Re: Help a new budding GM

From: "Bryan Vakos" <ruffins@erols.com>

Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000

> Food! Ah, not exactly on topic, but fun to think about...

That's what we need! A PBeM game on FOOD! How much damage could a pork chop
do as opposed to butterscotch pudding anyway?

> The same as British chitterlings - white pig guts in jelly,
> sliced thin and eaten cold with vinegar? I've had 'em once, but

Originally I'm sure. Try them fried (I doubt they'll be much better... whole
concept makes me shudder. Actually, anything's better fried so maybe they
are better, or yours just more vile). Vinegar?

> wasn't keen. Maybe more like the French gut sausages,
> andouilles, eaten hot? OK rather than scrummy.

I have to ask (not having my Limey-Yankee dictionary handy)- what's scrummy?

> Blood pudding's usually eaten hot - best in slices in a fry-up
> (Fr - boudin). But surely nothing's more revolting than the hotdog?

Proudly the only known food with a government allotment of rodent droppings
and bug parts :o)

> True, though in a hard school players lie about their reputations -
> or sometimes even about who they really are. Your reputation could be
> purloined...

Aha! Beat them to the punch! I lie about my own reputation AND pretend to be
someone else. Then I badmouth That-Vakos-Bastard and build alliances against
him and his nefarious minions. Believe it or not that actually worked once.
The nice thing about e-mail is that unless someone wants to strip the IP
number off completely I haven't really seen a way to hide who you are.

> Well, looks as if in fact the idea was discarded during the playtest
> - I distinctly remember it from the first rulebook, but just dug a
> later one out to check the system and can't find it there. So
> scratch that example, unless there's anything to deduce from it
> being discarded. (The game's not available at the moment but
> will re-appear as an email game.)

Someone probably whined that it wasn't fair that some random event happen to
him. I agree. Random isn't fair at all. Devestating events must be highly
predictable by all means.

> You could offer particular victory conditions for an alliance
> victory? Though I suspect it's hard to keep an alliance's cohesion
> under most circumstances.

Under anything other than absolute trust, yes. My bunch has all been
together since the second game of Star Empires 2... maybe four or five
years? But it's open-ended so we get to decide when we've won.

> > maybe make the geography in a such a way that different areas
> > will have advantages at different times...
> Bags me the one that has the advantage last!

Ah, but not if the ones with the early advantage actually USE it instead of
sitting on it. Just like real life. We're all going to end up as part of the
Botswanan Empire, admit it.

> > Morale is a tricky thing though - feed them, clothe them, and
> > make sure they have a job and they're all happy. That's not
> > always the case. Disatisfaction doesn't cause revolts. Hope of
> > something better causes revolts.
> Hmm, not necessarily - a crowd can turn violent very quickly if
> it feels a common purpose of any sort - and sees a potential
> target.

That's vengeance and rioting, not revolution. That's also me in college if
we ran out of beer so there's no really threatening intelligence behind it.

> > True, true... disease did most of the work on the Indians
> I think quite a lot of them got shot by settlers and the US army.

If you take Diamond's numbers then about 90% of a population of 20M died
from European diseases without ever seeing a European. The settlers and
Indians did a fair job of killing each other. The US Army's main role was
enforcing the 'renegotiation' of land treaties... that's where the real
damage occurred. You can recover from a loss unless that loss leaves you
sitting on a reservation in the middle of the desert (as opposed to the
middle of the coastal piedmont where you started). Of course by then the US
Army had a lot of practice at that sort of thing.

> > We certainly didn't invent slavery.
> Just kept it going, long after Independence. How's about segregation?

Do you really want a list of recent British racial incidents or would you
just like for me to lay the whole thing at the feet of the mother country
that brought it here in the first place? As for segregation, the South
Africans tried something similar but more drastic. That was a British colony
too wasn't it? How about Rhodesia? Gee, I wonder, does it have a common
source?
At this point in history there's no one people who're completely clean. If
they were, they've been killed by someone who wasn't.

> It seems fairly realistic to have some sort of seepage of
> technological ideas: in one game I know, players can suggest their
> own weaponry and build this, but the tariff only stays private for
> a limited length of time.

I'm thinking a LOT of seepage. How well did the British government do in
keeping all their skilled machinists from skipping the country?

> > > > I'm afraid to check on the Carthaginians.
> I forgot to mention that there is a power-game where you can play
> Carthaginians: Primvs inter Pares from dbwake@cix.co.uk

Med political/military? Another one to look up... have a web site?

References

Re: Help a new budding GM
Carol Mulholland <Carol@flagship-uk.demon.co.uk>
Thu, 06 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
RE: Help a new budding GM
"dk440lx" <Ask@please.com>
Sat, 01 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"Bryan Vakos" <ruffins@erols.com>
Mon, 03 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
Carol Mulholland <Carol@flagship-uk.demon.co.uk>
Tue, 04 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"Bryan Vakos" <ruffins@erols.com>
Tue, 04 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
Carol Mulholland <Carol@flagship-uk.demon.co.uk>
Wed, 05 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"Bryan Vakos" <ruffins@erols.com>
Wed, 05 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"Bryan Vakos" <ruffins@erols.com>
Wed, 05 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
Carol Mulholland <Carol@flagship-uk.demon.co.uk>
Tue, 04 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"dk440lx" <Ask@please.com>
Mon, 03 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
Carol Mulholland <Carol@flagship-uk.demon.co.uk>
Wed, 05 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"Bryan Vakos" <ruffins@erols.com>
Mon, 03 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"Bryan Vakos" <ruffins@erols.com>
Tue, 04 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Help a new budding GM
Carol Mulholland <Carol@flagship-uk.demon.co.uk>
Thu, 06 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
RE: Help a new budding GM
"dk440lx" <Ask@please.com>
Sat, 01 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"Bryan Vakos" <ruffins@erols.com>
Mon, 03 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
Carol Mulholland <Carol@flagship-uk.demon.co.uk>
Tue, 04 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"Bryan Vakos" <ruffins@erols.com>
Tue, 04 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
Carol Mulholland <Carol@flagship-uk.demon.co.uk>
Wed, 05 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"Bryan Vakos" <ruffins@erols.com>
Wed, 05 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"Bryan Vakos" <ruffins@erols.com>
Wed, 05 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
Carol Mulholland <Carol@flagship-uk.demon.co.uk>
Tue, 04 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"dk440lx" <Ask@please.com>
Mon, 03 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
Carol Mulholland <Carol@flagship-uk.demon.co.uk>
Wed, 05 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"Bryan Vakos" <ruffins@erols.com>
Mon, 03 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Help a new budding GM
"Bryan Vakos" <ruffins@erols.com>
Tue, 04 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000