From: Flak Magnet <flakmagnet@t...>
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2004 15:30:16 -0500
Subject: Cross-Posted: Full Thrust Campaign: Week 1
This was cross-posted to local and international lists, thus the genericness of the post: Five players have embarked on the Full Thrust Campaign that I've been talking about for, oh, about six months: Brian Dave Jayson C. Jeff M. Patrick We started this past Saturday with a rough idea of how to proceed, an even rougher draft of the campaign rules and a whole lot of bottled bread[1]. Using the free Cyberboard program (http://cyberboard.braniac.com) to run the campaign map, I had figured out a way to do hidden movement, even though cyberboard is intended for use with board games and thus doesn't have hidden movement functionality. That turned out to be a nightmare for me (the referee) and we've since gone to a different way of doing things that makes the workload much lighter on me. Instead of my having to maintain different files for each player that only show what they should be able to see and then one for me, the guy that "sees all", I now maintain one file and create images from that file showing each player what they're ships can see on the campaign map. Each player then bases their orders on those image files and makes moves on their copy of the campaign map, sending me files that play back on my cyberboard file. This way, each player maintains their own file, and I maintain one "master" file that allows me to selectively show other players what's going on around them as appropriate. The first three turns of the campaign are in, and some interesting dynamics have occured already. We've had one player swarm over the campaign map taking 9 out of 30 planets with very fast, light ships carrying jump beacons. Another player has juggernaughted with larger ships around his home star system, laying claim to only two systems, but currently no-one is in a position to square off against him and win. Other players have their own strategies, but those are the two extremes. I think it will be interesting to see if the "swarm" player can hold any of his systems against aggression as the campaign progresses. The home-brewed campaign rules (we're using Full Thrust for the tabletop games) have some pretty serious rough spots, and a couple of players would prefer to stop the campaign, change some rules and start over, but we're forging ahead and giving this campaign a real go of it to iron out any other issues and further determine what works vs. what doesn't. Because of our use of Cyberboard, after the campaign is over we'll be able to re-play all of the campaign moves back and review the entire campaign. That's pretty cool. Once we've done that, I'll write up a campaign-AAR and post it on a site or something similarly exhibitionistic. I'll also be sure to share the home-brewed campaign rules we come up with, as well as the Cyberboard Gamebox I'll have developed by that time. -- -- Tim "Flak Magnet" http://geocities.com/flakmagnet72/ IMPORTANT: This e-mail is intended for the use of the individual addressee(s) named above and may contain information that is confidential, privileged or unsuitable for overly sensitive persons with low self-esteem, no sense of humor or irrational religious beliefs. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is not authorized (either explicitly or implicitly) and constitutes an irritating social faux pas. Unless the word "absquatulation" has been used in its correct context somewhere other than in this warning, it does not have any legal or grammatical use and may be ignored. No animals were harmed in the transmission of this e-mail, although the terrier next door is living on borrowed time. Those of you with an overwhelming fear of the unknown will be gratified to learn that there is no hidden message revealed by reading this warning backwards, so just ignore that Alert Notice from Microsoft. However, by pouring a complete circle of salt around yourself and your computer, you can ensure that no harm will befall you or your pets. If you have received this e-mail in error, please add some nutmeg and egg whites, whisk and place in a warm oven for 40 minutes. (Just so you know, the above is NOT going to be my.sig file, I just threw it in there to poke fun at a certain Mr.Kim who presumably at the mercy of his IS dept. and thus cannot avoid appending a "confidentiality" disclaimer to the ends of his emails.)