Unlike g1, I am told that when the artifact is dropped [after
the player quits and melts into the ground], it cannot be explored
for, refound, and re-given away to another friend who might be
dropping out.
As for the issue of the disparity [sp?] between active and total
factions in play, I suggest that Rich may be very busy and probably hasn't
had the opportunity to go through and "drop" those players
who have simply stopped submitting turns [and payments]. When he
has the time, the numbers will probably converge somewhat :^)
Either that <wicked grin!> or these "shadow factions" are, in
reality, NP farms for some evil empire which has found a loophole
in the rules, and is mercilessly exploiting it. {Using my earlier
example, maybe the "dummy" faction drops the artifact instead of
quitting...the "farmer" explores until he finds it again, hands
it off and harvests another NP...don't know of anyone who has tried
it, but it shouldn't work}
Jim
>Although that would be cheating, it's not so important these days,
>since gold, stone, and wood are easy to come by, and you can't
>transfer NPs in any useful way in g2.
>
>-- g
>
>