A Tale in the Desert

          Info taken from www.ataleinthedesert.com

This is a new online game which is based more round strategy and
city building rather than pure RPGing and brute force. I've
started downloading the necessary files (58 meg so could take a
while!) and am very tempted to try it. I'll let you know how I get
on. In the meantime here is some info from their site ... Sue

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The objective of A Tale in the Desert is to build the ideal
civilization by perfecting the Seven Disciplines of Man.

Each discipline is unique. To perfect Art, you must create works
of genuine beauty for your fellow players to judge. To perfect
Leadership, you must wisely govern your fellow players. To advance
in Conflict, you must master the duel, a test of wits, not
strength. To advance Architecture, you must build monuments that
tower over your fellow players. To progress in Worship, teams of
players must master beautiful but complex rituals. To progress in
The Human Body, you must maximize your strength and endurance. And
to achieve perfect Thought, you must master the sphinx's riddles.

Unfortunately, perfecting the seven disciplines will not be easy.
An Evil Stranger is at work, trying to corrupt the Egyptians and
turn them against themselves.

The outcome of the game depends solely on the players. The players
build their own cities, they choose their own leaders, and they
must meet the stranger's challenges. If they can organize
themselves and negotiate for what they need, Egypt will flourish.

                A Tale in the Desert --- FAQ

What kind of game is A Tale in the Desert?

It's a radically different massively multiplayer role-playing
game.  It contains no combat: no monsters, no player-killers, no
swords or armor. Your character advances by completing,
participating in, or leading large projects. Negotiation and
politics play a very large role. The game has a plot that unfolds
in response to player actions, and when the story is over, the
game ends.

Really? No combat?

Yes, really. That's not to say that the game is non-violent -
there are some quite disturbing things that happen once the story
begins to unfold. There are also plenty of ways to get into
conflicts with your fellow players. Read on...

So do you have stats? An Inventory?

Yes. Characters have vital statistics, levels, skills, and an
inventory. Also, characters are able to create functional
buildings within the game world. Some of these buildings are used
like tools, others like factories, training centers, markets, or
storage areas.

What are these "projects" that you work on?

The ancient Egyptians wrote about Seven Disciplines of Man:
Leadership, Thought, The Human Body, Architecture, Worship,
Conflict, and Art & Music. Challenges each fall within one of
these seven disciplines. Here are a few of the challenges...

Leadership: The challenge of Trust. As in Know who to trust. To
complete this challenge, a player must bury a significant amount
of gold in the deep desert, and then get 1 mile away from it.
Next, he must reveal the location to ten trusted friends, and
allow 24 hours to pass. After the time has passed, he can retrieve
the treasure. If the treasure has been stolen, the player loses
the gold and fails the test. There is no penalty for the thief.

A difficult test within the discipline of Art & Music is called
Fireworks. You must gather, make, or trade for various resins and
alchemical supplies, and then assemble them at a laboratory. The
timing and combinations for igniting the components is left to the
player. Each night a fireworks contest is held, and all citizens
who have gathered to watch are allowed to vote. The winner of the
contest has completed the Fireworks challenge.

A test within Worship is Ritual: participate in the silent sun
ritual.  This consists of co-ordinating forty people in an
elaborate sequence of gestures, prayers, and movements. The
sequence must be choreographed perfectly, and there must be
absolute silence (no chatting) during the ritual.

Are players limited to a single discipline?

No, all challenges are available to all players. Some challenges
require days of planning, and may take several tries to be
successful. It's essentially impossible for a single player to
complete all forty-nine challenges within the one-year time span
over which the story unfolds.

Once you have accomplished all seven challenges in a discipline,
is that it?

Once you have attained level seven within, say, Architecture, you
have mastered the discipline. Only masters of architecture are
able to complete the ultimate goal within the discipline:
Building the monument of Architecture. Once a monument gets built,
the society has perfected the discipline, and the game world
changes in a significant way. When all seven disciplines have been
perfected... well, we won't give away the ending.

How does politics fit in to the game world?

Players are able to go to the Great University of Leadership, and
create a petition. Petitions are proposals to change the rules of
the game in some way, and are written in English. The player who
creates a petition must then gather 1000 signatures from other
players. This signature gathering effort can be co- operative -
it's possible to make copies of a petition, and share the work.
Once 1000 signatures are gathered and turned in to the Great
University of Leadership, a vote is automatically triggered. Votes
last 24 hours. If a majority of players vote in favor of a law,
eGenesis will have a programmer change the rules of the game
on-the-fly. Our technology allows us to modify the game rules
without bringing down the servers or interrupting game play. We
ultimately have veto power over laws - for instance, if a player
proposes a "law" that says lead can be turned into gold by
clicking on it three times, or otherwise violates the basic
physics of the world, we will veto it. However, laws prohibiting
or compelling other players to act a certain way, with penalties
spelled out are fair game. We expect that not all laws proposed
will be for the greater good...

Did you say the game has plot, with a beginning, a middle, and an
end?

Absolutely - every good RPG has a story that unfolds. As the
players make progress towards the seven disciplines, these
advances trigger certain events. These events must be dealt with
by the players. The game will unfold differently depending on how
the players react to these events. In time, Egyptian society will

conquer the challenges and master the seven disciplines, and the
game will be over. And yes, when it's over, it's over.

Where can we learn more details?

We have given many interviews to various gaming-related web-
sites. They contain a lot of detailed information.












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