the deserted battlements

[foolish_icarus]

Is this the end of poly NESes? Surely there has to be some will to continue, perhaps in some new form?

[foolish_icarus]

Most wars are fought over land, resources, or wealth, and captured prisoners are made slaves simply for the sake of cheap labor.

But Storydipland is suffering a major demographic crisis. When the few remaining warriors of this desperate land launch their campaign, it will be for the sake of population. Emperor Foolish, from his capital in the north, has sent messengers to all the corners of the Broken Arm to gather an army. The capital, provincial by the standards of the bloated, soft North, is the largest town in the Storydipland, located in a small reach of land that is perhaps the most fertile in the cold, desert country.
Yet its size soon swells with the preparations for war and the incoming regiments of soldiers. From militias and conscripts out of the provincial towns, to small bands of uncouth wild men from the mountainous plateaus, the army is assembled piece by piece.
The capital is filled to bursting, every manner of item and service triples or quadruples in price, and quite a few clever businessmen reap handsome profits.
The last week of the muster draws to a close, and the already meager imperial coffers have long since been emptied. But that is inconsequential. Soon the coffers will overflow anyway, there is no reason not to make room now.
Finally, the army begins its march. Horsemen, bowmen, pikemen, and miles of wagons and pack animals carrying all the necessary supplies and equipment, or failing that, everything that could be scrounged up. At the back of the line are even a handful of rudely constructed foreign-purchased cannon, now obviously in doubtful condition. The emperor had not been overly pleased with the trials, as half the time the fire powder would not even ignite, and when it did the shot went in wildly unexpected trajectories of unsatisfactory range. He planned to rely on the traditional siege weapons anyway, but he supposed these could not hurt.

His messengers had still not returned from the neighboring land of Civmacistan, where they had been sent with a secret offer of alliance. But he could not spare any more time. The Civmacistani army would come or not come on their own volition, he had already done everything he could to convince them.

The emperor put aside these thoughts and concentrated on riding. There were many leagues to go before his army arrived in the outlands of Communitopia, and they needed to make good time.

[foolish_icarus]

announce yourselves!

[GeoModder]

You are quite welcome to take a peek in an ACDG province, foolish_icarus.

[1889]

I'm not sure what the Never Ending Stories was all about. How about a synopsis before I vote?

[Sheep]

My NEsing career was born here, and damn will I let it die. I AM STARTING A NES!

[foolish_icarus]

1889, the format is quite simple and allows one to take it in almost any direction. A moderator designs a scenario (in a word processor, no software is needed) and players take on the roles of nations, or leaders of nations. They make decisions and engage in diplomacy with other players, may issue orders and write stories, in a format of your choosing or not at all if it doesn't suit you, and the moderator will periodically compile all the orders, add in a bit of chance and a bit of challenge, and give an "update", a summary in the world of that particular NES for however long the turn is (usually a month or 6 months or a year). Repeat for as long as there are enough players to keep the NES alive and interesting. It is a cooperative effort, but individual players may raise up or tear down their empire as much as they please--so long as circumstances allow .

[bipolarbear]

I love the NES, I'm down for any NES experience, other than running my own during the school year, because contrary to popular belief, I do like to do some of my homework.

[SKILORD]

I miss the old days of the Apolyton NES.

I began the Apolyton NES, and I am strongly considering rejoining the communty I guess.

You might want to look into the GSA idea in the Civ3 storied forum, by the way.

[1889]

2 are still kinda going and could use your help. Cold War and Sheep. I'm working on a few paragraphs for the GSA.

[Tassadar500]

Well, Cold War is dead and may be revived, and Sheep NES, has not had an update for a long time as well. I'm thinking about starting a NES to try to pump some life back.

[1889]

Cold War is just waiting for orders. Getting that moving again will be easier than starting from scratch. I really new to this forum and would like to see how one of these work.

I've mostly played Civ 3 PBEMs, but discovered that the best part is interacting with other players diplomaticaly. Some PBEM players are not as receptive to that aspect of the game. This forum allows much more room for diplomacy without having to move all those freakin' units around. Also these start right up. PBEMs are really dul for the first few weeks.

On the plus side PBEMs move ahead. Even if you start in the worst possible position you know the game will move along and give you a new chance. Nothing will mean more to promoting this forum than to get a game moving.

I could see how the guy running things might get stuck for ideas. Maybe we can take turns doing the updates then. Just post some orders, any orders. Lets everyone who keeps saying how much they love NESs just post some orders instead of lamenting the loss of interest in NESing.

[Tassadar500]

If we have three NES's going though, it means that there is going to be an update a few times a week. Since Sheep NES is in the 1700's, and the Cold War is well, in the Cold War, I'm thinking about doing something very modern, or doing something medieval.

[1889]

I can't stop you from starting another, but at least post orders in Cold War.

I'd say go for a contemporary theme. That would be easiest for people to get into.

[SKILORD]

I'm starting up Absolution 3 at CFC in a little while. This is pertinent to the Apolyton NES community because Absolution was originally a 'poly game.

If I did return to creating NESes at poly we would probably see some unmoderated reality police games rather than rule oriented ones, just to see if it can still work or if the Thrusters effect has become too strong here.

I highly reccomend going to the NES history page and looking at the old ones, especially SNESA2, which was a classic.