THE AVALON TIMES
1st Edition
November 1st 1997
A tri-monthly newspaper for regular, irregular, past and future
Avalonians.
On the Web:
www.avalon-rpg.com
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The newspaper contains five sections covering different aspects of
the land's recent developments.
Section Contents
I Welcome to the first edition of The Avalon Times
II Avalon Current Political and Social Climate
III Recent Additions to the Game
IV Planned Additions to the Game
V Accessing Avalon and Reducing Lag
VI Avalon's Web Site and Java Client
VII Business Opportunities with Avalon
Acknowledgements to all those who have contributed opinion and information
for this newspaper. If you have any comments about this or questions about
Avalon e-mail us at support@avalon.co.uk.
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SECTION I Welcome
Welcome to this, the first edition of Avalon Times. Future editions are
likely to be more weighty with a number of contributors. Remember to keep
your e-mail address up to date on Avalon by registering with up-to-date
details. You will find a copy of this newsletter on our web site
(www.avalon-rpg.com) and as time goes by, past editions will all be kept
there as an ongoing record.
If you don't want to receive this document via e-mail then all you need to
do is let us know, including REMOVE in the subject heading and you won't
see this again.
Well, good reading and we hope you enjoy what's here.
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SECTION II Current Affairs
- As soon as the Gods lifted their ban on open warfare in the land,
Mercinae mustered a legion, equipped it and led it across the land on a
well planned raid in Thakria. The Mercinaens plundered some of Thakria's
ore stores and made away with their potato reserves while the Thakrians,
for the most part, looked on helplessly. Were it not for the bravery of
Kylan in chasing off the leader of the Mercinaen legion, the damage would
have been far worse.
- Another Mercinaen raid against the old enemy took place a short while
later, this time a large force. This time no-one in Thakria had authority
to lead troops in defence and it was up to the likes of Eskevar, an
apprentice Thief, to thwart the leaders of the invading force. Though the
thief was slain many times and paid a heavy price for his deeds, Thakria's
resources were saved.
- There have been minor skirmishes involving the Brigands, Artisans, and
troops of Parrius, but no large-scale war has yet broken out in the
continent. Not yet. Guilds now have their own capacity to raise armies
independently to cities.
- Here is a list of all those public, active guilds together with their
guildhead and patron deity. Guildhead is such an important position in the
land, especially as guilds are more autonomous and independent than ever.
Guild Name ^ Guildhead ^ Patron Deity
---------- --------- ------------
Knights Guild ^ Trell ^ Apollo, the god of light
Mages Guild ^ Fredegar ^ Apollo, the god of light
Sorcerers Guild ^ Rohan ^ Lazarus, the god of pain
Animists Guild ^ Taliesin ^ Aldaron, the god of life
Rangers Guild ^ Lilandrin ^ Maedhros Allendil, the Hunter
Astrologers Guild ^ Mercy ^ Orthwein, the god of fate
Brigands Guild ^ Sirrus ^ Andromeda, the goddess of dreams
Seers Guild ^ Ingens ^ Orthwein, the god of fate
Alchemists Guild ^ Grundy ^ Rhadamanthys, the god of compassion
Artisans Guild ^ Catt ^ Apollo, the god of light
Bards Guild ^ Culinane ^ Apollo, the god of light
Loremasters Guild ^ Spyder ^ Annihilus, the god of doom
Cavaliers Guild ^ Kylan ^ Lazarus, the god of pain
Enchanters Guild ^ Katherine ^ Maedhros Allendil, the Hunter
Warlocks Guild ^ Blaatand ^ Lazarus, the god of pain
Wizards Guild ^ Amygdala ^ Andromeda, the goddess of dreams
Paladins Guild ^ Guido ^ Andromeda, the goddess of dreams
Rogues Guild ^ Regor ^ Maedhros Allendil, the Hunter
Mystics Guild ^ Saphir ^ Apollo, the god of light
Bandits Guild ^ Kronok ^ Lazarus, the god of pain
Warriors Guild ^ Conan ^ No Patron
Craftmasters Guild^ Warfarin ^ Andromeda, the goddess of dreams
- On the 25th of Midsummer, in the year 958, the Guild of Warriors was
reformed in Parrius by Conan of Old. He was the original founder of the
guild, almost a century earlier (in Avalon time) recently returned to see
the guild reborn.
- Here are the hierarchies of the four major cities in Avalon at time of
writing, in the summer of the 958th year after the Divine War.
- Mercinae has Lilandrin, Elmar, Catt, Allanon, Katherine and Trell as its
barons. Its government is led by Allanon as Prince, with Elmar as
Chancellor and Lilandrin as the Minister of State. The Trade Ministry is
run by Catt, while the Minister for Justice is Trell of the Knights. The
Foreign Minister is Culinane the Bard, the Minister of Public Relations is
Rudi, the Mage. Last, but not least, the Field Marshall of Mercinae's
legions of the sun is Sturge.
- Thakria has Panaideos, Serenia, Kronok, Plaman, Kylan and Spyder as its
barony. The Barony is united in its recognition of Panaideos' pre-eminence
among the citizen and he is Prince of Thakria. The Chancellor of Thakria
is the rarely seen Taz, while the Ministries of State, Trade and Public
Relations are held by Zenichiro, Plaman and Serenia respectively. The
Justice Ministries is ruled by Kronok, who also holds the rank of Minister
for Foreign Affairs. Finally, the Field Marshall is Darnabus the Dwarf.
- Parrius is watched over by the gods and has no Prince or Barony. Its
government is more strictly bound than the others to honour the ideals of
the city's founding. The most prominent member of Parrius' government is
Mercy the Astrologer. She controls both the State and Trade Ministries.
Procyon, the ancient artisan, is the Chancellor and figurehead of the
city's government, while the Foreign Affairs ministry is currently in the
hands of Weasal of the Warriors. No other government positions have been
given out. Parrius is still rebuilding after the Parrian Exodus to
Mercinae of its government and people under threat of invasion from the
Thakrians.
- Springdale was built from a mere village a century ago by the divine
guidance of Andromeda, goddess of dreams. Now it is a major city, a match
for any in the land. The Barony is made up of Orielle, Duke Sirrus, Sir
Jasteron, Guido Andolini, and Ghandarin the Wizard. The chancellor of
Springdale both now and for as long as most can remember is Sirrus. The
State and Trade ministries are controlled by Orielle of the Craftmasters
Guild. The Field Marshall is presently Sir Jasteron, while Jupiter, Aryca
and Amygdala hold the Justice, Public Relations and Foreign Affairs
ministries under their sway. The illustrious Prince of Springdale is Don
Guido Andolini of the Paladins Guild.
- Avalon's greatest events are its ordinations, these are so rare and see
the rising of a player from mortal status to join the ranks of the Gods.
There have been only a handful of ordinations over the past few years,
only the greatest of players achieve it. It is the goal of almost all of
the mortals but so competitive, so hard to achieve. To determine those
worthy of contending for the final ordination quest are fourteen gem
quests, quests of various type (some involving combat, some exploration,
some speed of thought, some perseverence) competed for by large numbers of
mortals. The winners of the fourteen gem quests contend in the final
ordination for the fifteenth gem, the amethyst of time, which holds the
power to turn a mortal into a god. Thus far there have been three gem
quests; the divine sapphire, the moonstone and the coral. The sapphire
quest lasted for twenty four hours and was won by Haplo of the Paladins
Guild, his greatest achievement in the land. The other two gems were won
by Panaideos of the Sorcerers Guild, Prince of the city of Thakria. In
recent times he has been the singlemost powerful player and is feared by
most of his peers.
==========================================================================
SECTION III Recent Additions
Here's a summary of the more recent additions to Avalon which everybody
should be aware of.
- Pacifism has been added to cater for those who wish to opt out entirely
from the aggressive, openly competitive side of the land. Pacifists have
protection from violent attack and will be free to explore and quest to
their hearts content without finding themselves fodder for some of the
more belligerent players.
- Bloodlust has been altered - the purpose of bloodlust is to restrict
violence and aggression between players of unreasonably differing skills.
For example, a high-level well skilled player would easily defeat a
low-level apprentice. There would be no challenge in the fight. So
bloodlust is a gauge of how violent a player is, it is increased by
violence or aggression against other players of smaller skills and as it
goes up, freedom to be aggressive towards the smaller skilled players is
restricted. Eventually the bigger player and the smaller player will
simply not be able to fight.
- Commodities in the land are entirely collected via realistic means, for
example you can mine for silver, pan for gold, milk cows, grow gardens of
fruit, fields of wheat... economics in Avalon isn't simple, the scope is
as diverse as in a real community.
- Parrius, the eastern city, has been repopulated to some extent. Though
it has lost all bar one of its guilds, it is building economically and
militarily under a hard-working government.
- Direct divine city patronage has been, for the most part, removed from
the great cities and mortals are in charge of their own destinies there.
- Cities are now run by larger governments. Barons control the appointment
of the Prince, who bestows ministries covering the major areas of city
government. Each minister can then take on aides from the populace.
- The position of Field Marshall is far more important now. He controls
the military of the city and his aides form the command structure for a
city's army.
- On an Avalon year by year basis (an Avalon year lasts two weeks
approximately) all of the exploits, deeds and quests accomplished by the
pacifists in the land are compared and the most successful questor is
declared. Rewards are bestowed upon the victor by the Gods themselvs.
- The Avalon help system has been updated and is a comprehensive source of
information about the land. In Avalon type HELP CONTENTS to see the table
of contents and how to use this resource.
- There are a number of new bulletin board sections, most importantly
sections for the latest Avalon news and a section for the Pacifists. The
news section should be read closely since every posting there gives
up-to-date information on the very latest additions. The Pacifists BB is
most used as a record of the most renowned pacifists in the land, on a
year by year basis.
- Warfare in Avalon has been re-introduced on a huge scale. Cities and
guilds have armies which they can use to wage war against one another, to
expand their influence about the land. Sieges can be laid against enemy
cities or to destroy guilds and their guildhouses. Buildings can be razed
to the ground (though it is no easy task to do so). Booty can be
plundered, strategy and tactics play an important role.
- The autonomy of guilds have been expanded greatly. They are now able to
make and store commodities, build up a military, expand their influence
and wage war. Though most of the guilds are within one of the major
cities, they remain independent groups, unpredictable and powers in their
own right.
- Guilds have two new positions; guild captain and guild quartermaster.
These can be held by a number of people at the same time. The captains of
a guild mirror the role of the Field Marshall in a city, they control,
lead and order the guild's military. The quartermasters are responsible
for a guild's possessions and commodities, their safe keeping and use.
- Many may remember the role of a city's sphere of influence, before it
was withdrawn from the game while the new warfare system was brought in.
Spheres of influence have now returned and all of the cities are vying to
expand in their neighbouring countryside.
- Avalon has a comprehensive system of internal macros or function keys.
These allow you to hold your commands with your Avalon character, they're
fast and reduce lag. They've recently been updated to hold targets, allow
delays, with superior editing freedom. You should contact us if you wish
to use the internal macros with your client. You'll find them so much
quicker and more reliable.
- The Thieves have been the first profession to enjoy the major expansion
of their skills and abilities. Isabella, the original Thief-town, is now
a focus for the Thieves Guild in Avalon.
==========================================================================
SECTION IV Future Additions
Avalon is always evolving, cities and guilds expanding one way or
being beaten back in others, skills growing with more abilities, greater
scope, the list goes on. Below we've highlighted a few specific additions
coming into Avalon over the next month or so. Hopefully you'll find them
interesting and enticing.
- Warfare will continue to be expanded in intricacy, terrains,
water-travelling, legion formations and such are all planned. Field
Marshalls and Guild Captains will need to become great tacticians and
strategists as the cities and guilds vie with one another for power.
- A wide variety of gambling halls and such are to make their presence
felt about the land. Card games like poker and blackjack, craps, roulette,
wheel of fortune, races, jousting, dog fights, to name but a few will be
showing their faces soon. All of Avalon's players are invited to suggest
games and events to be brought to life in the land.
- Theatres are to be constructed in some of the great cities for the
performance of great dramatic works. Not only will there be great works
drmatized from the continents outside Avalon, but also histories and
events of Avalon's past re-enacted. There will also be scope for the more
imaginative to pen their own works and have them performed.
- Coinage will be expanded greatly. Each city and guild will be able to
mint its own currency, exchange rates based on the values of these
currencies will be set up. Speculation will enter the land, counterfeiting
too, and much scope for political and economic dispute. To our knowledge,
no virtual economic system so close to reality has been implemented
before. It will be interesting to see how this addition pans out.
- All professions are invited to present suggestions and contribution for
the expansion of their skills and abilities. The Seers especially have
much growth ahead of them in the very near future.
==========================================================================
SECTION V Accessing Avalon
Avalon is accessed most commonly via our web site using your web browser
and JAVA. Once players become more accustomed to the game they tend to
switch to an independent client which will offer more features for the
experienced player (typically zMUD or Avplay Windows are used). We can
offer advice on which client to use, especially for non-Windows platforms.
E-mail us at support@avalon.co.uk with any questions you might have.
With the continued expansion of the internet, we've been aware for a while
that LAG has been an increasing problem for our players. In order to
minimize this and offer alternative routes for players to connect to
Avalon we have set up hubs at different points of the net. Often when one
route is overloaded, an alternative hub (which uses a different route) may
be relatively speedy. Avalon's main servers are sited in Washington DC at
avalon-rpg.com and at time of writing we have installed two new hubs, one
in Los Angeles, the other in London. These can be reached at
losangeles.avalon-rpg.com 8888 and london.avalon-rpg.com 33 respectively.
The numbers listed there are port numbers which must be included when you
use these alternative routes. It's worthwhile trying all of the hubs
whenever you experience problems, even if the hub doesn't appear to be the
closest one to your location - the internet is a curious beast and often
somebody in Florida can get a faster link by routing via London or LA
rather than going direct.
If you continue to experience unacceptable lag you should get in contact
with us (support@avalon.co.uk) and perhaps we can help. If you know how to
run a traceroute to investigate the state of your route to us, send us the
results, it'll help us suggest a solution.
Points of Presence (hubs):
Washington DC (Main) avalon-rpg.com 23 (207.153.200.8)
London (European) london.avalon-rpg.com 33
Los Angeles (WestUSA) losangeles.avalon-rpg.com 8888
We're researching and negotiating the addition of hubs in the following
locations: Miami, Singapore, Hong Kong, Sydney, Chicago, Toronto, Cape
Town, Tel Aviv, Rio de Janeiro and Helsinki. Anybody in one of these
locations who has any information they think might help us site our hub in
the best possible local position, please get in touch with us.
If you're in the United Kingdom the fastest way to play Avalon is often
via our direct modem links. To use these, dial 0645 250112 or 0171 723
7300, and at the login prompt type ibmpcav and you'll roll straight
through to us.
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SECTION VI Avalon's Web Site
We're on the verge of a major redesign and update of our web site. What
has already been completed is a new and much improved JAVA client for
playing Avalon. Any who have had problems previously (especially users of
America Online) should try the JAVA client again, they'll find it now
compatible with the AOL web browser.
Any of you who have any contributions for the new web site, specifically
events they've been involved with in Avalon, let us know. You can e-mail
genesis@avalon.co.uk with anything you might have.
In the past we've been less encouraging about user web sites, mostly
because they've tended to give out incorrect information (particularly on
skill use) which could mislead newer players.
However, many of you do wish to develop your own web sites with Avalon
related material so we are offering an official seal of approval which
will be awarded once your site has been checked over by us and any
incorrect or misleading facts eliminated. We do not wish to see 'spoiling'
information such as quest solutions or detailed information about specific
skills and their syntax. We'd also like a certain level of uniformity to
the way in which things are presented, and as such we have some suggested
guidelines which can be seen on www.avalon-rpg.com/guide.html. Various
links and icons which you are free to use can also be found here.
Avalon's web site is at www.avalon-rpg.com with a European mirror site at
www.avalon.co.uk.
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SECTION VII Business Opportunities
Avalon offers a number of business opportunities, mostly centred around
publicity and the World Wide Web.
- We are always interested in reciprocal advertising. Our web site is
popular and well-linked to the net (via search engines, advertising
banners, relevant sites).
- We are prepared to pay well for well positioned advertising, carrying of
one of Avalon's web banners. We have a number of very stylish banners
which would look good on any pages. Any player who places an Avalon banner
on their homepage, for instance, can apply for a free credit reward.
- Reviews or coverage in the press is both appreciated and rewarded
depending on the extent of the effort involved and coverage obtained.
- We are keen to discuss with any prominent, well-positioned, well-used
web sites the possibility of distributing access to Avalon via Java with
potential for both payment and ongoing royalty. These should be major
sites with thousands of regular hits.
- Contributions to Avalon in the form of fully-fleshed out ideas,
additions, creative work such as quests and events, are always appreciated
and may be rewarded.
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Thanks for reading!
