Discussing BWs

[Red Fox]

...A mod in the Boardwar Section? Impossible! Rusty and Langy have spawned a new leader of our kind! All Hail the sword wielding monkey of moderation!

Congratulations on the promotion man!

[Sevorak]

I intend to prod him obsessively with a stick until he listens to me. Which will never actually happen. But there you go. :D

Btw, congratulations.

P.S: You can't delete this now, can you? Haw haw. >_<

[TheLoneKnight]

This is clear evidence that Dyntheos has never visited the Boardwar section. Ever. :p

[Sword_Monkey]

Well he did make additions to the rules, so I think Dyn has some idea...

[BrianGeneral]

You know, now I want to beat him up......Well, I mean congrats.:P

[Sheep]

Congratulations Sword, you have become Mod of the most hardest sport on the world, one which tests the abilities off every individual and sets a new high for all, the sport which requires the most endurance, and the most pain. That is off course, boardwaring....

:p

[BmB]

A moderator? What was wrong about total anarchy and chaos?

I like chaos.

Congrats.

[crawford'n'co]

"HeaR no evil, see no evil, speak no evil..... HAVE NO FUN!" I liked this better without a moderator. BTW, Congrats.

[Gorb]

You know, now I want to beat him up......Well, I mean congrats.:P
I felt the same way after I applied, but then I realised my application worked. My entire post was begging for a mod for BoardWars :D


Also a slightly heavier hand (that is this section will actually be actively moderated) on stupid posts will be coming into effect, you shouldn't notice too much difference to your boardwarring experience.
Damn. You mean I can't post stupidly?

Damn :p

[Sword_Monkey]

The heavy hand is in regards to clearing this area up of bad posts like some of those by apoasha, but if you do make spam or flame then the post will be dealt with just like the rest of the forum. Boardwars isn't a special nook of the forum where you can get away with lax posting, in fact Boardwars demands posting of a high standard.

I am pretty happy with most posts, it's a nice atmosphere in Boardwars, but there have been cases picked up by other moderators of Boardwarriors migrating to other sections of the forum and not behaving as well as they should. As of the moment a few Boardwarriors have a host of warnings and apoasha I believe is on a suspension. Frankly it's ever so slightly annoying that the other moderators have traced their habits of bad posting to here, and so I hope to rectify that.

As for GawD's comment, the Boardwars themselves should go unchanged, as a post of fiction largely goes unmoderated, there will be no difference to how much fun you can have. The moderation will come to small pointless posts and so on, just like you would expect in the other sections of the forum.

Another area of moderator concern has been some of the sillier Boardwars which are essentially spam (The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny series comes to mind, which yes even I have joined before). In other regions of the forum spam threads are iniated by mods on occasion, but are otherwise dealt with very heavily. So in future if a no holds barred BW is wanted a request to me would be great, as they can, sometimes, be quite entertaining.

[BrianGeneral]

Duh, our good old playful BoardWarrior has become more serious than before......Not a good sign if you ask me.:P
Honestly, I hope you can put down your Mod responsibility when you participate in a BW Sword. Now your words seem colder than before and really acting like a Mod.:/

[Sword_Monkey]

Hehe, sorry I felt I had to justify the coming pain...

Well seriously BG I have to act like a mod, since I am one now. But I really doubt there'll be much difference, I doubt I'll have to warn any of you any time soon, and those of you who've been here a while and seen the rest of the forums work should know exactly how to behave, the main problem is in my eyes people coming to the forums from other RP sites and not reading the forum rules or seeing how bad posts are dealt with, then migrating to the rest of the forum only to be warned, suspended or banned.

But I'm still me, the coming Star Wars BW looks great especially with Loni's influence.

But it doesn't mean you can all drop the other BWs! I'm starting to think we'll never conclude a BW at this rate, I can't remember the last one that actually finished.

[Gorb]

Wait, wait.

*Gorb wades through time and space*

Found it. Homeworld Boardwar, by Rabid! Here it is (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=131116&page=1&pp=15). I think that's the last officially finished one.

But stuff needs to be done. Too many BWs die, some for apparently no reason. What are we going to do?

[BrianGeneral]

You know, I have some stuff to take care of despite I finished the exam......
Such as......The Shooting Challenges;)

[Sword_Monkey]

Yes Gorb I guess that did 'finish'. But look how it did;


Get this through that thick skull of yours only remaining vessel of the Hiigaran people is a Sobani Marine Frigate and a Freighter so I think at this time I will firmly state that I wish I had destroyed the universe. . .

Have fun rewriting everything that I wrote Rabid. . .

Followed by


i totaly agree...

There we have flaming followed by spam, no wonder Rabid decided two posts later, very maturely, to finish the BW so abruptly. Vaygr's post is also pretty abhorrent as far as spelling goes too.

[Gorb]

Fair point, in that case the only other one I can think of was Lestaki's Complex Sequel. Hunters, I think it was called.

But yeah, your point stands. Boardwars are often left unfinished.

[Sevorak]

As an incidental note: Loni will be away for a few days.

[jackster]

congrats, sword. i know i am a bit late on thar.
yea, too many good BW died these days.
whos loni btw?

[Sword_Monkey]

TheLoneKnight = Loni.

And also, feel free to make any suggestions for this place, I'll discuss with my co-section-mods...wait that's pretty much me, and stuff might come into effect.

(Heh, basically give me things to do that are positive, :p)

[Sevorak]

Since time immemorial, our galaxy has been constantly locked in a cyclic motion. From youth, to age, to a fall – and from there to either fresh renewal or death. The life cycle of a race. Billions of hopes and dreams irrevocably locked into a fixed pattern. Individual existences are fleeting; most are born with no concept of the times they live in, or were not alive to see – for most, little seems to change. And even on the grandest scale, while change exists, that change in itself is bound up into a static swirl from which nothing ever escapes.

Little ever breaks this fixed pattern; for most, it is no more than a question of how long the fall will take to come – but of course, death can come at any time. Many might simply be torn down in the throes of youth and innocence. Of course, while a race might appear innocent, its individuals seldom are. Who can tell the genocides, the atrocities, committed by a single people before its time amongst the stars? Who can tell the hopes, or the potential they might hold? But the cycle remains, and all is transient – yet each generation of races leaves its mark, another layer to the ever-growing graveyards that mar our galaxy, betraying its bloody past. Fields of starships and warriors, refugees and soldiers, of visionaries and dreamers – these are the echoes of our past, and they are there, for those who care to look.

And the visions of the troubled times we have faced. And in some, fleeting glimpses of the troubles times we have yet to face. For there are inexorably those whose sight transcends space and time; those who might dare to glimpse the infinite and come back alive. Still, all remains transient.

To the immortal, transience is painfully obvious. And the endless aeons become so terribly wearying – our universe will never truly perish. There can never simply be ‘nothing’. There will always be room for innocence, for awe – for new birth, for growth. For new life to take the place of the old that fell. Perhaps from this new life, a tale will be woven. And in the midst of all this, the echoes of what once was shall persist forever. The voices of the elders will never truly be silenced. And it is always a cycle. There are always older, more potent beings than oneself out in the depths of space...


Some form of BW idea that came to me. Two questions:
What immediately comes to mind upon reading it?
And would any of you be interested in participating sometime in the (possibly distant) future?

[Sheep]

A very interesting read Sevorak, i would be quite keen on joining if you started something like that in the future. When i first read, some kind of controversial life boardwar came to mind, in some sci-fi universe.

[Sword_Monkey]

It's seems like a one race GalWar with a hefty focus on Elder intervention, or even being an Elder. Then their confrontations with more powerful entities, and a BW that is generally focussing on more transcendant values than those of fighting each other to gain galactic supremacy. Also something to do with fighting against your own immortality as opposed to mortality and the problems caused by such a life.

But plot wise I got nothing, all I see are comments on history repeating itself and the boredom of immortality. Hell it could just be the usual Elder speech we see in most fleet Boardwars these days, and then never see an Elder do anything plot wise later on.

Sounds really nice though, a BW with a continuous flow of good writing like that would be awesome. I'd put myself forward right now if I knew more about the setup and plot of the thing.

[TheLoneKnight]

I RETURN.

And as a bonus I'm only choking a little bit on the fumigation poisons.

Gwar, unhappy.

[Greenstone]

**Looks up from the great maw of the Unread Domain** "A new moderator? Hmm I had better note that one down." **Scribbles Sword_Monkey on a ratty looking piece of paper and turns back to the thick book before him. The small paper is caught in a random breeze and floats off into the darkness of the great halls of Unread.

Sometime later a message appears on Sword_Monkey's desk it reads, "While those of us lurking beneath the normally active boards acknowledge and congratulate you on your recent rise to power, the Great Greenstone of the Unread reminds you to enjoy your new status."

Later Greenstone pokes his head into the boardwar section to see he is too late to join yet another round of games.

[Sword_Monkey]

Sevorak looks to be up to something Greenstone, although it's an enigma as to exactly what it will be.

*Sword_Monkey revels in Lone's unhappiness*

*Then goes to work on the stickies*

[BmB]

The heavy hand is in regards to clearing this area up of bad posts like some of those by apoasha, but if you do make spam or flame then the post will be dealt with just like the rest of the forum. Boardwars isn't a special nook of the forum where you can get away with lax posting, in fact Boardwars demands posting of a high standard. It's not so much that, as the fact that we were too obscure to get a moderator. Buried deep in the studio with no posts surfacing to the index. And like, 13 frequent posters.

But, er? Ultimate Showdown, spam? From what I read it was pretty "legitimate"
Admitted, I didn't read all that much.
Maybe a post. Or two... I actually think it was two. :D
Insanity BW, maybe. But that was indeed also put down rather quickly by an admin. Hehe. Spam.

[Sevorak]

Muahahaha. Welcome back, Loni. :D

[Gorb]

It's not so much that, as the fact that we were too obscure to get a moderator.That's what various people said in IRC.

Still, Sword, Brian and I argued valiantly, and this so-called obscure section of the forums got a moderator. An excellent choice, I might add.

[Warmaster Death]

hey guys, hows it going, i miss anything important?

[Gorb]

The Star Wars Boardwar. Sign up.

Other than that, a load of Boardwars have died, Sword_Monkey is now a Moderator for this place, and welcome back :D

[Warmaster Death]

ooh, swords a mod now? congrats dude!

starwars BW eh...i think i smell a group of mercenary stormtroopers...

[Sword_Monkey]

Just a reminder that Dekzar is actually running the Werewolf BW now, five players so far, would be cool to have like ten or more players.

The thread necromancy has worked.

[crawford'n'co]

I Live! Ill post in starwars at the end of the day (about 9 hours).

[EagleBlue]

Wow what happened when I was gone?

[TheLoneKnight]

I joined a boardwar.


Audience gasps!

[Red Fox]

Lone in a boardwar?
THE END IS NEAR! REPENT! REPENT!

[Greenstone]

Well I don't know if he has posted much, he didn't say he was participating in one, he just joined one. :p

[TheLoneKnight]

See, Greenstone is catching on.

[VladimirNikolai]

Hey guys, I know I havn't been on in a while, and I hope I'm not interrupting any major convos here, but I had an idea. Not sure if anybody has tried this before, and not sure if it will work at all, but what are people's thoughts on taking the boardwars to the IRC channel?

So, basically, through the forums setting up a time, and theme and stuff (you make your own characters in the forums), but then it plays out as a roleplay instead.

It will probably not work very well, considering people's other commitments, and time differences etc., but I just thought I'd throw the idea out there.

[TheLoneKnight]

It's a good idea if you can work past scheduling.

There are also some additional benefits that you just don't get with forum roleplaying (for example, speed, absolute removal of powergaming without intrusive effects, more fluid conversations between player characters, etc) and plenty of room for some really interesting hybrids.

For example, you could establish an epic boardwar during which the missions/fights/whatever occurred in realtime. Additionally, you might have players grouped by timezones - allowing one team to take on an objective during the day while another team does something completely different by night (for example, one team is desperately fighting to hold a position while the other is fighting tooth-and-nail to rescue them) - and both eventually coming back together afterwards to see the results of their semi-simultaneous roleplays create a unique conclusion for whatever the overall goal was.

'course the scheduling thing happens to be a rather massive obstacle and to do such a thing you'd need someone running the night-shift roleplay on IRC. There are possibilities, of course, but the hassle alone might remove certain players' ability to play.

I suppose you could always have a third "team" or something functioning in the forum to prevent exclusion, though... Hmm.


I dunno. I've thought about such things before but generally speaking I lack the patience/interest to maintain something like that for more than a week or two. :p

[Sword_Monkey]

What's this? A small, probably shortly lasting but immensely interesting enterprise on IRC?

It sounds good, I'd all up creating a channel on the community server. Though we'd most likely only be allowed one room, so one story at a time, ops going to the GM(s). I think one story at a time would be a good thing though. It can then be logged and written up, I guess.

Vlad if you'd kindly make a poll or simple sign up thread to gauge interest that would be awesome, since all the kudos goes to you for the idea.

((I think Lone also promised a week OR two! of his interest in said matter which makes it all the more worthy.))

[Gorb]

This makes things interesting. I should be able to devote some time to this, "enterprise" as well.

[VladimirNikolai]

I'm glad you like my idea. I thought it would be far too compliacated to set up, but thinking about it, it probably wouldn't be too much of a stretch of our organisational skills. We could have weekly, or fortnightly, or monthly 'matches', which will go from one time to another (hour max or so, because it will be difficult to continue if one person leaves) before either finishing, or being rescheduled for the next day, or whenever the people involved can once again meet.

Or we could take the strategy that Lone mentioned, having different 'teams' working towards different objectives, or goals. When it all joins together, something intereseting may (or may not) happen.

This may even start a simple room where people can go to meet with other roleplayers to have a quick 20 minute or so rp with some friends (or enemies).

Yes... it shall be... a whole... new... world....

[Kaito]

I'd suggest that the IRC Wars would'nt be as long as the BWs. Means only an hour or so. It starts at a given time, everyone joins, then it begins and goes until the end, then it's goodbye everyone, good game.

[Gorb]

Or, for longer ones, we could do it in chapters. People would only have to hold onto their character details, the GM would do the rest of the work in keeping the story together, etc. Each chapter would have to have a definative end point, though. Like a mission based BW.

On another unrelated note, I have another idea. In the event that a (halfway decent :p) Boardwar runs to completion (shock, horror), how about someone pulling all the posts into one long story. Various edits, etc, would be required, as well as pulling all OOC messages out of the IC posts. I thought this up for two reasons.

1. It would get more people (mainly from the Studio) more interested in the calibre of writing we achieve in this often-ignored section of the forums.

2. I think it'd be a kind of an incentive if we could all visualise an end-product to our hard work, something to show for all the effort we've put in. From my point of view anyway.

The finished story would be posted in the Studio for others to read, and whoever's writing it up would have to put all the names of the participants of the Boardwar at the top/bottom/whatever, and of course pay tribute to the creator of the Boardwar.

It's a pretty far-fetched idea, but I've been thinking about it for some time, and I've decided to put it to you guys. It would obviously require the Boardwarriors consent for each Boardwar that was put into narrative, as it's their hard work which one person would be writing down, which is why I'm asking. What do people think?

[Akranadas]

I have a new BW in the works, this one will hopefully be fresh and something new to play with ;)

[Sword_Monkey]

Finish your last you dang tootin scoundrel!

Or you can promise to finish this upcoming one, but don't let that put you off. :P

[Greenstone]

A long time ago before any of you had even joined these boards we did something similar to what Gorb is saying, it was a lot of extra work and we did not gain anything except ridicule and hatred to the point of being kicked out of the Relic forums for a time.

So while I would love to see certain boardwars reach the epic quality of say Blade Song, and be converted into a more true story form I would only do it if you paid me to do it.


As for the IRC thing, well we used to do something similar to that over MSN Messy it worked fairly well despite the scheduling issues. And while I will most likely not be able to assist in such a realm I think it would be neat to be able to.

[Red Fox]

If T_55 and AMARDA are fine with it Discovery of Terrial was one that made its way to completion. I would gladly make that into a story form as long as I had the creators(T_55) permission to do so.

[AMARDA]

No problems with me, another good one would be the complex. We completed a sequel as well.

[Gorb]

The Complex was one I had in mind to do first, it being one of the more successful Boardwars. I'd need a few people's permissions, I'll post the list of participants up if need be. I'd need Lestaki's permission first, obviously.


A long time ago before any of you had even joined these boards we did something similar to what Gorb is saying, it was a lot of extra work and we did not gain anything except ridicule and hatred to the point of being kicked out of the Relic forums for a time.Why did you get ridicule and hatred? For making a story; that seems a bit over the top? Surely there must have been other reasons?

[Sheep]

If T_55 and AMARDA are fine with it Discovery of Terrial was one that made its way to completion. I would gladly make that into a story form as long as I had the creators(T_55) permission to do so.

Go for it, sounds great. THe complex is a good one as well.

[Greenstone]

There was the matter of boardwars taking over the Officer's Lounge. That might have been part of it. It was before a separate sub-forum was created. They didn't like us having the boardwars with their thousands of posts alongside their stories and their tens of posts and then we threw in the finished boardwars edited and all as stories. people didn't like that.

It was fun though so if I have time and a desire I may assist in some small way. . .

[Lestaki]

Go for it. I'm not convinced we'll make any friends, but go for it. ;) I might be able to help a little, too, though my writing time is currently taken up with other projects.

[AMARDA]

So then, with the story conversion, do we create a new thread? Create another site whilst we edit it?

And is it the Complex, or do we use Discoverries of Terrial? Eithar way I'm able to help.

[Gorb]

Well, i'm planning to do the Complex and Hunters, as I think if someone starts work on a series of Boardwars then, for continuity's sake, that same person should finish the series as well.

That does leave a few others for people to do, and also if there are Boardwars that were very nearly finished, and merely require a chapter (aka a few posts) to bring to a close then I would encourage people to finish them too, if they want.

This isn't a mandatory project. It's something for people to do if they have the time and inclination to do so. Don't feel forced into doing anything :)

[AMARDA]

Another question, do we keep a characters background separate, or do we work it into the initial plot somewhere?

[Gorb]

Whichever you choose. You could do a little intro section at the beginning (like they do in the new Star Wars books), with a list of the main characters, their respective races and their respective jobs.

Or you could work them in as the story progresses.

[jackster]

Finish your last you dang tootin scoundrel!
I second that.

[Sword_Monkey]

I have finally made my way back up the abseiling line I took off the edge of the world, and am now back...for 3 days before I go on holiday to Spain. Fortunately I shall have 24 hour free internet access in one of Barcelona's finest hostelling establishments. Not that I intend to sit over a computer all day, or at all if it can be helped, too much sun and other things to enjoy.

I'm reading up on those Boardwars I'm in and checking the others, I may or may not post, but GawD, Kaito if you can assume for now that I'm out of SW and DB for a while it'd be much obliged, just don't kill me off yet.

When I get back there'll be a 'changes' discussion thread going up, potentially to take this section back in time to a set up it once had that made things a tad simpler. Basically it would put forward the idea of limiting the number of active Boardwars to 3 at any one time, or a similar number. This would be in order to ensure the Boardwars are completed. But it will also be open to other ideas and discussion about the state of the section. (Democracy?)

I'll put up a contact detail thread before I go, for those people who wish to talk to other Boardwarriors, and also those who wish to MSN roleplay, or attempt to.

Then I'll finish the stickies when I get back, and include the contact details in them, opening one of them for comments and posting of new details, so that I can edit the stickies with new info or correct something. (They'll replace Langy's ones as an update, This thread is safe for now.)

[jackster]

why is this forum so slow these days?

[TheLoneKnight]

Limiting to three boardwars? Why? You'd be eliminating all semblance of choice and "Democracy" by putting any limits on what Boardwars can or cannot be active.

As far as completing them, well, I imagine that if players were interested in completing the boardwars they join they would continue to post, or hijack the thread if the creator is no longer posting. It's not like the abundancy of option is ruining the completion of boardwars.

To be perfectly honest I can't concieve of any real reason that would make you limit the 'wars to three (or two, or nine) active at any time, except perhaps because you wanted to coerce players into working harder to create them in the first place since they'd have to get approval to make it active. Btu even that is no garauntee that the creators will stick around long enough to finish it. :p

Your logic is flawed, damnit!

[Lestaki]

I agree with Lone, but we should probably save it for the new thread. ;)

[Sword_Monkey]

It's not like the abundancy of option is ruining the completion of boardwars.

That's just untrue and you know it, hordes of Boardwars die off simply because another turns up in its place and looks more exciting.

How alive are Star Wars: The Growing Shadow? Wrath of Onyx? Pitch Black II Raising the Stakes?

I'm not suggesting an unpopular idea be forced to continue, they can be dropped of course, but one that has been signed up to by plenty of people and ran for nearly a week should be continued to either its conclusion or a time where people can agree to make a new Boardwar.

Currently we lack the population and interest to run more than roughly 3 Boardwars at one single time, this is a fact. As such any new Boardwars coming into existence while 3 others are ongoing practically destroys their chances of surviving.

Basically if we continue to create short lived Boardwars, and never finish a story then this section will remain a poor one. Boardwars are designed to finish, or at least should be, and when you join one you are in for the long run, unless you kill off your character or can't continue for other reasons.

And I admit my self that I have just stopped posting in times, lending to the death of a Boardwar, only to then see another new one and get all excited to create a fancy new character. Only for the unrewarding cycle of death and rebirth to go on and on again.

This thread is currently a good a place as any to discuss this, but there will be a thread going up to specifically discuss it when I get back from Spain. If you think you have a better idea to improve the state of the Boardwars section then you need to get thinking.

Unless of course you are happy with the cycle of unfinished Boardwars.

[Gorb]

I, personally would like to go for completed Boardwars. But that's mainly because I'm a story addict, and I hate to see plots/stories/badass fightscenes go unfinished.

[The Shadow]

I would like to see more interesting boardwars and more finished ones (IIRC the only boardwar that has finished with me was Galactic War 2).

BUT I don't like the idea of a limit to only three boardwars. Sure we are few and rarely there are more active boardwars than those three. Still it is limiting. IMO the boardwars should be open like it is now.
Also, what about if all the three active boardwars are not interesting to you? And they are going to finish and you have to wait perhaps 3-4 weeks maybe more for one new boardwar and that too might be uninteresting and it would slowly kill you off from the boardwars.
That is actually why I have not been around here much lately. And this would get even worse with the limit.

To sum it up: I'm strongly against the limit of 3 active boardwars at a given time.

[Lestaki]

This is probably isn't the time or place for a proper debate on the issue, but there's one thing that's grating on me, so I'll say it:


Basically if we continue to create short lived Boardwars, and never finish a story then this section will remain a poor one.
So this section is a poor one, is it? Can I ask who decided that this was undisputably so? As far as I'm concerned, this section is fine at what is does, and with our population it won't get "better"- nor does it need to. We all have fun and I do try to mix up my writing and characterisation, so what's so poor about it? And why is finishing a BW so important? Yes, basically, I'm perfectly fine with a string of unfinished BWs. I may not love it to bits, but it's infinitely preferable to artificial rules being imposed on us to try and make us complete BWs. Boardwarriors, broadly, vote with their feet, joining BWs they judge to be good and leaving when they are bored. Try to mess with this system and you run a grave risk of making them sick of the whole process.


And I admit my self that I have just stopped posting in times, lending to the death of a Boardwar, only to then see another new one and get all excited to create a fancy new character.
You'll notice your own cycle, because it's a truism- you stopped posting first, and then joined another. The truth is that's the natural behaviour of us all as boardwarriors, and there isn't enough people or enough good BWs to make it for the long haul. If you're bored of a BW, you're bored of it and nothing will change that fact. If there's not a cool new BW, you won't stick around and post in the old one, you'll just stop posting altogether. That's what I think, anyway, in line with my own behaviour.

Likewise we frequently use a high turnover of BWs to "test" BWs and see if they're worth going all the way. Several times I've joined one only to drop it after fifty posts because it just isn't cutting it. This is fine, and part of the pseudo-democratic selection process we go through. If you limit the number of BWs going on at once, you place a huge burden on the creator to go through a formal process and create immediate top-tier material, and we're stuck with it even if we decide that we don't want to play after all.

I don't see anything wrong with BWs as they stand. Before you start demanding "solutions" from us you'll have to convince me there's a problem. I don't know where the others stand on this, but that's the way it is for me.

[Sevorak]

I agree with Lestaki.

[Sword_Monkey]

Ok I have to say that this entire idea is not some crude, poorly thought out plan I thought up to implement because I am a mod. This is an idea put forward to me by Weavern that was in place a long time ago on these boards, with reported success.

I personally see this section as currently poor because it would undoubtedly be better if the Boardwars are finished. Regardless of whether people are 'ok' with the state of the section and never forseeably finishing a Boardwar, you cannot say that it can't be improved by somehow getting the Boardwars nearer to completion.

The current idea of a limit is not the only one going to be put forward, I hope, but it would be nice if others contributed positively to the discussion, rather than negatively. In the end it should come to a vote for each idea, and I can already tell that the 3 BW limit is not a popular one.

As for test BWs, I highly doubt the creator initially intended them to be such things, and they can seem relatively enjoyable at the beginning, until people disappear to a new Boardwar, killing the last.

Shadow I see your point clearly, you are a fine example of someone who would be hit hard by a 3 BW limit.

---

A new idea would be an enforced, or at least preferred discussion of all BW ideas. A separate thread/sticky would be put up for people to place ideas, and then if they get enough interest, and have been discussed to the point that any immediate flaws are ironed out the GM can put it up at their own discretion, or scrap the idea.

This may even reverse the 3 BW limit idea and create an extended flow of BWs, but with more chance of one finishing.

It would do away with unpopular ideas faster.
It would tempt people to put an idea forward, without having to go quite all the way.
And potentially get more BWs going.
With potentially more interest, hopefully resulting in longer BWs or even finished ones.

(tentative idea, lessee if it's more popular than the limit.)

[Lestaki]

Well, my best suggestion would be something like a well-prepared BW that started with a discussion thread, the general sense being "well, okay, this time let's go all out, guys". With more input from the rest of the crew from day one, something like Galactic War. That way the "Epic BW", for want of a better term, could co-exist alongside other BWs and be conciously aimed to follow all the way through. Of course, this is a flawed system, as we all know, but every system is going to be flawed. That's the nature of BWarriors, and I don't think it'll be easy to "fix". And has to be said, and I can say from experience, the GMs themselves must bear some responsibility for unfinished BWs, too.

Originally this thread was for the use of ideas discussion, but it never worked that well and I personally never took any interest in it. That's because, unless it's a medley epic BW, I place the onus on the creator to come up with the goods. Ideas in their pure form aren't very useful, I generally judge a BW by the opening post, and nothing before that. But that may be just me.

[TheLoneKnight]

That's just untrue and you know it, hordes of Boardwars die off simply because another turns up in its place and looks more exciting.

How alive are Star Wars: The Growing Shadow? Wrath of Onyx? Pitch Black II Raising the Stakes?

Correlation is not causation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation). Just because other boardwars were created while those three were up does not mean that new boardwars caused them to be killed off.

It's far more likely that they simply died for the same reasons that all boardwars die off; not enough love from their creator, badly organised, no direction, general lack of interest by the players, etc. Your reason is not the only reason and limiting the forum to only three 'wars will not increase their longevity - higher quality boardwars, creators that intend to see it through, a unique and entertaining setting - these are the kinds of things that will keep 'wars going beyond a week.


Additionally, just to state the freaking obvious; Boardwars are not meant to be finished. They're meant to be fun. If your idea of fun is bringing a boardwar to an epic conclusion then, by all means, create one and see it through to the end. If you keep it interesting then players, a few at least, are likely to stick around and finish it with you. Hell, I might even be willing to help if the idea appeals to me. Reducing the number of available boardwars, however, is going to do nothing besides reduce the number of options for people to enjoy themselves.



Your logic is still flawed, damnit.

Supar Edit: Wtf? Posting while I was busy with my long, meandering type-fest. Fiend!

Actually I'm pretty sure a little while back I tried creating a thread for people to discuss their boardwar ideas and see if they get a response, but everybody tended to use this thread or just create itregardless. Died very quickly, as I recall. :p

[Sword_Monkey]

In my personal non-moderatorial opinion a BW is fun when seen through to the end, the massive sense, or small sense of achievement gained. The climax, the buildup, it's rewarding.

And things lose interest when it is taken away by new Boardwars, they are sure to drag attention away, divide focus and lend to the death of a Boardwar. It isn't a solid rule, that a BW will die the day a new one appears, but it will certainly receive less attention from a player who joins both.

Many a time people have admitted to not being able to hold enough focus to be in more than two BWs or so at once.

I will admit to one flaw, I'm an idealist. Just give me a slap when I sound impossible. (Disclaimer: Not an invite.)

Boardwars Nexus is all well and good, but Lestaki killed it I saw him do it!

I'm tempted to remake the nexus, rename Discussing BWs to a more generalised name, to suit its role as a general communication thread for the warriors, and have the Nexus instated as the official grounds for a BW to be explained and discussed before it goes up.

But of course, it's still all up for discussion.

[Weavern]

Look the 3 rule was something that came about here way back when, before there was a subforum here. It moved to HWU where it was used very seldomly, it evolved to the players learning not to create a bw in the same style or genre while another one was up. There were exceptions, it was not always followed but people generally stuck around and didnt instantly jump ship.

As you might say "well its for fun" that might be how you have fun, but others like to have all the work they put into it used for more then a page or three. It simply is not fun to create something new only to have it fall through the ground. Sure there may be people who enjoy writing something new working up backstory and all that then letting it die, but I for one do not enjoy it. Thus why most of my participation here is as a spectator. It is not worth the effort to start into something only to have it die off when something new comes around.

BWs were started as interactive fictions, or RP narratives. They were designed to reach a conclusion or at the very least continue for as long as possible.

Every time a new thread starts here, if it doesent just die off within a page, another one starts and kills it. I cant say if its the lack of any attention span for something not new, or the fact that whenever someone has a new idea someone joins it and what used to be new or hip dies. Its like a fad in that respect.

Yah, I'm an outsider, sure i'm an old fogie remembering the glory golden days from my old perspective. But whats the use in putting forward any effort if the thing cannot even be guarenteed to last a week or two before something new starts up and everyone jumps ship.

[TheLoneKnight]

Eh. I still don't think all boardwars die off in a week solely to the appearance of new ones. Sometimes the creators get bored with the other idea, players find that the game isn't being executed as well as it could be, or maybe the mysterious "Life!" just gets in the way and prevents them from actively participating. Regardless, there are far more than just three genres, so why limit it to three threads? You could always make a rule that no same-genre BWs are allowed to start until people are officially sick of the first one.

Worst case scenario you could create a boardwar yourself, Weavern, and keep it going until its conclusion for your own enjoyment as well as whichever other BWers want to finish it. If it's worth finishing, I suspect that you'll have no shortage of people keeping with it until it ends. :D

On a completely and utterly unrelated note, I have a bit of a question for the BWers who may be interested: In regards to aesthetics, what kind of aerial propulsion do you guys prefer:

- Propeller/wind powered engine (Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind styled. Larger vessels using propellers while lighter ones use wind-powered engines to maintain maneuverability/speed)

- Jet/Rocket (Not quite modern-day jetcraft, but rather aircraft that have an exhaust of some sort, chemical or otherwise, likely slowed down to make aerial combat more feasible. Perhaps something in the vein of Eureka Seven)

- Unseen ("Magical" sort of propulsion that lacks any visible exhaust/wake/moving parts associated with propulsion.)

Just to be perfectly clear, though, this is more a question about the aesthetic aspects of the aircraft/maneuvering/etc rather than the massive effects on the setting itself since the specifics will likely be tweaked to suit our needs.

Currently there's a distinct leaning toward propeller/wind powered with rocket-styled propulsion as a rarity/temporary boost but we wanted to know what the rest of you might prefer. If you've got other ideas for aerial propulsion feel free to toss them out there as well.

Sorry for going a bit off-topic, Weavern/Monkey.

[Tentacles]

I've always liked implied ballooning and propellers for propulsion in airship designs, and generally preferred airships over aircraft in general. Aircraft, when necessary, I imagine as small flying things that can't operate far from their lofty aerial carriers.

[Greenstone]

I can tell you one thing that causes people to leave boardwars. . . "Lack of Freedom"

Ok yea I get it that we should not powergame, but you people are calling powergaming on every little thing. In the old days (Yea an old fogie here as well) we wrote stories together that went well beyond what you guys even seem to consider. Now when the storyline gets disrupted by some event that you cannot handle you cry "Pger, I think you should leave and never come back" But you are forgetting the fact that not everyone knows the plans you have laid out for your character.

Boardwars are interactive fiction, improv' if you will, you write a bit and someone responds to it with another writing, then you respond to their response and are able to continue your storyline. But then the unexpected thing happens, your opponent goes and does something completely unexpected and bizarre and totally ruins your storyline. . . Who cares, that is the point of a Boardwar, you should instead change your storyline to mold the actions of the game, if player A decides to shoot a nuclear missile out of a 44 magnum, Player B responds by pulling out her Reflectomaticalicious Shield and redirects the Missile to Player C's territory leaving them to deal with the death and destruction caused.

I think it is this belief that your lack of control over a boardwar is grounds for calling people PGers is what kills so many of them. It causes a lack of freedom and an overall boredom to set on the games thus causing them to die before anything can happen to make it come to a satisfying end.

Take the recent events in the SW: Growing Shadow boardwar.

-- The Sith declare that they are going to take out the last Jedi Temple and kill all the younglings inside.
-- The Players who are Jedi decide to stop them.
-- The Jedi players arrive at the temple at nearly the same time as the Sith
-- Fighting ensues with hundreds of non-player Jedi dying and the planet being razed by the Sith.
-- The Jedi decide to fight for the freedom of the Younglings, and plan to escort them to a hidden ship.
-- The Sith players don't like this, not all of them respond but those who do decide to kill every one of the Younglings.
-- The Jedi players, who are currently online decide that they should prevent this at all costs. So one of them decides to use illusion to cover the retreat of the Younglings.
-- The illusion idea is treated with dislike from the Sith players and is responded to by a bombarding of the location of the Jedi as well as the Sith Players, thus killing the younglings.

** What should have happened at this point is that everyone should have died and the plans be reset, people creating new characters to continue the story. Instead

-- The story is forgotten as the players argue about how the bombing of the surface would kill everyone and they don't like it. This argueing continues until one player decides to change the whole scenario.
-- She kills her character in a violent albeit probably unrealistic explosion that knocks the Sith away from the Jedi whilst keeping all the Sith players alive, shoves the younglings and the remaining Jedi down the escape tunnel keeping them alive and the possibility of capture still alive for another time and thereby advancing and protecting the possible story line.
-- In doing this the Jedi player kills her own character intending to create a new one from one of the younglings.
-- Yet in doing this the Jedi player has angered the game creator despite resolving the situation, the game creator then bans the Jedi player from the game for powergaming, despite the fact that she killed her own character. And changes the storyline to suit his desires.

Now you tell me why did it die?

[jackster]

Man, so we are going for the debating team now? :D

As for the aesthetics thingy, Jet planes for the win, I just prefer things that are more aerodynamic.

[Sheep]

Touchy issue.

Always liked the Jet/Rocket system Lone.

[Gorb]

(Disclaimer: Not an invite.)Damn :p

Yeah, touchy issue indeed. Everyone's opinion of what makes a Boardwar 'good', what constitutes powergaming, and obviously what topics are interesting vary from person to person. There is no set ideal to Boardwars as a whole, as the mood changes depending who's active that particular week.

On two totally unrelated notes, I like Sword's reformed idea of the sticky, and Lone, I prefer Unseen propulsion, but only if it includes showy special effects :D If there are no special effects, I'd vote for Jet/Rocket system.

[Sword_Monkey]

Mmm very tough one here, the magical one is nice, but it can't just come from nowhere, there has to be some fancy glittery light effect or aura for magical propulsion. Unless it's telekinesis powered.

And for modern stuff I love ma rockets and ma boosters! I've been playing too much Armoured Core 4 recently and the Kojima particle effects make the little thrusters look so pretty.

So I like magical fairy lights in fantasy propulsion and clean smoke-free jet engines with odd special particle effects in modern day or futuristic warfare.

[VladimirNikolai]

Hey guys, on a completely different topic from anything here, what would you all think about a Legend of Zelda based boardwar? I'm thinking having it set in the Ocarina of Time world, where players make up a group of mixed races (Gorons, Zoras, Hylians etc.) who have to be in place of Link, as the prophecy of a chosen one was wrong.

So, you have to kill Gannondorf and save Zelda, coz she's been captured.

So yeah, it's only in the very early stages of conception at the moment. Any thoughts?

And in response to Lone's question, if it's going to be a purely aerial based setting, then I'd go the propeller/wind powered. I'm seeing huge zepplin-esque city-ships, with smaller fighters used for that - fighting.

So yeah, any thoughts would be nice on the LoZ BW.

[Warmaster Death]

propellers.

P51-D's, spitfires, fokker Wulfs and Messerschmidt 109s all the way

[crawford'n'co]

Im back. And Star Wars will continue (if yall still want to post).

[Sheep]

Hey guys, recently i've been planning a new boardwar, how does Fantasy sound?

[Sword_Monkey]

Such a detailed description, it´s really got me interested!

Explain more T_55, give me some meaty story to chew on.

[Kaito]

it sounds fantastic



.. cheap joke

[c-web]

lo' all. Here I am once again in my random visits to the boardwars. Umm it's been a while and I would love to join some bws.

well, well seems sword monkey got promoted... congrats.

so like monkey said T_55 whats the status on the new fantasy bw?

[Gorb]

I . . . remember you . . .

:D

Welcome back!

[Sheep]

Well, if the theme alone was enough to ask questions then i'll continue (or perhaps it was my lack of description, ah well). The boardwar is potentially a free range boardwar, involving something along the lines of gods toying with the universe, etc. It involves many races (the common ones albeit), but will only allow the use of a select few and i'm hoping to concentrate on a group story, where players potentially fufill their own personal quests.

[c-web]

Good enough. I'll be looking for it.

[Sword_Monkey]

Lo folks, I've basically just gotten back for Barcelona, and despite checking a few times I'm in need of an update on how things are going.

I'm reading the nice posts in Hidden Earth but can't see many other active Boardwars, nobody has an idea good enough to keep people gripped?

[TheLoneKnight]

I'm working on something a little unusual with Lestaki, but unfortunately my own general apathy combined with a vicious heat wave has pretty much sapped my ability to actually write down the foundations for a thread. The heat wave should end by the end of the week, though that's not a promise that I'll suddenly become prolific. I'm still sorting out a couple of details technology/function-wise.

Something will happen at some point in the future, possibly!

/me returns to brainstorming while wading in a pool of sweat

[crawford'n'co]

Hi guys, just dropping in to say bye for a bit. I'm going to disappear for a bit and just lurk around the forums. Dont be worried, I will be back to my former self later.

:up:

[VladimirNikolai]

Does nobody like Zelda...?

*sob*

EDIT: Or, failing that idea, what about something based on the Elder Scrolls universe? Like, Morrowind, or Oblivion. That would at least give us a pretty decent character creation system, though we wouldn't go into major skills etc.

[Gorb]

I'm reading the nice posts in Hidden Earth but can't see many other active Boardwars, nobody has an idea good enough to keep people gripped?Well, Star Wars was going well, but people kinda dropped out, despite efforts to move the plot forward. No idea what happened to the Immortal sequel, that too was going well.

Also, welcome back!

[Kaito]

Immortal one didn't go too well from the beginning in my opinion, but I tried to drag it along. just wasn't able to post for quite a time, personal matter.
As soon as possible I will try a revive and hope interest's not lost. ;)

[ViS]

"As it stands, we are not commiting an act of genocide. The correct term for this particular situation would be the mass withdrawal of a failed product." ~ Gaius, founder of the legion.

"Sometimes, an act of evil is appropriate for the situation, given that the aforementioned act of evil will only prevent a greater act of evil." ~ Hierophant Michael.

The legion. A fledgling race of magically null creatures made in the image of their creators. Barbaric, violent and warlike beond compare with a natural aptitude for technology, these primitives were the ideal soldier organism with a possibility of controlled utilisation. Within 193,011 revolutions of their assigned planetary body around its central star, they had discovered a most curious substance known as black powder. In just another ten centuries, they made their first foray into our homelands.

Initially, their exploratory vessels disengaged on one of our worlds undergoing the process of cultivation. Roughly the equivalent of their world after approximately 200 million years of development, the astonishinly advanced beasts created colonies and began the taming of local beasts. In just another one hundred years time, the planet was totally under their control.

Needless to say, our envoys were dispatched promptly at this point, the assessment of their evolutionary prowess proving most satisfying to their makers. First contact was made within their central settlement.

The diplomats were welcomed with open arms, apparently the first sign of extra terrestrial life this young race had encountered. Proposals of an alliance and trade routes were declared as another method of surveillance and an small degree of our astral knowledge was given to them.

The events that followed were less than savoury.

These beasts had become debased over the years. They resembled us, yet they had no feelings of companionshpi between their fellows. Each member of their race strove for the sake of personal gain, self aggradisment or sheer contempt for their neighbours. Exchanges of knowledge had indicated that bitter wars were fought within their own race and that such periods of strife were looked back on with a feeling of patriotism and pride. Further more, these beasts held no value for outside masters. Attempts to slowly bring them into the fold of our society proved futile as the barbarians deafly rejected all notions of being created by a higher power. They had initiated attacks on our messengers sent to peacefully resolve what they saw as an insult unto their existence and battles had broken out.

The success of their creation was obvious.

They are to be exterminated.

And you have been selected as our keenest blades with which to bring about their annhialation.

Their technology is of such power, it clearly rivals that of our technomancy. Their society is founded on absolute power. Their military structure is highly prized and maintained.

We know them as a virus for which we are the vaccine.

They know themselves as the humans. And we are their oppressors.

------------------------------------

Well well, what do you all think?

Magical fantasy mecha with religious influences vs human bastards ftw!

You won't have the option of RPing as a human I'm afraid, that would mess up the plot too much.

[c-web]

I'd join

[Gorb]

Me too :)

[Kaito]

sounds cool

[Sword_Monkey]

Let's wipe those humie bastards out once and for all eh?

[ViS]

Ah righty, I think I'll get started as soon as I get some RL stuff out of the way then.

And... I may just allow a few select members to use a human character. I guess it's a given really, and if the members are able enough, won't mess up the plot.

=P

[Kaito]

I am working out a rather special BW atm.
I don't want to tell too much, just want your attention and get you all pumped n stuff :P
It'll be a fantasy style, character based player versus player BW.
Won't work out? Believe me, it will. ;)
I will tell you as much: *puts on preview guy's epic voice* You will play as a "collector", immortal human beings that strife to gain god's powers for themselves, fending each other endlessly, until one man arises and unites everyone under him - in death.

hope it sounds interesting.

[Sword_Monkey]

Yay another fantasy BW! (Hear that Sevorak, you've been waiting for another one to pop up!)

Rods? But I don't like rods!

[VladimirNikolai]

Why do people reply to other people's ideas for boardwars, but not mine?

Do my ideas suck that much?

[TheLoneKnight]

There's always that possibility. Maybe you just haven't suggested anything that people are interested in on a large enough scale to warrant it.

I, for example, am neither particularily interested in a Legend of Zelda 'war (it's the same story repeated infinitely in each game - same places, same progression, same characters, with the possible exception of Wind Waker), nor have I got any interest in Elder Scrolls stemming from my bad experience with Oblivion.

Then again, there was a startling response to "How about a fantasy BW?", so.. uh.. you might just have really bad luck. :p

[Sheep]

:p Indubidously. Another fantasy boardwar sounds great.

[Mullertime]

character based player versus player BW
Oooooooh! Sounds neat!


nobody has an idea good enough to keep people gripped
Well, looking at the past boardwars, there's a few vital things needed to make a board war gripping and most importantly: good.

1. Open-ness
People keep their attention when they can write their own story. As much as we like boardwars, we don't seem to like becoming amusing sub-characters who are there to help the plot. Each and every one of us wants to write our own story within the general plot. Thus, stories which are led, or dependent on the OP's guidance and direction to what happens often get rocky or have trouble taking off, as people start waiting for that person to lead them. Thus, they might lose interest

2. Not to-open-ness though...
Our characters need to interact and meet and stuff. If it's all too dispersed, each person has their own sub-board wars, and it falls down quickly. The earth-based war went this way. The one with the squid-like aliens. The story itself seemed promising, but it was spread so much over the globe, no one could get directly involved, and worked in their own situations. Good board wars need characters to have their own space to develop, but quite simply, to keep stepping on eachother's feet

3. Individuality.
We want our own characters to have their own past and story, and not just be: 'his sidekick' or 'the one who does this'. We want to weave our own stories and history of our character. Thus, the longest BW's have the most amount of variation and give tons of ground to make your own character, and to basically personalise it! We all know that the more personalised our characters are, the more we get involved (This might be the problem Vladimir. Some of your ideas seem based on current stories or worlds. The problem here is that roles taken will revolve around the pre-set characters. Thus, people won't be able to make their own character, but have to step into a pre-made one, which isn't as 'personal', as it were.

This is why i think T_55's new one has done so well.
1. You have so much to work with. T_55 is just the overlooker who balances the odd thing, he isn't leading the story, we each can do our own thing.
2. It's closed enough that we interact with eachother, almost all of us. Lotsa interction = more involvement. Which is a good thing :)
If his BW was a lot more epic, on a global scale, it would have died quite quickly. The fact that its so compact, is actually lengthening the life of it
3. Just saying "I'm thinking of a Fantasy Boardwar"... Perfect: Practically no limits with characters. No "you have to be the hero". You can be who the hell you like (To certain limits), with your very own goals and aims. You can make the character who you'd really love to be in a BW. I remember reading a few posts of those who wanted more characters! It's that open and varied!

That's why Kaito's one could work too.
It sounds open enough for you to make your own Gods, but there's enough interaction between the Gods to keep it alive and involved.
We jus gotta make sure it doesn't turn into powerhouse vs powerhouse.

[Kaito]

Mullertime, that's nice info for Boardwar creators. I will try to incorporate it. (Or rather I already tried when I planned this 'war)

[crawford'n'co]

Would anyone be interested in a ressurected form of the Homeworld Fleet Boardwar by Gialus? (linky: http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=100218)

I've already Pmed Gialus to see if he'll come back and ressurect it.

[VladimirNikolai]

Fair enough. Yeah, I didn't really have any idea where to go with either of those boardwars anyway.

How about, instead, a mobster based boardwar, where each player controls a 'family', with everyone in the same city. So, you kinda have to try and gain control over the city, so there can be alliances formed etc. It would be circa 1930's, so the traditional gangster kinda stuff.

Interesting?

[c-web]

Interesting proposal*

*said in a dark place while smoking a cigar

[Raver]

GawD, while its a Homeworld boardwar :p I don't like the way its done with the RUs and the slots, doesn't really make the best boardwar, butt hats just my opinion.

[Psymon]

Ok guys, my PC's on the fritz and I can't find the setup disk. I should still be able to post regularly as of tomorrow or the day after (at my dad's atm) but I make no guarantees.

[Raver]

I've revived 'Cradle Earth'. Join people!

[Sword_Monkey]

Resuscitation in progress, if anyone cares to read that mammoth post I just made.

[Psymon]

I'm in for Cradle Earth. I'll start posting when I can. If nothing else, it'll be fun to argue with Rabid's char again.

[Lestaki]

Circumstantially, how could I not try and redeem myself this time around? Expect a post featuring the explosive return of Illyia later today.

[The Shadow]

Meh, I'll be away for a few days.
(Why is Acheron going to die? :()

[Warmaster Death]

hey lestaki, mind keeping Aloysius at Illyia's side?

ill post a bio and soforth when i get the time

[crawford'n'co]

Would anyone be interested in a World War III boardwar set about now-a-days with China, North Korea, and a Soviet Russia faction as the perpetrators? Setting would be South/North Korea at the beginning of the war. Players would fight as any nationality of the allies (Great Britain, U.S., Mexico, Canada, Australia, Democratic Russia, France, Germany, Spain, etc.)

Technology levels would be modern day, everything we have now on a bit more advanced level (tanks have heavier armour and a bigger gun, rail weapons lasers etc are not yet developed).

General idea is China has finally shown its hand, and is marching on South Korea to finalise its hold on Eastern Asia.

Anyone interested? Heres a little bit of an intro:
The March of the Two Million
Perfect, is what I’d say the prediction was. The damn chaplain was right, to the very day. Most of us would have said it was impossible, but now, we all say it’s true. Good old Viktor. Said this damn war was coming twelve weeks ago. Sat there in his tent preaching to all who’d come in. And a lot of us did go in to that tent. When he wasn’t preaching, he was reading those old scripts.


Apparently he had gotten a hold on some old scrolls from Israel before we shipped out. Viktor never engaged in anything by the time the battle group pulled into Norfolk. Wife divorced him ‘cause he wouldn’t do anything but sit and read those scrolls and his bible. Kids abandoned him. Military was starting to get freaked. Poor guy.


Viktor signed on to another tour, and what surprised my squad was that most of the company requested they ship out with him. So Alpha Company shipped out, Viktor preaching away, to South Korea. That morning was damn scary. Two guys started running around screaming like madmen, yelling about possession and the devil. Both eventually jumped into the water off the engine. Nobody looked for them after we saw the water. Not only that but good old Viktor said the time was now, and the Army of Two Million was going to march upon the great power on the twelfth day of the seventh month. In two days.


It was July 10th. July 11th, we arrived, and we found Korea hell. We all went to bed, but none of us slept that night. Viktor stayed in his tent, screaming of retribution and sins and crazy stuff. His last words before marshalling were, “It begins my flock. Pray to God that He’s watching over this little piece of land.” The radios clicked, and we were screamed into our bunkers. Not moments later the shells started coming. Viktor had predicted the damn war to the very day.


No longer impossible.

-Log of Lieutenant Shawn Marley
-July 13th, 2014
-South Korea

[ViS]

Computer go boom boom.

>.<

Apparently, I've missed a lot...

And GinWign: TREE's dead too.

God damn it!

Could someone fill me in on everything that's happened here via PM please? Namely Hidden Earth developments and notable new BWs.

I've got my laptop working now... Sorta...

I've got to run it through my PC monitor, and the disk drive won't work.

[VladimirNikolai]

That boardwar sounds excellent. I shall join, if you make it.

[ViS]

Ok, there may be a delay in everything. My laptop's fucked again now.

I don't like my life.

=/

[crawford'n'co]

Ima be away for like 2 weeks, so I'll start my boardwar when I get back if anyones interested. Bye guys! AND NO GalWars without me! I swear if I come back to find a GalWar, there will be writing to pay!!!

[Sword_Monkey]

Actually I was gunna open up our run of special sauce BWs with a GalWar. Just kidding.

Actually two weeks is a long time...anything could happen. But it looks like a new run of BWs are incoming, I just hope it doesn't get too crowded with Hidden Earth, zombified Cradle Earth, Eye of Black Middle Earth and Hand of God Attack Earth.

Ooh GalWar Find Earth, throw in some Halo references because it's unavoidable...Hmm interesting...

[Sevorak]

Earth was already discovered in GalWar, Sword. ;)

[Kaito]

*knock knock* this the boardwarriors? Umm, I have a package for everyone.. the sender is called "Kaitors" and he said it's urgent... something about a new Boardwar or something, oh, and the sauce is already dripping out of it, so hurry and open it up. Well then, see you around for the next delivery, bye!

[TheLoneKnight]

Your special sauce needs less points. It hurts mah teefs. :(

[Lestaki]

MY computer is virused, so expect me to be awol for a bit.

[Gorb]

I is back!

Portugal is a wonderful place; especially when you don't know Portugese. Everyone smiles at you and nods :D

I'm in for Cradle Earth, and it's good to hear Hidden Earth is still going. I'll post tomorrow though; I'm living on 4 hours sleep ;)

[Warmaster Death]

having virus troubles, any free antivirus software that deletes the crap would be helpful.

see you when i fix this junk.

[VladimirNikolai]

AVG, it's what I use and it's picked up some stuff for me. Will quarantine or delete for you. I'm suprised you're not using it already, nearly everybody I know does...

http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/

[Raver]

Ah the joys of owning a Mac :)

[VladimirNikolai]

Bahaha, you can hardly talk - up until almost the day before you bought your Mac, you hated them with a passion, and liked people who tried to develop viruses for them. And there are a couple of viruses for Macs - don't be so comfortable.

EDIT: Completely off topic... even off boardwars topic, if anybody wants to read the beginning of a book I was writing, the first chapters up in the studio. Leave any comments, and if enough people want to see the next bits I'll post up the next chapters.

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=158536

[Sword_Monkey]

This is reminding me to get virus protection, a firewall, you know anything. Although I find a bare computer slips under the radar quite a lot and Firefox helps.

We also have a hell of a lot of new Boardwars starting up. Why'd everyone get so creative all of a sudden? Also If your first BW, or current idea doesn't get off the ground, don't blame yourself, blame each other for the sheer mass of the things, and blame Sheep for the success of Hidden Earth.

So by no means stop churning out the ideas folks.

I'm going to go work in my positive tone. :P

[Sevorak]

I blame Sword Monkey and his aberrant failure to prolificate the spread of bitter, cranky old boardwarriors for the current surge of creativity. It makes a vague form of sense.

Lestaki and I might make something soon, but we've gotten to be somewhat irascible and unreliable in our old age (in other words, we became a bit like Loni).

[Gorb]

a bit like LoniLoni? Who's he? :p

In other news, I finally got MSN to work. Updating contact details now.

[TheLoneKnight]

:(

[ViS]

Yo!

I'm gonna be in limbo for *quite* a while.

Word is on the street, I'm technically homeless.

I'll update my ideas on my BW as soon as I get a chance to sit down at a PC for any length of time, eh?

I'm probably gonna give up on my HE character too. He's missed out on too much. Just assume that... Dunno, he got severe food poisoning or something.

[Lestaki]

And now we give you hot pics from the Unofficial Official Relic BWs Meet up 2007, located in London, capital of the civilised world.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/9756/img0974kd4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
From left to right: Psymon, Lestaki, Kaito (bottom-centre), Sevorak and Sword Monkey*.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/4291/img0872vs6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Aren't we a cute couple?

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/1194/img0922nu4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Sevorak cheats on me with Kaito.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/658/img0920xs6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
The wind was bad, okay? Don't look at me like that...

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/8251/img0918fz3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
It has been decided that Psymon will be known as Big Lestaki from here on in.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/7314/img0971xf9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Kaito perfects the art of levitation, a gift he obtained after years of digilent study with a little old man in a cave in the east.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/4921/img0908pj5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Yeah. I don't know why either.

*metaphorically, or in spirit

More here. (http://picasaweb.google.com/manu.lowgravity/LondonTrip)

[Sword_Monkey]

XD

Awesome, I hope the 2008 one is bigger, and contains more spirits.

[Psymon]

I am Big Lestaki! :D

[TheLoneKnight]

You all look like a bunch of hippies, except Kaito who reminds me more of the old Greeks or Romans with the funny leaves in their hair, only with tiny, tiny eyebrows.

Like all things it would have been dramatically improved with additional Lonis.

I deride because I loev

[Red Fox]

Wow I have been gone a really long time. *Stupid band* Anyhow I am back on a bit of a short posting schedule and since I missed the mecha board war be expecting to see another in the near future. Awesome pics and I might see if I can make the trip to London next year. Sad to senior year in high school ain't what I thought it would be.

Good to be home at least.

[Langy]

Is it just me or does Sword Monkey's spirit look like Sev's nearly-identical twin sister?

[BrianGeneral]

Great, come to Hong Kong next time for that 2008 gathering.:P

[TheLoneKnight]

Actually, Langy, I think that's Kaito's sister.

[crawford'n'co]

See what happens when I leave!? You all turn crazy and head to London without me. And then you have fun photo shoots. Yet again: without me. Gah! And then theres the whole matter of sorting through that infinity of creative thought that spawned about 6 new BWs.

And I start the rumor that Sword has being secretly convincing 'warriors to swamp the place. :screwy:

[Sonea]

No, Loni, that's Kaito's cousine ;P

[Raver]

Okay, y'all coming to Australia for the 2008 one. Got that? :p. Kaito is almost as tanky as Sev. Dude do you ever take that headband off?

[AMARDA]

Austrailia sounds reasonable, nice and close.

[VladimirNikolai]

And by Australia, he means the Blue Mountains. Or, at least, Sydney. None of this Melbourne or Brisbane crap.

[BrianGeneral]

Drop that, I don't even have that $ to buy Plane Tickets!
Or just come to Hong Kong.;)

[Sheep]

Awwww, there goes my fair acquaintance for 2008.

Looks like you guys had fun :p, awesome pictures, and nice to have some actual faces to plant on these mysterious characters.

[Sevorak]

Dude do you ever take that headband off? I have five headbands. ;)

[c-web]

woah... Why wasn't I invited?!?

(in some of the pictures I can't discern man from womans :()

[Sonea]

There's only one woman on the pics, and that would be the very right person in the first pic ;) [me, tbh:D]

[Gorb]

Gah, who are you?! Also, you all look like hippies.

And the next one should also be in London. Then Sword can be there physically, and I can motivate my ass down as well :D

[crawford'n'co]

Anyone still interested in the March of the Two Hundred Million? (yes i know, I made a numerical mistake the first time.)

[Psymon]

you all look like hippies.And that's bad?

[Kaito]

I like being a greek more...
because Hell's kitchen just has the better taste.

[TheLoneKnight]

Given how many nights a week it seems that Hell's Kitchen employs complete and utter amateurs who are occasionally capable of even sending out uncooked meals to their patrons, I feel I must respectfully disagree. :p

[Gorb]

you all look like hippies.
And that's bad?No, not at all. Someone said of of the pictured gang lookd like a hippy, so I merely pointed out they all did :p

[Lestaki]

My internet access is currently limited, so I'll be awol from MSN and probably will post less. Just to warn you guys.

[Kaito]

oh noes. ):

fix your internets, marklestakis!

[Vorn]

Hey guys! I'm new here and I'm unsure of how to get started. I just post the setting, character sheet, so forth, and wait for people to get involved. right?

[Raver]

Pretty much, its very easy to get into once you're playing. Only problem is that the boardwars ae going a bit slow right now which brings me to my next point with everyone.

Ive talked to Akranadas a little about this, he had mixed feelings but after seeing the Transformers movie the other day, I'm very temped to make a Transformers boardwar either based on Cybertron (transformers homeworld) and have the uprising of Megatron ect. Or, after the events of the movie.

Comments?

Oh and Vorn, welcome to boardwars!

[VladimirNikolai]

It sounds alright. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I would see how it goes, and join it.

What I think we're lacking in at the moment, is a modern combat boardwar. Or, something like that old Derelict boardwar. I liked that, I could make up crazy stuff. But, as I have said in other things, I've no time at the moment to make up interesting stuff, such as an opening to an actual boardwar (eye of black).

And welcome to the Boardwars, Vorn. You might want to take a look at some of the other stuff out there before you delve into making one, to kinda understand what goes on. But, they're pretty forgiving here, so go for your life.

And another thing - it's usually never too late to join. Either take control of an NPC, or have your guy suddenly discovered by someone. So, if you like the look of anything happening at the moment, ask in the OOC thread if you can join in late.

And of course, feel free to ask any questions here. If you have an MSN account, post it in the stickied Contacts (full list) thread, and I, or a mod, will add it to the list.

Happy hunting :)

[Sword_Monkey]

Hey Vorn, just in case you missed it: the Boardwars Guide (http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?t=157960) .

And welcome.

Also Rabid, Transformers sounds okay, maybe we can have more robots than the movie and a plot that isn't made obsolete by the closing moments of the film.

[Gorb]

Let me think . . . Transformers, but without the human side and more actual Transformers?

Gets my vote.

[crawford'n'co]

Soda machines of doom!!! MAUAHHAHAHAH

Hi vorn.

I call dibs on flying super jet!!!

[Raver]

Well Ill get started on it soon then. And no, just planning on each player making their own transformer dude, none from the movie unless you want.

[Gorb]

Make our own Transformers?

*grins*

Hehe, heh, heh, heh.

[Vorn]

Alright, thanks. I understand and I'll poke around some more though. :P

[Raver]

Good to have you aboard Vorn.

Okay everyone, Ill give it another week before I start Transformers. I have a bit of work that needs doing, in the meantime think up some ideas for the storyline.

[Sword_Monkey]

Small moderatorial update

Changes: The aftermath

Pearls of Wisdom: Started with some discussion although not enough substance in my mind to warrant being compiled yet. Realistically I'm looking for a nicely formatted step by step approach to a Boardwar subject, to cut down on me extracting nuggets of information from the discussion aspect of the thread.

Posting Status: Intended for you to make it apparent to others of how much you are able to post per day in a BW, so that you can see who there is to team up with within the storyline and make sure that noone gets left out. This is because some people in other timezones may not be able to post with the vast swathe of us and will not be able to interact with the plot as much. It is in use lightly, but as far as I'm aware not really being that effective in its principle. Simply put people have been quite considerate in their pace of posting, mostly, so those in other time zones haven't been left behind as much as they had been in the past. So one target of this change has been achieved simply through you lot being more considerate, although I don't know if this will last long.

Special Sauce BWs: Me or you lot wanting a particular BW to have special attention to make sure it is concluded via a special label of specialness. This is another feature that seems to have nearly been made obsolete by you lot simply paying more attention to a Boardwar and sticking with it, as evidenced by the success of Hidden Earth. However I'll keep this in reserve as it may still be needed one day.

Feel free to comment on anything you have perceived differently.

[Raver]

Sword_Monkey...that made no sense...either that or I just have no goddamn clue about what you're on about :p.

[Sword_Monkey]

I've tried to make it clearer Rabid, but basically it is highlighting a few of the changes that made it through the poll and seeing how successful they've been to date.

Very basically the Pearls of Wisdom thread is in use, and when it has a bit more in it I shall try to compile it and make the 'Pearls of Wisdom [Archive]' sticky. The idea to notify everyone of your posting status within a character sheet in a BW was a novel idea, but I don't see how it has had much effect, instead you have all simply gotten on in your respective timezones. Finally the idea to name a good BW as a special sauce BW to show everyone participating that it should be completed, because it deserves it, has not been needed yet because there hasn't been anything worthy or needing of it. For example Hidden Earth is still going strong, and most other BWs of late have collapsed.

I hope that makes things even clearer Rabid.

[Raver]

Yeah yeah cool. Just was a bit lost, didnt know we wee actually carrying through with any of those changes except for the pearls of wisdom theard but okay then.

[Sword_Monkey]

From the changes poll thread, this post (http://forums.relicnews.com/showpost.php?p=2461236&postcount=27) shows the results.

[c-web]

I think Vorn is now accepted into our boardwarrior family.

[Sword_Monkey]

A little reminder that it's NOT a good thing to make a new Boardwar right after one or two new ones have appeared. People can't keep their attention focussed on any more than 3 and most people prefer 2.

Hidden Earth is still going, Sublime Monster is starting up and now Vorn's BW The World of Daslin. For a further two to pop up (The Contracts and Conflict 2800 AD) Makes this little more than a popularity contest for the best idea, condemning at least two BWs to death. I can't condemn the two new BWs because they have as much right to be running now that they are here, but they could have been timed a little better.

Also remember that term time is on the horizon, Summer is ending, you have to decide if you have time for more than two BWs to participate in, and if you have time to run one.

[Raver]

The Contracts has been going for a while now :p. It took me about five minutes to write up so it's a peice of shit and no-one will join it. No biggy :p

[Sword_Monkey]

Hah, I missed that, its height on the list made me think it was new. My bad.

[Sevorak]

More people need to join Daslin. That is all.

[Gorb]

I will do tommorow, as I don't have the time now.

[Lestaki]

More people need to join Daslin as something, anything but yet another elf. That is all.
Fixed. :p

[Raver]

Wildman here I come...

[Gorb]

Damnit Lestaki, I wanted to go elf :p

Ah, well, I feel the Death Soldiers calling me :twisted:

[Vorn]

Ah, sorry about that. I hadn't looked around or worried about multiple BWs causing a problem once I'd decided what I wanted to do.

[Psymon]

Ok, as of tomorrow I am away until Sunday. Assume my characters are tagging along in the two BWs I'm loosely involved in.

[Lestaki]

In a magnificent example of the mismanagement Monkey warned us all about, tommorow I'll be away for four days at a dark place with no internet access. Which is inconvenient. My intentions are as follows.

Hidden Earth- Parifalis and her team are put into Sevorak's hands, Alexia into Shattered Faith's. I'm expecting you two to decide who the true heir of Void is. :p

Sublime Monster- on hiatus until I get back, when I'll revive it. I apologise for my bad planning.

The World of Daslin- I'll simply begin when I return. Of course, by that time you guys unopposed will probably have conquered the human empire, so I'll just have to lead a counter-attack.

[ThorinDP]

Hey, who's the active moderator for this area?

[Raver]

Sword_Monkey or Akranadas.....Hi :p

[Sword_Monkey]

That would be me ThorinDP.

Also cut down on the double posting people, edit your previous post when possible, please.

[jackster]

This forum is quite inactive for the past few days, everyone is busy i suppose.
Cant really blame people, I am quite busy myself.

[Kaito]

ironically, I remain busy until school starts again mid september. ^^;

[AMARDA]

Cradle Earth, when will we finish that?

[Lestaki]

*winces* Cradle Earth is rapidly becoming my Waterloo. Thou shalt not mention Cradle Earth!

By the by, I'm back. Now I'll see whether you guys have come apart without me.

[crawford'n'co]

Hardly, now restart Sublime....... NOW!!!!

[Innonexess]

Now that i've been away from all internet for a month i think i may get a bit more involved in the boardwars section(rather than just lurking here)..when i've finished reading all the current ones, and caught up on the month i've missed :( BOO

Oh: and i'd be up for a transformers BW

[crawford'n'co]

Oh, and, I'll be back sunday night. Bai!!

[Raver]

Once 'The World of Daslin' and 'Hidden Earth' finish, Ill begin serious work n the Transfomers.

[Psymon]

After a very relaxing few days by the seaside, I'm back. Expect posts as and when schoolwork permits.

[Gorb]

Thou shalt not mention Cradle Earth!I'll remember that *evil laugh*

Anyway, after an unexpected Internet-free few days, I'm back. Jeez lawz, things have been happening.

[crawford'n'co]

Back. Hai!! And anyone else have the forum being a spaz? Its saying the database is all screwy.....

[noname0112]

anyone played Unification wars... if we would inspire this thread similar to that maybe lots of people would probably join(That's just a speculation tho, probably would make the situation here worse).

sadly, I haven't posted successful ones... maybe I should quit making my own and just rely on you guys. one question by the way, did someone mentioned transformers BW!?

[crawford'n'co]

Yes they did. And I already have dibs on either the Soda Machine of Doom or a plane of some sort.

[noname0112]

...transformers, i kinda disliked them though. but, maybe i'll just have a somewhat like... trashcan robot. pretty useful everyday, a simple trashcan in day but a very deadly fighting robot by night. what you say?

[Raver]

Well if its a trash can with mechanical and electronic workings...sure:p.

[noname0112]

i bet it's stench is enough to kill it's opponents. think of it as its secondary armament.

[Psymon]

I will probably post my first BW on Friday, I've got a lot of free periods at school that day so I'll write up the idea I've had buzzing round my head for a week. I'm taking a lot of inspiration from Escape Velocity: Nova, so if anyone's played that the setting will be familiar.

[The Shadow]

well... This time my mobo exploded, I'm going to sent it to warranty and see what they say. I'll be inactive for a while...

[crawford'n'co]

School really sucks guys... doesnt it?

[Gorb]

Not just school, getting ready for uni as well (that's why I've been kinda absent).

*tumbleweed blows across forums*

[Psymon]

School really sucks guys... doesnt it?Yes, it does. My first BW has been postponed until I can get on top of all the damn work.

[Lestaki]

Maybe we should so something before we get nuked. Well, as if I have any ideas.

Incidentally, mecha BWs now officially have the worst karma ever. Their track record is a laundry list in failure...

[crawford'n'co]

What about this: Everyone comes up with a style of play (ex: empire control; PvE; Single ship; Survival etc etc). Then we all vote to see which is the most popular. From there we all decide the details (setting; tech; goal etc etc). And then we go on and start the super-dooper-jolly-amazing-boardwar-of-collaborated-minds. Ok so maybe I didnt need to hyphen all of that, but still, it makes it sound more complicated. =)

[Lestaki]

Well, as ever, I've gone behind the scenes with a fellow and hatched an evil plot to be unleashed soonish. Fantasy without anything but runic magic, big swords and lots of ogres. Aniticipate it.

A collaberative project would be fun too, though. I vote character-based fantasy, it's my perennial favourite.

[Red Fox]

School and personal life have gone from bad to worst. I would love to actually see a working mecha BW but I guess its not possible. My vote goes to single ship space as I enjoy actually making my ships for art.

[Yoshi]

Personally I always love epic fleet bws. Not limited fleet bws where you invest points for a fleet. When you do that everyone gets defensive and is afraid to lose ships and equipment which in turn leads quickly to pging and people bitching and the bw dieing.

I prefer fleet bws where the player takes on the role of a commander, able to request reinforcements and the like(not instantly) Having the power to negotiate and declare war. If you do them right with a focus on story telling and not 'winning' then they are the best bws possible in my view. The problem comes with for some reason people always want to 'win' them instead of approaching them trying to write a good story.

[Raver]

Fleet boardwars have always had my vote. But yeah, points systems never work, I always avoid those ones.

[Gorb]

A collaberative project would be fun too, though. I vote character-based fantasy, it's my perennial favourite.It's everyone's perennial favourite. I vote character-based fantasy as well.

Hidden Earth was going so well :(

[Sword_Monkey]

It's been mentioned before, but I've never seen one myself, this collaborative idea that is. And I'd very much like to see one.

Space Opera or Fantasy Epic, I don't mind either.

[Psymon]

Assuming it ever gets off the ground (hopefully school work will be completed this weekend) mine's going to be a single ship sci fi thing. But I'm always up for a character driven fantasy.

Oh, and in local news, I'm 18 today :D

[crawford'n'co]

Happy adulthood (?, depending on nationality)!

I believe that if we could all agree on "writing" a boardwar and not "winning" a boardwar, a space-epic-fantasy is the best bet.

[Sword_Monkey]

I think I might start up this process then.

Starting with deciding on Space epic, simply because, we've had a few fantasy BWs, no doubt more are to come, and we can always do a fantasy one after this one is finished.

Firstly this is an absolute pilot, subject to changes all the way through. I'm not going to take the helm as an organiser, nor am I going to ask anyone to do so, yet. This is a collaborative work we are discussing, so no one person should have too much sway. However if someone appears to be doing a good job of....stuff, then they might become a figurehead, as such, for the project.

I'll make an opening thread in a day or so, as I'd like to hear what people are expecting, or how involved they think they can, or want to be with this. (From lurking and maybe saying the occasional word, to a full blown font of creativity.) After this gets on the way people should feel free to split discussion from threads into new threads if they think the topic is important enough. (Think of one [basics] thread moving on to [mainplotdiscussion] with sub threads for [races], [technology] and [continuity] things like that, all including the name of this here epic, whatever that may be.

Either post here any ideas you have or PM me, as well as thinking about these few basics;

Are we going to base it on an existing universe? Of our own making? Or make a new one?

Several races okay, but should one take the fore, or should a motley crew of characters, or one character be our focus?

Are we just writing a story with massive and constant editing? Or are we going to allow each other free range over different sections to make a tangled mess of story threads intertwining with some possible path toward an ending? (A BW).

Is space opera/epic the best choice?

Something to keep in mind is not to get ahead of ourselves, it's easy to leap into race creation and things like that straight away, but it might not be wise to do so.

[crawford'n'co]

Since I have time to do some stuff right now and later over the weekend, I'm gonna grab the helm until someone more qualified (veteran boardwarrior) wants to take over. Ill be heading up the topics we will be discussing on in a thread. (Sorry sword, stealing your new thread :hug: ) Rules for the discussion will be in the thread (dont worry it wont be a super regulated debate). See you there guys.

[Sword_Monkey]

:D Go for it, your idea, run with it.

[Yoshi]

I believe that if we could all agree on "writing" a boardwar and not "winning" a boardwar, a space-epic-fantasy is the best bet.

I agree as I said I think that is the biggest problem everyone gets hung up on wanting to win rather then just kicking back and writing a interesting story or adding different elements. Or just wanting to brawl, as another thing that hurts fleet bws is where two people meet, have a misunderstanding or what not so they start having a brawl.

Almost imediatly everyone else in the bw ftls in and imediatly picks a side and starts going at it. While at times this can make sense it degrades things in my view. I know that people do it because they want to be involved with whats going on but that doesn't mean you have to try and be where everyone else always is.

A good example of someone who does their own thing is Weavern. I know from multiple past experiances that he is quite content to go off on his on and put his own plans slowly into motion as others go at it.

I know of others that have done this but he comes foremost into mind.

[Lestaki]

Been there, done that in Divine Blood. Shinka was a developed, rich and sophisticated character with a good backstory, on the cusp of entering important character development in her quest that ran parallel to the main story. The problem was, the BW died- and I'm sure she's one of the reasons. Boardwars are fundamentally collaberative writing. Obviously, some development apart is good, but if you're (as I was) nowhere near the other players for an extended duration your net contribution to the BW is functionally zero. Besides, you might as well be writing a solo story anyway if that's your angle. You'll get better development anyway. As far as I'm concerned, players should meet and work with players even if the circumstances have to be fudged. Without that interaction, BWs lose momentum and die. This, I firmly believe, is why empire boardwars have a truly horrible track record in my memory.

As for playing to win- why the hell would one do anything else? Playing to win does not contradict good writing, and indeed the best winning player is hypothetically the best writer who can see oppurtunities to exploit and takes them. I'll frequently draw up fight scenes with my opponent in MSN, to make sure it's good narrative. But I'm still- always- intending to win unless it's obvious I should win. Because, you know what? Our characters want to win too, rather more than I do. In a battle situation, a strong determination to win is surely good roleplay? ;)

If that overtakes good roleplay, then obviously it's bad. But bad roleplay is bad roleplay, irrespective of origin.

[crawford'n'co]

I was thinking more along the lines of: Hey, my fleet is way more powerful than yours, sorry bud, but dont bullshit me out of this. Your fleet is gonna get destroyed.

Its not so much, not winning in the long run, but you dont have to win every battle. Eventually a player is gonna come along with a bigger gun.

[Yoshi]

Well the reason playing to win gets in the way in my view lestaki, is because it makes people to find ways around losing ships or people. While that is a good thing to do in plausible ways. It leads to pging where one ships basically starts absorbing massive amounts of firepower and only gets moderatly damaged. We're talking a fairly normal large capital ship not a massive super ship or anything.


Most people do not like losing at all. So if the bw feels like you either win or lose against other players its going to cause some really dumb problems to arise.
in my view a feeling of being part of a epic story needs to be conveyed more then, 'you must destroy your foes!'


edit: I'm meaning the players not their characters that they rp.

[Sword_Monkey]

Ah but this is writing GawD, the size of your sword means little when faced by the pen.

The underdog may not win in real life, but you can count on him winning in most stories.

That's were determination comes in over complacency, not that many of us have ever written our characters to be too complacent because we know it leads to downfall. And that's a feature I'd like to sue in the project, all those flaws in characters we hardly touch because we know it'd be taken advantage of by opponents, or our special little character won't be as cool as we want them to be.

[Yoshi]

Sword, sometimes the one with the mightiest pen is not the underdog.


Plus there are many situations where if your fleet fights it will die because of the sheer firepower it faces. the Problem is people fight anyways because they want to try and be the underdog that comes out on top and don't want to even lose a single battle. When they should of pulled back cut their losses, and after regrouping figured out a way to strike back.


IE A soldier with just an M4(no grenades/explosives AP weaponry) versus a Bradley assault vehicle is going to lose everytime if he tries to stand up fight. Where as if he actually falls back to get better equipment he could come back and destroy that bradley. Bad analogy but I hope you get my point.

[Sword_Monkey]

I was just saying that some people think they have to write up a big fleet to win, because everyone wants to win. But others field the underdog, and play on that to win, with luck written in too.

You'll never win a fight in a BW based on tactical supremacy, unless the other player actually decides to lose. People don't realise how hollow this kind of victory is.

With the collaboration, it won't be your special little character dying, just a normal character in a story that pushes forward some plot detail or something, so we might actually get somewhere.

And if you think an example like that will help, then you need to think about it in context, this is the BWs section, most of the time everybody's characters are equal. Recently one member decided to boost the power of their own character simply because they were outnumbered, arguing it was 'only fair' to. This is the BS mentality that the collaboration should negate.

[Yoshi]

I think I misread what you ment beforehand. You do have a very good point people do make a massive fleet thinking that guarantees victory

Though with characters dieing if it is a players main character at the time I think they should give their consent, otherwise people can react badly when their character gets killed in a story. Mainly because while the character might not be really special to everyone else people can denote that themselves and take it personally even if it wasn't.


Recently one member decided to boost the power of their own character simply because they were outnumbered, arguing it was 'only fair' to

I agree that is bs to think just because your outnumbered you should be as powerful as them all combined.

[Lestaki]

Honestly, you talk about avoiding losing men and ships as if it's a bad thing. That should always be your goal, it's only in character, unless your character is a nutjob.

Now, if that's achieved through bad writing, that's bad writing. But it doesn't have anything to do with the intent to win unto itself. Likewise with characters "powering up" due to outnumbering.

[Yoshi]

You miss my meaning Lestaki, i don't mind losing men and ships. my last post was mainly based around a person's main character IE the dude/at that is somewhat representing them within the bw world.

[ViS]

Most people write BWs like they're playing a videogame.

I see it as more like writing a novel or something.

Catch my drift?

It saddens me to see all these people writing secluded monolouges and making no effort to interact.

Same with people playing to 'win'.

[Lestaki]

That's where boardwars are superior to novels, though. About the only place. In a novel, everything is basically scripted in the author's head. A character will win, another will lose, and it's all secure. This is pretty noticable in my NPC combat in Hidden Earth. When it was Alexia vs NPC, we all knew the result in advance, more or less.

But when it was Alexia vs PC, that was a lot more exciting. Both characters will authentically use every single resource at their disposal in order to survive and win, just as they would in "real life". No one's allowed dubious moments of genius, instantly understanding an enemy's attack, and no one is protected by a character shield. I find PvP combat a lot more authentic than PvE, and that's connected to the mutual desire to win. Unlike Allen and Herande, who would lie down for Alexia's character development, fighting Jamien was always an uncertain business.

Write well, of course. But why play for anything but the win? I repeat, failing to do that on some level is a failure to your characters. Sure, I'll tell a good story. But I'm also aiming to win, and if my opponents hold back, that's their problem. Just like in real life. ;)

Edit: the problem with that metaphor, Auto, is that a secluded monolouge is a legitimate form in a novel. But in a boardwar, it's pretty pointless.

[Gorb]

This thread has turned scarily intelligent. I feel lost and alone in my ignorance :p


It saddens me to see all these people writing secluded monolouges and making no effort to interact.You've got to remember; new Boardwarriors don't necassarily come in with a plan of how their characters are going to fit in with anybody elses. As you said, people play to win, and so naturally they don't think of working with others, just for the sake of plot advancement or something. People who have been here a while (notably Sev/Sword/Lestaki) tend to collaborate quite often. I have only recently started to get involved with other people's characters in BWs, mainly because I thought if I started something with another Boardwarrior, and then failed to post, a part of the BW would die as a result (it's true - look at Hidden Earth. I start a fight with Lestaki, and then RL intervenes; I can't post and the BW stagnates).

It's a bit of a complicated explanation, but I hope you'll see the reason behind it.

[Sword_Monkey]

Hey we're on page one hundred! Milestone party! (If you view 15 results per page)

Anyhow, I feel there is a difference about writing my characters to win and actually making them win. Sure I'm representing a side, but I recognise that they don't have to win, despite any determination I may decide they have.

[Sevorak]

/me views 50 results per page.

I agree with Sword Monkey; I feel that being incessantly focused on victory rather than writing means that no one will ever actually lose. Maybe setbacks or defeats may occur, but it's an inherent weakness of a story if people are incapable of accepting defeat. Strikes me more as a contest rather than a collaborative writing effort if things turn out that way.

[Gorb]

That's what I was trying to say. My meaning was kind of lost mangled in translation. Some BWs have ended up going all screwy because people don't want to be wiped out, and just eternally upgrade their existing characters (I admit, I have done this in the past). I suppose if your character is technically killed off and you don't have time to post another character, that is a reason for not giving up just yet (and going all Superman and invincible). However, I feel if you are realistically killed off and you don't have time to make another character, then maybe you should let that particular Boardwar go.

The problem is, for sake of organisation, we (for obvious reasons) want people who are into a BW to sign up at the beginning. This then means if a player leaves for whatever reason, the BW may falter and die, because the existing players have got a plot going and don't really encourage new posters to join in. Therefore, in an effort to not get bored with the said BW, people start focussing on winning by producing the biggest Mega-Blasting-Giga-Cannon the Universe has ever seen. Which leads to the next person either giving up or makig a Mega-Blasting-Giga-Cannon Mk II. And so on.

And therefore we end up with the competitively-themed Boardwars as supposed to the diplomatic/party based adventures (Remember Lestaki's diplomacy BW a while back? It didn't last long because posters wanted to fight, not discuss economics, war & peace treaties, and so on).

I really hope people understand what I've just written, as I kinda let my thoughts about the current state of Boardwars ramble on :)

[Lestaki]

Again, a distinction should be made between the desire to win, which is good, and a block-headed inability to recognise defeat when it cocks a pistol in your face. Likewise with upgrading characters.

Basically, I'm making a slightly semantic distinction between the two- the latter is bad writing quite as much as anything else. But as far as I'm concerned, not playing to win is quite as inauthentic. And in truth, if you don't recognise defeat you may well be called on it by other players and be punished. The best competitive players know when to cut and run. ;)

[crawford'n'co]

So, I'll hop back in and sum everything weve discussed in the past 20 posts:

Playing to win is good! Woohoo!!

Suddenly making your character god to win is not good. Booo!!


And on a side note: weve seem to have messed up the veteran status stuff. Almost all of the current boardwarriors joined sometime in 2005. Sword, Sev, Lestaki and myself are all within like a 6 month join timeframe.

Since weve been seeming to base "veteran" status on time, why have we been almost always mentioning sword, sev, and lestaki? (no offense meant)

Lets get the veteran status stuff down and in concrete.

Are we going to actually base "veteran" on time? If so, a lot more members should be mentioned when talking about veterans.

Are we going to base "veteran" on successful boardwars?

Are we going to base "veteran" on how helpful a boardwarrior is? Do they contribute to all of the BWs they join? Do they generally listen to the GM and obey all rules? Do they help new warriors?

So lets get this straight.

[Red Fox]

I'm the oldest that I can find within the first five pages joining in June but I have always have inactive sprees due to band and school. I however must say that the best Boardwarriors are indeed Lestaki, Sevorak and Sword(Although Lestaki's characters seem to be the same a lot but that is a fault I share. No offense there.) There is no such thing as a veteran role player. You could have role played for over 7 years like me and still be the same you were when you just started and then there are people who are just good at it. We are all equal in our ability to roleplay, Some just put more effort into it than others.

[Yoshi]

If veteran was based on time then i'm probably the oldest since I've been around relic since 1998, I've just had periods of absences that resulted in my name getting purged and having to rejoin.

in my view a veteran rper is just someone that has learned how to rp better since they first started