Card Text Play: Choose a friendly creature to capture 2 .
If I have no creatures in play and/or my opponent has no Æmber, can I still play Terms of Redress to gain the Æmber bonus?
Yes. The first step in playing any card is to receive the Æmber bonus, if any. Therefore, you can always play action cards to get the Æmber bonus, but are still obligated to resolve as much of the action card as possible. If you have at least one creature in play, you still have to select a creature and capture as much Æmber as possible with that creature, up to a maximum of 2. If the “Play:” ability of the action card is not resolvable, you still keep the Æmber bonus.