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Thread: PBEM Idea

  1. #11
    Special Guest (Donor) DarkApple's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by darknaj View Post
    I'm not looking for a 'virgin land', but more of a reason as to why there is no direct threat to this human exodus. The magical and physical backlash should have been an obvious choice for me that I somehow overlooked. Otherwise the dominant cultures of the land would undoubtedly enslave or expell the human "invaders".

    One of the races I'm thinking about are fiendish elves. Either being a) natural fey creatures migrating from the shadow world b) an elven colony that Azrai manipulated but didn't join the fight because x and Azrai hadn't punished them before his defeat or c) After Azrai was defeated these still loyal elves managed to transport themselves into the shadow world at the cost of their souls. Just recently freeing themselves and their new shadow allies/minions/slaves back into the world. The very act of this easily being another reason for recent destruction of local powers.

    Otherwise the others will be probably more mudane or primitive cultures. If I have Azrai grace this land before his chasing of the tribes and the final confrontation that does give me an excuse to include tainted creatures and beastmen. Everyone loves rampaging gnolls and goblins.
    The more it goes, the more interesting it looks

  2. #12
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    aye. If I might suggest something thou.

    putting in elves as only enemies gives them just one dimension, and less dpeth.
    If you put in this realm of fiendish elves, I would suggest another, maybe smaller, realm or tribe or something, of less hostile elves. this both to cause conflikt, and to give posibilities for conflikt in how different realms wiew the sidhe.

    some would look at the hostile elf realm, where other races are slaughtered, and judge all of them evil. Others would border the less hostile elves, and think them good.

    you want to build in lots of opportunity for making the realms come to different conclusions. Same thing could be done with goblins, or dwarfs, or other races aswell if you will use them in your game. but ofcourse, one needs to give each a different twist, so its not just copy paste over it, but I´m sure you can do that

    Just my opinion ofcourse, your game looks interesting either way.

  3. #13
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    That's a very good point Adg. May have to reconsider how much diversity I incorporate.. ports could mitigate this. Hmm.


    Getting around to looking at drafting the map over the course of this week. My first thoughts of player placement is through a flow chart and ending with a die roll for scatter/randomization.

    Example: Player A decides to split off from the Armada when land is sighted. Decides to sail west to settle on the coast. Die rolled to see how far.

    Player B makes land fall with Armada, but decides to lead his people off to claim some, possibly, better land. Picks direction or feature to follow (forest, river, etc) and roll die.

    This should split up the players enough to avoid initial violent struggles while allowing for meaningful interaction. Temples probably getting placed according to leader alignment or race. Maybe offer regents a list and have them bid on the faith... trying to avoid having regents 'stuck' with religions that conflict with their ideologies. I would like temples to not be burned out of their starting homes by regents

  4. #14
    This sounds really interesting, I'd love to know how its going.

  5. #15
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    I'm tweaking the final details and mechanisms (how I will deal with character creation, military units, IC communication, etc). I'm nearly set to create a website and I've got the means to create the player map. The biggest delay is my broken collar bone that has put my dominant hand in a sling and is making typing (and map creating/editting) a bit of a chore.

  6. #16
    Special Guest (Donor) DarkApple's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by darknaj View Post
    I'm tweaking the final details and mechanisms (how I will deal with character creation, military units, IC communication, etc). I'm nearly set to create a website and I've got the means to create the player map. The biggest delay is my broken collar bone that has put my dominant hand in a sling and is making typing (and map creating/editting) a bit of a chore.
    Sorry to read this. I hope this shall mend soon, the game can wait

  7. #17
    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by darknaj View Post
    I would like temples to not be burned out of their starting homes by regents
    I'd suggest getting rid of the concept of 'burning out' domains altogether unless the regent actually destroys population levels - troops could act as effective law levels via martial law to give big bonuses to contest actions, but history is too full of examples of attempts to ban organisations - particularly religions - for it to be easy. One only has to look at the Romans, Henry the 8, etc to see that even big powerful 'domains' could struggle to smash a clerical domain, and suffered badly for trying to do so for years afterwards.

    I'm biased on this - I've played non-landed regents with over-bearing princes and dukes whose 'sun-king' style rule (support my lightest whim or die as a traitor) made playing a landless domain miserable.

  8. #18
    Site Moderator AndrewTall's Avatar
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    Hmm fiendish elves - have you looked at Vosgaard where the sidhe of Tuar Annwyn are described as tied to the plane of Shadow?

    If the sidhe realm ties to the Shadow world never broke after Deismaar then the sidhe could start being perverted by evil over time, so you'd get a mix of sidhe curious about Anuireans humans - possibly even welcoming them as allies against the goblins, sidhe ignoring them and wanting nothing to do with humans, sidhe seeing Anuirean as a threat to fight, and sidhe beginning to take a very unwholesome view of living creatures and seeing the Anuirean settlers as easy prey... Basically a re-run of the Cerilian invasion issues - but will the Anuireans make the same mistakes this time?

    You could always have refugees from Aduria as well - I doubt that it fared better than Cerilia after the war, so you could have some Minotaurs / gnolls / etc try to settle far from their homes and the foes there - only for their growing colonies to bump into the new Anuirean ones. These 'foe' realms could start small but cease internal bickering and unite if faced with serious Anuirean opposition, etc to maintain an enemy threat while giving options for early expansion.

    Incidentally are you going for one big land mass, archipelago, or a mix? Sea / river borders are good for making natural realm sizes, giving routes for travel, etc, etc - a cluster of large islands would also help explain lack of ability to resist the initial settlement if you had each island with its own natives, some of whom were supportive - at least until their hunting/fishing/etc grounds were encroached upon.

    Another factor to help the 'invaders' could be technology, the Anuireans should have iron weaponry - if the natives are bronze age they'd be at a significant disadvantage, similarly if they lack a history of mass warfare they might not have the tactics needed to fight Anuirean legions - a mass of screaming savages with spears clubs and axes used to one-on-one combat only or hunting is no match for a disciplined legion.

    Or you could try religion - the Aztecs were defeated in large part due to their own myths and mistakenly attributing godhood to the conquistadors - an invading army led by a scion who actually had the power of the gods would be easy to mistake for a people who are abruptly bereft of divine guidance and looking for new divinities. Azrai taught the Cerilian humans sorcery, it may not be known in your land until the settlers get there (aside from the Sidhe / Karamhul) so that could also be mistaken for godly power if you liked.

  9. #19
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    Thanks DarkApple. It's taking forever, but at least I got it confirmed today nothing else is wrong.

    Starting with the temples:
    Definetly a good idea to tie them to the population. I was thinking of making the populace a god-fearing populace that needs solace that the Gods won't strike them down. The devestation and fighting is obviously because the people have been forsaken. This would strengthen the holyman's power of agitating/controlling the masses.

    I have also been toying with the idea of keeping track of a general population alignment. Temples that are within the general population's alignment getting support from the masses and/or cause unrest when damaged. Also would cause resistance for the opposite alignment trying to raise a temple. Lawful vs Chaotic, Good vs Evil, etc. Neutral temples would have a small advantage in this case, but being neutral in a politically charged environment has its own costs.

    Adhoc edit::
    -population starting alignment set/greatly influenced by leading regents, but can change over time.
    -affects the masses responses to decrees/laws/rulership. ie. Chaotic populations like less restrictions.
    -may affect type of rulership? some people may be fleeing due to political persecution... one Republic/Council-run kingdom is confirmed.


    Landmass:
    I have a fractal map of a continent that I will be converting to a playable map. I wanted to avoid requiring navies, at least for the beginning. Rivers, hills and forests will be the deciding territory markers.

    Elves:
    I must have missed Tuar Annwyn when I was reading the book last week, but I will definetly look into it. An unbroken connection to the shadow world could leave them open to being a vassal of the Unseelie Court. Would be more original than an elven house losing power and mingling their blood with demons.

    Refugees:
    These will definetly be the most prevalent. I'm looking at most of them being nomadic so they will only concern the paranoid. Beyond the major tribes/kingdoms I have fleshed out, random tribes will no doubt stir up the populace through their actions... the refugees could easily have been forced to flee Aduria because they rejected their warlike people and a terrified human may take the good meaning actions of a goblin the wrong way.

    Vos that follow the old ways and some of the Masestian will have made this place their new home as well. Cowards or survivors? Only one way to find out.

    Aztecs:
    I find it kind of funny you mentioned these people as that's what I will be modelling one kingdom after. If the fiendish elves abandoned the ways of their fellows and lived in grand cities on the open plains they would be a good fit. Or my other thought would be a tainted scion of Azrai would be the god-king that would be "reborn" every few decades. I am slightly attached to this idea... the Fenix Empire, ruled over by a half-Pheonix king that seems immortal to the uneducated and tightly controlled population that worships him.

    As I'm finishing this I will probably not have the fiendish elves rule this empire unless I come up with a few co-ruling races. Otherwise it kind of feels like the common dark elf ploy where dark elves rule over all others and hate their fellow elves... evil half-beasts or shapeshifters would be possible, but they'd conflict with my ideas for some other tribes.
    Last edited by darknaj; 09-07-2011 at 12:05 AM. Reason: ad hoc addition

  10. #20
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    I'm on the last bit of administration and so I'm wondering if there are any good benchmarks for pbem turn orders and domain sheets? I was thinking of making some tidy excel sheets as they are easier to keep neat compared to just word documents. Thoughts or links anyone?

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