[cleveland]

Chaps,

Some chatter in the common forums has given me a rather silly idea, and I wish to present it to our Assembly for review.

First, some background. There are many new faces here on the boards. A very encouraging sign, indeed. However, as we all know, volunteering for one's first MP game can be intimidating.

It has been and remains the sacred duty of distinguished gentlemen like us to encourage future Dominions generations to participate in our sport. Indeed, our community's continued vitality depends upon it.

I therefore propose that I make my turns in the Tophats game visible to "tourists" - those who are not participating in the game, but are interested to see how an MP game works, what strategies are involved, etc. The intent would be to allow those interested in MP to experience the game without commitment, thereby piquing their interest and spurring participation (forgive the harsh language, I implore!)

Specifically, I would post a solicitation in the main forum asking all interested parties to contact me via email. I would then send my .trn & .2h files to those individuals. These would be sent with a 2-turn delay, to ensure no unscrupulous parties sabotage our game with unauthorized .2h files.

I would maintain a discussion thread in the MP forums providing insights, rationale, and pathetic attempts at humor. Essentially, it'd be a living After Action Report (er, or perhaps a During Action Report?)

Regardless, such an experiment would not be possible without the full endorsement and cooperation of all members of the Tophats Congress. Afterall, the integrity of the game would be compromised should any of our members choose to use the situation to thier advantage. Though of course, given that all of our members of Persons of the Highest Quality, this notion is laughable, therefore making our game the perfect laboratory to test such an Idea.

However, this Idea cannot and will not proceed unless each of our cohort agrees to the following stipulations:
1) No active member of the Tophats game will view .trn & .2h that I make available.
2) No active member will view the AAR thread I maintain on the board.
3) No active member will discuss information from (1) or (2) with anybody who has access to (1) or (2).

So gentlemen, what do you think? Again, without positive affirmation of this proposal by all Tophats members, it will not be implemented.

Most sincerely,
cleveland