The big end...
Reflecting on the end of Maelstrom I am quite sad in a way that it has finished but at the same time I do think that because there was in the end a finite time for it, it has added to the spectacle of it all.
From the beginning there was an air of excitement about it as a game. The video advertising it and the almanac that came out in a pack were very different from other LRP systems that had gone before it in terms of style, and the desire for those running it to make a better game were lofty ideals that I think were in the main mostly achieved.
There were casualties along the way. Not so much for me but I have friends in other groups that really struggled at the beginning with how the game worked in terms of support for their part of the DT system and the attitudes of other players, treating them as a monster crew rather than other players. There were things that we heavily bet on as a group that got nerfed, leaving us in the lurch- but in a good way; gave us new challenges.
The one thing that I have been constantly amazed with is the facets to the game in terms of what was going on depending if you were colonial or native, then if you were particularly religious or not, unliving or fallen or loyal. When I've taken the time to talk with others the feel has been they really are playing another game.
The one thing I do readily accept was that it had the potential to be a bit of a marmite game. People have tended to love it or hate it. I think in some respects it reveals a bit about you depending on your reaction. For me I loved it because it was a different kind of game. When I first started playing Maelstom I was doing the LT as well, both are very different games. Maelstrom lacked the mass battles and waves of PvM attacks, where as the LT lacked the downtime system and ease of character advancement.
It is an interesting observation that some friends that really like PvP aspects of games didn't warm to that in Maelstrom. I'm not entirely certain why that was the case but it would be interesting to know, I've had conversations with people and got details which are sensible at the time but maybe some people just don't warm to things.
However over time my tastes have changed I think in terms of what I want out of LRP and what I want from games. I expect more as customer and after a while I was only really getting what I wanted from Maelstrom.
The other bigger surprise from the end of game de-brief which really does kick the whole there wasn't much point in playing if you weren't there right from the start thing into touch. At the end there were about 20 characters that had been played from the first event. And almost exclusively to my knowledge the individuals with the awesome cool super powers or top of the tech trees, started playing about half way through. So basically anyone who says otherwise is just wrong end of. A bit unilateral of me but of late I've discovered that there are plenty of others out there who are more than happy to be so black and white over issues, that I'm going to be the same as well on this.
As far as what I was up to there are so many things to talk about its a little difficult to know where to start all together.
The group concept at the outset didn't really stand up to the rigours of the game. We were an off shoot of the Rantsin Vollery from the old world, and we wanted to try and control controbando trade from the old world. Sadly it wasn't really an option so we concentrated instead in going straight and getting rich instead.
The one thing that gave us a massive edge in achieving what we did was that as the Alkonian Colony, there was only the one group that everyone belonged too and we all pulled in the same direction. The cultural background pushed us towards running the colony as a trade house runs itself with the concepts of volleries, pseudo guilds that specialise in one form of trade/art/service provision etc. So the entire colony all worked towards that end, which meant very little effort was wasted.
We conducted ourselves in a fairly low key manner and due to how events unfolded we were more or less using one of the Sacuza groups as a front for about half the game. We also went to great lengths not to annoy anyone or get into any fights with other colonial or native powers, until we wanted too.
The other secret of our success I think was working with the Natives rather than against them. We were on the whole surrounded by ophidian tribes so were able to talk to them to resolve issues and find common ground.
As Salvatore I lied, cheated and swindled my way around despite being for the most a merchant follower (I switched to serpent for the last few years), telling myself I was using my god given talents. For me the highlights were the night the casino got the rules wrong at the casino stud poker and I cleaned up massively. When I gobbed off at about 20 bushi on my own and was so rude I got away with it. Buying one of the first blunderbusses produced, and then accidentally shooting one of my group members in the face with it, and thus immortalising the line "guns aren't toys Sal". Kicking seven shades of S*** out of the Rukh colony and then the resulting IC bad blood after it. The letters system back and forth between the new and old world, and the resulting tasks and massively exaggerated responses. At debrief at the end and Matt P explaining what was going on, actually knowing a surprising amount of it IC.
I'm immensely proud of what we achieved as the Alkonian colony. Back in the old world we kickstarted the industrial revolution, created a period of massive stability and increase of value in the Ducatto, leading to most of the trade house either or about to moving their head offices to Vabre. Alkyon finally being able to invade Schaffhausen successfully, and (I'll admit I'm not sure about this) either invading or buying up large parts of Flambard.
In the new world we had a production capacity equal to several of the other colonies combined in terms of cash crop production, a fairly hefty and effective army, we had the largest colony by territory, so for a real world comparison the Alkonian colony was slightly larger than Wales. We had the largest head of population of all the Colonies.
Basically we were awesome and the game was awesome.
From the beginning there was an air of excitement about it as a game. The video advertising it and the almanac that came out in a pack were very different from other LRP systems that had gone before it in terms of style, and the desire for those running it to make a better game were lofty ideals that I think were in the main mostly achieved.
There were casualties along the way. Not so much for me but I have friends in other groups that really struggled at the beginning with how the game worked in terms of support for their part of the DT system and the attitudes of other players, treating them as a monster crew rather than other players. There were things that we heavily bet on as a group that got nerfed, leaving us in the lurch- but in a good way; gave us new challenges.
The one thing that I have been constantly amazed with is the facets to the game in terms of what was going on depending if you were colonial or native, then if you were particularly religious or not, unliving or fallen or loyal. When I've taken the time to talk with others the feel has been they really are playing another game.
The one thing I do readily accept was that it had the potential to be a bit of a marmite game. People have tended to love it or hate it. I think in some respects it reveals a bit about you depending on your reaction. For me I loved it because it was a different kind of game. When I first started playing Maelstom I was doing the LT as well, both are very different games. Maelstrom lacked the mass battles and waves of PvM attacks, where as the LT lacked the downtime system and ease of character advancement.
It is an interesting observation that some friends that really like PvP aspects of games didn't warm to that in Maelstrom. I'm not entirely certain why that was the case but it would be interesting to know, I've had conversations with people and got details which are sensible at the time but maybe some people just don't warm to things.
However over time my tastes have changed I think in terms of what I want out of LRP and what I want from games. I expect more as customer and after a while I was only really getting what I wanted from Maelstrom.
The other bigger surprise from the end of game de-brief which really does kick the whole there wasn't much point in playing if you weren't there right from the start thing into touch. At the end there were about 20 characters that had been played from the first event. And almost exclusively to my knowledge the individuals with the awesome cool super powers or top of the tech trees, started playing about half way through. So basically anyone who says otherwise is just wrong end of. A bit unilateral of me but of late I've discovered that there are plenty of others out there who are more than happy to be so black and white over issues, that I'm going to be the same as well on this.
As far as what I was up to there are so many things to talk about its a little difficult to know where to start all together.
The group concept at the outset didn't really stand up to the rigours of the game. We were an off shoot of the Rantsin Vollery from the old world, and we wanted to try and control controbando trade from the old world. Sadly it wasn't really an option so we concentrated instead in going straight and getting rich instead.
The one thing that gave us a massive edge in achieving what we did was that as the Alkonian Colony, there was only the one group that everyone belonged too and we all pulled in the same direction. The cultural background pushed us towards running the colony as a trade house runs itself with the concepts of volleries, pseudo guilds that specialise in one form of trade/art/service provision etc. So the entire colony all worked towards that end, which meant very little effort was wasted.
We conducted ourselves in a fairly low key manner and due to how events unfolded we were more or less using one of the Sacuza groups as a front for about half the game. We also went to great lengths not to annoy anyone or get into any fights with other colonial or native powers, until we wanted too.
The other secret of our success I think was working with the Natives rather than against them. We were on the whole surrounded by ophidian tribes so were able to talk to them to resolve issues and find common ground.
As Salvatore I lied, cheated and swindled my way around despite being for the most a merchant follower (I switched to serpent for the last few years), telling myself I was using my god given talents. For me the highlights were the night the casino got the rules wrong at the casino stud poker and I cleaned up massively. When I gobbed off at about 20 bushi on my own and was so rude I got away with it. Buying one of the first blunderbusses produced, and then accidentally shooting one of my group members in the face with it, and thus immortalising the line "guns aren't toys Sal". Kicking seven shades of S*** out of the Rukh colony and then the resulting IC bad blood after it. The letters system back and forth between the new and old world, and the resulting tasks and massively exaggerated responses. At debrief at the end and Matt P explaining what was going on, actually knowing a surprising amount of it IC.
I'm immensely proud of what we achieved as the Alkonian colony. Back in the old world we kickstarted the industrial revolution, created a period of massive stability and increase of value in the Ducatto, leading to most of the trade house either or about to moving their head offices to Vabre. Alkyon finally being able to invade Schaffhausen successfully, and (I'll admit I'm not sure about this) either invading or buying up large parts of Flambard.
In the new world we had a production capacity equal to several of the other colonies combined in terms of cash crop production, a fairly hefty and effective army, we had the largest colony by territory, so for a real world comparison the Alkonian colony was slightly larger than Wales. We had the largest head of population of all the Colonies.
Basically we were awesome and the game was awesome.