Thursday, November 29, 2012

Proposal: 2 Fast, 2 Furious

Passes 6-0. — Quirck

Adminned at 01 Dec 2012 10:08:58 UTC

Repeal the rule entitled The Black Mark.

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled Attention:

Each Crook has an Attention, an integer value tracked in the GNDT that can be between zero and 100, defaulting to zero.

Whenever a Squad successfully completes a Mark, every Crook in that Squad gains one Attention.

Add the following as a subrule of the rule called “The Team”, entitled 2 Fast, 2 Furious:

If the game is in a State of Con, then the Crook occupying a team role with the highest Attention is the Narc, and the Crook occupying a team role with the lowest Attention is the Right Hand Man. If the average Attention of all Crooks in the team, rounded down, is less than 3, then the Right Hand Man has achieved victory. If the average Attention of all Crooks in the team, rounded down, is greater than 8, then the Narc has achieved victory.

Proposal: Pay ‘n’ Spray

Passes 4-0. — Quirck

Adminned at 01 Dec 2012 10:04:59 UTC

Reword the rule “Chop Shop” to:-

A Respray Kit is an item that takes up one berth. As a daily action, a Crook may pay $50 to add a Respray Kit to an empty berth in a Garage they have access to.

As a weekly action, a Crook who has access to a Respray Kit may - if the Garage containing that Kit also has one empty berth - spend $25 to reduce by 3 the Heat from a single Car that they have access to.

Tweaking it from “takes two berths” to “takes one, but you need one empty berth if you want to use it”, and adding a way to actually buy one.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Proposal: Identity Theft

Reached quorum 6 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 29 Nov 2012 09:07:43 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled Identity Theft:

If a Crook hasn’t undertaken an action in the GNDT in the preceding week, that Crook is vulnerable to Identity Theft.

Any Crook may, at any time, perform any Identity Theft on another Crook by undertaking any action, other than actions governed by the core rules, as that Crook, provided that that Crook would be able to perform that action themselves, and provided that that Crook is vulnerable to Identity Theft.

If a Crook is the victim of Identity Theft then they may, provided that the incident of Identity Theft took place within the preceding 96 hours, make a story post, which must contain the word “Justice” in the title, and which must set out whether they would prefer Legal Justice or Street Justice. If the Mastermind agrees that Identity Theft has taken place then he should indicate agreement with a FOR vote on the post. If the request is for Legal Justice then the Mastermind must then transfer $ or items from the perpetrator to the victim equal to the scale of the victim’s losses from the initial infraction. If the request is for Street Justice then the victim may then set fire to the perpetrator’s Garage, by changing the item in all berths to “Burned Rubble”.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Proposal: Statistical Variance

Reached quorum 5 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 28 Nov 2012 02:39:15 UTC

In the rule “The Team”, replace:-

  • “Stat with the Applicant’s name on any Gym” with “highest Stat with the Applicant’s name among all Gyms”
  • “Explosives Stat of any Lab the Applicant has access to” with “highest Explosives Stat among all Labs the Applicant has access to”
  • “Chassis+Engine+Transmission-Heat, on any Car the Applicant has access to” with “the highest Chassis+Engine+Transmission-Heat total on a Car, among all those the Applicant has access to”

Fixing a bug when a player other than the Crook measures a Skill Stat.

Monday, November 26, 2012

Unaccountably Detained

LordCooper idles out after a week of inactivity. Quorum drops to 5.

Proposal: The B Team

Reached quorum 5 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 28 Nov 2012 02:38:01 UTC

In “The Team”, replace “If a Crook (the “Applicant”) meets the bracketed criteria for a role, they may assign themselves to that role by editing this rule to include their name next to that role.” with:-

Each role has a Skill score, calculated using the criteria in brackets after its name. If a Crook (the “Applicant”) has a higher Skill score for that role than the current holder of that role (or there is no current holder), and if that Skill score is above zero, they may assign themselves to that role (replacing any current occupant and removing themselves from any other role they hold) by editing this rule to include their name next to that role.

In the rule “The Team”, replace the bulleted list with:-

  • Security (number of Keys the Applicant has, multiplied by two):
  • Muscle (Stat with the Applicant’s name on any Gym):
  • Explosives (Explosives Stat of any Lab the Applicant has access to):
  • Con Artist (Cash the Applicant has, divided by 50, rounding down):
  • Acrobat (Stat with the Applicant’s name on any Gym):
  • Getaway Driver (Chassis+Engine+Transmission-Heat, on any Car the Applicant has access to):

Replace “If the Mastermind has a separate Crook assigned to each of the six roles,” with:-

If the Mastermind has a separate Crook assigned to each of the six roles and at least five of those Crooks’ Skill scores for their roles are above 8 at that time,

Allowing Crooks to jockey for position, with the Con only being On when we hit sufficiently high values.

Proposal: Mark My Words

Reached quorum 5 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 27 Nov 2012 02:50:07 UTC

Replace the second, third and fourth paragraphs of “Marks” with:-

Any Crook may announce their intention to tackle a Mark by PMing the Mastermind with a statement to this effect, and optionally a list of Crooks who they are willing to collaborate with against this Mark. A Squad is a group of Crooks who are all willing to collaborate with one another against the same Mark, and who are not willing to collaborate with any other Crooks. If a Crook has announced an intention to tackle a Mark but it is not willing to collaborate with anybody, then they are a one-person Squad.

The Mastermind may resolve any Mark which is more than 48 hours old by randomly selecting a Squad from those Squads who are collaborating against that Mark, and whose members meet the requirements of the Mark; this Squad completes the Job. If no Squads meet the requirements, the Job fails. The Mastermind must then make a comment to the Mark post announcing the result.

If the Job is completed, then the Crooks in the selected Squad should privately agree how best to allocate the rewards. If they have done so, any of the Crooks in that Squad may make a comment to the Mark story post to detail the reward allocation; and once all Crooks in that Squad have marked that post with a FOR vote symbol, the Mastermind can release the rewards as dictated. Any reward not allocated is put in the Scrapheap.

In “The Black Mark”, replace “a GNDT comment with the names of each of the Crooks involved in that Job” with “a GNDT comment with the names of each of the Crook who announced an intention to tackle that Mark”, and “a list of the names of the Crooks involved in that failed Job” with “a list of the names of the Crooks who announced an intention to tackle that Mark”.

Rewriting the Mark rule to be closer to how it seems to be being played; Crooks announce who they’re working with, and if the winning team agree to work together then they get the prize. (Under the current rule it seems to be possible for anyone to tag along, even if they’re bringing no skills to the table, and get a veto option on splitting the loot.)

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Proposal: Line-thinner

Reached quorum 5 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 27 Nov 2012 02:49:02 UTC

In the rule entitled “The Black Mark”, where it says “The Undercover Cop may then secretly randomly select one of those Crooks, who becomes a Narc”, add “and notify” after the word “select”.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Koen out

Please idle me.

I don’t know what’s wrong; the first dynasty I played (the taxicab dynasty) I was really enjoying; but since then my enthusiasm has kept falling. The time-travel dynasty, the robots dynasty, the newspapers dynasty and this dynasty looked very promising to me, and yet somehow I did not participate in any of them. I’m sorry :/
Have fun without me!

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Proposal: Mi Garaje es Su Garaje

Timed out and passed, 5-0. Josh

Adminned at 24 Nov 2012 23:58:09 UTC

In the rule “Hotrods”, replace “add it to their Garage with a Heat of 10” with “add it to any Garage they have access to with a Heat of 10”, and replace “combining it with an item stored in another Berth in their Garage” with “combining it with an item stored in a Garage they have access to”.

This allows people to buy car upgrades intended for use by other crooks, which I don’t think we can actually do at the moment. We could also be stealing more cars if the people who weren’t using their garage space gave their keys out.

Proposal: The Thin Blue Line

Quorums 6-0. — Quirck

Adminned at 24 Nov 2012 05:19:34 UTC

Add a new subrule to the rule entitled Marks, called The Black Mark:

The first time a Job fails, the Mastermind must make a GNDT comment with the names of each of the Crooks involved in that Job, and a roll of DICEn, where n is the number of Crooks in that list. The Crook whose position in that list matches the result of the DICE rules becomes the Undercover Cop.

Thereafter, whenever a Job fails the Mastermind must PM the Undercover Cop with a list of the names of the Crooks involved in that failed Job. The Undercover Cop may then secretly randomly select one of those Crooks, who becomes a Narc.

If the Undercover Cop becomes an Idle Crook, then a new Undercover Cop may be generated as per the first paragraph of this rule. If ever an idle Undercover Cop ceases to be idle, they do not resume the role of Undercover Cop unless there is no active Undercover Cop and there is no other eligible former Undercover Cop who can resume the role; however, each former Undercover Cop is always a Narc.

If ever the Undercover Cop knows that every active Crook is a Narc then they have achieved victory.

I anticipate multiple routes to victory; this is only one, and a pretty challenging one at that.

Narcs will have other impacts as well.

Story Post: Mark: Protection Racket

The furniture shop downtown thinks that it doesn’t get enough for its protection money. I’d like someone to remind them - and anyone else who’s listening - how the cost - benefit analysis works with these things. I hear that all that wooden furniture is highly flammable.

This job will need a getaway driver in a car with 4 Heat or less, and a Lab with Explosives of at least 1. The reward will be a set of deluxe lockpicks, worth $60, and $180 in cash.

Proposal: Chop Suey

Passes 6-0. — Quirck

Adminned at 24 Nov 2012 05:18:19 UTC

Add a new subrule to the rule entitled The Garage, called Chop Shop:

A Respray Kit is an item that takes up two berths. As a weekly action, a Crook who owns a Respray Kit may spend $25 to reduce by 3 the Heat from a single Car that is in a Garage that they possess the Key to.

Proposal: Heatsink

Fails 3-4. — Quirck

Adminned at 24 Nov 2012 05:16:35 UTC

To the rule “The Garage”, add:-

As a daily action, a Crook may reduce by 1 the Heat of every Item which has a Heat Stat above zero.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Proposal: Million Dollar Money Drop

Reached quorum 6 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 23 Nov 2012 07:31:41 UTC

Add the following subrule called “Transfers” to the rule “$”

A Crook may transfer a positive amount of cash from themselves to another crook at any time under the following stipulations:
* The transfer does not leave the Crook with less than $0 cash
* A Crook does not transfer more than $50 to the same Crook during any week
* A Crook does not transfer more than $100 in total during any week
* A Crook does not receive more than $100 in total transfers during any week

Throwing too much money around will attract the feds, but we should be able to perform some small under the table transfers of cash.

Note that if this passes, I’ll sell access to my gym for something like $15 a week or maybe a lifetime pass for $25 or $30.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Proposal: Can We Fix It

Reached quorum 8 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 22 Nov 2012 02:24:52 UTC

To the rule “$”, add:-

As a weekly action, a Crook may add an item to Bob the Fence’s inventory by rolling DICE5 and adding the item from the following list that has that number, with a name of their choice:

  1. An item with Modifications of “Chassis +DICE4”
  2. An item with Modifications of “Engine +DICE4”
  3. An item with Modifications of “Transmission +DICE4”
  4. An item with Modifications of “Chassis +DICE2, Engine +DICE2, Transmission +DICE2”
  5. An item with Modifications of “Heat -DICE5”

Where an item in the list includes DICE values, those should be replaced with values of those rolls at the time the item is added. The cash value of these items is equal to the sum of the ordinals of all numbers in their Modifications, multiplied by 50. The Mastermind may rename items in Bob the Fence’s inventory at any time.

Monday, November 19, 2012

Proposal: Job Application

Timed out. Passes 5-0—Clucky

Adminned at 21 Nov 2012 10:31:23 UTC

Remove the sentences beginning “In order to qualify for the role as the Team’s Getaway Driver”, “In order to qualify for the Team’s Explosives role” and “In order for a Crook to qualify for the Team’s Muscle role”.

Replace “Any Crook who can demonstrate that they meet all of the criteria, as set out in the ruleset, to be one of the six members of the team may edit this rule at any time to include their name next to the role that they should perform.” with:-

If a Crook (the “Applicant”) meets the bracketed criteria for a role, they may assign themselves to that role by editing this rule to include their name next to that role.

Reword the bulleted list in “The Team” to:-

Security (must own at least four Keys):
Muscle (a Gym must exist which has the Applicant’s name as a Stat with a value of 8 or more):
Explosives (must have access to Labs whose Explosives total 8 or more):
Con Artist (must have at least $500 in Cash):
Acrobat (a Gym must exist which has the Applicant’s name as a Stat with a value of 8 or more):
Getaway Driver (must have access to a Getaway Suitable Car):

To the rule “Hot Rods”, add:

If a car has a combined Chassis, Engine and Transmission of 8 or more, and a Heat of zero, then it is considered to be Getaway Suitable.

Moving the role requirements into one combined list, throwing in a few negotiable placeholder conditions and clearing out scshunt’s dubious claim to be Con Artist (presumably made on the basis that he could “demonstrate” meeting a non-existent criteria, even though that demonstration was flawed?).

Proposal: Heat Death

Self-killed. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 19 Nov 2012 11:33:37 UTC

If the proposal “Cold Case” failed, this proposal has no further effect.

To the rule “The Garage”, add:-

As a daily action, a Crook may reduce by 1 the Heat of every Item which has a Heat Stat above zero.

Variation on the previous proposal: Heat reduces over time, and that time passes as quickly as the collective Crooks wish it to.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Quorum becomes 6

because Anonyman and Bucky go idle

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Proposal: Cold Case

Timed out 2 votes to 3. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 19 Nov 2012 11:33:25 UTC

Amend Rule 2.2.1 (Hotrods) by appending this paragraph:

As a daily action, a Crook may reduce his Car’s Heat by rolling DICE10. If the roll is less than the Heat, then it is reduced by 2, otherwise it is reduced by 1.

Story Post: Mark: The School Run

I need someone to go and sell some drugs to some teenagers. You should be able to find some at Bad City University.

The mark requires: Access to a Lab with narcotics of at least 1; Access to a car with a Chassis of at least 4; Access to at least $75 (which is not spent, as I’ll reimburse you, but you need to able able to make change).

Reward: A v8 engine, worth $110; $80 in cash.

Friday, November 16, 2012

Proposal: Arson around

Self-killed. — Quirck

Adminned at 18 Nov 2012 12:18:11 UTC

Add a new subrule to “The Garage” called “Desperate Times”:

As a daily action, a Crook may attempt to torch the Garage of any other Crook by rolling DICE10 (or DICE10+1 if they own the relevant Key).  If they roll a ten or above all items contained within the Garage are destroyed, rolling a nine allows the Crook to destroy a single item of their choice.  If the Crook rolls lower than nine they will be Hospitalised.  Crooks may only attempt to torch a Garage as their first action of the day and attempting to do so excludes them from taking any other actions for the remainder of the day, regardless of their current Status

Add a new rule called “It’s A Hard Knock Life”:

Each Crook has a Status which is tracked Status field of the GNDT.  The status of each Crook if Free by default.

A Free Crook may take any actions permitted by the ruleset.

A Hospitalised Crook is unable to take any regular actions other than proposing and voting on rules until they are fully healed, at which point their Status resets to Free.  Hospitalised Crooks may roll DICE2 as a daily action, returning their Status to Free if they roll a two.

Proposal: Weights and Measures

Passes 3-0. — Quirck

Adminned at 18 Nov 2012 12:17:38 UTC

Add a new subrule to “The Garage” called “Working Out”:-

A Gym is an item that takes up one berth. A Gym has a Stat for the name of each Crook and idle Crook, representing the weights and equipment settings tailored to that Crook; if that Stat is zero then it is not tracked in the Garage. As a daily action, a Crook may pay $50 to add a Gym to an empty berth in a Garage they have access to.

As a weekly action, a Crook may roll DICE5 in the GNDT and add the result to the Stat with their name in any Gym that they have access to. If a Crook has access to more than one Gym, they may copy the Stat with their name from one Gym to another.

In order for a Crook to qualify for the Team’s Muscle role, a Gym must exist which has the Crook’s name as a Stat with a value of 8 or more.

Proposal: There’s No “We” in Team

Timed out 4 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 18 Nov 2012 03:57:43 UTC

In the rule “The Team”, replace “No Crook may be assigned to more than one role.” with:-

No Crook may be assigned to more than one role and no role may be assigned to more than one Crook.

Proposal: Activity incentive

Timed out 3 votes to 4. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 18 Nov 2012 03:57:28 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled Incentives:

Every time a proposal passes, the Crook who proposed it gains $20.

Apols for the lack of input from me for the last day or two, I have a gross virus of some kind and am struggling to think straight. I’ll have a swing at some stuff over the weekend but in the meanwhile, please do propose stuff and get rich doing it.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Proposal: Lab Rats

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 16 Nov 2012 02:14:46 UTC

Add a new subrule to “The Garage” called “Breaking Bad”:-

A Lab is an item that takes up one berth. A Lab has stats for Chemicals, Narcotics and Explosives. As a daily action, a Crook may pay $50 to add a Lab to an empty berth in a Garage they have access to.

At any time, a Crook may tinker with a Lab that they have access to, to do any of the following:-

  • Spend $5 to increase the Chemicals of that Lab by 1.
  • Decrease the Chemicals of that Lab by 3 to increase its Narcotics by 1. This is Risky.
  • Decrease the Chemicals of that Lab by 2 to increase its Explosives by 1. This is Risky.

Before undertaking a Risky piece of tinkering, the Crook must roll DICE10 in the GNDT. If they roll below the current value of the Stat they are attempting to increase, the Stat is not increased and is instead set to zero.

In order to qualify for the Team’s Explosives role, a Crook must have access to Labs whose Explosives total 8 or more.

Proposal: Making a Mark

Timed out 6 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 16 Nov 2012 02:13:49 UTC

In the rule “Marks”, add to the end of the first paragraph:-

A Mark’s Reward consists of a single named item with a randomly determined cash value of DICE30 multiplied by 10, and a $ amount of DICE20 multiplied by 10.

I think it’s important for Emperor-generated events to have a known range and distribution, so that players know what sort of thing to anticipate.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Please unidle me

I would like to be unidled.
My apologies for using a voting icon while still idle.

Proposal: Enough cars for now

Passes 6-0.— Quirck

Adminned at 15 Nov 2012 13:01:37 UTC

Add a new ruleset to the rules, entitled Marks:

The Mastermind may, as a daily action, make a story post detailing a new Mark. Each Mark has a Requirement and a Reward, and the story post introducing each Mark must specify these. A Mark’s Requirement must take the form of a detailed explanation of what configuration of items and capabilities a Crook or group of Crooks must have in order to undertake the Mark, and a Reward must detail the items and $ that will be available to the Crooks should they successfully complete the Mark.

Attempting to successfully resolve a Mark is referred to as “doing a Job”. A Crook or group of Crooks, provided that they meat the criteria set out in the Mark’s Requirements and provided that none of the Crooks involved have done a Job in the preceding 72 hours, may at any time attempt to do a Job by each individually PMing the Mastermind with the name of the Mark in question, as well as the names of any other Crooks involved in the Job.

The Mastermind should then resolve the Job within 48 hours. To do so, they must roll DICE2+(2n) in the GNDT for each requirement set out in the new Mark story post, where n is the number of individual crooks who meet that requirement. If any of the DICE rolls return a 1 then the Job fails; otherwise, the Job succeeds. Either way, the Mastermind must then make a story post describing the job and its outcomes.

If the Job succeeds, then the involved Crooks must privately agree how best to allocate the rewards. Once they have done so, any of the involved Crooks may make a comment to the outcome story post to detail the reward allocation; and once all involved Crooks have marked that post with a FOR vote symbol, the Mastermind can release the rewards as dictated. Any reward not allocated is put in the Scrapheap.

Proposal: Lawyers, Guns and Money

Quorums 7-0. — Quirck

Adminned at 15 Nov 2012 13:00:31 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled $:

All Crooks have a quantity of $ (or “Cash”) which is tracked in the GNDT. This quantity can be any whole number between -50 and 2000, and defaults to 100.

The inventory of Bob the Fence is tracked on the wiki page Fence. Items in Bob the Fence’s inventory must have a cash value detailed in the ruleset. Any Crook may at any time buy an item from Bob the Fence’s inventory by decreasing their $ by the cash value of the item that they wish to buy; they may then remove it from the Fence’s inventory and add it to their own Garage.

A Crook may at any time sell an item that is in their Garage to the Fence for 80% of its cash value, provided that that item has a cash value. To do so, they must add that item to the Fence’s inventory on the wiki and remove it from their own Garage; they may then increase their $ by 80% of that item’s cash value, rounded down.

If Proposal: Grand Theft Auto passed, add the following to the end of the rule Hotrods:

At any time, a Crook can modify their Car by combining it with an item stored in another Berth in their Garage. The item that was used to modify the car then ceases to exist, but is listed along with the Car’s statistics as a modification. When used to modify a Car, an item may amend that Car’s statistics or give it additional characteristics. Such modification bonuses should be detailed in the Fence’s inventory, if the item is in the Fence’s inventory. If a Car gains a third modification, its Heat is set to 15 and is referred to as “recognisable”.

Blank the Fence page, then add the following entries to it:

Body kit
Cash value: $75
Modification: Chassis +1, Heat +1

v8 Engine
Cash value: $110
Modification: Engine +2, Heat +1

Tinted Windows
Cash value: $100
Modification: Heat -2

Automatic Transmission
Cash value: $80
Modification: Transmission +1

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Proposal: Honour Amongst Thieves

Reaches quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 14 Nov 2012 01:20:33 UTC

Add to the rule “The Garage”, if it exists:-

Each Crook may carry the Key to a number of Garages; these Keys are tracked in the “Keys” field of the GNDT, as a comma-separated list of names of Crooks to whose Garages the Keys belong to. (Although a Crook’s Key to his or her own Garage should not be tracked, nor the Keys belonging to the Mastermind.) A Crook is always considered to have a Key to his or her own Garage, and the Mastermind is always considered to have the Keys to all Garages. If a Crook has the Key to a Garage, they are considered to have access to everything in that Garage.

As a daily action, a Crook may either Cut a Key or Change their Locks. If a Crook Cuts a Key, they may add their name to the “Keys” field of a single Crook. If a Crook Changes their Locks, they may remove their name from the “Keys” field of every Crook.

Replace “must own a Car” with “must have access to a Car” if it exists in the ruleset.

Some polite changes

In rule 1.7, Victory and Ascension after the section reading:

A DoV may be failed if any of the following are true:
It has been open for voting for at least 12 hours, and it could not be Enacted without either at least one of the Votes AGAINST it being changed, or the set of Crooks being changed, or by awaiting the passage of time.
It has been open for voting for at least 48 hours and cannot be Enacted.

add the following:

If more than one DoV could be enacted at the same time, the one with an earlier timestamp must be enacted first.

Also, after:

Every Crook may cast Votes on that DoV to indicate agreement or disagreement with the proposition that the poster has achieved victory in the current Dynasty.

add the following:

Only Crooks who were unidle when a DoV was proposed may vote on that DoV, and quorum for that DoV is determined based on how many players were active (not idle) when the DoV was proposed.

I cobbled together a header image in MS Paint

and wow, it’s ugly. Anyone who can do better will earn my eternal gratitude.

I’d also be interested in colour theme suggestions. Looking for something a bit more colourful for this dynasty. Perhaps something with red in it?

Proposal: Grand Theft Auto

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 14 Nov 2012 01:19:07 UTC

Reword the rule “Hotrods”, if it exists, to:-

A Car is an item that takes up one berth. A Car has stats for Chassis, Engine, Transmission and Heat. In order to qualify for the role as the Team’s Getaway Driver, a Crook must own a Car with a combined Chassis, Engine and Transmission of 8 or more, and a Heat of zero.

As a daily action, a Crook may attempt to steal a car by rolling DICE4 three times - upon doing so, they steal a car with the result of the first die roll as its Chassis, the second as its Engine and the third as its Transmission. Within ten minutes of stealing the car, they may choose to either ditch the car to no effect, or add it to their Garage with a Heat of 10.

To the first paragraph of “The Garage”, add:-

Some items may have Stats, which are listed in brackets after the item’s name - each Stat is a number between 0 and 10, defaulting to 0 unless otherwise specified.

Proposal: Lock-Up, Stock Up and Two Smoking Barrel-Ups.

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 13 Nov 2012 01:21:43 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled The Garage:

Each Crook has a Garage, the contents of which can be found at the Garage page of the wiki. Each Crook’s Garage initially has two Berths. Any item that can be put in the Garage is assumed to take up one Berth unless otherwise stated, and an individual item can never take up less than one Berth.

The Scrapheap is also tracked on the same wiki page. A Crook may move an item out of their Garage and into the Scrapheap at any time, and may, as a weekly action, take a single item from the Scrapheap and place it in their Garage. If a Crook is permitted to put an item in their Garage then they may do so provided that they have a free Berth; otherwise, they must place either the newly-acquired item or an existing item in their Garage into the Scrapheap. Any Crook may clear the Scrapheap at any time on a Sunday, provided that the Scrapheap has not already been cleared that Sunday.

Add the following as a subrule to the newly created rule, entitled Hotrods:

At any time, a Crook may add a Car to their Garage. A Car takes up one berth. A Car must consist of at least one Chassis, one Engine and one Transmission, and the composite parts of each Car should be tracked in its entry in the Garage.

If the proposal entitled “Josh’s 8” passed, add the following to the subrule entitled Hotrods:

In order to qualify for the role as the Team’s Getaway Driver, a Crook must own a Car.

If the Garage page has any content, delete it.

Proposal: Josh’s 7

Reached quorum 9 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 13 Nov 2012 01:17:16 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset, called The Team:

The Mastermind needs six team members for his big job. Any Crook who can demonstrate that they meet all of the criteria, as set out in the ruleset, to be one of the six members of the team may edit this rule at any time to include their name next to the role that they should perform. No Crook may be assigned to more than one role. The Mastermind may edit this rule at any time to remove the name of a Crook from it. The roles required are as follows:

Security:
Muscle:
Explosives:
Con Artist:
Acrobat:
Getaway Driver:

If the Mastermind has a separate Crook assigned to each of the six roles, then they may at any time make a story post with a subject of “The Con is On”. From the point at which such a post is made onwards, the game is said to be in a State of Con.

Ascension Address: Are you in or are you out?

It’s tough now, our line of work. Too many guns. Too many computers. Too many yahoos.

But there’s still a place for craftsmanship, right? And that’s what I need. Craftsmanship.

Because I’m coming out of retirement for one last job, and if I’m going to pull off the biggest heist in history then I’ll need the best. I’ve been away for a while. I know this, and the market’s changed a lot since my day. But you - I hear you’re amongst the best, the crème de la crème.

So, okay; I’ll give you a shot. You’ve got a chance to convince me that you deserve a spot in my team. If not then we both walk away, and perhaps I find someone better. But if so… We could both end up very rich, very rich indeed.

Let’s see what you got, kid.

—-

Repeal all dynastic rules, and replace “Mogul” with “Mastermind” and “Editor” with “Crook” wherever they appear in the ruleset.

Designation of an Heir

I am retiring from my position as Mogul; Josh, who has been an excellent competitor, will take over my empire.

It’s been a while.

I would like to be unidled for the next dynasty.

After looking over the ruleset, it appears that people can be unidled during a hiatus. This seems like an exploitable problem during a DoV, and should probably be changed. One of a few such minor issues with the DoV rules, which I may have to write proposals for later.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Call for Judgment: Invisible Gamestate

Fails 1-6.— Quirck

Adminned at 15 Nov 2012 12:55:10 UTC

This isn’t about the DoV. Sorry if it caused any consternation.

One of the items on the laundry list is around the question of whether there can be aspects of the gamestate that are “invisible”, i.e. not tracked anywhere specific beyond tracking effects back through proposals and gamestate changes.

The issue has come up a number of times recently. The argument against invisible gamestate (as argued by Kevan and others) is twofold: that the gamestate can only be edited as specified by the ruleset, and therefore the gamestate has to be reflected in the ruleset in order to be valid; and that invisible gamestate is undesirable because it can lead to silent, passive effects dropping off of peoples’ radars and re-appearing many months or years later.

I tend to argue in response to the first point that rules 1.4 and 1.6 specifically allows for proposals to directly amend the gamestate without requiring such amendments to go through the ruleset (1.4: “Any Editor may submit a Proposal to change the Ruleset or Gamestate”; rule 1.6 “Any CfJ that specifies neither changes to the Gamestate or Ruleset”), and as such invisible gamestate is both expressly permitted and ultimately governed by the ruleset (i.e. invisible gamestate has to come via a proposal or CfJ). My response to the second point is that, while the desirability of such an outcome is debatable (and I personally think that if someone gets “In two years, I will have achieved victory” into a proposal, and keeps track of it for two years while everyone else loses attention, deserves to have it work), that doesn’t undermine the legality of a right that is more or less explicit in the ruleset.

So this CfJ has the following effect: by its passage, it records in the invisible gamestate that certain aspects of the gamestate can be invisible, as permitted by the ruleset; and that record derives its authority from this CfJ as permitted by rule 1.6 of the ruleset.

A proposal suggesting that time-dependent invisible gamestate modifiers be blanked at the end of each dynasty may be in order, however.

An Editor sans newspaper

Could I get unidled please?

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Declaration of Victory: Breaking News: Establishment of a Media Empire

Open for 12 hours with a quorum of 6 votes in favour, and the Mogul has voted FOR. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 11 Nov 2012 01:58:14 UTC

This Just In!

The Imprint has a Journalistic Integrity of 4, a Balance of 9, an Understandability of 0, and a Humour of 1. Despite 7 Skeletons in its Closet, its opposite stances of Pro-Science and Anti-Business caused its Reach today to exceed 14, allowing it control over the public opinion of the world.

scshunt, the Editor of the Imprint, could not be reached today for comment.

Hacked Phones

Negative Science Event in Israel: Futuristic Public Transit System to be Tested in Tel Aviv

New News

Pro-Science is Right Wing.

Friday, November 09, 2012

From the Wire

  • Positive Science event in United States: President Obama promises 5% increase in science and technology funding in 2013 budget.
  • Negative Sport event in France: Five soccer players banned for breaking curfew.
  • Neutral War event in Japan: Japanese cabinet ministers visit Tokyo war shrine.
  • Positive Celebrity event in Greece: Tonia Sotiropoulou is first Greek Bond girl.

Note that - at the time of writing - today’s first story is a Popular Event (95 Location Importance + 30 Public Opinion).

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Proposal: Skeleton Key

Passes 3-1. — Quirck

Adminned at 10 Nov 2012 04:57:02 UTC

In the rule “Scoop of the Century”, add to the first bulleted list:-

If the Editor has one or more Skeletons in the Closet, their Newspaper’s Reach is decreased by the number of those Skeletons.

Then replace everything including and after “If an Editor’s Newspaper has Reach of at least 14:” in that rule with:-

If an Editor’s Newspaper has Reach of at least 14 then that Editor has achieved victory.

The current “Come Clean” mechanic means that each Skeleton is worth an average of -1/4 Integrity and -1/4 Balance in the endgame (or less if the Newspaper has a low Understandibility, although this seems rare), and those values may be doubled in calculating Reach. The net effect on Reach is that it will be reduced by -1/2, and with both doublers in play a Newspaper’s Reach would on average be down a whole -1 every time it Came Clean. (Without doublers it’s only down an average of -1/2, which is less than the typical gain from having used a Skeleton in the first place.)

This could be simplified to a more predictable (and slightly stronger) “Skeletons are worth -1 Reach”.

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

I unidle.

Could I please be unidled?

House Un-Nomickal Activitites Committee

This just in: Anti-Business is Left Wing.

Proposal: Blah Blah Russian Sport

Times out 4 votes to 3. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 09 Nov 2012 05:05:11 UTC

To the end of the rule “Running a Story”, add:-

If the Importance of a Event’s Location and the Public Opinion of that Event’s Subject total 0 or less, then that Event is Boring. An Editor may not run a Story on an Event if the Event is, at that time, Boring.

From the Wire

  • Neutral Government event in Syria: Opposition bloc agrees to broaden government-in-exile.
  • Neutral Celebrity event in Libya: Protesters storm private Libyan TV station.
  • Positive War event in Italy: Italy vows to support Afghanistan after troops pull out.
  • Positive Celebrity event in Japan: New Iron Chef series after 13 years off air.

Tuesday, November 06, 2012

Proposal: Attack Journalism

Times out 5 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 08 Nov 2012 11:51:15 UTC

Add a new subrule to the rule called “Sharp Practices”, entitled Mudslinging:

As a weekly action, an Editor may make a comment to the GNDT saying “Rumour Mill” and increase the Skeletons of any other Editor by 1, unless doing so would result in the targeted Editor having more than 5 Skeletons.

Proposal: Coming Clean

Times out 2 votes to 3. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 08 Nov 2012 11:50:50 UTC

Add a new rule to the ruleset, entitled Truth and Reconciliation :

At any time, an Editor may expend 1 Skeleton to reduce the value of one of their Reputation scores to zero, or reduce that Reputation score by 1, whichever would result in the lower amount.

Proposal: Agree Strongly

Reached quorum 6 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 08 Nov 2012 02:20:14 UTC

Add a new subrule to “Sharp Practices”, called “Biased Polling”:-

Biased Polling is a Sharp Practice that can be undertaken as a weekly action. When an Editor undertakes Biased Polling, they may add or subtract 10 to or from the Public Opinion on any subject.

Monday, November 05, 2012

Proposal: Editorials

Times out 2 votes to 4. Failed by Kevan.

Adminned at 07 Nov 2012 09:36:02 UTC

Enact a new rule entitled “Editorials”, containing the following:

Any Editor may, as a weekly action, create a post called an Editorial post. The Editorial post must consist of a stance the Editor’s Newspaper contains, and a headline. Upon creating an Editorial post the Editor may immediately decrease their Journalistic Integrity or their Balance by 1, or increase their Humor by 1.

Proposal: The Tallest Poppy

Reached quorum 8 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 07 Nov 2012 03:18:09 UTC

In the rule “Inquiries”, replace “the highest number of Skeletons among all Newspapers” with “a number of Skeletons higher than that of each other Newspaper”.

Proposal: Subjects matter

Reached quorum 7 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 07 Nov 2012 03:17:08 UTC

Amend the rule “The Spectrum” by appending the following to the list of criteria for proving the Wingedness of a Stance:

  • If the Pro- or Anti- position of a Stance has a defined Wingedness that is Centrist then the opposing position of that Stance must be either Right Wing or Left Wing.
  • Any Anti Stance on a Subject with a Public Opinion that is equal to or greater than 75, or any Pro Stance on a Subject with a Public Opinion that is equal to or less than -75, is either Right Wing or Left Wing.
  • If no Stance has had its Wingedness proved within the past 72 hours, then any Editor can prove the Wingedness of a Stance by announcing the Stance and its Wingedness.

 

Proposal: Top of the World

Reached quorum 5 votes to 2. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 07 Nov 2012 03:16:21 UTC

Create a new rule titled “Scoop of the Century” with this text:

A Newspaper’s Reach is the sum of its Reputation Scores, modified as follows:

  • If it has two Stances with opposite Wingedness, then its Balance counts double.
  • If its Stance is Hard Right or Hard Left, then its Journalistic Integrity counts double and its Humor is inverted (i.e. multiplied by -1).

If an Editor’s Newspaper has Reach of at least 14:

  • If they have no Skeletons In The Closet, then they have achieved victory.
  • Otherwise, they may Come Clean by rolling DICE4; on a 1, they must lower their Newspaper’s Journalistic Integrity by 1; on a 2, they must lower their Newspaper’s Balance by 1. In any case, they may then lower their Skeletons in the Closet by 1. If their Newspaper has negative Understandability, then they instead roll DICE(4+2N), where N is the absolute value of their Newspaper’s Understandability.

 

From the Wire

  • Negative War event in Ireland: Northern Irish WW2 veteran denied medal.
  • Positive Government event in United Kingdom: UK Government adopts open technology standards.
  • Negative Science event in Afghanistan: Ministry of Education criticised for inaccurate physics textbooks.
  • Neutral Business event in Egypt: IMF in Egypt for loan talks.

Proposal: Popular Demand

Reaches quorum 5 votes to 0. Enacted by Kevan.

Adminned at 06 Nov 2012 03:00:32 UTC

To the rule “Running a Story”, add a bullet point:-

  • If the Importance of a Event’s Location and the Public Opinion of that Event’s Subject total 100 or more, then that Event is Popular. If an Editor runs a Story on a Popular Event, then they may immediately raise or lower any of their Newspaper’s Reputation scores by 1.

Reproposal of an earlier idea, but allowing any Newspaper to run a story on such events.

Saturday, November 03, 2012

Minus two

Cpt_Koen and IceFromHell go idle. Quorum drops to 5.

Friday, November 02, 2012

From the Wire

  • Negative Science event in Israel: Authorities criticised for restricting imported calories during Gaza Strip blockade.
  • Neutral War event in Japan: Unexploded WWII bomb remains in place at Sendai Airport while flights resume.
  • Neutral Sport event in United Kingdom: Handball chief calls for more flexible funding.
  • Positive Celebrity event in France: Raymond Blanc unveils new Eurostar menu.

Thursday, November 01, 2012

Proposal: Enquire Without

Passes 4-2. — Quirck

Adminned at 03 Nov 2012 12:53:01 UTC

Enact a new rule, “Inquiries”:-

As a weekly action, and if no Inquiries have been called within the past 72 hours, then any Editor may Call an Inquiry by reducing their Journalistic Integrity by 1, choosing a Newspaper to investigate (the “Guilty” Newspaper, which must be a Newspaper which has the highest number of Skeletons among all Newspapers), taking any surname from this list and making a post with a title “The [Surname] Inquiry”, where [Surname] is the chosen Surname. This is known as an Inquiry Post, and it must mention the name of the Guilty Newspaper and a list of two or more Subjects (the “Scope” of the Inquiry).

An Inquiry Post is treated as if it were a Wire Post containing one Neutral Event for each Subject in the Inquiry’s Scope, each with a Location of United Kingdom. A Newspaper may not run a Story on an Inquiry Post if it is the Guilty Newspaper named in that post.

If an Inquiry Post is more than 72 hours old and it has not already announced its Findings, then any Editor may announce its Findings by posting a comment to this effect on the Inquiry Post. Upon doing so, the Guilty Newspaper loses 1 Skeleton and has its Journalistic Integrity halved (rounding towards zero).

Reproposal with some tweaks, since it only attracted three votes last time.