RD: you are welcome to use the following.
MAKE MINE A DOUBLE!
Or, Two nations are better than one, by Richard Devereux.
Very early on in my Middle-earth career, in the days of GAD for the benefit
of fellow ancients, I had the encounter everyone dreads. More deadly than
the Dark Lord himself, I'm talking about the dreaded Dropout disease. My
team started with 10 nations but before the game was halfway through, half
the players had Dropped. Judging by how long that game lasted, the
opposition suffered from the same plague.
Game after game, the same thing happened. Then, just like St Paul on the
road to Damascus, I received a blinding revelation. TAKE OVER the dropped
position! Like all good solutions, it was so simple. No worries about
whether the GM could find a standby or not.
The benefits of running two nations were immediate and obvious. If one of
your nations was short of a product, the other could often provide it. If
one nation was taking a hammering, the other could provide help in the shape
of gold or other materials, armies, characters, pop centres and in the last
resort a backup capital. All this meant less dependance on allies who may
be unknown quantities.
Time went by, GAD were succeeded by Allsorts, and Allsorts were succeeded by
Harlequin. By then I was one of a hard core of fellow players who had
played lots of games together and the word 'quit ' did not exist in our
vocabulary. Our team had developed immunity to the dreaded Dropout Disease!
Unfortunately but inevitably, like a whirling sun hurling chunks of creative
matter into the universe, our team fragmented as members sought fresh
thrills with different teams and varied success. Others succumbed to a
different disease, that of domesticity, and were never seen again in
Middle-earth. I was one of the lucky survivors from this holocaust. My
missus was pragmatic enough to prefer me at home sat in front of a screen
playing a game that costs �4 a fortnight than down the pub costing �40 a
night or chasing other women. As if...
Ahem, back to the subject. Given the obvious advantages of having one
player running two nations, and too impatient to wait for the normal
recruiting process, some of my regular team-mates and myself opted to start
a game playing 2 nations each. Of course, in the interests of fair play,
the opposition were given the same opportunity.
I believe we have better games as a result. There are some games out there
where you need to communicate with dozens if not hundreds of other players.
Over a fortnight, you can't talk to all of them even if you want to - time
does not permit. It's hard enough to keep track of communications from 9
other players plus 5 neutrals let alone a bigger number.
Therefore I'm all in favour of games where players get 2 nations each
(except neutrals for obvious reasons). Each player has to communicate with
only 4 team-mates and no more than 3 neutrals. We can all manage that
surely? If you can't, don't try to play the game.
The situation has already arisen where, a player has dropped and his nation
been picked up by a player who is already playing 2 nations. THis should
not be a problem provided this option is open to both sides.
I understand that we already have one guy who wants to take on the world by
playing an entire team. He will have HUGE advantages over any team, however
well-knit, that tries to take him on. Hell, if I had the time I would offer
a similar challenge! One competent guy controlling an entire team should
beat a team of competent guys every time.
As the title of this article suggests, make my nation a double, or triple at
least!
Richard Devereux.
···
----- Original Message -----
From: "Middle Earth PBM Games" <me@MiddleEarthGames.com>
To: <mepbmlist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, May 28, 2001 6:06 PM
Subject: [mepbmlist] Bree bits and Pieces needed
Anyone got an article for Bree?
Need contributions please. I also want to do a questionnaire this time
around - any thoughts on what you would like to know?
Ta
Clint
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