The Law of the Jungle

[Jehoshua]

Ooc: Already claimed the gems, Dot.

You don't own the gems, you merely start our as a poor, insignificant toiling tenant of the land. Furthermore each tile can have multiple tenants (which is why you, I and dot are all on the gem tile)

 

[dot80]

I just hope all the other tenants don't disappear...

 

[GreyWithAnE]

It's possible a city could work on producing 10 different things over a council session, spending 1 turn working on each.

Whoa! The rules do say "gameturn," now that I looked. Glad I asked.

So this means that 10 points of Crafstmanship (per city) and 10 points of Wisdom can be given out each council session?

Again, pardon all the questions. I'm kind of a rules buff, if you haven't noticed .

 

[yahzuk]

You've probably all heard this story:

Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed? The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine. Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster. He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He nspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life. He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed! A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"

So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer ......................... $ 2.00
Knowing where to tap ............................ $ 9,998.00

Think of this game in that way. You've got a very limited toolbox. During the council session, your character only gets to do 2 actions, and you only get to pick from a list of about 25 choices (or kinda 35 as attack has a bunch of different options within it).

I'm really looking forward to some of the in-character writing that I know many of you will do as we get going, because that adds tremendously to the flavor of the game. But ultimately, what this game comes down to, what you actually get to as a character comes down to pick 2 actions off a list every council session. That's it. You could do it at random if you wanted to.

If I didn't give you a limit, I'm sure you could easily choose at least 10 useful actions to do most council sessions. But then you wouldn't have to think nearly as hard. Incidentally, I'm sure someone is eventually going to use the proposed rule change mechanic to propose increasing the limit. I'm telling you now the answer will unequivocally be no, each and every time. Propose anyway, because I will enjoy collecting your 25 pt tribute, but the answer will be no.

In the end, the players who are most successful in this game, will be the ones who best figure out where to tap.

 

[yahzuk]

So this means that 10 points of Crafstmanship (per city) and 10 points of Wisdom can be given out each council session?

So... if the way to increase your wisdom/craftsmanship is have your research/production project picked the most often....
and... the way to get your research/production project picked the most often is to have the highest wisdom/craftsmanship.....
What can we conclude in summary.........

(Refer back to the very first line of the very first post )

 

[yahzuk]

Some rule adjustements:

• Added note about tenants of Tlatoani (section 5)
• Added rules about city happiness and angry mobs of NPC peasants (section 5)
• Adjustment to determining research/production - hammers/beakers get used up as selections made - reducing chance of same character always picked (section 6)
• Adjustment to "honorable" attacks - point gain for winning based on enemy's points, not your own. Reduces benefit of attacking significantly weaker characters. (section 10)

 

[yahzuk]

(MPU gold expenditure 9 on food, 10 on fame)

9 gold gets you 3 food.

Cost to increase 1 pt of Fame is (Current level +1)^2
Therefore going from 0 to 1 costs 1 gold, 1 to 2 costs 4, and 2 to 3 costs 9
Your spending will be interpreted as spend 5 gold to increase 2 pts of Fame

 

[DefoesRightBoot]

Yahzuk, am I likely to lose any realistic chance of being successful in this if I don't sign up for another few weeks? I don't have time to put into it at the moment but it looks interesting, so I'm hoping I can join up later on and still compete?

 

[CivOasis]

OOC: didn't realize there could be multiple tenants per tile.

 

[Princeof Persia]

I Join as Prinz von Perzien, in the House of Sparthage.

 

[Jehoshua]

In the House of Sparthage you say, now that is most intriguing, Im sure Tezcatlipoca, He who is our Lord will savour your sacrificed souls in the event you rise to rulership.

Either way with your name you'd fit right in within Government and Politics, where we happen to be ruling the glorious Persian Empire. (yes another shameless advertisement)

 

[GreyWithAnE]

I Join as Prinz von Perzien, in the House of Sparthage.

You may have to join the game as your own house, then take an action to Join Sparthage's later. Depends on what the Great Yahzutl will allow.

But welcome anyway! Always good to see a return of the America's Fist-ers...although maybe that came out wrong

 

[Jehoshua]

Yahzukatl

 

[CivOasis]

Yahzukatl

Yacatecuhtli? (God of travelers and merchants, especially when combined)

 

[yahzuk]

You may have to join the game as your own house, then take an action to Join Sparthage's later.

 

[yahzuk]

Yahzuk, am I likely to lose any realistic chance of being successful in this if I don't sign up for another few weeks? I don't have time to put into it at the moment but it looks interesting, so I'm hoping I can join up later on and still compete?

You're certainly welcome to join any time. I believe that someone joining later in the game can still be competitive, but there are a lot of unknowns here. Probably safe to say that your strategy needs to change when you join later than if you join in the beginning. But some of the players starting out now will get killed off, and if they choose to join up again could be in exactly the same position as you.

If you don't have a lot of time but are planning to keep an eye on the game, you could consider joining now and enlisting in the warrior unit. To be honest, I don't know exactly how well that would turn out. It'd be an experiment for sure....

But as long as you're not the Captain, you'll still benefit from whatever the unit does and the free food ration will cover your needs for at least a while. And worst case, somebody kills you or you outgrow the rations and starve to death, and your character gets removed from the game - putting you in exactly the same position as if you hadn't joined now, so what's to lose?

 

[JohannaK]

Just a couple of questions:

Which will be the length of each session?

Will there be some mid-session break so you can show the results of the first action of each character in order to better decide the second one?

 

[yahzuk]

Just a couple of questions:

Which will be the length of each session?

Will there be some mid-session break so you can show the results of the first action of each character in order to better decide the second one?

I think I will break up the council session, both to give characters a chance to respond to the first part and also to split up my workload a bit. For communication purposes, I'm planning to call the parts "Morning" and "Evening".

Planning to start off making each part 3 days.

 

[JohannaK]

Thanks. I find this organisation is much better than the classic nearly-a-week length.

 

[SmugKitteh]

I'll join as Mixtli from the house of Mexica.