Subject: acka-voting-digest V3 #39
From: [email-masked] (acka-voting-digest)
To: [email-masked]

acka-voting-digest       Tuesday, April 7 1998       Volume 03 : Number 039

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 04:09:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Proposal 2845

Proposal 2845
The Bucket Kicked The Rabbit
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)

This is a Modest proposal.

Amend Rule 404, "Offices, Impeachment", as follows:

Add the section (i) the following text(delimited by RACTER):

RACTER
A player may not submit more than one IP per calendar week, and may
not submit more than one IP against the same officer in a calendar month.
RACTER

Remove the sentence "Also, the author of the IP may not author another
IP for the remainder of the calendar week." from section (vi). {{[ Since
it's now redundant. ]}}

{{[ I should point out the Rule-Harfer that the last sentence of Section
(vi) belongs at the end of Section (v), from Proposal 2258... ]}}

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 04:11:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Proposal 2846

Proposal 2846
Can I Have It All Now?
Alfvaen (Aaron Humphrey)

This is a Grandiose Proposal.

Create a rule, numbered 110, with text as follows(delimited by GAFFA):

GAFFA
Let N be the number of players who voted YES on the Proposal which created
this Rule.
Let X be 5000/N, rounded up.

Upon this Rule's creation, X Ackadollars shall be transferred from each
player who voted YES on this Proposal to the player known as Alfvaen
on April 1, 1998(hereafter referred to as Alfvaen), and transformed
into a Trinket(whose name shall be a random string of eight alphabetic
characters not used by any other entity), which Alfvaen shall have three
days to describe.  This transferrence may put the players into debt.
No Share Your Income Otzma Card may be used on this money, nor may
the Trinket be transferred to any player besides Alfvaen, or to any
other entity except the Museum, and then only by the player Alfvaen.
In making this donation, Alfvaen may move to the Museum in spite of
any other Rules which may limit eir ability to change eir location;
this takes precedence over all such Rules.

In addition, all players who voted YES on this Proposal shall be Hosed
as if by the BWG Laser for the remainder of the calendar month, except
that they will continue to lose A$ rather than become Weird or Really
Weird.  If any of these players should ever achieve a Winning Condition,
then the Chartreuse Goose shall be considered to have been transferred to
em an instant before this would have occurred.  They will all be burned
as witches, and their ashes dumped into the Ackanomian River, so that they
will be thrown into Gaol for polluting the environment.  Their names will
be stricken from the Ruleset and all of the Ackanomian web pages, and
each replaced with "Imadoofus".

They shall, however, each receive a Swingpoint for eir troubles.
GAFFA

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 04:13:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Proposal 2847

Proposal 2847
Eleusis
JT (JT Traub)

{{[ This is being submitted as a rule so that it can define a new type of
    trophy.  Otherwise I would have just made a Games Submission for it ]}}

Amend rule 1250.2 with the following to define a new type of trophy
   C.  The Scientist's Handbook is a nameless entity.

- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Create a new rule with the following text:

[ This describes a minor adaptation of the game commonly known as Eleusis.
  The standard rules for this game can be found at
           http://www.netaxs.com/people/nerp/eleusis0.html
  The rules below are an adaptation to work within the framework of
  Ackanomic and email. ]

{{[ I wish to thank Alfvaen and Niccolo Flychuck for their comments, some
    of which have been integrated into this text]}}

1) General Equipment
   a) This game uses either one Eleusis Deck with the optional Wild cards
      or two Standard decks combined into one larger deck, again with
      optional Wild cards.
   b) Gamepoints as needed.

2) Number of players.
   a) This game is played with 5-8 players and one optional Referee.
   b) This game can have an optional Referee as defined in section 10.
   c) New players may *not* join during the run of an existing game except
      as defined under section 8.

3) How to start an instance of the game
   As described in rule 1250.1, section VI. 

4) General Rules of the game
   a) If there is a Referee, the Referee assigns a cardinal number from 1
      to N, where N is the number of players, to each player.  If there is
      no Referee, then the player calling the game shall be cardinal number
      1 and all other players shall be assigned a number from 2 to N where
      N is the total number of players including the player who called the
      game.
   b) Player number 1 shall be named the Deus for the first round.
   c) All player other than Deus are considered to be Scientists for that
      round.
   d) The round is played as specified in section 5.
   e) At the end of the round, the Deus from the previous round will
      announce the rule from that round, and all other players have a 3
      day period to announce an error in the game play.  Play on the
      next round can proceed during this error determination since the
      results of one round do not affect the next round.  If at least
      one player declared there to be an error, handle it as in Section
      11.
   f) At the end of a round, the next higher numbered player is named the
      new Deus and a new round begins.
   g) The game ends when each player has been Deus exactly once, and the
      game is scored as described in section 7.

5) The play of a round
   a) Deus creates a private rule which specifies how a valid play is to
      be determined.  This rule may only depend upon cards which have
      already been correctly played, not upon incorrectly played cards, or
      the contents of any players hand.
   b) Deus announces publicly which of the two decks is being used for
      that round, whether the Wild cards are included in the deck.  The
      ranking of the cards [IE, the order of importance of the cards within
      the suits], the value of any cards which are different than their
      standard face value [IE all face cards are 10 or J=11, Q=12, K=13],
      the ranking and value of suits if that is pertinent, and the
      ranking/value of wild cards if they are in use.
   c) Deus (or the Referee) privately communicates to each player their
      hand of 14 starting cards.
   d) Deus (or the Referee) publicly communicates the face-up starter
      card.
   e) The round is now open for play and play proceeds in numerical order
      starting with the player in numerical order after the Deus for the
      current round
   f) The current player chooses a series of between 1 and 4 cards from
      their hand and announces them in the order they wish to play them.
      The player may also choose a call of 'No Play' if they believe no
      card in their current hand is a valid card to play in the current
      sequence.  A sequence of cards is only correct if every card in the
      sequence in order is correct.   If the player doesn't publicly
      submit a play within 3 days of it becoming their turn, they will be
      deemed to have played 'No Play' and Deus (or the Referee) will reveal
      their cards.
   g) Upon calling 'No Play' the player must reveal at that time all the
      cards head in their hand.
   h) If there is currently no prophet, and the current player has not
      already been prophet this round and there are more than two remaining
      Scientists the player may declare themselves prophet regardless of
      whether their play was correct or incorrect.  To save time, the player
      should include this declaration with their play.  The card played when
      a prophet is declared is marked with a '!'.
   i) If there is a prophet:
      1) The prophet publicly decrees whether the play is correct or not.
      2) The Deus publicly declares whether they approve of the prophets
         call or not.
      3) If the Deus doesn't approve of the prophets call then the
         Scientist who played the card(s) is not penalized, the prophet is
         dealt 5 penalty cards by the Deus or the Referee, and resumes play
         as a Scientist.
      4) If the Deus approves of the prophets call and the player played
         an incorrect sequence, then the Deus (or Referee) deals the player
         2 cards for each card in the sequence or five cards if the
         incorrect call was 'No Play'.  In the case of 'No Play' the
         prophet must choose a card from the current players hand before
         the penalty cards are dealt that would have been a correct play
         and play it.  If the prophet chooses a card that isn't correct at
         this point then the card is returned to the players hand, and the
         player receives no penalty cards, instead causing the prophet to
         be overturned as in part 3 above.  If the round is in 'sudden
         death' then the current player is expelled from the round after
         the dealing of the penalty cards.
      5) If the play of 'No Play' was deemed correct then the player will
         be privately dealt a new hand of cards with four fewer cards than
         in their previous hand.
   j) If there is no prophet, Deus judges the play as correct or not with
      the penalties to the player being the same as in step 'i' part 4
      above.  In the case of 'No Play' Deus must choose a correct card
      from the calling players hand and play it.  If the Deus judges a
      'No Play' call to be correct, then the effect of step 'i' part 5
      above occurs.
   k) If there is no prophet, mark every 10th card played with a '*'.
      After forty cards, the round enters 'sudden death'.
   l) If there is a prophet, mark every 10th card since they became the
      prophet with a '!'.  After 30 cards (3 '!') the round enters
      sudden death.
   m) If the current player has 0 cards or there are no Scientists left,
      then the round is over and is scored as in section 6.
   n) The player next in numerical order becomes the current player.
      The player after the highest numbered player is player 1.
   o) If the current player is either the prophet or Deus, go to step 'n'.
   p) go to step 'f'

6) Scoring a round
   a) A player is considered the 'True Prophet' if they were the prophet
      when the round ended.
   b) The high-count is the largest number of cards in any players
      hand (prophet included).  Call this number H.
   c) Every player except Deus gets Gamepoints equal to H - the number
      of cards in their hand.
   d) Any player with 0 cards gets 4 Gamepoints as a bonus.
   e) The 'True Prophet' gains 1 Gamepoint for each correct play and 2
      Gamepoints for each incorrect play after they became prophet.
   f) Deus gains Gamepoints equal to the smaller of
      1) the highest players score
      2) twice the total number of cards played since the true prophet
         became prophet.

7) Scoring the game
   After all rounds are completed, the winner is the player with the most
   Gamepoints.  All other players are ranked in descending order by
   Gamepoints.
   Let N be the number of players in the game.
   The highest ranked player gains a trophy, "The Scientist's Handbook"
   and 2(N-1) points.  Each player in decreasing order gets two less points
   than the preceding player.  If two players have the same number of
   game points but the next lower player with a different number of game
   points recieves points as if they weren't tied.  Last place will score
   0 points.  [Frex. in a game of 5 players with final game points of 20,
   14 8, 8 and 4, the players would recieve in order 8, 6, 4, 4 and 0
   points]

8) Joining and Leaving the game.
   Any player who leaves the game or goes on vacation without appointing
   a substitute causes the game to pause.  When the game is paused, any
   other player of Ackanomic who is not already a player in that game of
   Eleusis may volunteer to fill in, assuming the missing players
   Gamepoints and game position.  If the Deus leaves the game or vacations
   without appointing a substitute and there is a Referee, Deus must pass
   the private rule on to the Referee and the round continues without
   pausing the game.  If there is no Referee, then the round will end and
   players will be scored as if the round had ended normally (except no one
   gets the bonus for 0 cards).  If the Deus appoints a substitute, then 
   he passes the private rule on to that substitute and play proceeds
   normally.  If no substitute for the Deus was named, the game is paused
   after the current round is scored until a new player joins.

9) Duties of Deus and the Prophet
   The Deus and Prophet are necessary for the game to proceed smoothly and
   so are encouraged to respond to plays as quickly as possible.  It is
   unfortunately not possible to impose a 3 day timeout on Deus, however
   if the Prophet fails to respond to a move within 3 days then that player
   is removed as a prophet as if they had made an incorrect call on a play.
   If there is no Referee, the Deus for each round assumes the
   responsibilities of the Referee.

10) Duties of the Referee
    The Referee (or Deus for each round if there is no Referee) must track
    the game state including which player has which cards, must simulate
    shuffling the cards at the start of a round and dealing cards as demanded
    by the round.   They must also post the current game state including all
    played cards with a reasonable amount of frequency (at least once every
    other day would be recommended, and after each players play would be
    best).  If there is an actual Referee, that player is paid $A10 when
    the game is concluded for providing their services.

11) Handling of errors.
    a) If a player believes there to have been an error, then if there is
       a Referee, the Referee decides if the error in fact occurred.  Otherwise
       a vote among the current players occurs.  The voting period lasts 3
       days and a player who doesn't respond is considered to have voted 'No'
       meaning that there was no error.  If all votes are in before the 3 day
       period, then the voting period ends immediately.
    b) If there was a vote, and a majority of the players voted that 'Yes'
       there was an error, then there was an error.
    c) If there was an error, Deus for the round which contained the error
       loses 20 Gamepoints.
    d) If there is more than one error in a round, the Deus is only
       penalized once.

{{ renumber this rule to 1250.23 }}

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 04:17:07 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Proposal 2848

Proposal 2848
Radical Repeal
JT (JT Traub)

Bribe: A$1 to all players who vote on this proposal, an additional A$2
          if they vote NO.
   This is a Grandiose proposal.
   Repeal rule number 101.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 10:08:23 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Proposal 2849

Proposal 2849
Disposal of Property
Niccolo Flychuck (Uri Bruck)

Create a new rule which contains the following text:
"
1.There exists a Functional Office called Trouble Shooter.
2.The Trouble Shooter has the following duties:
  a. To seek out any Entities which are owned by Organizations and it is
     illegal for them to own.
  b. When the Trouble Shooter learns of the existence of such an entity e 
     makes the following anouncement:"I dispose of Entity <X> illegaly
     owned by Organization <Y>" where <X> is the entity e discovered, and 
     <Y> is the name of the entity. If it necessary to add information
     to the anouncement in order to disambiguate the reference to the
     entity then the Trouble Shooter must do so as well.
   c. Once this anouncement has been made, the designated Entity is
      immsediately transferred to the Treasury, and the Trouble Shooter
      calls start a Public Auction on that Entity.

3. If no Organization owns an entity that it is illegal for it to own.
This rule repeals itself.

{{Reunmber this rule to 43}}
"

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 10:10:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Proposal 2850

Proposal 2850
Curse the B-ack (and my feeble brain)!
The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley)

This is a modest proposal.

Modify rule 961 by replacing:

"Ackans who visit the Wilds of Ackanomia must be careful to avoid the Curse
of the B-Ack. It is therefore best that they keep quiet when in the Wilds.
Therefore, each day that a player is in the Wilds of Ackanomia and posts a
public message, there is a 40% chance that the B-Ack will hear the player and
chase them on the following day. The player will be treated as if e had Gone
Postal. This is because (i) further public messages ruin a player's attempts
to elude the B-Ack, and thus lead to further hiding, and (ii) the only
weakness of the B-Ack is good poetry."

with:

"Ackans who visit the Wilds of Ackanomia must be careful to avoid the Curse
of the B-Ack. It is therefore best that they keep quiet when in the Wilds.
Therefore, each day that a player is in the Wilds of Ackanomia and posts a
public message, there is a 40% chance that the B-Ack will hear the player and
chase em for the rest of eir stay in the wilds. 

If the B-Ack hears a player then the player will be treated as if e is hosed
as by a BWG laser for as long as e remains in the wilds or twenty-four hours,
whichever is longer. This is because:
(i) further public messages ruin a player's attempts to elude the B-Ack, and
thus lead to further hiding.
(ii) the only weakness of the B-Ack is good poetry."

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 10:11:21 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Proposal 2851

Proposal 2851
Is it really all that important?
The Gingham Wearer (Tom Walmsley)

This is a modest proposal

Modify rule 1230.2 by inserting the following SHORT delimited text
immediately after:

"Any other Swinger may make a Play composed of one Move, followed by one
Placement, or any other single Atomic Play."

SHORT
If a swinger attempts a play of one or more placements followed by one or
more moves and the state of the board if such a play were legal would be
exactly the same as if the swinger had attempted the same move(s) followed by
the same placement(s) then the move attempted shall be considered to be the
move(s) followed by the placement(s).
SHORT

{{[Basically, if a swinger gets eir play the wrong way round but it makes no
difference then it can be accepted.]}}

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 10:12:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Proposal 2852

Proposal 2852
A Couple of Legal Fixes
Slakko (Duncan Richer)

This is a Modest Proposal.

{{[There's a nice big loophole in the Caped Crusader elimination rules -
if I had wanted to I could have had K 2 thrown out of the job.  Let's
close that loophole.]}}

Amend Rule 705, "The Caped Crusader", by replacing the following
LOOPY-delimited text:

LOOPY
If 7 consecutive CFCJs are filed by players other than the Caped Crusader
or the Boy Wonder, the Caped Crusader is removed from office upon any
player pointing this fact out.
LOOPY

with the following SANE-delimited text:

SANE
If neither the Caped Crusader nor the Boy Wonder filed any of the seven
most recently filed CFCJs, all of which were filed since the Caped
Crusader last gained the Office of Caped Crusader, then the Caped Crusader
is removed from office upon any player pointing this fact out.
SANE

{{[Also, a quick clarification on Bronze Torch counts.]}}

Amend Rule 907, "Bronze Torch", by replacing the following IFFY-delimited
text:

IFFY
Once a player has delivered a total of 15 verdicts on CFJs, CFCJs, or as
part of (or all of) the Supreme Court, they are eligible for a Bronze
Torch. Verdicts which have been overturned do not count towards this
total, nor do any verdicts other than True or False. A verdict which is
upheld by the Supreme Court counts both for the original Judge and for the
Justices of the Court (assuming it is True or False).
IFFY

with the following NOWFIXED-delimited text:

NOWFIXED
Once a player has delivered a total of 15 verdicts on CFJs, CFCJs, or as
part of (or all of) the Supreme Court or a Cortex thereof, they are
eligible for a Bronze Torch. Verdicts which have been overturned do not
count towards this total, nor do any verdicts other than True or False. A
verdict which is upheld on an appeal counts for all Judges which have
issued the same official verdict on that CFJ, including first round Judges
and members of a Cortex which heard a first appeal when possible.
NOWFIXED

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 07 Apr 1998 21:46:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: Brian Raiter <[email-masked]>
Subject: Acka: Proposal 2853

Proposal 2853
I'll Bet You Saw This Coming
IdiotBoy (Matt Miller)

Amend the text of rule 106 by replacing the following FREETHINKING
delmited text

FREETHINKING
Voting Players may vote either YES, NO, or PRESENT on each proposal
FREETHINKING

with the following HERD-MENTALITY delimited text

HERD-MENTALITY
Voting Players may vote either YES, NO, BAA! or PRESENT on each proposal
HERD-MENTALITY

.

Additionally, amend rule 313 by replacing the following BEEF delimited
text

BEEF
A. Casting a YES, NO, or PRESENT vote by rule 106.
BEEF

with the following MUTTON delimited text

MUTTON
A. Casting a legal vote as defined by rule 106. 
MUTTON

.

{{[You will note that, while this adds a new vote, presently
 a BAA! vote is functionally equivalent to a PRESENT vote.]}}

------------------------------

End of acka-voting-digest V3 #39
********************************