New: Midgard (commercial, open-ended, email, snail, mixed, fantasy, french, german, spanish, wargame, economic, rpg)

From: donotreply@pbm.com (PBM List Autoposter)

Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2006 19:13:01 +0000

Name:		Midgard
Costs:		10 pence order, 50p special actions = 3 GB pounds average
Email:		sweir zat sweir.free-online.co.uk
Frequency:		one per month currently
Type:		Fantasy, medieval wargame
Last-Update:		2006Sep13
Keywords: commercial, open-ended, email, snail, mixed, fantasy, french,
german, spanish, wargame, economic, rpg

Description:

Your character is either the second son or the rebellious daughter of a
well-to-do, but not rich, family.  The first-born son will inherit all of
the lands and chattels in this feudal society.	Your only avenues of
prominence are the traditional routes of military, church or trade.  The
less common routes of remaining Independent, Barbarism, Banditry, Piracy,
Schism and Religious Heresy are also possible.	You are not destitute, as
your family has provided you with a stake.  Three of your closest friends
have sworn to join their fortunes to yours, and to serve as your loyal
followers.  Unemployment has been high recently, and you have been able to
persuade about two hundred local youths from the farms and villages to act
as your retainers to share in the adventures to come.

Your family has never been very politically or religiously inclined,
though you are familiar with the major Factions of Midgard.  You are free
to place your fate with any of the power structures, but might well be
advised to wander a bit, carry cargo between towns, and learn more of the
lay of the land before making any decisions.  You have never been further
than the nearest city, but you know the region fairly well.  Additionally,
you have a map of Midgard given to you by your eldest brother.

The game encourages a player to advance through a series of levels of
increasing power and influence.  Players accumulate influence points by
completing tasks for a Faction.  Trade missions can be undertaken for any
Faction without prejudice (merchants are seen as a necessary part of
society and a low status occupation).  At this stage, you are simply an
�Independent� clan.  After you have gained some familiarity with the
region through travel, you can expect to be offered more challenging and
varied assignments by many of the Factions.  Midgard is, after all, a very
uneasy world and your services can be important to many.  Once you have
gained some military experience, the Faction leaders will help you recruit
more retainers to use as soldiers.  This will occur after you consistently
begin supporting one Faction.  The pressure to choose a side builds
quickly.  Though you may change your mind, or put off making any decision,
others will be acting quickly, hoping to gain the upper hand.  Briefly,
the possibilities are Secular, Religious, Mercenary, Bandit, Pirate or
Independent.  There are numerous Factions which are fully described in the
FACTIONS section.  Players will eventually control the Senior positions in
the Factions, governing cities and the like, and you can expect to see
large and far reaching economic, political and military actions.  The GM
will control the quantity of forces released by each Faction.

TIME

Time in Midgard is measured in cycles.	We use the word cycle to represent
the time covered by the average turn.  If you fail to submit a turn by the
end of a cycle, the world will go on without you.

Senior player factional turns are processed at a different rate.  The time
span for a factional turn is one month.  If a Senior player says that they
will do something, remember that it takes them a little more time to get
the ball rolling.

THE GM

The GM (Game Master) is in charge of the underlying construction of the
game of Midgard.  Aside from controlling the details of the world�s
operation (through programs, formulas and calculations), he is also a part
of the game with which the players (and particularly the Faction Seniors)
interact.  Each Faction has a set of relationships that govern how a
Faction operates, and its goals for Midgard.  The GM is responsible for
observing these operations, and judging how well Factions are
accomplishing their particular goals.

Until a player assumes control of a city, the GM will be in charge of it.
The cities do have standing military forces which will defend them.  It
should come as no surprise that an attack on a city will be met with
defending troops.  Each city is primarily loyal to a Faction, and the
importance of the city or region to each Faction is carefully modelled.
Large forces can be released to protect vital interests, but little or no
help is given where unimportant holdings are concerned.  In any event, the
GM determines the extent of the response to any attack.

CLANS

You may have up to three clan characters, or leaders, in the game at one
time.  If you have more than one character, each is related to the other.
For simplicity sake, they will be called cousins.  If one of your
character kills one of his cousins, or if one of the clans is �mismanaged
to death�, you may not be allowed to obtain a new one.	There are other
restrictions regarding cousins.  Most notably, they may not advance
further than 15th Rank in any Faction other than your original clans.
Therefore, if your original clan is a member of the Banner Faction, any
cousin clans may advance no further than 15th Rank in any other Faction.

Each clan can have up to three followers.  For each follower, you may
operate one expeditionary force (for a maximum of three).  Each clan may
also run one city.  Hence, you can have at most a total of five positions
for each clan you run.

MAGIC

There are certain elements of magic in Midgard, the Ring Divination
ability being a prime example.	However, these arcane secrets are hidden
deep within the game, and if no-one searches for them they will never be
found.	Anyone who chooses to seek out this knowledge is in for a long and
difficult quest.  Don�t be expecting to be able to shoot Fireballs, summon
Dragons and control Demons with the magic you discover, it simply doesn�t
work that way.	Like the Ring Divination ability, the magic system is very
subtle in nature.

[ This is a new entry for the PBM List. You can find the list
itself, and instructions for adding games or comments, at
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/pbm_list/ -- greg ]

rec.games.pbm

New: Midgard (commercial, open-ended, email, snail, mixed, fantasy, french, german, spanish, wargame, economic, rpg)

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