Re: Brave New Olympia

Rich Skrenta (skrenta@blekko.rt.com)
Tue, 11 Aug 1992 20:29 EDT

Rob McNeur:
> Having a collection of skilled individuals who guide and direct the faction
> takes Olympia back to a more personal environment. Skills would only relate
> to the individuals, rather than to the hordes of unwashed hirelings on the
> local unemployment queue.

Ah, good. The very few responses I've had so far think this is a good
idea. I assume Scott will think it's a good idea, too. :-)

[complex description of commands & rules to regulate individual workers]

> Or do we just drop the 'men' totally and just throw money at the problem,
> ignoring the workers completely.

Yes, that was my plan. Abstract the whole worker thing into gold.

> The problem is, how do we manage the supply of all the gold necessary ?

I'm not sure this will be a problem. Or rather, I'm sure it will be, just
as we have a gold problem currently. But my hope is that the economy will
be a more tractable problem if we make this simplification, and that the
game will be more fun if you can concentrate on a few nifty leader characters
instead of playing the mind of the mindless drone workers.

> Presumably, if you want to hire men to provide entertainment, you need some
> way to ensure that the area already has some people skilled in such things.
> Otherwise the individual has to do it all himself or ends up with useless
> entertainers. This is good for wandering minstrels who don't need a team,
> but is not so good for a travelling circus.
>
> Or do all the requirements for skilled helpers vanish and all income is
> purely dependant on the skill of the hirer and the amount they are willing
> to spend ?

Well, if we get rid of all such currently recruited assistants. Sure, you
can have a guy who street performs. But you won't have a unit of 10 that
street performs. Two men could stack together and both street peform,
but there wouldn't be any real interaction between them.

The idea is that units are far harder to obtain than they are now, and it
is impossible to add men to a unit in the current sense, and not necessary
for most tasks. Construction tasks require gold instead of men; and armies
can be hired or otherwise assembled.

One complaint which I heard several times was "why would all of these guys
sweep sewers and then give me their gold." That wouldn't happen in this
system. You could have one of your characters sweeping sewers to make
money, but that's just one guy, and presumably you're roleplaying him, so
it's you who are sweeping the sewers.... Well, sort of.

--
Rich Skrenta <skrenta@rt.com>  N2QAV


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