[s-d] Proto: New Field Match (Paprika)

["Jamie Dallaire" <bad.leprechaun@xxxxxxxxx>]

So, I was already mulling this over in my head over the past few days and
its sending in conjunction with the (likely) end/destruction of the current
Field Match is mainly coincidental.

This isn't even a near-proper write up of what this field match would
resemble, since a lot of the concept/rules/implementation is still left to
be discovered. But below is the main idea. Comments please!

This field match requires a dedicated MoP (a sentient DM-type person or a
bot on some secure server). It also requires no single public display, but
rather as many regularly-updated private displays as there are players.

In this field match, each player is, at any given moment, either Awake or in
Dream. This could be determined randomly for each day, for example, or
fluctuate according to some secret mathematical function. The waking state
of different players is not synchronized. Players are never actually told
whether they are awake or not.

The "real", platonic state of the field is only ever affected by possible
field actions and by invokable actions taken by Awake players.

When a player is Awake, he perceives (in his private display) field actions
and invokable actions taken by other awake players, who are affecting
"reality". He also perceives his own invokable actions as happening. When a
player is Dreaming, he perceives his own invokable actions as happening, as
well as possibly some randomly-generated field actions as well as the
invokable actions taken by other Dreaming players (yes, the dreams of
various players interact).

Any actions that are taken and should be reflected in someone's private
display but are incoherent with his current display are not reflected in it,
as if they never happened. OR we could make it even weirder and have
whatever was already there and made the action incoherent eliminated.

In order to reduce such incoherence to a minimum and to preserve the secrecy
about real vs imagined gamestates, i think the game requires the following:
- make moves happen relative to the player, rather than to absolute board
coordinates. e.g. move 3 spaces forward, not move to (4,7). This way it's
conceivable that the player can *actually* be in a different spot from where
he sees himself as being.
- field match is completely independent of everything else that happens in B
Nomic. i.e. no tie ins to mackerel or points or anything, otherwise one
might be able to tell which actions really happen and which don't.
- seeing the other players themselves on the field (assuming each person has
an avatar of some sort and moves around, which doesn't have to be the case)
could in one way facilitate the task of determining which state one is in at
any given time. whoever is seen to have made a move is clearly in the same
state as the perceiver. e.g. both in dream or both waking. Alternatively, we
could hide the avatars from each other and not reveal which player caused
any other effect on the board to change, which would further isolate/confuse
people if that's what we want.

So what kind of game would it be? honestly doesn't matter to me so much as
the dream-waking dimension of it at this point.

The dream-waking dimension, if the game is designed right, should mean that
the actual platonic state of the game, the one on which it would be
extremely useful to have a grasp in order to be able to WIN the game, may
only be truly reachable through careful consultation with other players and
comparison of the gamestate perceived by each one.

Here's the game I envision currently, thought it could be any number of
other game types: Players's avatars initially stand near the bottom of a
longish field. The way to win is to be the first to get one's own avatar to
the top of the field (and you can't just come out the bottom of that field
and arrive on top :-p).

Each turn of the field (perhaps automatic every 24 or 48 hours or something)
each player is either awake or dreaming and may make a single move. The move
can be to move one's avatar to an adjacent square (using directions, not
absolute coordinates). The move may also be one that aims at interacting
with other players in some fashion, or at setting down obstacles/boosts on
the way to the finish line.
e.g.
- move one space in a chosen direction.
- leapfrog off a buddy standing in front of you and move several spaces up.
- shoot a freeze-ray that extends 3 tiles to the [chosen direction]. anyone
hit by it won't be able to make a move for the 2 next turns.
- dig a hole immediately behind you. it's permanently there and whoever
falls in has to start over at the bottom of the board.
- build a wall that can't actually be crossed and has to be gone around.
etc.etc.etc.

Certain obstacles or helpers (snakes, chutes, ladders, catapults, etc.)
could already exist on the board when the game starts. Maybe permanent,
maybe removeable somehow.

Suppose I'm standing at tile 1 (horizontal), 1 (vertical) to start the game.
And my moves, states, and other events are as follows, here's an idea of
what my perceived and actual states could be:

MOVE 1 : (WAKING) move one diagonal space up-right
       PERCEIVED : I'm on (2,2)
       REALITY: I'm on (2,2)
MOVE 2 : (DREAM) move one space up
       PERCEIVED : I'm on (2,3)
       REALITY: I'm on (2,2)
MOVE 3 : (WAKING) shoot freeze-ray to my right
       PERCEIVED : I'm on (2,3) and I've hit Hose, who is now frozen for
several turns
       REALITY : I'm on (2,2) and didn't hit Hose (who I perceived as on
(3,3) but who was actually on (3,1) at this point), and so he is behind but
not frozen
MOVE 4 : (WAKING) leapfrog off avatar in front of me
       PERCEIVED : I'm now on (2,5)
       REALITY : I'm on (2,4). I actually did leap frog over that guy in
front of me, even though I thought we were respectively at (2,3) and (2,4)
but we were really at (2,2) and (2,3) because, during my dream turn earlier
I saw him moving forward but he was actually in a dream.
MOVE 5: (DREAM) move forward one spot
       PERCEIVED :  Shit man, someone before me on the priority list dug a
hole there. I'm back to (1,1)
       REALITY : OK So I didn't "really" move, and he didn't "really" dig
that hole since he was dreaming too. I'm still on (2,4)

etc.

Consultation with other players, especially with notes about who I saw move
(has to be in the same state I am) and who I didn't see move (either just
didn't move or moved in a different state) would help me a good bit in
determining the actual game state.

But will we be able to tell which state is dream, and which is reality?

Does this seem appealing?

BP
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