from that as play progresses. Characters are as powerful as the players want them to be, on the assumption that a player given enough free rope will eventually learn how to hang themselves with it without too much direct intervention.
There are other novel differences to this system, but the ones given above are the main ones.
Rest assured that the system does work, and works very well.