Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea

Hear Rameses’ Tell How He Saved Egypt from the Sea Peoples

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For those interested, here is a cross-post from Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea and Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East Co-Designer Mark McLaughlin’s blog where he shares an audio recording of the account from Pharoh Rameses III describing his victory over the Sea Peoples. In this article, Mark also discusses the Sea Peoples as […]

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Designer Blogs, Inside the Game as History

Optional Cultural Development Tracks for Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea (ACIS) and Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME)

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Introduction: By Game Developer, Fred Schachter – Players desiring a bit more complexity to their games of ACIS and/or ACME (once published, of course) in exchange for adding development of culture to their respective Civilizations should appreciate this offering by designers Chris and Mark. This responds to some ACIS players lamenting the game’s absence of a

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Designer Blogs

Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea (& Mark McLaughlin) at TotalCon

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For the first time in my 40+ years of game design I was invited to a convention as an Industry Guest – all expenses paid (they even gave me food and beer). I had never been to TotalCon, even though I live in New England and it is 90 minutes from home. Thanks to podcaster Jonathan Reinhart,

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Convention Report

A Little Less Chaos; A Little More Planning: Optional Rules to Calm the Waters in Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea

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Introduction by ACIS Developer Fred Schachter: The Designers, Mark McLaughlin and Chris Vorder Bruegge, as well as myself, would like as many of our fellow hobbyists as possible to enjoy playing ACIS. We appreciate some gamers sharing how they’ve mitigated the game’s chaos through a variety of house rules and it is grand learning how

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Designer Blogs, Scenarios/Variants

Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East Design Background and Differences from Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea Part 4 of 4: The “Real History” Behind the Game

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Introduction Part 1 of this series provided General Background regarding GMT’s upcoming Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME). Part 2, Playing Your Role, covered a recommended player attitude when engaged in a game of ACME to best get into the spirit of the game and have a grand fun time. Part 3 addressed how ACME

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Designer Blogs

Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East Design Background and Differences from Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea Part 3: Differences Between ACME and ACIS

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Introduction by Fred Schachter: Part 1 of this series provided General Background regarding GMT’s upcoming Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME).  Part 2 covered a recommended player attitude when engaged in a game of ACME (to best get into the spirit of the game and have a grand fun time): Playing Your Role. This

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Designer Blogs

Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East Design Background and Differences from Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea Part 2: Playing Your Role

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Introduction by Fred Schachter: Part 1 of this series provided General Background regarding GMT’s upcoming Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME). Now that the stage has begun being set; how should players’ attitude be when they consider playing ACME? We all assume a role when playing a game and this installment conveys what perspective an

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Designer Blogs

Any Fool Can Build an Empire – It Takes a Great Ruler to Keep It

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or Why spend your precious game time researching pottery when you can defend an empire? There are no shortage of civilization building games out there. Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea, however, is MORE than just another Civilization BUILDING game – it is a Civilization SURVIVAL game – and one with an elegantly built-in, if subtle,

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Designer Blogs

Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East Design Background and Differences from Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea Part 1: General Background

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Introduction by Fred Schachter: I’m having a Game Developer’s blast working with Designers Chris Vorder Bruegge and Mark McLaughlin on Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea (ACIS)’s successor, Ancient Civilizations of the Middle East (ACME… yeah, we’re aware of the Coyote/Road Runner cartoon alliteration, seems worth a guffaw or two, eh?). The purpose of this

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Designer Blogs

Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea: As Short or As Long a Game as You Wish to Make It

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Recommended Parameters for Short, Standard, Extended, and Campaign ACIS Games As noted on page 55 of the Ancient Civilizations of the Inner Sea Playbook, players can choose the length of their game. Players need not play all four Epochs nor commence play with Epoch I (to enable experiencing Epoch IV’s “Imperial Rome”). Any game of any length

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Designer Blogs
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