Subject: Proposal: Rule changes pertaining to party poppers and their use

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 11:13:46 -0000

Sorry this is another long one. I tried to keep it short, but it just 
kept growing. Ahem. The essential idea is short, but it requires 
several trivial amendments throughout the rules.

==============================

Amendment to rule 32: Hospital rooms.

Add this room:

Locker room. Has a two-way connection with the hospital Entrance.
The locker room contains one locker for each live player. A 
player may, when in the locker room, pay 80 cash to briefly open eir 
locker, and may then remove items from the locker, or add items to it 
that e is carrying. Items belonging to a player that have not been 
put in a locker are being carried by that player. No player may gain 
access to any other player¡¦s locker. When a player adds item(s) to, 
or removes item(s) from, a locker, e must post to the mailing list, 
stating what items have been added or removed, and the contents of 
the locker after the transaction.

Proposed new rule. Party Poppers.

The quantity of Party Poppers possessed by each Player is part of the 
gamestate. When a Player joins the game, they have no Party Poppers.
When an active player (the ¡¥attacker¡¦) is in the same room as 
another active player, and is carrying a Party Popper, e may fire the 
popper at the other player, or at a nominated player if there is more 
than one. The fired-at player (the ¡¥victim) is so surprised that e 
drops 20% of each type of pill that e is carrying (rounded to nearest 
integer). The attacker takes up to two pills of each type from those 
dropped. Any remaining dropped pills are distributed equally among 
all active players in the room as they scrabble round the floor for 
them, with any left over going to the attacker. 

These changes must be posted to the mailing list, and the victim must 
give the appropriate pills to the other player(s) involved via the 
PDP.

The Party Popper is destroyed when it is fired. 
Party Poppers may not be fired in the Locker Room.

Amendments to allow for party poppers to exist:

Amend rule 9 (Pharmacist):
-to the list of actions to be performed, add as the fourth item:
„h Add one Party Popper to the Pharmacy stocks.

Amend rule 24. (Pharmacy)
-Amend the first sentence to read ¡§The Pharmacy sells 
pharmaceuticals, and other items, to players for cash. 
-To the list of items stocked, add
„h Party Poppers

-Amend the penultimate paragraph (starting ¡§The price for purchasing 
and sellng pills 
¡K¡¨) to read, in full:

¡§The price for any item that is sold by the pharmacy is part of the 
gamestate, maintained by the Pharmacist, and stored in a Yahoo! 
Groups database. The quantities of these items are limited. The 
quantity of each item remaining is part of the gamestate, maintained 
by the Pharmacist, and stored in an Yahoo! Groups database. Pamphlets 
are printed to order. ¡§

-Before the last paragraph, add a new paragraph:
Party Poppers are sold for 80 cash, and bought back for 50 cash.

{I was going to have a variable price, as for pills, but that can 
wait for another proposal. I think it¡¦s OK for the pharmacy to 
diversify a little..}

Amendments to clarify the difference between pills (or other items) 
being carried, and items in the locker:

To rule 8 (pills).

Amend sentence 1 of para 3 ("A Player may take or discard a Pill they 
possess, at any time, via the Player Details page.") to read:
¡§A player may take or discard a pill they are carrying at any time, 
via the Player Details Page.¡¨

To rule 24 (Pharmacy).
Amend the fourth sentence ("Players may also sell unused items in 
their possession back to the Pharmacy for cash") to read: ¡§Players 
may also sell unused items that they are carrying back to the 
Pharmacy for cash.¡¨

To rule 27. (trading post)
After the first sentence (¡§A player may give another player cash, 
pills, or pamphlets at any time, as long as the player has the item 
in their possession to give¡¨) to read:
¡§A player may give cash, pills, or pamphlets, that e is carrying, to 
another player at any time.¡¨

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 30 Jan 2001 12:11:56 -0500

> several trivial amendments throughout the rules.

REJECTED for a couple of reasons.

(1) A rather petty one, I admit: this proposal is full of weird
characters (¡§, which show up on my system as an inverted
exclamation point and a squiggly thing of some sort) which I don't
feel like editing.

(2) All this elaborate machinery exists just to support a rather
baroque means of redistributing pills. How much demand is there
for pills, anyway? Does anyone really feel a need to get more
other than by perks, wages, and purchasing? (That's not a
rhetorical question. Doc isn't sure what the Players' priorities
are.) (OK, in the case of the Addict, it *is* a rhetorical
question.) 

All of which is not to say I wouldn't approve a re-edited version of
this proposal, but I'd have to be persuaded there's a demand for it.

Martin has FoR.

-- 
- Doc

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From: "Martin Couchman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 17:30:02 -0000

> exclamation point and a squiggly thing of some sort) which I 
don't

I blame Microsoft for that. The characters were fine when I copied 
them out of Word.

> are.) (OK, in the case of the Addict, it *is* a rhetorical

My reason is that it might be fun. Bear in mind that the current 
winning conditions require a player to have 200 pills. That's a lot 
to carry about - better be careful to look after them. Think of the 
possibilities of trying to ambush the addict as he tries to sneak 
past you. The rules could be extended to cover cash at a later date, 
if that seemed a good idea at the time.  

Pills have a value, therefore there is demand for them, if someone 
wishes to win.

---

From: "Kevan Davis" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 18:31:31 -0000

> winning conditions require a player to have 200 pills.

...and 100 Soul and 100 Body and 10,000 Cash and no Diseases, of 
course.

> That's a lot 

True - but this seems a mightily intricate way to implement it, 
bolting on a load of fairly complicated new game mechanics with but a 
single purpose. Reworking the "Broken Leg" attack system to include 
Pill scattering might be more reasonable. (I was thinking about a 
generic 'attack' that could result in a variety of exciting injuries 
and consequences.)

> Pills have a value, therefore there is demand for them, if someone 

Hm, maybe I should get around to adding "Pills taken so far" counts 
to each Player, so that the Addict can be assigned on basis of 
consumption rather than ownership. As it stands, I don't really fancy 
being the Addict again, so collecting Pills is rather unappealing.

Kevan

--
http://uncertain.org/~kevan
"And you can break my spine but you
won't change the way I feel."

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From: "Jeffrey J. Weston" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 11:41:12 -0800 (PST)

> being the Addict again, so collecting Pills is rather unappealing.

But collecting pills is SO MUCH FUN!!! Wheee!!! If you don't want
yours, perhaps I can have some? Surely you don't need 14 green pills...

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 19:30:38 -0000

> yours, perhaps I can have some? Surely you don't need 14 green 
pills...

Damn I am so proud of my Addict rule, and our current little addict!!

Jeff, visit me in the Lab, I have a big 25 sided Cyan pill for you!

Feyd

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From: "Jeffrey J. Weston" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 14:01:55 -0800 (PST)

> Jeff, visit me in the Lab, I have a big 25 sided Cyan pill for you!

But if I go to the lab, I have to leave the room with all the
purty pills... Just let me buy a few dozen more green... Twenty more red
ones won't hurt either. They taste great too!

Why don't you come over here and give me some pills? I don't feel
like moving just yet...