Attacking teammates

mepbmlist
#1

Whilst it would undoubtedly be unpleasant to get into that world of hurt I don't think its an area that should be GM policed.

For one thing the GM shouldn't have that much control over the game -- else I'd like him to step in and alter my orders to make them more effective!

But mostly because when you read Tolkien you find all manner of aggro going on between so called "allies". The Free don't trust each other in Lord of the Rings and who can imagine that the Nazgul would keep all things above board?! Much more likely they'd get the knife in before others did it to them methinks.

All governments have done the same thing from time immemorial - rip an ally off, do the dirty on them - whatever it takes to reach their own objective. And yes, that might include giving the stated enemy funds - in recent years we've seen anti-western groups given funding just because they could do the west a favour at a point in time.

Just my tuppence worth :slight_smile:

Matthew

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

#2

For one thing the GM shouldn't have that much control over the game --

else I'd like him to step in and alter my orders to make them more
effective!

*** We do - we get a lot of errors that we just correct (they are obvious)
and contact players when we cannot decide which is best or the situation is
unclear.

Clint

#3

Allies sometimes turn on each other in war. The capacity to do so is needed for internal consistency in games.

The game at present has victory conditions which sometimes involve assassinating allied characters and taking allied pops. The VCs are utterly stupid, but while they're there, the GM has to allow them. The best way to have a chance of getting say the SGo capital, might be to do everything you can you get SGo eliminated. Sending his turn news on to the enemy might be a good start - I hear your howls of indignation - No I'm not saying I've ever done this, or ever would, BUT that's because I disregard the VCs as do most. If I was playing them then treachery would be for me a perfectly acceptable means. IT'S A PRETENDING GAME. The GM should certainly not interfere.

Retiring all characters and sending your gold to the enemy? Pretty rotten. But if your "team" have really miffed you, and you're going to drop, and think they don't deserve to win, then why not? You've paid for the nation for several turns, why shouldn't you have the right to scrap it dramatically. Actually I may do this to the guys in 29, 63 and 80 if they don't start showing me a little more respect :wink:

The only exception I can see is where the GM believed their had been prior collusion - ClL retires all his characters on turn 1 and drops, then turns out to be the cousin of the Woodmen. I'd expect the GM to step in there. banning the player concerned, and resurrecting the position or restarting the game. Would anyone be that despicable though?

I only ever had one game where an ally turned on me. I was Rhu, and declared free. WiK had thrown his position down the privvy. I declared FP to stay alive, on the same time that Dun did. Dun (a newbie) had been looking forward to attacking me, so rather than march with me to Mordor he decided to challenge my characters and send his ems and ags to my pops. I dropped immediately, something which I have only ever done independently on one other occasion. I couldn't beat him in characters, armies won't work against an ally, and it seemed pretty pointless marching to Mordor while he assaulted my pops. The other allies were pragmatic, they knew he was a merchant, but felt that letting him occupy himself with Rhu would stop him from causing havoc in Eraidor while they marched for Mordor.

A really frustrating game, but the guy did have the right to do it, it's in the rules. It's against the spirit of team play, and against common sense if you assume that victory is the common objective, but its is not against the (rather loose) spirit of the game. Some chaps are very young, either actually or mentally, they're out for 10 turns of fun rather than 30 turns of deeper satisfaction. And one or two are just psycopaths...

A player rating system would have given the rest of us the chance NOT to play with these types (well not more than once) but there was not enough interest, ergo, it cannot be that much of a problem.

Laurence G. Tilley

http://www.lgtilley.freeserve.co.uk