Amber
Fantasy RPG tarot based on Zelazny's Amber series with exquisite muted watercolors.
by Florence Magnin · Descartes
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The record
The Amber Tarot is a French-published RPG (role playing game) deck, based upon a fantasy series by Roger Zelazny. I loved its artwork as soon as I opened the box. The quality of the exquisitely blended, muted, greens, blues and pinks was incredible. I grew more excited as I continued looking through the major arcana. It looked like it was an amazing deck... I flipped past the World card, onto the Ace of Cups. It, too, was almost indescribably beautiful. Then I saw the Two of Cups and my heart sank. I shuffled a few cards further through the Cups, then the Swords, hoping it wasn't true. The minor arcana were undecorated pip cards! Only the fully illustrated court cards, each represented by a character from the Amber series, relieved the plainness of the minors. I wanted this deck to be my favourite. The majors were gorgeous. The aces, even better. But the plain pips were such a let down, especially as they have a white background and are literally the same symbol printed over and over. I should not have been surprised, as being a French tarot deck, it does follow the Marseilles tradition of plain pip cards. (Decorated minors are attributed to be an invention of Pamela Colman-Smith,
The cards
