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Post 15 Jun 2015, 3:17 am

anyone near or in Maryland care to play Republic of Rome? or we could do an online game or something....I've got the cool Valley Games version...
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Post 15 Jun 2015, 6:11 pm

Jim

Ah, Republic of Rome! Love that game, in spite of its complexity and errata. As for your invitation to a live event,

a. I used to live in VA, but no longer. Now I'm in Minnesota
b. I have the original AH box, but I do have the VG rules.
c. Online would be fine (see below).

I played in the online version that Ray(?) used to host here on Redscape years ago. Sure would be great if he could do that again, because he understood the rules well and was so good running the games.

If we could find a few other players and somebody who could GM, I'd play. And I'd like to play a mid or late Republic scenario, rather than the early republic scenario, which tends to be used so often.

George
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Post 16 Jun 2015, 2:02 pm

I'd be willing to give it a go so long as somebody who knows what they're doing is willing to run it for us and explain the rules to me.
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Post 16 Jun 2015, 8:46 pm

Sassenach wrote:I'd be willing to give it a go so long as somebody who knows what they're doing is willing to run it for us and explain the rules to me.


Well, you might start by viewing a video run-through on YouTube, such as Scott Nicholson's take: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NcPR96mDq4 which may be the best video-based introduction available.

Then do what he suggested and get a copy of the "Living Rules" on BoardGameGeek:
http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/53063/living-rules-v104

George
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Post 16 Jun 2015, 10:38 pm

I would not describe myself as knowing "precisely" what to do. I've played through a couple partial games at a game store in my area (it was cool because we had five of us but since the game takes a while we did not finish). At least I got a fairly good handle on the rules if not an actually "perfect" one. We were playing on this website specifically for card driven games, called ACTS. I too have played on Redscape before when Ray GM'd it, like, 4 or 5 times.

I would not mind being the GM for ACTS but again, I do not know the rules perfectly, so the "enforcement" would have to be more than a one-man thing. But again, I know most of them. Just not 100% perfect. We (or I) could be responsible for posting the board up on Redscape....if I knew how to do it.

But this is a really fun game. I love the senate phase where we vote on senators' motions and so forth. For those who haven't played it before, I think you might like it.

Do you all know where ACTS is? If not:

http://acts.warhorsesim.com/index.asp

And take a look at a few of the "journals" in play. Everyone's cards are kept secret by the program on the website. And if anyone doesn't know what's on a card (Like, what does the "Harbor Fees" card say? Or the "First Gallic War", etc.) I have myself the VG edition and could literally read the cards off to you. (Though ACTS does of course give some of the info every time a card is drawn.)

Um...questions?
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Post 17 Jun 2015, 6:01 am

Jim, thanks for the link to ACTS. I did not know about the site. It looks nice enough for what it offers, though I would love to keep any game running in Redscape, of course. Every game helps its exposure.

Frankly, I have not played in a few years and I only have the AH version, plus the Living Rules. I don't think the card IDs are any different, other than the look in the VG version. But I'm willing to brush up on the rules, themselves. A joint GM project could work. I wonder if we have access to the old games run on Redscape? And could we find 4 or 5 players for this?

I think we'd have to also agree on which rules to implement and whether we want to try to simplify any parts of the rules without diluting the game, itself. There is a lot of minutia to wade through.

George
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Post 17 Jun 2015, 8:32 am

Since I know nothing about it I'll just leave it with you guys to sort out. I'm sure we could find 5 players if need be.
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Post 17 Jun 2015, 5:39 pm

1. Can we get the thread renamed to Republic of Rome, not Wome?

2. I went to the internet Wayback site and discovered that the Republic of Rome GM was Ghengis Ray, so I sent him an email, based on the email his account has here on Redscape. I don't know his real name, so if any of you know, send me his email address if you have it.

3. I browsed to a snapshot of Redscape on the Wayback site for January of 2007. It was amazing to see there were 36 concurrent Diplomacy games in progress, excluding active tournaments and games in Adv Civilization, Game of Thrones, and Republic of Rome.
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Post 18 Jun 2015, 11:29 pm

Yeah, sorry, I had Monty Python's the LIfe of Brian in my head at that point and likely did that without thinking it through lol.

Pretty amazing, yes. Ghengis Ray did a good job of it, too. Especially maintaining the board and such.

It's best with 6 players; it is however interesting with 5 since you need to "auction off" the extra intitiative for that turn.

S., if you want a brief rundown before skimming through any of the particulars (I'd be happy to guide players through the game as it happens, and suggest strategy, etc.), I would be happy to demonstrate it now, but let me know if I in any way overwhelm you or throw too much at you at once. It's actually a boatload less complicated than it sounds. Want me to? If you've skimmed the rules (or you can listen to my summary first) throw any questions at me you have.
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Post 18 Jun 2015, 11:32 pm

George: I would recommend using a combination of ACTS and the Redscape site (to post a picture of the current board and factions, etc.) There are dice rolls that need to occur and how could a GM who is also in the game say "OK, you just rolled a six" and the other players would automatically trust him? You can make the random die rolls on ACTS, that is why I was thinking of using half ACTS/half Redscape to play. What do you think?

Also, the few minor changes in the game from the AH to the VG ed. are on p. 30 of the VG rules: "V. 2nd Edition Changes". I am not sure how much if at all ACTS has changed the program to suit the VG rule changes, but they're not very many and not too devastating (though somewhat important at times). They rarely change the way ACTS has to work, I might add. We never had a problem playing there.
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Post 19 Jun 2015, 6:21 am

Jim,
I suppose that might work. By the way, I've tried to contact Genghis, whose real name may be Ray Wilsey. Anyway, I wrote to his email through Redscape and his account on BGG. John Rodriquez was another early GM and big-deal with RoR on Redscape and other sites. He had an account here under the handle Velusian. Unfortunately, when I went to search the member list, Velusian was no longer there. Well, maybe he terminated his account? I did write to him on BGG.

The reason I'm doing this, of course, is to see if they are interested in GMing the game. It would be nice if we both could play without trying to do the GM duties at the same time.

By the way, I did find several screen shots of the RoR game screens they had on Redscape, as well as a bunch of strategy and run-through tips put up by John. I can email them to you, if you like.

George
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Post 19 Jun 2015, 3:55 pm

Jim,

I heard back from Ray and we had a nice email chat, which hopefully will continue. He has not been involved in the hobby (or any gaming) for several years. In fact, he has lurked here a few times and just went back in to discover (new to him) that all of the old stuff is completely lost. Bummed him out. I also asked if he would at least be interested in playing in a game. We'll see.

He used Cyberboard as a tool for tracking and displaying the game turns. But he said his cyberbox files may be lost, though he might look for them. I have not yet heard from John R, though he's probably in the same non-involved status.

It's sad that virtually all of the online sites/messages for RoR are 10 years old or more. Most links are dead. I looked at ACTS and signed on. I don't quite get the interface, but I'll work on it. Are you on ACTS? If so what is your user name? It's a free sign-up.

Maybe you and I can run through a demo game, ourselves(2 players), so we can get a better feel for how the site works and what we'll need to do (and it will help us get refreshed on the rules).

Finally, did I tell you that I found Velusian's RoR game tips and game walk-through that were published on Redscape 10+ years ago? You can find them on Aaron Marriner's web site: http://www.amarriner.com/ror/, along with a bunch of other RoR resources.

George
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Post 19 Jun 2015, 5:38 pm

I fixed the Wome. Give me the nod and I'll create a RoR section and forums for you ya'll.
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Post 19 Jun 2015, 6:41 pm

SLOTerp wrote:I fixed the Wome. Give me the nod and I'll create a RoR section and forums for you ya'll.


Well, I was starting to thing maybe we should name it "Wepublic of Wome", a la Princess Bride. Or maybe Elmer Fudd.
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Post 19 Jun 2015, 9:01 pm

Actually it's a reference to Monty Python's The Life of Bryan. Roman Governor of Judaea province, Pontius Pilate, has a speech impediment. "...but, I have a vewy good fwiend in Wome named [cough].." (can't explain the rest; you'll just have to see the movie LOL).

Yes I am on acts as JimHackerMP or cbisasky@gmail.com if you can search it by email address (real name's Colin).

Glad to see you made contact with Ray!

Best place to find more resources is BGG I think.

Speaking of Cyberboard, I wish there was a VG edition cyberboard, because the "forum" looks a trifle different, and there's an issue with "imminent wars" delay and you need a special space for that. The VG cards and board look way prettier anyway! And the coins are out of sight....!

I like your idea of messing around with a game on ACTS first, to get a feel of the way it works. That's a great idea. We can each play three factions, and mess around with how it works. See, it is the dice roll ability that I like ACTS. If there were some way of having a random dice roll with Redscape, so that the GM could be one of the players but still manage the game fairly enough, that would be cool, but I haven't seen a program like that where a random die roll could be "posted" on a Redscape forum. Let me know if you come up with anything along those lines.

In the mean time, definitely find me on ACTS. I'll set up a game for us, in fact....in fact, I think I can do that right now....