Olden RPG Announcements

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- HALL OF FAME -​

Folks,

Unfortunately, KW has found that he does not have enough free time to step into Lud's shoes and become the new Keeper of the Hall of Fame.

This means we'll need to ask one of you fine people to step forward and take on the mantle of Keeper. Do you think you would like to do that?

WHO WOULD MAKE A GOOD KEEPER OF THE HALL OF FAME?

Someone with:

• A desire to see good play and sportsmanship noted and rewarded.
  
• Plenty of time on their hands at least once a month.
  
• A decent command of English and grammar.
  
• A working grasp of the vBulletin Boards text-formatting vB Codes.
  
• Has some bright and cunning ideas for revamping the Hall of Fame thread, but won't feel offended if I have to step in and veto some or even all of them if they're too radical.
  
• It doesn't work with 'someone with', but: Someone who has been with us a decent amount of time and knows the general vibe and format of the game well.

WHAT DO I GET IN RETURN?

• The custom title of 1420s RPG Keeper of the Hall of Fame.
  
• To lord it over a Sticky™ thread all of your very own. Yes, that's right, a STICKY™!
  
• R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

SOUNDS GREAT! WHAT DO I DO NOW?

Please send an email to josefgiven@hotmail.com giving your resons why you're the best person for the job!

Thanks in advance to all applicants,

Josef

 

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- SERVER DOWNTIME -​

All our net resources will be down temporarily on Friday (march 15th) as we are moving to new offices. I have no idea how long we will be offline but we will be back some time during Friday.

Patric

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed the deliberate error in our glorious and appropriately Paradoxical leader, Patric's announcement.

It is not for mere mortals like us to speculate whether he is refering to Friday (the 14th) or Saturday (the 15th). Neither do I have time to find out to tell you all in time for this turn's deadline.

Play safe and assume that the server will be down for both days. No concessions will be made for those who are not prepared, so make sure you do everything you'll need access to the forum to do done in advance for the deadline.

Thankyou for reading,

Josef

 

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- SEA-MIL TRANSPORT -​

Folks,

One or two conversations on MSN about when and where sea-mil clashes happen have lead me to believe a clarification is in order. After I make this post, I shall be amending the RULES and Religious Powers thread accordingly. The added clarification is written in gold to help seperate it from the old text.

Using sea mil as transport for land forces
You can use your sea mil as transport for your land forces, but in the real world this was a long, and complicated operation. It takes two full turns to pick your troops up from one province and drop them at foreign shores.

In one turn, you can do one of two things:

EITHER

Load troops onto ships. Enemy ships moving into the same sea-province in this turn will engage your fleet. If you lose the sea-battle, your troops will be unharmed and will remain on land.

Sail those troops to their destination.

OR

Sail ships with troops already loaded to their destination.

Unload/Assault enemy province. Enemy ships moving into the same sea-province in this turn will engage your fleet. If you lose the sea-battle, the troops on the ships which haven't been sunk will be unharmed and will remain aboard ship. Note, you may march troops from their landing point to a province further inland, as long as you or your allies control all the provinces along the way.

 

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- STAFF RESHUFFLE -​

Right, front and centre, you ‘orrible lot.

Mildly bad news: Reb’s got a whole handful of things he needs to sort out in RL in the following months and so he’ll be taking a much needed break to get them sorted out. There’s simply no other way he can cope. He’ll still be on hand for more low level contributions, but we’ll need someone else to take over the Events section until he can get back.

Arnou does another important job on the forum and that is keep the ‘Treaties’ section in the National Statistics thread updated. Problem is, it’s been a while since we’ve seen him, plus if he was here, he’s landed himself so many jobs on the game next door that it’s unrealistic of us to ask him to do our treaties any more. So, grateful as we all are for his help, he’ll need replacing.

Kindly do not send me any applications for the above jobs until you see me post the usual bells-and-whistles adverts in the Announcements thread. This is just to let you know of the current situation.

I will be doing ONE, and one only, event for Bagricula, tonight. After that, you’ll need to hold onto your events requests until we have a new events man. I’d like to turn to Longinus to step into Reb’s shoes again, but Long’s role as the latest HREmperor is too big to combine with a responsibility as great as the events.

Keep ‘em peeled, folks. Those ads will be going up soon. HINT: I really need your help!!

As you were,

Josef

 

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- RPG Events Mod -
Very experienced player required.

YOUR FORUM NEEDS YOU​

Folks,

As detailed in the last announcement, Reb needs to let the Events section go for a while until things at his end have easied up one time.

This means we need one of the VERY BEST of our players to take up the demanding job that Reb does. And soon.

The person who gets this job will be joining Bz, KW and I as one of the staff who provides one of the absolute core and essential elements of the game. Time-wasters need not apply.

You will need:

• First and foremost, a passionate belief in the need to preserve and further the roleplaying spirit of the game.
  
• ...to be a regular, experienced player of the RPG. Posters from other areas of the Europa Universalis board need not apply.
  
• A good command of English and basic grammar.
  
• An interest in the history of this period (1419+), Again, you don't have to have 10 university degrees in history, but a healthy interest and feel for the historical vibe of the game is needed.
  
• A working knowledge of the vB text-formatting tags. Not newspaper or magazine design level, but enough to make events posts look appealing to the eye.
  
• A LOT of spare time on your hands.
  
• The ability to accept and work with any and all edits that I have to make to events scripts. For the first few weeks, ALL events scripts will need to be sent to me first for the all-clear just before they go up on the forum. Although there is a great deal of room for creativity in the ‘flavour texts’ that accompany events, the tables themselves that decide the outcome of the event can have massive effects on the Nat Stats and so need to be tightly controlled and formulated.

In return, you get:

• To keep hold of your nation.
  
• The custom title of ‘1420s RPG Events Mod’ (until Reb gets back)
  
• A sense of satisfaction in knowing you are one of the most important staff members in the game.
  
• R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Please get your applications and email address to josefgiven@hotmail.com

Have you got what it takes?

BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE, BE THE RPG EVENTS MOD.

This post will vapourise once a suitable applicant has been found, which should be within seven days.

 

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- RPG Treaties Manager -
Experienced player required.

YOUR FORUM NEEDS YOU​

Not only do we need a new events bod, but also someone to do the treaties, too.

This department is a LOT quieter and less demanding than Events, so it would be ideal for someone who fancies… well, keeping the treaties sorted, really. You can work out whether or not you’re suited.

You will need:

• First and foremost, a passionate belief in the need to preserve and further the roleplaying spirit of the game.
  
• ...to be a regular, experienced player of the RPG. Posters from other areas of the Europa Universalis board need not apply.
  
• A good command of English and basic grammar.
  
• A working knowledge of the vB text-formatting tags. You do need to be good at this, actually. The more comfortable and competent you are with the vB system, the more you can do to make the treaties posts clear and legible.
  
• A reasonable amount of free time once all your in-character commitments are taken care of. Again, this is not a vastly demanding duty.

In return, you get:

• To keep hold of your nation.
  
• The custom title of ‘1420s RPG Treaties Manager’
  
• R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Please get your applications and email address to josefgiven@hotmail.com

Have you got what it takes?

BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE, BE THE RPG TREATIES MANAGER.

This post will vapourise once a suitable applicant has been found, which should be within seven days.

 

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- TURN EXTENDED -​

Folks,

Since both Bz and KW are going to be away from the forum at inconvenient times (a few days at the time of posting), it's now too near the end of the turn for the battle orders to go up.

So I'm making this turn last for TWO weeks. ie: from Sun 30th March to Sun 13th April. Get your orders into KW again if you need to change them, or not if you're happy the way they are. I shall ask him to set a second deadline at the usual midnight cut-off this Saturday/Sunday the 5th/6th.

The battle results that will go up from those orders next week will be titled Oct-Dec 1433. I'll also ask Bz not to run any peace-time regerations next week, since he's already updated them for the turn ending Oct-Dec 1433.

I should remind you that the Oct-Dec turn is the one we base the winter attrition event on. Don't let your troops get caught out in cold climates!

That should hold it,

Josef

 

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- TREATIES MANAGER -​

Here's some good news for you to put into your happiness syringe and jack up:

Auspend, he of Ottoman Empire and former Wurtemburg fame has very kindly agreed to be our new Treaties Manager. Good, eh?

Whilst I'm making your day just that little bit brighter, here's another joy-felch: I've had lots of applications - most of them good - for Reb's temporary successor as Events Mod. I'm... biding my time, Mr. Burns style, before I make the final pick, because a few other wheels are turning, too, but there should be a new Events Mod at your service very soon.

Josef

 

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- NEW STAFF!! -​

STAND AND DELIVER!

...deliver some respec' in an area, that is, to Reb's temporary successor, Ladislav AND ALSO to your new Chronicles man, Bagricula. Didn't see that one coming, did you?

Bagric's new thread, when it goes up, IS NOT to be spammed by your grubby-fingered posting. Similarly, the results of Ladislav's events, when they go up, are not to be challenged in any way on the forum. Remember the User Agreement, folks. Although neither gents are mods, they enjoy the mods' protection.

Josef

PS: I wasn't supposed to muck around with the Announcements thread as it turns out... hehe oops! SO that means this thread won't be put out to pasture just yet. That's right; my attempt at messing around with the top thread in the forum will be disappearing soon, whisked away by suitably darkly attired and be-sunglassesed gentlemen.

 

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- LADISLAV AWAY -​

Your friend and mine, Eventsmeister Ladislav, will be away on a tour of Europe from the 23rd of May until the 3rd of the following month.

During that time, I will be doing events in his stead. Get your events request to my...

Private Message​

...inbox. Those of you who know my email address may as well use that, instead. Or as well as.

Note that I shall not be asking Ladislav to send me any outstanding events requests, and so if you want me to script and post any for you, you will need to send a fresh request to me.

The 23rd is the day that Ladislav will be boarding the 'plane, so whilst he may still be accepting events requests for now, you may wish to hold onto your requests until after then and get them to me. Consider that holidays take some preparing for.

Happy hols, Ladislav!

Josef

 

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- NPC VASSALS -​

Right, there seems to be some confusion as to what powers players have over other, NPC realms.

You CANNOT vassalise NPC realms. You can free them, but you cannot vassalise them, nor can you 'transfer' the vassalage to another player. Neither is it possible to extort money from NPC realms.

For vassalage to be sworn, a HoS must perform a ritual of oath-taking and take a pledge of allegiance. How can they do this if they are NPC and inactive?

Like all RPG rules, the events system is the way round the above. If you want to vassalise an NPC, or interfere with it in any way, contact the events meister and suggest it - but be prepared to invest time and resources in getting it done. It is NOT a freebie.

You will doubtless wish to comment on this. Get it to my PM inbox - I do not want to see it on the forum. There may have been mistakes in the past where an NPC realm was tampered with in the above ways, but that is in the past and does not set a corrupted precedent now.

Thankyou for reading,

Josef

EDIT: This is not aimed at any one player - rather all players.

 

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- BLUE TEXT -​

Folks,

Recently, I've had to PM no less than three different players and ask them not to use the colour blue in their posts. It is very hard to read against the default blue of the forum and a lot of posts which, ironically, have been otherwise very good have been rendered unreadable. And I don't think any reader wants to fart about with the mouse-select highlight to be able to read a clashing font when they're in mid-post.

There is a nice shade of blue: sky blue, which IMHO works quite nicely. If you have to give us the blues, please use that one.

Josef
(see what I mean?)

 

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- LADISLAV'S RETURN -​

That's right, folks. As you may have already gathered from his posts in the off-topic thread, our standing Eventsmeister Ladislav has returned from his epic journey into Fortress Europe. Welcome back, friend!

That means you will need to get all your events requests to him again, if you want to see them done.

Incidentally, I will be doing one final event this evening, because I'm halfway through compiling it, already. DO NOT send any more requests to me, though. That will be the end of my tour of duty.

Thanks for reading,

Josef

 

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UGLYDUCK

​

Well, news gets old pretty fast on this forum and I can't imagine there are many left who don't know that Uglyduck recently resigned his post as Admin on this board.

Soppy posts ain't my style but it would be criminal if we did not stop for a moment and just acknowledge the help that UD put into game and the support that I personally got from him - most of it where it could not be visibly appreciated on the regular forums.

I can say without much doubt that this game would probably not be here today if it were not for UD, and if it was, it would be in a pretty sorry state.

One of the true heroes of the Intarweb - his presence will be missed.

21-gun salute - FIRE!

 

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- POSTING IN NAT STATS -​

Folks,

BzAli, your ever-loving and hard-working stats man has asked me to put up the following annoucnement. And not without good reason. Pay attention, yo:

Whenever responding directly to another player's post in the National Statistics thread, such as loan-offering and repayment offers, kindly quote from the original post, to show which one you're responding to. There can be several posts between "Venice repays its loan to Hungary", and "Hungary accepts"*

Make the life of your NatStat-man easier and use the quote function when answering.

Thanks for reading,

Josef and Bz

* realms picked arbitrary, no harm intended.

 

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- GIFTS -​

It is now no longer to offer econ points as gifts to other realms.

Econ points maybe offered as loans, but under no circumstances may econ points be given away, any more. This includes econ points given as tribute as part of the terms of any form of treaty.

Thank you for reading. All comments based on this to my PM inbox, please.

Josef

 

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- HOLY WARS -​

Catholic, or Orthodox, crusades no longer give the bonus of +1 morale to crusading realms
Jihads no longer give the bonus of +1 morale to Sunni realms on a Jihad
Holy Wars may still contribute to a realm’s casus belli, so it is recommended that the players of religious heads still use them as before.
Realms no longer suffer -1 morale during battles where they fight realms of the same religion, whilst that religion is at Holy War.

See the Rumours thread for details.

 

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- ORTHODOX CHURCH -

​

Not one, but two changes to the way the game handles religious affairs tonight, folks.

Before I go on, there will no longer be one 'Supreme Patriarch' character who speaks for the whole Orthodox world. Neither will there be any more Orthodox Elections or Patriarchal threads. These are all O.U.T. OUT, like yesterday's newspapers.

So that's what's out. What's in? Read on.

Realms whose state religion is Orthodox (check the National Statistics thread to see what state religion your realm is) gain +1 morale cumulatively for each province they own with one of the seats of the Orthodox Churches in them.

• ORTHODOX CHURCHES
  
• The Church of Constantinople
  Province: THRACE
  Influence: Greek, Slavonic, Romanian, Ruthenian, Albanian
  His All-Holiness, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch
  
• The Church of Alexandria
  Province: ALEXANDRIA
  Influence: Arabic, Nubian
  His Beatitude, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa
  
• The Church of Antioch
  Province: SYRIA
  Influence: Syrian
  His Beatitude, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East
  
• The Church of Jerusalem
  Province: JUDEA
  Influence: - NONE - (too little influence)
  Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and All Palestine
  
• The Church of Russia
  Province: MOSKVA
  Influence: Russian, Georgian, Lithuanian
  His Holiness, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia
  Introduced early due to early fall of Constantinople
  
• The Church of Rome
  Province: ROMA
  Influence: All Catholic!
  - CATHOLIC -

A Patriarch’s influence, as mentioned above, stretches to realms of the same culture (Again, see the National Statistics thread).

When Patriarchs (Rome is Catholic and not included!) have influence over a realm, they may exercise the following powers over it:

• Call a Holy Synod to discuss matters of faith.
• Appoint and demote lesser Orthodox churchmen.
• Call a Crusade.
• Declare an Orthodox character anathema. (Orthodox excommunication)

None of these powers have any game-mechanical effects, but it is suggested that they might make a good basis for an event.

If an Orthodox realm has more than one culture and those cultures are within the influence of different Patriarchies, each Patriarch can only influence his own cultural and church sphere within that realm.
________

Pretty good eh? If you agree, tell me how wonderful I am in the Paradox Lounge off-topic thread. If you don't agree, you can **** off. Err, no wait, sorry, I mean you can tell me how awful this new Orthodox system is via PM - NOT, I repeat NOT on the forum.

Well, either way, enjoy your new Churches, Orthodontists.

Josef

 

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- MODERN CULTURAL REFERENCES -​

OK, following a recent conversation I have had with a player, it's about time this clarification was added to the RULES and Religious Powers thread. It can be found in the DON'TS part of the 'DOS AND DON'TS' section.

[DON'T] make references to modern popular culture in your in-character posts. Avoid especially references to the Star Wars films; the Star Trek and Monty Python's Flying Circus programs; and the Second World War. Remember, this is a game set in the 15th Century.

This post is aimed at no particular player since I have seen several examples of this over the past few months.

If you have used the above references in the past - don't panic. Just phase them out over your next few weeks of play.

Remember: We love having comedy and humour in the game, but it has to be the type of humour our characters would have enjoyed in their world. Don't impose the 20th and 21st Centuries upon the game (we have an off-topic thread for that), but take yourself into the 15th Century world.

Thankyou for reading,

Josef

 

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BLACK DEATH

A curse upon all your houses!​

The disease spread like wildfire across Europe in the fleas on the backs of the black rats that squealed and wriggled through cellars, sewers and streets.

Young and old, rich and poor were struck down, regardless of status. Markets collapsed; wartime supply-lines evaporated; communications fell silent; the whole continent ground to a sinister halt.

All battles are suspended until further notice.
No countries may regenerate econ until further notice.
Countries may use diplomacy to return to peace, but no further DoWs may be issued.