Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Keith, True. However, as someone who considers himself a historian without a specific agenda I find the fact that the way certain historians keep records is appalling because they like to leave out facts that they'd rather people not to remember or twist the facts to sound better than they were. On 9/6/12, Keith wrote: > History is written by the winners... --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
hi Dark, Yes, I see that. I've been doing some reading of Spanish history and while I knew who Isabella and Philip were I really had no idea of the history leading up to the exploration of the Americas. I didn't know, for example, that Philip and Isabella married to unite the two most powerful Catholic kingdoms in order to unite Spain under one crown and that the Muslims were finally defeated in 1492. Of course, that was the same year Columbus set sail. I had no idea how much power and influence Spain had in Europe during the 1500's because all American history teachers wanted to discuss is what was happening in the western hemisphere. Now, I'm happily filling in the gaps in my knowledge and realizing exactly how little detail was spent on the big picture so to speak. For example, if we talk about the U.S. War of 1812 that's all American history will talk about. They totally ignore the fact that one reason Britain didn't send all the red coats in to smash us flat is they were primarily involved in the Napoleonic Wars. Britain was fighting two wars at the same time, and we were the lesser of two evils. That naturally worked to our advantage because while Britain was concentrating on the French we were free to give you a thrashing in our own backyard. As poorly as the war started off we almost got smashed flat anyway and the history books like to ignore those facts. Same goes for Spain in the 1400's and 1500's. American historians seem not to care why the Spanish were conquering Central and South America but merely the fact that they did so. Its appalling. Cheers! On 9/6/12, dark wrote: > yet tom, the irony is that as I've said before, Christopher columbus, the > treatment of civilizations like the aztecs and the Maians depend very much > on Spanish views and spanish history of the time. > > In fact, other than when I studdied the first world war, sinse the history I > > learnt concentrated on Europe, the spanish settling of south America is the > > closest I've been to studdying formal American history. Although when i > studdied Arthur Miller's the crucible and George steinbeck's Of mice and > Men, in English literature during secondary school, we also learn something > > of the times and culture that those works were set in, as well as (in the > case of the crucible), the time's surrounding the author's life as well. > > Beware the Grue! > > Dark. > - --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
History is written by the winners... - Original Message - From: "dark" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2012 3:10 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners yet tom, the irony is that as I've said before, Christopher columbus, the treatment of civilizations like the aztecs and the Maians depend very much on Spanish views and spanish history of the time. In fact, other than when I studdied the first world war, sinse the history I learnt concentrated on Europe, the spanish settling of south America is the closest I've been to studdying formal American history. Although when i studdied Arthur Miller's the crucible and George steinbeck's Of mice and Men, in English literature during secondary school, we also learn something of the times and culture that those works were set in, as well as (in the case of the crucible), the time's surrounding the author's life as well. Beware the Grue! Dark. - --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
yet tom, the irony is that as I've said before, Christopher columbus, the treatment of civilizations like the aztecs and the Maians depend very much on Spanish views and spanish history of the time. In fact, other than when I studdied the first world war, sinse the history I learnt concentrated on Europe, the spanish settling of south America is the closest I've been to studdying formal American history. Although when i studdied Arthur Miller's the crucible and George steinbeck's Of mice and Men, in English literature during secondary school, we also learn something of the times and culture that those works were set in, as well as (in the case of the crucible), the time's surrounding the author's life as well. Beware the Grue! Dark. - --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dennis, Those are definitely some good points. My over all point was to point out to dark that a lot of history such as the Native Americans gets passed over in the history books and only mentioned in passing. Therefore what we call history is very selective based on who did what when and how it contributed to the modern world rather than studying history for history's sake. Howe we got on this topic is that Dark suggested that I set my vampire game in Spain. I wanted to point out to Dark that I'm rather unfamiliar with Spanish history as its not something an American student would study. Like Native Americans if it didn't directly contribute to the modern history of America it was pretty much ignored or mentioned in passing. Therefore I'm woefully unprepared to write a game set in medieval Spain without a lot of background research going into the project. Off the top of my head I can't name more than a couple of cities in Spain let alone write a comprehensive history of that country. :D Cheers! On 9/6/12, Dennis Towne wrote: > Thomas, > > I'm part Navajo and have lived most of my life in the western US, > where native americans are quite common and there's a lot of indian > history. Even when I was a child, very little of what I saw was > negative. Out here, native american history is widely taught and > understood, because it's a part of the region's history. That said, > we really only know about the tribes native to this area, and for a > long time I was only peripherally aware of those that are big on the > east coast. > > Even with this level of regional history, native americans are usually > mentioned only in passing in history courses, unless the course is > specifically about them. There's a very good reason for this: native > americans didn't contribute much to modern history compared to other > things at the time. That's not a very politically correct thing to > say, but it's true - the hundreds of minor indian battles and > skirmishes over the decades, all of them combined, pale in comparison > to the civil war, or either of the world wars. The simple fact of the > matter is that there were a lot more white men, and more men equals > more created history. > > The great transformational factors that really ripped up and changed > society were not the tribes fighting for land on the fringes of the > country; those changes were wrought by the presses, by the locomotive, > by the internal combusion engine, steam engine, mass manufacture, and > ridiculously bloody war in the style of the white man. > > Of course it's easy to look back, or even look at where we are today, > and say that native americans were cheated out of a lot. But to say > that they were equally cheated out of their rightful spot in the > history texts takes it a bit too far. Mormons have arguably had a > bigger final impact on the country, and I see very little material on > their exodus in the history texts compared to native americans. > > How did we get to this topic anyway? This seems more than a little > off base for the list. > > Dennis Towne > > Alter Aeon MUD > http://www.alteraeon.com --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, Ouch! Sounds like ignorance is becoming a world wide phenomenon. I'm not British but I certainly know who Rudyard Kipling is. Of course, I think this could be a result of our modern society where most people would rather play games on their XBox, Play Station, etc or watch television all day long rather than sit down and read a good book. This lack of interest in reading and so on is dumbing down the masses. In any case we are drifting off topic here. :D Cheers! On 9/6/12, dark wrote: > Hi Tom. > > That is pretty dire, and indeed while I know British attitudes haven't > always been the best, at least in terms of education there was a reasonable > > enough spectrum, with various courses that teachers could choose on > different periods, however much of the point of history was thinking > historically. > > Indeed, the course that I did for gcse's betwene 13 and 15 was history of > medicine, which obviously instead of taking one specific historical period > was a general look at the way over time peopl had considdered deseases and > injuries, going from the ancient egyptians onwards to the modern day, > covering various religious and scientific views as well as advances such as > > Pasteure, koch, and flemming. > > Though concentrating primarily on europe from the grieks onwards, it was a > general look at the way people thought, rather than a look at the specific > history of a given nation, and to me, far more interesting because of that, > > indeed during my degree I took two extra modules specifically! on history of > > medicine so that I could look at the subject in greater detail. > > When i was doing my A levels, things were a little more tied to one period, > > being the renaesance quite specifically, however this covered Britain and > the hole! of europe, not just Britain itself, which again gave a far more > detailed picture of what was happening, for instance not just that > Francis drake sunk the armada, but the reasons why the spanish wanted to > invade britain in the first place (and in fairness given what the royal navy > > had been doing to Spanish merchant shipping I can't really blame them). > > I'll also add that this is something I really like about Doctor who, that > even in it's initial conception, part of the idea was that it would be an > educational program (two of the first doctors' original companions were his > > grand daughters' history and science teachers). > > You thus got episodes set in the Aztec empire, china at the time of marco > polo, or france during the huganot massacre. unfortunately, this aspect > rather fell out of favour in later episodes and usually instead of > historical settings being used to show something about the history, they > were just backdrops to a science fiction plot (though there were still > occasional exceptions where the setting got more notice), and the new > series hasn't exactly helped (especially with it's ultra short episodes). > > The doctor who audio dramas from big finish are fantastic for fully > exploring historical settings, often with absolutely no sf elements at all > just like the original 1960's version, and we've had stories set everywhere > > from the Arabic empire in the 9th century, to ancient egypt, the first world > > war, RRussia at the time of napoleon etc, indeed one of my favourite recent > > stories was set in British colonial india in the late 19th century and > themed somewhat around the works of rudyard Kipling. > > Unfortunately, with the national corriculum over here getting over all > easier I'm not sure how much this trend continues, indeed recent surveys by > > news papers are suggesting that a lot of kids don't even know about basic > hhistorical figures like Oliver Cromwell, and still worse when it comes > > to literature, a survey I remember carried out by a British paper said that > > %70 of kids had not heard of Rudyard kipling, and a good few just associated > > the name with the Kipling brand of cakes which is really! dire. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
I agree. I like to know the ways religion, food, clothing, morals, warfare, policies and law, technology, agriculture and the like form and integrate into a way a culture develops. Keith - Original Message - From: "dark" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2012 1:42 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Quite a unique view Dennis, though to be honest to me what I find interesting about any culture that is not my own is not necessarily the basic facts of who killed who for what, but things like different beliefs or ideas. As I said, this is why i found the history of medicine such a fascinating subject to study, sinse instead of just dealing with who ruled over which bit of rock and how they clobbered anyone living on another bit of rock, it actually dealt with the way people thought about the world around them. Indeed, many universities in britain, as opposed to Philosophy teach a separate course called history of ideas which is exactly what it sounds like, though the extent it covers ideas of specific peoples rather than the ideas developed from the diciplin of didactic philosophy originally begun in ancient griece I'm not sure. So, to me it is far more interesting why! a war like the first world war happened and what people were thinking at the time, than the basic mechanics of how, and on this basis I do think studdying the history of just about any people, even small groups is probably worth while. Of course, this isn't to say anything ridiculous like everyone is right! sinse ethics is quite another matter entirely and there are plenty of practices that just about every people in history have thought were fine that any reasonable person would have an issue with, however a considderable amount of human history also comes down to ignorants of people's ideas as well as beliefs in superiority, and looking at the way a lot of western society is going, this is something that we really need to think about at the moment before we prove Aldous huxly right, and the way to start doing that is! considdering other perspectives, people's reasons for doing what they do etc. For example, take the practice of arranged mariage. Like a lot of people, I pretty much assumed this was a completely exploitative and self centered practice in which people (especially women), were forced into relationships against their will, with people they utterly disliked often for financial or social gain. Yet, when i questioned a friend of mine who was a soophi muslim (actually an Iraqi), I found her perspective utterly different. According to my friend, "arranged" is really the wrong word to use, sinse it would still begin with a boy and girl meeting and becoming attracted. once however they decided to get married, their respective parents would get together and decide what the two partners were like, what their interests were, whether they would get on etc. After that point, the couple would live together (though not sleep together), for several months before getting married. During this time both families would be around, and if there was an arguement or a major issue, would attempt to help the couple in resolving it. After that time, the couple would then get married. So, according to my friend, "arranged" meant more assisted and aided by both families, than "you will marry someone whether you liek it or not!" Yes, there are times it doesn't work, when say parents were! unscrupulous. However equally, there are plenty of mariages in Western society that involve spousal abuse, coercion and other such evils, and considdering how many people get married at the drop of a hat, are left alone and then regret it later, this doesn't seem quite the evil system of exploitation I thought it was. This is exactly what I mean about understanding a little more about different cultures and ideas, sinse it's easy to dismiss anyone who doesn't think the same way you do as "wrong" or "primative" or whatever, when in fact there might be perfectly good reasons behind their actions, and something worth learning. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via t
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Quite a unique view Dennis, though to be honest to me what I find interesting about any culture that is not my own is not necessarily the basic facts of who killed who for what, but things like different beliefs or ideas. As I said, this is why i found the history of medicine such a fascinating subject to study, sinse instead of just dealing with who ruled over which bit of rock and how they clobbered anyone living on another bit of rock, it actually dealt with the way people thought about the world around them. Indeed, many universities in britain, as opposed to Philosophy teach a separate course called history of ideas which is exactly what it sounds like, though the extent it covers ideas of specific peoples rather than the ideas developed from the diciplin of didactic philosophy originally begun in ancient griece I'm not sure. So, to me it is far more interesting why! a war like the first world war happened and what people were thinking at the time, than the basic mechanics of how, and on this basis I do think studdying the history of just about any people, even small groups is probably worth while. Of course, this isn't to say anything ridiculous like everyone is right! sinse ethics is quite another matter entirely and there are plenty of practices that just about every people in history have thought were fine that any reasonable person would have an issue with, however a considderable amount of human history also comes down to ignorants of people's ideas as well as beliefs in superiority, and looking at the way a lot of western society is going, this is something that we really need to think about at the moment before we prove Aldous huxly right, and the way to start doing that is! considdering other perspectives, people's reasons for doing what they do etc. For example, take the practice of arranged mariage. Like a lot of people, I pretty much assumed this was a completely exploitative and self centered practice in which people (especially women), were forced into relationships against their will, with people they utterly disliked often for financial or social gain. Yet, when i questioned a friend of mine who was a soophi muslim (actually an Iraqi), I found her perspective utterly different. According to my friend, "arranged" is really the wrong word to use, sinse it would still begin with a boy and girl meeting and becoming attracted. once however they decided to get married, their respective parents would get together and decide what the two partners were like, what their interests were, whether they would get on etc. After that point, the couple would live together (though not sleep together), for several months before getting married. During this time both families would be around, and if there was an arguement or a major issue, would attempt to help the couple in resolving it. After that time, the couple would then get married. So, according to my friend, "arranged" meant more assisted and aided by both families, than "you will marry someone whether you liek it or not!" Yes, there are times it doesn't work, when say parents were! unscrupulous. However equally, there are plenty of mariages in Western society that involve spousal abuse, coercion and other such evils, and considdering how many people get married at the drop of a hat, are left alone and then regret it later, this doesn't seem quite the evil system of exploitation I thought it was. This is exactly what I mean about understanding a little more about different cultures and ideas, sinse it's easy to dismiss anyone who doesn't think the same way you do as "wrong" or "primative" or whatever, when in fact there might be perfectly good reasons behind their actions, and something worth learning. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Tom. That is pretty dire, and indeed while I know British attitudes haven't always been the best, at least in terms of education there was a reasonable enough spectrum, with various courses that teachers could choose on different periods, however much of the point of history was thinking historically. Indeed, the course that I did for gcse's betwene 13 and 15 was history of medicine, which obviously instead of taking one specific historical period was a general look at the way over time peopl had considdered deseases and injuries, going from the ancient egyptians onwards to the modern day, covering various religious and scientific views as well as advances such as Pasteure, koch, and flemming. Though concentrating primarily on europe from the grieks onwards, it was a general look at the way people thought, rather than a look at the specific history of a given nation, and to me, far more interesting because of that, indeed during my degree I took two extra modules specifically! on history of medicine so that I could look at the subject in greater detail. When i was doing my A levels, things were a little more tied to one period, being the renaesance quite specifically, however this covered Britain and the hole! of europe, not just Britain itself, which again gave a far more detailed picture of what was happening, for instance not just that Francis drake sunk the armada, but the reasons why the spanish wanted to invade britain in the first place (and in fairness given what the royal navy had been doing to Spanish merchant shipping I can't really blame them). I'll also add that this is something I really like about Doctor who, that even in it's initial conception, part of the idea was that it would be an educational program (two of the first doctors' original companions were his grand daughters' history and science teachers). You thus got episodes set in the Aztec empire, china at the time of marco polo, or france during the huganot massacre. unfortunately, this aspect rather fell out of favour in later episodes and usually instead of historical settings being used to show something about the history, they were just backdrops to a science fiction plot (though there were still occasional exceptions where the setting got more notice), and the new series hasn't exactly helped (especially with it's ultra short episodes). The doctor who audio dramas from big finish are fantastic for fully exploring historical settings, often with absolutely no sf elements at all just like the original 1960's version, and we've had stories set everywhere from the Arabic empire in the 9th century, to ancient egypt, the first world war, RRussia at the time of napoleon etc, indeed one of my favourite recent stories was set in British colonial india in the late 19th century and themed somewhat around the works of rudyard Kipling. Unfortunately, with the national corriculum over here getting over all easier I'm not sure how much this trend continues, indeed recent surveys by news papers are suggesting that a lot of kids don't even know about basic hhistorical figures like Oliver Cromwell, and still worse when it comes to literature, a survey I remember carried out by a British paper said that %70 of kids had not heard of Rudyard kipling, and a good few just associated the name with the Kipling brand of cakes which is really! dire. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
I got a "This site is forbidden to you. Keith - Original Message - From: "Agent Orange" To: "'Gamers Discussion list'" Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2012 7:34 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Just going back to the original request, I wonder whether anyone has tried a text adventure game called Humbug. It's quite different in it's story line and plot from many which have been recently discussed on this list, but I've found it a lot of fun. It's puzzles are tricky but not ridiculous; they employ a logic which is recognisable from the real world; and it's fun. The game is played through a DOS box so screenreader navigation is required but using JAWS I've found it relatively easy. It can be downloaded from here: http://www.grahamcluley.com/humbug.html Phil -Original Message- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of Sarah Haake Sent: 01 September 2012 22:40 To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi list I'd like to try some textadventures. I have tried to play a few already, but I always stop playing because I tend to have the same problems with these games over and over. I get lost on the game map, the puzzles are just obscure, I have to play syntax guessing or I just don't know what the game wants me to do. In some games you just get a general goal but you don't really know what your next step should be. You wander around rather aimlessly. So, I know that some of you already played quite a few textadventures and that some of you also hate obscure and illogical puzzles and syntax guessing just like me. Maybe some of you can recommend some beginner games for me. I really want to solve one of these games without a solution one day. And if I get some practice with easy games I maybe can do some more difficult ones later too. The genre is not that important. I like fantasy themed games, but I also would try other genres happily when the game is good. Thanks in advance for any recommendations. Best regards Sarah --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Thomas, I'm part Navajo and have lived most of my life in the western US, where native americans are quite common and there's a lot of indian history. Even when I was a child, very little of what I saw was negative. Out here, native american history is widely taught and understood, because it's a part of the region's history. That said, we really only know about the tribes native to this area, and for a long time I was only peripherally aware of those that are big on the east coast. Even with this level of regional history, native americans are usually mentioned only in passing in history courses, unless the course is specifically about them. There's a very good reason for this: native americans didn't contribute much to modern history compared to other things at the time. That's not a very politically correct thing to say, but it's true - the hundreds of minor indian battles and skirmishes over the decades, all of them combined, pale in comparison to the civil war, or either of the world wars. The simple fact of the matter is that there were a lot more white men, and more men equals more created history. The great transformational factors that really ripped up and changed society were not the tribes fighting for land on the fringes of the country; those changes were wrought by the presses, by the locomotive, by the internal combusion engine, steam engine, mass manufacture, and ridiculously bloody war in the style of the white man. Of course it's easy to look back, or even look at where we are today, and say that native americans were cheated out of a lot. But to say that they were equally cheated out of their rightful spot in the history texts takes it a bit too far. Mormons have arguably had a bigger final impact on the country, and I see very little material on their exodus in the history texts compared to native americans. How did we get to this topic anyway? This seems more than a little off base for the list. Dennis Towne Alter Aeon MUD http://www.alteraeon.com On Thu, Sep 6, 2012 at 12:12 PM, Thomas Ward wrote: > Hi Dark, > > Right. Although, as I've said before high school courses in the U.S. > are very selective about what history they do and do not teach. Most > of it is geared for American history, and by American history I'm > talking about they start with Christopher Columbus discovering the > Caribbean Islands by accident and then follow that up by one European > migration after another. First, Spain, then the French, followed by > the Dutch, and most importantly the English. That in turn is followed > up by things like the American Revolution, the Civil War, the > industrial revolution, and so forth. What I find extremely irritating > about this version of American history as taught by the U.S. > Department of Education is they almost completely ignore the Native > Americans who were living here long before Columbus and the Spanish > Conquistadors who followed him ever set foot on the American > continents. The Maya, Inca, Aztecs, Sioux, and other tribes pretty > much only get a mention because they just happened to be in the way of > European expansion and usually get painted in a negative light as a > result. > > Then again, I suppose that shouldn't come as any big surprise. Back > when my parents were growing up in the 50's and 60's westerns were the > big thing. They almost always portrayed the hero as a tall white > cowboy or pioneer fighting off outlaws and the ever present Indian > raiding parties. There might be a big scene or gun battle where the > Sioux or some other tribe sweeps down and attacks a wagon train of > settlers and our hero fends them off. The big problem with this > distorted version of American history is that we, the white man, > continually were screwing the Native Americans over, offering them > treaties and then breaking it when the terms no longer suited us, and > pretty much thought taking their lands was a God given right. When > they fought back, which was their right, we called them savages and > regarded them as something less than human. The attitude of the > pioneers was, "the only good Indian is a dead Indian." There aren't > many movies and so on that attempts to accurately represent their side > of things. > > Anyway, given the racial attitudes between white European settlers and > the Native Americans it is most likely one reason the U.S. education > system doesn't spend a whole lot of time discussing them beyond the > 4th or 5th grades. I vaguely remember learning about the Native > Americans in grade school but in junior high and high school very > little time was spent on discussing their culture, beliefs, and so on. > If they did most Americans would have to admit their fore bearers were > blood thirsty racists who thought they had a God given right to take a > piece of land and settle on it weather someone lived there or not. > > As it happens this discussion reminds me of a kid I use to know in > grade school. He took an Ame
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Just going back to the original request, I wonder whether anyone has tried a text adventure game called Humbug. It's quite different in it's story line and plot from many which have been recently discussed on this list, but I've found it a lot of fun. It's puzzles are tricky but not ridiculous; they employ a logic which is recognisable from the real world; and it's fun. The game is played through a DOS box so screenreader navigation is required but using JAWS I've found it relatively easy. It can be downloaded from here: http://www.grahamcluley.com/humbug.html Phil -Original Message- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of Sarah Haake Sent: 01 September 2012 22:40 To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi list I'd like to try some textadventures. I have tried to play a few already, but I always stop playing because I tend to have the same problems with these games over and over. I get lost on the game map, the puzzles are just obscure, I have to play syntax guessing or I just don't know what the game wants me to do. In some games you just get a general goal but you don't really know what your next step should be. You wander around rather aimlessly. So, I know that some of you already played quite a few textadventures and that some of you also hate obscure and illogical puzzles and syntax guessing just like me. Maybe some of you can recommend some beginner games for me. I really want to solve one of these games without a solution one day. And if I get some practice with easy games I maybe can do some more difficult ones later too. The genre is not that important. I like fantasy themed games, but I also would try other genres happily when the game is good. Thanks in advance for any recommendations. Best regards Sarah --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, Right. Although, as I've said before high school courses in the U.S. are very selective about what history they do and do not teach. Most of it is geared for American history, and by American history I'm talking about they start with Christopher Columbus discovering the Caribbean Islands by accident and then follow that up by one European migration after another. First, Spain, then the French, followed by the Dutch, and most importantly the English. That in turn is followed up by things like the American Revolution, the Civil War, the industrial revolution, and so forth. What I find extremely irritating about this version of American history as taught by the U.S. Department of Education is they almost completely ignore the Native Americans who were living here long before Columbus and the Spanish Conquistadors who followed him ever set foot on the American continents. The Maya, Inca, Aztecs, Sioux, and other tribes pretty much only get a mention because they just happened to be in the way of European expansion and usually get painted in a negative light as a result. Then again, I suppose that shouldn't come as any big surprise. Back when my parents were growing up in the 50's and 60's westerns were the big thing. They almost always portrayed the hero as a tall white cowboy or pioneer fighting off outlaws and the ever present Indian raiding parties. There might be a big scene or gun battle where the Sioux or some other tribe sweeps down and attacks a wagon train of settlers and our hero fends them off. The big problem with this distorted version of American history is that we, the white man, continually were screwing the Native Americans over, offering them treaties and then breaking it when the terms no longer suited us, and pretty much thought taking their lands was a God given right. When they fought back, which was their right, we called them savages and regarded them as something less than human. The attitude of the pioneers was, "the only good Indian is a dead Indian." There aren't many movies and so on that attempts to accurately represent their side of things. Anyway, given the racial attitudes between white European settlers and the Native Americans it is most likely one reason the U.S. education system doesn't spend a whole lot of time discussing them beyond the 4th or 5th grades. I vaguely remember learning about the Native Americans in grade school but in junior high and high school very little time was spent on discussing their culture, beliefs, and so on. If they did most Americans would have to admit their fore bearers were blood thirsty racists who thought they had a God given right to take a piece of land and settle on it weather someone lived there or not. As it happens this discussion reminds me of a kid I use to know in grade school. He took an American patriotic song and changed the words to it, and looking back on it he was absolutely correct in how he sang it. As I recall the first verse went something like, "this is my land. This land ain't your land. I've got a shotgun, and you don't have one. If you don't get off I'll blow your head off. This land is now my personal property." As I said I think that version is more appropriate because it is closer to the truth. The entire concept of sharing land definitely did not apply to Native Americans. They were just in the way. Now, by keeping them out of the mainstream history books we just want to ignore them outright. Sorry, about the rant, but American education is just bias. In 7th grade I had Ohio history, in 8th grade I had American history, in 9th grade I had world history, and in 11th grade I had American history again. In total I had one year of world history, and frankly given what I know now even that much was pretty selective and was more an introduction to world history rather than anything really comprehensive. I don't remember exactly everything we studied but I recall it starts out with prehistory, the beginnings of mankind, then spent a chapter or two on early civilizations like Egypt and Mesopotamia. From there we spent time discussing the Persian Empire, the conquest of Alexander the Great, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, perhaps one chapter on the middle ages, another chapter on the reformation, the enlightenment, etc. Basically, they tried to cram everything they could starting from prehistory to World War II in a single book and consider world history over and done with. Since there was too many subjects to cover in one year it ended up being highly selective and were very brief at that. Bottom line, if I want to know anything about Spain in the middle ages per say that isn't something that I'd get from the standard history courses in high school or university. That is something I'd have to study outside the classroom or have to sign up for as an extra elective rather than get it as part of my standard education. Its for that reason if I want to create a vampire game somewhere in Spain I'd hav
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Tom. well obviously I have had the advantage of studdying europeean history, particularly around the 14th and 15th centuries, so this is a period I have some knolidge of. indeed, it's one of the major ironies that spain, which has often been considdered a miner power and for a very long period was under foreigne rule, once it became independent quickly rose in station to have massive influence and political standing in europe not to mention south america, which is exactly why today spanish is I believe the 3rd most commonly spoken language in the world besides manderin chinese and English. If however it would require huge research on your part, fair enough, it was just a suggestion to try and balance traditional vampire settings yet still be outside the usual eastern europe or England. Though having visited witby (indeed it's not that far from Durham), I can understand completely wy bram stoker set a lot of the action of Dracula there, sinse it's a very distinctive place with the tiny, but extremely old and disused abby church set on the top of a hill overlooking the sea (the scene where Dracula bights Lucy is set precisely at that place, as well as cliffs that fall straight down with no beach and a lot of very narrow streets below the massive hill). This is however exactly what i mean by finding a worthwhile place to set a vampire story in, where the actual eography and history of the place have a baring on the story. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, Interesting. I see your point, but unfortunately I pretty much know nothing about Spain's history so probably have to needlessly spend a lot of time doing research which I'd prefer avoiding if at all possible right now. As I said the game concept was suppose to be a test text adventure to get use to writing that type of game rather than a full blown RPG like Sryth. :D Are you serious? The Dark Ages game from White Wolf is set in the 1200's? I find that extremely odd because most historians place the Dark Ages between 500 C.E. and 1000 C.E. By the 1200's Europe was well out of the Dark Ages and into the period historians call the High Middle Ages. It is called that because by the 1200's there were universities popping up across Europe, small public schools for children were just beginning to become available, and over all literacy was on the rise again. Sure there were still hold overs from the Dark Ages, something like that does not go away over night, but most historians generally do not consider the 1200's a part of the Dark Ages. So apparently White Wolf needs to recheck their historical facts. Cheers! On 9/5/12, dark wrote: > Hi tom. > > I suggested spain specifically because A, it's a long way from eastern > europe, but still possessed the sort of mentality among it's nobility which > > would lead to the idea of a vampire lording it in his castle over a bunch of > > frightened villagers, (an attitude which didn't change in spain until much > later), and B, sinse up until the 15th century large parts of spain were > under the control of the tirkish empire, who were actually in a lot of > > ways more advanced than the west, it also meant wars private armies and > political strife were very common indeed, as well as crusading orders of > knights riding into battle. > > No, the mours were not actually vampires of course, indeed in their ships, > their medical technology and their mathematics they were actually far ahead > > in thinking of the christians who opposed them, but the idea of a land in > the middle of foreigne rule struck me as perfect vampire teretory. > > Having studied history of medicine and philosophy specifically, my view of > the middle ages is a little different, indeed all I've read of Thomas > aquinas paints him as basically someone who was extremely clever at stating > > catholic doctrin in convoluted ways (understandable sinse he was a monk > after all), and many of the arguements attributed to him are actually pretty > > shallow, and only became prominant because of later, more complex and less > catholic centered versions of the arguements during the enlightenment by > people like spinoza and descarte. > > In terms of technological advances, even political advances, the time was > far too ruled over by repeated wars and superstician, which is in fact of > course why we call the period after! the middle ages the renaesance, sinse > only then was there A, enough stability, and B, enough freedom of thought to > > start making advances in social and technological matters, not the > least due to rediscovery of griek and roman ideas such as having actual > toilets! > > The way I've always understood it, it's actually one of the largest jokes in > > british political history that the "magnacarta" which supposedly repealed > serfdom actually had very little impact on the lives or treatment of > peasants at all, and was far more an excuse for various British nobles to > get extra power and independence from the King, thus leading almost directly > > into the wars of the roses. > > Of course, as you said yourself, all this is a fertile setting for a vampire > > game, sinse the idea of an isolated noble with almost absolute power over > their own estate is central to a lot of vampire conceptions, and the lack! > of scientific methodology or explanation makes great grounds for characters > > who really use supernatural or magical powers, and a populous who are afraid > > of such powers, indeed this is why the dark ages game from whitewolf's > tabletop rpg system is set in the 12 hundreds. > > > All the best, > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, Well, the Vampire Armand wasn't exactly one of my favorite books either, but I will say that homosexuality and so forth is extremely common in Anne Rice's books. The relationship between Marious and Armand I personally found disgusting. Especially, since in Blood and Gold and in the Vampire Armand that relationship began when Armand was just a boy. I think I'm less disgusted by the entire vampire eroticism than I am by the anything goes attitude Anne Rice has when creating relationships between characters. It doesn't seem to matter if the relationship is homosexual, incestual, or whatever no taboo is beyond consideration with her. I don't know if you have ever read Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty trilogy but after a while the erotic scenes get down right kinky. I don't mind sexuality in books as far as it goes, but Anne Rice has a way of being too kinky, delves into subject matter too extreme for my tastes, and I have to take Anne Rice's books a little bit at a time. She just goes too far for my sensibilities. Of course, Biography did a show on Anne Rice and from what I gather she has something of an alternative life style herself. She likes hanging out at Gothic clubs, hanging with vampire wannabes, and apparently digs the weirder crowds. I have no idea exactly how far she gets into the Gothic and vampire clubs, but I do know some of them can get pretty extreme. For example, on Taboo, a show on National Geographic, they did a program on Taboo sexual practices. One segment dealt with drinking blood during sex and some of these vampire cults are pretty extreme. I found the entire concept of people drinking their lovers blood as erotic beyond disgusting. During the show I felt like puking when they showed this one chick taking a vile of her lovers blood and drinking it down like Cool Aid. So its not just books where people get off on that kind of weird stuff. Cheers! On 9/5/12, dark wrote: > Hi Tom. > > This was precisely my problem with the anne rice books. I liked some of the > > ideas and descriptions of different vampires and their habbits, but the > concentration on the romantic aspects of vampires was just annoying, > indeed the point where I utterly gave up was reading my second novel, the > vampire armand where there is a detailed description of how much a six year > > old boy enjoyed doing you know what with an adult man, who I believe > was supposedly a vampire (though really, blood drinking would've been less > disturbing). > > While I admit I do have something of an over sensativity to that sort of > thing in fiction (I had to skip past several passages in the dresden > novels), anne rice just went way! too far for my taste, particularly > because as you said yourself, the association of drinking blood and > eroticism is just plane weerd anyway! > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Tom. This was precisely my problem with the anne rice books. I liked some of the ideas and descriptions of different vampires and their habbits, but the concentration on the romantic aspects of vampires was just annoying, indeed the point where I utterly gave up was reading my second novel, the vampire armand where there is a detailed description of how much a six year old boy enjoyed doing you know what with an adult man, who I believe was supposedly a vampire (though really, blood drinking would've been less disturbing). While I admit I do have something of an over sensativity to that sort of thing in fiction (I had to skip past several passages in the dresden novels), anne rice just went way! too far for my taste, particularly because as you said yourself, the association of drinking blood and eroticism is just plane weerd anyway! Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi tom. I suggested spain specifically because A, it's a long way from eastern europe, but still possessed the sort of mentality among it's nobility which would lead to the idea of a vampire lording it in his castle over a bunch of frightened villagers, (an attitude which didn't change in spain until much later), and B, sinse up until the 15th century large parts of spain were under the control of the tirkish empire, who were actually in a lot of ways more advanced than the west, it also meant wars private armies and political strife were very common indeed, as well as crusading orders of knights riding into battle. No, the mours were not actually vampires of course, indeed in their ships, their medical technology and their mathematics they were actually far ahead in thinking of the christians who opposed them, but the idea of a land in the middle of foreigne rule struck me as perfect vampire teretory. Having studied history of medicine and philosophy specifically, my view of the middle ages is a little different, indeed all I've read of Thomas aquinas paints him as basically someone who was extremely clever at stating catholic doctrin in convoluted ways (understandable sinse he was a monk after all), and many of the arguements attributed to him are actually pretty shallow, and only became prominant because of later, more complex and less catholic centered versions of the arguements during the enlightenment by people like spinoza and descarte. In terms of technological advances, even political advances, the time was far too ruled over by repeated wars and superstician, which is in fact of course why we call the period after! the middle ages the renaesance, sinse only then was there A, enough stability, and B, enough freedom of thought to start making advances in social and technological matters, not the least due to rediscovery of griek and roman ideas such as having actual toilets! The way I've always understood it, it's actually one of the largest jokes in british political history that the "magnacarta" which supposedly repealed serfdom actually had very little impact on the lives or treatment of peasants at all, and was far more an excuse for various British nobles to get extra power and independence from the King, thus leading almost directly into the wars of the roses. Of course, as you said yourself, all this is a fertile setting for a vampire game, sinse the idea of an isolated noble with almost absolute power over their own estate is central to a lot of vampire conceptions, and the lack! of scientific methodology or explanation makes great grounds for characters who really use supernatural or magical powers, and a populous who are afraid of such powers, indeed this is why the dark ages game from whitewolf's tabletop rpg system is set in the 12 hundreds. All the best, Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, Yeah, I've noticed that some authors have made the modern day vampires so wimpy and easy to kill. One reason why I want to go back to a traditional story where a vampire must be staked, decapitated, and/or preferably exposed to sunlight. If I'm going to fight one in a game then it should be pretty darn hard to kill since they are suppose to be stronger, faster, and in some cases more intelligent than a mortal human being. As for the entire vampire romance thing I'm so turned off on that myself. I've read my fair share of romance novels where vampires are suppose to be sexy, cool, whatever and instead of being blood sucking evil monsters the authors represent them as romantic perhaps tragic figures. I don't hate those kind of books but I do find them a bit weird and obviously it isn't something I'd base a game on. :D Cheers! On 9/4/12, dark wrote: > Hi Tom. > > if we are talking about modernizing myths and current social trends, then to > > be honest vampires are really! getting on my nerves these days, before > > I go on, this has nothing to do with your rpg suggestion directly, sinse I > just intrinsically enjoy rpgs well written or not whatever their subject > matter, heck I've played one humerous Eamon adventure where the > principle villain was the author's computer science teacher! and fully > enjoyed it for the surreal romp it was. > > But with vampires, I'm getting rather sick of them to be honest. Books, > films, radio dramas, the dam things are everywhere! two traits that > especially irritate me, is the hole romantic tragic thing, and the way > vampires are so dam easy to kill these days! > > "h no, I'm immortal, and must spend the rest of eternity with this > attractive member of the opposite sex" --- well poor you! your undeath must > > be so horrible. And what the hell is supposed to be romantic about being a > human mosquito? are flees, leaches and various other nasties that suck blood > > romantic? > > Then there is the hole easy to kill thing, indeed in the Dresden novels I > was quite amused by the explanation that the black court vampires, who were > > traditional walking corpse, dracula style vampires had been nearly wiped out > > because the white counsel had got Bram stoker to publish Dracula which > served as a handbook of easy ways to despatch black court vamps! > > Still, these days it seems nearly anything can do in a vampire. Sunlight or > > even in some instances ultra violet light, running water, dropping seeds, > any garlic or similar aromatic substance, mirrors (which in several books > and games I've seen to actually hurt vampires rather than just not show > their reflection). Then there is the hole symbols question. There's a > great, if commical scene in the film dusk till dawn where a priest > repells a hole room of vampires by crossing a rifle and a baseball bat over > > each other to form a cross. I'm also getting more than sick of the "belief" > > mallarchy, sinse these days it seems belief in any dam thing can work > (I once heard of a vampire book where a businessman repelled a vamp with his > > wallet and his belief in money!). > > > Then there is of course physical distruction, sinse these days forget the > steaking or decapitation, sinse various forms of disintigration, crushing or > > even burning seem to be effective, who needs the steaks or the decapitation > > anyway? > > Of course, a creative author can always do new things with an old idea. i > did rahter appreciate the way in the Dresden books the vampire types were > distinguished, the red court being large humanoid bats under skin suits > > were probably the most unique I thought. > > The being human series as well represents vampires as very ordinary, gritty > > people, indeed they come across far more like a gang of drug users and > crooks. Interestingly enough in that series, the oldest vampire in the world > > is revealed to be 400 years old, sinse it's implied vampires just don't have > > the mental staminer to live a totally self centered existance for that > long, indeed the main vampire character in the series michel, is a > hundred year old vampire who died originally in the first world war, and > realizes that unless he can find something better to do in his life than > drink blood he's going to give up and commit suicide pretty soon, hence the > > title "being human" > > (if you can find an audio described copy sinse it was audio described, I'd > highly! recommend it). > > Beware the Grue! > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mai
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, I don't know about setting it in Spain per say, but the time period of the High Middle Ages is an interesting one for a lot of reasons. In 1099 we have the first of several crusades in an attempt to take back the Holy Land from the Islamic Empire. Anyone who was anybody fought in the crusades and made a name for themselves before coming home to rule. The next couple of centuries or so would be one constant invasion after another until crusading fell out of fashion. Naturally, because the crusades played such a heavy roll in the High Middle Ages that is generally what most people associate with the High Middle Ages, but it is actually the least interesting part of that particular period in history. Personally what I think makes the high middle ages interesting is we see the rebuilding of society in Europe. During the Dark Ages plagues, warfare, and down right bad weather pretty much killed off most of the population. What remained was scattered over Europe and the majority of the people lived in rule areas. In the high middle ages we see a massive migration to cities and towns all over Europe. As a result we see a major increase in the labor force where there were more bakers, weavers, tailors, blacksmiths, etc than there had been in the prior five centuries. A long with the people came the concept of public schools, and eventually universities. All of these things would not only bring Europe out of the Dark Ages, but lay the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution to come. At the same time the power of the Catholic Church was growing and becoming more a part of daily life. WE have St. Francis who founded the Franciscan Order, and the Dominican Order was also founded in the High Middle Ages. Thomas Aquinas, who wasn't fully appreciated in his day, revolutionized Christian philosophy and is still widely regarded and well read today 800 years after his death. Point being, that while most people remember the High Middle Ages as a time of war fair and conflict between Catholicism and Islam there was a major social reformation and evolution at work in Europe not seen since the fall of the Roman Empire. Peasants were no longer working for a specific lord, but were able to apply their craft in a way that would help his or her community in general. Towns were growing, people were offered some sort of education, and the Catholic Church was changing in several ways as well. It is an interesting backdrop for vampires, werewolves, etc simply because despite better education, employment, and fair weather most people were still highly superstitious and frightened of things such as a black cat which people assumed to be demonic. That said, if I personally had to pick a time period it would be during the 1300's which effectively ended the High Middle Ages. People were dying in droves from the plague, people were living in extremely unsanitary conditions, the societal structure built up during the High Middle Ages was braking down, and the weather turned cold and nasty causing massive crop failures and resulted in people actually freezing or starving to death. Not surprisingly the Catholic Church blamed all the problems on Satan and most people assumed the bad luck was do to witches placing curses on people. Not true of course, but it does open the door to any kind of fantasy game environment where perhaps one might assume the witches, vampires, werewolves, etc were actually real rather than the frightened ravings of a superstitious group of people who knew nothing about germs, viruses, how the weather works, or anything else. Cheers! On 9/4/12, dark wrote: > Hi tom. > > i would still suggest a medeval time period in history for the game, similar > > to spain or italy around the time of the crusades and wars with the mours. > > Indeed, the b15th century might be a night point, sinse you could still have > > paladins, nights, archers etc, plus perhaps classes who use muskits (albeit > > that they'd take forever to load), as well as priest or even alchemists, but > > have a completely believeable setting and a historical backing for the > vampire. > > for example, suppose you called your vampire brutus, with the idea that he > was around sinse Roman times, had his little empire in spain that was now > threatened by the unification of the country and the expanding power of the > > church. > > he could have roman armor and weapons, perhaps even some shrines to nastier > > roman gods such as pluto, ut would also be a man of his time, perhaps with > his own army, merciaries etc. > > i often think indeed that with vampires and warewolves, history before! the > > 19th century gets rather ignored in a lot of ways, sinse after all the real! > > count vlad tepes dracula was quite an interesting character, and is still > regarded as something of a national hero in parts of rumania because of the > > way he fought off the tirkish empire, including his brother who was raised > in the tirkish court, was defeated
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Tom. if we are talking about modernizing myths and current social trends, then to be honest vampires are really! getting on my nerves these days, before I go on, this has nothing to do with your rpg suggestion directly, sinse I just intrinsically enjoy rpgs well written or not whatever their subject matter, heck I've played one humerous Eamon adventure where the principle villain was the author's computer science teacher! and fully enjoyed it for the surreal romp it was. But with vampires, I'm getting rather sick of them to be honest. Books, films, radio dramas, the dam things are everywhere! two traits that especially irritate me, is the hole romantic tragic thing, and the way vampires are so dam easy to kill these days! "h no, I'm immortal, and must spend the rest of eternity with this attractive member of the opposite sex" --- well poor you! your undeath must be so horrible. And what the hell is supposed to be romantic about being a human mosquito? are flees, leaches and various other nasties that suck blood romantic? Then there is the hole easy to kill thing, indeed in the Dresden novels I was quite amused by the explanation that the black court vampires, who were traditional walking corpse, dracula style vampires had been nearly wiped out because the white counsel had got Bram stoker to publish Dracula which served as a handbook of easy ways to despatch black court vamps! Still, these days it seems nearly anything can do in a vampire. Sunlight or even in some instances ultra violet light, running water, dropping seeds, any garlic or similar aromatic substance, mirrors (which in several books and games I've seen to actually hurt vampires rather than just not show their reflection). Then there is the hole symbols question. There's a great, if commical scene in the film dusk till dawn where a priest repells a hole room of vampires by crossing a rifle and a baseball bat over each other to form a cross. I'm also getting more than sick of the "belief" mallarchy, sinse these days it seems belief in any dam thing can work (I once heard of a vampire book where a businessman repelled a vamp with his wallet and his belief in money!). Then there is of course physical distruction, sinse these days forget the steaking or decapitation, sinse various forms of disintigration, crushing or even burning seem to be effective, who needs the steaks or the decapitation anyway? Of course, a creative author can always do new things with an old idea. i did rahter appreciate the way in the Dresden books the vampire types were distinguished, the red court being large humanoid bats under skin suits were probably the most unique I thought. The being human series as well represents vampires as very ordinary, gritty people, indeed they come across far more like a gang of drug users and crooks. Interestingly enough in that series, the oldest vampire in the world is revealed to be 400 years old, sinse it's implied vampires just don't have the mental staminer to live a totally self centered existance for that long, indeed the main vampire character in the series michel, is a hundred year old vampire who died originally in the first world war, and realizes that unless he can find something better to do in his life than drink blood he's going to give up and commit suicide pretty soon, hence the title "being human" (if you can find an audio described copy sinse it was audio described, I'd highly! recommend it). Beware the Grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, True. Thanks to the Internet and other forms of mass communication a lot of myths from other cultures are becoming more well known. That said, the majority of monsters associated with Halloween such as vampires, werewolves, gargoyles, and so forth have a predominately European origin, and since Christianity became the mainstream religion in the early middle ages most of these ancient myths took on a distinctly Christian form even if they weren't Christian concepts or ideas to begin with. For example, let's talk about the classic version of witches we think of today. Witchcraft is definitely nothing new, there are variations of it in every culture and society, and it predates the Judeo-Christian religions by thousands of years. However, if you were to turn on a television and watch a cartoon or movie with a witch in it she'll be a woman dressed in a black dress, black high heal shoes, have a black hat, carry a magic broom, and will be stirring a magic brew in a cauldron. Where did this iconic figure come from? Well, the clothing is easy to explain. The classic witch's hat and black dress was quite popular in the 1400's. Most women wore them as it was rather fashionable at the time. Brooms and cauldrons were standard household items and were associated with women of all ages so no big mystery why our prospective witch would have these essential items. What turned this harmless figure into a evil cackling witch is the Catholic church. It was customary for older women, widows, and such to create herbal medicines, potions,etc and give it to sick and dying people in the village as cures. Many of these older women acted as midwives. Maybe a few claimed to practice magic, but for hundreds of years these women were generally understood to be healers and midwives. During the witch hunts the Catholic church proclaimed these healers to be witches and naturally created a profile to identify potential witches. That basic profile has been handed down generation after generation until it has taken the iconic form it has today. One of the things that firmly makes the classic witch a part of Catholic theology is the Catholic church proclaimed that witches were involved in packs with the devil. It is these secret Satanic rights the Catholic church speaks of that most true witches, pagan witches, would have found mystifying since pagans don't believe in Satan. All the same the iconic witch in cartoons and movies are Satanic rather than simply pagan in origin. Vampires are similarly connected with Satan. The Satanic Rights of Dracula, which was a good movie, tries to explain how Vlad Dracula made a Satanic pack with the devil to become Dracula the vampire. Although, Bram Stoker never made this connection himself there have been plenty of authors who were willing to make the Satan packed connection between Dracula and Satan. That said, not everyone sticks to the Christian vampire mythology. Several years ago Nora Roberts wrote the Circle of Gods trilogy which actually includes a wider range of vampire myths and the heroes are a mixed team of characters from various cultures and beliefs. We have an Irish priest, a Wiccan priestess, a queen with a magic sword, a vampire hunter, and so forth. Bottom line, Nora Roberts vampires are able to be dispatched in a number of ways, not all of them Christian, and depends largely on that specific hero's or heroine's skills and powers. A magic character can dispatch them with a fireball, a warrior can behead them with a sword or ax, a vampire hunter can stake them through the heart, and there is more than one way to kill a vampire. So perhaps the vampire myths are already changing as we more towards a more secular society. Cheers! On 9/4/12, dark wrote: > That is true about western myths and western creatures, however I will say > that a lot of myths from other countries are becoming more widely known > now. > > One example is dragons. In the west, dragons were always traditionally seen > > as large, slow moving and cunning, where as the idea of more sinuous > snakelike dragons, and of cragons who are benevolent, magic and powerfull > comes very much from China and japan. > > Also, look at capas, which also appear in harry potter, (i've even heard > before that some capas resemble turtles, and the cooper turtles from the > mario games were enspired by this idea, though I've also heard this is an > urban myth so take your pick). > > ? > > Another is the idea of a wendigo, obviously a native american myth, which > I've seen used in variouscircumstances , eg, pet cemetory by steven king. > > ? > > I do however agree, to translate vampires to japan would be quite a tasks, > especially from a religious point of view, sinse unless you changed them > completely, vampires are very much tied to christian symbolism. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your su
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Yes Dark, I know it well. It was called "son of the dragon" and I won't say any more on that subject since everyone can look it up in their own time. -Original Message- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of dark Sent: 04 September 2012 05:37 To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi tom. i would still suggest a medeval time period in history for the game, similar to spain or italy around the time of the crusades and wars with the mours. Indeed, the b15th century might be a night point, sinse you could still have paladins, nights, archers etc, plus perhaps classes who use muskits (albeit that they'd take forever to load), as well as priest or even alchemists, but have a completely believeable setting and a historical backing for the vampire. for example, suppose you called your vampire brutus, with the idea that he was around sinse Roman times, had his little empire in spain that was now threatened by the unification of the country and the expanding power of the church. he could have roman armor and weapons, perhaps even some shrines to nastier roman gods such as pluto, ut would also be a man of his time, perhaps with his own army, merciaries etc. i often think indeed that with vampires and warewolves, history before! the 19th century gets rather ignored in a lot of ways, sinse after all the real! count vlad tepes dracula was quite an interesting character, and is still regarded as something of a national hero in parts of rumania because of the way he fought off the tirkish empire, including his brother who was raised in the tirkish court, was defeated, but then came back to take back his country from the tirks at the head of any army he'd managed to raise from the neighboring kingdom. At the same time however, he was just as brutal with criminals and those who disagreed with him as history says, with him being vlad the impailer, although from his own perspective impailing was seen as a correct punishment for those who trangessed the lore of god and of God's devinely appointed nobility. (there was a really nice recent Doctor who audio dara drama all about the historical Vlad tepes, which made him out to be an incredibly fascinating character and made me do a little extra researc, another thing of course that is good about Doctor who). Beware the Grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.2197 / Virus Database: 2437/5246 - Release Date: 09/03/12 --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
That is true about western myths and western creatures, however I will say that a lot of myths from other countries are becoming more widely known now. One example is dragons. In the west, dragons were always traditionally seen as large, slow moving and cunning, where as the idea of more sinuous snakelike dragons, and of cragons who are benevolent, magic and powerfull comes very much from China and japan. Also, look at capas, which also appear in harry potter, (i've even heard before that some capas resemble turtles, and the cooper turtles from the mario games were enspired by this idea, though I've also heard this is an urban myth so take your pick). ? Another is the idea of a wendigo, obviously a native american myth, which I've seen used in variouscircumstances , eg, pet cemetory by steven king. ? I do however agree, to translate vampires to japan would be quite a tasks, especially from a religious point of view, sinse unless you changed them completely, vampires are very much tied to christian symbolism. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2012 3:53 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Dark, That's precisely my problem. I don't know enough about Japanese history or culture to make a credible game. While I know something about Zen Buddhism I don't see a Buddhist monk or priest fighting vampires as it would totally be out of character for that faith. Not only that but all of the vampire mythology we have comes from a Christian point of view where a cross, ash stake, holy water, and so on would be effective tools against a vampire. Even Castlevania, which was written and produced by a Japanese company, chose to use western mythology rather than Japanese mythology. In fact, if you think about it most of the monsters we have originated in Europe. Werewolves, vampires, goblins, trolls, and so on all are products of European cultures. Its no wonder therefore that once Catholicism became the main religion people would believe that things like a wooden cross and some holy water would be a powerful weapon against such creatures. Take them out of their historical context and you end up with nothing to hang a story on. As an author I'd have to end up reinventing the vampire from scratch if we don't use a Christian hero as the vampire Slayer, and have to do extensive research into some other religion and how it deals with evil spirits, demons, whatever.. Cheers! On 9/3/12, dark wrote: Interesting ideas kieth.although I get a little sick of some people thinking japan was the only country in the world to have an epic history or interesting weapons, it is true it could provide soem interesting vampire ideas, for instance imagining a vampire shogan cosealing his vampire status from his samurai, or a vampire official in the maigi era government using his position in the beurocracy to aide his blood drinking could be quite different, though I don't unfortunately know enough about shinto or Japanese buhdist traditions to suggest how the western ideas of vampires being affected by faith, holy water, holy symbols etc would translate, though there are probably enough japanese Demon legends and ghost stories (there's a pretty major horror tradition in Japan), to create some credible, if not strictly accurate mythology. ? This would however in order to feel authentic and not be just the generic samurai vs vampires in D&D land need to have the touches of culture and history attached to it, which might, if Tom doesnt' already know about that part of the world require a little more research than Tom would be willing to do. ? futuristic vampires could work too, indeed I've seen Doctor who use them on several occasions, sinse in the Doctor who mythos one explanation for vampires is that they are an elder universal race who had a war with the timelords but were scattered across all time and space when the time lords kicked their rear. In fact the 4th doctor story state of decay involves a vampire living as lord over a village of primative people on an alien planet in a crashed spaceship who's old fuel tanks he is filling with the blood from villagers, sinse he can use the blood to fuel the ship if he gets enough, which is again quite a unique take on the usual evil vampire nobleman, lots of peasants version of that story. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mai
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi tom. i would still suggest a medeval time period in history for the game, similar to spain or italy around the time of the crusades and wars with the mours. Indeed, the b15th century might be a night point, sinse you could still have paladins, nights, archers etc, plus perhaps classes who use muskits (albeit that they'd take forever to load), as well as priest or even alchemists, but have a completely believeable setting and a historical backing for the vampire. for example, suppose you called your vampire brutus, with the idea that he was around sinse Roman times, had his little empire in spain that was now threatened by the unification of the country and the expanding power of the church. he could have roman armor and weapons, perhaps even some shrines to nastier roman gods such as pluto, ut would also be a man of his time, perhaps with his own army, merciaries etc. i often think indeed that with vampires and warewolves, history before! the 19th century gets rather ignored in a lot of ways, sinse after all the real! count vlad tepes dracula was quite an interesting character, and is still regarded as something of a national hero in parts of rumania because of the way he fought off the tirkish empire, including his brother who was raised in the tirkish court, was defeated, but then came back to take back his country from the tirks at the head of any army he'd managed to raise from the neighboring kingdom. At the same time however, he was just as brutal with criminals and those who disagreed with him as history says, with him being vlad the impailer, although from his own perspective impailing was seen as a correct punishment for those who trangessed the lore of god and of God's devinely appointed nobility. (there was a really nice recent Doctor who audio dara drama all about the historical Vlad tepes, which made him out to be an incredibly fascinating character and made me do a little extra researc, another thing of course that is good about Doctor who). Beware the Grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Sounds more like the Legend of Kain game from the Playstation 1 console. Keith - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 8:10 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Keith, Well, those are interesting ideas, but not what I'm after. I'm thinking of something set in a medieval period with a main character who is a monk, knight, paladin, warrior, etc. A futuristic setting would not really set the right mood I'm after, nor would a game set in Japan which I don't really know all that much about. Cheers! On 9/3/12, Keith wrote: Or perhaps a vampire game taking place in Japan, or perhaps a high tech vampire game taking place in the high tech future (ala the short story Smoke City" by Russell Blackford. Keith --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, That's precisely my problem. I don't know enough about Japanese history or culture to make a credible game. While I know something about Zen Buddhism I don't see a Buddhist monk or priest fighting vampires as it would totally be out of character for that faith. Not only that but all of the vampire mythology we have comes from a Christian point of view where a cross, ash stake, holy water, and so on would be effective tools against a vampire. Even Castlevania, which was written and produced by a Japanese company, chose to use western mythology rather than Japanese mythology. In fact, if you think about it most of the monsters we have originated in Europe. Werewolves, vampires, goblins, trolls, and so on all are products of European cultures. Its no wonder therefore that once Catholicism became the main religion people would believe that things like a wooden cross and some holy water would be a powerful weapon against such creatures. Take them out of their historical context and you end up with nothing to hang a story on. As an author I'd have to end up reinventing the vampire from scratch if we don't use a Christian hero as the vampire Slayer, and have to do extensive research into some other religion and how it deals with evil spirits, demons, whatever.. Cheers! On 9/3/12, dark wrote: > Interesting ideas kieth.although I get a little sick of some people thinking > > japan was the only country in the world to have an epic history or > interesting weapons, it is true it could provide soem interesting vampire > ideas, for instance imagining a vampire shogan cosealing his vampire > status from his samurai, or a vampire official in the maigi era government > using his position in the beurocracy to aide his blood drinking could be > quite different, though I don't unfortunately know enough about shinto or > Japanese buhdist traditions to suggest how the western ideas of vampires > being affected by faith, holy water, holy symbols etc would translate, > though there are probably enough japanese Demon legends and ghost stories > (there's a pretty major horror tradition in Japan), to create some credible, > > if not strictly accurate mythology. > > ? > > This would however in order to feel authentic and not be just the generic > samurai vs vampires in D&D land need to have the touches of culture and > history attached to it, which might, if Tom doesnt' already know about that > > part of the world require a little more research than Tom would be willing > to do. > > ? > > futuristic vampires could work too, indeed I've seen Doctor who use them on > > several occasions, sinse in the Doctor who mythos one explanation for > vampires is that they are an elder universal race who had a war with the > timelords but were scattered across all time and space when the time lords > kicked their rear. In fact the 4th doctor story state of decay involves a > vampire living as lord over a village of primative people on an alien planet > > in a crashed spaceship who's old fuel tanks he is filling with the blood > from villagers, sinse he can use the blood to fuel the ship if he gets > enough, which is again quite a unique take on the usual evil vampire > nobleman, lots of peasants version of that story. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, True, but I guess it depends on how far into game story and character development I want to go with this Halloween game. Keep in mind here at this point I'm thinking of a straight up text adventure with some RPG mechanics to get some practice developing this type of game in Python. As such I'm more interested at this point of developing the game mechanics, parser, character classes, etc so I probably won't put weeks and months into a back story for each an every character and so on. Perhaps in time I can go back and develop the story further, but I don't want to spend too much time writing an highly in depth plot for what is essentially a test project. That said, one could definitely reasonably expect an ancient vampire to show up anywhere in the world. They would travel just like anybody else, and probably more so since they would need new hunting grounds. In fact, all of Anne Rice's vampires, some of them thousands of years old, move around constantly in order to find new hunting grounds and to escape detection. The only problem with that plot device is that the way forensics etc work today I'm not sure how believable it is that hundreds perhaps thousands of vampires can be hunting and killing humans without the FBI or some other national agency tracking them as some crazed serial killer or something. While I am a fan of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel I find it a bit ridiculous that hundreds of vampires are running around in major U.S. cities killing people left and right and only the Vampire Slayers have any clue what is going on. While it is an interesting concept I can't help but feel like Buffy, Angel, X-Files, and other shows in that genre have beat the idea to death. I'd prefer for simplicity sake to have a less technically advanced society where I don't have to explain how it is that all these monsters such as werewolves, vampires, demons, zombies, and so on all can exist in a modern day city and not be discovered. Although, I suppose that kind of story has its own charm since after all Buffy and Angel had a fairly good sized fan base including yours truly. While I am a fan of George R. Martin's vampire stories even the 1800's is too modern for my tastes. I'm thinking of something back in mediaeval times where you can be a more traditional DND character such as a warrior, knight, paladin, monk, priest, etc. While a priest could apply to any time period I couldn't imagine a knight or paladin hunting vampires in the streets of New Orleans in the mid 1800's. :D As for your Egyptian vampire story it sounds cool, but reminds me a lot of the Mummy and Mummy Returns movies. Archeologists dig up an undiscovered tomb of some forgotten king or queen and voila out comes this undead monster. Cool, but Hollywood has been there done that. :D Anyway, nothing has been decided as yet. So I may change my mind on certain aspects before it is all said and done. Who knows I could always start with something like Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a template and set it in New York or some place like that where I wouldn't have to create everything from scratch, but then again it wouldn't feel original to me since I'd probably unintentionally stick parts of various buffy shows into the game without consciously knowing I was using someone's ideas. Still, if you or anyone else would like a game based in say the 1990's or so I could certainly do it. It would be actually easier for me since using actual cities and so forth would be easier than making all that up on my own. Plus after having watched buffy and Angel those could serve as basic mission templates and so forth saving me the time of writing up x number of missions absolutely from scratch. Cheers! On 9/3/12, dark wrote: > Hi Tom. > > While I fully agree rumania (formally transilvania), hungary, and even > britain have been pretty much done to death vampire wise, I personally would > > disagree that you need to completely devorce the game from reality or > history, indeed for me, part of the interest of vampires is! their long > > lives and their existance through various historical settings. While there > was much I didn't particularly appreciate in anne rices books, and have only > > read two as a result, this factor I did quite enjoy, sinse after all it's > not unreasonable to expect a vampire to pretty much pop up anywhere, at any > > time period in history you want, and you could even make the vampire's past > > part of the game too. > > For example, in his novel Fevre dream, George R.R. martin imagines vampires > > in The american south during the 1860's, at the time when luxury paddle > steamers along the mississippi were common, indeed the book is told > from the perspective of a riverboat captain. > > There, raather than being lords or owners of plantations, vampires are seen > > as people who have to be dam carefull not to be noticed, indeed much of > > the books plot involves the vampires' desire to use a rive
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Interesting ideas kieth.although I get a little sick of some people thinking japan was the only country in the world to have an epic history or interesting weapons, it is true it could provide soem interesting vampire ideas, for instance imagining a vampire shogan cosealing his vampire status from his samurai, or a vampire official in the maigi era government using his position in the beurocracy to aide his blood drinking could be quite different, though I don't unfortunately know enough about shinto or Japanese buhdist traditions to suggest how the western ideas of vampires being affected by faith, holy water, holy symbols etc would translate, though there are probably enough japanese Demon legends and ghost stories (there's a pretty major horror tradition in Japan), to create some credible, if not strictly accurate mythology. ? This would however in order to feel authentic and not be just the generic samurai vs vampires in D&D land need to have the touches of culture and history attached to it, which might, if Tom doesnt' already know about that part of the world require a little more research than Tom would be willing to do. ? futuristic vampires could work too, indeed I've seen Doctor who use them on several occasions, sinse in the Doctor who mythos one explanation for vampires is that they are an elder universal race who had a war with the timelords but were scattered across all time and space when the time lords kicked their rear. In fact the 4th doctor story state of decay involves a vampire living as lord over a village of primative people on an alien planet in a crashed spaceship who's old fuel tanks he is filling with the blood from villagers, sinse he can use the blood to fuel the ship if he gets enough, which is again quite a unique take on the usual evil vampire nobleman, lots of peasants version of that story. - Original Message - From: "Keith" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 11:54 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Or perhaps a vampire game taking place in Japan, or perhaps a high tech vampire game taking place in the high tech future (ala the short story Smoke City" by Russell Blackford. Keith - Original Message - From: "dark" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 12:30 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Tom. While I fully agree rumania (formally transilvania), hungary, and even britain have been pretty much done to death vampire wise, I personally would disagree that you need to completely devorce the game from reality or history, indeed for me, part of the interest of vampires is! their long lives and their existance through various historical settings. While there was much I didn't particularly appreciate in anne rices books, and have only read two as a result, this factor I did quite enjoy, sinse after all it's not unreasonable to expect a vampire to pretty much pop up anywhere, at any time period in history you want, and you could even make the vampire's past part of the game too. For example, in his novel Fevre dream, George R.R. martin imagines vampires in The american south during the 1860's, at the time when luxury paddle steamers along the mississippi were common, indeed the book is told from the perspective of a riverboat captain. There, raather than being lords or owners of plantations, vampires are seen as people who have to be dam carefull not to be noticed, indeed much of the books plot involves the vampires' desire to use a riverboat as their head quarters, sinse they can paddle up and down and choose victims as they wish without being noticed sinse they are never in one place too long. Another very unique vampire setting was the game castlevania bloodlines on the mega drive. There, you are playing the descendent of the belment family, but instead of fighting dracula in his 17th or 19th century castle, you are fighting elizabeth bathroy the vampiric sorcereress who has woken in the 1920's. Thus stages involve for example fighting in gas lit drawering rooms, or in a german munitions factory full of skeletons, there is even a level set on a steam train. Two thoughts I have for instance, are how about setting a vampiric story in egypt in the 1990's, during the time the valley of the kings was excavaatedd, thus mixing in elements of egyptian mythology (remember set?), and maybe some indiana jones style swash buckling with pistols and sword canes. if this is a little too close to the mota setting, well another rather unique location could be spain in the time of the crusades, perhaps the vampire is a mourish noble who has come over from the middle east. Settings could include vinyards, cliffs by the sea etc, bu
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Keith, Well, those are interesting ideas, but not what I'm after. I'm thinking of something set in a medieval period with a main character who is a monk, knight, paladin, warrior, etc. A futuristic setting would not really set the right mood I'm after, nor would a game set in Japan which I don't really know all that much about. Cheers! On 9/3/12, Keith wrote: > Or perhaps a vampire game taking place in Japan, or perhaps a high tech > vampire game taking place in the high tech future (ala the short story Smoke > > City" by Russell Blackford. > > Keith --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Or perhaps a vampire game taking place in Japan, or perhaps a high tech vampire game taking place in the high tech future (ala the short story Smoke City" by Russell Blackford. Keith - Original Message - From: "dark" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 12:30 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Tom. While I fully agree rumania (formally transilvania), hungary, and even britain have been pretty much done to death vampire wise, I personally would disagree that you need to completely devorce the game from reality or history, indeed for me, part of the interest of vampires is! their long lives and their existance through various historical settings. While there was much I didn't particularly appreciate in anne rices books, and have only read two as a result, this factor I did quite enjoy, sinse after all it's not unreasonable to expect a vampire to pretty much pop up anywhere, at any time period in history you want, and you could even make the vampire's past part of the game too. For example, in his novel Fevre dream, George R.R. martin imagines vampires in The american south during the 1860's, at the time when luxury paddle steamers along the mississippi were common, indeed the book is told from the perspective of a riverboat captain. There, raather than being lords or owners of plantations, vampires are seen as people who have to be dam carefull not to be noticed, indeed much of the books plot involves the vampires' desire to use a riverboat as their head quarters, sinse they can paddle up and down and choose victims as they wish without being noticed sinse they are never in one place too long. Another very unique vampire setting was the game castlevania bloodlines on the mega drive. There, you are playing the descendent of the belment family, but instead of fighting dracula in his 17th or 19th century castle, you are fighting elizabeth bathroy the vampiric sorcereress who has woken in the 1920's. Thus stages involve for example fighting in gas lit drawering rooms, or in a german munitions factory full of skeletons, there is even a level set on a steam train. Two thoughts I have for instance, are how about setting a vampiric story in egypt in the 1990's, during the time the valley of the kings was excavaatedd, thus mixing in elements of egyptian mythology (remember set?), and maybe some indiana jones style swash buckling with pistols and sword canes. if this is a little too close to the mota setting, well another rather unique location could be spain in the time of the crusades, perhaps the vampire is a mourish noble who has come over from the middle east. Settings could include vinyards, cliffs by the sea etc, but instead of cold and snow, be full of palm trees and orange groves, plus being at the time of the crusades could also (and with quite historical realism), include some major battle scenes, sinse after all the mours who rules Spain had some pretty serious armies with bowmen, pikemen and mounted knights. This would also in a text rpg give you the chance to quite legitimately imploy D&D like characters, such as knights, paladins, priests who specialize in hunting vampires (perhaps there is a specific Catholic order for this purpose), or skirmishing bowmen who sepcialize in ranged weapons, not to mention thieves. just some thoughts. of course, if you prefer a none specific fantasy setting that's fine too, though as I said I'd slightly mis the history possible with vampires in that case. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Tom. While I fully agree rumania (formally transilvania), hungary, and even britain have been pretty much done to death vampire wise, I personally would disagree that you need to completely devorce the game from reality or history, indeed for me, part of the interest of vampires is! their long lives and their existance through various historical settings. While there was much I didn't particularly appreciate in anne rices books, and have only read two as a result, this factor I did quite enjoy, sinse after all it's not unreasonable to expect a vampire to pretty much pop up anywhere, at any time period in history you want, and you could even make the vampire's past part of the game too. For example, in his novel Fevre dream, George R.R. martin imagines vampires in The american south during the 1860's, at the time when luxury paddle steamers along the mississippi were common, indeed the book is told from the perspective of a riverboat captain. There, raather than being lords or owners of plantations, vampires are seen as people who have to be dam carefull not to be noticed, indeed much of the books plot involves the vampires' desire to use a riverboat as their head quarters, sinse they can paddle up and down and choose victims as they wish without being noticed sinse they are never in one place too long. Another very unique vampire setting was the game castlevania bloodlines on the mega drive. There, you are playing the descendent of the belment family, but instead of fighting dracula in his 17th or 19th century castle, you are fighting elizabeth bathroy the vampiric sorcereress who has woken in the 1920's. Thus stages involve for example fighting in gas lit drawering rooms, or in a german munitions factory full of skeletons, there is even a level set on a steam train. Two thoughts I have for instance, are how about setting a vampiric story in egypt in the 1990's, during the time the valley of the kings was excavaatedd, thus mixing in elements of egyptian mythology (remember set?), and maybe some indiana jones style swash buckling with pistols and sword canes. if this is a little too close to the mota setting, well another rather unique location could be spain in the time of the crusades, perhaps the vampire is a mourish noble who has come over from the middle east. Settings could include vinyards, cliffs by the sea etc, but instead of cold and snow, be full of palm trees and orange groves, plus being at the time of the crusades could also (and with quite historical realism), include some major battle scenes, sinse after all the mours who rules Spain had some pretty serious armies with bowmen, pikemen and mounted knights. This would also in a text rpg give you the chance to quite legitimately imploy D&D like characters, such as knights, paladins, priests who specialize in hunting vampires (perhaps there is a specific Catholic order for this purpose), or skirmishing bowmen who sepcialize in ranged weapons, not to mention thieves. just some thoughts. of course, if you prefer a none specific fantasy setting that's fine too, though as I said I'd slightly mis the history possible with vampires in that case. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Roger, Sure. There are several decent text adventure languages such as Inform, Tads, AGT, etc. All are pretty easy to learn. Plus you can use any standard programming language if you like. Aemon Deluxe is the Dos version of the old Aemon Guild Adventures for Apple. There are hundreds of quests, adventures, etc and they are quite enjoyable. Cheers! On 9/2/12, Roger devin Prater wrote: > Hmm, what's this Eamon thing? And does anyone know a language for beginner > text-based game creation? I have made a few gamebooks with the darkgrew > thing, BTW. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, Makes sense. Of course,If and when I do produce some sort of text adventures we can hammer out these sorts of details. I myself don't care if the command is get, take, or grab just as long as it is consistent. Although, when I play text adventures I often use take more than I do get. :D Cheers! On 9/2/12, dark wrote: > Agreed tom, though for personal prefer I rather prefer use x with y, sinse > that can also let you for instance use insecticide on a wasp or use a rope > to tie up a monster (both examples I've seen in eamon), as well as combine > type examples like use rope on hook, thus achievin more with one command, > sinse after all you wouldn't join insecticide with wasp. > > I also would myself default to get over take, but this is pure preference > and mopstly because I've used get in > other games before, where as take and grab are less common but in this case > > sinse they're psudonims for each other it really doesn't matter, indeed > > the only instance I can think of where there has been a difference was in > alteraeon, where take is used specifically to get stuff from donation > rooms, while get works everywhere else, but sinse donation rooms are a > special case it makes sense to have a specific command for them. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, Makes sense. In Sryth, for example, there are battles where you only fight until the character is knocked out or surrenders. In a case like that you'd definitely want to be able to specify if this were non-lethal combat or lethal combat. However, if all combat is lethal or non-lethal it makes no sense to have both commands. For example, in DC Universe all of the heroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc refrain from lethal combat. A battle continues until the villain is knocked unconscious or is otherwise unable to fight. In such a case a kill command would not make any sense because the hero in question would ignore it and simply knock the enemy foe unconscious. Bottom line, as you say commands should only be used and added to a parser if it has some specific use. If it makes no sense for a particular game why add it? :D Cheers! On 9/2/12, dark wrote: > Hi Kieth. > > I agree where kill hit and attack all do the same thing in combat, however > if a text game had a decent tactical enough system, several combat verbs > might be useful for tactical reasons, though of course in that scenario > > the player would be told about such verbs in the documents. > > Kerkercruip for example has a parry and dodge command, but these do very > different things, and if for instance you try to parry a great axe with a > tiny dagger, it would be just as effective as in real life, ie, not much. > > So, while I fully agree on simplifying commands, the question for me is > always "does this command serve a purpose that no other command serves" For > > example, if you had a game where combat could be lethal or none lethal, you > > might indeed need a specific kill command in addition to attack to indicate > > when you were actually going for a fatal strike, but if all combat is > lethal, probably kill would be no use. > > Beware the Grue! > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Try Spring Heeled Jack from England. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 11:06 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Dark, Oh, indeed. Well, as always time is a key factor, but I've been turning the idea over in my mind for the last couple of months. One thing I do know for sure I don't want to use any popular characters such as Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and things like that simply because they've been over commercialized and are far too well known. I want something more original with my own unique characters who would make the game more interesting in my book. It is for that reason I've been spending quite a bit of time thinking of when and where this story should take place. Obviously, vampire myths began in eastern Europe in places like Bavaria, Romania, Hungry, etc and unfortunately many writers continue going back to that same location. At the same time America seems too new, wrong context for ancient vampires and such, and outside of Anne Rice's Vampire Saga and Stephen King's Salem's Lot series it just isn't the kind of setting I'm looking for. In the end I think I'm going to create a fictional town in some unspecified country that is very old with castles, an ancient cathedral, a weedy over grown churchyard or two, and so on. Basically, start from scratch and set the mood I want without committing to any specific time and place in the real world. Cheers! On 9/2/12, dark wrote: Hi Tom. I'd love to see that sort of game for haloween, indeed that would be a great idea especially after this discussion, and also let the community know you mean business. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, Oh, indeed. Well, as always time is a key factor, but I've been turning the idea over in my mind for the last couple of months. One thing I do know for sure I don't want to use any popular characters such as Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and things like that simply because they've been over commercialized and are far too well known. I want something more original with my own unique characters who would make the game more interesting in my book. It is for that reason I've been spending quite a bit of time thinking of when and where this story should take place. Obviously, vampire myths began in eastern Europe in places like Bavaria, Romania, Hungry, etc and unfortunately many writers continue going back to that same location. At the same time America seems too new, wrong context for ancient vampires and such, and outside of Anne Rice's Vampire Saga and Stephen King's Salem's Lot series it just isn't the kind of setting I'm looking for. In the end I think I'm going to create a fictional town in some unspecified country that is very old with castles, an ancient cathedral, a weedy over grown churchyard or two, and so on. Basically, start from scratch and set the mood I want without committing to any specific time and place in the real world. Cheers! On 9/2/12, dark wrote: > Hi Tom. > > I'd love to see that sort of game for haloween, indeed that would be a great > > idea especially after this discussion, and also let the community know you > mean business. > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Yeah that game leather was fun, but and man eating plants hmmm i can think of better things to do, oops wait wrong list. grin. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes - Original Message - From: "Jim Kitchen" To: "Lisa Hayes" Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 7:27 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Lisa, Yeah, and who wouldn't think to stick a babble fish in one's ear. And yes, the end of Leather Goddesses of Phobos disappointed me as well. It was just so anti-climatic. I was really hoping for a real Leather Goddess to step out of my computer. And that maze was ridiculous. And then there was the man eating plant puzzle. BFN Jim Born to be spanked. j...@kitchensinc.net http://www.kitchensinc.net (440) 286-6920 Chardon Ohio USA --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Lisa, Yeah, and who wouldn't think to stick a babble fish in one's ear. And yes, the end of Leather Goddesses of Phobos disappointed me as well. It was just so anti-climatic. I was really hoping for a real Leather Goddess to step out of my computer. And that maze was ridiculous. And then there was the man eating plant puzzle. BFN Jim Born to be spanked. j...@kitchensinc.net http://www.kitchensinc.net (440) 286-6920 Chardon Ohio USA --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Keith, I think that the Vampire game that I played was where I had to rescue my girlfriend, but I'm not positive as it was a long time ago that I played the game. BTW it is vampire.bas I E a GW Basic game. BFN Jim I like Visual Basic 6.0 because I can not C. j...@kitchensinc.net http://www.kitchensinc.net (440) 286-6920 Chardon Ohio USA --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
OH i reckon thomas means business. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes - Original Message - From: "dark" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 1:53 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Tom. I'd love to see that sort of game for haloween, indeed that would be a great idea especially after this discussion, and also let the community know you mean business. Beware the grue! Dark. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 4:04 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Keith, Ah, not exactly. The Choose Your Own Adventure books is way too simplistic for what I have in mind. What I'm thinking of is a traditional text adventure system with more stats, random dice rolls,and logical puzzles that actually make sense from a realistic point of view. For example, let's take the jousting match in Arthur. In the Infocom Arthur game once you figure out the sequence of moves you can win the joust each and every time. There is absolutely no randomization or skill points involved. You simply select the right order of attacks and de fence moves and you win. Boring! In my text adventure system a battle like that would depend on two factors. First, any skills you gathered while playing which could increase or decrease your likelihood of success. Second, the enemy player would have some sort of A.I. that will randomly choose attacks and de fences making it more challenging from game to game. Finally, there would be more description of narration as things happen that would be more like a table top RPG game rather than rolling dice and see who wins. To give you a better example of this combat in action I've been thinking about a concept text adventure for Halloween. In said game you would be a heroic monster hunter fighting zombies, demons, werewolves, and vampires. When you start out your skill points wil probably be quite low so it would be unrealistic and foolish to go after the very old and powerful vampires. Instead you would gain the necessary skill points and experience needed by battling younger and weaker vampires, acquiring more powerful weapons, and then challenging them once you have everything needed to make it a fair fight. The problem with the Choose Your Own Adventure games is that you read a page of text and then asks you if you want to do A turn to page x, and if you want to do B turn to page Y. My text adventure system would be far more flexable than that. You'd be free to go anywhere and try to complete any mission you like provided you have the proper skills and experience to complete it. Think of something like astand alone version of Sryth but perhaps not as large and complex. HTH On 9/2/12, Keith wrote: so you are more into the "choose your own adventure" games with a dungeons and dragons dice apect added in. That sounds like something I'd love Keith --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Kieth. I agree where kill hit and attack all do the same thing in combat, however if a text game had a decent tactical enough system, several combat verbs might be useful for tactical reasons, though of course in that scenario the player would be told about such verbs in the documents. Kerkercruip for example has a parry and dodge command, but these do very different things, and if for instance you try to parry a great axe with a tiny dagger, it would be just as effective as in real life, ie, not much. So, while I fully agree on simplifying commands, the question for me is always "does this command serve a purpose that no other command serves" For example, if you had a game where combat could be lethal or none lethal, you might indeed need a specific kill command in addition to attack to indicate when you were actually going for a fatal strike, but if all combat is lethal, probably kill would be no use. Beware the Grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Tom. I'd love to see that sort of game for haloween, indeed that would be a great idea especially after this discussion, and also let the community know you mean business. Beware the grue! Dark. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 4:04 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Keith, Ah, not exactly. The Choose Your Own Adventure books is way too simplistic for what I have in mind. What I'm thinking of is a traditional text adventure system with more stats, random dice rolls,and logical puzzles that actually make sense from a realistic point of view. For example, let's take the jousting match in Arthur. In the Infocom Arthur game once you figure out the sequence of moves you can win the joust each and every time. There is absolutely no randomization or skill points involved. You simply select the right order of attacks and de fence moves and you win. Boring! In my text adventure system a battle like that would depend on two factors. First, any skills you gathered while playing which could increase or decrease your likelihood of success. Second, the enemy player would have some sort of A.I. that will randomly choose attacks and de fences making it more challenging from game to game. Finally, there would be more description of narration as things happen that would be more like a table top RPG game rather than rolling dice and see who wins. To give you a better example of this combat in action I've been thinking about a concept text adventure for Halloween. In said game you would be a heroic monster hunter fighting zombies, demons, werewolves, and vampires. When you start out your skill points wil probably be quite low so it would be unrealistic and foolish to go after the very old and powerful vampires. Instead you would gain the necessary skill points and experience needed by battling younger and weaker vampires, acquiring more powerful weapons, and then challenging them once you have everything needed to make it a fair fight. The problem with the Choose Your Own Adventure games is that you read a page of text and then asks you if you want to do A turn to page x, and if you want to do B turn to page Y. My text adventure system would be far more flexable than that. You'd be free to go anywhere and try to complete any mission you like provided you have the proper skills and experience to complete it. Think of something like astand alone version of Sryth but perhaps not as large and complex. HTH On 9/2/12, Keith wrote: so you are more into the "choose your own adventure" games with a dungeons and dragons dice apect added in. That sounds like something I'd love Keith --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Agreed tom, though for personal prefer I rather prefer use x with y, sinse that can also let you for instance use insecticide on a wasp or use a rope to tie up a monster (both examples I've seen in eamon), as well as combine type examples like use rope on hook, thus achievin more with one command, sinse after all you wouldn't join insecticide with wasp. I also would myself default to get over take, but this is pure preference and mopstly because I've used get in other games before, where as take and grab are less common but in this case sinse they're psudonims for each other it really doesn't matter, indeed the only instance I can think of where there has been a difference was in alteraeon, where take is used specifically to get stuff from donation rooms, while get works everywhere else, but sinse donation rooms are a special case it makes sense to have a specific command for them. Beware the grue! Dark. so many other games, and would really be happy with ei I also personally tend to default to get rather than take, - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Monday, September 03, 2012 3:37 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Dark, Precisely my point. As we discussed a few months back on the Audio Games forum a parser doesn't have to necessarily be overly complex to be effective. In fact, the less commands the better and less confusing it should be. One doesn't have to have a "grab," "get," and "take" command which all essentially do the same thing. Simply typing "take item" and being consistent with that will reduce confusion. Plus if a command like "smell" isn't going to b used there is no sense in adding it if the only message you will get back is "you smell nothing unusual here." As far as combining items such as creating a grappling hook I'd probably use a command like "join rope and hook" which not only makes sense but is far easier than "tie rope on hook" or "tie rope to hook" etc. A "join" command or "combine" command could be used to join or combine any two items together to create another special item. As long as it is documented and the parser sticks to that convention no problem. The problem I've found with ZCode games is that there are so many different commands that its difficult to figure out which one the author chose to use for that particular action. Is it "in fireplace," "enter fireplace," or "north." You just don't know until you try all the possibilities. If a command like "in" is used then it should be consistent and we should not come along and have to use "enter" when encountering a similar situation later on. In short, consistency is the key. As far as puzzles goes my philosophy is to keep it simple stupid so to speak. That is the puzzle should be logical and make sense in a real world context. If we have a text adventure where you type "climb rope" and it says something cute like "you are unable to climb this rope right now" you would have to think about that problem logically. Well, if you have a big sword in one hand and a shield in the other you might have to type "sheath sword" and drop the shield in order to use both hands to climb the rope. After all, you can always climb back down and get your shield later in the adventure. However, as puzzles goes a person should figure it out without a huge leap of logic. Cheers! On 9/2/12, dark wrote: Hi tom. As I have said before, eamon really got it right I think in terms of puzzles by simply limiting the item manipulation commands to obvious ones. For instance, you'd not be stuck trying to work out how to tie a rope onto a hook, whether it's tie rope, tie rope with hook, knot rope on hook or whatever, simply use rope, or possibly use rope on hook will be more than enough, so I'll be interested to see what you can come up with. The business with the nazies is just the sort of puzzle I like too, sinse it makes sense and doesn't take a huge amount of guessing, indeedd in the Eamon game thror's ring there is a similar puzzle with a large chunk of mythrill and a mine cart. You can only pick up the mithrill if you drop all your other items sinse it is too large, and there is a mine cart in the other room. So all you need to do is get the cart, drop your gear, pick up the mythril, put it in the cart, then pick your stuff back upp, perfectly logical and quite doable if you just look around (indeed the solution was obvious to me once I found the mine cart). beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.or
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hmm, what's this Eamon thing? And does anyone know a language for beginner text-based game creation? I have made a few gamebooks with the darkgrew thing, BTW. - Original Message - From: "dark" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 10:18 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners And yet if you read the if community opinions of wishbringer, beyond zork etc, they get absolutely slammed for their rpg features. While I agree rpg mechanics are a preference, it is a little irritating to me that the if community get so obsessed over their unlimited parza and illogical puzzles, that they regard anything with rpg mechanics as bad, check out the reviews for wumpus 2000, treasure of a slavers kingdom, anything by Paul panks, and the exceptional kerkercruip. It just rather irritates me that the one group of people who on the net who still! play textual games, have such an absoluite downer on rpgs, one reason why I've got mixed up with the Eamon and gamebook playing communities. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
And yet if you read the if community opinions of wishbringer, beyond zork etc, they get absolutely slammed for their rpg features. While I agree rpg mechanics are a preference, it is a little irritating to me that the if community get so obsessed over their unlimited parza and illogical puzzles, that they regard anything with rpg mechanics as bad, check out the reviews for wumpus 2000, treasure of a slavers kingdom, anything by Paul panks, and the exceptional kerkercruip. It just rather irritates me that the one group of people who on the net who still! play textual games, have such an absoluite downer on rpgs, one reason why I've got mixed up with the Eamon and gamebook playing communities. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Gotcha. Sounds more like a text adventure with the Quest for Glory stat and combat system put into it. Gods I wish I could still play those Quest for Glory games. Keith - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 10:04 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Keith, Ah, not exactly. The Choose Your Own Adventure books is way too simplistic for what I have in mind. What I'm thinking of is a traditional text adventure system with more stats, random dice rolls,and logical puzzles that actually make sense from a realistic point of view. For example, let's take the jousting match in Arthur. In the Infocom Arthur game once you figure out the sequence of moves you can win the joust each and every time. There is absolutely no randomization or skill points involved. You simply select the right order of attacks and de fence moves and you win. Boring! In my text adventure system a battle like that would depend on two factors. First, any skills you gathered while playing which could increase or decrease your likelihood of success. Second, the enemy player would have some sort of A.I. that will randomly choose attacks and de fences making it more challenging from game to game. Finally, there would be more description of narration as things happen that would be more like a table top RPG game rather than rolling dice and see who wins. To give you a better example of this combat in action I've been thinking about a concept text adventure for Halloween. In said game you would be a heroic monster hunter fighting zombies, demons, werewolves, and vampires. When you start out your skill points wil probably be quite low so it would be unrealistic and foolish to go after the very old and powerful vampires. Instead you would gain the necessary skill points and experience needed by battling younger and weaker vampires, acquiring more powerful weapons, and then challenging them once you have everything needed to make it a fair fight. The problem with the Choose Your Own Adventure games is that you read a page of text and then asks you if you want to do A turn to page x, and if you want to do B turn to page Y. My text adventure system would be far more flexable than that. You'd be free to go anywhere and try to complete any mission you like provided you have the proper skills and experience to complete it. Think of something like astand alone version of Sryth but perhaps not as large and complex. HTH On 9/2/12, Keith wrote: so you are more into the "choose your own adventure" games with a dungeons and dragons dice apect added in. That sounds like something I'd love Keith --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Keith, Ah, not exactly. The Choose Your Own Adventure books is way too simplistic for what I have in mind. What I'm thinking of is a traditional text adventure system with more stats, random dice rolls,and logical puzzles that actually make sense from a realistic point of view. For example, let's take the jousting match in Arthur. In the Infocom Arthur game once you figure out the sequence of moves you can win the joust each and every time. There is absolutely no randomization or skill points involved. You simply select the right order of attacks and de fence moves and you win. Boring! In my text adventure system a battle like that would depend on two factors. First, any skills you gathered while playing which could increase or decrease your likelihood of success. Second, the enemy player would have some sort of A.I. that will randomly choose attacks and de fences making it more challenging from game to game. Finally, there would be more description of narration as things happen that would be more like a table top RPG game rather than rolling dice and see who wins. To give you a better example of this combat in action I've been thinking about a concept text adventure for Halloween. In said game you would be a heroic monster hunter fighting zombies, demons, werewolves, and vampires. When you start out your skill points wil probably be quite low so it would be unrealistic and foolish to go after the very old and powerful vampires. Instead you would gain the necessary skill points and experience needed by battling younger and weaker vampires, acquiring more powerful weapons, and then challenging them once you have everything needed to make it a fair fight. The problem with the Choose Your Own Adventure games is that you read a page of text and then asks you if you want to do A turn to page x, and if you want to do B turn to page Y. My text adventure system would be far more flexable than that. You'd be free to go anywhere and try to complete any mission you like provided you have the proper skills and experience to complete it. Think of something like astand alone version of Sryth but perhaps not as large and complex. HTH On 9/2/12, Keith wrote: > so you are more into the "choose your own adventure" games with a dungeons > and dragons dice apect added in. That sounds like something I'd love > > Keith --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
same thing with "kill", hit, or attack. If a designer wants to really add some...finesse to combat, then by all means, add more verbose commands, but for simplicity sake, the fewer commands the better. Though I have come across some games that use obscure terms and do not give a list of them in the help file, so playing the game is mind rending. Keith - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 9:37 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Dark, Precisely my point. As we discussed a few months back on the Audio Games forum a parser doesn't have to necessarily be overly complex to be effective. In fact, the less commands the better and less confusing it should be. One doesn't have to have a "grab," "get," and "take" command which all essentially do the same thing. Simply typing "take item" and being consistent with that will reduce confusion. Plus if a command like "smell" isn't going to b used there is no sense in adding it if the only message you will get back is "you smell nothing unusual here." As far as combining items such as creating a grappling hook I'd probably use a command like "join rope and hook" which not only makes sense but is far easier than "tie rope on hook" or "tie rope to hook" etc. A "join" command or "combine" command could be used to join or combine any two items together to create another special item. As long as it is documented and the parser sticks to that convention no problem. The problem I've found with ZCode games is that there are so many different commands that its difficult to figure out which one the author chose to use for that particular action. Is it "in fireplace," "enter fireplace," or "north." You just don't know until you try all the possibilities. If a command like "in" is used then it should be consistent and we should not come along and have to use "enter" when encountering a similar situation later on. In short, consistency is the key. As far as puzzles goes my philosophy is to keep it simple stupid so to speak. That is the puzzle should be logical and make sense in a real world context. If we have a text adventure where you type "climb rope" and it says something cute like "you are unable to climb this rope right now" you would have to think about that problem logically. Well, if you have a big sword in one hand and a shield in the other you might have to type "sheath sword" and drop the shield in order to use both hands to climb the rope. After all, you can always climb back down and get your shield later in the adventure. However, as puzzles goes a person should figure it out without a huge leap of logic. Cheers! On 9/2/12, dark wrote: Hi tom. As I have said before, eamon really got it right I think in terms of puzzles by simply limiting the item manipulation commands to obvious ones. For instance, you'd not be stuck trying to work out how to tie a rope onto a hook, whether it's tie rope, tie rope with hook, knot rope on hook or whatever, simply use rope, or possibly use rope on hook will be more than enough, so I'll be interested to see what you can come up with. The business with the nazies is just the sort of puzzle I like too, sinse it makes sense and doesn't take a huge amount of guessing, indeedd in the Eamon game thror's ring there is a similar puzzle with a large chunk of mythrill and a mine cart. You can only pick up the mithrill if you drop all your other items sinse it is too large, and there is a mine cart in the other room. So all you need to do is get the cart, drop your gear, pick up the mythril, put it in the cart, then pick your stuff back upp, perfectly logical and quite doable if you just look around (indeed the solution was obvious to me once I found the mine cart). beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, Precisely my point. As we discussed a few months back on the Audio Games forum a parser doesn't have to necessarily be overly complex to be effective. In fact, the less commands the better and less confusing it should be. One doesn't have to have a "grab," "get," and "take" command which all essentially do the same thing. Simply typing "take item" and being consistent with that will reduce confusion. Plus if a command like "smell" isn't going to b used there is no sense in adding it if the only message you will get back is "you smell nothing unusual here." As far as combining items such as creating a grappling hook I'd probably use a command like "join rope and hook" which not only makes sense but is far easier than "tie rope on hook" or "tie rope to hook" etc. A "join" command or "combine" command could be used to join or combine any two items together to create another special item. As long as it is documented and the parser sticks to that convention no problem. The problem I've found with ZCode games is that there are so many different commands that its difficult to figure out which one the author chose to use for that particular action. Is it "in fireplace," "enter fireplace," or "north." You just don't know until you try all the possibilities. If a command like "in" is used then it should be consistent and we should not come along and have to use "enter" when encountering a similar situation later on. In short, consistency is the key. As far as puzzles goes my philosophy is to keep it simple stupid so to speak. That is the puzzle should be logical and make sense in a real world context. If we have a text adventure where you type "climb rope" and it says something cute like "you are unable to climb this rope right now" you would have to think about that problem logically. Well, if you have a big sword in one hand and a shield in the other you might have to type "sheath sword" and drop the shield in order to use both hands to climb the rope. After all, you can always climb back down and get your shield later in the adventure. However, as puzzles goes a person should figure it out without a huge leap of logic. Cheers! On 9/2/12, dark wrote: > Hi tom. > > As I have said before, eamon really got it right I think in terms of puzzles > > by simply limiting the item manipulation commands to obvious ones. For > instance, you'd not be stuck trying to work out how to tie a rope onto a > hook, whether it's tie rope, tie rope with hook, knot rope on hook or > whatever, simply use rope, or possibly use rope on hook will be more than > enough, so I'll be interested to see what you can come up with. > > The business with the nazies is just the sort of puzzle I like too, sinse it > > makes sense and doesn't take a huge amount of guessing, indeedd in the Eamon > > game thror's ring there is a similar puzzle with a large chunk of mythrill > and a mine cart. You can only pick up the mithrill if you drop all your > other items sinse it is too large, and there is a mine cart in the > other room. > > So all you need to do is get the cart, drop your gear, pick up the mythril, > > put it in the cart, then pick your stuff back upp, perfectly logical > and quite doable if you just look around (indeed the solution was obvious to > > me once I found the mine cart). > > beware the grue! > > Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, I really think the RPG thing is strictly a preference. IF in really wasn't originally geared towards RPG at all. And INfocom did have some games (take, for example, Wishbringer). Best Regards, Hayden -Original Message- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of dark Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 8:51 AM To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Agreed sarah, that was what put me off them. I actually believe these days that the entire if genre has been badly affected by infocom, sinse the people who took over the inform language and writing if in general were infocom fans who strongly dislike things like rpg mechanics and limited parza, and now are wondering why so few new fans start playing if? Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, Anchorhead is a really good one, really in the spirit of Lovecraftian horror. Storywise it si excellent, and the puzzles are not as bad as some games I've played. Best Regards, Hayden -Original Message- From: gamers-boun...@audyssey.org [mailto:gamers-boun...@audyssey.org] On Behalf Of dark Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 11:08 AM To: Gamers Discussion list Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Not tried either of those two there ron, maybe I will at some point. Beware the grue! Dark. - Original Message - From: "Ron Schamerhorn" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 4:49 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners > Another one that was good and the puzzles actually made sense was Haunted > Theatre, theatre.z8 I think it was. Also Anchorhead annchor.z? the > puzzles all made sense as well. I finished Theatre with a perfect 50 > point score, it was my first text game. > On 02-Sep-2012 7:41 AM, Jim Kitchen wrote: >> Hi Sarah, >> >> About the only text adventure games that I ever finished were Hitch >> Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Vampire. >> Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy I was able to finish because it has a >> built in hint slash solution utility. And I had a walk through for >> Leather Goddesses of Phobos. I needed it for the maze and for a couple >> of the ridiculous puzzles. But I did enjoy the games as well as one >> that I never finished named Deep Space Drifter. >> >> BFN >> >> Jim >> >> Clouds are God's sneezes. >> >> j...@kitchensinc.net >> http://www.kitchensinc.net >> (440) 286-6920 >> Chardon Ohio USA >> --- >> Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org >> If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to >> gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. >> You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at >> http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. >> All messages are archived and can be searched and read at >> http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. >> If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the >> list, >> please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. >> > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the > list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Sarah, I understand completely. Good luck on it, let us know what you find :) Dennis Towne Alter Aeon MUD http://www.alteraeon.com On Sun, Sep 2, 2012 at 3:24 PM, Sarah Haake wrote: > Hi Dennis, > > here comes the original poster, to tell you that I'm already playing Alter > Aeon on and of for quite some time now. *smiles* > > But sometimes I'm looking for something more calm than the realtime action > of a mud, which can get pretty hectic at times. That's why I posted my > original question. > > Best regards > Sarah --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dennis, here comes the original poster, to tell you that I'm already playing Alter Aeon on and of for quite some time now. *smiles* But sometimes I'm looking for something more calm than the realtime action of a mud, which can get pretty hectic at times. That's why I posted my original question. Best regards Sarah --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hey Dark It's been awhile but I know Theatre has a hints built in, I think anchorhead does as well. I'll say now though that some of the content in Anchorhead is of an adult nature. It's a great written game regardless. Theatre has a good backstory as you discover pages from the diary, it's a fun game. On 02-Sep-2012 12:07 PM, dark wrote: Not tried either of those two there ron, maybe I will at some point. Beware the grue! Dark. - Original Message - From: "Ron Schamerhorn" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 4:49 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Another one that was good and the puzzles actually made sense was Haunted Theatre, theatre.z8 I think it was. Also Anchorhead annchor.z? the puzzles all made sense as well. I finished Theatre with a perfect 50 point score, it was my first text game. On 02-Sep-2012 7:41 AM, Jim Kitchen wrote: Hi Sarah, About the only text adventure games that I ever finished were Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Vampire. Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy I was able to finish because it has a built in hint slash solution utility. And I had a walk through for Leather Goddesses of Phobos. I needed it for the maze and for a couple of the ridiculous puzzles. But I did enjoy the games as well as one that I never finished named Deep Space Drifter. BFN Jim Clouds are God's sneezes. j...@kitchensinc.net http://www.kitchensinc.net (440) 286-6920 Chardon Ohio USA --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi kieth. It's not really a matter of making specifically cyoa games, rather of just making games that it's possible to progress through by combat mechanics, and with puzzles that don't require the ridiculously open ended parza of something like inform. This doesn't mean no parza, indeed a basic parza has some advantages (it's far easier to type and program than a full menue choice style for one thing), just that rather than the parza being seen as this great and wondrous natural language thing most interactive fiction fans say it is, it's treated like the controls to any game, so must be as clear as possible. To me, having a full parza is like having a joypad with 500 buttons and not being told the right ones, while a simple parza with just use, examine, put examain etc, like the one eamon had is like a straight forward control scheme. Then there is the matter of combat mechanics. Decent stat combat involves a few choices of action, whether to use a spell or a healing item, when to use limited use items like potions, somtimes extra combat moves or choices of weapons, indeed some can get really! complex and tacticla. A good tactical fight however can enhance the game and let you progress without haivng to face puzzles, much as in a D&D game, a good gm will use the game mechanics to create tention during the battle and description of the game, rather than just treating the dice rolling as the be all and end all of a game. Take the zork troll as an example. There is absolutely no way to influence the fight, jsut a random roll, and a chance of death. This makes the fight utterly uninteresting. If however you had various choices and options, and could for instance stay out of the troll's reach while hitting him with arrows, or run in for a quick attack then run away again, ie, more accurately simulate the real! experience of a fight so that the better and more battle aware fighter won, not just the one the dice favoured, then you'd have a far more fun and interesting encounter. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Not tried either of those two there ron, maybe I will at some point. Beware the grue! Dark. - Original Message - From: "Ron Schamerhorn" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 4:49 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Another one that was good and the puzzles actually made sense was Haunted Theatre, theatre.z8 I think it was. Also Anchorhead annchor.z? the puzzles all made sense as well. I finished Theatre with a perfect 50 point score, it was my first text game. On 02-Sep-2012 7:41 AM, Jim Kitchen wrote: Hi Sarah, About the only text adventure games that I ever finished were Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Vampire. Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy I was able to finish because it has a built in hint slash solution utility. And I had a walk through for Leather Goddesses of Phobos. I needed it for the maze and for a couple of the ridiculous puzzles. But I did enjoy the games as well as one that I never finished named Deep Space Drifter. BFN Jim Clouds are God's sneezes. j...@kitchensinc.net http://www.kitchensinc.net (440) 286-6920 Chardon Ohio USA --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi tom. As I have said before, eamon really got it right I think in terms of puzzles by simply limiting the item manipulation commands to obvious ones. For instance, you'd not be stuck trying to work out how to tie a rope onto a hook, whether it's tie rope, tie rope with hook, knot rope on hook or whatever, simply use rope, or possibly use rope on hook will be more than enough, so I'll be interested to see what you can come up with. The business with the nazies is just the sort of puzzle I like too, sinse it makes sense and doesn't take a huge amount of guessing, indeedd in the Eamon game thror's ring there is a similar puzzle with a large chunk of mythrill and a mine cart. You can only pick up the mithrill if you drop all your other items sinse it is too large, and there is a mine cart in the other room. So all you need to do is get the cart, drop your gear, pick up the mythril, put it in the cart, then pick your stuff back upp, perfectly logical and quite doable if you just look around (indeed the solution was obvious to me once I found the mine cart). beware the grue! Dark. - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 4:43 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Dark, Could be. I know for myself one of the things I'm looking at doing is writing my own interactive fiction games probably in Python without the guesswork involved, and they would have a special emphasis on a more paper and pen roll playing game type feel. Random dice rolls, skill points, etc would determine success or failure at a given task rather than if you managed to guess the obscure answer to the solution. If it is a case of not having the correct experience required you could come back later once you have achieved the proper skill level rather than beating your head against a wall trying to guess the answer to the puzzle. I happen to love textadventures, but not the type of IF games popularized by Infocom because of their puzzle based nature. I remember playing text games for Dos such as a couple of Indiana Jones games that weren't nearly as complex to play, and it felt like you were going somewhere with the plot even if you didn't figure out a puzzle on the first or second try. Usually, the solution was pretty obvious after you played the game a couple of times. For example, in one game Indi would get captured by the Natzis. If that happened anything he was carrying would be taken away and lost including his trusty whip which was required to rescue Maryanne at the end of the game. The solution there was obvious. Find a safe place to drop Indi's gear before entering the Natzi's HQ, get captured, breakout, and grab Indi's gear from wherever you dropped it. Its one of those puzzles with a very easy solution anyone with half a brain should be able to figure out. Basically, it is this type of text adventure I'd be more interested in writing. It might be interesting to have a few puzzles here and there but the solution should be easy to figure out without having to spend all day guessing how to solve the puzzle. Cheers! On 9/2/12, dark wrote: Agreed sarah, that was what put me off them. I actually believe these days that the entire if genre has been badly affected by infocom, sinse the people who took over the inform language and writing if in general were infocom fans who strongly dislike things like rpg mechanics and limited parza, and now are wondering why so few new fans start playing if? Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
so you are more into the "choose your own adventure" games with a dungeons and dragons dice apect added in. That sounds like something I'd love Keith - Original Message - From: "Thomas Ward" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 10:43 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Dark, Could be. I know for myself one of the things I'm looking at doing is writing my own interactive fiction games probably in Python without the guesswork involved, and they would have a special emphasis on a more paper and pen roll playing game type feel. Random dice rolls, skill points, etc would determine success or failure at a given task rather than if you managed to guess the obscure answer to the solution. If it is a case of not having the correct experience required you could come back later once you have achieved the proper skill level rather than beating your head against a wall trying to guess the answer to the puzzle. I happen to love textadventures, but not the type of IF games popularized by Infocom because of their puzzle based nature. I remember playing text games for Dos such as a couple of Indiana Jones games that weren't nearly as complex to play, and it felt like you were going somewhere with the plot even if you didn't figure out a puzzle on the first or second try. Usually, the solution was pretty obvious after you played the game a couple of times. For example, in one game Indi would get captured by the Natzis. If that happened anything he was carrying would be taken away and lost including his trusty whip which was required to rescue Maryanne at the end of the game. The solution there was obvious. Find a safe place to drop Indi's gear before entering the Natzi's HQ, get captured, breakout, and grab Indi's gear from wherever you dropped it. Its one of those puzzles with a very easy solution anyone with half a brain should be able to figure out. Basically, it is this type of text adventure I'd be more interested in writing. It might be interesting to have a few puzzles here and there but the solution should be easy to figure out without having to spend all day guessing how to solve the puzzle. Cheers! On 9/2/12, dark wrote: Agreed sarah, that was what put me off them. I actually believe these days that the entire if genre has been badly affected by infocom, sinse the people who took over the inform language and writing if in general were infocom fans who strongly dislike things like rpg mechanics and limited parza, and now are wondering why so few new fans start playing if? Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Another one that was good and the puzzles actually made sense was Haunted Theatre, theatre.z8 I think it was. Also Anchorhead annchor.z? the puzzles all made sense as well. I finished Theatre with a perfect 50 point score, it was my first text game. On 02-Sep-2012 7:41 AM, Jim Kitchen wrote: Hi Sarah, About the only text adventure games that I ever finished were Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Vampire. Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy I was able to finish because it has a built in hint slash solution utility. And I had a walk through for Leather Goddesses of Phobos. I needed it for the maze and for a couple of the ridiculous puzzles. But I did enjoy the games as well as one that I never finished named Deep Space Drifter. BFN Jim Clouds are God's sneezes. j...@kitchensinc.net http://www.kitchensinc.net (440) 286-6920 Chardon Ohio USA --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, Could be. I know for myself one of the things I'm looking at doing is writing my own interactive fiction games probably in Python without the guesswork involved, and they would have a special emphasis on a more paper and pen roll playing game type feel. Random dice rolls, skill points, etc would determine success or failure at a given task rather than if you managed to guess the obscure answer to the solution. If it is a case of not having the correct experience required you could come back later once you have achieved the proper skill level rather than beating your head against a wall trying to guess the answer to the puzzle. I happen to love textadventures, but not the type of IF games popularized by Infocom because of their puzzle based nature. I remember playing text games for Dos such as a couple of Indiana Jones games that weren't nearly as complex to play, and it felt like you were going somewhere with the plot even if you didn't figure out a puzzle on the first or second try. Usually, the solution was pretty obvious after you played the game a couple of times. For example, in one game Indi would get captured by the Natzis. If that happened anything he was carrying would be taken away and lost including his trusty whip which was required to rescue Maryanne at the end of the game. The solution there was obvious. Find a safe place to drop Indi's gear before entering the Natzi's HQ, get captured, breakout, and grab Indi's gear from wherever you dropped it. Its one of those puzzles with a very easy solution anyone with half a brain should be able to figure out. Basically, it is this type of text adventure I'd be more interested in writing. It might be interesting to have a few puzzles here and there but the solution should be easy to figure out without having to spend all day guessing how to solve the puzzle. Cheers! On 9/2/12, dark wrote: > Agreed sarah, that was what put me off them. > > I actually believe these days that the entire if genre has been badly > affected by infocom, sinse the people who took over the inform language and > > writing if in general were infocom fans who strongly dislike things like rpg > > mechanics and limited parza, and now are wondering why so few new fans start > > playing if? > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. > --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
How does the original poster feel about muds? They generally have much, much bigger worlds than any infocom game, but I don't know if the real-time aspect of it would put him off. The difference I suppose is that a mud like AA is intended to be a continuously updating world, wheras Zork was a fixed, single pass game, but perhaps that's ok with him. Dennis Towne Alter Aeon MUD http://www.alteraeon.com On Sun, Sep 2, 2012 at 9:51 AM, dark wrote: > Agreed sarah, that was what put me off them. > > I actually believe these days that the entire if genre has been badly > affected by infocom, sinse the people who took over the inform language and > writing if in general were infocom fans who strongly dislike things like rpg > mechanics and limited parza, and now are wondering why so few new fans start > playing if? > > Beware the grue! > > Dark. > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Agreed sarah, that was what put me off them. I actually believe these days that the entire if genre has been badly affected by infocom, sinse the people who took over the inform language and writing if in general were infocom fans who strongly dislike things like rpg mechanics and limited parza, and now are wondering why so few new fans start playing if? Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
In the version of ireconcile I have, as soon as I click add on transactions screen I first see deposit withdraw them amount. After that I see payee them category. Let me know what you see when you click on add from the transactions screen. If I can hear what you see I may be able to help that way. So far I really like the ease and the accessibility of ireconcile application. Running budget and reports seem to be straight forward and very customizable. Mr Memorizing transactions is different. It is under more tab. When doing a memorized transaction you can have it post automatically or not. You can schedule it on a specific day. You can have it post weekly monthly every two months three months months etc. Editing transactions seems to be straight forward also. Also if you have the since feature enabled you can have it synch all phones which have the application on it. The only draw back is that you have to input a screen capture on or to set it up. Luckily my son was around and input it for me. Sent from my iPhone On Sep 2, 2012, at 8:02 AM, "Sarah Haake" wrote: > Hi, > > I tried hitchhikers too, but the puzzles are just rediculous and freaked me > out. Like I said, I'm searching for games which I can solve without the > constant need of a solution. I think most of the infocom games don't fall in > this category. > > Best regards > Sarah > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi, I tried hitchhikers too, but the puzzles are just rediculous and freaked me out. Like I said, I'm searching for games which I can solve without the constant need of a solution. I think most of the infocom games don't fall in this category. Best regards Sarah --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
that sodding fish anoyed the devil out of me as well. I was let down by the end of leather godesses pointless end. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes - Original Message - From: "dark" To: "Gamers Discussion list" Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 10:28 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners I've never managed to get through any of the infocom games, in fact universally they tended to irritate me with their illogical puzzles. the one I got furthest in was hitchhikers guide, but that involved relying on the hints far more than I would've liked, and in the end playing it primarily for Douglas adams writing than because I found it's puzzles interesting, mostly I found them annoying, the babel fish for instance. Beware the Grue! Dark. - --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
I've never managed to get through any of the infocom games, in fact universally they tended to irritate me with their illogical puzzles. the one I got furthest in was hitchhikers guide, but that involved relying on the hints far more than I would've liked, and in the end playing it primarily for Douglas adams writing than because I found it's puzzles interesting, mostly I found them annoying, the babel fish for instance. Beware the Grue! Dark. - --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
I never finished hitch hikers, but did leather godesses monmist and wishbringer. nOw wishbringer was goood. Lisa Hayes www.nutrimetics.com.au/lisahayes - Original Message - From: "Jim Kitchen" To: "Sarah Haake" Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 9:41 PM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Sarah, About the only text adventure games that I ever finished were Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Vampire. Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy I was able to finish because it has a built in hint slash solution utility. And I had a walk through for Leather Goddesses of Phobos. I needed it for the maze and for a couple of the ridiculous puzzles. But I did enjoy the games as well as one that I never finished named Deep Space Drifter. BFN Jim Clouds are God's sneezes. j...@kitchensinc.net http://www.kitchensinc.net (440) 286-6920 Chardon Ohio USA --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Is the vampire text adventure still available? I've played One that basically consists of you starting out with a female friend, she gets attacked, eventually you become a vampire, and have to either save her or yourself. The second is one that is you being a vampire, buried under a church, and you have to figure out how to get out of the church. Keith - Original Message - From: "Jim Kitchen" To: "Sarah Haake" Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2012 6:41 AM Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners Hi Sarah, About the only text adventure games that I ever finished were Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Vampire. Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy I was able to finish because it has a built in hint slash solution utility. And I had a walk through for Leather Goddesses of Phobos. I needed it for the maze and for a couple of the ridiculous puzzles. But I did enjoy the games as well as one that I never finished named Deep Space Drifter. BFN Jim Clouds are God's sneezes. j...@kitchensinc.net http://www.kitchensinc.net (440) 286-6920 Chardon Ohio USA --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Sarah, About the only text adventure games that I ever finished were Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Leather Goddesses of Phobos and Vampire. Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy I was able to finish because it has a built in hint slash solution utility. And I had a walk through for Leather Goddesses of Phobos. I needed it for the maze and for a couple of the ridiculous puzzles. But I did enjoy the games as well as one that I never finished named Deep Space Drifter. BFN Jim Clouds are God's sneezes. j...@kitchensinc.net http://www.kitchensinc.net (440) 286-6920 Chardon Ohio USA --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
I aggree with you dark. In the early days of computing, well for the first decade I was fortunate enough to be graced with my old t1850. However after its subsiquent dropping at school, it was never fully restored as I had to pull from other junk to fix things and those things broke. And at any rate I had to rely so much on compression and memmory hacking it just wasn't funny. when windows came out I realised I had to review the screen with my reader a thing I never had to do in dos. so emersion in the game world just didn't happen. Even so I always ran the solutions of games. my text games are on choice of games.com, the eamon system, I have a futureboy game on hugo which I play at times, and the lacuna game on inform7. I have some zcode games, some agt and some tads but to be honest I don't find time to actually play if anymore and when I have time I am either to tired or am not relaxed enough. Or a long game doesn't fit. right now for instance I have just come back from a fathers day thingy with the family. I have another thing tonight. between that I have some other offline thing I want to do with my aunt. and its nice outside. So I have a couple hours and I am not in the mood to put in the hard yards to really play a long game. If there is anything I do dig and go back to these days its the fighting fantasy games at ffproject.org and this is only because of the engine behind them. I am to lazy to role dice, if something tells me I need to win to continue and if there is nothing stopping me doing that then I do. having an engine do it for you means no cheating. I actually have to play. Saying that if at some point in my life I inherit a 386 system with dos 6 and a keynote gold sa or internal I have no issue in going back to the games. While most of my disks are old and may not work I still have them right now. I have the games and old programs some of which I pulled from people's drives ages ago, there is a chance though not likely. I have the old keynote keysoft and mastertouch and wordperfect 5.1 software to. There is no reason I couldn't drop back. The synth I had is dead now, and I'd probably have to set a vm and to be honest I havn't got that far yet. At 11:12 p.m. 1/09/2012 +0100, you wrote: Hi Sarah. i must admit this is exactly why i no longer play many text adventures, sinse I just got frustrated with about five out of six I played ending as you describe, even when i tried those such as glowgrass that were billed as beginner games. I did however find some good ones. Dreamhold by Andrew plotkin. This is a rather surreal magic fantasy game where you play as a wizard who's lost his memory. It actually serves as a general introduction to conventions and styles of if, but I found it extremely playable on it's own and unlike other if introductions I've seen, it was actually really nicely written with an absorbing story and world. Probably the only puzzle dungeon crawl style thing I've ever actually finished. Worlds apart: The single best if game I've ever played, beautiful writing, and puzzles that all depend entirely upon examining your surroundings and understand a very alien world and the identity of your character. I've seen it cryticized because reviewers couldn't cope with the alien concepts such as being able to mentally enter and explore certain alien objects or communicate with different types of animals and preferd standard if puzzles, but I personally found it far easier than the normal if sinse it required much more an understanding of a very different world, your character and her relation to it than just some random leaps of logic. Note though that this is a tads game, so you'll need a tads interpreter like wintads or html tads to play it rather than the standard zcode one. Pytho's mask by emily short. A really nice, short (no pun intended), game with again a very unique world and protagonist. In particular I really admire the way all the puzzles come from the menue based conversation system, rather than manipulating objects, which means this a very character and story driven game, but all the better for that. Lash by paul obrian. A mix of scifi and historical, with a very unique idea, you controlling a robot by textual interface in a post appocalypse America that then has links back to pre civil war days of slavery. Puzzles weren't too bad, especially considdering that to progress you pretty much only have to explore and do a couple of actions, and while there were a couple of object puzzles, (some I didn't guess), these didn't really serve much purpose, and most of the crucial stuff in the game is purely story driven or given to you in environmental clues. Note though that the title lash is not idle, and this game has some pretty nasty moments, albeit probably historically accurate ones. Earth and sky 1-3 by paul obrian, (note that the 2nd and 3rd are glulx, requiring the winglulx interpreter to run). In co
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
sara you probably should wait for the eamon games. there are a couple stand alone ones http://eamon-guild.blogspot.com there should be links to some stand alones. I have been a beta tester for the deluxe games. And I can tell you that there are almost no bugs left for me to flesh out. So, as long as frank the dev on this gets ready and there is no extra stuff to do then there should in theory be a public release soon though I have just talked to him and he is snowed under with various projects. The main reason I have stopped gaming in general for text games is the fact I don't have dos. yes you can run it with a screenreader or sapi or something but if you need to review things and in fact if you need to view stuff without automatic speech of stuff like in dos it detracts from the gameplay because you have to do a lot of stuf outside of the game world and so can't amerse yourself as fully. that could just be me as I was in dos for ages before windows came out. At 11:39 p.m. 1/09/2012 +0200, you wrote: Hi list I'd like to try some textadventures. I have tried to play a few already, but I always stop playing because I tend to have the same problems with these games over and over. I get lost on the game map, the puzzles are just obscure, I have to play syntax guessing or I just don't know what the game wants me to do. In some games you just get a general goal but you don't really know what your next step should be. You wander around rather aimlessly. So, I know that some of you already played quite a few textadventures and that some of you also hate obscure and illogical puzzles and syntax guessing just like me. Maybe some of you can recommend some beginner games for me. I really want to solve one of these games without a solution one day. And if I get some practice with easy games I maybe can do some more difficult ones later too. The genre is not that important. I like fantasy themed games, but I also would try other genres happily when the game is good. Thanks in advance for any recommendations. Best regards Sarah --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Dark, thanks, I'll certainly have a look at the games you suggested here. They really sound interesting. Yeah, I completely understand which kind of puzzles you mean here. That's the reason I never finished many games I tried. I also prefer systems like the Eamon deluxe stuff. But I'm still waiting for the new version of it and was thinking about what I could play in the meantime when I don't want to go online to play Alter Aeon for example. At least I can take my time to think in these text games, sometimes these action audiogames or muds go too fast for me. Best regards Sarah --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi Sarah. i must admit this is exactly why i no longer play many text adventures, sinse I just got frustrated with about five out of six I played ending as you describe, even when i tried those such as glowgrass that were billed as beginner games. I did however find some good ones. Dreamhold by Andrew plotkin. This is a rather surreal magic fantasy game where you play as a wizard who's lost his memory. It actually serves as a general introduction to conventions and styles of if, but I found it extremely playable on it's own and unlike other if introductions I've seen, it was actually really nicely written with an absorbing story and world. Probably the only puzzle dungeon crawl style thing I've ever actually finished. Worlds apart: The single best if game I've ever played, beautiful writing, and puzzles that all depend entirely upon examining your surroundings and understand a very alien world and the identity of your character. I've seen it cryticized because reviewers couldn't cope with the alien concepts such as being able to mentally enter and explore certain alien objects or communicate with different types of animals and preferd standard if puzzles, but I personally found it far easier than the normal if sinse it required much more an understanding of a very different world, your character and her relation to it than just some random leaps of logic. Note though that this is a tads game, so you'll need a tads interpreter like wintads or html tads to play it rather than the standard zcode one. Pytho's mask by emily short. A really nice, short (no pun intended), game with again a very unique world and protagonist. In particular I really admire the way all the puzzles come from the menue based conversation system, rather than manipulating objects, which means this a very character and story driven game, but all the better for that. Lash by paul obrian. A mix of scifi and historical, with a very unique idea, you controlling a robot by textual interface in a post appocalypse America that then has links back to pre civil war days of slavery. Puzzles weren't too bad, especially considdering that to progress you pretty much only have to explore and do a couple of actions, and while there were a couple of object puzzles, (some I didn't guess), these didn't really serve much purpose, and most of the crucial stuff in the game is purely story driven or given to you in environmental clues. Note though that the title lash is not idle, and this game has some pretty nasty moments, albeit probably historically accurate ones. Earth and sky 1-3 by paul obrian, (note that the 2nd and 3rd are glulx, requiring the winglulx interpreter to run). In complete contrast to lash, these are really fun, pure super hero adventures where you play as Emily and austin, who's parents have made them super powered earth and sky suits then disappeared. There is only really one puzzle I found hard in the second game, and there is a walkthru if you need one, otherwise everything was doable. Babel, (a tads game). This is a scifi game set in an abandoned research base. it had very much the feeling of a film like alien or the thing, sinse you are wandering around trying to discover a desaster. The writing was great and atmospheric, and most of the actions you need to take were obvious from the clues you got in the environment such as journal entries about the base, however there was one puzzle I needed the walkthru for involving making a potion. The plot, while predictable was also rather fun as well. I've played several others, but these are probably my favourites, and certainly these are some of the few if titles I've actually managed to complete without extensive use of a hints file. I must confess though, generally I just don't bother with if anymore, sinse the "oh look, I should've opened the door by using the dog whistle to call down the bird, pulling off it's beak and using it to pick the lock" type of puzzles, not to mention getting line after line of "I don't know how to put" type of response when i try a perfectly simple thing like put cup on table just got far too much on my whick. These days, i much prefer text games such as the Eamon system that employ a limited parza, thus limiting your choice of responses and thus making it far easier to work out how to progress the game. Also, I haven't mentioned here any of the few rpgs written in if formats such as kerkerkruip or wumpus 2000. Beware the grue! Dark. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send
[Audyssey] Looking for textadventures for beginners
Hi list I'd like to try some textadventures. I have tried to play a few already, but I always stop playing because I tend to have the same problems with these games over and over. I get lost on the game map, the puzzles are just obscure, I have to play syntax guessing or I just don't know what the game wants me to do. In some games you just get a general goal but you don't really know what your next step should be. You wander around rather aimlessly. So, I know that some of you already played quite a few textadventures and that some of you also hate obscure and illogical puzzles and syntax guessing just like me. Maybe some of you can recommend some beginner games for me. I really want to solve one of these games without a solution one day. And if I get some practice with easy games I maybe can do some more difficult ones later too. The genre is not that important. I like fantasy themed games, but I also would try other genres happily when the game is good. Thanks in advance for any recommendations. Best regards Sarah --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
