Re: [Announcement] Eldritch Commercial Launch

From: lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)

Date: Wed, 15 Jul 1998 00:00:00 +0000

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

> One of the *advantages* that I think that Eldritch has over Olympia is a
> *simpler* time model.

[ Disclaimer: I looked at the Eldrich rules for about 5 minutes... ]

It looks to me like the time model is identical to Atlantis 2.

The spells and pretty much everything else looks like an elaboration
to the Atlantis 2 systems, although most of the details of the spells
aren't in the rules. There's no way to say if that's more complicated
or less or better or worse than the Olympia spell system, which is
really different. For example, in Olympia, casting spells at a
distance (farcast) often involves creating a farcast potion, which can
be transported to extend the range and save aura. In Atlantis and
Eldrich, you directly cast the spell without an intermediate step.

>  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.

But you have sufficient tools -- message-passing parallel programming
can be done with just a blocking send and receive. After some
experience working in Olympia, I have a system that I use with my
allies which leads to relatively few errors. I will admit that it
isn't considered simple by all players, so the simpler time model of
Atlantis and Eldrich might be preferred by some players.

Another thing to consider when playing a game is the quality of the
company moderating it. I know the history of Flagship magazine when
published by Juggernaut; what's the history of Juggernaut at running
games?

-- g

References

Re: [Announcement] Eldritch Commercial Launch
David desJardins <desj@math.berkeley.edu>
Tue, 14 Jul 1998 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: [Announcement] Eldritch Commercial Launch
David desJardins <desj@math.berkeley.edu>
Tue, 14 Jul 1998 00:00:00 +0000