Subject: MN: Re: Year 2, Week 42 Proposals

From: "Jonathan Ellis" <jonathan@f...>
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 1999 01:11:28 -0000

Proposal 615 - "Thank You For Not Smoking or Summoning Satan In the Church"

Replace the second paragraph of Rule 1.4.24 ("The Podume of Infinite
Darkness")
with:

"If there is no PoID in play, any Player may perform the Action of [Forging
PoID] to bring the PoID into play, in eir Possession, provided that e is
not located at a Holy Station."

{Comments:
This is to prevent a tricky loophole in the fourth paragraph:
"If a Player carrying the Podume of Infinite Darkness ends any Turn at a
Holy Station, the Podume is destroyed."
By this wording, a Player could move to a Holy Station, Forge the PoID,
drop it, and then charge-tunnel away. Since e doesn't end the turn at a
Holy Station, the PoID is not destroyed, and it remains there with no way
to destroy it, since the station it rests at is Blocked.
In fact, one could argue that the Player could remain at the Holy Station -
since they've dropped it, the PoID isn't in their possession at the end of
the Turn, and thus isn't destroyed.
}

Comments noted. I'm in favour of this one, though I've got a few of my
own plans for PoIDs... incluing a removal of the clause about shunting them
(having done so successfully myself on at least one occasion at Delphi)

Proposal 616 - Going Downhill Fast [Action]

{ Reimplementation of the Slippery Slope, as promised - becoming an =
optional LV increase when leaving a High or Hill. }

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Action Rule Duration Cost
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Freewheeling] 1.7.x
------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Player may perform the pre-Move Action of "[Freewheeling]" if eir
Piece is situated at a High or Hill Station. Upon performing this
Action, eir Line Velocity is increased by one.

Right. Good one.

Proposal 617 - The Midas Clamp [Action]

Whenever a Player carrying a Midas Clamp gains a Token, that Token
immediately becomes a Gold Token. If a Player carrying a Midas Clamp
Shunts a Token Stack, all Tokens in that Stack are replaced with Gold
Tokens.

If a Player is carrying a Midas Clamp, e may not perform any Actions
which require the expenditure of Gold Tokens.

A Player may destroy a single Midas Clamp in eir possession by
performing the neutral Action of "[Midas Cure]" whilst at Bank. This
Action may not be performed if the Actioning Player gained a Midas
Clamp earlier in the Turn.

This is, surely, unfairly advantageous to players who choose Home
Stations on one of the lines passing through Bank, and disadvantageous to
those who do not. The reason for this is, players who cannot gain Black
Tokens will soon run out of the ability to change Line... (other Tokens
needed for other Special Moves will, similarly, soon be run out of) and
players whose Home Stations are on a Line that passes through Bank can then
simply play "Home" (which of course, being a special move and at no cost,
doesn't incur the line-changing cost) and afterwards be able to move to Bank
at no cost, without changing line. Meanwhile, the people who aren't on the
same line as Bank will *never* be able to get to it, as all the tokens they
need will be immediately converted to gold.
Not to mention the fact of people passing and gaining 2 tokens, both
immediately converted to gold: someone whose home is at, say, Bethnal Green
would be in an obscenely rich position with nothing able to hurt him (sit on
Home Station, gain 2 gold tokens per turn until bored, move along to Bank at
an LV of 2, then you have loads of gold tokens - and of course can buy a
Money Belt, so you never lose any tokens - and head for MC next go.) This
would be especially bad in any game but the Long Game - remembering that it
only takes 3 golds to open MC - and terrible even there. Of course, probably
nobody would ever Midas Clamp anyone, because of just this eventuality - the
*last* thing you want is to not just allow but force your opponents to gain
gold tokens.)

Proposal 618 - Sling Your Hook [Amendment]

> { The Terminus Slingshot Action in the Ruttsborough Ruleset is, as has
> been commented, somewhat badly worded

Yes. I know. Unfortunately it was me that worded it without thinking...
Nice rearrangement, but I've got my own ideas which I was going to post next
week.

>To make it more Ruttsborough, I've changed it to a "pay a Black to set
> your LV to fifteen, if at a Terminus" thing. Far more in-theme than
> teleportation, I think you'll agree...

I'd prefer the terminus-to-terminus option to be kept - but removing
the reward at the end (maybe a bigger cost as well, or perhaps that the
player must reset an LV of at least 10 back to zero afterwards: a bit like
this week's Terminal Velocity amendment to Chalk Farm), and stating that the
move between the two passes through all the stations in between (rather than
being a teleport) and is thus prevented by blocks, sinkholes or damaged
stations... (in fact, maybe it should stop in such a situation at the
station before the block. It would give, for instance, some players the idea
of bulkheading Camden Town to slingshot from Morden to MC - and others would
then have to work out how to remove the bulkhead or repair the damaged
station, or drop a sinkhole in between the two stations...)
For me, the whole point is that it's a mad, out-of-control rush which
crashes into the buffers at the other end - not a simple "oh, you can move
at maximum velocity next turn", which doesn't sound so Ruttsborough as a
high-speed pile-up IMHO.

So, while I'll vote for this amendment this week (as it desperately
needs *some* form of amendment), I shall probably be proposing another
amendment next week along the lines I've mentioned above. (If the CF
Terminal Velocity amendment passes, expect an amendment for that as well so
that the move passes through all the stations in between - and is thus
brought up short by blocks, sinkholes etc.)

Jonathan.

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