Historical Roleplaying Game based on EB

Imperators!

I had an idea that I thought I would put before the Europa Barbarorum community, since you are primarily the ones who would be interested. Its something that I've done in the past and enjoyed, and would like to again - and that is forum roleplaying.

I have the ability to create a message board for us, where we textually play as a given country from the EB time frame. For example, I could pick Epirus and roleplay as Pyrrhus:

Pyrrhus advanced into Macedonia with the intent to take Pella and place himself upon the Macedonian throne, thus expelling Gonatas. With him were twenty-thousand phalangites, though only about two thousand were Pezhetairoi as opposed to levies. There were also a thousand heavy skirmishers, and twice that number in toxotai. The King was well provisioned in cavalry, having brought skilled regiments over from Italy in addition to his own companions, with about five-thousand light and heavies, half going to either designation. Lastly, there were twenty elephants left over from Pyrrhus' old campaigns. His army came out of the Illyrian mountains, and with him all of his sons and they fell upon the plains of Macedon seeking battle.

Then the person playing as Macedon writes:

Antigonus Gonatas was not idle, having been forewarned of Pyrrhus' preparations by his spies. His response was to call up every man who he could, and use the treasury to arm those who could not afford their own gear. Even so he only managed to rally fifteen thousand phalangites, and not but a handful of Pezhetairoi to fight amongst them individually. Archers and skirmishers equal to Pyrrhus' would also be present in the battle, as well as the one arm the Macedonians still had that was well equipped - over two-thousand Companions led by the King's son Alkonyeus, and twice as many Thessalians. All in all there was doubt in the Macedonian King's mind in regards to his victory however, and that is why he sent emmisaries to the Thracian King of Serdike, who promised support. Decebalus was his name, and he would lay in wait in the forest nearby, ready to charge out with several thousand falxman, their deadly blades hopefully wreaking havoc on Pyrrhus' line.

The old general, Grandson of the One-eyed strategos of Alexander marched his men from Pella's gates. Would he return in glory or in shame?

And that's how it works. You would progress through the battle, each side meeting and announcing their dispositions and what not, then they take turns deciding what their forces are doing and countering their opponents moves. At the end (or at some point in the middle of the battle) an impartial moderator steps in and declares a victor and the casualties, or otherwise would declare that one person went too far in his most recent action, and asks him to rewrite his post in the spirit of fairness.

Characterization of your nation's characters is encouraged, but optional. By all means its interesting to read the diplomatic musings between Pyrrhus and the Seleucid emissary than to just hear an announcement on what happened between them!

All in all we don't just do battles of course, we can also deal with matters of diplomacy like I mentioned above, or deal with establishing trade routes, or whatever else you might do while controlling a nation in 272 B.C. Very free style. And speaking of which, you can pick any nation you want to that would correspond to 272 B.C. and be on the EB map. The first person who picks a nation will be designated as the 'Faction leader', and be allowed to roleplay that Nation's king, or leader(s). Other people who want to roleplay as that nation can, but they will have to take orders from the faction leader, but who says that you can't try to usurp him, right? :)

The purpose of this is of course fun, but also to go beyond EB. Without the R:TW AI there aren't as many dumb diplomatic moves, there is reasonably diplomacy, reasonable battles. It'll feel as if you're actually commanding a nation!

I will be posting an identical thread on TWC to see if anyone over there in interested. If I can get just ten people combined then I'll make the forum and declare ourselves officially in business. Any questions, comments or concerns about this idea are very welcome as well!

So this is like a hotseat or write up campaign? Doesnt this belong in the throne room?

No. It has nothing to do, specifically with the EB game aside from corresponding to the same time period. (Almost) everybody plays different factions opposed to one another.

The main reason its posted here as opposed to some place else was that EB was a major inspiration, and we're doing the EB time period, and people who play EB are more likely to be interested in this.

Sounds an awful lot like a hotseat/write up to me...and the Throne Room contains lots of EB PBMS and similar style interactive games...like this.

Except its not.

Explain to me how it isnt a hotseat, or at least a write up.

This does sound interresting. I wonder if this could be realised... (btw. what is a Hotseat?:sweatdrop:)

Its an interactive campaign game where one player controls each faction, and the swap the save, taking their factions turns and passing the save onto the next faction/player. It can only really be done on M2TW/Kingdoms but has been done on RTW before. Its amazing how all these people are interested in these write ups yet we get so little interest in the Throne Room PBM's even when we did advertise here.

Because no one physically plays a campaign. It is all 100% textually based, roleplayed over a separate forum which I will create, everything is made up on the spot with historical references, not digital representations like Rome: Total War. A hotseat game is where one person plays R:TW, saves their game, and then another person picks up and plays for ten turns and so on.

Its not really that hard.

This is just a 'interest-finding' thread.

So it is a write up.

No. A write-up is where you play a campaign and write about what happened and this is not what that is. You don't even click the Europa Barbarorum shortcut to play this game, its all online.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ravenic

No. A write-up is where you play a campaign and write about what happened and this is not what that is. You don't even click the Europa Barbarorum shortcut to play this game, its all online.

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You mean something like this?

I used to staff in that sim, btw.

Similar, yes.

This roleplaying board would more focus on nations rather than individual characters though. Europa Barbarorum Roleplaying Board, more or less.

Yeah, I've played many of that kind. I always wished to make a sim of RTW, but that would be a daunting task.

EDIT: However in the sims I played, battles are always conducted through mechanics, meaning you have a map, you put units on the hexes you want and give out general tactics. A GM will try to follow your tactics accordingly and according to mechanics developped for the said game, a side would win (Or retreat, or something else)

Yeah, it would. Would you be interested in participating though?

I have no intention of rigidly defining things, and keeping track of income. Alot of things will have to rely on an honor system, and an intelligent staff that can decide 'That's reasonable' or 'That's not reasonable'.

Virtually all sims I heard that ran through that system closed down when several players left complaining of GM partiality and favouring amongst other things. But sure, I think I might be interested.

Its not an easy thing to do, admittedly, though I am prepared to try hard to do it.

If anything I wouldn't be the only admin so there can be a second opinion on anything that is done.

pretty much the same as the throne room.
You don't have to play a physical char to play along there neither.

So it's the same

Except its not. Stop it. You're being annoying.

We don't write AAR's of anyone's game, we go onto a forum separate from 'The Guild' and roleplay there, on a scale beyond the 'Throne Room' that is harped about, which in and of itself is not an accurate comparison of what I'm trying to do.

If you aren't interested, fine. Just quit quibbling with me over designations - I officially announce that this thread has no place in the 'Throne Room', and anything that comes of this thread doesn't either. End of discussion.

Speaking of which, or rather about roleplaying.

Here is a blog with a Roman roleplaying + Skirmish battle campaign in the offing.

http://turbator.blogspot.com/

Feel free to provide feedback.

Edited to add, sorry to hog your thread, but it seemed relevant.

sounds rather fascinating, but how are wars/battles to be resolved? I don't expect the side that would obviously win just write stories on how their military campaign/battles progresses.

If you're asking about my concept, and not Macilrille's link, then its fairly simple.

Two sides decide to battle, they state the amount of forces they have, they list their armies' dispositions, and then follows a short period of posting between the combatants saying what their respective armies are doing, and then what they're doing to counter the other person's moves.

If one person can't admit defeat, or if neither refuse to withdraw from the battlefield then a moderator steps in and declares the results of the battle, or otherwise he would just declare how many casualties in total each army faced.