A new set of thoughts on how to bring Midgard back

[DreamWeaver]

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.

[Dark Shadows]

I feel that many of the listed Independent type factions should be included as well too, but I understand that they will be NPC only factions for a while. I am referring to the : Bandit, Pirates, Barbarians (SeaKings), Buccaneers, Heretics and anything else I might have forgotten.

If I were to get (6) clans to start with I would most likely run (2) Cymru, (2) SOA, and (2) Gift.

Maybe we should call out to see what people here might actually play just to get a feel for what we are talking about.

[FutureSojourner]

I like the idea of keeping the history the same but don't know why there needs to be a meteor.  Why not just restart the game based on the history within the rules.

Some comments on the factions:

Imperials. I would like to see the Imperials more willing to work with others and allow factional offices within the Preserves, especially the Religions.

I would like to see the original three Religions (Ring, Gift, and Banner) along with the Families (Getham, Roder, and Boda).  

The merc factions of MercVerk and SOA would be good additions but I would only like to see the MercVerk if they are like they were originally intended.  I remember MV Senior Cletus Graham from the 1980s and somewhere in my long term storage stuff I have a copy of the MercVerk "The Book" and "The Code."  I don't know much about the SoA, as I never played one.

Cymru, Seekers, Skelts, and Cult of the Dark One -- do we need these?

I liked the Blood and Fire and the Serkeanar but don't see them as essential starting out.  Maybe the Blood and Fire and eventually the Serkeanar.

I think the Order of the Hand is unnecessary, just the Ring is fine.

If we were permitted 6 clans I would play mostly Ring and Gift and maybe a Roder and Getham.

[DreamWeaver]

The reason to allow all the factions that were LIVE in a version of Midgard, is because players played them and wanted to play them and not the original core factions. Cutting out any faction that was live, runs the risk of not having a former paying Midgard player returning. Realize these other factions were stood up by paying players because the other factions for what ever reason failed the task of being interesting to a group of players. So I say just round out all of the factions and return them live to the game and put them all in Midgard and let the game happen.

[DreamWeaver]

I like the idea of keeping the history the same but don't know why there needs to be a meteor.  Why not just restart the game based on the history within the rules.

Some comments on the factions:

Imperials. I would like to see the Imperials more willing to work with others and allow factional offices within the Preserves, especially the Religions.

I would like to see the original three Religions (Ring, Gift, and Banner) along with the Families (Getham, Roder, and Boda).  

The merc factions of MercVerk and SOA would be good additions but I would only like to see the MercVerk if they are like they were originally intended.  I remember MV Senior Cletus Graham from the 1980s and somewhere in my long term storage stuff I have a copy of the MercVerk "The Book" and "The Code."  I don't know much about the SoA, as I never played one.

Cymru, Seekers, Skelts, and Cult of the Dark One -- do we need these?

I liked the Blood and Fire and the Serkeanar but don't see them as essential starting out.  Maybe the Blood and Fire and eventually the Serkeanar.

I think the Order of the Hand is unnecessary, just the Ring is fine.

If we were permitted 6 clans I would play mostly Ring and Gift and maybe a Roder and Getham.

Here are all the factions from Midgard USA. The Seekers came about in the next version of the Midgard UK game.

I am simply stating to just use the continent of Midgard. Place all the above listed factions on Midgard continent which is HUGE. Then simply allow the players to pick and choose what they select to run for their clans. With all these many choices you have a far greater chance to attract back the former players, and give new players many different flavors of factions to choose from and play. They all have value to the game and add a different flavor of play to the game that does fit in

[Steve Kort]

OK the key is not to just get people to start playing the game but to stay playing the game once they start. No one person is the same and will have the same desires. Even Penn and me who developed and were the driving force behind the Cymru don't agree on things as you have seen in our comments on these boards. Simply put if you do not have lots of choices of things to join or be people will either not join at all or start and leave. I can state for a fact 2 of the players I brought into the game originally started as Cymru only players and became interested in playing in various other factions in the game after close to a year. It was that variety of different things they were doing in the game that kept them playing in the game. Both would have likely left if they did not find these other things of interest. Things in Midgard creep along so having variety is key to keep interest. While I do think all factions should be available, I think what you should do is close off certain areas of the world especially since you will have no naval. Closing off the Imperial Homeland, Alfheim, Skelts, Seakings and Manchuria. This gives you the ability to down the road put them in as you see fit. But at least everyone will have choices and you will not have to worry about ruining factions that players are interested in playing in.

Ask yourself do you want players that will play and continue with the game or players that get tired of something and find no interest else where and leave. Most all these factions had people of interest of Zan would have never created or made them part of the system and if he had been healthy enough to run the game consistantly with out great pauses the number of players would not have dwindle nearly as much.

[Davin]

Ok, I like a lot of the ideas that have been summarized and proposed here, but let me first ask about the factions which seems to be the biggest issue.  My complaint is that there won't be enough players to make use of the factions while the consensus seems to be that there will be plenty of players.  I expect that most (90%+) of the player base in the early phases of the restart will be returning players rather than new players.  If we're going to have several players in each faction, and lots of factions, that means we're going to need 50-75 players to start (if they're all in different factions) or let's call it 25-50 players if they spread out somewhat.

So show me that we can get, say, a bare minimum of 25 unique players willing to pay hard cash to start playing again, and I'll open up lots of factions.  Does anyone want to start up a poll (formal or informal) on that subject?

[Davin]

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.

How do you propose to keep everyone from getting together and attacking the Imperials as soon as we start up, in an attempt to eliminate them from the continent?  I'd really like to avoid any "ganging up" situations on any faction.

[Davin]

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.

I don't have a problem with waiting an extra generation (or even two, depending on the severity of the after-effects) to give the factions, cities, and population more time to rebuild.

[DreamWeaver]

Davin,

A startup clan has 200 retainers … that clan will be hard pressed to take on a NPC Bandit. Let alone attack a city, to do that you would need like 8+ clans to take on a city together and even then they will all be IC troops in skill ability. If you the GM stop the huge give-aways and do NOT allow Combat regiments to be handed off, then it will be almost two years before anyone can seriously be a threat. Sure maybe a couple of players to band together to kill a single clan, but being that Midgard is so huge I think all the factions are safe.

My guess is you are going to scatter players all over the maps, unless they request a specific location (Map area), and even then most players will find a city and stay in place for quite a long time. Most folks will become builders and work on cities. Combat will be rare if it happens at all for a while. Those that do fight, will loose their shirts unless they really know what they are doing. So get a big bag of popcorn and sit back and watch what happens.