Re: [spoon-discuss] Re: [Spoon-business] The Underground Society

["Glotmorf" <glotmorf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 8/3/03 at 11:06 AM Daniel Lepage wrote:

>> OO    - temporarily raise own mole's health points by 1; or
>>         restore own mole's health points by 1, not to exceed maximum
>> health
>
>What does 'temporarily' mean? Until the end of the turn? Until the
>beginning of that Mole's next turn?

That was covered under part 3.  A temporary increase to one's own stat lasts until the beginning of one's next turn.

>Also, if OO can restore a mole's health by 1, why would you ever want
>it to temporarily restore a mole's health by 1?

Restore, or temporarily raise.  You'd restore health if it was below your maximum.  You'd temporarily raise it if it was at or above your maximum.

>> 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.
>
>'eir more' -> 'eir mole' (Oh, Jelusarem...)

Er.  Thank you.

>> 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.
>>
>> 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.
>
>Does the Moderator tell everyone who's turn it is?

I'd planned on that, yes.  As for what else should be publicly told (considering this is basically a hidden-movement game), I'm open to suggestions.  Consider this to essentially be an Imperial subnomic.

>And what happens if a player goes On Leave or something? Does the game
>simply pause until e gets back/gets garbage collected?

I'll have to think about that.  My first thought is to say eir mole stays where it is while e's on leave, and dies if e's garbage-collected.

>> 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.
>
>This means that a member of the society can pay four points even if
>they're already playing in order to relocate eir mole, gain five cards,
>and get another entry on the turn list.

Careful, guy.  You're on the verge of giving credence to the Baron's MPD Scam.  "Members of this society may pay four points to the society to *become* a player..." which means, like in the Baron's case, they presumably weren't a player before.

>Also, how can you guarantee that the game will ever end if dead players
>can come back for 4 points? Or is that intentional?

That's intentional.  If you get killed, you can re-enter for 4 points, though with a base-stat mole.  Note that killing two other moles lets you break even, and killing three yields profit.  And the jackpot continues to climb.

I suspect that, if any mole gets strong enough, people are gonna cease to want to go after it with a base-stat mole.  That mole would then wind up as the sole survivor and cash out, then a new game would begin. (Anyone who wants to bankrupt emself pointwise just to prove me wrong is of course welcome to do so.)

>> 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, half the society's points are paid to the remaining player, and
>> half are paid to the Moderator.
>
>Even with the change you added earlier today, this still isn't a lot of
>points for winning - the society gains 4 points when somebody joins,
>and loses 3 when they get killed; so the winner basically earns one
>point for everyone who died. Which, if you can't have more than 10
>players, shouldn't be more than 10 points.

But players can enter in the middle of the game, if the number of players at that time is less than 10.  Mostly the 10-player limit is because of the number of cards in use...more than 10, and one player's discards become the next player's hand.

>> If the Moderator leaves the society, the game ends and the society's
>> points are evenly distributed among the remaining members.
>
>You make no mention of what happens if a Player leaves the society. I
>would assume it's the same as if eir Mole was killed; but then there's
>no player you can point to as having done the killing.

True.  So the points the departing player paid remain as jackpot.  But thanks, I'll add the departure death provision.

>Overall, I like this. Admission request pending.

The whole society is pending, since the clock is off. :)  Consider yourself pre-approved.

						Glotmorf

-----
The Ivory Mini-Tower: a blog study in Social Technology.
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