Introduction of the Dreamlands and the main characters
(The link to the game discussion:
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?t=48682 )
A techical note: The flavor pictures are ripped from internjet, I claim nor hold any rights to them.
LA R'lyeh is excellent for thematic play, so I chose to try and play a role here. My attributes try to follow the example set by the original Cthulhu mythos, at least as much as made possible by the devs, and as far as I am familiar with Lovecraft's work. So, my R'lyeh was unyielding, uncompromising and overwhelming. It was my initial goal not to participate actively in diplomacy. The Dreamlands has but one possible outcome; The Dreamlands will reign or be eradicated.
The beginning of the game was a little bit burdensome, and I actually was convinced I would not make it even to the shore. However, the tide – so to say – turned, and I started making some progress. The story begins, therefore, from the turn 11.
As a side note, in addition to the story recording the culture revolution a turn by turn, I wrote down some stats too, in order to be able to publish some numerical data if ever relevant, interesting or otherwise offering some support on the events at hand (might be that I publish the whole stats database as a whole in the end also, or form some figures using some figure drawing tools – remains to be seen).
The mad arab Abdul Alhazred was chosen to serve as a pretender. The arab's success (read: victory over other nations) would mean Cthulhu's awakening. The only thing expected of Cthulhu was to eat who ever was left when all other religions would have been wiped out...
If I recall correctly I picked negative scales in everything, except in luck and magic. I picked full luck and some points in magic. I also took high dominion and the mad arab was created as a rainbow pretender for early manual site searhing (I left Astral out because I would have got that enough anyways). Also, I used Squirreloid's LA R'lyeh quide (”How I came to love Dreamlands and stopped worrying”) when building the pretender and character, and choosing the playing style.
An initial prophet was my scout, and I named him Robert Olmstead – a sketchy figure from the short story Shadow over Innsmouth. The thematic role suited the scout very well, for my understanding is that Robert found his inner, subdued fish later on during his life, and he eventually joined the creatures worshipping Dagon under the waves. Robert is also conducting area studies in the story...
At this point, three other champions worth mentioning are the Traitor King (whom I named Dagon because of his exceptional W5), successfull void summoner Uzumna (whos summoner level is currently 6), and an Illithid commander Zagauba. Zagauba has lead the armies to victories more than anyone else (maybe because there hasnt been ANYONE else - of importance at least - so far). Unfortunately he is losing it already, and the Starspawn Council estimates his insanity climbing already as high as 9. The Starspawn Priest Uzumna has been very lucky so far – no attacks, no sanity loss, no incidents.
A technical note: While working on the AAR I realized that writing the AAR highly increases the skill and level of playing. I think it is because it forces me to go through things more carefully than I would if I werent taking notes. It is a positive circle, so to say, for writing a long and deep AAR increases your willingness to succeed in the game also, improving the play even moar. Cant but recommend this to others!
The Dreamlands in MP Blood Sacrifices
Threaded Mode