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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BiggusGeekus" data-source="post: 2779208" data-attributes="member: 1014">Sure.  There's a list of events with a numerical tracker going from 10 (hooray!) to -20 (whoops!)  If the group advances a level or two game months pass.  The tracker loses a point.  You can hold it steady by killing orcs (or converting them in a peaceful/roleplay/talkie game) Give me your best hard sell also please. What cool thing does your setting offer that, say, The Kyngdoms or Greyhawk don't? Tell me a story that has shaped the setting.</blockquote>I really need to sit down and read the Kyngdoms over.  But I won't compare ML to another setting just to avoid any kerfuffle.  I hate kerfuffle.But, OK, why ML over another generic setting?Moving away from setting and story, I would personally argue that ML was built with the meta game in mind.  I have yet to be in a group where everyone had a solid handle on the rules, everyone roleplayed to the hilt, and everyone could keep events in their head.  ML assumes a disfunctional group.  I touched on this earlier when I mentioned the two contries reserved for players who don't give a fig about the setting and just want to play.  That's carried over into the various dieties as well.  Things are set up so the powergamers and the roleplayers can work side by side.From a story standpoint what I like most about it is that the game is about the results of the actions of one wizard.  The game focuses more on current events than the action of thousands of years ago.  By rights the people of Launhym should hate the elves of Aeylamdyar, but they don't.  It's ancient history as far as they're concerned and they care a lot more about what's going on right now.   There's an immediacy, an urgency that's present in ML.But if you want a real story how about the halflings of the conquered nation of Home?  Home was a traditional fantasy Shire-like nation until the Empire invaded.  The halflings put up one of the best fights the Empire had seen, because the people of Home fought by night and with stealth.  Commanders would suddenly die, seemingly for no reason as a slow acting poision finally took it's toll.  The Empire responded with the help of the Imperial Academy for the Arcane Sciences and that's when things went bad for the halflings, they couldn't beat magic.  Things settled down for a bit and the halflings slowly integrated into the Empire as a military protectorate.  Fifty years ago from the present day, the Empire sent one of their Viceroys to discuss true integration as a province with one of the halfling sherrifs.  A hafling assasin, acting independently, slipped the Viceroy a relaxant in his drink to aid negotiations to get Home a better deal than they might otherwise had been offered.  The Viceroy had an unfortunate reaction to the drug and died from what should have been a mild sedative.  The Remarian military commander for Home had recently been assigned there after fighting barbarians in Desolati.  He still had the thoughts of a man used to seeing daily battle and treated the Viceroy's death as a military assult.  Thousands of halflings were rounded up and executed.Home now stands as disputed nation.  Officially it is still conquered by the Remarians.  About 1 in 5 halflings have accepted the Remarian Empire as their rulers.  Another 1 in 5 still consider themselve at war with Remaria.  The rest just try to keep their heads down.So there you go.  The mechanics of the game reflect all of this.  A rebel halfling would take the culture feat of Home and get some bonuses and the resultant social penalties to Remarians.  Remaria doesn't get any penaties against Home because Remaria is so freaking big that they can forget that halflings even exist.  And it underscores why the orcs up north will probably win when they invade: because nobody in the world of Murchad's Legacy really gets along with anyone else.I'm glad to see I'm not the only one doing this.  I think it's vital unless the DM has a specific plan or the group is doing a mega-module.  RPGs are all about choices (for me at any rate) and players should make as many as possible.Both of us also forgot Torg.  But that was more of a community thing.  Anyway, apologies to the board for the spammish post.  If nothing else, I hope I at least inspired you for your own campaign.Happy gaming![/QUOTE]

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