New: Mandragora Series: Ties of Blood (free, open-ended, email, mixed, fantasy, french, wargame)

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

Date: Thu, 25 Nov 2004 08:13:00 +0000

Name:		Mandragora Series: Ties of Blood
Costs:		Free (playtest)
EEmail:		bill zat themandragora.com
Contact:		bill zat themandragora.com
Email:		bill zat themandragora.com
Frequency:		Monthly
URL:		http://www.themandragora.com
Type:		Fantasy politics
Last-Update:		2004Nov17
Keywords: free, open-ended, email, mixed, fantasy, french, wargame

Description:

The Mandragora series: Ties of Blood is a fantasy PBM game of politics and
intrigue, "the Great Dance", in the island kingdom of Lonaraban, the home
of the Mandragora. In Ties of Blood, players have the opportunity to take
the leadership of the main political power bases of Lonaraban � the
Imperial and Noble Houses that vie for power.

The objective of Ties of Blood is simple: to win the Imperial Throne of
Lonaraban, by any means necessary. To become Empress will take skill,
diplomacy, and cunning. The current Empress may be old, but misses very
little and your Matriarchs (the leaders of your House) will need to use
all their resources at their disposal to elevate the Head of the Noble
House to this exalted position.

The only way to do this is to get the Three Hundred of the Shirr�haim to
pass a motion of no confidence in the Empress, and thereby impeach her
House. The Three Hundred comprise the Shirr�haim, which translates to
human speech as �place where items of great import are spoken of�. Not
only is this the name of the Senate, it is also the capital city: both are
the same.

This game will feature a huge number of political manoeuvres (including
dirty tricks such as blackmail, arson, inciting riots and outright
warfare), a notoriety score used to define how long a house "can get away
with it" , rules for magic use in politics - including Dark magic!

The purpose of the playtest is to iron out any problems with the rules or
the game engine before it is released commercially. If you take part
you'll need to provide some form of feedback, ideally on the message board
in the members area.

Sign up for the email-only playtest by becoming a member (so you can
download the manual and also take part in the game discussion) at
http://www.themandragora.com . Remember to download some of the goodies
for this and other games. When you've read and understood the manual, fill
in the start-up form. Participation is free!

[ 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 ]