I think this game has come to the end of its have come to the end of its life.
The game has always been based on Kingdom Building - with the adventure thread providing the opportunity to acquire more land for your holdings - or ways to fight off internal threats. Between you, you have cleared all of the Green Belt - that was the basis of Henry’s original Charter. Then you ‘civilised’ it. Players (past and present)in this game have ….
- Built a major city (Tusk), that is the equal to anything in Brevoy (Except New Steven)
- Built major towns and holdings (Aeris, Vallani estates)
- Started two new ‘independent’ strongholds - with Sunsmarch capable of growing fast.
- Protected the Wilderness of The Narlmarch - with Old Keep and Tatzleford and The Nature Reserve (which was formed around the wishes of some early players)
- Built Allies by supporting the Dwarf Diaspora and Eastern/Restov/Aldori ‘independence’
- Disrupted regional trade (V&A Shipping, and the Vallani Canals)
- Brokered some sort of peace with the Nomen Centaurs - as well as Lizard Folk, Kobolds and Fey.
- Started to resurrect a ‘Dead God’
- Started to bring Mivon, Restov and the Aldori closer together,
On a personal level, the characters who have been around longest have achieved great things, while those who have joined more recently, and well on the way to emulating them. For example …
- Midmarch and Tusk and are on a level with the holdings of some of the ‘Great’ Noble Houses
- V&A shipping can compete with the largest shipping organisations in Brevoy and The River Kingdoms. As a result, Adoven/Vik are (perhaps) the wealthiest individuals in the setting (everything else is based on family wealthy)
- Solanus (Location), Aeris (Metals) and Vallani (Canals) - are powerful houses with strategic influence.
- Andalon is one of the most influential clerics for miles around.
- Somewhere along the line, ‘secret’ drugs suppliers and information networks got started (surprised?)
In the background - Henry/Midmarch/DELEM have forged links with Restov, Lebeda, The Aldori, The Dwarves, the bandits of the Gronzi Forest and now the Medveyed. Much of that with your help, although you might not have realised it at the time :}
This isn’t an easy thing for me to do. The game started in March 2016, and for the last seven years has been a major part of my life - but now it is getting massive and impacting on the rest of my life. And, to be honest, I am starting to feel burnt-out - I don’t give you the attention you deserve, my management of adventures and the quality of my posting has dropped off, so the game often feels like ‘work’, rather than ‘pleasure’.
However, over the seven years the game has been running - I have seen some brilliant roleplaying - some of which has made me laugh and some of which has made me think. You have used my Campaign Rules in ways that I never imagined, many of which I thought were brilliant, and pushed me towards new ideas and solutions. You put me in positions where I had to look at new things, quite regularly - and I thank you all for that. It has helped to keep me on my toes and mentally active through some difficult times :}
If ever I run another game on RPoL, every single one of you will be welcome to join me.