Why RPCSS is better (RPCSS)

Communication

When you set up a new conflict plot line on most sims, there are a lot of people you have to contact to get them on board with the plot. Let's say you want to move an army into someone else's lands. You have to contact a game master, and someone has to contact the other land owner, and at some point, all the people living in the land, or who might know about it, all have to be contacted. Time zones, questions, metagame ... all of these are realistic challenges to over come.

RPCSS handles the communication FOR YOU ... simply issue a marching order, and the system will handle appropriate and fair notifications which avoids metagaming, accurate travel times, and any combat if your army runs into another army.

Dice Roles

While most sims handle player to player dice roles successfully -- the process gets a great deal more complex when armies start coming into play. It can be vast amount of work for game staff to co-ordinate the movements of many armies, generate initiative, check travel distances, calculate attack and defense values, and then roll dice to determine outcomes.

RPCSS doesn't need any staff to do this ... it handles all of it -- no staff required. Players simply submit their moves in RPCSS -- based on the in world RP -- and the game figures out who won and who needs to be notified once a week at end of turn.

Coming up with Ideas!

There are always a few of you that have an endless number of plot line ideas, but lets be honest, there are never enough of you to keep things going.

Because RPCSS handles all the various implications of new political moves it is also able to keep more players in the loop. This means that players who might not otherwise be "movers and shakers" can participate in the plot lines reactively. Their reactions are just as useful for shaping the plot line as those who came up with the dastardly deed in the first place.

And, for those who know that "driving plotlines" is not their skill set -- they no longer need to take a back seat or pass up a chance to be in the thick of things. RPCSS allows many more players to participate, simply by giving them a selection of plot line actions to react to and role-play with. Nor are they continually "left out of the loop" because they are not part of the main storyline crowd.

Doesn't replace role-play

I've been asked a few times, "Doesn't this replace role-play?". The answer is not really. Certainly, a group of people could join the sim, get a team in RPCSS and then never role-play and just play the game. Realistically, this hasn't ever happened. RPCSS is not interesting enough to play it by itself with out the added value of role-playing. Secondly, we track players time on sim, and if certain minimums are not met, the staff will step in an handle it.

Third, and most importantly ... RPCSS is impossible to win without allies and intel. Making allies and gaining intel really has to be done in-world and in role-play. The scale of "cheating" that would have to happen to circumvent this would be blatantly obvious to our staff team.

In-Character Leads are Accountable

RPCSS makes IC leads accountable for their activity. If they do not submit their orders they will be replaced. The combat dice allows players to be wounded so badly they loose their position. Getting a head requires leaders to do the roleplay with others, if they don't do the roleplay it will be very obvious to everyone.