Lords of the Earth From: warden@triton.unm.edu (Scott Micheel) Date: Sun, 14 Oct 1990 03:41:33 +0000 Greetings. A few notes for newcomers out there... Lords is a human-moderated medieval fantasy pbm game. It was designed in 1983 and has undergone several updates. There are currently some 15 or so games running, as it is an open- ended game. Lords originated in Tucson, Arizona, and soon spread throughout the southwest. Currently large colonies of Lords players live in Phoenix, Tempe, and here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, though there are many elsewhere too, even overseas. The following questions deal with Lords One, the most advanced game that has actually reached the Renaissance. I GM the New World in Lords Six. Contact me if you are interested in learning more about it. 1.What exactly is "reserve" NFP ? Is it spendable as normal NFP ? Talk to the GM, but I suspect it's the amount of NFP you can draft in an emergency. There are probably some penalties for doing so. 2.My ESI on my stat sheet closely, but not exactly resembles my calculated Net Revenue. Are these figures supposed to exactly match ? Ideally, yes. But the computer does not figure inter-nation trade for each country, it instead estimates it -- and thus small errors will occur. The error should never be more than +/- 5%; if it is you should point this out to the GM. 3.What exactly are "Rennaissance Points" ? How do we get them ? How do we use them if/when we get them ? Rennaisance Points is a value used to determine how close your nation is to getting into the Rennaisnace. In Lords One, I think most have already reached that level. They also determine when you get tech benefits & stuff. Getting them is a GM formula, but having lots of cities, a University, and access to Classic greek knowledge is helpful. Having a feudal society or fanatic religion is *not* helpful. 4.What is "Guard Unit Level" ? I have no idea. It could be an Army Quality Rating, or it may be an indication of the number of reserves you can have. Ask the GM. 5.What is "City Point %" ? This is a rating of your city density; the more cities, the higher the rating. City Density is a measure of how advanced your nation is, but it also brings problems -- food consumption and plague among 'em. 6.A successful census increases a nation's effective Tax Rate by 10%. What is the cost to conduct a census ? If paid, is the census accurate (successful) ? How long (game turns) is the census effective ? These rules may be outdated, but it *used* to be: cost = 1gp per GPv of each region, or double that for mountain, desert, steppe, & wilderness regions. Double again for Hostile regions. And for each 20 gp spent, 1 nfp must be spent also. The census is perfectly accurate at the time it was taken (which is a rules flaw, BTW) The census stays in effecuntil you gain or lose regions, or build or lose cities, or until you build or lose PWB. Actually, if you *gain* population, the census stays in effect until you do another one... 7.In campaigns with "Known Sea Zones": Are these zones the only accessible zones to my fleets ? How do I "know" more zones ? Yep, you have maps for these zones and no others. You should know all zones within 3 of your land regions. You can learn more by sending out explorers (expensive) or getting copies of maps from those who *do* know the areas. I hope this helps. I play in lots of Lords games. 3: Alexander Lithos II, Emperor of Arabia and India 4: Grigorii Vseslav, Prince of Kiev 5: Narayan, King of the Ashanti, Lord of the Savage Lands 6: Messaoud Ali Mahdia, Emir of Cordoba, Beloved of Allah 6nw: GM 11: Chandella Gandapala, Emperor of India Italia: Marcus Grachus, Aequius Rex, Last Defender of Tyrrany Cathay: L'un Shao the Conquerer, Master of the K'un-L'un Empire And in formative games, Bronze Age: Minoan Crete Fantasy: High Plains Kingdom Scott Micheel warden@triton.unm.edu -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | The sad truth of history has always been that the unreasoning masses | | follow the powerful, not the wise. -- George R.R. Martin | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Up