Re: open ended games

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

Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000

grenadeboy wrote:

> the main focus is on the kingdom, rather than the character.
> The game is open-ended, but victory is possible if one sect
> controls all five of the Holy Cities, as well as at least 50%
> of all player-controlled cities.
>
> The more members a sect has, the more spells the priests of that
> sect can cast. Therefore, the more members a sect has, the more
> powerful it is.
>
> I've thought about reserving large parts of the world for new
> players, but the problem with that is, I'm basically abdicating
> the rest of the world to the old players. As a result, player A,
> who isn't a very good player, could end up controlling vast
> amounts of territory simply
> because his neighbors all dropped out of the game.

Picking up some of the ideas suggested by other people on this
topic, maybe the answer is to get away from basing positions on
territory, and consider a group or family structure, instead?
This is fairly common in open-ended power-games, and does give
scope for a whole series of conflicts. Players like to have to
have a defensible base, of course, but this could be a remote
castle rather than a whole kingdom. Armies don't have to be
based on territory - they can be formed from mercenaries or
sections of a standing army.

Power-games often have some sort of political/economic/religious
structures that influence how new players can be handled. With
a religious setting for your game, perhaps war needs the consent
of a Synod before it can be authorised? (ie the other players get
a vote) - if declared without authority, the other players can
attack the one who started it?

Dropouts are difficult to handle in territorial games, but not
so tricky if power lies in positions like Top Abbot, Chief
Crusader, etc, and can be passed down to whoever is next in the
rankings.

Hope this helps, Carol

References

open ended games
grenadeboy@yahoo.com
Thu, 17 Aug 2000 01:38:46 +0000
Re: open ended games
grenadeboy@yahoo.com
Thu, 17 Aug 2000 00:00:00 +0000