On Tue, 28 Oct 2003, Robert Fry wrote:
> asking a lot of questions mostly to be sure I understand how my actions
> and the game work together.
Ok. Notice that I have only resolved partially the results
of your latest actions: the 'results' and 'interpretation'
are both missing - below, you deal with both of them.
> If I could have the ideal results of the turns so far, I would want us
> to already know a quick, reliable means of communicating between ships
> -- but one that is limited to line of sight. This would certainly
> explain some of our supposed naval superiority. The research, however,
> would be producing spells that allow for similar communication with
> unseen recipients -- including people halfway around the world or the
> Gods. (Is this OK? If so, then we now have one person who knows the
> secret of this, right?).
Basically, yes. Essence magic works more or less like highly
advanced technology on Celandra: it is (usually) reliable, but
requires a lot of training. Unlike technology, the investment
is mainly on training, not on materials. Like technology,
having one man proficient is not really enough: that one man
needs to propagate the knowledge and know-how to a number of
other people. That's mainly hard work, but not without a chance
for failure.
> If it is, then I'm just left with the problem
> of interpreting how a failure might manifest. (Correct?)
A single failure (like on this turn) in a strategic action
mainly just postpones any results a bit: there can be any
number of obstacles on the way. In this case, say, the
man with the new knowledge is waylaid, or sick. Or he
fails to teach the thing to others for various reasons.
If the result would have been a very serious failure
(something like -4 or above), it might cause a setback
for the project. For example, the person with the knowledge
disappears, or the magic only proves to work for him.
Or there's a hidden snag which brings the project to square one.
Notice that I didn't add the '-2' to the success pool: instead the success
pool still has that one missing slot ('x').
> Is 'The Ka'Shari learn that this new communications method has two
> limits: it can only communicate between two people who know each other
> personally, and it requires learning a new mind-set to work'
Hmmm... that's a nice interpretation. Let's use that :)
But notice that the action as a whole has not yet been
completely resolved: there's still the one missing slot.
> sufficient
> to describe a (-2) failure? Or, perhaps, it's this very failure which
> created the 'vision' you describe in the start of the next turn? In that
> case, I hope we now have (say) 2 people with the skill, so I can at
> least point to the fact it can be used practically?
Well, it can be used in some small way.
> As for the mixed results for learning about dragons -- do you have a
> preference for how that works out?
See the web page: I have now added the result description.
> Finally, we also got mixed results regarding building a shipyard in E.
> Torphan. How about: A basic dock is constructed, but the harbor needs
> dredging before it can accommodate a drydock - and local labor is not
> as forthcoming as had been hoped?
Yeah, that sounds about right. I added one small bit on the web site.
juuso
----------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
