When this Play by MAIL game was invented, based on Middle Earth, a quasi
medievil world with magic and dragons, and when players did not begin the game
with all the information that was supposed to be a total mystery, and without
knowing who was playing what other nation with constant daily communication...
If you are saying that you want to play in a game where players do not communicate, or even a 0 email game, I'm sure Harlequin will gladly set that up if you find 24 other players.
...was it invented to be a "team" game where at least 10 players are SOCIALLY
encouraged to become merely a token entity existant solely to pay his share?
(3.90 a 1/26 year game time "share" nowadays..).
I dont recall suggesting that.
Tokein's Middle Earth had many different nations and peoples opposed to each
other's actions/success/existence. Elves and Dwarves are not necessarily
supposed to share pdfs, for a simplistic example.Thus, everyone who believe the game should remain true to Tolkein, is thus a
supporter of Victory Points AND the DIFFERENT Victory Conditions. If you deny
this, then your logic is screwed up and frankly, you are most likely doing
yourself a psychological disservice.
You and I obviously read different books. I would say that virtually every victory which was achieved in the books involved the free nations overcoming differences and working together. For a short list:
The Battle of 5 Armies & aftermath.
The Rohirrim and Rangers moving to the aid of Minas Tirith
The friendship between Gimli and Legolas, and the aid given by the Sindar elves to the company.
In your version, obviously, after the Battle of 5 Armies the Men and Elves slaughtered the remaining dwarves, and divvied up the treasure of Lonely Mountain over the rotting corpse of Thorin. Gimli, if he existed at all, brained Legolas from behind with his axe when he no longer had a use for him. Galadriel was busy taking over the Rohirrim territory while Theoden was gone and Elrond's sons were both double agents who assassinated Aragorn on behalf of daddy so that the rangers couldn't threaten the Noldor elves in character points.
I like my version better. But then my logic is screwed up.
Tolkein did not want these nations "played" by a single mind. They were opposed
to THE Single Mind (quiz: who do I mean) for their own reasons individually, not
as the Allies in some childishly silly board game.
True, but all of those characters who were clearly involved for personal narrowly defined gain, like Boromir (for a while) and Saruman, were cast as antagonists and met bad ends. The heroes demonstraited traits like personal sacrifice. Maybe there wasn't a "team" but no one decided that the Dwarves won the war because Balin sat back and accumulated 167,000,000 pieces of gold.
Unless the creator of the game can post and clear this up for us, I think it
would be prudent to not refer to this game as a Team Game per se. It is made up
of 25 seperate nation leaders (role playing, to some degree YES) where many have
certain common interests.
Being selfish and greedy does not equal roleplaying. Having victory conditions which tell the corsairs that some Woodman leader has to die for them to do well CERTAINLY does not equal roleplaying. I wouldn't have any problem in seeing a roleplaying award, although it would be pretty hard to determine except for simple votes of teammates, and this is really more of a strategic game.
If you want to emphasize roleplaying, set predetermined goals for each nation which are in keeping with its Middle Earth interests. Maybe even shift around nation relationships so that traditional enemies on the same team start at neutral, or can even shift to disliked. But you can't tell me that the Sindar elves were losing victory points by giving artifacts to the 9 walkers, and then justify it with Tolkein. If the VCs are going to be more or less random (as they are now) make more of them which reward those players who fight the enemy or work as a team.
How about: give away 10 artifacts to allies (quite a few gifts are given in the books)
or
Lead a company involving members of at least 4 nations.
or
Ensure that character x (of ANOTHER nation) is alive at the end of the game. (Say north gondor+Aragorn).
Anyway, if you are trying to reward good play, the current VCs range from questionable (Character points & Pop centers) to really wrong (gold in treasury).
Winn
···
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com
