Re: Olympia players!!!

From: rwallace@tcd.ie (russell wallace)

Date: Sun, 26 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000

In <4988p8$q0i@vivaldi.telepac.pt> sundar@telepac.pt (Yannick Menager) writes:

>I�ve heard of Olympia, but never played it. I�ve saw Atlantis I, and
>it seemed a rather nice game ( I�ve ported the sources to the Amiga,
>if anybody is interrested, just mail me, but don�t forget that to run
>a campaign you need permission from the author whom I don�t remember
>the name 8-). Anyway, I�ve been playing PBMs for a long time, and I

I'm the author of Atlantis 1 - it's copyright but freely usable and
distributable, i.e. anyone who wants to run a game of it
non-commercially is welcome to do so.

>saw that sooner or later, the situation becames that a new player
>doesn�t have any chance of gaining real power, unless sponsored by
>some veteran, or unless very special circunstan�es, like a GM meddling
>with things. I�ve been playing during 6 years a PBM here in portugal
>called "Trevas IV", where the game remained artificially balanced by
>the GM, meddling in several ways, principally when nations changed
>players, you could be shure that the nation would go to some friend of
>the weaker nearby Kingdom/Empire/Alliance/Nation. I gave up last year,
>when the GM began to go beyond subtlety.) Well, anyway I don�t think
>this is the case ( I hope ! ).

Ick!  I'd've given up ages ago - I *hate* GM meddling.  Much better IMO
to simply declare a winner and start a new game.

>The issue of game balance is a very thought one. Small rule designs
>may allow to create monstruosities. Strangely enought, many game
>designers seems to let pass gigantic �holes�. Principally in
>RolePlaying Games. In that aspect, FASA are specialists 8-) The magic
>in Shadowrun, for example.

Well, RPGs haven't the same stringent requirements for game balance as
PBEM strategy games have, since RPGs are generally cooperative efforts
between the players and a human GM, who can make rulings when holes turn
up, without the players feeling cheated.

>The main problem is when a GM is rarely a player. He loses the �Player
>point of view� if I might call it that 8-) I know that, because  I�m a
>speciallist a finding ( and using ) those hole.. ( I know, I know...
>shame on me... sorry, it�s stronger than myself, I just follow the
>rules in a maximum effiency, I just play like I program, efficiently
>8-).

*grin*  Well, as far as I'm concerned, if it's a feature that's
documented in the rulebook it's perfectly legitimate to take advantage
of it; it's only unfair to exploit actual bugs (defined�d as where the
program's behavior contradicts what the rulebook says).

>Ok, returning to the topic, from what I read, Olympia has some
>problems with some rules that create unbalance the game balance. That
>is a important problem that I believe the GM should give priority one.
>Magic principally is prone to major unbalance. It�s been one of the
>major problems in many games I played, Wargames or Roleplay. One of
>the way to solve this problem is by making the magic dangerous 8-) The
>more powerfull the magic, the more dangerous it is. At least it will
>make some people think thrice before using powerful magic unless in
>vital cases.

I've seen a few people complain about magic in Oly 2.  What I don't
think people are taking into account is how expensive it is.  It takes
dozens of turns and at least half a dozen NPs and thousands of gold to
train a powerful mage, during most of which time the mage is doing
nothing useful.  With that sort of investment required, at the end of it
the mage damn well *ought* to be powerful.

(My mage eventually got to the rank of Master of the Black Arts, but by
that time there were no targets left to blast :( )

--
"To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem"
Russell Wallace, Trinity College, Dublin
rwallace@vax1.tcd.ie

References

Olympia players!!!
anonymous@nada.kth.se (Anonymous Student)
Fri, 24 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Olympia players!!!
cedman@capitalist.princeton.edu (Carl Edman)
Sat, 25 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Olympia players!!!
sundar@telepac.pt (Yannick Menager)
Sun, 26 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000