A new set of thoughts on how to bring Midgard back

[FutureSojourner]

Part of me thinks "so what" about spies.  The fun of the game is politics, power gaming, and deal-making.  I think there should be some parameters -- such as Imperials shouldn't play Barbarians or a OTG player shouldn't also be a Blood and Fire player... unless there was a good reason (and there could be).  Letting the players figure things out is what makes the game fun. I think we *might* be spending too much time focusing on this when it may just work itself out.  Players will talk.  I remember being on the phone with people talking about various plans in-game over the years.  I still think about stuff from when I played 20 years ago.  This game was one of the best gaming experiences I have ever had -- and that was barely a turn a month.  And for a while, it was often just a few a year.  The seniors will take care of things and if they don't there is always the veto of the #0.

Well, you may be right -- I may be over-thinking this.  It's just that I like to provide games that are reasonably "fair".  I think that as a player I'd go crazy if I was playing my best within the rules and had someone trash my old (and expensive) position by "cheating".  I'm just trying to minimize such occurrences.

I think the seniors could police things just fine if they noticed when problems occur.  I don't see any good way to help them figure out what's going on behind the scenes, though.  I don't suppose you've got any suggestions to help with detection/reporting, do you (short of my personally monitoring every move that every clan makes)?

Falling victim to betrayal is part of the game.  Where abuse comes in is when you have the Blood and Fire Senior #1 with three Gift clans building Blood and Fire temples - that's an easy fix... the retainers refuse and if pressed kill the clan leader and the player "gets the hint."  This is an abuse.

But imagine if a Getham player who has several Getham clans and an Imperial clan lets it slip that the Getham are providing a large sum of materials to the Imperials, and says this to a Boda player... I don't think that is a problem.  It is game information.  

The real problem of potential abuse will likely (just my opinion) happen between seniors.  For example, let's say I'm the Gift Senior #1 (which I would be just fine with) and I'm on the phone with the Blood and Fire Senior #4 who also plays a Roder clan.  I share with him that I am just about ready to finish a level 30 Gift Temple and talk about some cool aspects fo the city.  This player then tells the B & F #1 who starts to undermine my efforts in the city resulting in a huge spike in B & F influence in the city and I have no idea what just happened.  This isn't really an abuse but I have found over the years we senior players like to talk and sometimes we talk too much.  Still not a major issue.

A real abuse would be, the Imperials are planning a major offensive against a Boda city.  Let's say I'm the Imperial player organizing the offensive because I'm in the area and have the forces.  What if I am also, secretly, a Boda player who is also city leader of the city being sieged.  I intentionally give my units poor orders and deliberately set up the siege to fail. This is certainly a conflict of interest and should be avoided.  This tells senior players to KNOW who is in your faction!

I would recommend let it organically work itself out and handle extreme abuses if they happen.  The GM always controls the #0.

Oliver