Re: Legends / Alamaze comparison?

From: ddo@wmod2000.larc.nasa.gov (Dale Ohmann)

Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1992 18:03:36 +0000

Andreas Koch (koch@eis.cs.tu-bs.de) wrote:
> I am thinking about joining a fantasy PBM. From what I have heard
> thus far, Legends and Alamaze are the two leading contenders.
> Could someone please "compare and contrast" these two games?
> BTW, is it possible to e-mail turns in for processing?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> 	Andreas Koch

Funny you should ask.  I'm playing these two games right now.  They both have
their good and bad points.  Alamaze is the one I've been playing longer (about
a year).  It is more of a strategy game than a fantasy role playing game.
Fifteen players vie for control of population centers in a 26x26 grid.  Each
player plays a different race (i.e. Elven, Dwarven, Gnome, Barbarian...) each
with strong + weak points.  You control armies, spies, political emissaries,
and wizards to attempt to outwit your enemies.  You can play individually or in
teams of 3 (5 teams).  I've had a lot of fun playing.  I'm in game 304 and 318
right now.  Our team (Nomadic, Giant, Sorcerer) may win game 304, but our team
in game 318 is middle-of-the-road.

Legends is larger than Alamaze.  As many as 200 players can play in one game.
This game is more character oriented.  When you setup, you define a group of
2-5 characters for you to control.  You can play any of four different setups,
where the fewer characters you have, the better they are.  Your characters
can control armies, go on adventuring quests, join various factions, take
control of villages, towns, etc.  Legends is more FRP.  It is also very complex
for the beginner: Three rule booklets of about 180 pages total.
There are three different scenarios currently available: Crown of Avalon,
Realm of the Immortal, and North Island Campaign.  The Legends game I'm in
is Realm of the Immortal-Game 10.  I've only played a couple of turns so
I don't really know all the details.  It seems to have a lot of potential,
though.

With Alamaze, you always have to verify you results because there are often
problems (for example, I trained an agent but he didn't go up a level).

With Legends, they seem to be growing quickly right now, making it
difficult to get through on the phone.

Dale

--
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|  Daring Dale Douglas           ddo@wmod2000.larc.nasa.gov            IMHO  |
|  I don't speak for NASA, I don't work for NASA, I'm just on their network. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

References

Legends / Alamaze comparison?
koch@eis.cs.tu-bs.de (Andreas Koch)
Wed, 21 Oct 1992 12:15:23 +0000