New: Sword and Spirit (free, open-ended, email, www, mixed, fantasy, historical, wargame, economic, rpg)

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

Date: Wed, 07 Apr 2004 19:13:07 +0000

Name:		Sword and Spirit
Costs:		currently free for testing
URL:		http://www.swordandspirit.ca
Frequency:		one per week on average
Email:		Wil zat steelchick.com
Type:		Fantasy Napoleonic Wargame
Last-Update:		2004Apr02
Keywords: free, open-ended, email, www, mixed, fantasy, historical,
wargame, economic, rpg

Description:

Sword and Spirit is a game in which players control royal and noble
families in a fictionalized Eurocentric world, circa 1800.

The world itself is Napoleonic in nature, with several major differences;
there are fewer countries in the world, and those that do exist are
generally only loosely based on their historical counterparts, the world
is oriented east to west instead of west to east, and the political
pressures, though based loosely on those of the time, are different in
many respects. The world is seeing its first popular revolutions, and the
emergence of its first republics, and as such, the old royalist and
religious orders are feeling threatened.

This is much like the historical Napoleonic era, except that the Papacy,
based in the nation of Venetia, has direct executive control over the
country, and the Pope is political as well as religious head. He has
decided that all nations not currently Catholic must become Catholic or
face invasion and forcible conversion. Venetia is a major military power
with many Catholic Allies.

The game is played in turns. Every week, each player writes a report of
the decrees and/or orders they are giving to their people for a quarter
year. Thus three months game time is one week realtime. The reports
include letters and despatches to the leaders of other nations, or to
other players in other roles (military Admirals or Generals). The
moderator then collates the data for that turn and returns his own reports
to the players, delivering letters and despatches to their recipients and
adding public info (news) to the website.

The game system is designed to give players little to no learning curve. A
player is required to know only as much as they wish to about the running
of their country, and the degree of micro-management is entirely up to
them. It is important to recall that most royals and nobles of this period
were often more concerned with what parties they were going to than what
kind of ship was what, what kind of soldier did what, and whether this
company or that had a share in overseas trade. As such, the countries and
their economies have a realistic capacity to self govern, as do the navies
and armies. They will follow your orders, but if you don't give them any,
they will continue to function.

The militaries and civilian economies are dealt with through a complex
series of GIS positional databases and Access databases that update
dynamically with new information. None of this is seen by the player
beyond what they ask for and request, and what is standard on the nation's
world-book page. This is done so that the players have access to data very
much as they would have as an actual head-of-state in that era; through
advisers. IE, if you ask your minister of war if he could show you the
navy list, the navy list will be produced, and so on and so forth.

It is expected that the time commitment for a player will require a
minimum of only 2 hours per week. Obviously it will be possible to devote
much, much more, but this simply indicates the degree of autonomy the
system allows a player.

The World of Sword and Spirit exists in a GIS environment. This is a
positional database where geographically referenced locations exist on a
globe. Any specified location can have properties which can relate to the
properties of any other location in any way.

This means that, moreso than in other more traditional PBMs, the world of
Sword and Spirit is a living, breathing, dynamic world where economies
thrive or fail, and societies develop in relation to each other. Decisions
made by leaders and other players have a real effect on the
characteristics of their nation and the World.

The World of Sword and Spirit is exactly the size of the terrestrial
globe, but there is more water, and the European equivalent (oriented, as
you can see, in the opposite direction) has much more land mass. Armies
and fleets, as well as messengers, pilgrimages, exoduses, and countless
other possibilities travel at the speeds they actually would in the
Napoleonic Era, and thus dates are important, and owing to the slow speed
of communication, timing in all things is critical but challenging.

The available technology is that of 1780-1815, and advances beyond those
available at that time are not permitted. There are no steamships, no
breech-loading artillery, no ironclads, and no revolvers. Napoleonic Era
strategy and tactics are very important for military success in S&S, but
military success is not necessarily critical in and of itself. Intrigue,
Espionage, Blackmail. . . the possibilities are endless. Alliances and
Coalitions are, of course, very important, and can spell the difference
between a nation's success and failure.

It is currently free; during the testing and development process, and the
first turns are expected to begin within the year.

[ 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 ]