Re: long-term fun

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

Date: Sat, 06 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000

David desJardins wrote:

>> I think you basically can't

I agree that it's extremely difficult to design long-running games so
that newcomers can be slotted in with a fair chance of making progress
while elder players still have enough interesting goals to achieve.
There have been various ways that have been tried, of course.

Alliance or 'noble family' structures can help, with elder players
concentrating on competing with each other while shielding newcomers as
useful allies. This has its drawbacks of course: not all newcomers want
to be obliged to join an alliance, especially if they have to
choose it at the start, and problems for the junior players can arise
if their elder player has less skill or enthusiasm than his rivals, or
drops.

Or players can be required only to compete with those of equal
experience (a league structure). Hard to make this plausible for a
strategy game, maybe?

NPC forces are the usual way to redress imbalances. These can be
plausible, but it's difficult for a GM to know when to invoke them
without being accused of favouritism.

It's fun to try out different design ideas, though. And if only
provisional solutions are possible, then there's no perfect rival to
worry about...

Carol

References

long-term fun
"Enno Rehling" <rehling@usa.net>
Tue, 02 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000
Re: long-term fun
David desJardins <desj@math.berkeley.edu>
Fri, 05 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

long-term fun
"Enno Rehling" <rehling@usa.net>
Tue, 02 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000
Re: long-term fun
David desJardins <desj@math.berkeley.edu>
Fri, 05 Feb 1999 00:00:00 +0000