08-19-2026, 12:30 PM
[ This is a project in progress - No time frame for completion has been determined ]
Project Begun: August 19th, 2026
Scope: For Organized Games of Hyborian War Only
Peace treaties in Hyborian War are a fairly straightforward concept, but simultaneously, they are a paradox, of sorts. Peace treaties can be a salvation for your kingdom, or a bane to your very existence. Players of Hyborian War both love and hate peace treaties, and many times at the same time. Hyborian War players love to use peace treaties against their enemies, even as they hate for their enemies to use peace treaties against them.
Many very experienced players of Hyborian War have long cried out for Reality Simulations, Inc. (RSI for short) to do something about peace treaties, to "fix" them because they swear that peace treaties are "broken." By the term "broken," what they actually mean is that peace treaties work exactly as they were originally designed to. They work so good, in fact, that players and their kingdoms invariably end up spending more time trapped in a "forced peace" than they spend fighting other kingdoms. And that frustrates them to no end!
"It's called Hyborian War they say, not Hyborian Peace," they say. Some players eventually become so frustrated with how peace treaties in Hyborian War work, that they end up dropping out of games of Hyborian War that they are in. Some players eventually quit playing Hyborian War, altogether, and not because they hate the game, itself, but rather, because they gradually become so frustrated by a single part of the game - peace treaties.
The purpose of this project, Peace Treaties: Alternatives to the Status Quo, is to explore alternatives to RSI's chosen method of implementing peace treaties in Hyborian War. Many players down through the years and decades since Hyborian War was first launched by RSI back in the 1980s era of play by mail gaming have long since persuaded themselves that RSI is never going to "fix" peace treaties, that RSI is never, ever going to tweak the programming of peace treaties, so basically, there is no hope for them to ever player a game of Hyborian War without always getting endlessly bogged down by peace treaties.
But this dilemma, even at its very worst, is actually a problem that is of the self-inflicted variety. Why? Because the true and actual reality is that Hyborian War players have power, already, to "fix" what they hate most about peace treaties. They always have, in fact. But in order to do so, it requires that players think outside of the box, and that they reach mutual agreement with their fellow players of the game to not bind nor limit themselves to continue enslaving themselves to the false doctrine that Hyborian War players are powerless to do anything about peace treaties.
The concept of Organized Games of Hyborian War has been around a very long time, by now. Players of Hyborian War long ago figured out that banding together and working together, they could form new games of Hyborian War faster than RSI could. They could play team games. They could pick their kingdoms or have their kingdoms assigned to them. All kinds of new variations on Hyborian War sprang to life! It just took a little imagination and some plain old cooperation. And none of it required any programming changes by RSI, at all. It was, in a nutshell, an act of self-empowerment.
And the same mindset and the same approach can also provide a host of different alternatives for players of Hyborian War, where the issue/problem of peace treaties is concerned. So, the core essence of what I propose, here, is not something new, per se. Rather, it's just a new twist on an old idea. And it's there, just waiting on the players of Hyborian War to grab it with gusto and to implement it!
But because Hyborian War players often times lack initiative, and because players would often rather complain than to get off their asses and fix a problem, or because they are often lazy, or because they often lack imagination, or because they won't invest energy or effort into solving problems, then they end up feeling stuck and being stuck. It's not RSI that's stuck. It's the players and the player community of Hyborian War, themselves, which inflict the very suffering of which they complain and lament upon themselves.
With that in mind, let us not turn our attention to some alternative possibilities for peace treaties in the PBM game, Hyborian War.
Project Begun: August 19th, 2026
Scope: For Organized Games of Hyborian War Only
Peace Treaties: Alternatives to the Status Quo
Peace treaties in Hyborian War are a fairly straightforward concept, but simultaneously, they are a paradox, of sorts. Peace treaties can be a salvation for your kingdom, or a bane to your very existence. Players of Hyborian War both love and hate peace treaties, and many times at the same time. Hyborian War players love to use peace treaties against their enemies, even as they hate for their enemies to use peace treaties against them.
Many very experienced players of Hyborian War have long cried out for Reality Simulations, Inc. (RSI for short) to do something about peace treaties, to "fix" them because they swear that peace treaties are "broken." By the term "broken," what they actually mean is that peace treaties work exactly as they were originally designed to. They work so good, in fact, that players and their kingdoms invariably end up spending more time trapped in a "forced peace" than they spend fighting other kingdoms. And that frustrates them to no end!
"It's called Hyborian War they say, not Hyborian Peace," they say. Some players eventually become so frustrated with how peace treaties in Hyborian War work, that they end up dropping out of games of Hyborian War that they are in. Some players eventually quit playing Hyborian War, altogether, and not because they hate the game, itself, but rather, because they gradually become so frustrated by a single part of the game - peace treaties.
The purpose of this project, Peace Treaties: Alternatives to the Status Quo, is to explore alternatives to RSI's chosen method of implementing peace treaties in Hyborian War. Many players down through the years and decades since Hyborian War was first launched by RSI back in the 1980s era of play by mail gaming have long since persuaded themselves that RSI is never going to "fix" peace treaties, that RSI is never, ever going to tweak the programming of peace treaties, so basically, there is no hope for them to ever player a game of Hyborian War without always getting endlessly bogged down by peace treaties.
But this dilemma, even at its very worst, is actually a problem that is of the self-inflicted variety. Why? Because the true and actual reality is that Hyborian War players have power, already, to "fix" what they hate most about peace treaties. They always have, in fact. But in order to do so, it requires that players think outside of the box, and that they reach mutual agreement with their fellow players of the game to not bind nor limit themselves to continue enslaving themselves to the false doctrine that Hyborian War players are powerless to do anything about peace treaties.
The concept of Organized Games of Hyborian War has been around a very long time, by now. Players of Hyborian War long ago figured out that banding together and working together, they could form new games of Hyborian War faster than RSI could. They could play team games. They could pick their kingdoms or have their kingdoms assigned to them. All kinds of new variations on Hyborian War sprang to life! It just took a little imagination and some plain old cooperation. And none of it required any programming changes by RSI, at all. It was, in a nutshell, an act of self-empowerment.
And the same mindset and the same approach can also provide a host of different alternatives for players of Hyborian War, where the issue/problem of peace treaties is concerned. So, the core essence of what I propose, here, is not something new, per se. Rather, it's just a new twist on an old idea. And it's there, just waiting on the players of Hyborian War to grab it with gusto and to implement it!
But because Hyborian War players often times lack initiative, and because players would often rather complain than to get off their asses and fix a problem, or because they are often lazy, or because they often lack imagination, or because they won't invest energy or effort into solving problems, then they end up feeling stuck and being stuck. It's not RSI that's stuck. It's the players and the player community of Hyborian War, themselves, which inflict the very suffering of which they complain and lament upon themselves.
With that in mind, let us not turn our attention to some alternative possibilities for peace treaties in the PBM game, Hyborian War.
[ To Be Continued ]