SkaForHire

Just because there are new islands, doesn't mean they have to be settled. The larger islands have a mechanic that will be revealed in the near future. Just like any squatting location, you can squat there as well if you wish. Reports are that there are no Halosian settlements this far East.

As the tides of war turn, still discovery continues. Rumor of a continent not too far away has sprung up in all of the farthest eastern ports. It seems to be only a matter of time before Halosians find it. Four extremely large islands have been found that border the New Haven Sea, and each seem to be quite hospitable -- although to large for a nation to just claim through normal wheeling and dealing. Those who wish to claim these major islands will have to earn them through sweat and blood. Blood that seems to already be boiling further west. Still, the Safe Harbor Sea is known for its timid weather, its warm current, and its steady winds. Violent storms are rare, and the islands that circle the sea are full of native inhabitants, some with more technology than has previously been observed on islands further west. There are also a series of islands that drip south from the New Haven Sea, making it evident that there are more islands, or maybe even a continent to the South. We will see which way the next wind of exploration blows. New Haven Map by skaforhire, on Flickr PS nobody said mapmakers had to be good spellers.

Very cool! Don Leopold!

1) Copper 2) Stone Quarry 3) Stone Quarry Which MRCA are we talking about, results or the new system? I think I will have the results out tonight. Just to put the new system in perspective, it took 5 months to write and test the original system, and this system of MRCA II and the EGS is at least twice as big... Still, we will probably have something to run in mid December.

Sixth Quarter Free Build Registration -- yeah I know, this book is taking too long, we now have 6 quarters of free building!) November 1st, 2016 to May 1st, 2017 (Book II, Quarter 6) What is this thread? This is the thread where YOU register your free build if you wish it to be scored for your guild. Why are you doing this to us? Despite Rogueang’s wonderful MOC index, the guilds project has become quite large. The core leaders feel that we need a self-indexing mechanism that will allow us to grade free builds more efficiently. This is what we have come up with. What do I need to do? Just simply write the following information In a NEW post: Name of Moc with link to the thread | Name of Builder | Guild you belong to IE: Obsidian Spike |ZCerberus | Nocturnus Do not write anything else. What counts as a “Free Build?” Great question! Any GOH build that was not entered in one of the official main challenges. All free builds must have their own thread, and there must be a link to that thread provided here. Do not comment on builds in this thread, please do that on the MOC’s own thread. Can I just post in my guild thread and leave it at that? Whereas you are welcome to do so, if the build does not make it into the index , it will not be scored. Can I put up an entry for another guild member's build? If that builder has disappeared and we are getting near the deadline, this would be allowed. Past registrations: Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4 Quarter 5

Um... Historica has one true king... his name is Ark'Mora Raa -- The Desert King!!!! :P But, for real, great builds! Great story!

You struck Gold!!!!!!

It is the same mechanic as buying extra troops to put on a ship. In this case, the IC explanation is that it is much easier to recruit crews to pillage large nations, if there is a LOM involved. More people are willing to sign on for cheaper when they see the dollar signs.

October 14th, 616 To the citizens of the Brick Seas. The maroons of Eslandola have not removed themselves from La Isla de Medio by this choice, the King of Mardier, recognizes that his empire is now at war with the lesser nation of Eslandola. In this regard, all Mardier Ports are closed to Eslandolan flagged vessels. All Eslandolan vessels are considered legal prizes to a Mardieran Vessel. All Eslandolan settlements on the mainland and in the Far Seas are now legal targets of our military and naval forces, and extended forces. In this vein, His Majesty, King Alphonse XIII issues a letter of mark to all willing participants. The letter states that the captain may attack Eslandola’s vessels of all nature in the name of Mardier. This will be considered a lawful prize to all courts in all nations, as Mardier and Eslandola are at war. Along with this letter of marque, the king offers a generous reward for every Eslandolan vessel taken or sunk in the conflict. Captains may keep the vessel, with a clear title for 15% of the value of the treasure on board. Any war Eslandolan Warship taken or destroyed will also merit the victor 100 gold doubloons. Apply to your nearest consulate for a copy of this letter. Sincerely Count Adwin Encarnacion Minister of the Colonies of Mardier To get a Letter of Marque, either sign your name to this thread, or if you are the more secretive type -- send me a PM. Also, Sea Rats, there is a bonus for your warriors of the sea if you use a letter of marque from ESL or MAR in this next MRCA. You will receive double crew on your ships for free!

Yeah, this will be streamlined soon.... but I also have access to the Corrington Spreadsheet (I assume there is still one?) Which tells me who is where anyway. The Sea Rats always send me something like that as well, so they can streamline if they want too. (The others can follow suit as well, as long as I have something that tells me what escort goes where and protects whom[right word?])

For some reason, I can't paste tables in... that is why they have been done the way they were for so long.

Since this is the last MRCA 1, at least in full, I think changing up the form doesn't make too much sense. How about you give me a list on the 15th in a PM of all players and vessels that make the promise not to attack MAR traders, and I can just use it as a side note when running.

BAD BUSINESS!!!! No room for profit for Eslandola from an Eslandolan offer? That is distinctly un-Eslandolan, I propose that the crown are dopplegangers, and the real king is missing! Also, a MRCA clarification, if you put in as a predator that you are hunting nations not listed, there is a random spawn, so there is a chance you can get some Mardierian trade vessels.

Yes, I think you are very right here. I think we posted this post and your post at about the exact same time, so there was really no way for you to know, past the rest of the reasons. I think if you want to move it up stream to cut off their interior supply, that is a fantastic strategic location.

Yes, that was brought up this evening -- convict town is the ESL settlement, its just what the Mardierans decided to call it. I thought it was obvious because I put it in the same place. This is what I don't understand -- I have said over and over again that KMA still happened. There was an in game voice memorandum (the whole letter of marque thing) there basically telling ESL to shove off... which is totally warranted when a kingdom has been attacked. Nowhere did I say that we would remove anybody from the game by retracting the story they told. I did say, after people claimed I had overstepped (attacking me personally, not MAR, which had made the in game statement), that the rules allowed for the settlement to be completely wiped out (which would have been in the story, not lore erased...). I also stated that this wasn't going to happen, and that the ball was in ESL's court to fight of flight. Kai said that my mistake here might have been allowing the flight to another island for free here, because that may have given the opinion that we were just moving the story -- but that was not my intention, you would tell your story of moving in the lore, while not having to pay to reestablish your properties in the EGS. Finally, to Faladin... I had no idea you had a MOC with the natives. When the island description was given, this was not to disregard what your characters had done. Not all the islanders could be integrated into an ecomienda system, I am sure there are hideouts on the cliffs and communities the MAR settlers don't know about. And just to clarify, by integrated, I meant the MAR forces had forcefully integrated them into the economy, not just great friends with them and now they all speak Mardieran, they are merely part of the labor system. (Do I smell rescue mission?) First, since everyone is listing their CV here, I too have GMed games for nearly 25 years now. But, I think I realized why there is a conflict point here, you all thought that I was deleting your settlement, all I did was rename it on the Mardier map (Convict town was meant as a jest to the ESL settlement, as it was seen as unlawful to the Mardierans). I didn't realize that that wasn't obvious since it was in the same place. If you noticed, I never said any lore was going away.... if this was the complaint, we were never arguing the same points here. The reason for the stealth reveal is that I meant it as an Easter egg for those who were paying attention. I expected questions in forums like "what's that new settlement?" or "where did that come from?" but actually, I thought nobody even noticed it... It was meant as a plot hook for the next challenge, and wasn't something I just wanted to announce. Scarst was working on a "discovery" build for the island for the prelude, I actually think that is why he is so mad about this.

I don't have time to address everyone before work... but a few points... Going back to the rules, it would not matter if there was actually people on the island or not -- the island was still officially awarded to Mardier -- thus allowing the squatter rule to come into effect. However, I never intended for us to evoke that! too much time has been spent, so we offered up a new choice -- the Ultimatum. This was an in game response to the situation that allowed for a choice. Mardier does not recognize your declaration of war, and has not felt any of it over the last few months, so it is willing to let ESL evacuate (That is an in character position, take it as you like, insinuate Mardier's military position as you would like) without a formal declaration of war. On an OOC side of things, if war is declared, it allows us to test new mechanics, gives the Sea Rats something to do if they want to take up the letter of marque, and adds to ESL's story they have already brewed. If ESL evacuates, there are a lot of stories to tell there, and there is some bitter precedence for an all out attack on Mardier in the future. Finally, I am not single-handedly playing against you all here... this was stuff that has been written for a while. It makes more sense for a story to play it out than change it -- and basically the complaint about game mastering is saying that "oh I don't like that I ran into Orks here can't we change it to a cotton candy machine?" Had this been a Corrington settlement... then we would be forced to play it out. Because it is an NPC nation, and part of the lore, you guys seem to just want to throw it out. What is the point in having any plot, if we are just going to throw it out because a couple people decided that they didn't like it when they opened up a problem by accident?

I don't see a problem with that, we never really put in the resource system that was originally planned, so really no biggie here!

I am only putting your quotes here, but a response to Faladin as well about plot... When you play another RPG, (which lets face it, BOBS is an RPG to some extents) does the game master tell you where every hidden object is? There is some surprise to be had. This was stuff to lead into a new Era of challenges and islands... it won't all be revealed at the beginning of the game. That would take the exploration out completely. I totally disagree with you on the challenges. It sounds like you want a challenge to be "build the best boat" or "build the best fort" without any type of coherent story for the challenge. That makes for a boring time. Nobody forces anyone to do the challenges either. That was another point from the very beginning. Also, those first four challenges were written from the very beginning, before anybody signed up. They were to advance the general storyline. Now all builders have added to the overall story, some have changed the path, we can't just cut off a path because somebody doesn't like it. And it still seems that many are ignoring the only point that matters here - squatting rules were in the original rule set. For a faction full of rules jockeys, someone has had to have read them. If this was an unclaimed island, there really wouldn't have been any real consequence to your personal stories, but you just ran up against a NPC nation with its own plot lines... there is obviously going to be some blowback. One last note about leadership... the reason why the initial leadership was so small and secretive is because having too many chefs in the kitchen would have led to nothing being done. Somebody has to steer things to keep it going. There are going to be decisions made in secret that impact the game, there are no plot-screws though. I didn't wake up and say, crap let's thwart those Eslandolans!!!!! This would have happened if Oleon, Corrington or the Sea Rats wanted to do so as well.

You will be able to mount an expedition yourself for that fabled continent in a few months (by you, I mean any player with enough PIPs) The map will expand soon.

but that is exactly what I wrote! That all properties except forts are subject to that rule. What is this "your" it is the plot story, I am not sitting here fighting you guys. You are all missing the original point, that this island was already claimed by Mardier, it was settled, to be revealed later. You guys squatted on a settled island, that you knew was settled. It doesn't matter how much settlement is on it... I understand the point that you guys would not have settled had you known how settled it was, but it was claimed by the time you guys did the KMA.... How have any of the challenges changed the way the players make stories? They have done nothing but help tell the background story and let the players build with in it. But all other stories have been player driven. Dear Elostirion: I did not completely vanish for months, I was monitoring the forums weekly, and active in the leadership forums. We are all volunteers here, real life kicked in. I am not building right now, but still have been writing the new ruleset these last months. Also, I did a lot of the heavy lifting coming into this, I am sooo sorry that I could not keep it up throughout the whole year. That doesn't change the fact that there is a clear squatting rule. No war was moced, just trials, there is a difference. You basically called me a liar, thanks for that, but the game is RUN from the leadership forums, your leaders have access to that, they knew what was going on there, they didn't even announce it to us, so there was no way to step in before I was made aware that this was happening. The game is about lego, but that would work both ways here... can't you accept that your settlement was put in the wrong place?

Perhaps the fix is for Eslandola to migrate the colony to one of the uninhabited islands, or to one of their claimed islands. I understand why the majority of you are upset, but this is not me throwing down an instant road block, there was already a plot here in the works, there was enough warning on the OOC side in leadership that this should not have even been considered. It was never brought up in the main part of the forum, so I didn't see it was happening until yesterday. Squatter settlements are allowed, but as the rules state, if it is on a claimed island, then they can be removed without any other mechanic by the host nation, at any time. The fort is the only problem actually. But We don't have the war rules yet to remove it. What has not been explored in this game is really the squatter mechanic against unclaimed islands. Had their not been two different nations on Berelli, then that island probably would have been bought by a nation because it had a settlement there. This wasn't meant to stop your fun, it was a great idea. It was just that this island was the worst island to do this on, and your leadership knew that, and the game mechanics that are available to all clearly say that squatters on a claimed island can be kicked. It was a gamble from the beginning, without even knowing that this island was a major colony (which was about to play a prominent role in the next challenge...) Finally, the last thing to say here, if we had to build all of the NPCs then there would be no NPCs. That just never would have worked. If you want no conflict in the game mechanic, it seems like it would be a pretty boring game. There had to be some sort of threat. (But actually, we are getting rid of that threat anyway with half of the MRCA, while adding adventuring instead of risky trade runs)

Mardier is not Spain of the 1800s, it is Spain of the 1530s, at the peak of its power, but civil unrest had led to a temporary break in the ability to stranglehold the new world. That is where the original opportunity in the story came in. That strength is being regained as the war ends, but that doesn't mean it did not have other colonies before the war began, colonies kept in secret so that the other powers would not be able to get a hold of their resources. (Much like Spain did, there were many colonies that the location was kept secret for many years, but eventually leaked to the greater world) This story has been here the whole time. Just because there were not updates over the last three months doesn't mean it doesn't exist. While I disagree, and if we want to just delete all the content I have put in over the last year that is fine, I don't want people claiming that I am heavyhanded. I don't really need to be here, after-all. Historica is looking dry, and could use some plot rain, I will just go back there. But I will not see the game mechanics bastardized and bent on purpose. You are right about one thing, when I chose which island would be the plot island, it was because DLL named it Skaford Heights. But this was before KMA was even planned, and thus why I edited that island list. But that is not true. You all had not made a pick yet when that island was claimed. And it was even said that the KMA thing came AFTER you saw that Mardier owned the island. Bur furthermore, your leadership knew the island was claimed, which gives Mardier the same rights as any other nation in the game.

From the very beginning Mardier has been painted as the super power, here. Their naval forces were much larger than those of the other nations. Their trade routes were greater than those of the other nations. Their armies were greater than those of the other nations. This is not a shocker. The story even opens up that finally the other nations can sail past Terraversa due to some corruption on Terraversa, if they had been there for years and years (which they had been) then Why wouldn't they have other colonies beyond the line? The other nations have only been freely trading at Terraversa for under a year, it is not a leap to understand that there had been secret colonies beyond the line -- it has been mentioned in short pieces of plot in the beginning that the Mardians had trade routes that they controlled out of Terraversa. As for the island descriptions, these were rudimentary observations made by a few explorers, it stands to reason that explorers that made it to close to the Mardier settlements were detained or killed, so that part of the island would not be known. There is plenty of plot precedent for this, and in fact this island was part of the next challenge! (which your leaders knew about before this expedition) As for a declaration of war, that was also never brought into the leadership forum. Where does that even happen? The first mention of this, I see in the last week. And it stands to reason that Mardier would just not respond to petty threats until they felt that they needed to declare war back. That all being said. By the rules of the project, as a claimed island by a nation, then all foreigners can be kicked off without recourse. The ultimatum was to subvert that, but we can just go back to the rules and disregard all those properties if you want. Your leadership knew that that island was in use before you all made this attack. Complain to them.

Perhaps you, sir, should familiarize yourself with global politics a little more. During the Mardieran Civil War there were two sides, the side supported by the Garvian Monarchy freely plundered all nations, while the good king of Mardier's privateers were not permitted to do as much, unless these vessels were trading with the enemy. -Sid Vicinte

I am like positive I rolled that. But the reroll is quarry. Yes, I will try to get out all the claimed ones this week, do you want blanks or do you want me to add terrain?