Subject: MN: Year 3 Week 32 Proposals

From: "MN Speaker" <speaker@d...>
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1999 21:08:16 -0000

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MORNINGTON NOMIC

Proposals for Voting on in Week Thirty-Two
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Proposal 942 - Denial in the Lion's Den [Multiple]

[Amendment: Half and Half]

Amend Rule 1.18.4 (Deny Everything!) such that it's second from last
paragraph reads thus:

Such a Denial Action may only be played after the Player who is
attempting
to complete the Manoeuvre has played the penultimate Move in that
Manoeuvre ie there is only one Move remaining before completion. The
Denying Player gains the reward for completing the Manoeuvre instead.

{ Comment: there's actually very little incentive for Denials at the
moment, especially for some of the more trivial Gambit rewards (anything
with but a single Token really isn't worth it). }

[Enactment, Section 2.6: A Likely Story]

A Player may not Deny a Manoeuvre played by a Team mate.

{ Comment: ... particularly if the Denying Player is mysteriously
ineffective in eir Denial. }

[End of Denial in the Lion's Den]

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Proposal 943 - Calling Dr. Spin [Multiple]

Rule 1.17.x - A Close Call

The Call of a Station is equal to the number of non-overlapping Line
Segments emanating from the Station.
For instance, the Call of Camden Town is 4, while Baker Street has a Call
of 10, and Brixton has a Call of 1.
The Call of a Ghost Station is 0.

Rule 1.17.x - Spin Doctors

The Spin of a Move is equal to the LV of the Move multiplied by the Call
of the Station Moved to.
The Spin of a Station is equal to the Spin of the latest Move to that Station.
Until a Station has been Moved to in a Game, its Spin equals its Call.

[No, I haven't the faintest idea about what to do with these terms, but that
may come.]

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Proposal 944 - A New Kind of Sucker [Multiple]

[Amendment: Beats As It Sweeps...]

Add the following possession to the table in Rule 1.4.18 (The Emporium):

| Vacuum Cleaner | 6 Br | Large, Electrical |

[Action: Vizhke's Voracious Vacuum]

Action: [Vacuuming <Station>]
Phase: Post-Move
Duration: 15 mins
Cost: none

If a Player is carrying a Vacuum Cleaner Possession, e may perform
the Post-Move Action of "Vacuuming <Station>", where "<Station>" is
any Station which the Actioning Player's Piece has passed through, or
started or ended eir Move at, and which contains a Token Stack. This
has the effect of picking up all the tokens in the nominated token
stack in one go.

The [Vacuuming] Action may not be performed in the same Turn as a
[Claiming] Action.

Underground Stations are not, despite the best efforts of the staff,
particularly clean places. When a Vacuum Cleaner is used, it will
pick up various detritus alongside the Tokens desired and eventually
it will fill up. To indicate this fact, each time that the Action is
played an asterisk is appended onto the Vacuum Cleaner possession
used in the luggage rack - these asterisks indicate how full the
Vacuum Cleaner is, and as such are transferred with the Vacuum
Cleaner should its ownership change. Once the Vacuum Cleaner has
three asterisks next to it, it is considered full and is destroyed.

[End of A New Kind of Sucker]

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Proposal 945 - Anti-MC [Special Ruleset]

{ Comment: I've assumed that this variant should go in Volume 4, since
its goal is quite manifestly at variance with the aim of winning by
playing MC. }

Rule 4.x.1 - Own Goals Allowed

In an Anti-MC Game, the Winner is the last Player to Move to
Mornington Crescent.

If a Player Moves to MC, e has lost. Eir Piece is removed from the
board, eir name is parenthesised in the Token Table, all eir
possessions are discarded, and e takes no further part in the Game.

{ Comment: the name remains in the token table to allow points to be
tallied more easily at the end. }

Rule 4.x.2 - Accept No Substitutes

Once a Game has begun, no further Players may join without the
consent of all other Players in that Game.

After any Player has lost, no further Players may join under any
circumstances.

Rule 4.x.3 - Open House

Mornington Crescent is considered to be open, so that Opening MC
does not need to be played in order to Move there.

All Station, Lines and Line Segments are considered to be Open at
all times of day, and no Lines are considered to be Under
Construction.

Rule 4.x.4 - Passage to East India

Players may not Pass or Farkle unless forced to do so by
circumstances beyond their control. In other words, if a legal Move
is open to them, then they must play it.

Rule 4.x.5 - Grrr! Aaaargh!

All aggressive Actions, whether direct or indirectly in their effect
on Players, have their costs reduced by two tokens.

Rule 4.x.6 - Please Leave Your Seven League Boots Outside

Players may not play the Action of [Home] other than on eir first
Move. They may also not play the Action of [Wild].

Rule 4.x.7 - Droning Off

There is no Drone.

[End of Anti-MC]

MN Speaker
-"I regret to say that we of the FBI are powerless to act in cases of oral-genital intimacy unless
it has, in some way, obstructed interstate commerce." -- J. Edgar Hoover

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From: "Snow" <snowl@s...>
Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 21:21:49 -0000

> Segments emanating from the Station.

What does overlapping mean in this context?

> Until a Station has been Moved to in a Game, its Spin equals its Call.

How is the Spin of a Station to be recorded after the piece has left?

> [No, I haven't the faintest idea about what to do with these terms, but that

I'd rather have something to do with them before inserting them in the Ruleset.

> Proposal 944 - A New Kind of Sucker [Multiple]

Hmm.

> on Players, have their costs reduced by two tokens.

Two Tokens of the Actioning Player's choice?

Snow
-Did you know that the Intel 810 chipset has a built in true-random number generator?

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From: "Kevan Davis" <kevan@s...>
Date: Thu, 09 Dec 1999 01:20:01 -0800

> Segments emanating from the Station.

Jolly good, if a little under-defined. "The Call of Morden" has fine
Lovecraftian potential, regardless.

> How is the Spin of a Station to be recorded after the piece has left?

This does seem a bit too much to keep track of. Something that'd work
superbly with a board game or computer game, but only serves to make
things more awkward, through email.

> I'd rather have something to do with them before inserting them in
the Ruleset.

I don't know; it might be more interesting to define the skeleton of
Call and Spin, then see what people can think of doing with it - such
springboarding is perhaps a helpful path to be treading. (As Paul said
in a Lounge somewhere, or possibly through private email, the idea of
encouraging all Players to concentrate on a given aspect of the Ruleset
seems like a positive idea, and I think this goes just as much for the
implementation of new mechanics as for the repair of old ones.)

> Two Tokens of the Actioning Player's choice?

And how is "aggressive" defined? (Although the Token colours list Blue
as "Indirectly Aggressive" and Red as "Directly Aggressive", these seem
far more guidelines than methods of interpreting Actions. "Out of
Knip", "Cascade Kill" and whatever else surely don't qualify as
Aggressive.)

> -Did you know that the Intel 810 chipset has a built in true-random
number generator?

Brownian motion of air particles?

Kevan

--
kevan@s...
http://www.stormloader.com/kevan

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From: "Ole Andersen" <palnatoke@g...>
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 15:52:38 +0100

: > Proposal 943 - Calling Dr. Spin [Multiple]
: >
: > Rule 1.17.x - A Close Call
:
: > The Call of a Station is equal to the number of non-overlapping Line
: > Segments emanating from the Station.
:
: What does overlapping mean in this context?

To pick an example:

Surrey Quays (EL) has 7 Line Segments emanating from it: to Shoreditch, to
Whitechapel, to Shadwell, to Wapping, to Rotherhithe, to New Cross and to
New Cross Gate. The first 5 of these overlap on Surrey Quays-Rotherhithe, so
they are counted as just one. Hence, the Call of Surrey Quays is 3.

Kevan answered Snow:
: > > The Spin of a Station is equal to the Spin of the latest Move to
: that Station.
: > > Until a Station has been Moved to in a Game, its Spin equals its
: Call.
: >
: > How is the Spin of a Station to be recorded after the piece has left?
:
: This does seem a bit too much to keep track of. Something that'd work
: superbly with a board game or computer game, but only serves to make
: things more awkward, through email.

We would probably only want to keep track of Spin in a number of cases.
Permanent Spin Tracking would be killing, I guess.

:
: > > [No, I haven't the faintest idea about what to do with these terms,
: but that
: > > may come.]
: >
: > I'd rather have something to do with them before inserting them in
: the Ruleset.
:
: I don't know; it might be more interesting to define the skeleton of
: Call and Spin, then see what people can think of doing with it - such
: springboarding is perhaps a helpful path to be treading. (As Paul said
: in a Lounge somewhere, or possibly through private email, the idea of
: encouraging all Players to concentrate on a given aspect of the Ruleset
: seems like a positive idea, and I think this goes just as much for the
: implementation of new mechanics as for the repair of old ones.)

The proposal is only *defining*, not *implementing*, basically because I
only got half an idea.

Ole

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From: "Snow" <snowl@s...>
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 23:11:20 -0000

> they are counted as just one. Hence, the Call of Surrey Quays is 3.

Oh I see, clever. Why not just have the number of adjacent Stations? Less clever, but easier to
understand without examples.

Snow
-"I'm the operator with my pocket calculator"
--Kraftwerk

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From: "Snow" <snowl@s...>
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 23:35:11 -0000

> Brownian motion of air particles?

Radiation from a resistor.

Snow
-Discovering that CDs don't just snap in half when you bend them, but explode into a multitude of
high velocity shrapnel all heading straight for your eyes and leave a pretty layer of glittery stuff
all over the room.

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From: "Ole Andersen" <palnatoke@g...>
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 06:02:01 +0100

Snow wrote:
:
: Oh I see, clever. Why not just have the number of adjacent Stations? Less
clever, but easier to
: understand without examples.
:

Well, you're right. That would be easier.

The main difference comes with, say, Sloane Square. It has 2 adjacent
Stations, but it is connected to each of these by 2 lines, so that makes 4
Line Segments.

So, in fact, a wording like:
"The Call of a Station is equal to the number of Line Segments from the
Station to its adjacent Stations"
might be better.

Ole

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From: Dunx <dunx@d...>
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 06:35:58 +0000

> Lovecraftian potential, regardless.

I rather like the terminology used, as well. It's good to see Spin turning up.

> things more awkward, through email.

I've been soundly preempted on the point I was going to make, but there might be
an easy solution: we could record the Spins of Stations moved to as we Move to
them. The easiest place would probably be in the Line Code parentheses.

So, starting with an LV of 0 -

Dunx : [LV+3] Oval (VC, 6)

Not very pretty or easy to find though.

> implementation of new mechanics as for the repair of old ones.)

I'm with Kevan on this one - definitions with potential are always useful, as
long as they are well-defined and not too cumbersome.

> Knip", "Cascade Kill" and whatever else surely don't qualify as

Hmm... good point. The intention was to make the game less tortuous, since
attacking play is an essential part of this variant - I chose to use the loose
'aggressive' wording rather than the phraseology from Rutts since I wanted to
encourage Pegging of Line Segments.

One to fix and resubmit, or Pass and fix in situ?

--
Dunx
Ceci n'est pas un .sig

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From: "Snow" <snowl@s...>
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 20:30:35 -0000

> Station to its adjacent Stations"

That would be alot better.

Snow
-Daisy juggling.