Since the last thread on this game has had almost half a year since the last post, and the game has suddenly gotten quite interesting for new players, I'm making a new thread.
Old Thread
Battlemaster is a sort of medieval low fantasy strategy game.
Everyone in it is either a noble or an adventurer.
I haven't messed with adventurers yet so go look at the wiki if you want a description of them. (adventurers while being able to do unique stuff have way less to do in the game)
As a noble you can own land in a kingdom or be appointed an estate on that land. There are levels above that but I've only been appointed a province so far.
There are a few different classes and sub classes of nobles as well. They mainly affect what kind of units you can recruit in your army or if you an even have an army at all and some other smaller details which I haven't bothered with.
I currently play only one character in the world of Dwilight which is a Serious Medieval Atmosphere world. Which means it's a bit more rp intensive. With all the sir's and my queens and such.
My noble is part of the realm Summerdale in Dwilight. We've got some nice rich provinces while having a tad too few nobles to really fill up all of them with estates.
And even then we started a war with one of our neighboring realms. And we trounced them in the huge battle we fought. Even though we were fewer in numbers our nobles were renowned enough to field larger individual armies. Which gave us an extra edge over them.
[removed battle example because I couldn't get the formatting to work]
As the old thread said,
Battlemaster is a roleplaying game where you play as either a noble or adventurer in a low-fantasy medieval world. You can do everything from fight in tournaments, battle monsters, engage in court intrigue, become lord of a fief, lead an army, fight
in an army, commit warcrimes, create your own religion, and even form your own kingdom (or
lead usurp an existing one). The sky is pretty much the limit with what you can do, provided you have the imagination and the writing skills. The game is heavily focused on writing: From letters and orders, to roleplays and even entire story arcs (sometimes with multiple players collaborating to write them).
There are two game modes, depending on whether you're playing an adventurer/priest or a noble.
As a noble, you command a retinue of soldiers in whatever realm you choose. The day is divided into two turns: Sunrise and Sunset. You get 8 hours to play with every turn, up to a maximum of 12, and you travel at the end of every turn. You start out as a knight serving under a random lord, and your role is generally to fight in the armies. By engaging in politics, you may eventually get a chance to govern a region of your own, lead an army, lead all of the armies, or even become a duke or a king. But to start with, you're a petty knight, and your options are kinda limited. Once you've played enough, you get the ability to become a courtier, a diplomat, a spy, a priest, or a noble cavalier. Alternatively, you can just say 'screw it' and pick the Hero class, which gives you various benefits and the admiration of everyone, but locks you in the class and makes dying a possibility. As a mentioned before, the possibilities are endless.
As an adventurer, you travel the land hunting monsters, gathering treasure, and generally living the life of a commoner. You can get up to 16 hours with which you can travel and do various actions over the day, you gain one hour every real-time hour. Your goal is generally to become a knight by earning a certain amount of prestige and gaining the favour of nobles by selling them precious artifacts. As a priests, things play somewhat similarly, except you're already a noble, and instead of hunting monsters, you preach your religion to the commoners (and nobles). Playing an adventurer or priest is very limited, compared to playing a noble, and is really only recommended for more experienced players. Because of that, you can't make one as your first character.
The game is divided into several servers, or Islands, with each island having their own realms and style:
East Island, Atamara, and the Far East are the standard islands. I don't really know much about them.
Beluaterra is the badass island, practically the closest you can get to PvE in this game. It's plagued with monsters, and realms are frequently crushed by monster invasions.
The Colonies is a slower island, only one turn per day, for those who don't want to commit too much time.
Dwilight is the roleplay Island (well, more roleplay than usual), and the one I play in. We take our titles seriously, and it's generally expected that you try and roleplay a medieval noble the best you can (unless you're a filthy commoner). If you like the idea of roleplaying a medieval person, with all the bloodshed and intrigue it entails, pick this Island.
So why would you want to play this game? To answer that, I will recount what has happened in Dwilight in the last year:
I play in Luria Nova, one of the largest realms in the island and very active (and newbie friendly, which is why I joined it). A year ago, we were fighting a bloody war with our arch-enemy D'Hara over a bunch of islands. We were alone, and they were allied with Barca, a large, active realm in the western island, Fissoa, a merchant republic to the south of us, and the Morek Empire, a bloody huge theocracy far to the north of us. Luckily for us, our military was badass and we were in a great position, so we didn't get crushed, but we were eventually driven off the islands due to starvation. A ceasefire was called, and it looked like the war was over.
And then a monster invasion ate the entire western island. In a matter of weeks, half the realms in Dwilight were destroyed. Meanwhile, in the eastern island, we were also dealing with the monsters, to slightly more success. I, a Vice-Marshal at the time, personally led the defense of the northern front, while my superior was out of commission, trying desperately to keep the endless hordes at bay with a battered army. We were hopelessly outnumbered, so we fought a fighting retreat, trying our best to slow them down. Eventually, we managed to drive them off, but our realm was in tatters.
And then the Barcans, who had been driven out of their lands, invaded us, along with all of their allies. To make a long story short, after losing half of our realm to monsters, we got invaded by every remaining realm in Dwilight. It seemed like a hopeless fight, but luckily for us many of the western refugees decided to join our realm, to the point that our realm contained half the players on the island. Through skill, determination, and just a little bit of luck, we drove them out of our lands and came out far stronger than we had ever been.
So now it was time for payback. We decided that Fissoa was the easiest target and I, now a Marshal of one of the three armies, lead two of our armies in a daring raid, burning and pillaging every inch of land from us to their capital. It worked really well, to the point where we practically burned one of their cities to the ground. In another invasion, we conquered half their realm and laid siege to their capital. This was a few weeks ago.
As of now, the Fissoans have officially surrendered, agreeing to split their realm in half and form a new realm for the refugees. The new realm would be a great place for new players, with plenty of opportunity for promotion and warfare.
Meanwhile, in the north, Morek is in the midst of a civil war, with the new realms Arnor, Helyg Derwydon, and Antiqualia tearing the empire to shreds. Many Lurians are flocking to Antiqualia to join the fun, many of them good players, and it should be a really good place for a new player to learn the game and take part in the creation of a new realm.
In Luria, we are celebrating our victory. There are at least two, perhaps three, tournaments planned in the near future, and we are already getting ready to invade our last enemies. Luria is also a good realm for a new player, though it's really crowded at the moment. There are a lot of helpful and active players, who would love to see new players in the game, myself included. I'm personally playing Theon Whitehart, and if you got any questions, I and a quite a few other players will gladly answer them. If you like the thought of playing in a 'safe' realm, that still has plenty of opportunity for fun and mayhem, join us (please
).
If you want to know more about the rules or mechanics of the game, check the
wiki. It contains pretty much everything you need to know about the game, though it's slightly outdated and the RP rules are quite a bit stricter than in the game. If you're still in doubt about anything, feel free to ask around the forums or just in the game.
TLDR: Like roleplaying a medieval noble/filthy peasant? Like emergent and dynamic gameplay with plenty of opportunity for intrigue? Like writing? Then this game is for you. Join Luria in the Dwilight server and have fun. Make sure to read the
wiki and feel free to ask around, if you're in doubt.
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Topic: Battlemaster: A browser-based medieval RPG (Read 2443 times)