Subject: MN: Sv: MC: A (single) player's perspective

From: "Ole Andersen" <palnatoke@g...>
Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 14:01:13 +0200

Paul wrote (after a lot of very relevant thoughts):

:We've already
:been ransacking the Encyclopaedia Morningtonia - should we make a few more
:fundamental changes to the way play is performed? Or am I in an
:evolutionary dead end?

I think the main element in our differences here is minimalism vs.
maximalism.

The minimalist tends to want few, simple rules, while the maximalist wants
all the add-ons and options.

The Nomic-mechanisms tend to favour the maximalist approach, I believe.

I see two ways of accomodating both approaches:

1) Make a minimal set of standard rules, and move all the 'fluff' to
various variant rulesets,
or
2) Keep the standard rules as they are now, and make a minimalist
variant.

I believe both ways are practicable. But we have to make a choice if we want
both minimalism and maximalism satisfied.

Ole

------------------------------------------------------------------------
eGroup home: http://www.eGroups.com/group/l-nomic-d
http://www.eGroups.com - Simplifying group communications

---

From: kevan@d...
Date: Tue, 11 May 1999 15:07:41 -0000

> I think the main element in our differences here is minimalism vs.

I don't think so - it's more a matter of whether we have Gloves and Socks and
Fishing in the Thames, or Splinks and Jessop Markers and Pickering over the
Diagonals. Real-life materialism versus the abstract rules of "proper"
Crescent.

> The Nomic-mechanisms tend to favour the maximalist approach, I believe.

Not really; I've played a few (mostly face-to-face) minimalist Nomics. It
depends entirely on the players, as does everything else.

> both minimalism and maximalism satisfied.

I think a minimalist variant might be interesting, shorn of the more frivolous
Actions and Possessions, but as we've discovered in the foreign-Map games,
there's an awful lot of "Oh, hang on, we can't use Freem Clamps because we're
not using Zones" problems when you try this.

It's really a matter of deciding whether to carry on with the real-life
aspects of our Crescent rules, or to backpedal a bit and forge ahead with
semi-random abstract jargon. (Although I suspect that, being in a democracy,
we've already got what most people are in favour of.)

Kevan

--
kevan@d...
http://members.xoom.com/asabove