Ties of Blood PBM
<keywords content="pbm rpg, single character pbm, play by mail rpg, play-by-mail rpg, pbm role-playing game, pbm roleplaying game, fantasy intrigue pbm, ties of blood pbm, the Mandragora series pbm" />
At point I was quite an avid Play-by-mail gamer. These games are played by sending in turns by postal mail or email (PBeM). Inevitably, I decided to run a few games of my own as part of Nova Games (see the FAQ).
The first was Shadows Lengthen PBM, which has its own page. The second game I designed was Ties of Blood. Having learnt my lessons from Shadows Lengthen, I made this a more controlled game. However, despite planning everything so well the playtest never took off as few people took me up on the offer.
Both games are detailed in The Archive, with the relevant manuals and game materials available for download.
Ties of Blood was a more carefully planned game than Shadows Lengthen. I've given some thought to converting it to a board game, but I've not had the time yet. The original blurb is reproduced below.
Ties of Blood is a fantasy PBM game of politics and intrigue, "the Great Dance", in the island kingdom of Lonaraban, the home of the Mandragora. In Ties of Blood, players have the opportunity to take the leadership of the main political power bases of Lonaraban - the Imperial and Noble Houses that vie for power. A number of the game materials are available for download.
The objective of Ties of Blood is simple: to win the Imperial Throne of Lonaraban, by any means necessary. To become Empress will take skill, diplomacy, and cunning. The current Empress may be old, but misses very little and your Matriarchs (the leaders of your House) will need to use all their resources at their disposal to elevate the Head of the Noble House to this exalted position.
The only way to do this is to get the Three Hundred of the Shirr'haim to pass a motion of no confidence in the Empress, and thereby impeach her House. The Three Hundred comprise the Shirr'haim, which translates to human speech as "Place where items of great import are spoken of". Not only is this the name of the Senate, it is also the capital city: both are the same.
This game will feature a huge number of political manoeuvres (including dirty tricks such as blackmail, arson, inciting riots and outright warfare), a notoriety score used to define how long a house "can get away with it", rules for magic use in politics - including Dark magic!
Downloads
- Game manual for Ties of Blood.
- Wallpaper for the PC desktop.
