Subject: MN: Year 2, Week 33: Proposals

From: Kevan Davis <kdavis@i...>
Date: Tue, 08 Dec 1998 13:06:50 +0000

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MORNINGTON NOMIC

Proposals for Voting on in Week Thirty-Three
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Proposal 562 - Tithey Slove [Multiple]

1. Diminishing Returns [Amendment]

Reword Rule 1.7.31 (Tithe) to:-

A Player may Tithe a particular Zone by playing the Action "[Tithe
<Zone>]" where "<Zone>" is a London Underground Zone. This marks that
Zone as being Tithed until the end of the Actioning Player's next Turn.

If a Player performed a "[Tithe <Zone>]" Action during eir previous
Turn, e may perform the "[Collecting Tithe]" Action to reap its
benefits; upon performing this Action, the Actioning Player is permitted
to gather a Tithe of a single Token from each Token bearing entity
currently within the Zone which e Tithed last Turn.

Token bearing entities are Player Pieces and Token Stacks. The Tithe for
a Player Piece is a Token of the Actioning Player's choice. The Tithe
for a Token Stack is its topmost Token. 

2. Tax Fiddle [Amendment]

Amend the "[Tithe <Zone>]" Action so that it costs "7-Zone" Blue Tokens,
and add a new Action:-

[Collecting Tithe] 1.7.31 1 Bu

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Proposal 563 - Calling Off the Subs in a Louder Voice [Multiple]

{ Comments : A reproposal of something from Week 11; the idea of removing the
concept of Move Substitution Actions. Since there are only four of
them, three of them workable as Wild-style pre-Moves and the other
as a post-Move "only after a Pass" thing (which is actually how
Rule 1.7.9 is worded anyway), there seems little reason to keep
the Action type. This is just a rewording of the old Proposal,
tidied in places and amended to reflect any changes in the ruleset
since its conception.

Last time there was some minor scuffle about the horrors of being
able to perform a Wild-style pre-Move Action and then not use it
to Move - although still unsure how much of an issue this is, it's
been addressed in the new section eight of this proposal. }

1. Number Thirteen, Your Time Is Up [Amendment]

In Rule 1.7.1 (Action Types), remove the "Move Substitution Actions" list
element.

2. Crooked Strile [Amendment]

Reword Rule 1.7.12 (Basic Striles) to:-

If a Player's Line Velocity is six or more, e may perform a Strile via
the pre-Move Action of "[Striling]".

Upon performing this Action, all Strilable Stations become Valid Moves
for the remainder of the Actioning Player's Turn. A Station is said to
be Strilable if it has a Token Stack, and if that Token Stack is
identical to the Stack at the Player's current Piece location.

{
Comments: Oddly enough, the bit about not adding Tokens to a Stack in the
Turn which you Strile away from it is superfluous, since you
can only drop Tokens in the post-Move Phase.
}

3. Stubble [Amendment]

Reword Rule 1.4.3 (Stubbery) to read:-

If a Player owns the Ticket Stub for the Station eir Piece is situated
at, e may perform the pre-Move Action "[Stub Link]" - all Stations
which e has Ticket Stubs for are considered Valid Moves for the remainder
of eir Turn.

4. Walk / Don't Walk Away From Me [Amendment]

Reword Rule 1.7.10 (Walk the Walk) to read:-

A Player may perform the Action of "[Walking]". If this Action has been
performed, the Actioning Player's LV becomes zero (and may not be
adjusted for the remainder of eir Turn), all Stations within Walking
Distance of the Player's Location become Valid Moves for the remainder
of the Turn.

Two Stations are within Walking Distance if they are adjacent to each
other on the Map. In addition, the following Stations are within Walking

Distance of each other:-

* Wimbledon (DS) and South Wimbledon (NT)
* Ruislip (MP) and West Ruislip (CN)
* Sudbury Town (PD) and Wembley Central (BL)
* Northwick Park (MP) and Kenton (BL)

5. Paperwork [Amendment]

Add "Striling" with a pointer to Rule 1.7.12, "Stubbery" with a pointer to
1.4.3, and "Walking" to Rule 1.7.10, to the list of things with affect Move
Validity (all Special Moves), in Rule 1.5.0.

6. More Paperwork [Amendment]

In Rule 1.7.3 (Move Substitution Actions), move "Striling", "Stub Link" and
"Walking" to the list of pre-Move Actions (reducing their durations by ten
minutes, since they're now made *as well* as a Move, rather than in place
of one), and "Visiting <Place>" to the post-Move Actions list.

7. Dive, Dive, Dive [Repeal]

Repeal Rule 1.7.3 (Move Substitution Actions).

8. Mana Burn [Amendment]

To the Valid Move list in Rule 1.5.0 (Valid Moves), add the following
section:-

7. Unused Actions

* If the Actioning Player performed a pre-Move Action to make a
particular type of Move Valid, and did not play such a Move,
eir Move becomes Invalid.

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Proposal 564 - Mornington Croissant [Special Ruleset]

{ Comments : I forget whether ISIHAC's Mornington Croissant was food-related
or played in French, but I've opted for the former - this Special
Ruleset merely imposes the amusing restriction that all Moves
and Station references should be food puns. I occasionally used
to whine at the York Server that I had to pass in a themed game
because there weren't any relevant puns that were also valid
Moves - it should be interesting to see how this turns out.

A French version of Mornington Crescent strikes me as equally
intriguing (having passed bits of the ruleset through
Altavistas's translation thing, there are some quite nice
words suggested for our basic Action lexicon) - if we try this
and it doesn't really work, I might make Mornington Croissant
into that instead. }

1. Paranomasia [Enactment]

Whenever the name of a Station is mentioned in a Play in a Mornington
Croissant Game, it should include a food-related pun, such that both a
unique Station name and a food reference are sufficiently clear. If this
criteria is not met, that Turn is Illegal.

For the purposes of all rules other than this one, a punned Station name
shall be treated as if it were the actual Station name; Players are free
to make different puns for the same Stations.

An example Play would be:-

Cryer : [LV+2] Angel Cake (NT) [Shunting Rushton to Hampstead
Sandwich] [Striling to Mornington Croissant]

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Proposal 565 - The Narg Clamp [Multiple]

Enactment: The Narg Clamp explained

A Player may perform the Action of "[Narging <Player>]", where <Player> is a
Player with a Piece adjacent to the Actioning Player's Piece position. A
Narged Player gains a "Narg Clamp" Possession. Narg Clamps are
Indestructable Possessions.

If a Player is carrying a Narg Clamp, e may only move horizontally or
vertically. E cannot move on a Line Segment which is not completely
horizontal or vertical. E may not move to or through Mornington Crescent,
and may not play any actions which require the expenditure of a blue token.

A Player may destroy a single Narg Clamp which they are carrying, by
performing the Action of "[Anti-Narg]" whilst at Tottenham Court Road.

{Sorry, just borrowing more things from MC at York. Wilding is an
acceptable way of escaping any completely diagonal line segments.}

Enactment: The Narg Clamp Actions

[Narging <player>]	20mins 1 Red, 1 Bronze, 1 Blue

[Anti-Narg]	10mins	1 Black

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Proposal 566 - The Tollpuddle Martyrs [amendment]

Change the cost of the "[Toll to <Player>]" action to 2 Bronze tokens.

{seems much fairer to me, and gives more incentive to actually pass through
other players' home stations, as well as putting a stop to the tactic of
crippling a player by shutting them off down a dead end with your choice of
home station}

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Proposal 567 - Wild Card [action]

Action: Wild Card
Type: Post Move
Duration: 10 mins
Cost: 4 Blue

A Player may play the post-move action 'Wild Card' to reverse the current
order of play. Playing order remains reversed until the Wild Card action is
played again (whether by the same or a different player).

{an idea swiped from Uno}

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Proposal 568 - Jump Jump [action]

Action: Jump
Type: Post Move
Duration: 30 mins
Cost: 4 Red

A Player may play the post-move action "Jumping <Player>" , where <Player>
is the name of the player whose turn it would normally be next. The named
player's turn is skipped and it becomes the turn of the subsequent player,
as if the named player had been inactive.

{another idea nicked from Uno}

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Proposal 569 - Aviaries (Regulation) Bill [Amendment]

Amend Rule 1.4.25 (Release the Pigeons!) by inserting the following text 
after paragraph 1: 
"No Player may carry more than four Pigeons at any one time. If this limit 
is exceeded at the end of that Player's Turn, then the number of Pigeons 
carried shall be reduced accordingly. 
"In addition, if no Pigeons have actually been caught that Turn, and more 
than two Pigeons are held by the Player, then a single Pigeon escapes the 
Player's grasp and the number of Pigeons held is reduced by one." 
{ Comment: 
Obviously inspired by Kevan's avian avarice in Game 11, but mainly 
intended to limit a perhaps over-powerful feature. 
The four pigeons come from having one in each coat pocket and one in each 
hand. The two which can easily be carried are considered to be in pockets 
(I don't think pigeons are going to be happy carried in hands for long). 
I was seriously considering the Player losing a Papery possession each 
Turn as well from Pigeon damage (perhaps even one per Pigeon?) but 
thought that might be a bit much. 
} 

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---

From: Kevan Davis <kdavis@i...>
Date: Wed, 09 Dec 1998 12:29:13 +0000

>This seems to be a subtle attempt to alter the meaning of Walking because it 
>omits the first condition from the current form of 1.7.10: 
>" * To travel between two Stations of the same name on different lines 
> which are not co-located on the map (eg between Waterloo Interchange 
> and Waterloo (JL), or between Turnham Green (PD) and Turnham Green 
> (DS))" 
>Since this condition was the original purpose of introducing Walking, it 
>seems unnecessarily sly to rework the meaning of the Rule under the cloak 
>of something else more desirable. 
>(I seem to remember making this point before...)

Oh. Tsk. You're absolutely right, yes - I meant to take a closer look at
this before sending off the Proposal, but evidently forgot about it.

Taking a closer look at it in daylight, though, I'm curious as to why
you're so keen to keep such walk-routes - is there really any benefit
to walking from Turnham Green (PD) to Turnham Green (DS)? If one line's
been Power-Failed then you can prepare to escape along the other, this
is true, but Power-Failures only last one Round anyway, so you'd be
free to move off via the District next Turn.

Sorry to have overlooked it, anyway - if I'd realised I'd have left it
as it was and proposed a change next week, rather than foolishly
jeopardising a clean-up Proposal with an irrelevant amendment. If this
Proposal passes, and unless you say "Oh, okay, we can lose that bit
about walking around co-locateds", I'll repair Walking next week.

>acceptable way of escaping any completely diagonal line segments.}

It's not, actually, since it still counts as a Move. I suppose it's probably
fairly safe to rely on the loopholes of the Actions which Move your Piece
without checking for Blocked Stations and the rest, but even so this strikes
me as a bit overpowerful for its cost. Unless you're Narged on one of the
two bits of line running horizontally and vertically from Tottenham Court
Road, it makes life rather too difficult.

>crippling a player by shutting them off down a dead end with your choice of

This makes Home Stations far too weak, for me - in particular the Hoarding
Action, which becomes laughable when anyone can wander in and help emselves
for two Bronzes. Maybe a reduced toll for passing through, but I happen to
*like* the lobster-potting, even if there's very little hope of it ever
actually working, with Charge Tunnelling, Stupid Compass Tricks, Terminus
Slingshotting and everything else.

>{an idea swiped from Uno}

Interesting, but surely this should be "Reverse"? Either way, it should be
a decent addition, provided we can keep track of things alright (maybe
reversing the Token Table for the duration would be easiest, since I always
just glance at that and compare it to the message sender, to see if it's
my go).

Incidentally, I was up until about 1am last night playing that Uno/Bartok
version of Mornington Crescent against (some may remember him from his
fleeting York Server appearances) Sandy - having ironed out a few problems
and established a reasonable starting ruleset, it's looking to be a
fiendishly, fiendishly playable game. Expect a Web page about it later
this week, with a downloadable Word file of the cards.

>as if the named player had been inactive.

Interesting. I fear it'll make for some very easy Crescent denials, though -
aside from Ruttsborough discounts, I can easily imagine Players (particularly
Team-mates) conspiring to deny the near-Winner eir Win. Since it's fairly
easy to get four Reds together each round, it troubles me how simple it'd be
to lock certain players out of the game entirely.

>Player's grasp and the number of Pigeons held is reduced by one." 

Hmm. I'm not sure I entirely approve - this just encourages players
to sit at Charing Cross and wait until they can suddenly Wild or Home
to a suitable Park station. The main Pigeon weakness was the fact
that they all fly away if you're Shunted - perhaps a Parcelesque "no
non-standard moves if you're carrying Pigeons" approach would suit
the problem better.

Kevan

--
kdavis@i... - http://www.innotts.co.uk/~elusive/kevan - UIN: 5998366
"I was skimming stones, I killed a swan."
-- My Life Story, "Welcome to my Archipelago"