Recommended PBEM: ODYSSEY From: Jeff Berg <bergjeff@erols.com> Date: Wed, 04 Mar 1998 00:00:00 +0000 Recommended: ODYSSEY Game: ODYSSEY Type: Medieval Fantasy Adventure/Wargame (PBEM) Where: Gamers Den (www.den.com) Current Player Base: 100-200 Players per game: varies (around 20) Next game starts: As soon as positions are filled I've tried to play the game Legends and found the concept intriguing but the game difficult to learn and clumsy. I was thoroughly frustrated by the unclear documentationand wasted turns due to either my order entry mistakes or my misinterpretations of the rules. Then a friend of mine told me about Odyssey. I was skeptical at first. But now I am addicted - and the game I'm in hasn't even started yet! HIGHLIGHTS: * CHARACTER ADVENTURING (den bashing): Have your characters attack monster dens to gain experience, glory, items, and gold. Spend experience to improve character abilities. Use glory to gain additional characters or titles for existing ones. Equip powerful items to make your characters more effective. Find special markers which improve you characters. Complete quests to gain glory. Learn powerful spells to aid in combat. Engage in covert activities to weaken your enemies. * MILITARY CAMPAIGNING: Raise armies to conquer villages, towns and cities. There are many different troop types, each with its own tactical advantages. Control the special locations that allow you to enlist the more powerful types of troop or develop a character that will be able to train them. Choose the formation of your troops, it may mean the difference between victory and defeat. Characters can lead your armies to give them fighting bonuses, cast powerful spells at enemy armies, and challenge the leaders of enemy armies to a duel. * AUTOMATIC ORDER CHECKING: Within 5 minutes of E-mailing your orders you get a summary report E-mailed back to you highlighting any errors you may have made. You can then re-submit your turn to replace the old one. (you can resubmit as many times as you like until it comes time to process the turn). * SINGLE PLAYER MODULE TO LEARN THE GAME: The New Frontier module is a single player module where you can process the turns at your own pace (you could complete the module in one or two weekends). It is an excellent way for new players to learn the game mechanics and to figure out if they like the game before committing to playing in the multi-player games. Turns for the single player module are only $1 (turns in multi-player modules are $5). HOW TO GET STARTED: (this is not a walk through) If you get stuck, send an e-mail to support@den.com. They are very helpful (unfortunately they take longer than 5 minutes to get back to you). 1. Go to the www.den.com site. 2. submit an account form. 3. Download the players guide. Print this out (you will reference the orders section a lot at first to figure out what you can do and how to do it). 4. Download the New Frontier module. Print this out also. 5. Download the New Frontier Map. You will need this as a reference and will want to make notes on the map for yourself so print this out (even if you ignored my advice and did not print out the players guide or the New frontier module). 6. Quickly read (skim) through the players guide and the New Frontier module. 7. Create your setup using the sample setups as a template. This can be frustrating for new players and will take some time. You will make mistakes. But don�t worry too much, you get plenty of second chances (see steps 9 & 10). 8. Start a New Frontier game and submit your setup. 9. Receive a summary and error report of the setup you just submitted - it also calculates the number of setup points you used. 10. Revise your setup and resubmit as many times as you like. 11. Send and E-mail to Run (process) turn 0. This locks in your setup and starts your game. 12. You will receive the results for turn 0 within 5 minutes. 13. Print your results (helpful if you can copy into a word processor and format with courier new 8pt, double column, .25" margins, and print landscaped). 14. Submit some orders. Use the orders section of the Odyssey Players Guide to figure out what you can do and how to do it. Move your characters to an easy den and attack. Have your army take over one of the smaller locations. 15. Resubmit your orders if there were errors. Run your turn. 16. Repeat 14 & 15 18. Be brave. If you are not sure what you are doing, just do what you think makes sense. If it turns out different than you expected then you have learned something and are on your way to being an experienced player. (remember this is a learning module). 17. After you have made most of your mistakes and possibly have realized that it would have been better to have more fighter types characters in your setup, you may want to restart the game. Which you can do. Just start a new New Frontier game with a new setup and stop playing the old one. 18. This has all been training for the real thing - the multi-player game. Submit an Email requesting game vacancies, download the module rules, and join one of the multi-player games. Up