Re: Design assistance for space game

From: Carol Mulholland <Carol@flagship-uk.demon.co.uk>

Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2001 09:37:42 +0000

Agramen7 wrote:

> First starting off i have many questions and i hope that some people get
> involved in this thread. (i for one really like talking about it.)

Ooh, super - a subject I love.

> first i must say how would one keep intrest in a space conquest type of PBEM
> game? What makes a player come back for more? Is there a formula for it? Ive
> been reading this newsgroup and looking at web pages and clubs and ive seen a
> number of abandoned and rotting space conquest pbem games. How did it happen?

Are you thinking of an open-ended game, or a finite one? If you call an open-
ended game a space opera or an exploration game rather than a space conquest
game you'll probably attract players who don't just want to stomp on their
neighbours. If it's a finite game, then specify victory conditions that
sound enticing.

> Did the Gm lose intrest? did it become too much for him to handle?

Probably the latter - any sort of open-ended game is very hard work. And
novice GMs expect players to be grateful for their hard work - wrong.

> Which leads to my second question. How complicated should a PBEM space conquest
> type of game be? I have a group forum going asking others to review my rules
> and some say they like a simple game while others want detailed information on
> exact numbers of planets and bodies in the system to actual formulas for fuel
> consumption. What is the middle ground here?

You can't please everybody! You could have players build or otherwise obtain
devices that will reveal the detailed information to them, if  they want it.

> Ive seen some PBEM space conquest games where they ask you to perform
> complicated formulas and math problems just to move your ships. (which turned
> me off quickly.) I wanted to keep mine simple by just using simple addition and
> subtraction, whole numbers and such...yet some people want physics problems in
> their games,,,(what can one do?)

Do what *you* want to do - you're the GM.

Carol

References

Design assistance for space game
agramen7@cs.com (Agramen7)
Sun, 25 Nov 2001 21:19:50 +0000

Referenced By

Design assistance for space game
agramen7@cs.com (Agramen7)
Sun, 25 Nov 2001 21:19:50 +0000