The Next Bad Company Game (Patreon)

After looking around for a survival game that would suit the collective I've settle on ATLAS as our next adventure. 

It's a game of pirates, base-building and sea monsters, as is so often the case these days. We'll be playing on a private server with a custom rule-set to (hopefully) ensure maximum fun and minimum down time.

I'll put up my first episode on Friday, with a live stream on Saturday July 20th to celebrate the start of the multiplayer adventure. 

This is your open invitation to join the adventure. It's not inexpensive on Steam (sorry for missing the sale) but you may be able to find it cheaper on your personal choice of reputable key seller. It's likely we'll be spending 1 month minimum in the game, so there's no need to join right away. 

The Rules

Players will be split into two groups: The Civilised and The Pirates. The Pirates will have 1 member for every 10 Civilised members on the server (minimum 3).

The Civilised Company will endeavour to tame the frontier by building a large port and town on an island to be decided. 

The Pirates will be pirates, harassing the Civilised town and people frequently.

PVP will be enabled on the server. The Pirates may attack anyone at any time simply because they're pirates. The Civilised may not instigate PVP - unless it is against a known pirate.

The Pirates will be considered eliminated when the totem pole in the middle of their hidden lair is destroyed, at which point they will rejoin society and new Pirates selected.

Pirates are free to destroy buildings, steal, murder, loot, pillage and all that business however they should do so with a code of honour. Initiating combat against the same player repeatedly isn't honourable. Obviously, there's a grey area here. If the player ends up skirting the pirate island frequently, they can't be expected to ignore the incursion. 

Basically, Pirates should not be griefers and should instead look to plunder and harass. Raising the civilised city to the ground... excessive. Taking out a building or two and knocking holes in some others... dandy. 

If an adventure to take on the kraken, dig up treasure, seek out new life forms and new civilisations is planned, the Pirates and Civilised can team up with no issue. 

The Civilised Company may not seek to eliminate the Pirates until there has been a Pirate attack on the Civilised Settlement. After that point, the Pirates are fair game. Ship to ship combat does not count as an attack on the settlement.

The Pirates should use black sails. The Civilised, any colour other than black.

The Not Rules, But Seriously You Should Probably Do This Section

It will not be possible to ensure that every player gets the exact same amount of time in the game. The temptation for those with a large amount of play time available will be to grind like mad - this can lead to a massive disparity in XP level and progress for the players who have other commitments. That is not a good thing.

To counter this, and it will be necessary to do so, I first ask that if you find yourself surging ahead of the average in levels (if you're playing 3+ hours for several days in a row, this is you) don't stick around on the server when nobody else is around. Remember: you get to be a weak underpowered character only once, when you've completed the grind there's only the end-game left (and endgames always suck, always). Slow down. Go easy. Let people catch up a bit. You should also try to help others to level quicker - harvest materials for them, give them cover while hunting. If they catch up, you can grind away again

If the skill disparity is severe I'll use the GM tools to give XP to those who are lagging behind. If several players are sprinting ahead of the pack I'll turn the server off outside of scheduled group sessions. Please don't make me do that.

It's not a competition. The Civilised group are here to build something awesome together, go on adventures and hunt down the Pirates.

Volunteers

You wanna be a pirate? Volunteer below. I strongly recommend the Pirates join the Bad Company Discord server. Please state the time of day you are likely to play, along with your time zone. I'll pick 3 who'll cover a reasonable chunk of time over the course of a day.

Any questions?

Yo-ho-ho etc.

-CF