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.

Looking in through the lens of a newcomer, it has the feel of an epic tale, for sure!

Thank you, John, for the MANY WONDERFUL YEARS of adventure here through IC and OOC. And to everyone else who has taken part in their own special ways.

This has not only been my longest running RP campaign, but I can easily say my favorite as well. It has challenged me and allowed me to do things in way no other game has.

And the tales of re-inactments, annual birthday celebration games, and other aspects of life have been a good time as well. I wish you each and everyone the very best in life going forward unto infinity. And should you have need of my services, in game or out, feel free to give me a buzz.

Your friend,
The Mordane

Well firstly thank you for the hard work you have put into this game and all the hours of pleasure I have had for being involved.  It tells me a lot by how gutted I feel the game is ending.

Secondly thank you to all the other players, our PC's may not have always gotten along but I would be more than happy to play with any of you.

Cheers
Adam
aka Domitius

Oh ... hmm ... fair enough. As they say, all good things must come to an end eventually.

Has it really been seven years? Wow. Time really does fly when you are having fun. I am going to miss this wonderful game but I can totally understand it becoming too much to sustain indefinitely. Especially as characters start to reach higher levels, making adventures more complex to run, and the scale of kingdom building continues to grow exponentially ... LOL, I was just about to suggest sewers as the next district upgrade, too.  ;o)

All I can say is thank you for giving us such a wonderful opportunity for so long.

LOL - sewers would be VERY expensive ...

Closing this game will make a big hole in my life, but over the last year or so, (as Andalon says) the campaign side and the higher level adventures have kick into overdrive, and taking an inordinate amount of time.  However, I guess that in the next few weeks, I am going to find myself sitting around like a lemon, wondering what the hell I should do.

Just yesterday, we had some travellers set up camp on the playing field outside our house, and my wife mentioned that she envied them their freedom ... which started a thought experiment, as I worked out how we could afford to start living 'The Van Life'.  I would of course have to give up running games, if we did that -  and I realized that there was an element of relief in that thought.

Which made me think about the last year, and how I had (unsuccessfully)  been trying to find ways to reduce the time I spent on this game -  without any success.  I started this original post as a way of working through those thoughts -  and this is where it led.

I suspect that I will miss this game, and all of you players who have given me so much enjoyment, as much as any of you.  However, I am sure that it is the right thing for me to do.  It will give me a lot of time back, and force me to look at new projects -  some of which will (undoubtedly) be game related -  but will also leave space for other, more varied, activities.  And I need that.

I am sorry that I didn't come to this decision before I made you start work on this campaign round.  But sometimes these things happen suddenly :(

Wow. I've been with the game almost the full seven years (I took over the Adoven character) and it has been the single most game in RPoL that I have invested hours and hours of planning. Enjoyed every moment of it, too. This is one Hellnof a world you built, John. My congratulations. It's been an honor being allowed to play in your sandbox. And Ive had some golden moments with my fellow players as well.

I'm just glad I never invited Adoven's family in....buncha pirates would've thrown the whole realm into chaos.....

I didn't build it, you guys did. I might have facilitated it, but you guys built it  :)

I haven't been here from the start, but 5 years is still by far the longest game I've played so far. DM, thank you for a wonderful game. And thanks to everyone else as well for playing. Maybe we will see each other in some other game, eh? Cheers.

I was a relative late comer, but looking back at my RTJ, it appears I got four and a half years out of this game.     And so few rpol games even survive to four and a half months.

This one was a jewel in the rough, in a lot of ways.   It does take time and mental energy to facilitate a show like this, and I'm grateful to John for his through the years.

The player base was awesome, too.   There was no dead weight. It was obvious everyone who stayed really cared about the game.   And the different personalities were great. Even in times of friction. Or maybe especially then. ;)

I'll miss this one, but have zero regrets signing up.

Well, a bit of a shocker, really, and my last RPoL game is going the way of the dodo. :-(

I know that I'm quite new to the game (just about 3 years), but I must admit that I have enjoyed playing with those of you who Rana's had the pleasure of their company, and I've enjoyed the OOC threads of the other players' characters which I've read.

However, I suppose in some respects, I've been playing with all of you from the beginning of the game as John's computer is about 3 feet away from mine.  :-)  From before I joined the game, I heard tales about many of you and your adventures.

If he hasn't told you previously, John ran the Stolen Lands as a tabletop game for a small group of us and I have always pestered him to find out who had the pleasure of meeting up with the evil tree in the forest (Okay, it probably wasn't really evil, but it was a Scythe tree, I think, which managed to get two critical hits on my poor young sorceress, killing her quite successfully.)  I don't think any of the groups ever met that particular encounter in this game, much to my dismay!

Since John retired, you all have kept him going, through Covid and Lockdowns, you were there for him when I was at work; so thank you to each and every one of you for helping to keep John (mostly) sane.

Thanks to all of you for some lovely memories and, perhaps, I'll meet up with you in other games somewhere on RPoL.

Rana
(aka Ari)

Man...I guess all good things must come to an end, but I am sad.

I think I was in the second wave of folks to join the game; I just checked my initial RTJ and it was 14 Jan 2017.

From the day I joined, I have loved every aspect of this game. Of course the adventuring was fun, and I enjoyed all of the groups I have been a part of, but the Kingdom Building was what really sold me. I love how expansive it has been, how we were all able to do our own things and build a piece of the world for ourselves; something I've always wanted to do in a game but never had the opportunity to do.

So thank you very much for over six years of enjoyment!

Ari/Rana has been very supportive (even before she joined the game).  She never batted an eyebrow when I had six spreadsheets, two word documents, a couple of PDFs and about eight browser windows open - all on things for this game.   Nor when I brought a gaming spec PC⁽¹⁾ to cope (easily) with all of that crap at the same time.  :)

Most importantly, she never complained when, I said thing like  'Can't do the shopping yet, I need another 40 minutes to resolve this combat.'

As a player, she added a different element (as did all of you) to the game mix.  I am really fortunate to have a wife who games and understands my gaming need  :)


(1) - She got one too :)

Since this is closing down, a couple of questions if you don't mind.

1) what was the big bad in Candlemere?

2) were the Three Ladies Schools a cover for that Information network you mentioned?

In reply to Adoven Lodovka-Sud (msg # 14):

1). It changed since your first visit, from a clone of Foxglove manor, to a custom undead that involved a failed alchemical resurrection and a yellow musk creeper.

2) No. :)

Hmph. Don't know Foxglove Manor, but the combo BBEG sounds like a good challenge.

All good things come to an end ... and then come back in a failed alchemical resurrection !  <grrrins>

I've been lucky enough to have been gaming with our illustrious GM for ah, literally decades now, on both RPoL (and before that on PBW), and I can say with the confidence of experience that it's always a hell of a ride with him behind the DM screen.  For all JohnB worries about not always being able to give it his best, I find what he might call his worst a terribly high standard to live up to !

I've really enjoyed all the many, many roleplaying opportunities and the challenges of The Stolen Land, been in constant awe and disbelief at the mechanics of world-building and the work that it must be to look after all that.

Certainly gave us players a place to grow and explore our characters  - I've had an absolute ball of a time playing with or simply admiring from afar all the endless varied and wildly inventive people that populate this corner of the multiverse.

And I wouldn't worry ... the idea of revisiting Galinia is going to be too big a draw for to you to resist for too long !  Enjoy your break while you can !   <ROFL>
This message was last edited by the player at 06:20, Sat 10 June 2023.

@Adoven.   You will.

Ethankos, you are too kind, but thank you.  However, Galinia wouldn't work today.  That was built on cultural differences (not to mention the occasional PC bird one artefact)

However, there is a chance that I will have a new world in a year or two.  I've still got a new setting with Pirates,Colonisation, and cultural elements in mind.

However, if that gets off the ground, I will be looking fo other GMs to run the adventures - while I play with the setting. :)

Oh wow


I've looked back on my RTJ and its from all the way back in 2018 and its been a heck a journey.

I have a lot more I want to say but I can't really articulate it properly outside of Thankyou GM, it's been a hell of a road and I'm glad I had the chance to walk it.

Will post again when I can get my thoughts in order a little more.

 On the one hand, I had only just dedicated the hour or so needed to go through the campaign rules to work out what Vova was going to do with the town he's just acquired...

 ...on the other hand, I can't even imagine how much more work it had to be to do the writing and organising of said rules while also handling a mob of unreliable now-you-see-me-now-you-don't RPol players and panning through them for the odd golden nugget of consistent, long-term players.

 I've had a ton of fun with what little I got to do with Vova, and I certainly can't hold burnout against anyone. Thanks boss, and I'm only sorry it was all this hard on you.

If you want to still hear about those things ...

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