Re: [Announcement] Eldritch Commercial Launch

From: David desJardins <desj@math.berkeley.edu>

Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1998 00:00:00 +0000

Juggernaut Press <pbm@gamesbymail.com> writes:
> Eldritch begins its commercial life on Wednesday, July 15. For those who
> missed my earlier post, Eldritch is an open-ended computer-run play-by-mail
> fantasy game similar in some respects to Atlantis and Olympia but much more
> complex than either game.

For what it's worth, I don't agree with this description, and in fact I
think it does Eldritch a disservice.  Eldritch is certainly more complex
than Olympia in some ways, but it's also simpler in others.

One of the *advantages* that I think that Eldritch has over Olympia is a
*simpler* time model.  I personally enjoyed playing Olympia, but writing
orders for that game was a lot like programming a parallel computer in
machine language---lots of complicated timing constraints to get right,
particularly when trying to coordinate actions with other players, and
only relatively primitive tools to do it with.  The Eldritch time model
may not be as "realistic", but I think it also should be a bit easier
for players to handle without feeling so much like low-level computer
programmers.

I haven't actually played the game, just studied the rules, so this is
only my impression.  But I think it's a fairly sound one.  In
particular, I think there's some chance that some players who found
Olympia too hard might find Eldritch more accessible (although of course
there are other things about it that are as hard, or harder).

David desJardins

References

[Announcement] Eldritch Commercial Launch
"Juggernaut Press" <pbm@gamesbymail.com>
Wed, 15 Jul 1998 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

[Announcement] Eldritch Commercial Launch
"Juggernaut Press" <pbm@gamesbymail.com>
Wed, 15 Jul 1998 00:00:00 +0000