Well, now that we have a forum I figured I would start things off with an initial thread. We can use this as our first main discussion thread for getting things organized. I'll also edit this first post occasionally with any info about the team.

So to kick it off, the team member list:
HitAnyKey
TheHumanHydra
Old Harry
CFCJesterFool
Nakor
Serdoa

I don't know if there really is a difference between a "team member" and a "dedlurker", but if there is and any of you want to be labeled as such, just let me know.

Thank you for your interest in Realms Beyond and the 2012 Inter Site Demo Game 2012. Here are some ways to contribute to Team Realms Beyond, as we drive our enemies culture before us, pillage their cottages, and listen to the lamentations of their lurkers:

Sandbox updater

The sandbox is the best way for most players in the team to get a real hands-on feel for the domestic development of Realms Beyond. Earlier, this was done ad hoc, and lately I've taken some responsibility for it. However, I'd like one person willing and able to step in and take over for most turns, so heavy C&D work doesn't impact the sandbox. I'm not sure how many people here fetch them regularly, but I really recommend a look through it now and again. By keeping an accurate sandbox, everyone involved in the game can get a better feel for our domestic development.

Requirements:

• Being able to log into the game
  
• Not being afraid of the worldbuilder
  
• Attention to detail

I'd like to play a 2v2v2v2 team pitboss game. 2v2v2v2, because it's different from what we usually do. Pitboss, because sequential team turns is a really good way to do team games. Both civs on a team can be logged in at once, and playing the turn together; but it's still a sequential turns game when it comes to interaction between the teams, so there are no timer shenanigans possible.

A good comparison game is pitboss 6. PB6 was 3v3v3v3 with a medieval start. It had issues because not all the teams worked out, but ended up being a great and interesting game anyway.

Here are settings/rules I am thinking of.
1) Ancient start. Not really negotiable. For this game I want to just throw one wrench into the machine, not several at once.
2) No talking with other teams - also not negotiable. Probably AW is best, though we can discuss this.
3) All teams having at least two players who could be considered "vets", and who are committed to the game even if other members of their team leave, and who want to play together. (Don't have to be super good or anything, just have a few games of experience.) I don't want to repeat the Team 4 disaster from PB6 with a bunch of flaky new players who disappear.
4) Suggested team size is 2-4 players. (More is allowed.)
5) Game "difficulty" should be high - probably Deity and no lower than Immortal. Why? Well the main effect of higher difficulty is to slow teching. In a game where teams have 2 players, tech rate is shared and costs are only increased by 50%. So team games make teching faster by 2/1.5, moreso than the high difficulty makes teching slower. (PB6 had a lower difficulty level, but it was appropriate there because they started in the medieval era, where techs cost more than 10x as much as starting techs.)
6) Banned: War Elephants, Spy missions, Nukes. We can discuss wonders if people want.
7) Map type: Lakes style map. Barely less water than is needed for circumnavigation to be available. Maybe 150 land tiles per player or so (so, 300 per team)? So for example a 48x48 torus could be appropriate. The PB6 map was excellent.
8) Civ/leader picks: however people want.

Interested? Please post here and also try to figure out who you might want to team with.

Teams:

Real Men of Genius 2.0
WarriorKnight
Shoot the Moon
oledavy
Brian Shanahan

HitHumanHydrasHohoho
HitAnyKey
TheHumanHydra
CFCJesterFool
Nakor
Serdoa

Lew Adores Mist
Lewwyn
Commodore
Ellimist
Scooter
BRickAstley
Pindicator

Smackdown
SevenSpirits
Mackoti
Ichabod

Not yet on a team, possibly interested:
Sian
Kjn
Qgqqqqq
Thoth
Bigger
Fintourist

Well now it's official.

Check out the stream:
http://www.ustream.tv/PlayStation

This will be a quick game, so this may not be used much. But I don't want to take over a previous lurker thread - that was done with AITP3 while I was still alive, and I got some sentences from my email notification before I realized what the dead were doing.


While we wait for the game to start for lurkers (day 1), here is a fun game. Assuming you were assigning the roles according to the players personality, instead of randomly, who would get which role?

The roles are:
Sane Cop (traditional cop)
Insane Cop (always gets wrong result)
Paranoid Cop (always gets guilty result)
Naive Cop (always gets innocent result)
Mafia Goon (scuuuuum)

The basic rules are here:

http://wiki.mafiascum.net/index.php?title=Dethy

RB specific rules:

1. No talking during any night phase
2. lynch deadline is 01:00
3. Game starts in night 0 (now), which is 24 hours. First day phase is 48 hours, followed by a 24 hour night phase, and finally a 24 hour day phase.
4. votes are cast in red. a no lynch vote is not allowed.
5. No posting is allowed after lynch deadline, even if I am not here to call deadline. Anyone breaking this rule will be open to public and relentless ridicule, and possibly ridiculous post restrictions. please don't break any rules .
6. dead players may make one posthumous post that doesn't contribute to the discussion.
7. profile camping is not allowed.

So I'm planning to start a new Imperium on Monday in response to the recent resurgence in interest. Nothing's been actually finalized yet, but I have done some play-testing of a few different maps, and I'm confident that I'll have something ready by Monday even if no one else jumps in with something they've wanted to run for a long time.

I'm hoping for some feedback here on what level of challenge you're looking for (some of us may be rather rusty, or might be picking up the game for the first time) and anything else you want to say (if you want to - or can't stand to - play a specific race or variant, if you're hoping to play something specific from the Ideas for Imperium Games thread, etc.) - and of course I want to make sure that interest is still alive! So if you are interested in playing, please respond to the poll and/or reply to this thread.

Likewise, if you wanted to sponsor an Imperium and were working on playtesting or refining it, let me know, whether by PM, e-mail (see my user profile) ... or just posting to say so in this thread. Otherwise, we'll see what we get on Monday - I'm looking forward to the game!

[EDIT: Poll posted. I haven't voted for myself though because I don't want to skew the results.]

Hi guys!
I just posted a question about PitBoss games over at weplayciv as they seem to have an active PB community. I figured I should ask the same questions here as I'm always curious how the RB community tweaks the base game.
Basically, I've been peaking around PB threads and CivStats to take a look at the games, but I wish I could actually observe them directly. I'm curious how the games are playing out in practice now that the game is mature. (It is hard to predict before release, of course.) I see games with a lot of players (18 is a common number). Are these team games? If not, how do the free-for-alls play out? Do you guys have standard "house rules" for PitBoss games? Is there a general shape to a PB game? What are the features you would love to see in a PitBoss 2?
thanks,
Soren

Random Podcast Propagation

The Game Design Roundtable is a podcast hosted by Jon Shafer & Dirk Knemeyer. I find it a mixed bag generally but I've been pleased with it as something to listen to in a commute. Their latest episode brings on Soren to talk about Civilization; and come'on, who can't get enough CIV here?

http://thegamedesignroundtable.com/2013/...pisode-14/

He's doing another 4x that he just kickstarted.

One of the updates is a retrospective on CIV5 in the context of this new game.

Interesting reading.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jons...sts/404789