I like what the site and hope everyone uses it and enjoys the game more for the information.
JCC
···
----- Original Message ----
From: Brad Brunet <bbme@rogers.com>
To: mepbmlist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, April 18, 2008 1:17:24 PM
Subject: Re: [mepbmlist] New bobbins site
I mostly agree with Laurence. The Realm of DitCoP
getting reduced..? If none of my allies will/can help
or I'm in a Gunboat, and my company policy prevent
accessing the site, can I send my riddle to MEGamess
and get the right answer to save my character with an
expected Next Business Day turnaround.. ?
Brad
--- "Laurence G. Tilley" <lgtilley@morespeed. net>
wrote:
On 18/04/2008 ME Games Ltd wrote:
> Any other feedback? Is it useful, simple to use
and amend? Any other
> comments?Oh well, as you've asked twice, I'll take the
bait...I suppose I'm of the "old fashioned brigade", but I
think it's a very
odd thing for you to have been spending your time
on. I think that the
company and the GMs should stay out of the "player
collated
information. " To be involved in it is like having
sports referees
involved in the team talk and tactical discussions.On one level (but see mitigation later) the game was
reduced when the
Mouth of Sauron editors first started collecting
encounter response data
and publishing it widely. There were always players
who opposed it, but
once the cat's out... When you know exactly what to
respond to a
specific dragon in order to recruit him, and it
works for the same
dragon every time, you not only have a dull
encounter, but a technique
which radically alters the balance of the game
(compared for example
with the intitial play tests where the dragon
encounters would not all
have been known.)Even so, for many years the companies owning the
Mepbm license kept a
distance from the activity, many players did not
discover the MoS data
until they became experienced and the total volume
of that data, the
number of "known" and proven responses was much
lower. I thought it a
mistake when you first got involved in the
disemination of player
collated data by appending it to the ME Guide.I personally have my own versions of the MoS/Bobbins
data, with a few
valuable additions. But I certainly shalln't be
broadcasting them.
Like a fisherman's knowledge of the best "swims" or
a secret bait
recipie, these secrets are a part of the fun. I
share them with new
team mates as and when they might be needed. Tell
the world, lose the fun.There is however a mitigation for what the MoS
editors and others since,
chose to do: It is that the enconters themselves
are actually very
feeble, with a very large number of "no result"
responses. Like the
naval rules, they are one of the game's conspicous
weak points. For
example in the last few turns I had back, I have
about six encounters:
- an unavoidable death
- an unavoidable smashing for a weak character by
ruins spirits and wights
- a "trail" where I know there's an artefact, but
must waste a turn
investigating
- a trail which was unexpected and which I won't
bother to investigate
- an encounter where I know the response to avoid
combat, but will lose
an order in consequence
- an encounter with an NPC who does nothing usefulWith a re-write, it could be SO much better.
Riddles could come from a
growing list, so that there's more chance one
actually has to be thought
about or researched. (Free turn for a riddle good
enough to be
accepted, perhaps). Dragon encounters could
sometimes vary, to allow
the dragons some changes of mood simulating
personality. There could be
a greater range of encounters which give more
chances of small rewards/
small penalties with better clues in the encounter
descriptions as to
what might be coming or what might be risked. And
there should
certainly be a lot less responses where the result
is nothing. How
often have you seen something like this:9.9 The Boring Man
Location: Anywhere you like, when a character is
doing something important.
Description: The character is meets a boring man,
who yawns.
Options Free Peoples Neutrals
Nations Dark
ServantsATTACK the man combat combat
combat
THROW stones combat combat
combat
COUNT his teeth escape escape
escape
SAY (one word)
SAY "Hello" escape escape
escape
SAY "$%**!" escape escape
escape
FLEE combat combat
combat
Characters winning the combat are rumoured to win a
toffee apple. The
challenge rank of the boring man is
about 75. (So your camping emissary, who 9 times
out of 10 is liable to
be the one encountering him does not
stand a snowball's chance in a fight.)Boring boring boring. An interesting exercise might
be to look at a
"grudge" game, and log how many of the standard (as
opposed to artefact
yielding or dragon) encounters are simply ignored,
or responded to with
a known safe escape response. I'll wager that
you'll find it's the vast
majority. Maybe even 90%+ That surely isn't in the
spirit of Tolkien's
stories.And THAT... I politely suggest is what you could be
spending your excess
time on, rather than doing the players' work and
spoiling the fun
element of "trade secrets". Get some better
encounters into the game,
or even redesign the whole encounter system.You asked.
--Laurence G. Tilley http://www.lgtilley .co.uk/
http://www.buav. org
<http://www.buav. org/>
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