Text Narratives for the Kingdoms of Alamaze

[Maximus Dominus]

Rick asked me about picking up my pen, again, and while many are they who were Alamaze-stricken of old, I don't have intimate familiarity with the various positions.

Reformatting the rules will likely be a tedious and boring affair, but perhaps I can sort through it and get it done for the Old Man. I wasn't invited to participate in the Alamaze playtest, but Rick swears that updating the Alamaze rulebook will be loads more fun than playtesting the game, anyway.

So, here I am, but all that is largely beside the point of why I am posting this particular message.

Rick has also raised the prospect of the kingdom set-ups being revisited. In that regard, I am referring to writing new text narratives for game atmosphere's sake, rather than redesigning the individual kingdoms, per se.

Since Alamaze has a dedicated player base of old, I was simply curious if fervent opposition exists to my doing so. I'm getting too old to endure inquisitions, so I figured that I would try to head that off, up front.

So, speak now, or forever hold your Alamaze peace.

In all seriousness, let's hear what you Alamaze fans think.

[Kalrex]

Sounds like a lot of work unless you're just basically going to copy/paste the old rules and whatnot. Good luck with that.

I'm pretty familiar with the positions insofar as I remember my games quite well, nostalgia. If they're being left alone but you're just updating the flavor text, introduction stuff, that should be fun.

The turn 0 stuff "Superior" "Below Average" as far as the kingdom traits go is a good guideline probably to work with your spiel.

If you're going to write up a dossier type of deal for each kingdom, like FOR, I'd be happy to give my 02c when it's done.

If I could change the original "narratives" I'd mention the immediacy of how soon conflict could occur. New players were often caught off guard when they were under attack from the get-go. This is demoralizing in a lot of cases.

[Maximus Dominus]

Sounds like a lot of work unless you're just basically going to copy/paste the old rules and whatnot. Good luck with that.

I think that what Rick wants, where the rules are concerned, is less of a re-write and more of a re-formatting.

I think that the end result will look better, if I put it in PDF format, also.

[Lucky Tiger]

I don't have any problems with a rewrite of the narratives and I would be happy to chime in for the kingdoms with which I have memorable experience.

I think Kalrex is right about the immediacy issue in the descriptions. "War is upon us." I know that several of the positions rely on making that first strike to knock another kingdom back a few notches so to get ahead in a portentially contested region. In a game I played as a Troll I was either going to smash the Ancient ones right away or redirect them towards Arcania and the Demon Princes, either way I needed him out of the way from the begining. So conveying urgency will help set the right tone.

I look forward to reading your efforts and will comment where I think I can help.

[Lord Diamond]

Sounds like a lot of work unless you're just basically going to copy/paste the old rules and whatnot. Good luck with that.

I think that what Rick wants, where the rules are concerned, is less of a re-write and more of a re-formatting.

I think that the end result will look better, if I put it in PDF format, also.

I agree. I think everything should be pdf, including the turn output.

[Kalrex]

I dug out my newest rulebook. I think over time I had a couple different versions but Phil sent me one with some maps in the 2,000's-

It's decently formatted and not much of a slog. You have your work cut out for you though updating to where it probably needs to be circa 2013 and making it look good online...

I'd give that all of your attention before doing Kingdoms backgrounds or whatever. I'm not the boss though

I just remember the rules being an issue when FOR started out for newbie players. Even when they're well written it's a bit of work to play this sort of game. What makes sense to us doesn't always translate accordingly to a new player.

You also need to figure this code is "old school" and unlike FOR your turn submissions wont be corrected/show issues like the Java program does.