New: Archipelago (commercial, open-ended, snail, human, fantasy, wargame, economic) From: lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl) Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2002 19:14:30 +0000 Name: Archipelago Costs: �3.50 / turn Frequency: 3-4 weeks Email: andy@handmoderatedgames.freeserve.co.uk Type: Postal Fantasy wargame Last-Update: 2002Oct23 Keywords: commercial, open-ended, snail, human, fantasy, wargame, economic Description: Archipelago Aeons ago the waters of Hedrek, rose to engulf 95% of the landmass. Whole civilizations were annihilated, and only those who lived far above sea level were safe from the swirling waters. Many blamed the Mages, practitioners of magic, for the disaster, pointing to the unreliability of their spells, and the size of a wizard�s ego in comparison to his common sense. Over the last three thousand years the descendants of the survivors have managed to pull themselves out of the pit of barbarism that inevitably followed the disaster. All that remains of the dry land of Hedrek is an archipelago of a thousand small islands, reefs and sandbars, spread over a 2000 mile by 2000-mile area. A few of the larger islands have in the past few hundred years begun to develop cities and trade routes between neighbours. In order to protect themselves from the inexorable pirate raids on their homes and convoys, several of the island cities, created alliances. The largest of these rose to supreme power some 300 years ago, but due to the greed, corruption and indolence of its ruling elite, many cities rebelled, until now there are several factions all vying for power. The largest of the power mongers, is the remnant of the old empire, still very powerful, but decadent, experts at building the larger ship types. It still retains the knowledge of fabricating the best weapons available. The Theban alliance is one of the largest rebel conspiracies, it is found in the warmest southernmost climbs of the archipelago. It�s city walls and civic structures are built of megalithic stone blocks, nearly unbreachable to the siege engines available to most factions. The Redmount confederacy is another large faction. It relies on the excellence of its ships and the expertise of its officers and crew, what it cannot gain by legitimate trade; the Redmount confederacy will take with no qualms whatsoever. Many outsiders consider this faction to be little more than pirates. Rievers are a loosely knit band of buccaneers and cutthroats. They have few bases but if you can find one and approach it safely, you will find that these places sell ships at unbelievably low prices, the only problem being that the battle damage and bloodstains must be cleaned up first. The mages of the north wind are the descendants of the wizards who avoided being torn to death by the survivors of the floods. They have few cities and they are seriously under resourced, however magic is once again gaining in popularity, and the only people who teach and research spells can be found in the cities of this alliance. [ 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 ] Up