Whenever a clan signs up for a faction and declares for a primary faction, should that clan be given these bonuses? Now a faction does get extra resources for each active clan that declares for it and remains active. So should the faction award each clan a signing bonus when a clan first declares for a faction? It has been proposed that this one time signing bonus should be the following:

1st One-time signing bonus for each clan that declares:

100 Retainers, 5,000 Crowns, 1,000 Influence 

2nd Declare for a specific faction as your Primary faction and have all 3 clans each declare for that same faction. The player chooses their Main clan and that Main clan gains a 2nd Primary Faction bonus:

100 Retainers, 5,000 Crowns, 2,000 Influence

Question for the Poll: How many Clans should players be allowed to play within the game? So far it has been stated that 3 seems to be the core value of clans. It has not been made clear how many clans the GM wants each person to play during the beta-test, but the 3 clan core value has been brought up as the value at game start. Now historically the range in the number of clans has raged from 3 up to 9 clans, and even then I hear that some had even more than 9+. So what is a fair number of clans to allow a player to actually play?  Some might argue allowing someone to play 9+ clan might allow someone to unfairly balance matters within the game. Those with deep pockets could certainly run a lot of clans and that could unfairly unbalance gameplay. The real question is what do each of you feel about this issue.  My advice is for each to take the poll and add a comment on what you think and why. I will start and do this myself after I set up this poll.

Question for the Poll: Please choose which factions do you want to see as an Open faction that a player can choose to play within the game from game start. It doesn't matter if you yourself wish to play that faction, but instead which factions do you feel should be available for any player to be able to choose to play if they so wish to choose that faction.

NOTE: The Naval side of the code will not be available, but if it were coded then would you like to see these factions available for Players to play.

• - Imperials 
  
• - Boda Family
  
• - Getham Family
  
• - Roder Family
  
• - Merk Verk
  
• - SOA
  
• - Cymru
  
• - Seeker
  
• - Buccaneers
  
• - Banner Religion
  
• - Gift Religion
  
• - Ring Religion
  
• - Order of the Hand Knighthood Religion 
  
• - Heretics
  
• - Independent
  
• - Bandits
  
• - Pirates
  
• - Blood & Fire Religion
  
• - Serkeanar Religion 
  
• - The Cult of the Dark One Religion
  
• - Barbarians (SeaKings)
  
• - Skelts
  
• - Guilds
  
• - Brotherhood (Mob)
  

Hi all. Anyone know of articles and/or reviews of Hyborian War appearing in online or print magazines? I've seen all the ones in "Suspense and Decision." And I saw the note in the other thread here about White Wolf #23. If anyone knows of other articles/reviews in recent or or old, out-of-print magazines like Dragon, Dungeon, Gaming Universal, Flagship, Paper Mayhem, Space Game/Fantasy Gamer, White Dwarf, etc., from 1984 to present please let me know! For a side project I'm working on. Thanks! 

Helm.

Hello everyone,

Over the last couple of days a few of us have talked about how best to restore the Midgard game. A number of us have talked on the phone amongst ourselves and have put together a number of points that I will present here nd now. The main goal is to preserve the game of the past as it mostly was, so that there is some consistency for all to be able to relate to. So that if a gamer that played in the past were to return they would  mostly recognize the game as it once was and realize much of what they once played was still there in some way or form. Now we also feel there are a number of matters that need to be redesigned or fixed so that the game can be a good game for all to enjoy and play again. So let's begin with what should happen.

Midgard Game History:
We feel that we should keep the history as it has been written in the past, thus the Imperials are invaders of Midgard. Now the only part of the history we advise to role back or change was the history of what has happened in game from the time of the Meteor strike.  Thus simply stated, the meteor struck and the continent of Midgard was virtually destroyed. All of it's cities were reduced to rubble or totally destroyed from a tidal wave or fires. Much was lost and many cities were all but totally wiped out or destroyed. Pick a number of years (20 -30 years) that it has been since that great devastation happened and state that the people of Midgard have started to stand up again and the many factions have started to try to extend their control again of the continent.



History:
The skies grew dark and a great ball of glowing red light steaked across the skies heading south over Midgard. It seem to hit the sea south of Midgard and north of Kalmar. At the point of impact, everyone was thrown off their feet. After the strike great waves came crashing inland and swept over the lands of Midgard. Many cities in the south were simply swept away. Meanwhile great earth quakes were felt across the lands everywhere and many cities were reduced to rubble and/or burned to the ground. Then those that managed to survive that had to endure a great long winter that lasted two years, leaving many to die from the elements or famine. Much was lost and most people just tried to survive. That was from the times of our parents(20-30 years ago), and now people have started to reform and rebuild from the ruins of the past. Some of the former political organizations have reformed again and have started to via for political control of the lands once again.

Factions of the Midgard game:
In our talks to a few players that once played this game, everyone wants their own beloved factions back again. We feel the desire and love of this game was the rich and diverse choices that were the factions of the game. Now in some cases some were tinkered with for what ever reason and a little bit of redesign needs to be done to fix those issues. We also feel that to make it appealing for everyone and to set the stage s everyone can and will return to the game, that all of the faction be made available from the beginning of game start. Now we do understand that the coding for the Naval side of things is not ready, but that would mean that two beloved factions will need to sit idle until that part of the game code can be completed. That would mean that the Barbarian SeaKings, and Buccaneers would need to be on hold until the Naval code is done.

We feel that the following list of factions all be brought back into the game and all located on Midgard and open for game play:

 - Imperials
 - Boda Familiy
 - Getham Family
 - Roder Family
 - Society of Arm (SOA)
 - Merk Verk
 - Cymru
 - Seekers
 - Skelts
 - Banner Religion
 - Gift Religion
 - Ring Religion
 - Order of the Hand (OOH)
 - Blood and Fire Religion
 - Serkenar Religion
 - Cult of the Dark One Religion

We feel that each of these factions in the past that did exist in various Midgard versions should be looked at and slightly tweaked to be brought back into the game from game start. We know that the GM wants to just have a small number of factions at game start but we feel this would be a great mistake and would cause this game to fail horribly. Having all of this diverse factional choices was what draws many players into the game in the first place. The GM has stated that he is hoping to get 3-5 players per faction, but we feel if he returns all of these factions that he will get a lot more than that.  Next we also feel that the GM should open it up to all players to run up to (6) clans per player.  This would allow people to play in multiple factions for more game enjoyment, which means more money for him and a better profit margin for him and the game's success. Speaking for myself with (6) clans I would most likely have: (3) Cymru, (2) Gift, and (1) Ring clan, and in the long run I would most likely want to run (3) cities as well too. Having just (3) clans really is not enough, especially for us former players that had like (15) positions in the end of Midgard USA version. Also I feel that the game turns should be every two weeks not once a month.  It would allow people a lot more better pace for the modern gamer enjoyment, than the old one month game turn. The game needs to hit the ground running and having lots of players with many choices with (6) clans each will give each person a lot of options to pursue.

Some game advice to the GM to stop abuse that we have seen in the past:

Ok with this rebut reduce all the cities in size, defenses, and city buildings. Wipe away almost all factional Offices and Temple and make most cities Independent.  Only have a small number of cities declared for ever faction scattered around the Midgard content. Next don't have anyone with huge resources to be handed out to players. Also have NO Factional regiments at game start. Just have the resources that are at hand and the factional clans. It will be years before a starting clan of 200 retainers can take on anything, let alone a city. Part of the problem in the past, factional resources and/or factional regiments were handed out to players like there was no tomorrow. It didn't matter what rank someone was, it was handed out like water to a thirsty man. I say to the GM, make players earn factional aid. Make the player's roleplay their clan's faction's goals and keep them in-check and on target. A lot of the abuse of the past was because the GM's didn't make people play the way they should play within the factions they were playing. Make them do the right thing.

Ok as I see it Factions should only be organised groups that all follow that all have common rules, beleifs and are structured.  They have one ruler that runs the group.  A true Organization not things that sometimes work together in a large group.


I bring this up because I see certain things that should not be considered factions just a variety of different independent clans as they are not truly structured.

Bandits
Pirates
Heretics
Mercenaries (for the Most part but this could be if they structured themselves like the MV in Midgard USA)
Barbarians
Vikings
Celts
Nomads
Raiders
etc.

These things almost always are clanish and are very likely to fight each other as well as others.  I see them just being different types of independent clans each with their own setup and design and skill set but no real organization that backs them.   This could be something anyone could play with out attaching themselves to a faction.

We need more structure with with the game design and go through a step by step advancement.  While I have seen many good ideas all of them could be great or terrible pending on how you are setting up the History of the game they may not all be able to fit after you make other decisions.  My assumption so far has been you are looking to reboot the game some time in the future of the past versions.  If this is the case we need to know certain things before we proceed. 

1)  How far in the future are you looking at?

2)  What if any events have taken place during that time.

These 2 questions must be answered before we proceed on to faction redesigns or ideas on what is available or how they were affected.  Also are you going to use the old existing maps or are you going to modify them?   You could greatly modify the maps by having some sort of cataclysmic event have taken place, also since you stated before of not starting with ships you could have the cataclysm having destroyed all the ports and greatly damage all coastal cities.  Wiping out all major ships and just now are they being rebuilt.

Now if my main assumption about the game being a future of the past ones, then my point is still valid as we need to know the history so we can accurately create things so they make sense together and individually.   After all enemies and allies will very much be decided by how the history of things are decided.

Until these things are decided discussing any sort of factions or how or what they may have or do is pointless and a waste of time and effort.  I personally will not be talking about factions and any modifications to them until these sort of guidelines have been decided.  As I will not waste time on things that will not fit in the history background that you decide to use at some future date.

Once basic history is decided then I think you discuss the major factions in the game.  Which I veiw as the Imperials, Boda, Banner then Roder, Ring, Gift, then the rest.

Davin,

I have talked to a number of people that have been reading our  forum and they seem to one constant comment. We need you to take a stronger defined direction for us to go in and a definitive direction that we are going to be taking.

1st: To start with are we staying with the prior game history of not?

2nd: Then if we are changing the history at what point does the history change? Are we scrapping all of it or at what point?

Once these two points are settled then it makes the redesign a lot easier to define that history and then the factions.

Speaking for myself I am for wiping all of the history away and rewriting it from the point of the Meteor strike and etc.

I just wanted to bridge this topic....

I have played Under (3) versions of this game, Midgard USA with Zan E. and then with the next two versions that were played in Midgard UK, and I have had many talks with Jon Capps on this topic. There have been various creatures discovered within this game that are not exactly of this world.

Some examples:

A creature like the Lock ness monster only this nasty critter would snatch men out of boats with it's nasty mouth full of long nasty teeth and drag them under water

Next we have a creature like Sasquatch or Bigfoot only this critter would attack men and etc.

Finally there was some great flying birds or reptile that would snatch people up and carry them away.

I am only pointing these out as it was fun to dig into these fun encounters and through special action dig into these situations to try and resolve therse plot lines that usually were  started by encounters by the GMs.  Zan loved this stuff, especial Ghosts encounters too. Like Haunted places and Armor.

I hope that Davin will consider such things like these and other things to also add into his game Midgard does not need to just be 100% real world based, it can have some Fantasy and Sorcery based stuff thrown into the mix.  Remember Alphiem, the home of the sudo Elven kind continent off the west of  southern Kalmar?

Mr. GM,

I understand you have not coded the skill system into the game yet, but could you at least just keep them listed in the text field as all the other game versions did? Many of us enjoyed playing with them around as aids for getting things done in Special Actions or a bonus in a combat situation. Plus it was fun to look for some skills and then going through the effort in the train in them. We could use this stop-gap to have them until you worked out a proper game system mechanic for them. We shouldn't lose time that we could be working on them in-game, while you figure out how to do it all. That could take 6 months or a year to work it all out.

Example (10) point skill startup setup for an Independent clan:

Leader: CMD-2, STR-1, CST-1, SGE-1
      F1: TAC-1
      F2: CTA-1
      F3: CTA-1, SCT-1, TRK-1 

Maybe the clan finds an NPC that can train in PCB-1, and he has all his characters train in PCB-1. He uses a SA each turn to continue his training in the skill to then add PCB-1 to all his characters with his clan and ends up with the following skill list.

Leader: CMD-2, STR-1, CST-1, SGE-1, PCB-1
      F1: TAC-1. PCB-1
      F2: CTA-1, PCB-1
      F3: CTA-1, SCT-1, TRK-1 , PCB-1


These skills help to define a character like maybe I do a SA stating that the F3 leads the Scout unit and they look into any unusual encounter or situation and investigate it as they SCOUT /0.