Re: Open-ended games (Olympia, Atlantis)

From: rsocia@alberti.cray.com (Rick Socia)

Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1993 18:17:32 +0000

Well my 2 cents worth is I agree, there was nothing to stop a faction from
growing out of control.  I proposed a limit to number of units that can
stack or ally with you.  Or to have a POLITICAL skill.  The better you
are at it, the more units that could stack or ally with you.  As it was/is
in Olympia/Atlantis, it was open ended, not good.

Also, someone had said in a previous post that to rely on the players to
keep themselves challenged was, in their opinion, not a good one.  I agree.
A GM is needed to carefully, but delicately steer events to create stimulus.
Like plagues in big cities.  (GREAT ONE!).  Or orc armies attacking the wealthy
players.  Or some other imaginative distractions to turn the attention from
attacking newbies of little players.  oooh!  How about the bigger your faction
the greater the likely hood of defections or desertions.

What ever the case, stagnation can be avoided by a GM with a balance of
imagination and even handedness.

Rick Socia
CRAY Research, Inc.

References

DM: the Hatchet
picasso@acs2.nntp-read.bu.edu (David Ondzes)
Tue, 27 Apr 1993 10:58:52 +0000
Open-ended games (Olympia, Atlantis)
hauck@cs.washington.edu (Scott Hauck)
Tue, 27 Apr 1993 20:11:37 +0000