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((While I can understand the need of a GM's break and also encourages it, I am simply astonished and speecheless by this sudden decision. Please reconsider. I'm sure most of us do not mind to pause the game for a few weeks rather than see it going like nothing. I beg of you.))
((While I can understand the need of a GM's break and also encourages it, I am simply astonished and speecheless by this sudden decision. Please reconsider. I'm sure most of us do not mind to pause the game for a few weeks rather than see it going like nothing))
((I highly doubt any plans of mine can have any results in 2 turn so I fear I must concur with your decision of ending the game here. This is the most dissapointing event of all this year so far. It leaves me... sad. And when I say dissapointing I speak only about the closure itself, not your decision or yourself because I do not blame you at all. I never meddle into real-life issues on forums. I know by experience how hard, inopportune and inconvenient they can be. You have my best wishes and I truly hope your next game come soon and last longer))
((That's very mature of you. Yeah I'll have another game up soon enough, but it'll be easier to manage I think. I still call this game a win as I was honestly just testing to see what worked with a hodge podge of previous game ideas smashed together.))
((Well I think iis just ended this came cuz I joined and he obviously hates me and doesn't want to be my gm....yet another case of classic iis razism))
((I understand that it requires so much time. Thank you for hosting this great game ))
(( Damn I was about to have a lot of action .I allied with the Cynians,Polskians and some Vika tribes to attack Abrana. Vikas would give me soldiers between 10k-40k,Polskians gave me 500 cavalry and financial support,and Cynians accepted to replace me as the Duke of Abrana. I would be a vassal of Cynia, assist Polskia against Urovenia, and let Vikas loot Abrana. Also I attacked Abranan trade posts for 500 gold from Sikmaland.))
((It would be fun if the epilogue could address some of the game's backroom dealings. I caught on to very little of that part of the game, playing a honourable faction myself.))
(( While I am saddened to see this end, I understand that this a lot of work and would like to thank you for carrying this on for as long you did. I am of the sme opinion of Marshall and would like to see some of the other backroom dealings. I know I did some.))
I'm sure many of you want to just know how the war goes but I don't have some great answer for that yet. I do plan for there to be a sequel but I'm not sure if I want it to pick up where this left off or not. If it will be a little bit in the future, or very far in the future. Either way it'll be sometime before the sequel, but GM burnout is a thing. I'm sure plenty of you are upset but that's just how it is. The Below are my comments on players, their ICs, along with info on some of the behind the scenes with them.
Aedan - as always Aedan is one of my favorite players in terms of his attitude and capabilities. Despite his position as a dealer in secret he never really plotted to kill people, or even double cross. He just sold information to the highest bidder, he is one of the few who never took action against the city. With the war beginning the Stipendiat Laes Jun Nemate of the Cognition Consortium was in a good position to become Tyrant. He had spent time in previous turns gaining allies amongst the Bevy, and even other Echelon members had thrown support behind him. The best thing that never came to fruition though was a letter. See in the first Tyrant vote Aedan was defamed by a letter showing he blackmailed oxfordroyale with knowledge about him being in correspondence with the king of Cynia. Aedan denounced it as a forgery, and then spent an order to replace it with a forged copy. That way if sneaky ever tried to test its authenticity it would fail, showing him a liar. Quite clever actually.
Alexander23 - Ever ambitious, but never wanting the Tyrancy. Arianne D´Horti-Mediza of Head of the D´Horti House and Leader of the D´Horti-Mediza Noble Compact; Northwestern Alliance, besides having a long faction name, was quite the innovator. Her workers created a new gun, and she sold defunct products to people to ensure the need for repairs. Most interesting was when Alexander offered to support DeMarchese's claim onf Falco Hold in return for most of its resources. It was also interesting the quick divide it made in the Echelon, and how both Alexander and Victor Darkstee started a shadow war against each other.
Baboushreturns - it is a shame the game ended so soon after Baboush came in, but as he stated I am racists, darn returns. . . *grumbles* Jokes aside he's usually fun to watch in other games, so it would have been interesting to see his pirate do more, had he been given the chance.
Barkardes - Barkardes simply had a rough break. He wasn't planning on betraying anyone, then he got an assassination attempt on him. Rovsea thought sending Barthirias' head to Cynia would somehow help relations, Gorganslayer being an assassin's guild leader was hired for the job. The first attempt was rushed which failed. Barkardes' IC, Barthirias the wise, then demanded to be made Tyrant. Once Ironhid G1's character made jests at the wounded man, followed quickly by both Rovsea and Gorgan's ICs, it Duke Dan "the man" swooped in and convinced Barthirias to join the rebellion. Unfortunately Gorganslayer was too thorough and went back to finish the job. With a new character, same disenfranchised faction, Lythor went to gather support. The deals he made where as follows. Polskia would offer 500 soldiers, along with some provisions in return for his newly installed government to prefer trade with them over Urovania. Sikmaland used him as a mercenary to hinder Abranan trade for a turn. King Stephen II of Cynia promised him Abrana as a vassal, should he prove useful. Not to mention getting 10 Vikas tribes to swear to him.
BlackBishop - I like BlackBishop. He's a good GM and a good writer. His IC was also very nice, he just couldn't do much as he was busy.
Corman50 - Never plotted, well except to capture a potential traitor. That means something in a game like this. Corman did quite well for himself. He managed to gain more respect from his peers, and get land confiscated from Barkardes after he tried to rebel. He was also very much a man of action, his IC. Leading a force into Falco Pass and getting into a bloody fight. Then being quikc to demand an assault on Cynia once war was declared, rather than cower behind walls.
Dadarian - It's a toss up between Da Tinfaas Tuffs and Knights Fenurwth when it comes to my favorite faction for this game. The Tuffs are simply fun to roll for. They had stolen and smuggled items from the guard becoming modernized themselves, and even attacked the city guard outright multiple times to show "hwo da boss." Then dadarian proclaimed himself King o' Portside, after Luftwafer never dueled him. Good thing though Dadarian had orders to just shoot Luftwafer's character in the face if he came in armor, if he won, and Dadarian would have killed Luft's character if he had won. Dadarian captured the seedy underside of the lower classes of Abrana, he even an accent for them. Two notable times he was hired for jobs was, when Rovsea used him to steal documents from Duke Dan during a trial, and when Alexander paid him to kill off members of the Boatmen.
Demarchese - another character that never tried to screw anyone over. It's funny, a few people had made plans to kill Lady Victoria once the whole Falco Hold inheritance thing came up. Demarchese just wanted to chill in the manor itself, everything else was meaningless. Not to Victor or Alexander though. Both saw Falco Hold as a means to an end, and as such worked hard to keep the other away. DeMarchese just sat in the eye of the storm investigating into the Iron Giants, a Caravan that was attacked, and other such things instead.
Duke Dan "the Man"1 - a fine example of both having a plan backfire, and just rolling with it. Duke Dan's first character had secret ambitions to become king of Cwynburgh and the Erie Marsh, or so he told me once. He ended up in a position to play multiple factions against each other. Rovsea, Oxfordroyale, and Gen. Marshall versus Corman50 and Luftwafer. His hope was to essentially discredit them all with this ploy, it was a gamble and it failed. What made it worse was he didn't believe the allegations against Oxfordroyale, having sold Cynia information on Plutonium95's IC. He warned oxford, which resulted in oxford going forward with his plan. Duke's plot was found out and he was sentenced to a trial. He inevitably lost, also being branded a traitor. OOCly he seemed to have decided to roll with it. He had captains in his faction start a revolt. Even managing to drag Barkardes to his side. The revolt did fail but it left its mark to degrees. It showed a clear problem with the Echelon members having too much power, and being too willing to betray the city. This was never fixed as you'll see later on in the post. Then he rerolled as a merchant from Sikmaland. Quickly he made multiple deals, just like a merchant, and married up with Rachel Tolly. He also had a plan at first to kill off Rebecca Tolly, making his wife Lady of Tolly Manor. That plot never really started but it's important to note just how shrewd a player he was. Great IC Dan, was fun to watch.
Galren - quite the pacifist, despite the human sacrifices. Galren played as the leader of a major religion in the nation of Abrana. He didn't do a lot of ICs yet those he did helped form a foundation for what druidism in Abrana was like. He also tried very hard to not screw over other people. HE spent a lot of his own resources to help feed the city and protect Kart Dale from raids with his signal tower system. You've got to respect that about him.
Gen. Marshall - When the Bronzecloaks came on the scene they quickly made a name for themselves by being honorable guards for contracts. During the rebellion they showed themselves to be loyal and brave. Most notable is how they formed close connections with the Tolly's. Though their contract did run out the Tolly's being the nice family they are let the Bronzecloaks stay and build lumbercmaps and even a small wooden fort right next to them. When Abrana two picks up I'd like to see if the Bronzecloaks continue their work.
Gorganslayer - the busy bee himself. Gorgan played as an assassin's guild. He worked very hard to assassinate his way into the good graces of a few bevy members. He spent most of the game with 10% of the bevy in his pocket. The most notable things he did was his assassination of Barkardes, and his infiltration of the Boatmen. See early on the Boatmen attacked his agents. Gorgan used his IC, Cartyr, to investigate this. It took him three turns, afterwards he poured a lot of energy into getting double agents and spies. He actually got tiny bits of information on Victor Darkstee's orders. He really wanted to get most of his agents in and then coup. Then alex and aedan had a proposition. See alexander23 paid Aedan77 for information on the boatmen. Gorgan turned out to be the perfect source for that. I'm not certain if alexander knew gorganlsayer was the actual information source but it didn't matter. Alexander23 used that information to have Dadarian try and cull the Boatmen, if not for Luftwafer's unwitting conflicting orders, he might have succeeded. Yes people there was shadow war between the Apothecary Guild(Boatmen) and the Assassin's Guild (Guild of the Murderous Night), since turn 1. He also last turn tried to get in on Cynia's good side. He essentially wanted to have Cynia invade Abrana, and have himself made governor of the city after the war. Quite the mischievous fellow.
Ironhide G1 - I liked ironhide's IC. Not because it was full of intrigue like Victor Darkstee's, betrayal like Duke Dan's, or just plain crazy like Mikkel Glahder's, but because it was just of a shy nobleman. It was quaint. His IC revolved around a man who simply wanted to do what he could to improve his character, rather than station as he considered that good enough. I give ironhide some credit because he killed off his character. Lord Wallace Tolly didn't need to die. When that raid happened during the rebellion though Ironhide figured it was ripe time for some good IC. Afterwhich we gained three new characters. Rebecca Tolly, Rachel Tolly, and Nelson Tolly. Keep writing ironhide.
Luftwafer - one thing drove this player, martial bonuses. He loved his martial bonuses and it showed. If Luftwafer's faction had gained alex's arequebeus he would have been neigh unstoppable. Luftwafer took the forces of Adwick hold and worked really hard to just make them stronger. OOC he butted heads with another player, sneakyflaps, on what defenses the city should build for its resources. Still he worked to improve the city, he was loyal to it. All he wanted was to protect Abrana, all other power plays were nothing should the city fall to him. Great work Luftwafer.
Mikkel Glahder - vicious, creepy, shrouded in rumors. The Knights of Fenurwth were always enjoyable to read. Most enjoyable was getting to make up tall tales for them. The Iron Giants who rode mounts of shadow and attacked out of nowhere. The joke on IRC was that Mikkel was undoubtedly the only trustworthy player because he was the only one that was upfront about wanting to kill another player. He brought a certain grotesqueness, aberration quality to the game. Giving a strong sense of other, which made many players of the western side of the map unite. Without Glahder's knights I'm certain the players of Kart Dale would have been fighting each other just like those of the city proper had been. Mikkel, a force for unity.
Noco19 - Noco joined up but he eventually left as he was too busy. Nice seeing you were interested though.
Oxfordroyale - how could have known just letting some information slip would cause such a problem. One letter to the king of cynia and then an open rebellion? Well Oxford didn't cause that, he was simply blamed for it for a while. He had spent time working on kidnapping the exiled claimant to the throne of Cynia, Plutonium95's IC. When he kidnapped plutonium it caused a bit of an uproar. Sneakyflaps came in and gave a better deal. It was less money, but a marriage to one of his IC's sisters, and a promise to have Varham once the great fortress was built. After which Oxford accepted and went to Sikmaland. There he spent time working for Abrana's trading rival and found out some things. Most of his contracts revolved around either discrediting Abrana or causing strife with Cynia and Abrana. Most notable was his raid on Cynia, with other Abranan born mercenaries. The very thing that lead to war. He didn't think Abrana would lose, and it was just a job. With the war on he knew Abrana would need men, and so in exchange for a pardon he offered his services. I liked Oxford's IC, it felt like one of those mercenary companies of Italy which took over a city state the captain naming themselves the leader.
Plutonium95 - Plutonium's IC had a lot of potential. I thought he had quit at one point because he wasn't sending orders. Then he came back to life, and went to work. After an embarrassing kidnapping, he regained himself and spoke to the Echelon. He did work through two ICs. Richard the Exiled and Anne. Richard had actually managed to gain a lot of support amongst the Vikas tribes that bordered Abrana. A tug of war for influence soon began between him and Barkardes. Anne was more interesting actually. She worked on a plot to assassinate her husband, well worked to have it ready should the need arise. She felt very much strong armed into the marriage, and decided that once a male heir was born, Count Henry wouldn't be as necessary. . . . great having you Pluto.
Rovsea - his IC has to have had the most progression. At first all Rovsea really had was a Mayorship of a town across the bay. What he found out is that with the early stats system he could exploit food and get a lot of money, money makes the world go round. He also heavily purchased other players as mercenaries as a defensive force. This backfired with Duke Dan, and oxford to a minor extent, but he did regain his town back soon enough. Not initially on the Echelon he did become a member, just not allowed to vote for a short time. He still did a lot, he worked to improve relations with Cynia quite admirably. Sometimes it worked out quite well, like the trade expedition, and others not so much, see Barkardes. Still he always seemed to be working toward improving Abrana as a whole, rather than just his tiny section of it. Excellent IC.
Sneakyflaps - Sneaky had an interesting positon. His bonus gave him lordship of a sizeable portion of land, which he tried to actually make useful. With a hefty donation of resources he went to building a new innovative fortification for the city, which he would the Palatine from. He did finish it just before the game ended. The most controversial thing he ever did was cutting that deal with oxfordroyale, though it did keep Plutonium95 out of Stephen II's mitts. Nice IC sneaky.
Terraferma - smuggler made revolutionary. Later on in the game Terraferma believed that war with Cynia was inevitable. His response to this was to gain support for Plutonium95's IC, without plutonium's knowledge. He had actually managed to gain about 14 lords, who should pluto go to fight Cynia, I would have rolled a die to determine 5000-10000 soldiers for each one would be raised. Creating a northern revolt. That coupled with the viaks tribes Plutonium had, plus Abrana being at war with Cynia, would have been quite powerful. Terra also though helped get Oxford and the Sikmaland mercenaries past Abrana into Cynia for their little raide, that lead to the war. I don't know if Terra knew this would happen, but it happened all the same. I liked Terra's smuggler quite a bit as he seemed to want to ensure Cynia's defeat, and did what he did best to do so. Gather intel, and smuggle supplies to rebel lords. Superb work Terra.
Victor Darksee - turn one victor darkstee stealth killed a good bit of Gorganslayer's agents. He never followed through on it, nor do I know why he did it, either way it lead to a shadow war between the two. Well a cold shadow war, it really only heated up once Alexander, and Dadarian got involved. The big issue with his IC was whenever the debate for who should have Falco Hold, he wanted it to be made that all of sudden his character had an inheritance claim on it. I only allowed it because DeMarchese was okay with it. OOC aside it didn't mean too much in the end for that vote. Then Darkstee went the route of Barkardes and Duke Dan. He went to Tirith to begin worsening relations and trying to convince them to attack Abrana and take that land. His IC was interesting, and he certainly did some impressive work. I mean he essentially defeated the entire Galatii Horde with one murder, impressive stuff. Good work.
Former Players: 2kNikk - Quit/ his IC seemed interesting so it's a shame to see he didn't keep on. He had spent a plot to start working on gaining influence in the bevy so he could rise to power. Would have been interesting to see.
Deaghaidh - Quit/ alas real life got in the way and deghaidh couldn't keep playing. I kept his faction and character as an NPC in the echelon though in memory of him.
DutchGuy - Quit/ DG wanted to sow chaos. As such he spent quite a bit of his orders when in game trying to wreak havoc and create rifts. Little did he know the players would do that on their own. I like to think though that he still did his part.
Gerhard Lindt - Quit he left the game very early. Which is sad I wanted to see what he would do with his landless thief.
Korona - Kicked for Inactivity/ Korona can do some good work so I'm sad he stopped playing.
Teep - Kicked for Inactivity/ I just don't know what happened to this player. They were in the sign-up and then nothing. Then I had to kick them for inactivity. It could have been interesting with his Mint faction dealing with Alexnader's.
((You ruined my plans. If I had gotten a Mini in on my trade mission to Cynia and you hadn't mucked about I might have just prevented the entire war to begin with. I'm also somewhat certain that I could have gotten a good deal of the Bevy's support for an Echelon vote. Really fun and interesting to see what everybody was doing on the sidelines. And yes, my character's primary motivation was really just to better Blackborough and by extension the City of Abrana. Definitely a fun game, and a good proof of concept. I like to think that we actually ended on a cliff hanger, which must needs be addressed next time. ))
((Was a very nice game Broke, I was saddened when I found out that it would never last long, and as such my master plan would never come into play, would have been glorious. Or Anne would have killed me, we will never know.))
((I know this is probably a bit late, but I wanted to say I had fun in this game. I really wish I could have done more ICs, but I ended up being too busy to do so.))
))
