New: AD 1300 (free, open-ended, email, human, historical, wargame, economic, rpg, abstract)

From: lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)

Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 08:15:01 +0000

Name:		AD 1300
Costs:		free
URL:		http://www.geocities.com/beyondthelighthouse
Frequency:		every once in a while
Email:		saganot@walla.co.il
Type:		Roleplaying\Political
Last-Update:		2003Jan14
Keywords: free, open-ended, email, human, historical, wargame, economic,
rpg, abstract

Description:

Ah, the fourteenth century. A time of piety, political intrigues and war.
In this exciting period is the AD 1300 game positioned.

AD 1300 is a combination of role-playing and a political simulation. Don't
let that name frighten you - managing a country is not such a dull
business - especially not in the fourteenth century!

In AD 1300, you will take over a political entity - a principality,
kingdom, duchy etc. - and try to lead it to glory. The road is not easy,
however. Aggressive neighbors, struggling economy, revolting citizens -
these are only some of the many factors that can hamper your advancement
in the game. You will have to overcome them all if you wish to become an
Empire.

AD 1300 is different than many other political role-playing games by
e-mail. In those games, the player seems to hop between the different
parts of his empire with ease. He can raise the taxes in one province,
then jump across his lands and attack an enemy in the other end. It is not
so in AD 1300, which emphasizes realism. Your ruler can only be in one
place at a time. If he wishes to give an order to his subjects in a
specific province, he has either to go there himself, or send an emissary.
Either way, this takes time. And the message might not always arrive as
expected - many things can happen to unnoticing royal emissaries! This
reflects more realistically the real status in 1300 - no telephone or
e-mail! Of course, as a player's empire grows, he will find that it is
more difficult to run everything smoothly. Also, the existing maps are
rare and rarely accurate. On many cases, you will have to count on a vague
oral description alone.

The game itself is also more vague than other games. In those, you can say
for example 'I want to train 300 soldiers here in the next month.' In AD
1300, you can't determine how much time it will take, or even how many
soldiers your people will manage to recruit. And don't count on everything
you are told on the State Report - someone may be feeding you
dis-information! You alone will have to know by intuition what to do.

[ 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 ]