Hello all,
Games start up and then go kaput for a very simple reason: it's a lot of work for a GM, and gvenerally they don't appreciate this until they get into it. I speak from experience, having started a game, and having to abandon it due to lack of time.
However, a year later I came up with another game, and with the experience of the previous failure, was able to know the amount of work I could handle, and adjust the rules and orders procedures to fit. This game is "Res Dura," which is set in 1880s Europe. Any frequent pbemers will know that games often collapse when a large war starts - since the workload for the GM increases dramatically then. Well, this one has 30 players, 18 countries, and a Great War, and is going strong with weekly turns, each newsletter having about 4,500 words.
It CAN be done. It requires someone who is, in the words of one of my players, "dedicated, knowledgeable and objective." I do not fault other GMs for lacking the time or interest to do this. It's simply a matter of time. You have X hours free a week which you're willing to spend on the game, and it takes Y hours a turn to resolve. If Y is greater than X, the game cannot be weekly. Also, resolving a game turn can become like homework - the longer you leave it, the more forbidding it seems!
What I am saying is that I can GM a game such as this. But not now. Res Dura will take another six months or so to run. I could look at running a game in September. That may seem hopelessly far away now, but will arrive sooner than you think, and it seems to me that Celandra is a game of such large potential that many GMs will be put off running it. Most prefer just more complex versions of RISK.
I would also give months before a game start, even if I were not running Res Dura, because it's best to be completely prepared before jumping in, GM and players both. Res Dura took about six weeks of preparation, but that game deals only with economics and war - the players deal with the politics and diplomacy - and not culture. Additionally, I based it off existing rules, which I took time to simplify.
The one caveat is that I am html illiterate. I run Res Dura off a yahoo group. There, I can stored all the maps, and so on. It doesn't look too impressive but the information is there.
I should like to begin a correspondence of discussion between players, and other GMs, concerning the running of the game, and the possible set-up. My own preference is for my own world, begun from ground up, and a world of only humans, and no magic to speak of. There's enough drama in the mundane world without magic, and humans can be more alien to us than any non-human race.
Best regards,
Kyle
kas@alphalink.com.au
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