I have to ask, what -is- the purpose of the Zuma? They're too powerful to provide meaningful conflict -- if you manage to hit a nerve, you might as well keel over and accept whatever demands the Zuma might ask for and save yourself the trouble of trying to fight against them. Meaningful conflict means that the two sides in the aforementioned conflict have a chance at winning; this is not true for the Zuma. So, what exactly does the Zuma add to the game, aside from being a win button?
Or if the Zuma stop playing intriguemaster,
These are the best two quotes about the Zuma, so far.
The problem is that the people on the receiving end of the Zuma wrath are ALWAYS going to feel like they got screwed over exactly because the Zuma are GM played and have options and powers unavailable to normal players.
My character Kerwin recently lost his Kingdom, Eston, on Atamara in a hugely pivotal war for the island. It sucked. I wasn't happy about it. I disliked the direction the island was going and I hated that we lost the war.
But I knew it was fair and it felt fair. Because I was playing against a bunch of players who were working with the same equipment I had.
The Zuma don't. They play with tools I don't have. And the fact that they play so secretive and play favorites makes it even worse. They play on the intrigue level of some of the BM's biggest politckers and players and possess a massive, crushing army to go with it.
It would be like handing Chenier or Vellos or Ironsides 60,000 CS to push around in a realm made up of only themselves to play politics with the world. And when Chenier stomped on your realm while all you could do was sit and watch all he said in explanation was "Oh, sorry, you just didn't intrigue enough."
It is ALWAYS going to feel like being screwed over by those who are suffering from it and the victors ALWAYS sit around and just say "Sorry, brah. Guess you didn't hear about secret conversation X and secret event Y and secret individual Z. Play the game better."
I also want to say that the fact that this caused the player of the Scarlett family to pause Quintus is a damn shame, cause he's a great player to have around. Big loss for Dwilight and specifically the Maroccidens.
