Should LotR End?

[TinCow]

This is an informal poll to gauge public opinion. Vote for everything of which you approve. As always, feel free to comment in more detail below.

[mini]

Well, mixed feelings:

I'm new, so I have yet not had the chance to 'matter' in this game. It's the only epic PBM around, so I do not want it to end because there is no alternative to turn to.

On the other hand, A lot of peepz are already much established and it's harder for new peepz to work their way up.
We're also dealign with less activity and even missing players.


In short: I don't want it ending, unless a new alternative pops up :D

[GeneralHankerchief]

I'd like to pose an additional question to all of you guys: Are any of you interested in stepping in as GM?

I think TinCow has made it pretty clear that's he's pooped from almost a year and a half of running a mega-PBM (ever since the Cataclysm in KotR) and he deserves a break. However, finding a new GM would be the best option as TC can get his much-needed rest and the players that want to keep this going can still do so.

[Zim]

If I avoided joining any new forum games, and there were enough players interested in continuing the game, and TinCow approved, I could do it, but only because much of the hard work (writing and playtesting the rules for example), has already been done by TinCow.

I would also require some assistance when it came to writing events...

I think the loss of players would be the toughest part. Let's say half of the players in the game now are interested in continuing. Then we have a huge Empire but relatively few players, and very few of the veteran players. This could be very good in that it would give new players room to grow or bad if the loss of activity had a rippling effect.

[flyd]

I voted for No, but resolve civil war with battle, although I don't know that a single battle will be possible to set up, since we have more than two sides and a rather complicated situation. I'm definitely for a quick and bloody resolution of the civil war, however.

[TinCow]

I would like to come to a conclusion on this one way or another before we continue play. So far we seem evenly split on ending the game or not. 6 want it to continue and 6 want it to end.

Zim, if you are willing, I am perfectly happy to hand over the GM position to you. You could easily 'reboot' the game with a smaller membership with an Event. First, we resolve the entire Civil War with a single battle where all 4 sides participate. Anyone who wants to bow out at that point could do so. An Event is then spawned which 'bankrupts' the Empire and resets the treasury to 0. The Event also gives the new Basileus the ability for a single turn to disband any units anywhere in the entire Empire. With this power, he should be able to balance the budget. Perhaps have several of the peripheral cities that are very far away from Constantinople rebel at the same time. The end result is a smaller Empire that will have a significantly reduced military, but will have a (hopefully) balanced budget. The size of the Empire will also be reduced and centralized, so that it is easier for a smaller player base to manage. The game could then go on from there and work could begin on regaining what was lost, dealing with the pending Mongol invasion, etc.

Thought?