Subject: Proposal: New Rule, "Mad Scientist",

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 20:07:08 -0000

It was bound to happen. Once bodies start piling up in the morgue, 
mad scientists start slipping through the cracks...

==================================================================
Create a new rule as follows:

Mad Scientist (and his assistant)

Article 1: Animation
The Mad Scientist lurks in the Morgue of the Hospital. The actions 
of the Mad Scientist are performed by Doc. At his whim Doc may 
assign the role of Mad Scientist's assistant to a player. The Mad 
Scientist emself is not a player. The assistant receives no wages, 
but does get the cool title "Mad Scientist's Assistant".

The Mad Scientist has the ability to animate corpses in the Morgue 
and assign eir actions to a player. An animated corpse, defined as 
a "Zombie", has negative soul. This specifically overrides the 
prohibitions in rules [[currently #11]] disallowing negative soul. 

A player may petition the Mad Scientist to re-animate a dead person, 
or take control of an animate body. This is done by paying the Mad 
Scientist X soul and 50 cash. X is determined by the player as 
follows:

The chance of taking control of a dead body or zombie (whether under 
control or not), is ((10 + X + Zombie_Soul) * 2), with a maximum of 
50%. Note that the Zombie's Soul is always zero or negative. If the 
attempt succeeds, the Zombie is controled by the player, and the 
Zombie's soul is increased by X/2. If the attempt fails, the Zombie's 
soul is reduced by X/4. If the Zombie's soul ever becomes positive, 
it is immediatly set to 0 and all control of the zombie is lost.

A player's petition is as follows:
1. Update the PDP to subtract the cash and X soul.
2. Generate a random number, determine if control was gained.
3. Update the zombie's soul.
4. Send a message to the regular mailing stating that an attempt was 
made, success of the attempt, and the current Soul of the Zombie.

During Doc's (or the Mad Scientist's Assistant's) Office Hours the 
Zombie's soul is divided by two (rounding down), and the zombie loses 
4 body. When the zombie's body reaches 0 the zombie decomposes, and 
is removed from play. 

Each day a player controls a zombie that player must pay 1 soul. 
Players do not have to update the PDP, but from the day they control 
the Zombie until the day control is take from them, OR they release 
the Zombie by stating, "I release the Zombie", they must update the 
PDP at least once per Doc's Office Hours.

Items may be given to zombies, but zombies may not give items to 
other players. Zombies are not active players.

Article 2: Actions

A Zombie may take the following actions. If the zombie is under a 
player's control, only that player may issue an action for the 
Zombie. If the Zombie is uncontrolled, the first player, (or Doc) 
who feels like determinging the Zombie's action for that day may 
randomly determine what the zombie does using the dice in the PDP. 
(Note: Only valid actions are considered. If there is no potential 
target in a room, the zombie may not attempt an "attack" in that 
room). A Zombie may only take 1 actions per day. A Zombie may take 
no other action than those listed below:

1. Attempt to give a broken leg to a player. There is a flat 20% 
chance of causing a broken leg to the attacked player. The zombie 
loses 3 body in the attempt (the controlling player suffers no risk 
for the attack). The message to the list is "Zombie <name of zombie> 
rough's up player <target>. The zombie must be in the same room to 
attempt to break a player's leg.

2. Attempt to give another player the disease "icky rot". The 
zombie must be in the same room as the target player. The controller 
of the zombie issues the statement, "Zombie <name> attemts to give 
<target> icky rot." The zombie has a 40% chance of giving the target 
icky rot. If disease "Icky rot" does not exist in the rulestate for 
any reason, this paragraph is ignored.

3. Move to another room. (If not under control it will move to a 
random room, but never toward the morgue).

4. Take a green pill (if E has one in his possession).

5. Take a purple pill (if E has one in is possession).

Upon acceptance of this rule dead player Mark will become a Zombie 
with all diseases healed, zero cash, and 1 green pill (only). E will 
be given a soul of -1 and placed in the Hallway of Death. This 
paragraph will then be placed in comments.

Feyd

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: 08 Feb 2001 11:56:42 -0500

REJECTED, because it needs a few improvements as noted:

> or take control of an animate body. 

These are two separate petitions?

> This is done by paying the Mad 
> soul is reduced by X/4. 

This seems to be how one takes control of a Zombie, but how is a
Zombie animated in the first place? 

> If the Zombie's soul ever becomes positive, 
> Zombie's soul is divided by two (rounding down), 

"down" meaning "toward zero" or "toward the lesser integer"?

> and the zombie loses 

What if a Player dies because eir BP reaches 0? If re-animated, does
e immediately decompose?

What does "removed from play" mean? E is no longer a Zombie, but is
still a dead Player? Or e is no longer a Player?

> paragraph will then be placed in comments.

Hmm, I like this better than self-repealing.

One more thing, and it's a biggie. Rule 11 states

If a Player's Body Points or Soul Points are zero, that Player is Dead
and may take no further part in the current Round. This paragraph
takes precedence over all other Rules.

Which raises two points:

(1) Since Rule 11 has precedence over all other Rules, it would
nullify your rule entirely! (Or would it? "may take no further
part in the current Round" is phrased to suggest a permanent
prohibition, even if the Player's SP and BP are later changed to
nonzero values, but it's not made explicit.)

(2) Assume your rule had precedence over Rule 11 (e.g. by asserting it
does and by having a rule number less than 11, which is possible
since Rule 10 is vacant.) When a Zombie is re-animated with
nonzero BP and nonzero (negative) SP, is that Player no longer
Dead? 

-- 
- Doc

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 18:33:29 -0000

[[ Doc. The following text is the same as the original proposal 
except for the changes you suggested. I have fixed the rule #11 
problem by REMOVING the player from the gamestate, and ADDING a 
zombie object with player-like properties. The other minor issues 
have also been cleaned up. Let's try again!]]

Article 1: Animation
The Mad Scientist lurks in the Morgue of the Hospital. The actions 
of the Mad Scientist are performed by Doc. At his whim Doc may 
assign the role of Mad Scientist's assistant to a player. The Mad 
Scientist emself is not a player. The assistant receives no wages, 
but does get the cool title "Mad Scientist's Assistant", and may 
exchange 2 body for 1 soul at any time.

The Mad Scientist has the ability to animate corpses in the Morgue 
and assign eir actions to a player. An animated corpse, defined as 
a "Zombie", has all the properties of a player except that e has 
negative soul. This specifically overrides the prohibitions in the 
rules [[currently #11]] disallowing negative soul.  

A player may petition the Mad Scientist to re-animate a dead person, 
or take control of an animate body (a Zombie). These petitions are 
detailed below. A player may make a maximum of one petition per 
day.  

1. Animation: If attempting to Animate a dead body, the player pays 
4 soul and 25 cash to the Mad Scientist (updating the PDP). There is 
a 76% chance the body will be animated. Once animated, the player's 
dead body is permanently removed from the gamestate, and a new 
object, named "Zombie <oldplayername>" is substituted in the dead 
player's place. The new object (the "Zombie")has all properties of a 
player except where limited below. A new Zombie has 1 green pill, 
100 body, -1 soul, and 0 cash. All diseases are cured. If during 
Docs (or the Assistant's, as appropriate) Office Hours a dead body 
exists in the morge, there is a 51% chance the Mad Scientist will 
animate the body with a 67% chance of success.

2. Control: The chance of taking control of a zombie is ((10 + X + 
Zombie_Soul) * 2), with a maximum of 67%. X is the amount of soul 
the player pays the Mad Scientist. The player must also pay the Mad 
Scientist 50 cash. Note that the Zombie's Soul is always zero or 
negative. If the attempt succeeds, the Zombie is controlled by the 
player, and the Zombie's soul is added to (-1-X/2), rounded toward 0. 
If the attempt fails, the Zombie's soul is added to (1+X/4), rounded 
toward 0. If the Zombie's soul ever becomes positive, it is 
immediately set to -1 and all control of the zombie is lost.

A player's petition is processed by the player as follows:
1. Update the PDP to subtract the cash and X soul.
2. Generate a random number, determine if control was gained (or the 
corpse animated, as appropriate).
3. Update the zombie's soul, possession, and diseases (as 
appropriate).
4. Send a message to the regular mailing stating that an attempt was 
made, success of the attempt, and the current Soul of the Zombie.  
This message also serves as a reminder for the name in the PDP to be 
updated (from <playername> to "Zombie <playername>", and for the 
gamestate to be updated showing a player has been removed and a 
zombie added.

During Doc's (or the Mad Scientist's Assistant's) Office Hours the 
Zombie's soul is divided by two (rounding toward 0), and the Zombie 
loses 5 body. When the zombie's body reaches 0 the zombie 
decomposes, and is removed from play.  

Items may be given to zombies, but zombies may not give items to 
other players. Zombies are not players.

Article 2: Actions

A Zombie may take the following actions. If the zombie is under a 
player's control, only that player may issue an action for the 
Zombie. If the Zombie is uncontrolled, the first player, (or Doc) 
who feels like determining the Zombie's action for that day may 
randomly determine what the zombie does using the dice in the PDP.  
(Note: Only valid actions are considered. If there is no potential 
target in a room, the zombie may not attempt an "attack" in that 
room). If there is a valid target in the room the zombie will 
attempt one of the attacks listed. A Zombie may only take 1 action 
per day. A Zombie may take no other action than those listed below:

1. [Attack] Attempt to give a broken leg to a player. There is a 
flat 25% chance of causing a broken leg to the attacked player. The 
zombie loses 3 body in the attempt (the controlling player suffers no 
risk for the attack). The message to the list is "Zombie <name of 
zombie> rough's up player <target>. The zombie must be in the same 
room to attempt to break a player's leg. If disease "Broken Leg" does 
not exist in the rulestate for any reason, this paragraph is ignored.

2.[Attack] Attempt to give another player the disease "icky rot".  
The zombie must be in the same room as the target player. The 
controller of the zombie issues the statement, "Zombie <name> attemts 
to give <target> icky rot." The zombie has a 40% chance of giving 
the target icky rot. If disease "Icky rot" does not exist in the 
rulestate for any reason, this paragraph is ignored.

3. [Attack] Attempt to give a player "Glam Rock Shoulder". There is 
a flat 30% chance of causing Glam Rock Shoulder. The zombie loses 2 
body in the attempt (the controlling player suffers no risk for the 
attack). The message to the list is "Zombie <name of zombie> hits 
<target> in the shoulder". If disease "Glam Rock Shoulder" does not 
exist in the rulestate for any reason this paragraph is ignored.

4. Move to another room. (If not under control it will move to a 
random room, but never toward the morgue).

5. Take a green pill (if E has one in his possession).

Upon acceptance of this rule dead player Mark will be removed from 
the gamestate. A new object "Zombie Mark" will be created as a 
Zombie with icky rot, zero cash, and 1 green pill (only). E will be 
given a soul of –1, body of 100, and placed in the Hallway of Death.  
This paragraph will then be placed in comments.

Feyd

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: 12 Feb 2001 12:35:09 -0500

> mad scientists start slipping through the cracks...

ACCEPTED. 1 green, 1 red, 1 blue!

-- 
- Doc

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 12 Feb 2001 13:16:10 -0500

> This paragraph will then be placed in comments.

This creates a new rule. There are now 28 rules.

Phobia check:

Kevan loses 5 SP.

Jeff and Feyd gain 5 SP.

28% chance of contracting Agoraphobia for Ottis, Jeff, and Martin:

3 random reals 0 < x < 1:
0.27099609375
0.576812744140625
0.7716064453125

Ottis gets it.

-- 
- Doc

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 12 Feb 2001 13:17:05 -0500

> This paragraph will then be placed in comments.

(Oops, omitted this bit from the last message:)

Note that PDP and Hospital Rooms need to be updated accordingly.

-- 
- Doc