Subject: MN: Year 2, Week 23: Proposals

From: Kevan Davis <kdavis@i...>
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 22:26:19 +0100 (BST)

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MORNINGTON NOMIC

Proposals for Voting on in Year Two, Week Twenty-Three
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Proposal 508 - So They All Manoeuvred Over and One Fell Out [Multiple]

1. Someone turn on the light! [Repeal]

Repeal Rule 1.18.1 - Manoeuvres in the Dark

{ Comments:

It all seems a bit silly to have to spend a whole load of tokens to 
declare a gambit when you can really just propose to add one instead.
Most people aren't going to get enough tokens in a short game to want
to waste them on the declaring action. This way, we can vote on 
the proposed new gambit to make sure it's fair in reward.

}

2. Price List, Sir? [Amendment]

Amend the first paragraph of Rule 1.18.2 (Gambits And Their Costs) to read:-

Below is a list of all legal Manoeuvres, consisting of their names, 
the station attributes used to perform them, and the cost of the 
completed gambit. Costs of tokens are recorded in positive numbers 
only. 

3. Those Pesky Tourists [Amendment]

Add the following Manoeuvre to bottom of the list in 
Rule 1.18.2 (Gambits And Their Costs):-

London Site-seeing (2 Go, 1 Si, 1 Bu)
Canary Wharf -> Tower Hill -> Westminster -> Piccadilly Circus -> 
Hyde Park Corner -> Paddington

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Proposal 509 - Instrument of the Devil [Multiple]

1. Jekyll and Hyde Park [Enactment]

Any player ending eir turn at Hyde Park Corner may perform the Action of
[Hyde Transformation] to transform emself into Mr(s) Hyde which will be 
denoted by an (H) in the Game State Document after eir name.

The transformation allows the Player to increase or decrease eir Line
Velocity by 5 each turn, instead of the usual 3 and any Actions targeting
the transformed Player costing any number of red tokens is increased by 1.

The transformed Player may not travel through Holy Stations at any time while
the transformation is in effect.

The effect is cancelled if the transformed Player ever has enough Gold
Tokens to open Mornington Crescent or another Player performs the [Hyde 
Transformation] Action. There may be only one affected Player at any time.

2. I'm Schizophrenic, and so am I. [Amendment]

Add the following action to the list of actions:-

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Action Rule Duration Cost
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Hyde Transformation] 1.7.x -1 Re, -1 Bk
-1 Bu, -1 Br
------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Proposal 510 - Handle with Care [Multiple]

{ Comments : Fixing some sloppy wording in the Parcel and Flag Rules, apropos
of Wilding and Homing whilst carrying them. }

1. This Way Up [Amendment]

Replace the third paragraph of Rule 1.11.2 (Five-Point Courier) with:-

"While a Player is carrying a Parcel, e skips the "Special Moves" section
of the Move Validity checks, and may not perform Actions which would alter
eir Piece position."

2. Sitting Duck [Amendment]

Reword Rule 2.8.6 (Running with Scissors) to:-

"While a Player is carrying a Parcel, e skips the "Special Moves" section
of the Move Validity checks, and may not perform Actions which would alter
eir Piece position."

3. Smallprint [Amendment]

Rename Rule 1.11.2 to "Three-Point Courier", since you don't actually get
five Golds for it any more. Tsk.

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Proposal 511 - Where The Air Is Free [Amendment]

In Rule 1.4.25 (Release the Pigeons!), replace "Park Station" with "Park
Station outside Zone 2".

{ Comments : Lovely though Hyde Park is, it and a few other Parks are a bit
too near to Charing Cross, and render Pigeon release a little too
easy. }

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Proposal 512 - Lose the Force [Multiple]

{ Comments : This lessens the harshness of Forced Passing; having your LV
struck to zero just because you were too busy at work one day
is, as Game 9 showed, a bit harsh. If you're too late to
submit a Turn, you miss your go, which is perhaps enough - this
reworking just keeps LV and whatnot intact, and loses the
term "Forced Pass" because it's not really a Pass any more;
more a momentary period of Inactivity. }

1. I'm Going To Have To Hurry You [Amendments]

Through the Ruleset, replace the string "Forced Pass" with "Timeout".

2. British Rail Would Like To Apologise For The Late Arrival Of... [Amendment]

In Rule 1.5.0 (Valid Moves), replace the second bullet point with:-

* The word "Timeout"

3. Buck the Pass [Amendment]

Remove "or has a Forced Pass played for em" from Rule 1.5.2 (Passing).

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Proposal 513 - Green and Pleasant Land [Multiple]

{ Comment: 
It's been said before, but there aren't enough kinds of tokens. 

I suspect that previous efforts to increase the choice of tokens have 
failed because there was no particular reason for the new token types 
to exist - this Proposal seeks to create a token which is used for 
declarations and other such play which is neutral at the time. 
} 

[Amendment: Green Belt] 
Amend Rule 1.4.1 (Token Gesture) such that its second paragraph reads 
thus: 

"There are seven colours of Token - three Metallic (Gold, Silver and 
Bronze) and four Plastic (Black, Blue, Green and Red)." 

Add the following bullet point to the list of Token descriptions: 

"* Green : Neutral Actions (those which have no immediate effect on 
any Piece's position, such as declarations)" 

[Enactment: Ecofriendly] 
A Player may play the Neutral Action [Recycling] in order to gain a Green 
Token. This exchanges a pair of matching Plastic Tokens for a single Green 
Token. 

[Action: Recycling] 
Name: Recycling 
Type: Neutral 
Text: Recycling 
Duration: 5 minutes 
Cost: any two matching Plastic Tokens 

{ Comment: 
Just seems like a nice way to gain Green Tokens. Note that this wording 
does not prevent the recycling of Green Tokens into other Green Tokens: 
it is assumed that Players will have sufficient sense not to. 

Finally, we need something to do with all those Greens... 
} 

[Amendment: Brown Belt] 
Amend Rule 1.7.15 (Post-Move Actions) such that the following Actions gain 
an additional cost of 1 Green Token: 

[Courier Call] 
[Declaring ____ Gambit/Manoeuvre] 
[<Station> Wild] 

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Proposal 514 - Charge Card [Multiple]

{ Comment: 
Currently, there is only one way to win: collect Gold Tokens. This 
Proposal aims to introduce an alternative method which requires no 
token collection, hopefully moving away from the alarming resemblance 
to Monopoly. 

WARNING: Do not mistake Mornington Nomic for physical reality!! 
Real circuits do not work this way! 
} 

[Enactment: Current] 
Every Station on the LU map has a Current value associated with it, this 
value being directly related to its distance from the Meridian on the map. 

Current is the radial distance of the Station from the Meridian divided by 
the radial distance of the most remote Station on the Map expressed as an 
integer percentage. It is calculated using the formula - 

Current = int(station_radius / max_radius * 100) 

... where 'int' is a function which removes the real part of a number. 

{ Comment: 
Note that by using a percentage of the furthest point distance there is 
no need to specify units. All my calculations have been done using pixels 
on the GIF map, but paper inches, angstroms, or pico light years would do 
just as well. 

It should be obvious that calculating these Currents is going 
to be laborious by hand. Fortunately, I have a database which will do the 
work and a web page containing the results will be supplied should this 
Proposal pass. 

Amersham is the furthest point. 
} 

[Enactment: Charge] 
Each Piece has a Charge, being a signed integer percentage. A Piece's 
Charge always starts the Game at zero. If Charge exceeds 999% it becomes 
999%; if Charge is ever less than -999% ir becomes -999%. 

Charge is modified by passage along LU network Lines: the Piece's Charge 
has added to it the difference between the Currents at the start and end 
Stations using the following formula: 

new_Charge = old_Charge + end_Station_Current - start_Station_Current 

For example, Bond Street has a Current of 15. Moving from Tottenham Court 
Road (which has a Current of zero) to Bond Street would add 15 to the 
Charge; Moving in the other direction would remove 15 from the Charge. 

{ Comment: that's that defined then. Onto the point of the exercise... } 

[Amendment: Charge of the Light Brigade] 
Amend Rule 1.10.1 (A Shunting We Will Go) such that the second paragraph 
after the bulleted list reads as follows: 

"When a Shunt has been successfully performed, the Shunted Player's Piece 
is moved to the specified Station, both Shunter and Shuntee have 
their Line Velocity reduced to zero, and both Shunter and Shuntee have 
the same Charge of the mean of the Piece Charges prior to the Shunt." 

[Enactment: Charge of the Heavy Brigade] 
A Player may play the Action [Opening MC] for no cost if the Charge of eir 
Piece matches the Current of Mornington Crescent Station at the point at 
which eir Piece enters the Station. 

[Amendment: Cannon To the Left of Them] 
Amend Rule 1.7.16 (Neutral Actions) by modifying the cost for the Action 
[Opening MC] as follows: 

-3 Go if Charge does not match 

[Enactment: Charged Up] 
Upon enactment of this Rule, all Pieces in all Games in play will be given 
a Charge of zero. 

This Rule will then Repeal itself. 

{ Comment: That'll do for now. 

There are of course lots of other things we could do with Charge: 
- debar Pieces with Charge above a certain threshold from crossing 
a Polarised or electrified Circle 
- specify that isolated line sections have no Current, and hence do 
not modify Charge 
- limit LV for those with very high Charge 

... and there's plenty more where that came from. Fundamentally Charge 
is a counterpart to LV which is under less direct Player control, but 
which can still produce some interesting effects. 
}

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Proposal 515 - Turned Round [Multiple]

{ Comment: following on from the Station Fire duration debacle, an attempt 
to restore the original meaning. } 

[Amendment: Fires Don't Just Go Out, You Know] 
Amend Rule 1.9.2 (Escalator Fires) such that its second paragraph reads as 
follows: 

"If a Fire is spotted at a Station, that Station is Blocked for one round 
of Moves (that is the Fire Block has the same duration as the Block 
defined in Rule 1.9.1), and becomes Lightly Damaged." 

{ Comment: the wording of Block is a bit suspect too... } 

[Amendment: I Always Preferred Plasticine] 
Amend Rule 1.9.1 (Basic Blocks) such that its last paragraph reads thus: 

"A Block lasts for one round of Moves - the Station ceases to be Blocked 
after the Player who played the Block Moves once more (or would have 
Moved should e be Inactive)."

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From: Graeme Jefferis <se98gj@d...>
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 15:12:33 BST

Indeed, although I'd like a method of introducing new manouevres purely
via gameplay, at least for the moment. So I'm not sure with this one.

> Proposal 509 - Instrument of the Devil [Multiple]

Rather good, although hardly trad-Crescent, and maybe a little on
the cheap side although that can easily be changed. I'm not really
happy with introducing more actions that rely on specific stations
though: for one thing, it makes international translation trickier.
Not really enough of a problem in itself to make me vote against. But
I still think we ought to be encouraging genericism rather than
specificism.

> of Wilding and Homing whilst carrying them. }

Fair enough.

> In Rule 1.4.25 (Release the Pigeons!), replace "Park Station" with "Park

Except, unfortunately, this still allows Pigeon-Fancying in Zone 1.

> Proposal 513 - Green and Pleasant Land [Multiple]

Very nice. Should give us plenty of scope for now.

> Proposal 514 - Charge Card [Multiple]

It's a monster!

> token collection, hopefully moving away from the alarming resemblance 

This is nice but really, really confusing. And I can see playing with
Charge in all games is going to make a simple move rather time-consuming. 
It's the sort of thing that may require placing in a Complex Ruleset so
that only those who feel up to the mental strain need attack it. 

> work and a web page containing the results will be supplied should this 

Yes, but checking all this is still going to be an awful lot of work. 
Although I appreciate that MC has fiendishly complex aspects, in this
adaptation I don't think we can realistically expect to live up to them.
I'd like MN to be a little more complex, certainly, but this idea involves
a lot of work with very little bearing on the game. Tactically it's all
rather puzzling. What exactly is the Current of the Crescent, and how
likely is it that someone is going to acheive exactly that Charge?

It's at times like this that I start pondering things like 'Rule Trials'...
But then, I suppose merely playing with the rule, and the process of
proposing Repeals, is essentially the Trial on a rule. We may be wiser
to let this one in and repeal it if it proves to be overly difficult
to play. Poor PaulWay! 

An interesting bundle of ideas this week. I'll have to have a brainstorm
sometime and come up with something /really/ evil...

-Graeme.

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From: Graeme Jefferis <se98gj@d...>
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 15:20:49 BST

Oh, yes, and I'd like to put myself up as a Mentor. I'm still
prone to the occasional error but I finally feel as if I've got the
way of things.

Ta,
-Graeme.