Orc In A Spacesuit on 7 Apr 2003 01:38:01 -0000


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Re: [spoon-discuss] Races 1: Mass 

On Saturday, April 5, 2003, at 03:11  PM, Orc In A Spacesuit wrote:
All right, here's the revisions to the way things are carried, giving everything a mass, and those who can carry a carrying capacity. It's written as if it were modifying the current ruleset, but it shouldn't be too hard to adjust for whatever proposals pass. 

I don't propose the following, as this is only for discussion:
{{__Carryable Objects and Mass__
In this proposal, the delimiters "{-{" and "}-}" are used to group multiple changes to a single rule. 

Create the following rule:
{{__Mass__
All carryable objects have the attribute Mass, which is a number. The default Mass is 5.
If an entity holds objects whose combined Mass are greater than 10 times eir Strength, e gets -X Speed, where X is the difference in 10 times eir Strength and the combined Mass of the objects. If an entity holds objects whose combied Mass is at least 20 times eir Strength, e may not board or disembark from an Airspeeder, catch or pick up any object, purchase any object that is moved into eir inventory upon purchasing, or enter the Grid. No entity may pick up, catch, Force Catch, Force Pull, Force Intercept or purchase any object if it would result in the entity holding objects with a combined mass greater than 25 times eir Strength. The previous two sentences takes precedence over any rule that permits any of those actions. 

What if an entity holds objects, but has no defined strength?
Good point. I'll set it to only affect things that have a Strength. Things that don't have a Strength have other rules, like an Airspeeder's Maximum Load. Or they could have no limit based on Mass.
Each Airspeeder has the attribute Maximum Load. If the total Mass of all objects within the Airspeeder, including objects held by players, then Airspeeder may not move. The previous sentence takes precedence over all rules that permit an Airspeeder to move. The default Maximum Load of an Airspeeder is 1000. [[Perhaps upgrades could improve this, and maybe upgrades could also weigh it down]].
I suppose under C++, at least, this would mean "if the total Mass of all objects within the Airspeeder, including objects held by players, is nonzero, then Airspeeder may not move." I rather suspect that's not the intent; if it is, then say it clearly. 

I meant to say, if that Mass is greater than the Maximum Load.
Gnomes in Gnome Bags have 0 Mass. This supercedes other effects that modify or dictate the mass of Gnomes in Gnome Bags.
Why bother with Gnome Bags at all? Is there any reason why anyone would ever want to take eir Gnomes out of eir Gnome Bag?
I would have no problems with getting rid of them either. But getting rid of them is not a part of this proposal.
Following is a list of Base Masses for different kinds of objects. An object's Mass is equal to this Base Mass plus the Mass of all objects that it contains, carries, or possesses. The default Base Mass is 5.
Note that this coming list lists Masses for objects that are nowhere defined to have Mass as an attribute - you declared that carryable objects have Mass, but nothing else. 

Oops.  Should be Grid Objects.


Any object with a Constitution: 10 times its Constitution
Any beverage: 1
Sledge-O-Matic: 40
Shield: 20
Ball of Wax: 2
Ball of Earwax: 2
Shears: 4
Sponge: 2 (Dry)
Sponge: 8 (Wet)
Towel: 3 (Dry)
Towel: 10 (Wet)
Athame: 15
Big Stick: 20
Pinball Gun: 15
Small Lump of Scrap Metal: 25
Large Lump of Scrap Metal: 70
Gnome: 10 [[Those in bags count as 0, see above]]
Football: 2
Bonus Box: 5
Ring: 1
Bread: 2
Olive: 1
Beer Can: 1
Airspeeder: 1000 (without upgrades)
Big Rock: 10000 (without Siren)
Siren: 100
Ancient Monolith: 10000
Siren Bait: 10
Army: 10000
Improvements: 5000
The Improbable: 5000
Can of Whoopass: 5
Toad: 4
Service Mall: 10000 (includes components)
The Casino: 30000
The Tower of Babel: 30000
Temples: 20000
Hand: 3
Olive Trees: 150
Barney: 1000
Petunia: 10
If an object contains or carries any other object(s), the Mass of the carried or possessed object(s) is added to the Mass of the object that contains or possesses them. (So a 100-Mass Human with a 20-Mass Shield would count as 120 Mass. And if that 120-Mass Human enters a 1000-Mass Airspeeder, that Airspeeder would count as 1120 Mass.) 
}}

In Rule 301/32, __The Grid__:
{-{
In section B.3, replace the first and third instances of "player" with "Player, a Gremlin, or the Yeti", and the second, fourth, and fifth instances of player with "object". [[Inventories aren't just for players anymore.]] Change "a" to "an" as necessary for proper grammar. In addition, add the following to that section: {{Possessing a carryable object is the same as containing a carryable object.}} 

Why only Players, Gremlins, and Yetis?
In section B.4, change the first instance of "player" to "Player, Gremlin, Robot, or the Yeti". Change the third paragraph to "If the square thrown at contains a Player, a Gremlin, Robot, or the Yeti, e may Catch the thrown object. E may declare this catching any time while the object is Airborne. When an object is Caught, it enters the Catcher's possession." 
}-}


We have no Robots, AFAIK...
Well, then no Robot will ever be doing that. Just because we have no Athames created at some point in time doesn't mean anything. But yeah, that's something that is coming with a later one of these props, the portion related to Intelligence; basically, if you can't do something yourself, Robots are guys who can do them for you, and they share the Upgrades I made up for Droid characters. But that gets into new stuff.
If I had caught this, Robots wouldn't be in this proposal at all. I don't see it causing any harm unless someone else makes a prop that creates Robots and doesn't change this. But I'll take it out if others feel otherwise. 


[[End changes to Rule 301, __The Grid__]]

}}
Whew, after listing all those objects, and seeing where there are lists of objects in lots of places, I'm seriously thinking of doing a Less is More in the form of a massive table.
A table would be helpful... I really don't like the idea of having dozens of rules each containing lists of one attribute for each object... It's irritating, if I want to find the properties of, say, a Big Stick, to have to check one list for its Resource Value, one for its BNS Value, one for its Mass, one for its Color, etc.
After this races stuff is done, I'm going to get on it. Unless one of you beat me to it. But for now, lists will do. At least this is the only one in the whole set of Races-related proposals; the only other new attribute created in them is HP, which is granted only to things with Strength, and is based on eir Strength.
Oh, and Petunias: They don't currently exist, but as part of Movement, I made a change to how the IDD worked. I believe it's in the 3rd Hitchhiker's Guide book that the IDD summoned a Petuinia. 

What about Rains of Whale Guts?
Heh. I just was trying to clean up some wording while I was already in the proposal, and thought the Gnome turning into a Petunia rather than ceasing to exist was more interesting. I'll leave whale guts to another prop.
And I'd be wary of making references in one prop to objects that only exist in another; if either gets shelved/vetoed/Flawed/whatever while the other passes, we're going to end up either with stats for nonexistent objects, or objects without stats; neither is particularly recommendable.
A lack of stats for an object would indeed be bad; which is why I am doing these two first, and later props will either be "I don't do anything if X and Y didn't pass" props, or it will all be combied together. However, saying an Athame may be Dull when there's no Athames at the moment isn't bad; the same goes for Petunias. 

Orc in a Spacesuit

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