Subject: Re: MN: Re: Subject: Moving

From: riffraff@n...
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 02:47:50 -0500

>Maybe I'm being too reductionist here, but...
>
>Dump game time, LV, limits on number of actions before/after move,
>changing line..... and replace them all with black tokens. It costs 1
>black token to move one station, 1 black token to change line and 2
>black tokens to play an action (in addition to the action's cost).

That would take a huge amount of black tokens, and simply handing them out
seems too artificial.

How about this:

Movement: up to 5 Stations per turn, with a charge of 1 Black Token for
each additional Station over 5. [5 free Stations seems necessary to me to
promote play on the entire board. Consider how long it would take to get
to Morden and back, even with free movement... without it, it becomes
essentially impossible... play would never get out of the Circle line.]

Line Changes: Can change Line at the beginning or end of the Move for free,
changes during the Move cost 1 Black per change.

Actions: 2 Actions per Turn (1 pre-move, 1 post-move - either one can be
played as a neutral), additional Actions cost 1 Green Token each. [Green
instead of Black because Blacks are movement-oriented tokens, and Green are
for generic purposes.]

This would require only a few more Blacks than usual... say, gain 1 Black
token for every 2 Intersections passed, or something like that. Also, the
Recycling necessary for Green Tokens would need to be changed, since using
an Action to do it would be silly, and there's no Game Time. My suggestion
would be to allow free Recycling of plastic tokens for Green tokens (1 for
1) at a few centrally-located Stations - say, Tower Hill, King's X,
Paddington, and Victoria.

(Or maybe at any Park/Plant/Green Station - that might be more intuitive,
although on the other hand there's a whole lot of them. I was originally
thinking just Green Stations, but there aren't _enough_ of those. Perhaps
just Parks and Greens? Is Limehouse a Green Station?)

Another question about movement: what about Escalators? Personally, I'm
thinking they should allow you to change line for free, but would still
count as an additional Station for movement. Pity they're all in one place
like that...

cheers,
--Riff

"This calls for a subtle blend of psychology and extreme violence."
--Vyvyan, "The Young Ones"

---

From: "Snow" <snowl@s...>
Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2000 13:44:19 +0100

> That would take a huge amount of black tokens, and simply handing
them out

OK, every time you enter a new zone you get black tokens eqivalent to
the zone number, the further you go from the centre the more blacks
you get, so you can afford to move. It also forces players to leave
zone 1 if they want to move. Maybe a free move of 2 or 3 stations
would be necessary.

> essentially impossible... play would never get out of the Circle
line.]

The trouble is that if the value is too low then you can't usefully
move outside zone 1, but if it's too high then you can traverse z1 in
1 or 2 moves. I feel that 5 is too high for inside z1, but a minimum
for outside.

> changes during the Move cost 1 Black per change.

OK

> instead of Black because Blacks are movement-oriented tokens, and
Green are

I'm not sure that we need so many Token colours, but that is a
discussion for another time. Suffice to say extra Actions cost extra
Tokens.

> count as an additional Station for movement. Pity they're all in
one place

Fine by me.

-- Annatov Snow
I can turn myself into the script from episode 11 of Buffy TVS using
only my mind.