(IR) 4th ooc-thread of the 5th IR

[Edena_of_Neith]

Eluvans' protestation above is probably the result of my letter to him, telling him Serpenteye needed his Template soon.

(sighs)

My intent was not to drive Eluvan out of the game. : (

-

All I can do is make a comment on IRs.

The 1st and 2nd IRs had no rules at all, but a lot of people enjoyed them.
The 3rd IR had a lot of rules, and a lot of people enjoyed it.
I would advocate that this is because players sought out the Fun in the game, whether they wanted a lot of rules, or few rules, or no rules.

If I was in Eluvans' shoes, with so little time to devote to this, I'd concentrate on the Fun, and skip over the details.

My hasty template might look like this:

Most of my IC goes to industrialization.
100 goes to gaining 2 levels in the Tech Arms Race.
We fortify the borders.
We invade Geoff with half our armies.

And let Serpenteye arbitrate what happens.

Perhaps my example is too crude, but the point is, the game is simply supposed to be Fun.

I could have just said:

We throw everything we have into Industrialization and all our armies at Iuz!

Or:

I throw everything into the Tech Arms Race and all my armies at Iuz!

In the first IR, this is what Forrester DID. He threw all his armies at the elves of Evereska.
Once he had successfully taken Evereska (and eaten all the elves) he went after Evermeet. He took Evermeet, but the elves blew it up. The Elven Imperial Armada of Realmspace came to avenge the elves. There was a great battle. Everyone sided with Forrester against the elves, including the spirits of the elves of Evermeet. The Realmspace elves were defeated, and Toril was saved from destruction at their hands.
It sounds complicated, all that. Certainly, it could have been worked out under a strategic rules system, and I'm sure people would have had a lot of fun.
However, in that case, there were no rules at all. Just arbitration. And it still worked, and was still fun to a lot of people.

If this is a Calculus Class, it's a Calculus Class where you don't have to study and can still get an A.

EDIT: Yes, Eluvan, the League of Athyr was invited into the Treaty of Ekbir. And into the Treaty of Miranda.

 

[Paxus Asclepius]

Under most circumstances, sexually explicit content doesn't faze me at all; I'm just not certain that a game of political intrigue is necessarily the best place for it. I won't object to it, but nor will I encourage it in my own roleplaying.

 

[Knight Otu]

As for the question of sexual/violent content, I'm not overly bothered by it, and it certainly doesn't offend me. As long as it is kept within reasonable bounds, I'm fine with it.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

TO ELUVAN

The League of Athyr has been invited to sign the Treaty of Ekbir.
Your power has also been invited to sign the Treaty of Miranda, which was established by Kalanyrs' elven power.
You can engage in diplomacy at any time, period: if I know anything at all about IRs and Serpenteyes' game this is how it would be. Diplomacy is freeform.

The drow will be abandoning Geoff and the western Dim Forest, which are on your western borders.
The drow will be evacuating the Vault of the Drow, which was a tremendous threat to the League of Athyr from the southwest, and which isn't a threat anymore, although a few hundred drow will remain there.
This is public knowledge.

Both Paxus and Melkors' powers are going to lay claim to Geoff, it seems, after the drow leaves.
Who will claim the abandoned drow cities in the western Flanaess, I don't know.
The Vault of the Drow is still under my control, but only a few hundred drow defend it.

Your old enemy Iuz, Anabstercorians' power to your east, and Nac Mac Feegles' power which controls the Ulek nations, have all signed the TEC Pact. Bugbears' Greater Nyrond has signed the TEC Pact.
The TEC Pact is primarily an alliance of neutral and evil nations, so this may pose a security risk to you.

Conversely, Bugbears' Greater Nyrond has also signed the Treaty of Ekbir, along with the Celestial Imperium. I believe Xaels' power has signed it also, but I am not sure.
The Treaty of Ekbir is generally an alliance of good powers, so that affects your situation considerably. Again, you've been invited to join.

 

[Rikandur Azebol]

Alright, well, I'm going to do my best at any rate. But at the moment my attempts to catch up are raising more questions. For instance: was I invited to sign the Treaty of Ekbir? It seems like something my faction would want to be involved with judging by the charter on the front page of this thread. But I recieved no email about it. It's quite possible that at some point an sBlock was put up regarding it that I missed. Very possible, in fact. Or perhaps there are reasons why I wasn't informed. One way or the other, I'd like to know for sure. Can somebody tell me please?

Quite easy to cath, why. Pre-game diplomacy is so intense that many of us are forgetting that here or there is Sblock with important diplomatic message waiting.

For example my two ambassadors to neighbourn countries are still waiting outside the gates. (hint, hint for Bugbear and William ) You may wish to Join any alliance, I know of three:
Neutrality Aliance, everybody are signed up for free. C-N alliance started by James. Eclavdra fled in dread from his capital.
The Erelnhi-Cinul Pact, started by Edena, CE alliance started by Drow to protect them from mass slaughter by the hands of surface elves.
Alliance started by William, I guess as a response to threat generated by TEC Pact not, like Eclavdra is pointing out stubbornly, to amass enough firepower to slaughter the Drow and any other Evil PC. Like my innocent Demigod.

And I know about two ... no, three secret alliances, but they "aren't" of great concern to You.

OOC, but semi IC:
What is happening ? If League of Athyr have spies in Empire of Iuz they can report that his armies are on the move towards the borders with Theocracy of the Pale. Everywhere is aloud that Theocratists send Vile Daemons to slaughter innocent citizens of Dorakaa, but His Holy Highness, God-Tzar Iuz the Invicible ... > blah, blah, enough knowtowing to ashame even devil, blah, blah< ... saved his people and buthered. Hundreds of them and after the week whole hordes of Gehenna. You know, gossip. The most thrilling new is that Iuz promised that Theocracy will pay for it's crimes.

OOC, the truth:
Iuz was frustrated that Al'Akbar ignored his ambassador ... and while he was enjoying flight in the form of Balor, he flied into murderous rage and make little massacre on the slave market in Dorakaa. Barely several dozens of people ... He came to his senses when one of enraged citizens, who were attacking demon in hysterical frenzy, called name of Iuz while striking the "demon". Iuz suddenly used this opportunity to blame everything on Theocracy and pretended that he was in Palace all the time.
He "smote" the "demon" from afar and loudly announced, that even sleeping several miles away from city bears avoke, who is responsible for this attack.
And so ... Theocracy is going to be invaded. Broken, looted and exploited mercilessly. One third of the surviwing citizens is going to regret that they surviwed, and 10 thousands that Iuz will send to Acererak will regret that they were born. Rest of surviwors, those who will land in Iuz's hands, will wait for bleak perspective of painful, or volontuary, conversion to His Faith. And hard work in Tenh, or in andamantite mines of Underdark. Or any fate that they carve for themselves. Iuz don't punish sucess. And need their resouces ... unfortunatley for them.

Remember that it is written OOC, so You may know it as a Player. I think it is fair to announce things involving other Players openly, so they may prepare themselves. Even if their PC's have no clue.

And I have another plan for Your Power, even more sinister.
What would You say if Tharizdunites will kidnap VIP from Your fold, Iuz save her accidentaly ... and marry her ?

Also: once the game is underway, is diplomacy going to be regulated? Can you only make diplomatic advances or replies during your turn? Or will that remain free form? This is a definite problem I'm having right now - everybody is frantically sending diplomatic messages back and forth, but because I've been away it's like the whole of the League of Athyr's been living in a cave for the last few weeks. Kind of a serious disadvantage.

It is serious disadvantage, I'm losing pace slowly ... even in open negotiations. The secret ones, even my own, are making me lost ... I have not enough complex mind to emulate Iuz's byzantine politics. And If You wish I could write You @mail about my template, how I constructed it etc. I posted it in the open because I belive that Palyers wouldn't spoil their fun by giving their PC's "forbidden" knowledge.

 

[Edena_of_Neith]

Rikandur, I guarantee you I have not read your template or any of your sblocks.
Except for the Rampage of Iuz, I haven't the foggiest notion of what you intend to do on Turn 1.
The entire TEC Pact could be planning to alpha-strike my power out of existence on Turn 1, and turn Eclavdra over to Vecna as a present ... and I wouldn't know about it.

(looks sad, and more than a little weary)

I see people being scared by all the complexity.
The IR isn't complex. No rules or lots of rules, IRs still come down to a simple concept: fun.

You take a medieval campaign setting, and throw a bomb into it called high technology. Anarchy and change ensues as the presence of technology destabilizes the setting IC, and leads to a chain reaction which can make for a really good story and a lot of fun.

That's what it's about.

Edena_of_Neith

EDIT: Remember the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World? Well, knowledge of high technology is the IR equivalent of the knowledge of the money buried under the W in that movie.
Or as the guy in the Bugs Bunny cartoon once asked: say, what would happen, if you dropped a cat into a dog show? (screeching cat runs away down street: 30 foot high and 50 foot long pile of dogs follows)

We should get our own Icon. IR. Yeah. We Irians have earned it.

 

[Eluvan]

Edena - my sudden horror wasn't your fault. I posted this as a reaction to your email, yes, but you don't need to feel guilty. Your email just prompted me into realising that I needed to do something soon, which in turn made me realise that I didn't have any idea what I wanted to do. You don't need to feel like you're driving me off.

Also, it is worth noting that I was probably unfair in my appraisal of how much time I have spare above. In all honesty, if I wanted to, I could probably make the time to devote as much time to this IR as anybody does. I could spend an hour every day when I would normally be playing Neverwinter Knights instead poring over Greyhawk websites, conducting diplomacy, and dreaming up plots and schemes. But I lack that level of commitment. I'm not prepared to elevate this so far over and above all the other games I play. I feel I need to make that clear, because I don't want to deceive anybody into thinking that I'm snatching ten minutes out of a hectic schedule every day to post here.

My problem is not really with not understanding the rules. I realise that that does not have to be a problem, and frankly it wouldn't take more than half an hour to figure them out once and for all even if I did think it was a big deal. My problem is more general than that - I just feel kind of bewildered. So many players seem to be constantly plotting away and spending vast chunks of time writing fiction related to the IR. Even those players who are not so active give the impression of having a well-defined plan - Creamsteak, for instance, spoke a few pages back of 'having plans' and being 'sure that everybody else did too' (that's paraphrased, and may be misattributed). Well, I sure don't. I have no idea whatsoever what it is I want to achieve, beyond some general concept of 'win' or 'stop the world being destroyed'. Hell, I don't even know the first thing about half of the territories I'm controlling. Peopel are making alliances and pacts and talking to devils and blowing stuff up and relocating their entire races and god only knows what else that has been communicated privately. Meanwhile the League of Athyr just sits there, completely disconnected from the rest of Oerth, because I have no conception of what any of this means, or what reaction would be appropriate - let alone how I might go about taking the initiative for myself in a sensible manner. Admittedly, that is entirely my fault. If I devoted more time to this game I could have done the research and could now be feeling confident and ready to execute my plans. But... with all the blame in the world palce dupon my shoulders, I still don't know what I'm going to do.

I don't mean to whine, and everything I've posted above is something of an exaggeration, born of all the stress I'm feeling right now just being allowed to run rampant. I'm sure that I will be able to come up with something sensible, and get a template submitted at some point in the near future. But right now it's not feeling fun. It's feeling like a losing uphill battle to keep abreast of everything that's going on. Right now I'm in the game out of duty, not desire. I hope that will change once it gets underway.

 

[Eluvan]

Dang.... my connection's so slow right now it takes about quarter of an hour to post a reply up. By which time of course there are about a dozen new posts concerning me....

Riakndur, Edena - thankyou for your help. I really appreciate you clarifying things for me. I'm hunting down IC posts inviting me to the alliances now so that I can reply properly, but so far I'm having no luck. Thankyou for the offer to help with my template, Rikandur, but I believe I'll muddle through.

 

[Anabstercorian]

Don't stress yourself overmuch, Eluvan. Go ahead at your own pace.

My advice? Make this in to a role playing opportunity. Your PC has a divine mandate from the heavens to rule, and has NEVER EVER DONE THIS BEFORE. It's all overwhelming and frightening, and rightfully so. But you've a large, powerful power to help you through any opening hesitance you might be hampered by. If you want advice, many of us will be happy to help. I certainly would.

 

[Eluvan]

I appreciate the offer of help, Anabstercorian.

But... what can I say? I'm muleheaded I guess. I need to do this myself if I'm going to enjoy it, I think.