ScrapYard Armory

I wrote in an earlier post about playing in War of the Clans, a play by email/forum game. At the time, I had high hopes for it making the grade. This was just after the Capellan game at the Classic Battletech forums fell apart.

The War of the Clans had a lot going for it. The rules were complete and written. They had a very elaborate and well done spreadsheet for each faction leader to track their clan’s abilities and resources. The spreadsheet automatically calculated stats for your particular clan. Those stats along with your turn orders were used by the game masters to complete each turn.

Sadly, the War of the Clans never got off the ground. There were two false starts as the game masters tried and failed to get all of the players onto the same page. When the main game master went AWOL, the second in command took the reigns and tried to put the pieces together.

Several days had already passed and players naturally became bored and wandered off. New delays followed in order to fill those empty spots. The second game master has tried a few times to rally the remaining players but to no avail. The forums still have a few lurkers, including myself, but that’s it.

This experience reinforces the point that in order to make a play by email game successful, you need to remove the requirement for a game master.

Demand for a grand strategic game is definitely out there. The game had attracted players for just about every single spot available before things went to hell. And it did not take long either. Only after several delays did players begin to defect, never to return. Classic Battletech players just want to play and have fun. When game masters inhibit their ability to do so, they will leave for greener pastures.