Historical and geographical context

[Sheddy]

As an aside to the game itself, I'm wondering if anybody can help give some extra historical and geographical context to the setting. One of the reasons I joined this forum game was to try and learn something new.

Although the game started in "1901" as the default for a Dippy game, I'm guessing that this isn't in fact historically accurate. The lands around the Great Lakes were not under control of nine Indian tribes in 1901 - were they? Should the historical setting actually be pre-Columbian, or at least pre-European settlements in this area? Is there any historical or archeological evidence for conflicts between the tribes featured in this game around this area at particular times?

Also many (most?) of the territory names are those subsequently given by European settlers. It would be interesting to have a complete list of the full territory names. Is one available? (Apologies if I've missed a link already given in the game background.) I've tried to work out what some of the names given only as abbreviations are, e.g. LCL = Lake St Clair, by using altases and online maps, but can't figure some of them out.

[drrnwrstlr]

http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/GreatLakes/positions.html
The site I got this variant off of came with a list of all the territories and their abbreviations to help you out with that. Also, the great lakes area wasn't controlled by Indians in 1901. That was partly why I started 01 instead of 1901. I didn't really know where to start, so I decided to not start in any specific year, but just in 01.

If you are wanting some more history and information on the tribes, check out this other site that I just found. It has ten pages of stuff to check out. I think that anyone who wants to know of the background behind this variant should definitely check it out: http://www.great-lakes.net/teach/history/native/native_1.html

[Sheddy]

Thanks for these. Good stuff.

[Pedros]

When this game eventually gets Archived I'll move this thread into a general topic in the sub-Forum. I think we ought to encourage more discussion about variants - context, like this one, but also strategy, strengths and weaknesses, etc. MR started it with World Dip way back, but it's never taken off.

[UpQuark]

I have seen some of the PM traffic on this since drrnwrstlr's return. It appears the current game has lost interest, in good part to the long unexpected break at a critical juncture.

There has also been some expression of support for the variant to be picked up by a different GM. I will volunteer to adopt this one if there is sufficient interest to restart, including fresh position bids.

I would look at some map improvements and so the earliest I could restart would be early August.

I look forward to expressions of interest in the meantime.

UpQuark