[MUD-Dev] [BoardGameDesign] Fog of War (to Robert & dr1010xltd) (fwd)

[J C Lawrence]

Oh, the meta-games people play with our games:

------- Forwarded Message
To: BoardGameDesign at yahoogroups.com
From: "dtstrain" <dtstrain at yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Apr 2004 01:17:25 -0000
Subject: [BoardGameDesign] Fog of War (to Robert & dr1010xltd)

That reminded me that I meant to say something on unseen enemy movements
in games.

My wife and I run a strategic war campaign for players of Ultima Online,
in which we've integrated online roleplaying (diplomacy, quests) and PvP
(general's battles) with strategic large-scale rules as different guilds
compete for control of territory. That's a lot to explain in one word
but more can be seen at http://temple.playusmaximus.com/uoel2.htm

ANYWAY, In our last incarnation of the game, all troop movements were
secret, unless the players used spies to ascertain their positions.  It
was a neat idea and brought in a lot of intrigue, but it also caused
some unfortunate effects.  One of those relevant here was that it
actually took a lot of the fun OUT of the game!  Imagine playing axis &
allies, but where you can't sit and strategize.  You just build up your
defenses, make attacks into places you want, and hope for the best.

Being able to see the positions lets players plan and scheme, which is
more fun than the realism of not knowing enemy movements.  As a
compromise though, we still have rogue units, which ARE unseen on the
board.
------- End of Forwarded Message

--
J C Lawrence
---------(*)                Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
claw at kanga.nu               He lived as a devil, eh?
http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/  Evil is a name of a foeman, as I live.

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