Re: [spoon-discuss] Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a gnome out of my hat!

["Glotmorf" <dwhytock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 3 Oct 2003 at 14:44, Baron von Skippy wrote:

> Okay, these are both prototypical, because I'm not going to be able to
> check my e-mail much this weekend, so any massive complaints may not
> get addressed quickly enough. I just feel like this game is stagnating
> a little. Go and Tunnelers are really most of the game now, and that's
> just no good... and maybe these little guys aren't as useful without
> the Grid, and maybe that means we need the Grid back. Anyway, here's
> my little idea. Talk amongst yourselves. Oh, and I apologize for the
> name of the society... I'm not going to change it, but I apologize
> anyway.

If you're not going to change it, why bother to apologize?  
It's no worse than my Sex and the Nomic series...

> I'm considering creating a society with the following charter:
> 
> {{
> __The B Nomic Dedicated Society of Manufacturers__
> 
> I'm also thinking of proposing:
> 
> {{
> __They're Ba-ack...__
> 
> Create a rule:
> 
> {{
> __Gnomes__
> 
> There exist Gnomes.
> 
> A. Attributes
> 
> A.1. Type
> Each Gnome may have one and only one type. Multiple Gnomes may share a
> type.
> 
> A.2. Stage
> Each Gnome type has a stage, which is a positive integer greater than
> or equal to zero. The stage of a Gnome type is 1 plus the highest
> stage of any Gnome types needed to make that Gnome type through
> mergers. [[So a Stage 0 gnome needs no merges to make it, a Stage 1
> Gnome needs two or more Stage 0 Gnomes, and a Stage 3 Gnome could take
> a Stage 0 and a Stage 2, or a Stage 1 and a Stage 2, or a pair of
> Stage 2 Gnomes, or a combination of three or more.]]
> 
> A.3. Hit Points
> The number of hit points a Gnome has is equal to the number of hit
> points that Gnome started out with (the number its type has at
> creation) minus the number of times that Gnome has been squeezed or
> bred with another Gnome. If a Gnome has zero hit points, that Gnome is
> destroyed.
> 
> B. Actions
> 
> B.1. Squeezing
> Gnomes may be squeezed by the player who holds them. The effects of
> squeezing a Gnome are defined in its type definition.
> 
> B.2. Merging
> Two or more Gnomes may be merged. When this happens, all Gnomes which
> were merged are destroyed, and a new Gnome may be created if the
> combination merged is one of the combinations on the List of Recipes.
> 
> B.3. Breeding
> Players may Breed two Gnomes of the same type to create a new Gnome of
> that type.
> 
> C. Types
> 
> C.1. Stage 0 Gnomes
> 
> C.1.1. Fire Gnomes
> Fire Gnomes have 3 hit points.
> 
> C.1.2. Water Gnomes
> Water Gnomes have 3 hit points.
> 
> C.1.3. Earth Gnomes
> Earth Gnomes have 3 hit points.
> 
> C.1.4. Air Gnomes
> Air Gnomes have 3 hit points.
> 
> D. List of Recipes
> No recipes exist at this time.
> 
> E. Purchasing
> Gnomes may be purchased from the B Nomic Dedicated Society of
> Manufacturers for (5*Stage+1) points, where "Stage" is the Stage of
> that Gnome's type. The Production Cost of a Gnome is equal to Stage+1.
> }}

The biggest gripe I have with this (aside from lack of 
immediate utility) is that it's tied to a Society.  That's a 
twofold gripe:

(1) Rules and societies exist in different ways.  BDSM could 
go away in a heartbeat (literally) if something (God forbid) 
should happen to the Baron when e's the only member.  Aside 
from the obvious hardship from eir death (I'll think of 
something eventually), we'd then have a rule with no 
functionality, and possibly more legacy objects.  Note also 
that the rule regulates the purchase of gnomes, which means 
gnomes could not then be purchased any other way, including 
from other players.

(2) Before we get back into rule-mandated sole-source vendor 
societies, I'd still like to see some mechanism for "owning" a 
"technology"...something that can be transferred between 
entities, or even somehow stolen or forcibly acquired.  This 
would de-necessitate (decessitate?) BDSM from being explicitly 
referenced in the rules.

> Add a section to Rule 21:
> {{
> A.3. Production Points
> Production points may only be owned by Societies. Production Points
> can be traded between Societies but may not be owned by players.
> Production Points may only be created or destroyed as described in the
> rules.
> 
> At the end of each nweek, all Production Points in play are destroyed.
> At the beginning of each nweek, each Society recieves a number of
> Production Points equal to that 10 times the number of players who are
> members of that society.
> 
> If players can purchase goods from a Society, that Society must
> destroy a positive nonzero number of Production Points to create those
> goods. The number of Production Points destroyed is set in the rule
> which defines that good. This number is the Production Cost of that
> good. If a purchase would cause a Society to have a negative number of
> Production Points, that purchase fails. }} }}

Interesting.  This might put WBE back in business.

						Glotmorf

-----
The Ivory Mini-Tower: a blog study in Social Technology.
http://ix.1sound.com/ivoryminitower

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