God Save Us! is nearing its end. We are up to turn 4 out of 5 turns, so the heat is on. This is what happened in the game to this point ... Turn 1: England is at peace - so nothing happens - except that Egbert, Thane of Alton, rode to Lindesfarne with ALL of his men. Turn 2: The Vikings land east of Alton at night - They prepare to attack Alton at dawn. Turn 3: The Vikings attack Alton at dawn - the ones who fought back were killed - and the Vikings begin to loot. Chuck Hagen won the resolution of last turn and so got the honor of writing the Presenting Argument for turn 4. He wrote ... ACTION: The Vikings search for and carry off their booty. RESULT: The Vikings have what they came for, load their prizes onto their ship(s). REASONS: 1. The raiders are here to take wealth, 2. There is little challenge, 3. The Vikings must leave before they are met by any organised force. Turn 4 Vince Zahnle sends "I agree with the argument presented ... I have not reason to quibble with it." Which I read as I repeat the argument (le double Its chances of happening. Carl Carlson sends ACTION: YES; the Vikings carry off their booty. RESULT: The Vikings load their prizes onto the ships AND The Vikings leave Alton for Lindesfarne so the Vikings begin next turn ready to plunder Lindesfarne to. REASONS: Carl did not send any reasons with his argument. Toni Weems sends ACTION: YES; the Vikings carry off their booty. RESULT: But the Thane returns to Alton before they leave so the Vikings and the Thane battle. REASONS: 1. Mounted men can travel anywhere in 1 turn, 2. Thanes protect peasants, 3. Thanes seek glory in battle. Geoff McHarg sends ACTION: YES; the Vikings loot Alton. RESULT: BUT the Vikings become fatigued and decide to rest instead of immediately loading back onto the ship. REASONS: 1. Raiders are here to take wealth, 2. Landing (and looting) fatigues, 3. Fatigued men move slower. Chris Blair sends ACTION: NO, the PA doesn't happen. Actually, the Viking chief is converted to Chritianity by a brave friar and a young girl. RESULT: Chief Olaf spends the turn listening Lo a Mass. REASONS: 1. Monks convert Heathens, 2. Raiders seek to gain wealth, 3. There are great riches In HEAVEN. Chris Engle sends ACTION: YES; the Viking carry off their booty. RESULT: BUT they stop to burn down Alton before loading up. REASONS: 1. Vikings are barbarians, 2. Cry havoc let slip the dogs of war! 3. Vikings don't like to leave a job half done! Ned Zuparko sends ACTION: YES; the Vikings carry off their booty. Turn 5 Vince, Chuck, Tom, Carl, and Ned did not send In a PA for turn 5. This means that if they win there will be not PA for next turn. That means that the door will be open to everyone sending In a presenting argument thus making the last turn a slug match! Georff McHarg sends ACTION: The Thanes ride to Alton and find the Vikings testing. RESULT: The Thanes beat the Vikings in a fight and the Vikings flee to their ships with only the look they can carry. REASONS: 1. Can Saxons fight? Aye, all day and through the night! 2. Men on horseback can go anywhere in one turn. 3. Disorganised or fatigued men fight poorly. Chris Blair sends ACTION: Olaf orders his me to return the loot they stole. RESULT: The Vikings leave, with a treasure much greater than gold. REASONS: 1. Raiders want to return home alive, 2. Loyalty to the leader is sacred, 3. Faith Chris Engle sends ACTION: The victorious Vikings load onto their ships and head home. RESULT: The Vikings have completed a successful raid in England. REASONS: 1. They have gained wealth, 2. They have had their adventure, 3. They now want to return home (alive). Resolution In the past I described resolving a Matrix argument as though it was a dance marathon. Each argument is in competition with the others, but the real competition is within yourself. Each argument has a value from one to six. To stay in the running an argument must roll equal to or less than that number. If the roll is above the number then the argument rule ITSELF out. If it happens that all the arguments are ruled out then have everyone begin a new round of rolling. So there is one result every turn. The argument values come from... Per reason given (max 3) 1 Presenting Argument 0 YES AND argument 1 YES BUT argument 0 NO ACTUALLY argument -1 Strong Argument 0 Weak Argument -1 This turn's values come out ... Chuck Hagen 3 reasons + presenting argument 3 Vince Zahnle 3 reasons + YES ? (lets say AND) 4 Tom Weems 3 reasons + YES BUT = 3 Carl Carlson 0 reasons + YES AND = 1 Geoff Mcharg 3 reasons + YES BUT = 3 Chris Blair 3 reasons - NO ACTUALLY = 2 Ned Zuparko 3 reasons + YES AND 4 Chris Engle 3 reasons + YES BUT 3 I ruled out ALL of the arguments in 6 rounds of rolling. Vince and Ned faced off equally until they were both ruled out in the same turn. This meant that all of the arguments returned for a next go at it. This time Vince and Ned again began to square off but Tom ended up the winner in round 4. Tom did not send in a new PA so that means that in the final turn everyone sends in a PA. Keep in mind that the Saxons have just ridden up on the Vikings. Make a strong argument now and you are likely to win. I am very pleased with the progress God Save Us has made. Eight players is a good number in any game. But it can drag a GM down if he is resolving the turns in a RPG method. Board games can work through the mail with this many people, but resolving the turn is still a long process. It took us FIVE minutes to resolve this turn. If I was to write it up in a bare bones presentation, turn resolution might take 15 minutes more (and that is with typing out everyone's turns!). This started as an experiment to see if Matrix Games could work through the mail and now I can say a resounding YES! Back to Experimental Games Group # 5 Table of Contents Back to Experimental Games Group List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1990 by Chris Engle This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com