Subject: Opening Update...

From: Devon Jacobs {Darkstar} <djacobs@n...>
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 07:47:44 -0400

As Speaker and Grand Silly Kniggit, I would like to officially welcome
everyone back to the game... 

As most of us have been in a coma for the past few weeks, myself
included, here's what's been going on:

All <bold>SCORE POINTS</bold> have been reset to zero

ALL Players other than myself are ACTIVE VOTERS

Aurora has withdrawn from the game (sniff, sniff... we'll miss you!)

The web pages have been overhauled (thanks Chuck!)

3 NEW players have joined!

<bold>TRANSFER OF POWER:

</bold>All the 'speaker stuff' has been transferred over to me, which
means that I can write as many props as I want, but can no longer vote. 
It also means that Chuck now has active voter status, so e can write
props and vote just like anyone else. Just a reminder, although the
speaker cannot vote, e CAN write letters of support for other's
proposals!

<bold>NEW PLAYERS:

</bold>over the break we had <bold>3 NEW PLAYERS</bold> join!!! so we
need volunteers for mentors ASAP!!!

I'd like to officially welcome to Our Nomic the following players:

Falcon Arendell

Joel Ricker

Adam Hrankowski

<bold>OLD BUSINESS:

</bold>Way back in January, we formed The Name Task Force (NTF) whose
duty it was to come up with a name for our fine Nomic... under Rule 328,
I hereby request a full status report from the NTF, to be received by the
speaker no later than Midnight, May 3, 2001.

<italic>328. ....The NTF reports to the Speaker. At any time the Speaker
can make requests of the NTF and receive a fulfillment of that request
within 3 calendar days. If the request is not fulfilled in the 3 day
period, the Speaker then may suspend operations of the NTF until the
request is filled....

</italic>GAME ON folks!!!!

.

/ \

| |

|.|

|.|

|:| __

,_|:|_, / )

(Oo / _I_

+\ \ || __|

\ \||___|

\ /.:.\-\

|.:. /-----\

|___|::oOo::|

/ |:<<_T_>:|

|_____\ ::: /

| | \ \:/

| | | |

\ / | \___

/ | \_____\

`-'

-Devon Jacobs-

-Grand Silly Kniggit-

--Speaker of Our Nomic--

---

From: smartgamer <sgamer@s...>
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 07:42:13 -0500

We're going to have to be careful- it seems there are two Adams in the
game. Me (Adam Norberg) and Adam Hrankowski.
I'll sign my name Adam N.; that should help clear things up.

Makes me think of elementary school where we had Kelly D., Kelly M.,
Lauren L.. Lauren S., Lauren R., Adam N.(me), and Adam L.

And that was in the same class.

About the NTF... I know I'm not on it, but I have an idea for those
who are: NomiCrazy...

Also, I am unleashing my Proposition on the world. I already have
one supporter... I think. See ABNPROP2, coming up... next on
the Our Nomic Discussion List!

--Adam N.

---

From: "JRicker" <joejava@d...>
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 09:10:37 -0400

I propose the following rule under SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL LOBBYIST.

"Ye Olde Rusty Lantern" (a storytelling game)

[Synopsis: the players (called Bards) are dealt a hand of cards. Each
card bears a word or phrase describing a possible story element. The
Bards take turns telling parts of a tale, playing cards by bringing the
corresponding story elements into the yarn. When a Bard finishes the
story by tying off all the loose ends and playing eir last card, e
wins.]

Equipment:

some cards (to be provided by the Barkeep)
Ale (generated as needed)
a solid wooden table and benches

The Barkeep

The Barkeep is the person who started the game. At the beginning of the
tale, the Barkeep shall announce the number of benches and the names of
the Bards who will start the tale.

(The Barkeep is considered the referee of the game.)

Bards

The Barkeep may not be a Bard. Anyone else may join (becoming a Bard) at
any time, unless there are already as many players as benches. Any Bard
may leave at any time. If it is a Bard's turn when e leaves, e is
considered to have passed. The Bards are all imagined to sit around a
table in the Barkeep's tavern, so whenever someone joins, the Barkeep
shall choose a place around the table for em to sit.

There must be at least two Bards for a tale to proceed, and no more
Bards than benches; any time this is not the case for a particular
instance of Ye Olde Rusty Lantern, that tale is suspended until the
requirements are both met. (In the meantime, Bards are free to join or
leave, but no cards may be played.)

Cards

The Barkeep shall privately make (or obtain) a long list of story
elements before starting the game. Each story element is represented by
one card. During the game, each card is either in the deck, held by one
of the Bards, on the table, or burned. They all start out in the deck.
The Barkeep keeps track of the cards. Each time the Barkeep posts a
public update of the game, he should post the number of cards held by
each Bard (but not which cards are held by whom), list the cards lying
on the table, and tell whose turn it is. Each Bard receives seven cards
upon joining, unless the Barkeep specified an alternate number at the
start of the game. When a Bard leaves, eir cards return to the deck.

When a Bard receives cards, the Barkeep chooses them randomly from the
deck and sends them to that Bard via private mail. If there are not
enough cards in the deck, the Barkeep shall either end the tale (lamely)
or add story elements to his list of cards. A card is added to the deck
for each new story element. The cards are then handed out as needed, and
the tale goes on.

Gameplay

As soon as the Barkeep is ready to begin, e chooses a Bard to go first
and names em publicly. It is that Bard's turn.

On eir turn, a Bard either tries to make a play, or passes. If e
successfully makes a play, it is still eir turn. When a play is denied
(which happens, alas, to the best Bards from time to time) or the Bard
passes, play goes to the next Bard, clockwise around the table.

Passing

A Bard may pass explicitly. Also, when the Barkeep notices that a Bard
is asleep (i.e. it has been eir turn continuously for three days or
more, and e has not tried a play in all that time) and posts a message
to that effect, that Bard is considered to have passed. When a Bard
passes, e receives a card.

If a Bard is asleep(i.e. passes by default)for three of eir turns in a
row(or more), then the Barkeep may announce, at the same time as
announcing that e is asleep, that that Bard has gone Under The Table. At
this point the Bard is removed from the game, and eir bench is
considered empty.

When a Bard passes explicitly, e may announce that e is discarding one
of the cards from eir hand, naming the card. That card is burned.

Plays

A Bard attempts a play by sending a public message with the word
"Lantern" (or "YORL") in the subject header. The text of the message
should be a reasonable amount of suitable prose to add to (or start) the
tale (150 to 300 words, or the length of previous segments, are good
guidelines). If the Bard has any cards, the last line of the message
should specify one of them.

The Barkeep shall then reply, either verifying that the play was
successful, or denying it. E may, in addition to verifying the play,
announce that the card thus played is a new Loose End. This is done
when, in the Barkeep's opinion, an interesting element is added to the
game and isn't resolved right away: a villain is introduced; a map is
found; a prophecy is made. When a card becomes a Loose End, it goes on
the table, face up. When a card is successfully played, but doesn't
become a Loose End, it is burned. [The tale isn't complete until all the
Loose Ends have been tied off.] When a Bard attempts to play a card but
is denied, the card is burned, and the Bard receives two cards to
replace it.

The Barkeep may deny a play for any of the following reasons: it is
incomprehensible; it is a non sequitur from the previous bit of the
story; it is not in the spirit of the game [e.g. the Bard is blatantly
and rudely playing to get rid of cards rather than for the fun of the
story]; it is too long or too short; the Bard has cards, but none of
them is specified; no card was specified, and no Loose Ends were tied
off; the play was attempted more than three days after the beginning of
the Bard's turn; or a card was specified, but the text didn't bring it
into the tale.

That last reason begs some explanation. The text of a play is required
to bring into the story the ideas specified on the card. [e.g. If a card
bears the word "disguise", the Bard may play it only if he works a
disguise into the story.] It's a matter of taste how central an idea
must be in order to qualify. Generally, it is insufficient simply to
discuss an item (it must be present), to mention the possibility of an
event (it must take place), or to have a character talk about another
character in dialogue (he must actually be introduced.) In any case, the
Barkeep's reply is final.

The Barkeep may, in addition to verifying the play, announce that one or
more of the Loose Ends on the table have been resolved. This means that
the most recent play has tied off those parts of the story. A Bard
receives one Ale for each Loose End tied off by eir play. Upon being
awarded an Ale, a player also receives a FairPlay Award.

Interruptions

A Bard may try to interrupt any play attempted by another Bard, either
before or after the Barkeep replies to it, by announcing the
interruption, along with the play being interrupted and the name of a
card the interrupting Bard holds. [The idea is that the story element on
this card is, by coincidence, a part of the story that the current Bard
is telling; the interrupting Bard now takes over the tale.]

An interruption never causes any of the tale to be discarded. Neither
does it have any effect on the success or denial of any play currently
being attempted. When a play and an interruption are both being
attempted, the Barkeep must reply to the play first (regardless of which
message e received first).

The Barkeep shall reply to each interruption, either verifying that it
was successful, or denying it. If the interruption is successful, then
it is immediately the interrupting Bard's turn, and the Bard who was
interrupted receives a card.

The Barkeep shall deny an interruption if the card specified is not one
the interrupting Bard has. In this case, one card is dealt to the
interrupting Bard, as a penalty.

The Barkeep shall deny an interruption if the story element on the
specified card was not sufficiently mentioned in the interrupted play.
In this case, the card is burned, and the interrupting Bard receives two
cards to replace it, as a penalty. Again, what qualifies as a sufficient
mention is up to the Barkeep, but in this case e is encouraged to be
lenient.

If an interruption is not denied for either of the above reasons, the
Barkeep shall deny it if it comes too late-- that is, either the
interrupted play was attempted more than three days ago, or it has
already been successfully interrupted with a different card. In this
case, the card is burned, and the Bard who attempted the interrupt is
dealt one card to replace it.

Winning

A Bard wins when all of the following are true: e has no cards, e was
the last to make a successful play, there are no Loose Ends, and there
are no unprocessed Interrupts. If the story isn't quite "done" yet, the
winning Bard may finish it however e pleases. Once that's done, the tale
ends.

For participating, the winning Bard receives 10 points. The Barkeep
receives 20 PPs. PPs are awarded to the partipating Barts in following
format:

Participated in all of the game turns == 20 PPs
Participated in at least 3/4ths of the game turns but less than all ==
15 PPs
Participated in at least 1/2 of the game turns but less than 3/4ths ==
10PPs
Participated in at least 1/4 of the game turns but less than 1/2 == 5
PPs

The Barkeep also has a total of 10 points to distribute for Fairplay
awards as e sees fit during the game or immediately after the game has
ended. The Barkeep may not distribute these points to emselves and may
not be kept.

-----------------------------------
Nomopoly III now open. Join Today!
http://www.justthefaqs.org/nomopoly/

---

From: smartgamer <sgamer@s...>
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 11:21:24 -0500

I'll support that one, looks like fun, IF:
You support my "The Game Is Afoot" minigame
rule, and add this as a 1 vs The World minigame
(1 is the Barkeeper, The World is the Bard Squad.)

Ahh, politics, the core of any Nomic.

I'll vote against it, by the way, if you don't negotiate...

(Insert evil laugh here.)

--Adam N.
----- Original Message -----
From: "JRicker" <joejava@d...>
To: <[email-masked]>
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 8:10 AM
Subject: [on_discussion] Proposal

> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> [email-masked]
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

---

From: Falcon Arendell <falcon.arendell@w...>
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 14:40:29 -0400

Two recommendations for this proposal:

Limit number of concurrent games to one.
Create a separate mailing list for this sub-game so that the non-sub-game
playing members of Nomic are not forced to watch.

Perhaps the historian can create a page to show "Our Story So Far."

__________________________________
Falcon Arendell
Founder of the Apathist Party
falcon@2...

"The clock on the Hudson City Savings
Bank billboard says 6:30, indicating nothing
but the hands' exhaustion"
M. Leyner

-----Original Message-----
From: JRicker [mailto:joejava@d...]
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 9:11 AM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: [on_discussion] Proposal

Equipment:

The Barkeep

Bards

Cards

Gameplay

Passing

Plays

Interruptions

Winning

---

From: Matthew Keppel <mattkeppel@y...>
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 15:08:53 -0700 (PDT)

Greeting and Salutations citizens of Nomicsylvania! 
As head of the NFT, it is my job to oversee the
renaming of our fair game. I hereby request all
current players to please submit at least one
suggestion for a new name. Suggestions can me
e-mailed to me directly (mattkeppel@y...) or via
the discussion list. Suggestions must be made no
later than Monday, May 7th at midnight. Once all
suggestions have been collected, the NTF will proceed
from there. Thank you for your time and happy gaming!

Your humble Nomic servant,
Matt Keppel
Lesser Silly Kniggit,
Head of the NFT,
and all around nice guy

PS - Adam N., your suggestion has been noted. Feel
free to submit more!

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices
http://auctions.yahoo.com/

---

From: smartgamer <sgamer@s...>
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 18:59:51 -0500

Another list of NTF suggestions:

Nomicsylvania (Look at how much we use the term.
Need I say more?)
Bribic (Making fun of "SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL
LOBBYIST"- see my "Let's Make A Deal" mail.)
Oh, No-mic!
Nomicool

Etc...

--Adam Norberg

---

From: "Mark Risen" <kandelar@n...>
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 22:24:18 -0700

charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

I'd like to mention that I'm a new player as well and wouldn't mind getting=
one of these 'mentors' if there are any available...

Thanks!
-Mark Risen
----- Original Message -----=20
From: Devon Jacobs {Darkstar}=20
To: [email-masked]=20
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 4:47 AM
Subject: [on_discussion] Opening Update...

As Speaker and Grand Silly Kniggit, I would like to officially welcome ev=
eryone back to the game...=20

As most of us have been in a coma for the past few weeks, myself included=
, here's what's been going on:

All SCORE POINTS have been reset to zero

TRANSFER OF POWER:
All the 'speaker stuff' has been transferred over to me, which means that=
I can write as many props as I want, but can no longer vote. It also means=
that Chuck now has active voter status, so e can write props and vote just=
like anyone else. Just a reminder, although the speaker cannot vote, e CAN=
write letters of support for other's proposals!

NEW PLAYERS:
over the break we had 3 NEW PLAYERS join!!! so we need volunteers for men=
tors ASAP!!!
I'd like to officially welcome to Our Nomic the following players:

Falcon Arendell
Joel Ricker
Adam Hrankowski

OLD BUSINESS:
Way back in January, we formed The Name Task Force (NTF) whose duty it wa=
s to come up with a name for our fine Nomic... under Rule 328, I hereby req=
uest a full status report from the NTF, to be received by the speaker no la=
ter than Midnight, May 3, 2001.

328. ....The NTF reports to the Speaker. At any time the Speaker can make=
requests of the NTF and receive a fulfillment of that request within 3 cal=
endar days. If the request is not fulfilled in the 3 day period, the Speake=
r then may suspend operations of the NTF until the request is filled....

GAME ON folks!!!!

.
/ \
| |
|.|
|.|
|:| __
,_|:|_, / )
(Oo / _I_
+\ \ || __|
\ \||___|
\ /.:.\-\
|.:. /-----\
|___|::oOo::|
/ |:<_T_>:|
|_____\ ::: /
| | \ \:/
| | | |
\ / | \___
/ | \_____\
`-'
-Devon Jacobs-
-Grand Silly Kniggit-
--Speaker of Our Nomic--

---

From: Falcon Arendell <falcon.arendell@w...>
Date: Tue, 01 May 2001 09:56:12 -0400

How about "Gnomic" in commemoration of all the tiny lives of the people of
Nomicsylvania.

_________________________________________________
"I was going to thank all the little people, but then I remembered
I am the little people"

Paul Willams
Oscar Acceptance Speech

---

From: smartgamer <sgamer@s...>
Date: Tue, 01 May 2001 11:39:42 -0500

Gnomic's already been done. Sorry.
--Adam Norberg

---

From: "Fur" <fur@w...>
Date: Fri, 4 May 2001 19:03:58 -0400

Joel,
Are you going to submit this as a proposal? I think its awesome and I would
love to play. If you need letters of support I will gladly support you.

-Jen

-----Original Message-----
From: JRicker [mailto:joejava@d...]
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001 9:11 AM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: [on_discussion] Proposal

Equipment:

The Barkeep

Bards

Cards

Gameplay

Passing

Plays

Interruptions

Winning

---

From: Matthew Keppel <mattkeppel@y...>
Date: Sun, 6 May 2001 15:31:05 -0700 (PDT)

My fellow Nomicsylvanians:

Just a reminder that tomorrow is the deadline for
suggesting an alternate name for Our Nomic. We've
already had some great suggestions, but as they say,
variety is the spice of life! I requested that each
player come up with at least one new name, but so far
I have recieved only a handful of responses. If you
haven't made your suggestion (or if you have and
continue to be inspired..), please send your idea
either to me (mattkeppel@y...) or the discussion
list ([email-masked]) no later than
midnight tomorrow. Get those suggestions in!

Matt Keppel
Lesser Silly Kniggit,
Head of the NFT,
and all around nice guy

---

From: "Mark Risen" <kandelar@n...>
Date: Mon, 7 May 2001 00:31:58 -0700

How about aNOMally or aNOMallia? :P