Third Seal: Scarcity on the Ship of Doom

Dropbear and the Wombat pushed through the broken seal in the black of night. Or it would’ve been black, had the lights not been on, and given that on a ship in the sea of stars, it wasn’t really ‘night’ or ‘day’. Dropbear shook these details from his furry head.

“Come on Wombie, this is a job for you”. Together, they surveyed the stacked beer barrels. Dropbear with distaste, and Space Wombat with an intensity that Dropbear found somewhat disquieting. Dropbear headed for the wine casks, many clearly branded with Southern Hemisphere insignia. A cold fury built in the pair of mates as they realized where much of this stash had come from. The Wizards’ stale honey nectar was immediately put down the drain.

Some hours later, the unlikely lads stumbled from the store-room giggling hysterically. Their full, rounded bellies were slightly distended, but nothing too out of the ordinary.

“We’ll see (hic) how they play (hic) without supplies” Wombie burped, dodging a starbeam of light. “Hehehehe”, replied Dropbear. He was well past speech. As Quack would so innocently say, they were pissed. Yet, their mission was a success. The Ship of Doom was now officially a dry ship.

Fourth Seal: Widespread Fury on the Ship of Doom

Dropbear was pale with the knowledge of what he was about to do to poor Pontius. He shook his head sadly, for Captain Pontius really didn’t deserve this. Yet, Dropbear had a job to do, and darn it, he would do it well! Pontius had made his bed, and now would have to sleep in it, figuratively speaking.

Dropbear knew he had little time before Ms Pilot came home from the always well-attended Ship of Doom Opera. Fortuitously, tonight’s opera was ‘Le nozze di Figaro’, which would make Ms Pilot susceptible to tonight’s real-life charade. Dropbear glanced at his watch: the fat lady was about to sing.

Through the fourth broken seal he crawled. Quickly, in the den of the Captain’s ship apartment (which looked somewhat like a cave), he turned the PC on and went to some unsavoury internet sites. Within minutes, messages were coming through, misleadingly titled: “Where were you last night”; “I missed you”; “I just got your message” and so on. Dropbear blushed at the related pictures. He left the PC on, with the ever-growing list of messages in easy sight of the hall.

From his backpack came a lipstick smeared pirate’s shirt in Pontius’ size, and he draped this across a den chair, together with a scrawled phone number on a beer coaster, with the name Mary-Lou next to it.

In the loungeroom, a copy of Germaine Greer’s latest (man-shafting, yet probably accurate) book was placed next to Ms Pilot’s knitting. On the coffee table, Dropbear left a 1950’s Home Economics textbook with particularly inflammatory passages underlined and ticked as if done so approvingly by Pontius.

Dropbear threw smelly socks on the floor. Next, he placed 2 champagne (or sparkling wine as it now had to be called since the French banned use of the name) glasses on the couch. The glasses were carefully placed to look as if they had been carelessly flung aside in a moment of passion. Finally, dirty dishes put in the sink, next to the open dishwasher, and a bottle of warm milk left out of the fridge on the kitchen table. The empty toilet-roll holder completed the tableau. Dropbear eyed the apartment: he knew with a cold certainty that this plan would succeed beyond all expectation.

As Dropbear scurried into the airvent he heard Ms Pilot enter the apartment, her high heels clicking on the metallic deck. A few minutes later her scream of… actually, very many screams of fury could be heard throughout the Ship of Doom. Dropbear nodded knowingly. There would be little PC access for Pontius in the dog house that night, or indeed, for many, many, many nights to come.

Drop Bear you have a devious, nasty mind! I am extremely jealous!

This is Mrs. Pontius. Boy you certainly are a cute bear. Blam!!!!!!!! Blam!!!!!!! Woooooooweeeeee honey, got me one!!!!!!!!! Boy look at all that lipstick on his paws. Hmmm this bear print all over Pontius's favorite shirt too.


Hi Honey I'm home. Oh my did you shoot that drop bear? Say what's all this Fosters all over the place? Phew, good thing we offloaded all the good stuff. No wonder that bear smells drunk. He's gotten into the engine degreaser. Oh well that would seem to end the speculation of what we were going to do with the schafer and the white cans with beer on the side of em. Oh and look at this snake... It looks drunk. Oh my, it just struck the electric outlet ZZZZZZZt that's gotta hurt. Oh my look at it go into the water. Hope it can swim.

Hi all. I posted the following on another thread. Thought I'd put it here too:

Rightieho. Much of the fun of the Boards for me, is interacting with players from around the world, and building an image of their character from their posts.
Most threads are game problem related. A few threads are Metaverse and Empire related. The latter are the threads where the chattier players go, and those are the ones I read. For me, there are 5 interesting (kooky?) threads: GROSS, the Fellowship, the Republic, the ANZACs and CariElf Fanclub. This may also say something about Aussies (who are generally kookier than kiwis I think). The MWC plays it pretty straight.
The Euros, Canadian Empire and the old behemoths don't interact.

This says to me that location based empires generally don't require much imagination to join, and don't engender much creativity to stay. What is the point of having empires if there is no positive, fun interaction?

My conclusion is that theme empires are where I want to hang out. Probably this is true of a few ANZACs too. The final destination and the process is unclear to me however.


OK. How do other ANZACs feel about theme based empires? Is it too much work? Can the ANZACs be re-created? Do we need to, if we are having fun? Would changing ANZACs to a non-location empire lead to more creativity for former ANZACs (who we hope would all transfer to a new theme based empire). I note that there are only about a dozen players who are still active in the ANZACs. Food for thought- although it is Friday!

Drop Bear, GET IN THE CHAT ROOM, umm.. NOW!

~SDC~

Ah, but the one thing that the great Drop Bear did not count upon is that Gerakken is known for his loyalty. His family understands that he may be away on long assignments and may have to consort with people engaging in questionable behaviour to complete the mission. This behaviour does cause a bit of friction with the family once in a while, but they understand that it is a Spymaster's lot.

But it was such a sad thing that the peace negotiations I had so well orchestrated were smashed by one wrong gesture. It is such a difficult situation when one false move or one wrong word can start such strife. Both sides need to let go. Right, wrong, consistent, hypocritical: these notions should be forgetton and left to the past. There should be a new beginning where the deeds of both sides are not tainted with the light of the past. Until, of course, one or both sides prove that they can only live in the past.

Great discussion - just thought I'd add a few thoughts. I must say theme based empires attract me too, although I think, with effort, that ANZAC has managed to bridge some of the apparent divide in the current theme/locality debate. My part in that was by deliberately choosing cultural icons (sheep, koala bears, boomerangs, wiggles, bananas-in-pyjamas) that would probably be recognised in other places - it's a cultural theme rather than a latitude and longitude. Drop Bear's literary work puts mine to shame, but again the cultural theme is still the core.

I think the attitude of ANZAC participants here actually reflects in considerable degree our cultural heritage: we're usually fairly laid back folks, tend to worry more about who bought the last beer rather than who's on top of the ladder (except in sports) and are generally prepared to go with the flow, although we do like to have a fair dinkum go and win if we can.

I don't like restricting our access to Aussies and Kiwis. I just don't. I want some process that will allow us to open our arms wider to those of similar attitudes. Yes, some of that has to do with making a better go of the Metaverse, as we are perpetually stuck in sixth place and frankly unlikely to go higher without fresh blood. I certainly remember Slitherin and I having a mini crisis of confidence when a few went on hols/moved house - it seemed like only 2-3 players were putting up scores. We have submitted 100-150 less games than all the other top empires, except the FOTR - and I give them a lot of credit for attracting a small group of highly skilled and committed players that keep submitting. In computing terms, Australia and NZ are SMALL markets, and I doubt we'll get the numbers up if we stay the way we are.

So....I'm for a change, although not sure what. I also think freshening up will be good for us and good for the Metaverse, and I'll try and think on some concepts for us to chew over.

Hurley and Wombie: thank you for your comments. Actually Wombie, your stories are my favourite on the boards. Got my inspiration for Dropbear directly from you of-course.

I too began to realise that restriction of membership to 2 small countries was a...restricting idea. I suppose you're right that we enjoy the cultural themes we have employed (to the bemusement of some) which should be common to many players.

Re size: It may be that sales of Galciv have peaked in Oz/NZ. I certainly don't see it in many stores, and haven't seen it reviewed. That will limit our future participation on the Metaverse in any meaningful way. Not a thing, but its still nice to sort of be close to the top 3.

Slitherin has the view that a form of animal motif empire would work, but I sorta doubt that many players would see that and be inspired. (Although I'm often wrong). The Commonwealth is a nice neutral, inoffensive concept. We have some top minds mulling this over so should come up with something!

Gerakken: I hope you remembered that previously you were married to that hot Elf Galadriel. (I suppose if you insist, I can just marry ya off to Ms Gerakken. However, no reply by you will be taken as permission.) I've never had you doing anything improper-like with your admirers, but Dropbear decided to use your strengths (handsome, suave, jaunty, dedicated) against you.

The disruption of the peace meeting was a master stroke: ya didn't see that coming I bet.

Then it's the bloody wrong concept, then! We should be as offensive as possible! I thought some more about alternatives, and dipped into my D&D stuff, as I'm a keen CRPG player. The trouble with animal motifs eg Druid is we start to look like the FOTR.

I must say I'm looking forward to the cinema release of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen here soon - and without necessarily wanting to do a straight ripoff, I think we need something that is able to attract anyone, from anywhere, and give them their wings to fly - roleplaying or otherwise. An interesting but non-committal label lets members go any way they want. LXG? I'll keep thinking!

And Chris: You can call me Wombie anytime
[Message Edited]

Yes, we know that the better themes are taken already and the best by yours truly.

But I have faith that you guys will surprise us.

Just you wait, wizard LOL
And hey - wasn't it you talking about dinosaurs in our Empire? That's another one we'll owe you

And Chris: thanks for at least reading the Canuck thread! Geez....undead or BRAINdead - how do they play the game so well?

That's why they are so good, Wombat. They're SINGLE-minded to their approach to everything.

Warty, Hurley, Slitherin, and/or Space Wombat, would one or all of you contact me at [email protected]? I have a question about your empire I'd prefer to remain private for now.

Wombie: I mean to say, after 4 or 5 days of nothing, the only response to your mission was:

"If only I understood the message of the story....Anyways, did anyone hear about the new Council of the Federation?"

It's a classic! Truly, if I didn't know better, I would've thought it was understated humour. I have never socially met any Canadians and I must ask whether Canucks truly are as "single-minded" as they seem (is that a euphemism?). Perhaps the very cold does something to the human ability to appreciate humour.

Drop Bear, no harm no foul. I'll take the elf babe. I was just giving you some insights into my Spymaster persona. Now, on to less serious matters:



Just never say "beer night" and "hockey game" in the same sentence around them. You will see some serious single-mindedness then! It is a sad thing when the engineers on the Doom are pouring more booze into the engines than down their own throats to get some extra power to keep ahead of the Canadian Ghost Ship. But running is our only choice right now, not until an effective counter-measure is developed. The horde of the unliving is too massive to destroy and their ship is practically indestructable. It may not look too spaceworthy with all those dents and holes, but that thing has more combat survivability than the mightiest ship known! Every superstitious spacer knows you can't kill a ghost ship.

Wow! We have a rare sight. One of the few times I have seen the boss being left speechless! LOL

Looks like you got a glitch in the Matrix, boss.

Hmm, Endorphins. There was an album called Endorphin realised by a Dapto, NSW band called Zambian Goat Herders. Not sure if their particular brand of very, very loud music will appeal to all (although I have some on the shelves )

Slitherin, are you another ancient like me? (If so, isn't it after you bed time over there in the West??? )

G'day Slitherin,
thanks for the congrats. It is just that playing gigantic takes a long time! Both in elapsed, and towards the end, computer time.
Now to other important matters! Hmm, a suitable name. I very much like W.T.F. but our brethern across the ocean (the large ocean over here on the right-hand side of the continent, not the Tasman) are very sensitive about such things being isinterpreted.
Maybe Endorphins is very appropriate because I can play them as MP3 will playing GC?
We shall see.

Speaking from the other side of that ocean, I like W.T.F. It got a guffaw outta me. Offensive? :notsure: [shrug] Borderline to me, but I think it'd be worth the risk.

Slitherin: It would be a sheltered person who hadn't read Harry Potter (or at least seen *shudder* the movies). I always think of snakes when I see your name, probably because He Who Must Not Be Named was in Slytherin and Harry almost put there because of his parselmouth ability. Anyways, the emblem of Slytherin is a snake.

From a fan site:

Who are the Slytherins? They're members of one of the four houses at Hogwarts, where Harry goes to school. Slytherins are chosen for their cunning and ambition, but unfortunately they have rather a bad press, and reputation as cheats. But we all know that's not true, right? So whether you have a soft spot for Draco, or you've always rather liked Tom... celebrate it! Because Slytherins are sexier.

Hmmm...