[Spoon-business] The Underground Society charter

[Glotmorf <nomicmorf@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is the updated Underground Society charter for
nweek 48.  Tunnelers players, please note the
following changes:

- discarding cards (part 3.3)
- standing orders (part 4)
- expected reasonable player response time (part 4)

Mr. A, please replace the Underground Society's
charter in its entirety with the following:

{{ _The Underground Society_

The member of longest duration in this society is
known as the Moderator. The Moderator can direct this
society to take any action e chooses, and can change
this society's charter at will. Players of the game
that contains this society ("The Main Game") can
request to join this society, and will become members
upon the approval of the Moderator. 

This society operates a game called Tunnelers. Members
of this society are permitted to play in Tunnelers,
subject to its rules. The Moderator will maintain a
publicly viewable list of playing members. 

The Moderator welcomes suggestions for the rules to
Tunnelers, and will implement them at eir choosing.
The Moderator has the last word on the interpretation
of any of Tunnelers' rules. 

The Moderator may maintain a most-current version of
the rules to Tunnelers on a separate website,
reconciling said version of the rules with this
charter on a periodic basis. The current most-current
version of the rules is maintained at
http://www.nomic.net/~dwhytock/currenttrs.html. 

Rules for Tunnelers:

1. Objective 

The objective of the game is to be the last surviving
mole. 

2. Components 

The components of Tunnelers are a board, a deck of
cards, and a mole for each player. 

2.1. The Board 

The board is an 8x8 square grid of locations, labelled
a-h horizontally and 1-8 vertically. Locations can be
either tunneled or un-tunneled. If a tunneled square
is not occupied for four turns, the square becomes
un-tunneled. [[ The tunnels aren't terribly stable,
and will collapse over time if they aren't shored up
by whoever is passing through. ]] Locations on the
board are considered adjacent if they share a
horizontal or vertical side. 

2.2 The Cards 

The deck of cards has 60 cards, each of which has one
of the following symbols on its face: a circle (O), a
triangle (T), a square (Q), a star (S) and an X (X).
The deck contains twelve of each card. 

2.3. Moles 

Each player in the game controls a mole. Each mole has
the following initial stats: 

1 maximum attack strength 
0 maximum defense strength 
2 maximum movement 
5 maximum health 

Stats can change during the game as a result of combat
or cards played. If a player temporarily changes eir
own mole's stat, the change is removed at the
beginning of eir next turn. If a player temporarily
changes another player's mole's stat, the change is
removed at the end of the other player's next turn. 

3. Play 

The game is played in turns, rotating among players.
During a player's turn, e can, depending on eir
available stats and cards, do any combination of the
following: move; play or discard cards; initiate
combat. 

3.1. Movement 

Moles move using their movement stat. It costs 1
movement point for a mole to enter a tunneled square,
and 2 movement points to enter an un-tunneled square
(tunneling it in the process). A mole cannot move off
the edge of the board or enter a square occupied by
another mole. 

A mole can be moved however many squares eir available
movement points permit. If a mole does not have
sufficient movement points to enter a square, e does
not enter the square. A mole's movement points are set
to eir movement stat at the beginning of the player's
turn, plus or minus the effects of cards played on the
mole. 

3.2. Playing Cards 

At the beginning of eir turn, a player draws cards
from the deck to bring eir hand total to 5. If there
are insufficient cards in the deck for this, the deck
and the set of discarded cards are randomized and form
a new deck. 

During eir turn e can play certain combinations of
cards, discarding them in the process, to generate
certain effects: 

OO - temporarily raise own mole's health points by 1;
or restore own mole's health points by 1, not to
exceed maximum health 
OOOO - raise own mole's maximum health by 1 
TT - temporarily raise own mole's attack by 1; or
temporarily lower adjacent mole's attack by 1 
TTTT - raise own mole's maximum attack by 1 
QQ - temporarily raise own mole's defense by 1; or
temporarily lower adjacent mole's defense by 1 
QQQQ - raise own mole's maximum defense by 1 
SS - temporarily raise own mole's movement by 1; or
temporarily lower adjacent mole's movement by 1 
SSSS - raise own mole's maximum movement by 1 
XO - teleport to a location 2 squares away 
XOT - teleport to a location 3 squares away 
XOTQ - teleport to a location 4 squares away 
XOTQS - teleport to a location 5 squares away 

If a mole is teleported to an un-tunneled square, the
square becomes tunneled and the mole loses one health
point. If a mole attempts to teleport to a square
occupied by another mole, both moles lose one health
point and the teleport fails. 

3.3 Discarding Cards 

During eir turn, a player may discard any or all of
the cards in eir hand. 

3.4. Combat 

If a mole is or becomes adjacent to another mole
during its turn, the mole can attack the other mole if
its player has at least one card. 

To attack the other mole, the player informs the
Moderator what 1 or 2 cards e will use. The defending
mole's player tells the Moderator what 1 card e will
use. The cards are revealed and compared; if any of
the attacker's cards match the defender's card, the
attack is successful. If the defender has no cards to
play, or chooses not to play a card, the attack is
automatically successful. Cards used in attack and
defense are discarded. 

A successful attack lowers the defender's health
points by the attacker's attack stat minus the
defender's defense stat. If the defender's defense
stat is greater than or equal to the attacker's attack
stat, the attack does no damage. 

If the defender's health points are reduced to zero or
less, the mole is dead, and is removed from the board.


4. Turn Procedure 

Players take turns in order by the player list
maintained by the Moderator. A player takes eir turn
by privately telling the Moderator what sets of cards
e wants to play and/or what squares e wants eir more
to attempt to enter. 

The Moderator privately responds with the results of
movement. If the mole encountered anything unexpected,
its movement stops at that point and the player is
asked what e wants to do. The Moderator and player
continue dialogue until the player does not wish to
take any more actions, the player is out of cards or
movememt points, or the player's mole is dead. 

A player may give the Moderator Standing Orders,
regarding what actions the player wishes to
automatically take, barring any other circumstance.
The Moderator can reject Standing Orders that are
excessively complex or lengthy. If no unexpected
events occur while executing Standing Orders, the
player's turn will automatically end afterwards. 

If a player does not submit a needed action (moving,
choosing a card to defend with, etc.) within a
reasonable amount of time (determined by the
Moderator, generally a checkpoint period), play will
proceed as if the player had chosen to perform no
action. 

At the end of a player's turn, the Moderator tells all
players of generally-known events -- a player's mole
is dead, sounds of fighting can be heard, etc. 

5. Joining a Game 

Members of this society may pay four points to the
society to become a player in a game of Tunnelers. If
a game is running at that time, the player's mole is
placed on the board at the Moderator's discretion, the
player receives five cards from the deck, and the
player's name is added to the player list just after
the last player to have completed a turn. If a game is
not running, the player's mole is placed randomly on
the board, and the player's name is added to the end
of the player list. 

The game cannot have more than 10 players at a time. 

6. Leaving a Game 

If a player's mole is killed, eir cards are discarded,
eir mole is removed from the board, two points are
paid from the society to the player whose mole did the
killing, and one point is paid from the society to the
Moderator. If only one mole is left on the board after
this, the society's points are paid to the remaining
player. 

If the Moderator leaves the society, the game ends and
the society's points are evenly distributed among the
remaining members. 

7. Starting a Game 

At the beginning of a game, the player list is
randomized and each player receives five cards.  Moles
are placed randomly on the board, with no two moles
initially adjacent to each other.

}} 


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